How is the Venus Project resource-based economy different than communism?

Question: The Venus Project advocates for a resource-based economy)

The term and meaning of a Resource Based Economy was originated by Jacque Fresco. It is a holistic socio-economic system in which all goods and services are available without the use of money, credits, barter or any other system of debt or servitude. All resources become the common heritage of all of the inhabitants, not just a select few. The premise upon which this system is based is that the Earth is abundant with plentiful resource; our practice of rationing resources through monetary methods is irrelevant and counter productive to our survival.

Communism as envisioned my Marx in his Communist Manifesto

the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of all instruments of production and the distribution of all products according to common agreement – in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.

Though I see that dogmatic Marxists concentrate on the instruments of production, I see that the idea of communism (and many communists) is not limited to that. com-unism means "to unite" that all people on the planet must be brothers rather than consider each other as rivals and tools to make wealth. This is what J.Fresco promotes. Both Zeitgest and communists unveil us how capitalist market and greediness create problems in our society, both advocate the common property along with rational social planning (socialism) based on natural resource and science rather than money (education of Nature is a source of tensions Marxists with church). This implies creation of global technological superstructures-based (public) infrastructure in both cases.
. Might be you noticed even more common properties.
Is it right to consider the communism as such a broad category? (not just as dogmatic Marxsim?)
How to determine if movement falls into the category of Communism or not?
In what way does Zeitgest differ from Communism? (might be the anarchist branch of it)
Why cannot we say that J.Fresco is a communist and promotes the communism?
Comment: I'd love to have Samuel Russel answer this one, if it was narrowed down and cleaned of speechyfying.
Comment: In which direction do you want it to be narrowed down? What is the speechifying? I do not like the manifestos that somebody has added here. I think that I've managed to condense the basic principles that both parties are based on and struggle for: competition -> com-unity (brotherhood), money -> resource-based, market -> rational planning in the global interest, private property -> public property, private housing -> common superstructures and public transport, wealthy few & private interest accumulation -> common good and survival of the mankind. Are these that you want to delete?
Comment: @DVK I hope my answer is sufficiently narrow and free of speechification.
Comment: It is not different than Communism.  We discussed this on the Mises Institute a while back (I'll include a link to the discussion if I have time to recall my comments there); The "Venus Project" is nothing more than Communism on stilts. As with Communism, it is supported by those who believe they will be the ones holding the chain rather than those at the end of the leash (its also supported by morons)
Answer:
com-unism means "to unite" that all people on the planet must be brothers rather than consider each other as rivals and tools to make wealth. [...]
Is it right to consider the[sic] communism as such a broad category? (not just as dogmatic Marxsim?)

No.  Dictionary definitions are not appropriate theoretical categories in social science.
Engels discusses Robert Owen's social thought as "Communism" extensively at the end of part I of Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.  The definition Engels provides at the end of the book is useful, chiefly for denoting some of the high points of the most commonly used definition of communism: the society that results from common democratic ownership of the industrially productive tools of society by society.
In this sense communism requires:

Advanced productivity.  Discussions of utopian agricultural communes in the United States or post-Anabaptist communal economic endeavour isn't really appropriate.
Holding of productive property in common.  Being part of a fruit-and-veggie coop where someone ensures everyone gets half a head of cauliflower out of the weekly buy isn't relevant.  Common property in a market garden is.
That property being democratically controlled: the common property must be substantively not merely formally common.  I'm a member of plenty of mutual societies in capitalism; but, I can't exercise effective control, alongside others, of these mutuals for various reasons.  A corrupted Rochester coop isn't worth considering.
That this nature of economic relations be society wide.  It is not reasonable to consider as communism a society where, for example, the production of shoes is common; but, media is owned by capital.

How to determine if movement falls into the category of Communism or not?

Any movement that advocates for an advanced productivity society, where property is held in common should be considered a communist movement.
Sadly this means that many, if not most, "Communist" parties have in fact been non-communist movements.
Personally, I view the immediacy of achieving communism in an organisation's behaviour as an important part in whether an organisation is communist or not.  The Fabian Society, for example, viewed the possibility of achieving communism as an eventual thing.  (I am too too selfish to be bothered with the "eventual" rather than the "actual.")  If someone believes in something, and advocates for it, but acts as if it isn't going to happen that doesn't seem like belief or advocacy to me.
Similarly, I don't trust organisations with pure and utopian plans for the universal reorganisation of society on the model which our glorious leader has discovered (see again Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific here).  My experience and reading of "pre-figurative forms," of moments when communist behaviour appeared in my life, or in historical records, strongly indicates that there's more genius in the working class as a whole, than in any particular worker.  I don't trust utopians with grand plans.  This is, however, because I'm a historical materialist.

In what way does Zeitgest[sic] differ from Communism? (might be the anarchist branch of it)

No, the anarchist branch of communism is anarchism.  You might want to start with Proudhon, Bakunin (whose conflicts with Marx in the First International were fraught), Kropotkin, Makhno, Malatesta.  I'd recommend George Woodcock's Anarchism : A History Of Libertarian Ideas And Movements.
If we can take this document: http://thezeitgeistmovement.com/orientation#faq5 as a reasonable discussion of Zeitgeist's beliefs you'll notice in the section 'The "Prima Facie" Fallacy' that this particular branch of Zeitgeist argues directly for a technocratic and anti-democratic control over production; as opposed to the humanism that the collective author claims to see in Marxist communism.
Honestly, Zeitgeist claims to be, and appears to me, to be an inheritor of the Technocratic movement.  It is not communist because it does not advocate for a society where the commonweal is the commonwealth: Zeitgeist advocates for a technocratic class society.

Why cannot we say that J.Fresco is a communist and promotes the communism?

Because J. Fresco does not want goods or production held in common.  He appears to want production and distribution controlled by "science."  (See the previously cited faq).  My understanding of critiques of technocratic "new classes" are that this kind of class society would be, and potentially has been (in the "soviet-style" societies) an inhuman monstrosity like all previous class society where one class claimed control over the social product or the socially productive forces.
Engels praises Robert Owen for overcoming his technocratic impulse:

From 1800 to 1829, [Robert Owen] directed the great cotton mill at New Lanark, in Scotland, as managing partner, along the same lines, but with greater freedom of action and with a success that made him a European reputation. A population, originally consisting of the most diverse and, for the most part, very demoralized elements, a population that gradually grew to 2,500, he turned into a model colony, in which drunkenness, police, magistrates, lawsuits, poor laws, charity, were unknown. And all this simply by placing the people in conditions worthy of human beings, and especially by carefully bringing up the rising generation. He was the founder of infant schools, and introduced them first at New Lanark. At the age of two the children came to school, where they enjoyed themselves so much that they could scarcely be got home again. Whilst his competitors worked their people thirteen or fourteen hours a day, in New Lanark the working-day was only ten and a half hours. When a crisis in cotton stopped work for four months, his workers received their full wages all the time. And with all this the business more than doubled in value, and to the last yielded large profits to its proprietors.
In spite of all this, Owen was not content. The existence which he secured for his workers was, in his eyes, still far from being worthy of human beings. "The people were slaves at my mercy." The relatively favorable conditions in which he had placed them were still far from allowing a rational development of the character and of the intellect in all directions, much less of the free exercise of all their faculties. [Cited in Engels as From "The Revolution in Mind and Practice," p. 21]

Owen knew that to direct another's labour is to make them your slave.  I see no difference when the director is "science" or rather, and of course, "scientists."
Comment: There's nothing "non-aggressive" about the principle of hanging the last boss with the guts of the last bureaucrat; sentiments that go back to the beginnings of libertarianism.  "Non-aggression" is a limited conception within libertarianism broadly, though it seems very very popular with contemporary US activists inspired by the Manchester School of liberalism.
Comment: Exactly. I started school in the Soviet Union and we were taught to manage natural resources: teacher explained why it is important to conserve resources and why do we place power plants and factories near the raw material/energy sources in educated way and it was mostly planned by technocracy rather than "workers". Liberals have criticiezed the soviet society for their `giantomania`. However, megalomania (efficient infrastructure) and technocracy is what I see promoted in the Zeitgeist. Might be my association with SU makes me to falsefully think that this is a communism should look like.
Comment: But I also see that this is communism that allows the people to specialize. When you compete with everybody, you must be self-reliant and do everything yourself and, thus, have no time to specialize. You do not trust other people and others do not trust you, since you are rivals and want to cheat each other. In communism, in contrast, you trust the others, including experts, and can rely on their decisions. Consider a life organism (cells in body and bees in hues are literally brothers). But this is this communism of cells that allows them relay on the brains (technocracy) and support it.
Comment: Aside from listing Makhno (whome anyone USSR-born, left or right wing, generally considers an evil butcher warlord as opposed to a libertarian-anarchist thinker), excellent answer.
Comment: I would like to think that we ought to hold all evil butcher warlords to account, regardless of their politics; and, closely inspect people purporting to be anarchists or libertarians for evil butcher warlord tendencies much like we ought to inspect all purported politicians for the same tendencies.
Comment: the - admittedly largely tangential - point is that mashing together "libertarian" (as in, "non-aggression principle") with "violence is The Way" radical anarchists is... somewhat philosophically incompatible :)
Comment: too offtopic to debate here (make a new Question?) but Manchester school was far from the first liberal occurence of the idea (Locke? Thomas Jefferson?)
Comment: @DVK you might like to help me edit this question into a better question: http://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/2077/what-are-the-origins-of-non-aggression-politics-within-liberalism-what-is-their
Comment: @Val, "When you compete with everybody, you must be self-reliant and do everything yourself" **Why is specialization so common in Capitalistic societies?** it is marx who thought that [specialization disappears](http://www.fee.org/the_freeman/detail/marxs-view-of-the-division-of-labor#axzz2gTddQpaK) in communism "Marx actually believed that in the communist society beyond the Revolution, the division of labor would be utterly destroyed. All specialization would disappear.[...]nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes."
Comment: @user1873 This sounds like a vulgar and anti-communist idea. I read these words differently: Capitalists (actually, not capitalists themselves but their intellectuals: market prophets, liberal democrats, journalists and etc.) feed us with the idea that anybody can become anybody in a free market society, you just must work harder. Marx debunked this deception. He said that poor have very limited window and, thus, will stay poor (slaves) while rich richer and enjoy the intellectual specialties/supremacy. I see that **In any branch he wishes** actually means stem cells-like **specialization**.
Comment: @Val, Marx's theory about the [rich get richer and the poor get poorer](http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/9836) has been thoroughly debunked. The poor don't stay poor, a significant number move into the other quintiles over time (this also occurs intergenerationally)
Comment: @user1873 That is another issue. Actually the fact that others debunk what we with Marx say just means that I read Marx the right way.
Answer: I came across this thread and thought I'd add my 2 cents.  My knowledge is fairly limited in the specific references utilized thus far, so please accept my apology for a laymen's point of view.  This is more to further emphasize the difference between The Venus Project from Zeitgeist and the Communist Manifesto cited.  The major focus in the Venus Project is to develop solutions to the problem of the use of commodity as a basis of currency and/or trade.    Elimination of the working class through automation is a tenant.  All people need access to the information to improve and develop society.  The first step of this has already begun as more and more underprivileged people have gained access to the internet. Public property.  This is probably the easiest step to implement.  Like books in a public library, most goods aren't needed 24/7.  Pretty much anything at the goodwill, right now, could be made available to "check out" for the period of time needed reducing the demand to buy product.  This brings me to a HUGE goal for any of the movements... the end of planned obsolescence.  There is no reason for this to continue as it is completely unsustainable.  Although the Sociocyberneering/technocracy/scientocracy of the Venus Project may on one level be a form of "communism", it is THE complete democratization of the planet.  By the time it could be completely implemented, even the plants and animals would have a "voice" through mainframe analytics.  From what I've gained from the movement is a change of attitude.  A literal revolution may not be necessary, just a revolution of thought.  Math doesn't have an addenda or dogma, and that's what TVP is based on.
Comment: That's about the only answer free from subjectively uneducated opinions I've found here even if it's not the best.
Answer: The definition of communism includes the ownership of the means of production which is given to the people. That entails an effective abolishment of private property. That is the key difference to the Venus Project. The Venus project is a society of abundance which is accomplished using technology and automation. It means every good and product is available in abundance, your individualized house included. That doesn't change the status of property. It only changes how we view property.
Comment: Interesting. So the Venus project is actually just an idea about what society would look like with vastly cheaper technology than what exists now? I always assumed they had some sort of agenda or idea about how to create their utopia.
Comment: @lazarusL It doesn't have to be a utopia. The multi-awared Gaviotas ecovillage and the 100yr old almost twice as productive Kibbutz(look them up) are already there for us to contemplate. Those primitive forms of a RBE are thriving already. Also enough data has been extracted from the prematurely shutdown Mincome experiment to prove that absence money does NOT cause disincentive to work. Technology is just part of the equation and we already have all the prerequisites at hand. The agenda is to get enough funds to build a new city on those proven blueprints and principles now.
Answer: I do see many differences between RBE and communism, in fact I converted from syndicalism to RBE. There are a few differences, namely that RBE is explicitly technocratic (intelligent and rational social planning by a technically competent administrative body) and Jacques Fresco is pretty clearly anti-democratic. I know that's probably just upset some people, due to our conditioned obsession with the term and the idea of "popular sovereignty". However, Fresco states, "people with no technical competence have no place in decision-making" (or something along those lines) and "this whole idea of 'what's your opinion, what's my opinion' should've been gone in 1927." That and we use cold, hard, indisputable facts and reason rather than philosophy.
Comment: But the people are allowed to vote for those qualified in decision making thus making the RBE a democracy. A technocracy doesn't allow voting and can be as opaque as the leaders want it to be. It is money and state based. A RBE is purely vote based, fully transparent and doesn't rely on money or a state to thrive. Those are huge differences already!
Answer: I will try to answer fully the 2nd and 4th question. I am not so well educated in Zeitgeist Movement but have a fairly good understanding of the Venus Project (however still based on external study) and a rough knowledge of communism.
The answers of David P, typicalguestname and Samuel Russell are crucial here.
At first we will look at what the TVP itself has to say about its difference from communism (FAQ and the links from that page):

Although Marx was a brilliant man for his time, he did not foresee the methods and advantages of a high-tech resource-based economy. Communism used money and labor, had social stratification, and elected officials to maintain the communists' traditions. Most importantly, Communism did not eliminate SCARCITY nor did they have a blueprint or the methods for the production of abundance.
[...] While Marx offered a bold new direction in his time, it falls far short of what can be accomplished with today's technology applied with human and environmental concern.

But we can still argue that here it compares itself not with the communist ideal but rather with the actual practice of it. In this discussion we analyze how it compares to the communist ideal of a classless and propertyless society without money.

If you read Jacque's books (namely Looking Forward) you might see that the many aspects of the Project presented are only his ideas of the possible realization. But what TVP *could be like* does not necessarilly mean the same thing as what Fresco imagines. The crucial thing is the mode of thinking. The actual final look of the Project is secondary and certainly not well-worked since the nature of the project requires the input of many different experts.
Yes, TVP is not occupied with the idea of social classes. It is a project intented to assimilate the entire social spectrum. It does not prescribe any type of culture or does not occupy itself with the problem of property. It leaves that on people because TVP could be characterised truly as a project we could undertake if we were decided to. It does not describe the optimal state of the society for the transition. It only defines its priorities (see its Aims and Proposals).
To other practical aspects in which it differs from communism: it doesn't believe in revolution. It does not base the access to articles based on one's contribution to the system. (There truly are no restrictions.) Believes in the power of education, nurture and behavioural science to accomplish natural incentive to solve the problems of mankind and to make a contribution in life. (I admit this point is the same in communism.)
But another two important points we have to consider:

TVP explicitly seeks to develop the individual to his/her full potential while communism leads to a strong suppression in individual's wants or postpones their fulfilment to future. (Source: Masaryk: The Ideals of Humanity)
The engine behind TVP is innovation in thought and design (again the book Looking Forward). The ultimate goal is to stimulate advancements in all areas of society. To teach people critical thinking, creativity and openness to new ideas. In this respect (but it is only my humble opinion) communism is not interested in unending restructure of its systems as well as thinking. Communism views itself as complete.

To the matter of "science rule":

The Venus Project would replace politicians [understand: in technical and material manners] with a cybernated society in which all of the physical entities are managed and operated by computerized systems. The only region that the computers do not operate or manage is the surveillance of human beings. This would be completely unnecessary and considered socially offensive.

It means that we would like to develop the best artifical systems that will do the work better than us and so be the extensions of our own abilites of decision-making. In today's world: expert systems, comprehensive measurement and so forth... It is already a priority of computer research.
Unlike communism, TVP doesn't really work out the problem of transition. It waits for it instead, as a consequence of global technology-economy development.
The economy in TVP is in fact planned but fully expects the use of advanced computer systems to do the economic calculation since otherwise this task is - as it is well known - considered impracticable in complexity.
So in the end, communism differs from TVP in subtle ways but these can show themselves as crucial. To say that it is a form of communism is in my view too rough.
I apologize for any personal bias since knowledge is always finite. :)
Answer: In the zeitgeist movie they claim the difference between communism is that they don't believe in unlimited resources, though I don't recall communism or any economic theory claiming there's unlimited resources.
   A key difference I may have noticed is that they don't make any clear call to violence against the wealthy and religious to establish their commune like in the communist manifesto, though whether they are willing to use violence against peaceful people to establish and sustain themselves is unclear to me. An absence of violence against innocent people would mean there's freedom to trade, but their ignorant bashing of free trade, the failure to mention that great violence as a least one of the sources of today's immense poverty, and their declared need to control the whole world for it to work, seems to say this is nearly exactly like communism. On the other hand supporters have told me they would tolerate peaceful trade societies which would eventually disappear as they move into the much better "resource based" cities, but it's still all dangerously ambiguous. I've just sent them a question to help clarify this.
Comment: I agree with everything. The anarchists do indeed ignore the controversies: non-revolutionary expropriation of wealthy, individual freedom vs social planning, no use force against criminals. Marxist-Leninist realaize these controversies and try to be more pragmatic and whether to use violence against antisocial/bad or not is the cornerstone of conflict between liberal anarchists and authoritarian Marxist-Leninist. But dont they share the same goal, the communism? Aren't Venus just anarchists who mistakenly associate Communsim with Marxism-Leninism?
Comment: Adding up a name: Thomas Robert Malthus. Read the related wikipedia article and follow the links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus
Venus project and Zeitgeist focus is on managing the available resources, and not concentrating on freeing up proletariat and give them the power. Zeitgeist is more close to technocracy, and remember, it is an idea, not a working model yet.
Comment: The thing is that almost everyone is for an advance community and therefore we could all be called communist, but the "communist" differ on use of violence to achieve their goals, though it has the opposite result. Communist and Capitalist both focused on better managing the available resources which would free up the proletariat, though they disagreed on how it's done.
Comment: @Hiddenrecon Thank you for this revelation. I asked the question precisely because your comrades tried to convince me that communism ≈ capitalism since both are `monetary-based`, despite it is opposite and easy to check regarding the Com. I thus, decided that you have to resort to such terrible distortions just to claim that ZG is different. I see that you have made great progress. You do not say that white is black and, evenmore, render Marxists as anarchists compared with totalitarian technocratic dictatorship of Zietgeist. This now makes sense and I even see it more attractive than Marxism.
Answer: Seems like most people here make a distinction between the technocratic RBE, and the democratic communism, but doesn't that just make RBE the socialism stage (at least as the version defined by Lenin), before the communism stage of material abundance which naturally leads to a society which doesn't require government or "democracy" as it is known today?
Another distinction seems to be that RBE does not define a way towards the next stage - Communists argue that a revolution is needed, and some believe that violence is unavoidable. How will the educated elite of scientists get hold of the power by which to change society? Do they (RBEists) think this can happen naturally by a progressive change in political discourse?
Personally, I think the main difference simply is that Americans are so terrified of "socialism" and "marxism", that to admit having sympathies towards such ideologies is a akin to committing suicide as an opinion leader.
Though I'd like to support both versions, I'm afraid I'm too pessimistic about the immediate future of humanity. We are too ingrained in our monetary belief-system to change before the crash (the big end-all one). We have no straws left to hang on to. No community to join. We are sailing at full speed towards the edge, racing each other - because why not? It's not like my pain and efforts alone could ever amount to a big enough influence to stop the commercial machine. Better make the best out of it, by living and dying as a simple-minded animal, with survival and consumption as the only concerns.
Answer: A Venus Project society would differ from Communism  as it would not have money/banks, politics/government, military, prisons/police, and social stratification.
Not sure if I have missed something.
Comment: Welcome to SE. You don't need to acknowledge ignorance in a response, although if you think you might not have enough information to answer the question, it might be better to post a comment (which will be opened to you as soon as you get enough reputation) than to answer the question outright.
Answer: The Venus Project can only be viewed as utopian unless it can realistically addresses how the dictatorship of finance capital can be annihilated.
Comment: Welcome to Politics.SE. Your answer sounds like some kind of rant, and does not really fit the expected value of answers here. I'd recommend to read the [tour] to get more familiar with the concept, and also expand your answer to explain why you see things that way.


Current leaks while charging. Is the device defective?

Question: During charging(first charge), there is a vibration sense(on my fingers) with my moto x4's metallic sides. Is this shows that the device is defective? What may be the reason?
Comment: Sounds like leaked current. Try another charger / wall socket?
Comment: earthing must not be there considering that particular socket.
Comment: It's with device's original charger(Don't have another c type).  I will try with other wall socket. If this occur again, what may be the issue? Earthing or with device.
Answer: Issue: Tingly feeling on hands while touching metallic parts of device.
Test1: Firstly noticed at home during charging. Tried different sockets. [tingly feeling]
Test2: charged using usb with a laptop. [Worked Normal]
Test3: Connected at Office with UPS. [tingly feeling]
I have googled this, and everybody told it was normal(due to no earth pin for charger) and found one comment that, some chargers have capability of removing leak current, while they are connected in right manner. Then, I tried with plugging the pins in right order(its written Turbocharger on adapter which should be faced up ) the issue is solved.


Why are there random streaks of color on my film photos?

Question: I`m new to analogue photography, and therefore don't know why there're streaks in different colors on my film scans or why some are in completely different colors. I got it developed and scanned in a professional shop, so it probably wasn't a mistake in the developing process. And it's not on all the photos of the roll, many turned out perfectly fine.
Hope someone can help me.
Thanks!
Answer: Those colors are caused by the film being exposed to light leaks occurring before exposure (faulty cartridge), in your camera (back not closed, faulty shutter, back accidentally opened), or during processing (careless handling).
If these are at the beginning of the roll, it is probably due to a leak in the cartridge or not doing two or three 'loading' exposures to get unexposed film out of the cartridge and ready to go. Your film counter should tell you when you've advanced to the first exposure.
Comment: Yep, classic light leaks.  They should be blue to green on the negative (you did get the negatives back, right?), except the last one will be nearly black.


axiom of continuity guarantees no gaps exist on the real axis?

Question: I read this content at the bottom of this page

just wonder why axiom of continuity could guarantee no gaps exist on the real axis? any proofs ?
Comment: In "Understanding Analysis" by Stephen Abbott you can read about several equivalent statements of the "completeness" of the real numbers, of which, the Nested Intervals Property is one. If you construct the real numbers say by Dedekind cuts in the rational numbers, then you can prove that the real numbers have the least upper bound property, which is another equivalent version of completeness. Many authors simply assume completeness as an axiom of the real numbers.
Comment: What is your definition of a "gap"? For different definitions there will be different proofs.
Comment: @Abstraction well, it means the real axis is continuous and there is  no gaps exist on it.
Comment: I dont understand the statement because any set by itself is continuous. "Gaps" only make sense for functions under some kind of algebra.
Comment: Its great that someone is interested to know about continuity and gaps. Rarely do textbooks emphasize on this aspect and jump on using the axiom of continuity as if it were available for free. +1
Answer: The axiom of continuity goes by the name of axiom of completeness also. This is the only property of real numbers which distinguishes it from rational numbers. There are many forms of it which I have discussed in this answer. Since one of the answers has already talked about the gap arising out of an empty intersection of nested intervals, I will talk about two other approaches to gaps in this answer.

In order to understand the concept of "gap" we need to use the geometric language. While we don't need to worry so much about foundations of geometry and definitions of ideas like points and lines, it is important to understand that we do have an intuitive idea of a straight line.
And let's say we would like to represent each point of a line via a specific number and we will call such a line as number line. Thus we can take any point say $O$ on a line and represent it by number $0$. By convention such a number line is shown horizontally and then a point on the right of $O$ is chosen (say $A$) and represented by number $1$. If $P$ is a point to the right of $O$ such that length of $OP$ is $n$ times that of $OA$ (where $n$ is a natural number) then we represent $P$ by number $n$. If the point $P$ was to the left of $O$ then it is represented by integer $-n$.
In so doing we see that some points of the line have been represented by integers, but there are many points on the line still left which need to be represented. Then we get the idea of using rational numbers to represent points of the number line. Using Euclidean constructions it is possible to mark a point $Q$ to the right of $O$ such that length of $OA$ is $n$ times that of $OQ$ (where $n$ is some specific natural number). We then represent point $Q$ by rational number $1/n$. If $P$ is a point to the right of $O$ such that length of $OP$ is $m$ times that of $OQ$ (where $m$ is again a specific natural number) then $P$ is represented by rational number $m/n$. If in the last construction $P$ were on the left of $O$, it would have been represented by $-m/n$. In this manner we have represented some more points of the line using rational numbers.
Our goal is to ensure that we represent all the points of the number line via some sort of numbers. The mechanism described in the last paragraph manages to represent many points on the line via rational numbers, but there are Euclidean constructions available to create a point $P$ such that line segment $OP$ is incommensurable with line segment $OA$ (two line segments $LM$ and $RS$ are said to be commensurable if there is a line segment $XY$ available such that length of $LM$ as well as that of $RS$ is a multiple of length of $XY$). One such construction is as follows: construct $OB$ perpendicular to $OA$ and of same length as $OA$, choose $P$ on the number line such that length of $OP$ is same as that of $AB$. This shows that there is a point $P$ on number line which is not represented by a rational number.
Now we can choose any point $Q$ on number line such that length of $OQ$ is a multiple of that of $OP$ and then this new point $Q$ will also not be represented by a rational number. Thus it is possible to find as many points as we please on the number line which are not represented by any rational number.
If we keep only those points of the number line which are represented by rational numbers and remove other points, then visually the number line will look almost the same but there is a deep dissatisfaction that the line has now lost infinitely many of its points and has gaps. Thus in order to model the number line appropriately we need to extend our number system by considering numbers of different kind which will be able to represent the points of the line which are not represented by rational numbers. This is one aspect of "gap" which is easy to understand but its appreciation depends on geometric intuition.

So let's try a non-geometric approach. We know that there is no rational number whose square is $2$. Thus if $x$ is a positive rational number then either $x^{2} < 2$ or $x^{2} > 2$. Put all positive rational numbers $x$ in a set $A$ if $x^{2} < 2$. All the other positive rational numbers are put in set $B$. Clearly both $A, B$ are non-empty and disjoint. Together they contain all positive rational numbers. And most importantly every member of $A$ is less than any member of $B$. Clearly $1 \in A, 2 \in B$ and as we start moving from $1 \in A$ and taking greater and greater rational number we will eventually reach $2 \in B$ and it makes perfect sense to assume that while transitioning from members of $A$ to members of $B$ there will be exactly two exclusive possibilities:

There is a last member say $a \in A$ such all positive rational numbers less than $a$ belong to $A$ and all rational numbers greater than $a$ belong to $B$.
There is a first member say $b \in B$ such all positive rational numbers less than $b$ belong to $A$ and all rational numbers greater than $b$ belong to $B$.

Thus there has to be some rational number which acts as the boundary between sets $A$ and $B$. To our utter surprise the example we have chosen above does not have any such boundary number (it is not obvious but not too difficult to prove this). On the other hand if we define $A, B$ as $$A = \{x \mid x \in \mathbb{Q}^{+}, x^{2} \leq 1\}\, B = \{x \mid x \in \mathbb{Q}^{+}, x^{2} > 1\}$$ then there is a rational number which acts as boundary between $A$ and $B$ (obviously the boundary number is $1$ and it belongs to $A$).
BTW we dealt with positive numbers just for ease of understanding and we can very well include both positive and negative rational numbers in our discussion. Thus if all the rational numbers are divided into two disjoint and non-empty sets $A$ and $B$ such that each member of $A$ is less than any member of $B$ then based on specific choices of $A, B$:

It is possible that there is a rational number say $r$ which acts as a boundary between $A$ and $B$ i.e. all rational numbers less than $r$ lie in $A$ and all rational numbers greater than $r$ lie in $B$. The rational number $r$ itself may lie in $A$ or in $B$.
It is possible that there is no rational number which acts a boundary between $A$ and $B$.

Thus the rational number system possesses a "gap" and we say that the system lacks continuity (continuity in going from $A$ to $B$) or completeness and hence we need to enlarge our number system to fill such gaps (i.e create a number system where partitioning all numbers into two sets $A$ and $B$ as mentioned above always leads to a boundary number).
The real numbers are designed/constructed to fill this gap and it guarantees the existence of a boundary number between $A$ and $B$ whenever the real numbers are partitioned into two sets $A$ and $B$ in the manner mentioned above.

Most textbooks postulate the axioms which assert that there are no gaps in the real number system but they neither illustrate the gap nor show how the gap is filled. Perhaps the textbook from which the image in question has been taken also follows the same approach and that is the reason for the appearance of this question. It is important to understand the issue of "gap" in the rational number system and understand at least one approach as to how the gap is filled via the system of real numbers.
Comment: thanks very much , you always provide a clear explanation, hope we could have further communication , mail to me firstname.lastname@example.com
Comment: @iMath: Ok will get in touch on mail.
Answer: In the context of this passage: "Postulate of Nested Intervals" and "Axiom of Continuity" are synonyms.
The phrase "it guarantees that no gaps exist on the real axis" is is not a formal mathematical statement, unlike the statement of the postulate itself. Instead it is written in an attempt to make this postulate/axiom appeal to your intuition.
The intuition is that if the intersection of $I_1,I_2,I_3,...$ were empty, then the "missing point which ought to be there in the intersection" would represent a gap in the real line. Like many intuitions, especially intuitions about things which are not supposed to exist, this is somewhat murky. But perhaps it can be understood with an example: the real line would have a gap at $0$ if the intersections of the intervals $$I_1=[-1,+1],\quad I_2=[-1/2,1/2], \quad I_3=[-1/3,1/3], ...$$ were empty.
Comment: Contrast this with the rationals $\mathbb Q$, which *does* have a gap, namely at the intersection of $[3,4], [3.1,3.2], [3.14,3.15], [3.141,3.142], ...$.
Answer: wikipedia gives a very good example on explaining why real number system lack of irrational numbers is not complete(has gaps!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Completeness_of_the_real_numbers#Nested_intervals_theorem


Why do physics SE math seem more abstract than mathematics SE questions?

Question: I just wish to point out a recurring observation... comparing the questions in physics SE and math SE (which you can also do by opening the math SE page), the math SE questions often seem more down to earth, as in they are usually very specific about what they want: suppose we know A and we know B, prove that we can also know C as a result, kind of questions... Why do physicists' math questions often seem more esoteric (abstract/symbolic) than even the mathematicians' math questions? I am interested to find out as to why there is this difference...
Comment: You can remove the first line since it is on-topic iirc. And I don't know why I can't edit.
Comment: Can you give some examples? It isn't obvious to me that math oriented questions here are more abstract.
Comment: @JohnRennie I had to search through some questions, and sorry if anybody's equations show up here... but I guess I am thinking of equations like H(p(t),q(t);t)=H(eiHtpe−iHt,eiHtqe−iHt;t) which might be considered too vague/generalized. It's fine if one knows it already, but quite unhelpful if one doesn't know it in the first place... There was quite an old amusing video I managed to dig back up after some searching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTUSz-HSaBg (~14:00) in which the interviewee coyfully admitted that mathematicians sometimes can't even follow the maths in string theory... :)
Answer: Your impression when comparing physics.SE and math.SE is likely a combination of several factors:

physics.SE's policy on homework-like questions is much stricter than any comparable policy on math.SE, i.e. you see a lot of "concrete" questions about solving math exercises on math.SE whose equivalent on physics.SE would be off-topic.

There are two SE sites for mathematics: math.SE and MathOverflow. The latter is where questions by professional mathematicans and advanced math students tend to go, so to get a proper comparison, you would have to compare the union of the questions on math.SE and MO to the questions of physics.SE. In other words, math.SE alone is not the correct sample for "mathematicians' math questions".

physics.SE gets "math questions" of a kind very rare on a pure math site: Questions by mathematicians trying to understand physics, and by physicists trying to understand a more mathematical formulation of their field. These questions tend to be very general questions about the mathematical structure behind a (sub)field of physics and thus might seem very "abstract" to you compared to questions focused on solving a particular problem of understanding one has encountered. Again, you probably need to compare these questions more to "general" questions on MathOverflow than anything on math.SE to get a proper comparison.
Comment: @James Really, go to MO and tell me you "usually" understand the questions there unless you have specific expertise in the topic being discussed. For instance, if you haven't taken any algebraic geometry classes, go to the [algebraic-geometry](https://mathoverflow.net/?tags=ag.algebraic-geometry) tag - can you really make out what's being discussed in most of the questions there?
Comment: @ ACuriousMind you are right, the MathOverflow questions are highly abstract and specialized too...
Comment: @ ACuriousMind thank you, it is hard to explain but I will try this example... I can usually understand the problem statement in mathematics, say all the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann zeta function lie along a particular straight line... I might not realize the difficulty and technique required to approach this problem, but I can get a sense of what the problem statement is, and ways it can be approached. But there have been many times I have not been able to make head or tail of even what the problem statement is in a physics question, let alone what is the answer...
Comment: It's worth mentioning that Physics Overflow exists too now.
Comment: @ConnorBehan I didn't mention it because it is (very much intentionally) not affiliated with the SE network. See https://physics.meta.stackexchange.com/q/6196/50583.


Gestalt character with the same invocation from two classes

Question: I have recently decided to run Rappan Athuk - Dungeon of Graves again, and due to the difficulty of the dungeon, I have decided to allow Gestalt Characters. One player applied with a Warlock/Dragonfire Adept, and he is going to try to talk his way through the campaign. He got an 18 on Charisma (we start at Level 4), and gave himself 7 ranks on Diplomacy, Intimidate and Bluff each. He then took the Beguiling Influence invocation as one of his Warlock invocations, then took the same again for one of his Draconfire Adept invocations. Now this invocation gives him +6 on each of those skills. +13 bonus is already very good at level 4, but he reckons he can cast both invocations at the same time, as it is (in his mind) different invocations belonging to different classes, giving him a total of +19 bonus at Level 4 already. Is that legal?
Comment: Note that while this does not work, getting a +19 to those skills at 4th-level is possible.
Answer: No
The Basics – Stacking:

Stacking
In most cases, modifiers to a given check or roll stack (combine for a cumulative effect) if they come from different sources and have different types (or no type at all), but do not stack if they have the same type or come from the same source (such as the same spell cast twice in succession). If the modifiers to a particular roll do not stack, only the best bonus and worst penalty applies. Dodge bonuses and circumstance bonuses however, do stack with one another unless otherwise specified.

(emphasis mine)
Magic Overview – Stacking Effects:

Stacking Effects
Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don't stack even if they come from different spells (or from effects other than spells; see Bonus Types, above).

(emphasis mine)
This is known as the same-source restriction. Since both bonuses are coming from the same invocation (beguiling influence), they do not stack. It is not two separate invocations just because both classes grant access to it. Even in cases where there are differences (say, a cleric and a wizard both casting the same spell on a fighter, once arcane and then divine), it would still be the same spell and not stack.
Comment: Right. Gestalt doesn't effect the stacking rules at all, it's the same as if one multiclassed.
Answer: I see your player's line of reasoning, tortured though it is. Bonuses of the same type don't stack (except circumstance bonuses, and even those don't if they arise from the same circumstance). But untyped bonuses do stack, and beguiling influence's bonus doesn't have a type listed. I don't know why they didn't make it a competence bonus, but they didn't: both books agree that it is untyped.
However, the same spell does not ordinarily stack with itself, even if it's cast from different spell lists, and the same goes for spell-like abilities. Haste is the classic example here, to the point where the SRD even states it explicitly in the spell description. Beguiling influence doesn't say that it stacks with itself, and both books also agree on this. They had a chance to amend the description in the second book, if they'd intended it to be usable the way your character describes. They didn't.
(That said, be nice and let the player retcon a different invocation into one of his lists, so that he's not doubling up anymore. The character should have known that doubling up makes no sense).
Comment: I will definately allow him to change his selected Invocations. Knowing they won't stack, it would be stupid to have the same invocation twice! Thanks!


Toilet flange concreted into floor, replacement?

Question: I've got a toilet on the concrete floor. The old flange has rusted and disintegrated at the hold down bolt slots. But the flange is actually cemented into the floor. I think my #1 option is to cut off the entire metal flange and then screw a more traditional PVC flanged into the floor. Is there another option I should consider?
Comment: Is the piping below PVC?
Comment: If it is concreted in place, I'm assuming it won't move. If that's the case, why would you need to replace it? If the bolts aren't there to hold it, the concrete will do the job! :)
Comment: @TylerM because the T bolt slots have rusted away and broken. See photo. Also, pipe below is iron, 4"
Answer: You have several possibilities. My recommendation would be to cut the flange and install a new flange in side the cast pipe something like an oatey  43539  20$.
By cutting the old flange out this will allow the toilet at the same level as the previous one.
there are some thin metal repair flanges that fit over the existing cast but my experience with these is they do not last and cost 15$ the cost difference 5$.
I have also used a wire welder to repair a flange in the past where the flange was installed in the middle of a bend (directly welded no straight pipe at all) my option was to weld it up or cut the slab to repair and after grinding to clean metal I was able to weld it up sliding a piece of thick copper under it when done the copper slid out and I had a space to drill and tap new holes , so far this has held up for + 5 years.
There is always the least desirable option to cut the slab and replace using a fernco or "no hub" and change to plastic but the set and twist from oatey would be my option.


Does Mr. Morden have a first name?

Question: In Babylon 5, Londo Mollari and others are approached by the mysterious "Mr. Morden". Has a first name ever been revealed for him?
Comment: If you watch the episode, *In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum*, you might see his first name. Look for the scene where Sheridan looks over the list of crew members from the doomed Icarus expedition. One of the crewmembers is Mr. Morden. If you look closely, you might see his name. This is just a hunch since I am writing this from memory and have not seen the episode since it first aired.
Comment: @RichS Good memory! I checked the episode out and his name is simply listed as "Morden". I've added that to my answer.
Comment: Hmmm... Maybe we should say his first name is "Mister" and that his friends regularly contract that to "Mr."
Comment: At this point, there are 6 questions on this website with "Morden" in the title, and several more than mention him. Maybe it is time to give Mr. Morden his own tag.
Comment: @RichS We don't have character tags for any other Babylon 5 character, race, or other aspect, so I feel it's kind of unnecessary.
Answer: In the show, his personal records only list his name as "Morden"
In The Shadows of Z'ha'dum, Garibaldi says that his name is "Morden" and Sheridan confirms that he has the same ID as he did on the Icarus. The personal records they are looking at only list him with one name:
<code>Name     Morden
Species  Human
</code>

I find it highly unlikely that his personal records, which match his ID for the Icarus, would not include his full name. Thus it would appear that Morden only has one name.
In a spin-off novel, he most likely has a first name, but it is intentionally unrevealed
Jeanne Cavelos commented on this when discussing her Babylon 5 spinoff novel The Shadow Within.

Really the thing that gave me the most trouble was when I asked JMS what Morden's first name was. JMS said that he'd never given Morden a first name and that he wasn't really comfortable with the idea of giving one. He'd always thought of Morden as just Morden. This ticked me off for a while, since I figured Morden had to have a first name, and how was I going to present him in informal, social scenes without his first name? I finally thought of a solution to the problem, as you'll see in the book.

It's been a long time since I read the book, but he does have the title of Dr., so they do partly get around it by referring to him as Dr. Morden.
That said, it seems that Morden most likely does have a first name. Although his wife is unnamed, he has a daughter named "Sarah Morden", meaning that Morden is a last name. It seems that JMS prefers to keep the mystery about the character by intentionly not revealing his name.*
Note that JMS has said that this novel is about 90% canon, and that the general story of the Icarus is definitely canon. Cavelos said that her backstory for Morden didn't match JMS' intended backstory, but he didn't ask her to correct it, so information about Morden is ambiguously canon.
* A similar thing happened in the Star Wars universe where for many years, the Emperor was solely known as "Palpatine". The author of the novel Tarkin felt that the characters would know him well enough to refer to him by his first name, so the first name "Sheev" was created. A number of fans were unhappy, not only because they thought "Sheev Palpatine" sounded dumb, but they also felt that giving him a first name took away some of the air of mystery about him.
Comment: *"My big problem came when I asked him Morden's first name. JMS said he had never given Morden a first name. He'd always thought of him just as "Morden." He said he wasn't really comfortable with the idea of him having a first name. That stopped me for a minute. Morden is a major character in my book, and he is part of a fairly small group of archaeologists on the Icarus. It would be difficult to get through the whole book without giving his first name. I found a way around it, as you'll see in the book."* - Same author, slightly different quote. - https://wasser.com/v3i2.htm
Comment: The novel, *The Shadow Within*, is also relevant to this question about Mr. Morden's motives as well as his first name. http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/131781/does-mr-morden-cooperate-with-the-shadows-of-his-own-free-will?rq=1

Does Mr. Morden have a first name?


Pass view contextual filter arguments programmatically

Question: I want to pass contextual filter arguments programmatically to a view. I know it can be done through views_get_view and views_embed_view, but I want to pass it to a view's page display. Also I want to pass multiple arguments to the view, so it won't be good to pass all the arguments in the url.
I tried to pass the arguments using $view->args = implode('+', $args); in hook_views_pre_render, but it didn't work.
Does anyone know how to pass contextual filter arguments using any of view hooks?
Comment: `I want to pass multiple arguments to the view, so it won't be good to pass all the arguments in the url` What kind of arguments do you want to pass? I ask because maybe you can archive it with the Views UI.
Comment: I want to pass multiple tids, I get those tids from custom solr search, so there might be a huge number of tids.
Comment: I don't think this can be done without either `views_embed_view` or url arguments. While you can write a 'default argument' plugin for views I am not sure how you would feed data to it if not over the url. If you don't want to really pass data but rather generate it somehow, you can use the UI with 'provide default value' and the 'php' option on the contextual filter itself which is the same. `hook_views_pre_render`doesn't work as the db was already queried.
Comment: Yes, you are partially right @Zuzuesque. It can't be done with `hook_views_pre_render`, but it can be done using `hook_views_pre_view()`. I got the solution and will update soon.
Answer: I got the solution. It can be done using hook_views_pre_view(). Since hook_views_pre_view() allows altering a view at the very beginning of views processing, before anything is done, I am able to feed the arguments to the view.
function MODULE_NAME_views_pre_view(&$view, &$display_id, &$args) {
  if ($view->name == 'myview' && $display_id == 'page_1') {
    $tids = custom_function();
    $args[] = implode('+', $tids);
  }
}

Hope this is useful to someone :)


How can I change the order of suggested contacts in GMail app?

Question: I regularly send email to a specific contact with the same first name as nearly a dozen other contacts, and he's always at the VERY BOTTOM of the list, which is annoying. Is there something I can do to get him to rise higher up the list so that he's the first suggestion instead of near the bottom?
Answer: Gmail automatically sorts all the contacts based on your most frequent uses. But if you don't find that name at top, then you might consider saving a new contact.
To view a complete list of your most frequently mailed contacts, click Gmail at the top-left corner of your Gmail page, then choose Contacts. Next, click Most Contacted.
When you're composing or replying to a message, hover over a contact's name to see the email address associated with it, and double-click a contact's name to edit it. If you have multiple email addresses linked to a contact, you'll see your contact's email address as well as name.
Comment: This seems to work on the web, but I'm looking for a change in the order in Android's GMail app.
Comment: If contact sharing is enabled, the contacts listed in your domain's Google Apps Directory appear in the autocomplete. Refer https://support.google.com/a/answer/60218


Windows Service/Process - exchange data/instructions

Question: I need a way to exchange data between a process and a windows service.
The process (Windows Form Application, Console Application, in the future also a Web Solution) needs to instruct and interact with the windows service.
I want to know which way is the best to accompplish this.
I'll write the solution in C#, .NET Framework version does not matter.
In the past I've used Remoting (Activator), WCF Interface with Contracts, Inter Process Exchange IPC and some named pipe implementation. What is your experience? Other ways?
Answer: My previous experiences have always been over an IPCChannel, mainly because the only code I've had to be involved in that does any form of inter-process communication. It's never caused me any problems and the code is working away quite merrily as I type.
The only real answer to this question is, whichever you're most comfortable with.
Answer: I would choose WCF. It is most modern and probably best supported approach at the moment. It "replaced" older technologies in most scenarios. Nice feature of the WCF is that if you need to move your service to other protocol you can do that simply in configuration.
If you expect that windows service will always run on the same machine as other application you can use WCF with netNamedBinding. If you decide to move your service to other machine you will have to change configuration (probably to netTcpBinding) because Named pipes in WCF are limited only to IPC.


First time making beer

Question: I'm living somewhere possessing and trading alcoholic beverages is illegal and that is why I'm making my own. I can find some russian beers here which according to what is sated on the can, they contain 0.5% alcohol and they do not have any preservatives in them. Since also special kinds of yeasts are not available here, I'm using normal baking yeast. So, what is did was purchasing some of those russian beers and pouring them into a container and I mixed some sugar with warm (20 c) water and added the yeast to it. I left the sugar water for a while and it started foaming then I added that to the container (yesterday) and put it aside. Now the beer in the container is like boiling and it is bubbling too fast. It's been fermenting for exactly 24 hours and I wanted to know how long I have to leave it like that, and how much alcohol can I expect to be in there. Just tastes a little and it really tasted cool, it not bready and it already tastes real beer but can taste alcohol very much.
Comment: Firstly, let it ferment until it stops bubbling.  Secondly, if someone were to try to take a stab at the ABV, you'd have to say how much sugar you added and also how much beer you added the 20 cups of water to.  You're really going to some crazy lengths to make whatever you end up making, I'll say that much.
Comment: On a similar note, a friend of mine claimed to have been able to ferment Malta (a product in the US that's essentially unfermented beer) by adding brewers yeast to it. So what you are doing is in the realm of possibility.
Answer: For a typical 5% ABV beer, brewed between 16 and 20°C, allow 10-14 days for fermentation to stop, and few more days for the yeast to clear. But using bread yeast might get you a different result.
Starting with about 10% sugar you would expect to get a 4-5% beer, but your yeast might have other ideas and quit before it gets that far. After the bubbling stops, if it's too sweet for your taste, you can try adding more yeast. Just don't shake up the beer, it will mess up the flavor.
Side question - is the russian beer there for the hops or does it have malt too?
Best of luck, I hope it works out for you.

First time making beer


How much health do MOAB class bloons have?

Question: How much health do MOAB class bloons have? I was wondering and I noticed the that MOAB Assassin can destroy 1 MOAB, and 1000 dmg to ZOMGs. Does that mean MOABs have 1000 health? How about BFBs and ZOMGS?
Comment: The Bloons wiki has the RBEs for each MOAB bloon.
Answer: MOAB RBE (Red Bloon Equivalent) is 616.
BFB RBE is 3164.
ZOMG RBE is 16656.
Sometimes it differs from game to game but these are the excepted numbers because it applies to the most amount of versions of the game.
You can read the rest of the information here:
http://bloons.wikia.com/wiki/Bloon_Types
Comment: @sensiwoo You're welcome :)
Comment: Above answer includes Child spawns (i.e ZOMG into 4 BFBs, etc). MOAB only is 200, BFB only is 600, ZOMG only is 4000 (revival of old post)


How to add attack speed using commands?

Question: In version 1.9, the combat section of the update added a cooldown timer. My problem lies with the fact that some Minecraft maps have no cooldown, and replace it with attack speed (attack speed increases the cooldown).
So what command adds attack speed to tools?
Comment: One way to accomplish this is to have command blocks that detect if a player is holding a certain item, and if so, give them haste.  One thing I'm not sure about without looking is if haste also increases attack speed of weapons.
Answer: One way is to use item attributes. I've seen this approach on a few maps.
Using the command
<code>/give @p diamond_sword 1 0 {AttributeModifiers:[{AttributeName:"generic.attackSpeed",Name:"generic.attackSpeed",Amount:1000,Operation:0,UUIDLeast:1,UUIDMost:1}]}
</code>
You can give yourself a diamond sword with the maximum attack speed on it. This eliminates the cooldown of attacks.
(PS: you can find more about attributes on the wiki, here)
Comment: Ok, thx for the cmmand (and the wiki)!

How to add attack speed using commands?


Are all plugins VST plugins?

Question: Whenever someone mentions a plugin for a daw like Logic, Ableton, etc. Is it always a VST plugin? so 'VST plugin' and 'plugin' is synonymous?
Comment: People use "VST" as some kind of a general noun like "I'm looking for a VST that ..." so you could add one more question: "are all VSTs plugins?" I haven't seen VST used as a verb or adjective though. "Let's VST like it's 1999". "How VST is your music today?"
Comment: I own a vacuum cleaner. it is made by Dyson. I still "hooover" the carpet with it. Some names stick & become the pseudo-generic name for that type of device. VST has become that for audio plugins. [I'll now wait patiently for the rest of the list… Your starter for 10, duck tape… ;)
Comment: Adding to the other answer, a less common protocol/API (but widely used on linux) is [LADSPA](https://www.ladspa.org/), supported by LMMS, Ardour, Audacity and many others.
Answer: There are several plugin formats, and VST is only one of many. It was developed by Steinberg (now part of Yamaha) in 1996 for a very old version of Cubase. It is the most common format, but there are other popular formats. Some DAWs support VST plus other formats, and some DAWs don't support VSTs at all.
Logic Pro uses Audio Units. Protools uses RTAS and AAX. These formats, along with VST, are the most common plugin formats.
Comment: AU is Apple's audio plugin framework like DirectX was Microsoft's. AU plugins work in many Mac-based host applications like GarageBand and Ableton Live. For some plugins I use the AU version in Ableton, because the VST version crashes in my setup.
Comment: @piiperiReinstateMonica this guy uses plugins for logic yet he still calls it VST. is he really using Audio Units? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HP45apwwmk
Comment: @foreyez Logic doesn't support VST., only supports AU. There are some converters out there, though they are buggy and very unreliable.

Are all plugins VST plugins?


LTspice MOSFET width sweep

Question: I am trying to simulate the transfer characteristics of a CMOS inverter using LTspice.
I want to sweep the MOSFET width and length and observe the effects on rise and fall times of the CMOS inverter.
Is there any way of setting up a sweep of MOSFET width and length ?
Comment: I am not really sure what you want, can you provide a minimal .asc file of what you got so far? I think something like `.step nmos NMOS(w) 1u 10u 1u` will do what you need...
Answer: LTspice uses the .step command to accomplish up to 3 nested sweep, to do two nested sweeps add directives like this:
<code>.step param width 1u 10u 1u
.step param length 1u 10u 1u
</code>
LTspice measure for rise time and fall time:
<code> .MEAS TRAN tr1 WHEN V(out)=V(vdd)*0.1 RISE=1
 .MEAS TRAN tr2 WHEN V(out)=V(vdd)*0.9 RISE=1
 .MEAS TRAN tr PARAM (tr2-tr1)
 .MEAS TRAN tf1 WHEN V(out)=V(vdd)*0.9 FALL=1
 .MEAS TRAN tf2 WHEN V(out)=V(vdd)*0.1 FALL=1
 .MEAS TRAN tf PARAM (tf2-tf1)
</code>
You will find the output of the measure commands in the log (Ctrl-L).
If you are drawing the transistors you may need to wrap the parameters in {}-brackets.
If you write the netlist yourself you need a .param directive, e.g.:
<code> .param width=1u length=1u
 Mnmos1 D G S B model w={width} l={length}
</code>
Below is a working example:

After running it hit Ctrl-L or use the menu item 'spice error log' to see the measure results. For simpler measure setups you cant plot the results by right clicking in the 'spice error log' window, but it didn't work in this case so you need to process it in another program.
Comment: my MOSFET model is defined as :                            Mnmos@0 output input gnd gnd NMOS L=0.4U W=2U                  Mpmos@0 vdd input output vdd PMOS L=0.4U W=2U                    how do i change the L and W for both Mnmos@0 and Mpmos@0 ?
Comment: No problem for the answer so far, but I just realized I'm out of time, so I will have too come back to do a full example (maybe later today).

LTspice MOSFET width sweep


How to quantify the uncertainty of the time series average?

Question: Usually, we measure a fixed physical quantity, then we simply average MEAN on the measurement results and calculate the standard deviation STD, then the measurement result can be written as MEAN±STD. But for fluctuating values, such as the temperature of a day, sometimes, for example, the value at 12 o'clock is $26$ degrees, and the measurement accuracy of our thermometer is $0.5$ degrees, and we measure a result $y_{i}$ every minute, then how to represent the average of the day Temperature and its uncertainty? Shouldn't we simply calculate its uncertainty as the standard deviation of the data? After all, every data is accurate.
Comment: Is this a fair way to summarize your question? "How do I report the mean temperature for a day, while also giving a sense of the variation of the temperature throughout the day, given that the variation in temperature is much larger than the uncertainty of the thermometer?" If so, one option is to report the mean temperature and the high and low temperatures for the day. You could include measurement uncertainty on those values if you wanted. You generally don't want to use the standard deviation for data that you don't think is (at least approximately) Gaussian distributed.
Answer: From your data, you estimate the mean $\mu$ and the standard deviation of the mean $\sigma_{\mu}$ and report the result as $\mu \pm \sigma_{\mu}$.  See my answer to Uncertainty in repetitive measurements for details.
Answer: Let's start with the perfect measurement. In this case the average temperature of a day would an exactly known quantity, and its uncertainty is zero.
In contrast, the estimator $s = \sqrt{\frac{1}{n-1}\sum_{i=1}^n (T_i - \bar T)^2}$  is obviously non-zero, if we have a temperature change during the day. This shows that $s$ is not the uncertainty of the average value $\bar T$.
What we ought to do is to remove the systematic change of the temperature. The remaining part (after the removal of the systematic change) is the uncertainty you are interested in. Thus, the uncertainty of the average temperature is model dependent.


Cannot create site from template because of Attachments folder

Question: I have created a site template with a list and some content inside the list. When I try to create a site from that template, I get and error message saying "something went wrong", when I tried to create site/lists/list name/Attachments/1. None of items in the list have attachments. Has anyone come across this issue and know how to resolve it?
Answer: Turns out the problem was coming from having a lookup column in the list that was looking up another column in the same list. SharePoint does not like that in it's templates.


Insert Jquery after another script

Question: i want to insert Jquery library in my HTML, but i can't place it on the header of file. I need to include it after some scripts im running.
Do you know any way to do this without getting an error?
Comment: Do those "other" scripts use jQuery? Otherwise, including scripts in the body is perfectly fine.
Comment: What's the error it generates?
Answer: You may be trying to call jQuery in a script before your jQuery library file is loaded.
Comment: Maybe you are corract, how can i verify that JQuery has been loaded?
Answer: You only have to load jQuery before your scripts that use it.  Other scripts that don't use jQuery can go before it if you want.
For example, if you want to include jQuery in a script tag at the end of the body and then include some scripts that use jQuery after that, you can do it that way.
Answer: If you are constructing your own site/page then you may be able to control this enough by making sure jQuery is included before the other files.  However, if you are using something like WordPress or other dynamic CMS platforms you may not be able to stop something from referencing jQuery before it exists.
Check out this github project for jqShim that might help.  You can include the very basic dom ready functionality in the head while moving the bigger/larger/slower/complete jQuery download to the bottom of the BODY (but before any plugins).  As long as the code that calls jQuery is doing something like:
<code>jQuery(function($) { ... doing something when ready ... });
</code>
Those calls can still be made in the body, after using the jqShim, and will behave as expected.  Let me know if it proves to be helpful!

Insert Jquery after another script


Are there any practical use cases for performing homomorphic operations on encrypted Strings?

Question: Does anybody know which practical use cases there are to operate on encrypted strings? Even niche problems that can be solved using homomorphic encryption on strings are interesting to me, but not academic ones.
Comment: I'm not sure what you're asking. Are you referring to homomorphic encryption?
Comment: Another solution looking for problem. Such process can serendipitously lead to great things, but that's the exception rather then the norm.
Comment: Yes, Homomorphic Encryption given its ability to operated directly on cipher text without decrypting first. I'm specifically interested in use cases. Not the generic, highly academic ones found in research papers, but real, practical ones.
Comment: Yep. thats true to be honest. Trying to do both. Courting serendipity and also some real use cases that we are aware of. Hence the community outreach.
Answer: I believe you're talking about homomorphic encryption. It allows to have operations on encrypted data.
A simple use-case example:
Sometimes data has to be kept confidential (i.e. names, address, ... ). It could be that you want to perform computing on data but you're missing the computational power to do so. So you're outsourcing this computation to someone else (cloud computing), but now you have a problem with privacy and confidentiality, because in this case the data has to be handled confidentional.
That's where homomorphic encryption is useful. You encrypt the data and afterwards an untrusted server can perform computation on this data. After the computation you can decrypt the data again and a third party has not gained any knowledge of the data.
Examples in the case of strings:

You have a database with tables and you would like to add a new row with data. The database can be encrypted and hosted by an untrusted server (we're looking over the fact that this is maybe a bad practice). You can encrypt the data and add it to the database.
You want to compare a lot of data (strings), for example you want to be sure that database A ($D_a$) has exactly the same data as the database B ($D_b$). You can compare the data with homomorphic encryption by an untrusted third party. After the comparison you know if $D_a = D_b$.
Answer: I'm surprised that nobody mentioned genomics as use case. In this field, the underlying strings to manipulate are DNA strings like "AACTGA...".
Homomorphic encryption can be useful to manipulate encrypted DNA strings on an untrusted cloud, while still maintaining data confidentiality.
For more info, see here for typical string operations.
Comment: That is just encoding.
Comment: This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post. - [From Review](/review/low-quality-posts/46845)
Comment: Edited my answer.


Could this algorithm detect shortest cycle in a direct graph?

Question: Suppose I want to detect the shortest cycle in a directed graph with positive or negative weights. My idea is to run dfs on every vertex to find cycles by remembering the back edge, then storing all cycles discovered on to a stack. After that I check the cycle with the shortest length in the stack and output it. Does this algorithm work?
Comment: The first hits under "shortest cycle" are this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3911626/find-cycle-of-shortest-length-in-a-directed-graph-with-positive-weights and this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floyd%E2%80%93Warshall_algorithm. Also note that storing the cycles on a stack is wasteful if you just want to find the shortest one in the end; you only have to keep the shortest one you've found so far to do that.
Comment: Listing's answer assumes that by "cycle" you mean "simple cycle", i.e. a cycle without repeated vertices. Perhaps you should clarify whether that was the intended meaning.
Answer: Assign every edge weight $-1$. Then the shortest cycle in your digraph is the longest cycle in the unweighted digraph. Therefore computing the answer would yield the result to the np-complete directed hamilton-cycle problem.
If $\text{P}\neq\text{NP}$ you can therefore find no polynomial algorithm to compute the shortest cycle. You will therefore not come around finding all cycles in the graph, a discussion on how to do this can be found here.
The algorithm you describe is polynomial as far as i can tell (you essential run $n$ times dfs which is linear in time).


estimate the perimeter of the island

Question: I'm assigned a task involving solving a problem that can be described as follows: Suppose I'm driving a car around a lake. In the lake there is an island of irregular shape. I have a GPS with me in the car so I know how far I've driven and every turns I've made. Now suppose I also have a camera that takes picture of the island 30 times a second, so I know how long sidewise the island appears to me all the time. Also assume I know the straight line distance between me and the island all the time. Given these conditions, if I drive around the lake for one full circle, will I be able to estimate the perimeter of the island? If yes, how? Thanks.
Comment: You can probably derive a lower bound for the perimeter, but unless you know the island is convex, the coastline can have arbitrarily complex wiggles that don't influence your measurements.
Comment: How would we estimate the perimeter if we assume the island is a convex shape?  Thanks for your help.
Comment: I presume you've seen [this paper](http://users.math.yale.edu/~bbm3/web_pdfs/howLongIsTheCoastOfBritain.pdf)?
Comment: I suppose the shape of the island can not be too irregular.
Answer: Assume the island $\Omega$ is convex. Parametrize the observed width $w$ of $\Omega$ with the direction from which it is observed. So we have a function $\phi\to w(\phi)$ of period $\pi$. The average observed width is $$\bar w:={1\over 2\pi}\int_0^{2\pi }w(\phi)\ d\phi\ .$$
Consider a line element $ds$ of $\partial\Omega$. Its contribution to $\bar w$ is half its average projection length over all directions $\phi$ (here we use the convexity of $\partial\Omega$), so it is $\ \lambda\thinspace\thinspace ds\ $ for some universal constant $\lambda>0$ yet to be determined. In any case we have  a formula of the following kind:
$$\bar w = \lambda \int_{\partial\Omega} ds =\lambda\ L(\partial\Omega)\ .$$
When $\Omega$ is the unit disk then $\bar w=2$ and $L(\partial\Omega)=2\pi$. It follows that $\lambda={1\over\pi}$, and solving for $L(\partial\Omega)$ we get
$$L(\partial\Omega)=\pi\ \bar w={1\over 2}\int_0^{2\pi} w(\phi)\ d\phi\ .$$
Answer: I am going to take a stab at this, although I would like to hear a flaw in my argument.
If you have a reference point on the island where your camera is always pointed to then, since you know your exact travel path and distance from your path to the edge of the island, you can plot the shape of the island, then, finding the area can be done in multiple ways (integration being one of the ways).
If you do not have a reference point that the camera(your eyes) can always point to, then I think the problem is tricky, and I believe there is no solution.

estimate the perimeter of the island


Which one is correct: "Do you wake at seven?" or "Do you wake up at seven?"

Question: Someone said to me that the first one is the correct answer, because you use "wake up" to ask someone to stop sleeping. But I think the first one does not sound natural.
Answer: In modern (American) English, "wake" in your example is generally followed by "up". But this isn't always the case.
I don't always like to use NGrams but here's a helpful image that shows the recent trend:

Of course, this misses some various other phrases that are similar, like the command "wake me at 7 am"... which is fine but can also be phrased "wake me up at 7 am".'

So, to answer your question, in modern English, "wake up at" is more appropriate and common but "wake at" is not technically incorrect... it's simply not much in modern use and you may find pockets where it is still quite acceptable.
Comment: For one kick rectum motivation +1. I always forget to use those comparisons. Maybe unconsciously I don't trust them because I don't understand how they can gather usage frequency from times prior the almighty Internet's entry...
Answer: I believe it's the second sentence that's correct and that your friend's misinformed. One could say Are you awake at seven? but omitting up sounds like wake is something one does when one watches over someone.
According to the wisdom of the net, there are other meanings to the very to wake and those use different prepositions. However, the act of entering a conscious state interrupting ones sleep is usually accompanied with up.
Answer: Usually, 'wake' is followed by 'up' when you talk about getting up from a sleep or a nap. And I don't think 'Do you wake at seven?' is the correct way to ask that. Technically, it is not wrong, but ideally, the latter is a better option. Generally, you 'wake' and you 'get up', which is exactly what 'wake up' means.


Why is the Accuracy in the measurement of Time so important in GPS?

Question: I read in a physics book that

Without clocks of extreme accuracy, the Global Positioning System (GPS) that is now vital to worldwide navigation would be useless.

What would be effects on navigation of less accurate clocks in the context of GPS?
Comment: Voting to reopen. The question is perfectly clear and can be answered in detail - less accurate clocks in the GPS system would lead to less precise position measurements. I have edited the question to replace "doubt" by the more usual "question".
Comment: The OP may be interested to read this page about GPS accuracy and precision: https://www.rewiresecurity.co.uk/blog/gps-tracking-tracker-satellite-accuracy-precision
Answer: Actually, it is necessary for clocks to be both extremely accurate and precise in order for GPS to work at all.
What your handphone is doing by accessing GPS is to ask the satellites what the times on the satellites are. If you cannot have extremely accurate times on the satellites, then when you are seeking the times on the satellites, each one gives you a time that you cannot trust, then you cannot work backwards to know where it is, and thus your own position is of great uncertainty.
Similarly, if the precision of the time pieces are bad, then even if the GPS clocks are very accurate, the uncertainties will also be huge, and then you will, again, not know where you are.
Answer: GPS works by determining the distance between the GPS receiver and a number of GPS satellites (usually at least 4). From these distances (and the known positions of the satellites) the GPS receiver can calculate its position very precisely.
The distance calculations made by the GPS receiver depend on multiplying the speed of the radio waves emitted by the satellites (which is basically the speed of light) by the time difference between when a signal was emitted by a satellite and when it was received by the receiver. So if the GPS clocks were less accurate then the GPS receiver would not be able to measure these time differences so accurately, and its position calculation would also be less accurate.
A rough idea of how accurate the clocks must be can be found by multiplying a notional time difference by the speed of light. If the GPS clocks were only accurate to within $1$ microsecond ($10^{-6}$ seconds) then in that time light travels $300$ metres, so GPS position measurements would only be accurate to within a few hundred metres. In practice the clocks in the GPS system need to be at least $10$ times more accurate than this.
Answer: Just to be a bit more clear GPS receivers/phones/'handphones' never asks for anything from GPS - its receive only - period (unless the US DOD included a receiving package on the satellites and that would be secret/sensitive/TS and just for military - it does seem pretty clear that GPS can deliver encrypted one way messages on one of the carriers to all military specific S/N's of receivers and groups. That would be sensitive and never revealed on purpose). Normally DSP/Defense Support Program satellites would just be used - although in time of 'more then normal' conflict the US Military is constantly running low on bandwidth
The closest You get from a GPS transmitting is a bad design accidently leaking the L/O (Local oscillator) that couples and transmits a faint signal at the offset of the L/O through the RX/receiving antenna. If a receiver had amazing signal/noise performance (likely with the help of super cooling) and DF/direction finding they could sent a missile to all consumer receivers being used by the enemy behind the front line
That's specifically why EMCON/Emission Control exists in the military - even some receive only equipment needs to be shut down even though its a "transmission only" device if the front end leaks too much from the local oscillators(s)


Looking for a children's scifi/mystery/horror book about a boy who becomes addicted to an arcade game

Question: It's about a kid/teen who gets addicted to a VR-like arcade game. Every time he went to the arcade, there was nobody around the game, even though it was really cool/high-tech. I can't remember much about it, but it really reminds me of the game Superhot and the Polybius urban legend. It was probably published in the 1990s or early 2000s, and iirc the title was only one word - the name of the arcade game. I think the cover art was blueish or purpleish. The book was definitely for children/teens, and was written like a Goosebumps book, from what I can remember.
Answer: You might be thinking of Mindmaster (1997) by Clive Gifford.

LibraryThing offers a brief synopsis:

Pete Clark, grieving the death of his father, becomes caught up in the world of arcade games at The Zone, a gaming hall run by a mysterious and dangerous man who just may have found the link between the computer and the human brain.

The back of the book, which can be read at this preview from archive.org, has another synopsis:

Just imagine... an arcade game that can read your mind and play with your darkest thoughts. Just imagine... a machine that steals your dreams. Just imagine... the Mindmaster. There is no escape.


Canadian Taxes: Can I claim the full flat rate (currently $23) for a meal even if the meal costs less?

Question: Here's the link to the CRA website but it doesn't seem to specify this. It seems to say $23 but I am not clear on this and it would seem odd to me to claim $23 for a $10 meal. Thanks in advance.
https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-25500-northern-residents-deductions/meal-vehicle-rates-used-calculate-travel-expenses.html
Answer: This is from the exact source you quoted: Meal and vehicle rates used to calculate travel expenses for 2020 and previous years

Meal expenses
If you choose the detailed method to calculate meal expenses, you must
keep your receipts and claim the actual amount that you spent.
If you choose the simplified method, claim in Canadian or US funds a
flat rate of $23/meal, to a maximum of $69/day (sales tax included)
per person, without receipts. Although you do not need to keep
detailed receipts for actual expenses if you choose to use this
method, we may still ask you to provide some documentation to support
your claim.

You have two choices: claim exactly what you spent, but you have to have receipts; or take the flat rate, but you don't need receipts. The proof mentioned for the flat rate is that you might have to have something else to justify the reason for the expense.
Because there are no receipts, with the flat rate method they have no idea if you went to the cheapest place in town and ate for less than $10, or the most expensive place in town and spent more than $23 for the meal.
In some locations $69 as day is more than most people spend, in other cities that can be difficult to keep under that number.
Comment: What the agency is saying that it's easiest to pay $23, no questions asked.. Imagine you actually pay $22 for each meal, and submit the receipts for reimbursement. The agency may spend $2-$3 in labor to process receipts just to save half that amount.


Plugin options missing in wp-options, how can I fix this?

Question: I installed a plugin in my dev environment and it worked fine, so I tried it on my production site. I found that a submit button was sending me to our 404 page. I then compared the files in ftp to my local environment and found them to be the same. After that it occurred it may be a database issue.
I then compared the tables and found that the dev environment that works has some entries in the wp-options table, that are missing from the production version. I then deactivated and deleted, then reinstalled it hoping it would add the entries. It did not.
I thought that I would try to remove all entries added from the plugin, then deactivate delete and reinstall, still it did not add anything back. Is there something the plugin could be checking to see if it has been installed before, and therefore is failing to create the entries, I only removed the transients in the wp-option table when I tried to clean it up.
I am at a loss as to what to do to ge the plugin working, and I really believe it all comes down tot he database. Anyone have experience in this?
Answer: You could export/import your local database to the production site.


How to find the terminal voltage of a series generator given output power and EMF?

Question:
A 12 kW, 120 V DC series generator has a series field resistance of 0.05 Ω. The generated EMF is 135 V when the generator delivers the rated load at its rated terminal voltage. The armature resistance is 0.1 Ω. If the generated EMF is 130 V and the generator is supplying 4.167 kW, what is the terminal voltage?

This question is from Bhag S. Guru, Hüseyin R. Hiziroglu: Electric Machinery and Transformers.
My solution:
Ea = 130 V
Ea - (0.1+0.05)IL - Vt = 0 where Vt = 4.167k/IL
Then I solve the quadratic equation for IL. The two solutions are 33.34 and 833.33.
IL must be 33.34 A because the rated load current is 100 A, and so the terminal voltage Vt must be 124.985 V.
Is this correct?
In contrast, here is my tutor's solution:
Ea - (0.1+0.05)IL - Vt = 0 where IL = 4.167k/120 and Ea=130 V
Vt=124.79
But it doesn't make sense to me that IL = 4.167k/120. Isn't load current the output power (which is 4.167 kW in this case) divided by the terminal voltage (which is what we're trying to find)? Has my tutor made a mistake?
Answer: Your solution appears to be correct.
Your tutor appears to have made an error. He/she assumed the output voltage is 120 volts in order to calculate output current and then, concluded that the output voltage is 124.79 volts. This method would need several more iterations to get accuracy.