Why would super-soldiers be really tall?

Question: Very simple I need some really big and imposing marines. The enhancements make them stronger with faster reaction speed, bone strengh and the works. Why would these marines be really tall as well? Is there any advantage to them being tall if they are deployed on space stations and ships?
Comment: More muscle mass, more bulk, stronger skeleton...it all takes space inside the body. Hence a larger body accommodates that. Or are you asking *specifically* about being tall (body being longer overall) rather than just being "bigger" (the space marines in WH40k are quite bulky)?
Comment: @DKNguyen that's why I asked if OP means by "taller". Because IRL I've heard people who are simply *proportionally bigger* being called "tall". Apparently one dimension of the person has greater regard by the general population. Then there are people who *are* regular in two of their three dimensions but they measure more on the Y axis (if you will). They *are* taller but not as thick and not as wide. [The WH40K space marines are larger in the X, Y, and Z axis](https://images.wikia.com/warhammer40k/images/a/ae/SpaceMarineAnatomyPhilipGibbering.jpg), they don't *just* tower over normal humans.
Comment: If they're being used as soldiers, height could be used as an intimidation technique. Taller people are in general more intimidating than shorter people.
Comment: What is average height and how much taller are Super-Soliders to ordinary soliders.   Keep in mind some branches of military do have a maximum height limit.   I know it's rather frustrating for tall people to be deployed on naval vessels due to low clearences and tight corners, and pilots/aviators have to fit in cockpits which become a problem for really tall people.   Heck, I'm taller than average, but not super-tall and I have problems sitting in certain seats on air lines (more related to claustrophobia, but window and middle seats are still cramped unless bulkhead or exit rows.
Comment: @VLAZ Ehhhhh these arguments also apply to just being fat, except that taller has the disadvantages of being more difficult to support and less leverage.
Comment: @VLAZ Oh, I understand the intent or your post now. Brain tuned out the critical phrase in the middle.
Comment: Because they will be imposing, no...
Answer: Better Power Armor
Based on your previous questions, I will assume you have a setting that includes power armor.
One of the biggest complications in designing power armor is that you need a lot of space around the body to fit the exoskeleton and chunky armor plates, which leads to issues with articulation.  The stockier your soldier is, the smaller spaces you have to work with for this; so, a tall, lancky soldier would put a lot more distance between your points of articulation allowing you to make your armor plates thicker and your exoskeleton stronger while still being able to move around your user.
In my previous answer to your question regarding the use of 50cal machine guns, modern body armor capable stopping such a weapon would have to be about to be about 3cm thick... doable but only in select locations.  With longer appendages, you could design articulating plates than can be this thick around your entire body giving much better protection, and also give your space marines a tough enough of a powered exoskeleton to carry larger firearms that might punch right through the thinner armor of shorter soldiers.

As for your soldiers being breed to be overall "bigger" and "stronger", this part is wholly unnecessary.  Machines are proportionally much stronger than biology; so, if you make your space marines tall and skinny, then you leave more room for robotic strength enhancements.  Either way your space marine ends up the same amount of bulky in full armor, but by being thinner, more of that actual bulk is robotics and armor.
Answer: Efficiency, economy
You want the most soldier for your money. Best intimidation factor, best carrying ability.
Training a midget costs exactly the same as training a Conan.
And training cost is the #1 cost in any military that uses professional troops, not conscripted cannonfodder.
Same for equipment, even to a partial extent clothing and armor. A sss-tiny soldier's boot costs just about as much to make as an XXX-Large.
And the Conan can carry a Vulcan Cannon over his shoulder while storming the enemy, while a midget struggles with a single-fire 12-gauge shotgun. Conan can carry a lot more ammo, withstand more recoil, hit harder in hand-to-hand combat.
Also, durability in combat.
Shoot the Conan in the arm with a 9mm round, and unless you hit a bone, he just charges on.
Shoot the midget with the same 9mm round, and his arm is off.
Yes the Conan is an easier target, which counts against him. Also more effort to feed, transport. But these are relatively minor matters.

Using Conans vs. Midgets to exaggerate the differences, but the same argument goes for intermediate sizes, just less obviously so.
Answer: To Reach Things
I'm reminded of Ender's Shadow/Enderverse Battle Room maneuvers.  The gist is that kids at a space station military school play a 0-G game of laser tag in a box against other groups of kids.  Bean, the smallest kid, has some problems with this as the handholds on the walls are spaced far enough apart that if he flies poorly he lands in a place with no handholds, and he bounces away from the wall instead of being where he needs to be.
Your super-soldiers could have similar considerations in mind when they're made Tall.  Above and beyond the need for a bigger body to accommodate the extra muscle/fancy bones/what have yous, a physically taller body would allow for greater reach when it comes to grabbing hold of stuff in a 0-G environment.  As long as they can still fit through ship's corridors with relative ease, you'd want them as tall as you can get.  That way when fighting on a ship or station's hull, or in, say, the cargo area of a kilometers-long-freighter with no gravity, they'd be more maneuverable than a normal 5"10ish person.  (or at least better able to get where they needed to go, maneuverable might not be the right word.)
Added to this "maneuverability" in 0-G, you also have the traditional intimidation factor that comes with fighting someone larger than yourself.  It's instinctual and not to be underestimated when fighting in  close proximity.  The added height/dis-proportionally long limbs may also be an ID marker in the field.  If your Space Marines are easily identifiable as such, AND are super-human killing machines, making them easily identifiable is another psychological advantage.  For example, the Spartans had a specific symbol on their shields, and they sparked fear in their enemies.  But in one battle against Thebes the Spartans used not-spartan shields and the Thebes held their own, whereas if they'd known they were fighting SPARTANS they may have broken and run.  So if your Space Marines look physically different it'll let your enemies know they're up against the First Team and maybe give up before the fighting even seriously begins.
Answer: Accidental side-effect.
While working on other traits such as efficient use of oxygen and stronger muscles, they found it had the effect of increasing the size of the soldiers.
Sure, they can sing the praises of the intimidation factor and the ease of fitting power armor, but had it been the other way round, they would be singing the praises of lower calorie demands and decreased chance of cancer.
Answer: Born in 0 g.
It turns out humans born in zero gravity get really tall.  Unmodified children can grow up to eight feet tall and sometimes parents of children destined for civilian life will induce puberty early in order to halt growth at manageable heights between 6 and 7 feet.  The really tall ones struggle if they are ever in a situation with gravity because generally in addition to their height they have low muscle mass.
0G spaceborn children chosen to be space marines are often allowed to reach full height.  Enhancements augment muscle mass to some degree but these persons are still lanky as compared to persons born in a gravity well.  Really, strength does not matter if you have on power armor which they invariably do if they are working or on a planet surface.  If power armor presents poor optics for a given situations, the spaceborn marines planetside will still wear a light exoskeleton frame.
Answer: Because the dictator who ordered them is really short and is trying to compensate.
Being taller comes with spine issues, it's actually an advantage to be a little shorter when hauling the sort of loads soldiers deal with, this applies even more so to special forces.
The palace guard should of course be really tall.
Answer: Two possible reasons: intimidation and the ability of moving more quickly (longer legs means higher speed e.g. when running).
It could also be a necessity if they need space to store synthetic enhancements (e.g. oxygen reserves, food supply, chemicals) that can't as easily go in the outer armor.
Answer: Bigger usually = better in combat
There's a general observation in nature that bigger usually means better when it comes to combat between animals. Bigger animals can more easily win fights and monopolize resources compared to smaller ones. Size generally provides a multiplicative advantage because while size (in humans usually measured as height) increases linearly, weight increases cubically due to the square-cube law. What this means is while a 6 foot (183 cm) human might weigh 200 lbs (90 kg), an eight foot (244 cm) human will weigh 215 kg (474 lbs).
These differences in weight are a big deal. They're the reason why you see weight classes in sports like wrestling, MMA fighting, or boxing. This is because pound for pound, assuming a fair fight and evenly skilled combatants, the larger combatant will win most of the time. Smaller people can win by being more skilled, having better weapons, or using better tactics (element of surprise, etc.), but they won't win in a straight-up fight.
Larger size would also mean that your super soldiers could carry heavier gear or wield larger caliber weapons than regular soldiers. Two of the biggest constraining factors in modern soldiers are long-term fatigue in carrying the very heavy backpacks and gear that most soldiers have to lug around, and the weaponry they can carry is limited by how much the human body can easily lift. This is why in science-fiction franchises like Warhammer 40k or Halo you see super soldiers wielding weapons that are handheld rocket-launchers or particle cannons, or even outright lifting an emplaced heavy machine gun from the ground and wielding it as if it were a minigun.
Larger size also means it takes less energy per pound to move from one location to another. Relative to body length, migration is much less of a big deal for an elephant than a mouse. This is why a lot of migratory animals are very large. This might also mean your super-soldiers have an easier time on long marches.
There are distinct disadvantages to being larger in combat.

Bigger soldiers are larger target for firearms
Bigger soldiers require more calories to support and if you can't feed them won't be cost effective
Bigger soldiers may not be able to squeeze into enclosed spaces like sewers or tunnels to fight in asymmetrical warfare
Super soldiers can't go undercover. A seven-to-eight-foot-tall supersoldier can't easily pretend to be "one of the locals".

But a lot of these aren't absolute deal-breakers if you can logistically deal with them. If you're looking for reasons for them to be big, here you go.


Why cant I see my minecraft texture pack images?

Question: How come when I go into my Texture pack assets, then Minecraft, then textures, then items, the pictures are just flowers. And not the texture pack images
Comment: Did you actually open the file? The minecraft textures are .png files, the default image of which is a picture of flowers
Answer: PC Version:
Texture packs were removed in version 1.6.1, but information on them can still be found here.
I assume, though, you meant resource packs, rather than texture packs.
Every resource pack has a file structure, containing file categories of e.g. items, models, which each contain the appropriate texture files. On Windows, by default, double-clicking a .png file (the default file format for texture files in resource packs) opens it in Windows Photo Viewer. You can use other software to view images, too. Most operating systems that have a user interface include built-in picture-viewing software that support .png file formats.

Console Version:
I wouldn't expect any freedom on this topic, considering the texture packs are sold as downloadable content.


What caulk color is this?

Question: can anybody tell me what's the color if the caulk used here? i replace the other side of my kitchen with silicone white and the colour is totally different with what is attached as picture.
Comment: on my computer mnitor It seems to be a 70% gray with a very slight yellow tint. did you perform a white balance before taking photo.
Comment: Is it translucent? Can you see through it some?  It may be clear that has opaqued over time.
Comment: Sadly, _nobody_ on the internet is going to be able to tell because there's _no_ telling what kind of color balance your camera (phone, most likely) used, and because very few of our monitors are going to be color calibrated properly. If you took the shot in RAW mode and posted on [photography.se], someone there might be able to tell you, but it's likely off-topic for them, too. Also, odds are good that you're not going to find an exact match - all colors will fade or change over time. If you want an exact match, recaulk the entire area in question.
Comment: it could be white ... what color is the lighing?
Answer: Matching something like this isn't possible, given the range of color reproduction on our computers. Vendors make samplers of their grout/ color match caulk; that would be the easiest way to roughly match. Alternately, buy a bunch of different color matched caulk from somewhere that will let you return the ones you don't need. Hopefully, the representation on the label will help you choose.
Comment: Yes, no way to tell the color. it could have been a color match when the counter was installed. Maybe cut off a small piece of the grey and bring it with to the store+1
Comment: I only have 10 colors in my crayon box.. lol
Comment: It's funny/interesting that @JACK called it grey... I thought of it as linen.
Comment: ...and there's always age to add to the issue. The same color caulking may not be the same color in a few years, and (if so)  new caulk of that color won't match it.

What caulk color is this?


If there exists MPC protocols such that f(x1,x2,...,xn)--> y,y,...,y then there exists MPC such that f(x1,x2,...,xn)--> y1,y2,...,yn

Question: Show that if there exists MPC for all same-output n-party functionalities then there exists MPC
for all diff-output functionalities.
Comment: Hint: Can you somehow exploit everyone's individual input being secret?
Comment: any possible hint is welcome!
Answer: Let's try and construct the different-output functionality $f_d$ using the same-output functionality $f_s$. The idea is to have each party, $P_i$ send a "key" $k_i$ along with its (secret) input which is in turn used to encrypt its output $y_i$. We simply pad the output with the key i.e. let $t = (y_1 \oplus k_1) \| (y_2 \oplus k_2) \| \ldots \| (y_n \oplus k_n)$. $f_d$ can be run using $f_s$ as a sub-protocol as shown below
$$
\begin{align}
f_d(x_1 \| k_1, x_2 \| k_2, \ldots, x_n \| k_n) &= f_s(x_1 \| k_1, \ldots, x_n \| k_n)\\ &= t, t, \ldots, t
\end{align}
$$
$\|$ denotes the string concatenation operator and $\oplus$ denotes the XOR operator.
Each party will be able to remove the pad for the substring corresponding to its output but gains no information about the other party's output. Thus, in essence, the output of $f_d$ is of the format $y_1, y_2, \ldots, y_n$ as required.


Regaining the right of residence in Germany (Niederlassungserlaubnis) after a long absence

Question: I have a unique situation. I graduated from a German University and was working full-time for three years post graduation. During this time I received the EU Blue Card and later the Niederlassungserlaubnis. However after three years that is 2017 I moved to my home country for personal reasons and have been living away from Germany for two years now. I read that the permanent resident card remains valid only for 6 months of living abroad. Is it possible to get the permanent resident status back by any chance. Any help will be appreciated. Also what if I get a job in Germany now.
Answer: You need to ask the corresponding Ausländerbehörde (before trying to enter Germany). A good idea would be to mention some personal issues that were the reason for you to leave Germany (because it could be a official reason to avoid the expiration of you residence permit, please see details here and here). Actually, you should have asked them before leaving Germany, then it could be easier to avoid expiration of your Niederlassungserlaubnis.
May I also ask you if you really got Niederlassungserlaubnis and not "Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU"? Cause the latter one expires after 2 years for former Blue Card holders.
Comment: No I got the normal Niederlassungserlaubnis. I will try to get in touch with the Ausländerbehörde. Thanks.
Comment: How to get the "Erlaubnis zum Daueraufenthalt-EU" instead of "Niederlassungserlaubnis". Are the requirements any different?
Comment: Yes, the requirements are slightly different and you can apply for both of them. Check AufenthG §§9, 9a, 18c, etc. for the differences.


FTP/SSL in passive mode with portrange, which ports has to be open on the firewall?

Question: We have to use FTP over SSL on our server and use a portrange with 5 ports for the data connection. A firewall is between client and server. We have to know what we have to open at the firewall: port, protocoll, in- or outcomming. Does anybody know this?
Comment: What OS are you using?
Comment: I will not configure the firewall by myself, I only have to assign what have to be opened. So I don't know wich OS the firewall is.
Answer: Slacksite has a good explanation of how FTP operates in active vs. passive mode, and definitive information on the data connection behaviour is in RFC 4217, § 7.
Basically, assuming your clients use passive mode and explicit SSL (e.g. connects on control port 21 instead of 990 for implicit SSL), you would need to allow incomming connections to the control port 21 and your 5 data ports from any clients high port range to the server, and outgoing established connection packets from the respective ports to random high ports. Active FTP is normally not a good idea as server will try to actively open a connection to the client, which most client side stateful firewalls will not allow if not configured accordingly.
Comment: Yes, the data connections also use TCP, so it should be sufficient to open up all data ports + the control port. Note that the implicit port is reserved, but not yet defined in the RFC. Thus it might be better to also open the normal control port and block non encrypted connections in the FTP Server configuration.
Comment: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4217#page-8 - here is the RFC link
Comment: So if I want to use passive mode and implicit SSL, there will be used port 990 in and out (I suppose with TCP) and then for the data connection the port range also in and out (also with TCP). So the firewall does not to be opened for UDP?
Answer: Yes, FTPS has big issues in terms of port use. It retrofitted encryption on a protocol, FTP, that was designed for a network without firewalls and black hats.
However SFTP has significant performance issues with large files and high latency (or long distance) connections. So as bandwidth improvements allow larger file transfers, SSH/SFTP's limitations become more significant and FTPS is the only other alternative.
Comment: 'FTPS is the only other alternative' what about HTTPS?
Comment: If you want to do uploads and downloads, with setting up user accounts, anonymous upload, and permissions/security, HTTPS is doable. But it's much more of a pain to set up, and probably less secure because it's a much more generic and flexible protocol/app suite that is much more complex and likely to contain vulnerabilities, and require more admin overhead.
Answer: Usually, explicit "active" FTPS is port 990 and the control port is 989.   Passive is the same as active but just means that in addition to 989 you use a few ports over the 1024+ range open on the server (for the client to initiate data connection), depending on how you configured your server.
Personally I prefer to use NULL FTP Server, run a implicit SFTP on port 22, and just have single port implementation.
Answer: Use wireshark http://www.wireshark.org/ and a host outside the firewall to see what ports are used by this particular FTP+SSL configuration.
Based on the traffic you see, create firewall rules to allow that kind of traffic from the IP address of FTP server.
Answer: The problem with FTPS is that all the workarounds which firewalls have implemented to handle the FTP protocol weirdness work no more. This is because the firewall can't inspect the encrypted connection to dynamically open the required ports.
That said: The port range that you have configured for passive FTP in the server software needs to be opened from the client to the server. Also, the client needs to know that it must use passive mode. I've had my first FTPS deployment in the past weeks and it works exactly like that.
(What is it with the renaissance of FTPS lately? FTP is an archaic 1970s nightmare of a protocol and, for the sake of humanity, people should really stay away from it, encrypted or not.)
Comment: So what is the solution for the asker?


How to set my Raspberry Pi to boot into the GUI?

Question: As from my previous question, I asked what the power off button in the corner does. Then somebody said if you boot into the GUI automatically, it will give you some options.
How do I boot into the GUI at startup?
Comment: Can you expand on which distribution are you using?
Comment: Read this article which explains how to auto login and auto start desktop
http://www.opentechguides.com/how-to/article/raspberry-pi/5/raspberry-pi-auto-start.html
Answer: Assuming that you are using Raspbian, it is actually rather simple to do what you ask. Simply open the terminal, and type in the following:
sudo raspi-config

The following window should show up

Navigate to boot_behaviour and click enter. This should make it so that the GUI interface starts automatically.
Comment: Just a detail: My feeb attempts to switch _back_, from boot-to-gui to boot-to-shell, failed. Maybe I started with an obsolete Raspbian image...
Answer: If you are using Arch Linux, please install the X11 server. Follow the steps in Archlinux Beginners Guide first. And install your favorite WM.

Add thise lines to your ~/.xinitrc:
#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
   for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
   done
   unset f
fi
exec openbox-session ## I'm using window manager Openbox (<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox>)
#exec awesome

Start X when logging in. Add the following to the bottom of ~/.bash_profile if you use bash. Or ~/.zprofile if you're are using zsh. See more on the Arch Linux Wiki.
[[ -z $DISPLAY && $XDG_VTNR -eq 1 ]] && exec startx
Comment: Note this works on raspbian as well. xxmbabanexx's answer didn't work for me (I think because I have a `.xinitrc`?), but I added `exec startx` to `~/.profile` and it's working now.


Is there a way to see the machine behind Sans' lab?

Question: I recently found the lab that Sans has. However, I couldn't see what the machine looked like. Is there a way to see it?
Answer: No, you cannot see what the machine looks like.
Sans' Workshop is an unfinished and/or bonus part of the game and doesn't really impact the plot in any way. It has several mysterious objects which fans have theorized reference Gaster (the previous Royal Scientist) in some way. The machine under the cloth is believed to be a Gaster Blaster, the dragon-head-shaped laser guns Sans uses against you int he Genocide route. However, none of these theories have any concrete proof since Gaster is an unfinished character that can only be seen in-game by hacking your save file.
For more information about Sans' workshop, you can take a look at the wiki page on the subject.
Comment: @Alex The only known family that Sans has is Papyrus. Any other supposed family members are just speculation from fans (not confirmed by the game developer AFAIK). Also, Frisk doesn't recognize the people in the photos, so that doesn't help identify anyone either. So no, there's no  real plot relevance to the lab. As for seeing Gaster in-game, I know you have to have certain "Fun" levels set in your save file. I don't think you can achieve those Fun values legitimately without hacking your save, but I guess I'm not 100% sure on that.
Comment: Are you kidding? It has a HUGE impact on the plot, basically explains who sans is, and his family, and his friends! And you don't need to hack your save to see Gaster!
Comment: @Alex Well, it might, if you believe certain claims. Buuuut that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY! Thanks for reading!
Comment: @MageXy have you ever played the mother series? You would understand then
Comment: There was a [minor update](http://undertale.wikia.com/wiki/Undertale/Changelog) to the game which among other things allows meeting Gaster legitimately.


network monitoring

Question: i made use of libcap package(which includes pcap) for my sniffing program. Now, i want to extend my project by adding network monitoring/processing capabilities. As in, i should be able to make use of the sniffed data and take some decisions and implement in the program. I am making use of C language. Any idea about how to procede?? Please help me..
Thanks you all :):)
Answer: Use snmp (simple network management protocol) to monitor and manage your network resources. There are snmp libraries in C.

network monitoring


Is it ok to store a bearer token in a custom field in the user object

Question: I am about to create a salesforce app that eventually will be delivered to appExchange, this app has a setting page that requires the user to enter his token that he uses to consume an external API.
My question is: is it ok to store that token in a custom field eg: Token__c in the user Object ?
Answer: You'll want to read Secure Coding: Storing Secrets. It is recommended that you use a Custom Setting that is Protected so that the secret cannot be used outside of your app's code. Other alternatives are also possible, so you'll want to check out your options.


How do I allow fans/friends to tag photo to a business site on Facebook?

Question: My company's Facebook page settings are all set to public, yet my friends and fans cannot tag a photo with my business. Is there any way to fix this?
Answer: The steps may be a little different now. Be on your page and then
Edit Settings>Tagging Ability  and check the box to allow others to tag photos posted
Answer: The option to do this is separate from setting a page as public. To enable photo tagging on your page, click Edit Page while at your Facebook page. Then, click Manage Permissions. Finally, check the box labeled People can tag photos posted by [Page Name]


Can "validity" be "improved" or "increased"?

Question: There are a number of webpages where one can read about "improving the validity" of a scientific process or measurement. Indeed, the entire Wikipedia page for Validity in statistics (which is the sense that I'm interested in) refers to validity as being a matter of degrees of correctness. However, it seems to me that validity, the noun meaning "the quality of being correctly deduced from a premis" as one definition has it, is an either-or thing - either your measurement is valid, or it is not. Is this second interpretation of validity too narrow for use in scientific contexts?
Comment: So, you've come across a use of the word "valid" that was previously unknown to you. But what your question is is not very clear to me. (The answer to the title is obviously "yes," as demonstrated by the webpages you link to.)  What do you want us to say? Do you want us to tell you the history of this usage of the word "valid"? Do you want us to defend it against people who might say it's incorrect? (If so, who says that?) Also, why do you pass over the second definition given at your dictionary link:  "Producing the desired results; efficacious: *valid methods*."
Comment: This is like the controversy over whether something can be "more optimal" or "more perfect". In America, we resolved this controversy [a long time ago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preamble_to_the_United_States_Constitution#Text).
Comment: When the methods used in a study are debatable, you may "improve the validity" of the results through enhanced methodologies. For example, in an epidemiologic study, you may improve the validity of the correlation between a decease and a potential cause, by increasing the sample size.
Answer: Validity is a multivariate concept, and abstract to the point of being beyond absolute proof. As such, you can discuss the degree of validity since it is not a simple dichotomous absolute.
You can do various things to improve (or decrease) validity.
Answer: Here is a Google Ngram chart for three comparative verbs + the validity (improve the validity [blue line], increase the validity [red line], and strengthen the validity [green line]) and for two either/or verbs (establish the validity [yellow line] and prove the validity [dark teal line]), for 1800–2005:

The chart indicates that each of the two either/or combinations has consistently been more common than any of the three comparative combinations. On the other hand, the chart also indicates that the comparative combinations have become significantly more common from the late 1920s onward than they were prior to that. This suggests to me that more people—both in and outside scientific settings—are seeing validity as something that may be more or less firmly established, and not merely as something that either has been established or has not.

Nineteenth-century instances of comparative validity: law and statescraft
A Google Books search doesn't find many instances of such usage before the second half of the twentieth century, but it does find some, including some that go far back indeed. The earliest of these arise in a legal context—specifically a Scottish legal context. From Sir James Innes & Brigadier General Walter Ker against John Ker, Esq., (January 12, 1808), in Decisions of the Court of Sessions, from November 1807 to November 1808 (1809):

The stipulations of the contract were the price of the acquisition ; and even by the pursuer's argument, whatever excludes the notion of their being gratuitous must strengthen their validity in law. If, instead of these various stipulations, the defender has contracted to pay a sum of money, the constitution of the feu [according to Black's Law Dictionary, "In Scotch law, a holding or tenure where the vassal, in place of military service, makes his return in grain or money."] rights would have been still less lucrative, but not less legal.

From Patrick Irvine, Considerations on the Inexpediency of the Law of Entail in Scotland (1826):

A deed of conveyance is generally revised with great care and attention by the granter of it, if it is only to take effect upon his death ; and both by the granter and receiver of it, if it arises from an onerous transaction ; and likewise by their professional advisers, The instrument of sasine [according to Black's Law Dictionary: "In Scotch law. The symbolical delivery of land, answering to the livery of seisin of the old English law."] following upon it, cannot increase the validity of its warrant, if defective in legal formality. But any error (even clerical error) in the sasine may prove fatal to the security which it is intended to complete.

From Smith v. Nash (July 8, 1850), in A Selection of Supreme Court Cases in New South Wales, from 1825 to 1862 (1893):

For the only malice confessed by the plea in that case was the malice in law, which was necessarily implied from the words complained of, and which need not have been stated in the declaration at all, to strengthen its validity in point of substance.

From Graham and others, Pursuers, v. Stewart and others, Lord Lynedoch's Trustees, Defenders (March 15, 1853), in The Scottish Jurist: Containing Reports of Cases Decided in the Supreme Courts of Scotland (1853):

It has been shewn, on grounds which need not be repeated, that neither the truster, nor the conveyancers who acted for him at the date of the trust, had any idea that any alteration was necessary, in the entail of 1726, to strengthen its validity. They believed it perfect, and that it required no correction ; for when the new entail was executed in terms of the entail of 1726, it was confidently supposed the lands would stand on a valid and impregnable title of entail, according to the law of Scotland, which might have been endangered, but could not be improved, by alteration.

From Zacharias Topelius, Times of Gustaf Adolf, volume  (1883):

"I am content with you, my friend," said the Jesuit, with apparent satisfaction. "These documents, which bear the stamp of truth, will be sufficient to prove the conversion of King Gustaf Wasa and King Charles; and this introduction, signed by you, will further strengthen their validity. I will now return to Germany through Sweden, in order to have these documents printed, either through our adherents in Stockholm, or, if found, possible, in Lübeck or Leyden."

Early twentieth-century instances of comparative validity: social sciences
Scientific instances—usually instances from the social sciences—begin to appear in the early twentieth century.
From Johns Hopkins University, Studies in Education, issue 10 (1928):

The statement has frequently been made that it is better to use two tests and average the results than to use only one test, for the sake of the greater validity of the measurement of the children. The above evidence indicates that this is true if the right tests are chosen for the combination, but that not any two tests will serve advantageously. It is apparent that if used indiscriminately one may harm the results rather than increase their validity.

From Bureau of Public Personnel Administration, Institute for Government Research, Public Personnel Studies, volumes 6–7 (1928[?]) [combined snippets]:

The six items not valid as they originally stood are being modified somewhat in an attempt to improve their validity. It might be of interest to note that for some of the items the number of good testees answering correctly was as high as 19 in excess of the number of poor testees, while for about three-fourths of the items the difference was between five and fifteen.

From Giles Ruch, The Objective or New-Type Examination: An Introduction to Educational Measurement (1929):

Kelley gives a formula which is at times of the greatest value in discovering whether it is worth while to attempt to improve the validity of a test through increasing its reliability.

From University of Iowa, Studies in Education, volume 6 (1931):

To the extent that it was possible to secure a measure of the language ability of the children tested, the validity of the tests was secured. In some tests, additional exercises might improve the validity. In others, the elimination of certain items would no doubt raise the relative degree of validity.

An outlier here is an early-twentieth-century instance of relative validity in earth science. From F.E. Wright & E.S. Larsen, "Quartz as a Geologic Thermometer" (1909), quoted in Edson Bastin, "Geology of the Pegmatites and Associated Rocks of Maine" (1911):

Briefly stated, the four criteria which can be used to distinguish, at ordinary temperatures, quartz which was formed above 575 from quartz which has never been heated to that temperature are [details of four distinctions follow]. Into all these criteria an element of probability enters, and in testing quartz plates, with this end in view, a number of plates should be examined to strengthen the validity of the inferences drawn.

Recent instances of relative validity: physical sciences
By the 1980s the relativity of validity had become an accepted point in some physical sciences as well. From Asad Amr, Energy Systems in the United States (1981):

Friedman's method of ranks is used to confirm further this hypothesis and to strengthen the validity of the analysis of variance. Next, the nature of differences among fuels and criteria is investigated by means of the percentile rank analysis.

From E.I. Galperin & Peter Kennett, Vertical Seismic Profiling and Its Exploration Potential (1985):

By combining the vertical and the fixed geophone level profiling in VSP reflection observations, it is possible to obtain phase correlation of the observed data and to improve the validity of structural mapping.

From Roger Mead, The Design of Experiments: Statistical Principles for Practical Applications (1988):

Enough of this philosophy. In the remainder of the chapter, we examine some methods of examining or testing assumptions; we consider transformations of scale to try to improve the validity of assumptions and a more general approach to fitting models; and we discuss methods to deal with missing observations and how to detect others.

And from Chenfeng Wang & Marina Gavrilova, "A Novel Topology-Based Matching Algorithm for Fingerprint Recognition in the Presence of Elastic Distortions" in Computational Science And Its Applications - ICCSA 2005 (May 2005):

Finally, we develop an efficient global matching scheme based on the comparisons of minutiae sets and singular points to increase the validity of the matching results. Using the same amount of information on minutiae set as traditional minutiae based algorithms we achieve a faster performance and higher accuracy rates using our proposed algorithm.

Conclusions
A hundred years ago, Google Books searches suggest, few authors writing about scientific experimentation and analysis treated validity as a thing that can be improved, increased, or strengthened. However, authors writing on law and statecraft had already been treating it so since at least 1808. The 1900s saw a considerable rise in instances where writers in sciences—especially social sciences—and (later) statistics used comparative verbs with validity.
At this point, it seems to me, the cows are out of the barn and wandering all over the hillside. In the context of social sciences, medicine, earth sciences, and statistics, at least, many practitioners in the field view validity as something that can be improved, increased, or strengthened by adjusting one's methodology. The older, narrower either/or notion of validity does not comprehend the gray world of improvable validity that these practitioners are talking about.


Cannot Connect to AD Joined Samba Share on RHEL 7.3 from Windows

Question: While I can find permission issues to Samba using local Linux users here and across Google search, I cannot find a solution to my specific problem.  I don't have any experience with Samba, so this whole process has been quite an adventure, but now I'm pulling my hair out.  I'd really appreciate some ideas.  I'm including everything I did in case others need to do it and hopefully to help someone help me.
I have a single Windows Server 2016 Active Directory domain.  The root name is ad.company.com.  I need a commercially supported Linux server with an SMB share which allows read access to some domain groups and write access to others.  Why Linux?  It will be talking to other Linux machines and will use many Linux tools.  Our current setup at another client is working well this way, but it was not configured by us, and it uses RHEL 5.
I went with RHEL 7.3 server as our company is most familiar with this distro.  I installed the Minimal Install from the Server ISO.  The hash for the ISO shows it is not corrupted.  I have successfully mounted an ext4 partition to /mnt/share.  I have configured the server to have a host name in the root domain namespace, set the DNS server to the PDC, set the search suffix to be the domain (ad.company.com) and set it up with a static IP.  This was all done in the installer.  The machine can easily resolve hostnames of the Windows servers in the domain.  The Windows servers can resolve the hostname of the Linux machine.  IPs can be pinged in both directions.
As this is the initial configuration, everything below was done under root.
I installed the following packages.
yum install nano
yum install net-tools
yum install nmap
yum install ntp ntpdate ntp-doc
yum install krb5-workstation
yum install samba
yum install samba-winbind
yum install samba-winbind-clients

I set the NTP server to be the PDC.
/etc/ntp.conf
driftfile /var/lib/ntp/drift

restrict default nomodify notrap nopeer noquery

restrict 127.0.0.1
restrict ::1

server pdc.ad.company.com iburst prefer
restrict pdc.ad.company.com mask 255.255.255.255 nomodify notrap nopeer noquery

includefile /etc/ntp/crypto/pw

keys /etc/ntp/keys

disable monitor

I configured the KRB5 client to connect to the AD domain.
/etc/krb5.conf
includedir /etc/krb5.conf.d/

[logging]
 default = FILE:/var/log/krb5libs.log
 kdc = FILE:/var/log/krb5kdc.log
 admin_server = FILE:/var/log/kadmind.log

[libdefaults]
 ticket_lifetime = 600
 default_realm = AD.COMPANY.COM
 default_tkt_enctypes = rc4-hmac
 default_tgs_enctypes = rc4-hmac
 dns_lookup_realm = false
 dns_lookup_kdc = true

[realms]
 AD.COMPANY.COM = {
  kdc = pdc.ad.company.com
  admin_server = pdc.ad.company.com
 }

[domain_realm]
 .ad.company.com = AD.COMPANY.COM
 ad.company.com = AD.COMPANY.COM

I tested the connection to the PDC.  It was successful.
kinit firstname.lastname@example.com

I configured samba to connect to the domain, use extended ACL attributes, and make a share available called "share".
/etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
    security = ADS
    workgroup = AD
    realm = AD.COMPANY.COM
    idmap config * : backend = tbd
    idmap config * :range = 3000-7999
    vfs objects = acl_xattr
    map acl inherit = yes
    store dos attributes = yes

    passdb backend = tdbsam

    printing = cups
    printcap name = cups
    load printers = yes
    cups options = raw
    log level = 1

[share]
    path = /mnt/share
    read only = no

[homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    valid users = %S, %D%w%S
    browseable = No
    read only = No
    inherit acls = Yes

[printers]
    comment = All Printers
    path = /var/tmp
    printable = Yes
    create mask = 0600
    browseable = No

[print$]
    comment = Printer Drivers
    path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
    write list = root
    create mask = 0664
    directory mask = 0775

I configured nsswitch to use winbind.
/etc/nsswitch.conf
passwd:     files winbind
shadow:     files sss
group:      files winbind

hosts:      files dns myhostname

bootparams: nisplus [NOTFOUND=return] files

ethers:     files
netmasks:   files
networks:   files
protocols:  files
rpc:        files
services:   files sss

netgroup:   files sss

publickey:  nisplus

automount:  files
aliases:    files nisplus

I started windbindd, smbd, and nmbd.
winbindd
smbd
nmbd

I set them up to start on boot.
systemctl enable smb nmb winbind

I rebooted, then tested windbind to test the connection to the domain.  It succeeded.
wbinfo --ping-dc

One of the docs I read said ext4 supports extended ACLs, but I checked just in case.  It says it's there.
smbd -b | grep HAVE_LIBACL

I granted the permission granting privilege to AD.COMPANY.COM\Domain Admins.
net rpc rights grant "AD\Domain Admins" SeDiskOperatorPrivilege -U "AD\administrator"

I then tested to make sure it stuck.
net rpc rights list privileges SeDiskOperatorPrivilege -U "AD\administrator"

I used testparm to verify the syntax of the smb.conf file.  It parsed the whole file with no errors.
testparm /etc/samba/smb.conf

The next thing to do is connect to the share as a Domain Admin and configure the ACL.  Here's where I hit a snag.  From both Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10, I cannot connect to the server via File Explorer.  I have tried \\linuxserver, \\linuxserver\share, \\192.168.1.75, and \\192.168.1.75\share.  In all cases, Windows tells me "The network path was not found."  It does not prompt me for credentials or tell me I don't have permissions.  It's like it can't see it at all.
Here is what I've done to troubleshoot it so far.
I can successfully ping the Linux server by hostname and IP.
I made sure smbd, nmbd, and windbindd are running.
ps -eo 'tty,pid,comm' | grep smbd
ps -eo 'tty,pid,comm' | grep nmbd
ps -eo 'tty,pid,comm' | grep winbindd

I made sure smbd is listening on port 445.
netstat -plnt
nmap -sT -O localhost

I disabled SMB2 and SMB3 via an admin Powershell session on the Windows machine to see if I could use SMB1.
Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableSMB2Protocol $false

I verified the setting stuck, rebooted, then tried with the same result.
Get-SmbServerConfiguration | Select EnableSMB1Protocol, EnableSMB2Protocol

I rebooted the Linux server for good measure.
Whew!  Thanks for reading the whole thing!
Comment: Have you created firewall exceptions? Are you able to connect to the server from other Linux servers?
Comment: I actually disabled the firewall as a sanity check, and I could connect to some other service.  It's been so long, I don't remember which, but it was specifically Samba that wasn't working.  This was a prototype, and I had more important things to tackle, so I shelved it until our client was closer to being ready for a production release.  Windows Server 2019 with WSL had been released by then, so I just used that.  It was so much easier.
Answer: Did you really do \linuxserver\share instead of \\linuxserver\share ? On Redhat 7.x, you can run realm join and that handles almost all of the AD setup.
EDIT: If you use two backslashes in comments, it changes them back to one backslash. So it made it look like you did a single backslash before the servername.
Comment: There are a few gotchas in Markdown formatting. I fixed the backslash-related ones.
Comment: I used 2 backslashes.  Thanks for fixing the formatting.


Should we have "request" tags?

Question: Tags were recently added for term-request and single-word-request. The intent seems to be a pattern where requests for certain categories of things get their own "request" tag. What does the community think about having "request" tags?
Answer: This sounds a lot like the word-choice tag which I see used a lot on EL&U.  I think having one of these around is probably a good idea, but we don't need multiple synonyms.  I'd vote for either word-choice or term-choice (if we want to include multi-word terms).
Comment: Yes choosing between two or more terms that look like synonyms is a common thing, and it is **characteristic**. Whether you're choosing words or phrases is not **characteristic**. "Term" covers both words and phrases so it would seem best despite being kinda ugly or too technical looking.
Answer: In fact EL&U for the longest time had "single word request", maybe they recently changed it.
But it had lots of problems. Used for requests other than single words, then getting splintered into "phrase request" and possibly others.
The SE people always say good tags must characterise questions.
So the fact that somebody has a concept and doesn't know what to call it is characterised by "request" and not by "word", "single word" or "phrase", those parts would be what the SE people call "meta" and meta tags they say are bad.
Maybe another name for a requests tag would work better, requests, request-a-term, reverse-dictionary, whats-it-called, etc?
Comment: I think it wouldn't hurt to have some synonym tags for it :-9 That way we won't have to worry about the diabolical single-word-request tag.
Comment: As flimzy said, probably Term-choice is better...
Comment: Yes it was me who made the "term choice" tag but I'm willing for people to not like it hence the other suggestions (-:
Comment: Yes in my experience it tags new SE sites quite a while to figure how to make effective use of tag synonyms.
Answer: The way I see it, request or similar doesn't make any sense, since a Q&A site is all about requests. word-choice makes sense to me when there are multiple words that mean similar things and you're trying to choose the right one or differentiate between the options. term-request sounds a little awkward to me.
Then there's the translation tag. Couldn't that work for translating a difficult word or phrase from English to Spanish or vice versa, as opposed to heading down the slippery slope towards things like request-to-translate-three-words-from-english-to-spanish?
Comment: Hey, found a bug in the tag image rendering :)
Comment: Keep in mind that choosing the best name for a tag is only part of what a tag is and we have tag wikis and excerpts to define how a tag is to be used. So you are correct that all questions are "requests for help" but a request tag would not be for that, it would be for "request the word or phrase that expresses this concept I'm explaining". If you can think of a better name for such a tag then I'm sure we are open to hear something better.

Should we have "request" tags?


Hibernate entity with restriction

Question: We have a DB table that is mapped into a hibernate entity. So far everything goes well...
However what we want is to only map enentitys that satisty a specific criteria, like ' distinct(fieldA,fieldB) '...
Is it possible to map with hibernate and hibernate annotations? How can we do it? With @Filter?
Answer: I would recommend that you use @Where annotation. This annotation can be used on the element Entity or target entity of a collection. You provide a clause attribute written in sql that will be applied to any select that hibernate performs on that entity. It is very easy to use and very readable.
Here is an example.
@Entity
//I am only interested in Donuts that have NOT been eaten
@Where(clause = "EATEN_YN = 'N'")
public class Donut {

  @Column(name = "FILLING")
  private String filling;

  @Column(name = "GLAZED")
  private boolean glazed = true;

  @Column(name = "EATEN_YN")
  private boolean eaten = false;

...

}

Answer:
You could create a view and then map that view to entity:
create view my_data as
select ... from ...

@Entity(table="my_data")
public class MyData { ... }

One option is to map the table normally, then you could fetch your always entities through a query or a filter.
You could also make a native SQL query and map the entity on the results:
Query q = sess.createSQLQuery("SELECT DISTINCT fieldA, fieldB FROM some_table")
          .addEntity(MyEntity.class);
List<MyEntity> cats = q.list();

It might be also possible to add DISTINCT to this type of HQL query:
select new Family(mother, mate, offspr)
from DomesticCat as mother
join mother.mate as mate
left join mother.kittens as offspr

Methods 1, 3 and 4 will make a read-only mapping.
Could you be more specific about the criteria you are using? The view approach is more generic since you can't do everything with a hibernate query or filter.
Comment: the criteria we want to apply is a "distinct" over a couple of columns.

This is a legacy application, which we would prefer not mess with, so an approach that is only on the hibernate side is best... :\
Answer: perhaps you could create a new Pojo that encapsulates the fields and the condition that they should statisy . And then then make that class a 'custom user defined type', such that Hibernate will have to use the mapping class that you provide, for mapping that 'type'..
Answer: In addition to the options mentioned by Juha, you can also create an object directly out of a SQL query using the NamedNativeQuery and SqlResultSetMapping annotations.
@Entity
@SqlResultSetMapping(name = "compositekey", entities =
  @EntityResult(entityClass = MiniBar.class,
    fields = { @FieldResult(name = "miniBar", column = "BAR_ID"), })
)
@NamedNativeQuery(name = "compositekey",
   query = "select BAR_ID from BAR", resultSetMapping = "compositekey")
@Table(name = "BAR")
public class Bar {

Flavor the SQL query to your taste

Hibernate entity with restriction


Why can we write lagrangian for gauge theory without the traces?

Question: I understand that trace is needed in order to preserve gauge invariance of the lagrangian equation by using the cycling property. But I fail to see why the following equation holds true:
$$-\frac{1}{2}Tr(F^{\mu\nu}F_{\mu\nu})=-\frac{1}{4}F^{a\mu\nu}F_{a\mu\nu}.$$
I also fail to understand how is the gauge symmetry preserved in the right term of this equation, I know that the $a$ index means that we are considering only the components and not the whole field but then I'm not even clear on how should I apply the field transformation such as an $SU(2)$ matrix to such components.
Answer: This is simply because
$$\text{tr } F^{\mu\nu} F_{\mu\nu} = \text{tr } F^{\mu\nu a} F_{\mu\nu}^b T_a T_b = F^{\mu\nu a} F_{\mu\nu}^b\, \text{tr } T_a T_b = \frac12 F^{\mu\nu a} F_{\mu\nu}^b \,  \delta_{ab} = \frac12 F^{\mu\nu a} F_{\mu\nu}^a$$
where the normalization $\text{tr}(T_aT_b) = \delta_{ab}/2$ is conventional.
Comment: @Ringo_00 I suppose you could put it that way, yeah!
Comment: What is $T_a$ ?
Comment: $T_a$ is one of the generator of the group (for example in SU(2) $T_a=\frac{\sigma_a}{2}$).
Thank you for your answer. In such a term then the gauge transformation simply gets "eaten up" by the trace and then is automatically gauge invariant?


Can I take a gas canister on the MS Sarfaq Ittuk ferry?

Question: I plan to travel on the MS Sarfaq Ittuk ferry operated by Arctic Umiaq Line.  I intend to bring a 450g Primus gas canister, as my destination is quite small and might not sell any (they are for sale in Narsarsuaq). Are there any restrictions on bringing gas canisters onboard the MS Sarfaq Ittuk?
Answer: There's no mention of any prohibited items on the Arctic Umiaq Line (AUL) website. Even weapons are permitted, they just need to be handed over to the crew!
I took a similar gas cartridge last summer on a ferry from France to the UK and back. Didn't have any problems.
Since the AUL provides essential transport for otherwise unreachable communities, I doubt they would have any problems with a camping gas cartridge.


Another puzzle with area

Question: Squares $ABCD, DCGH, BEFG$ and $ELKM$ are positioned as shown on the picture. Find the area of triangle $DGK$ if you know that the area of square $ABCD$ is $20$.
Answer: Here is a quick way to do it

 The locus of the point $K$ as the side length of the square $EMKL$ varies is a line which is parallel to $DG$. Hence, if we consider $DG$ as the base of the triangle $DGK$ then its perpendicular height, and thus its area, is invariant with respect to the size of the square $EMKL$.
 This means that we could perform the calculation with the side length $EM$ being anything we like and the answer would be the same. If we make it so that the point $M$ coincides with the point $F$, it is easy to compute that the area of triangle $DGK$ is twice the area of the square $ABCD$ and thus the answer is $40$.
Comment: I like this puzzle - at first sight there is a constraint missing but the answer comes out cleanly :) I think this puzzle would be suitable for some math channel such as 3Blue1Brown
Comment: Not worth a separate answer but I'd say the most opportunistic placement of *M* would be as the midpoint of *E* and *F*.
Answer: Here's another solution using the fact that $\triangle ABC$ and $\triangle ABD$ have the same area if $AB \parallel CD$:

The reason is that $CE = DF$, so $\frac12 AB \cdot CE = \frac12 AB \cdot DF$.
Now, since $DG \parallel EK$ and $BD \parallel EG$, we have
$\triangle DGK = \triangle DEG = \triangle BEG$ in area:

The result is hence

 $2 \cdot 20 = 40$.
Comment: @Greedoid It may use the same principle as Hex's proof, but it applies that principle in a different manner resulting in different triangles.
Comment: Yes, well this is basicly the same solution as hexomino's.
Answer: Well, this answer is a bit late, but still quite simple I believe:

 Let's introduce a coordinate system with origin at $A$, having $AL$ and $AH$ as $x$ and $y$ axes respectively. Also, let $AB=1$ (well, the $ABCD$ square has now an area of $1$, not $20$, but we can just scale the final result 20 times, i.e. assuming that we scaled down the entire picture $\sqrt{20}$ times on each axis - otherwise we had to deal with a bunch of square roots). Now, $D$ has coordinates $(0, 1)$, $G$ is $(1,2)$ (since the squares $ABCD$ and $DCGH$ are equal with side $1$), and $K$ is $(s + 3, s)$ where $s$ is the side of $ELKM$ square, which we do not know. (The $BEFG$ square must have the side of $2$, because $BG=BC+CG=1+1=2$, so $E$ is at $(3, 0)$).
 Now calculate the area of $DGK$ triangle from the coordinates of its vertices using the well-known formula: $$A=\frac12|x_1(y_2-y_3)+x_2(y_3-y_1)+x_3(y_1-y_2)|,$$ where $x_i$ and $y_i$ are the coordinates of $i$-th vertex ($i=1,2,3$).
 Plugging $x_1=0, y_1=1, x_2=1, y_2=2, x_3=s+3, y_3=s$ gives $$A=\frac12|0(2-s)+1(s-1)+(s+3)(1-2)|=\frac12|s-1-s-3|=\frac12\times4=2.$$
 Thus, the final result (which does not depends on $s$) is $2\times20=40$.

Another puzzle with area


Steam / DirectX

Question: While I was playing Counter Strike: Global Offensive, I got kicked from the game. The reason I got kicked is that Steam displayed me VAC ban warning. They told me to verify CS:GO game files which I did. And every time I verify after around 2 hours I can play game (competitive or wingman) and again same thing happens. Every time I got "VAC BAN WARNING" when I verify, I got feedback that 1 or 2 files are missing when I start the game. Every time Microsoft DirectX is updating or installing every single time. I tried all Reinstall Steam/CSGO, updated windows, watched Youtube clips but nothing. So my guess is that Microsoft DirectX is somehow guilty but I don't know how to solve it.
Answer: Check your anti-virus. Perhaps it gave a false-positive to a DirectX file and quarantined the file, if it didn't just remove it. Afterwards, add the CS:GO folder as an exception in your anti-virus so it doesn't happen again.

Steam / DirectX


How to make custom brushes work in Illustator with automatisation

Question: I want to make a rectangle with a custom brush applied (so I load my custom brush library), and it works fine for the first image, but if I do that in automatisation, it does not load my brush for the next images, and there isn't an action for selecting by default my brush, so it just does empty rectangles for the rest. I tried to make it persistant, but in veins. Any idea? I work with Illustrator 2020.
Comment: Not enough info to fgure out what your problem may be. Relax and edit your question
Answer:
Make sure your custom brushes are saved as a brush library. To do that, click the Menu icon in the Brushes panel and choose Save brush library. Make sure you save it in the default Brushes folder. Give it a name you can easily recognise.

In the Brushes panel click the Menu icon and choose Open brush library, click User Defined and the choose the brush library you just made.

When the Brush Library panel opens, click on the Menu icon, and select the Persistent option.

This will make sure the brushes are loaded and available when you start up Illustrator and create a new document or open an existing document, or want to record or use an Action that requires the brush to be loaded.


Funny problem. How to average over periodic numbers

Question: I'm want to calculate the average day and respective month that a specific event happens in a sample of countries. So for each country I have the date (one per year) of the particular event. Now my problem is that this event happens, for example, during the winter in some countries, while for other during summer. The variability from year to year can be some months, so for example in the year 2000 can happen at November, do not take place at 2001 but rather at 2002 in January. I first though: ok, lets calculate the number of days that have passed from the first day of the year, in case the date is before August, and the number of days that are still to come until the end of the year, for the case the date is after August (being these last ones negative numbers). This works for the countries where the event happens always in winter. But for those that happen in summer it doesn't. Because, for example, I can have an event at June, that averaged with an event that happens in September, will give an average of something like April (because of the negative values of the September event), instead of August.
So, my question is: is there a simple and clever way to solve this problem? I must then code this.
Comment: Maybe [$\mathbf{directional \  statistics}$](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Directional_statistics) is what you need.
Answer: This has come up many times on this site in the context of averaging angles.  One response is here. About the best you can do is find a central date for each event and average the days from then.  For a summer event, maybe the central date is August 1, and you count days to the closest of those.  Maybe the central date has to vary by country.
Comment: Thanks! Averages angle was my 2nd idea but then how can I know which central value for the respective country? The problem is that I have to design the algorithm to be the most general possible.
Comment: Either they are bunched in a country over a reasonably short span and you can take the middle, or they are spread throughout the year and you may as well give up (or take an arbitrary center date).  You could search for the longest span where there never is an event.  Maybe you find no events between March 1 and August 1.  Then the center is about December 1.
Comment: Yes, they  "are bunched in a country over a reasonably short span. And the question is exacly that. How do I find the middle point?
Comment: Then you can just take the center of that span as your reference point and count days ahead and behind.  You will avoid any loop around problems that way.  I would take each event, count the days to the next occurrence (regardless of year), find the biggest gap, then make the reference day 182 days from the center of the biggest gap, and average the offsets.  The problem comes if there are two "biggest gaps" that are about the same size. It may not be obvious what to do then.


How broad are the conclusions that one can make from a heterologous expression experiment?

Question: I am studying whether a neural protein regulates the activity of the protein GSK3. I am using heterologous expression systems where I am overexpressing the neural protein in CHO cells (via transfection) to see if it affects the levels of GSK3 in transfected cells vs controls. I am interested in seeing whether the neural protein regulates the activity of GSK3, and I have found that the levels of GSK3 are higher in the transfected cells vs control. But as I am using CHO cells as a model system, how broad are the conclusions that I can draw from this experiment? For example, will I be able to generalise what I found to neurons, or hypothesise that the same thing that I observed in this experiment occurs in neurons? Any insights are appreciated.
Comment: Hi, @ceno980: I've noticed you asking a number of questions that would be well-suited to [the proposed Synthetic Biology SE site](https://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/125068/synthetic-biology?referrer=MWFhYTcyYmY5YWEzOWY1MTZiYmI3MWRhMzA0NzBkZTU0M2M0Mzc0MTM3ZmExODllYzcwNzRhYjA0ZmJlOTI2OUjhJBh3lICE0padAX2bZ9tuPOj5jVkyAYDT7HY74u_20). Want to join the proposal?
Answer: GSK3 is interesting because as a kinase, it is itself regulated by its phosphorylation status (particularly by Akt in neurons). Therefore, more protein does not necessarily mean more activity. For example from E13.5 to E15.5 GSK3 levels do not change but activity steadily increases. Hence if you increase GSK3 levels in neurons, it may not mean that downstream effects would change substantially, so I think although promising the in vivo effects may be hard to deduce from this experiment. If you see similar effects in in vitro neurons, you can be a bit more confident of potentially seeing similar effects with in utero electroporation in vivo


Should I send coworker reminder email if he forgot to do something

Question: So there is this task that coworker is assigned to do.  Once in awhile (not often maybe once every 3 months) he will forgot to do it.  Should I send him a reminder email the day after to let him know that he forgot?  I know most people forget to do stuff sometimes so I don't know if this is a thing where I should mind my own business?  But it does create some work for me. Thing is he doesn't forget often just once in awhile.
Comment: If your colleague doesn't do it, do you? What are the consequences of his not doing it? Have you ever reminded him? How did that work out?
Comment: if he remembers to do it, it takes like 10min but if he forgets it would take someone like 20min due to being late and yes I did remind him before.
Comment: Ask your coworker this question directly to see if it is OK for you to send him a **friendly** reminder when he forgets to do his task.
Comment: Sounds like your coworker needs to improve their time management system. When I have a routine task that needs to be performed in regular intervals, then I usually put it as a recurring event in my calendar so I get reminded about it.
Answer: There is nothing wrong with nudging a colleague when you know there is something they are forgetting to do, but there are definitely nicer and more acceptable ways to do so than sending an email to "let him know he forgot." A couple options:

Ask if they have done said task yet. Oftentimes, asking a question that you know the answer to is a better way to point something out than stating the answer yourself.
Ask when they will have time to do said task. It sounds like you usually know whether or not they have done it, so this could be a subtle way to remind them about the task without making it about the fact that they forgot it.

This being said, if what you are referring to is a reoccurring task that your colleague does often and only every few months does said task a day or two late, it could be seen as excessive to remind them so quickly every time. You haven't provided many details on the task or what extra work it causes for you though, so I cannot say for sure how it would come across.
Comment: Unfortunatly if he forgets asking them if they have done it doesn't help because I have to do it since he is not trained to do it late. My goal was just to remind them to not forget.  Or I train him?
Answer: Being a frequent "this slipped my mind, let me get to this pronto" offender myself, a kind reminder would be the best.
Betty: Barney, I'm looking for the data for the Pterodactyl lineage project.  Have you gathered it yet?  I meet with the board at 4pm.
Barney: Sorry, Betty...I was working on the Brontosaurus project and I forgot about it.  I have most of it ready but I need to do some analysis - can you give me about two hours?  It's not that hard.
Betty: Sure...I wanted to be sure you're aware of it.  And I've done that Brontosaurus project several times...it's a tough one.
Barney: Thanks, Betty...I apologize for not having it sooner...I'll call you once I'm done.
Then there's the frequent forgetter like your co-worker, who may be forgetting it to avoid working on it.  That may require intervention from your boss (if you share one) or his boss.
Answer: If the reminder is needed before the task is done, I'd choose to train the coworker on how to accomplish the task if it is done late again. I personally prefer to have responsibilities grouped. I would choose to train the coworker a week or so before the task is needing to be done.
I would also consider taking on the initial task myself if I see that both the initial task and the rectifying of the initial late task aren't being done. The responsibility of the task getting done being in one persons hands seems to be a better way to handle things than for two people to be responsible.
I really like @InBedded16 answer as well, once the coworker has been trained on how to rectify the late task, using these communication methods would be smart.
Answer: Only use e-mail if that's the preferred way to communicate
The task in question sounds like something which not being completed impacts you in some fashion, so you do have a good reason for following up. Personally, I envy this coworker of yours for being on top of things all the time to only forget once every 3 months (I easily forget 3 things every day and then strategically ignore 3 others).
Asking questions that you know the answer to as InBedded's answer suggests is a great way to be more gentle with your inquiry. I would also recommend consider asking if this is something that you can help with; assuming it is something you can actually help with. The boon of this second choice means that you learn something new and your coworker develops trust with you to help support them if work becomes too much.
As I stated in the heading, e-mail's fine if that's the manner by which you usually communicate, but if you're able to discuss it casually in conversation, I think that's probably better. Whether that's chatting by the water cooler in the morning or stopping by their desk to say, "Hello," and then remembering to see where they are on those TPS reports.


Uniquely ergodicity and polynomial ergodic average

Question: Let $(X,T)$ be a uniquely ergodic system (here X is compact, T is a continuous map form $X$ to itself), so for any continuous function $f:X\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ we have for any $x\in X$, the ergodic average $$\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=0}^{n-1}f(T^ix)$$ is convergent pointwise (in fact it is uniformly convergent). Now I am interested in what happen to the polynomial ergodic average, that is, $$\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=0}^{n-1}f(T^{i^2}x).$$ Is this average able to converge? We know that this average is converge almost everywhere for $f\in L^p(\mu)$ with $p>1$, but not for $L^1$, from the work of Bourgain, Zoltán Buczolich , R. Daniel Mauldin and etc.. Now with $f\in C(X)$ can we ask for pointwise convergence, or there is an counterexample? If this is false, can we add some natural conditions on the system to make this true (natural here I mean that there can be a big class of these systems including some common systems not trivial ones)? Thanks for any idea, comment or reference.
Answer: Theorems 1.2 and 1.3 of R. Pavlov's article Some counterexamples in topological dynamics provide strong counterexamples for the convergence of $\frac{1}{N}\sum_{n=1}^{N}f(T^{n^2}x)$; in particular there are totally minimal, totally uniquely ergodic, and topologically mixing systems on connected spaces $X$ where convergence fails.
Answer: This is indeed true for some "nice systems", for example one can show this theorem (for say $L^{2}$-functions) for Kronecker systems simply by van-der-Corput trick.
In general, those averages converge everywhere for Nilmanifolds (Leibman, Green-Tao) with full assorted measure-classification and orbit classification result.
One cannot expect such a result to hold in general even if the system is uniquely ergodic (think for example about the example by Katznelson and Furstenberg for uniquely ergodic system with positive entropy).
There is active research in this problem for the case of unipotent dynamics.
Venkatesh proved convergence of averages of the form $\frac{1}{N}\sum f(T^{i^{1.01}}.x)$ for uniform quotients of $PSL_{2}$. The exponent cannot be improved to $2$ even under Ramanujan.
Sarnak-Ubis managed to show a very weak result about the averages along the primes (which is also related to Bourgain's theorem that you've mentioned).
It's worth mentioning an old result due to Shah which shows convergence of those polynomial averages as long as you consider the continuous-time averages. Unfortunately, as this result relays on Ratner's theorem, it is unclear how to deduce the discrete analogue (it's actually an open conjecture of Margulis and Shah that those averages do converge everywhere), one of the main difficulties (in the non-uniform case) is that we don't even know non-divergence result.
There's a recent result which shows that for say one-parameter unipotent action on $G/\Gamma$ the Hausdorff dimension of the exceptional set for convergence of polynomial averages is small, but this is an almost everywhere theorem.
Answer: This seems to be discussed at great length in the Host-Kra paper. They have many references.
Comment: I believe the OP is asking about *everywhere* convergence. I don't see that addressed in HK.
Comment: I think the things discuss in the Host-Kra paper are on the $L^2$ convergence of the multiple ergodic average. What I want to know is about pointwise convergence the ergodic average. I think they are not the same.
Comment: @SimingTu They discuss all manner of convergence (at least via references, but also directly, I believe)


Is it possible to send selected code(whole documents) to the gedit terminal for execution?

Question: I want to use external tools to automate the internal execution of presently-being-authored scripts by keyboard shortcut. The only thing I can find on this is here. But I think it must be out of date because it's producing a syntax error that I can't find any useful information on. I know python3 needs parentheses after print, so I tried with and without, but the same error is produced. Strangely, print commands.getoutput(line)) produces a syntax error recognizing the missing opening parenthesis.
Also I changed the 'comment'(I guess) at the top of the tool to python3 thinking the interpreter would handle whatever parentheses indiscretion was occurring a little more gracefully, but that's a no go because commands is apparently defunct now.
Obviously I want the code that will do what I want, but answers shedding light on the error as well are preferred. I care to know what's actually happening.
EDIT
Proof that my syntax is accurate
EDIT
I realized that the issue might be something to do with my code, because previously I was working with a multi-page length script, so I opened a new document and tried the following simple statements. The results are interesting but tell me nothing.
Input
True == True

Output
Running tool: run source

sh: 1: True: not found

Done.

Um, okay.

Input
True==True

Output
Running tool: run source

Done.

Oh! Maybe it did the calculation but it just didn't print it!

Input
print(True==True)

Output
Running tool: run source

sh: 1: Syntax error: word unexpected (expecting ")")

Done.

... Back to square one I guess.

Input
print True==True

Output
Running tool: run source

sh: 2: Syntax error: ";" unexpected

Done.

What f***ing semicolon?!
EDIT So I thought I had the problem worked out below. Not so much it turns out... I've just realized this doesn't answer the question! I asked if it is possible to send selected code to the gedit TERMINAL for execution. The idea was to have an IDLE like set up where I could arm the terminal with classes, functions and variables from my document and then interact with it live. External tools make use of an 'Output panel' which gets put in a tab beside the embedded python terminal. It executes the code behind the scenes and then displays the full output all at the same time. It can't be used to get user input.
Comment: It's not a gedit issue - you got Python 3's `print` syntax wrong - the correct one is: `print(commands.getoutput(line))` - You need *both* an opening and closing bracket
Answer: I have no idea why the errors read the way they did, but by pure luck I did author a functioning code...
It goes like this:
Plugin
#!/usr/bin/env python3

import sys

exec(sys.stdin.read())

-Shortcut key: Alt+R ---or whatever you're comfortable with
-Save: Nothing
-Input: Current selection(default to document)
-Output: Display in the bottom pane
-Applicability: |All documents |Python 3
Input
print(True == True)

Output
Running tool: run source

True

Done.

EDIT I've just realized this doesn't answer the question! I asked if it is possible to send selected code to the gedit TERMINAL for execution. The idea was to have an IDLE like set up where I could arm the terminal with classes, functions and variables from my document and then interact with it live. External tools make use of an 'Output panel' which gets put in a tab beside the embedded python terminal. It executes the code behind the scenes and then displays the full output all at the same time. It can't be used to get user input.


Exclude a term in an expression from any computation/simplification, e.g. being multiplied into a list or matrix

Question: My particular problem is to find a way how to manipulate a term so that it is not multiplied into a vector (as being a list or matrix, and potentially being displayed in MatrixForm) for as long as I want. For example,
$ term \; \{{1},{2},{3}\} $
shall not be simplified automatically to
$  \{{term},{2 \; term},{3 \; term}\} $.
But the question is more general: How can I exclude a term in an expression from any computation, from participating in any simplification, while all other simplifications, not involving term, shall take place as usual?
I can't find a functionality in Mathematica allowing this. So in particular, I can't find a way to keep a factor in front of a vector. I tried Framed, Inactive, Inactivate, Defer, HoldForm, etc. All this doesn't help, as far as I can see. Defering the vector itself as in the answer of Mr.Wizard to question 125577 does not help either, because e.g. it inhibits MatrixForm display of the vector. Furthermore, it does not solve the general problem of how to inactivate a term with respect to any simplification.
I could imagine that any  of the Box functions (FormBox, TagBox, etc.) could do the job of paralyzing the term, but so far I haven't found a way.
So far the best partial solution I found is to wrap both term and the vector separately in TraditionalForm. Wrapping term prevents it from some/most(?) operations while wrapping the vector inhibits term being multiplied into it. Display in MatrixForm remains possible. The drawback is that all other simplifications with vector are inhibited as well, e.g. multiplying some other, unprotected term into it. So this solution is not quite satisfactory yet.
I wonder why Mathematica apparently does not provide a clean and easy way to achieve this functionality. Keeping a factor temporarily outside of a vector, matrix etc. seems to me to have obvious benefits.
Answer: I find that it in Mathematica it is better to introduce new objects than to attempt to redefine existing ones.
For example, you could use list rather than List as the head of your expression.  You can then increase the functionality of list to meet your needs.
For example, you can make them appear as ordinary Lists
Format[a__list] := List @@ a

list[b, c, d]
(* {b, c, d} *)

7 list[b, c, d]
(* 7 {b, c, d} *)

You can add a definition for a dot product
Dot[a__list, b__list] ^:= (List @@ a).(List @@ b)

list[1, 2, 3] . list[4, 5, 6]
(* 32 *)


Spider found in bathroom can't identify

Question:
Found this spider in my bathroom on the wall by the door. Near Houston, TX.
Answer: Almost certainly a spider belonging to the genus Scytodes. It largely resembles the species S. thoracica with very similar markings to the picture above. It is a common spider in the United States, and is often found in houses.
Comment: Hi@ShroomZed and welcome to Bio.SE. Thanks for providing an answer to this question! However, if you check out our [guide for writing good answers](https://biology.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer), you'll see that we really are seeking answers that *provide, cite, or link-to support for their answers. In this way, we cut down on misinformation while simultaneously providing easy access for further learning for the OP.  Please consider adding [reputable] support for your [seemingly valid] answer, and you'll almost certainly receive more positive attention (i.e., up votes). Thanks!

Spider found in bathroom can’t identify


Data deletion with Attachments using Dataloader

Question: what should be the best practice to delete records and it's related attachments using Dataloader. As I understand, attachments are not getting deleted when you delete the parent record. Any suggestions?
Answer: You're going to want to find a way to single out the attachment records of those objects you wish to delete (likely match the IDs of the records to the ParentId on the Attachment record - object reference here).  Ragesh's answer on this question may help you in figuring out how to do so.  Then, follow the instructions of the Mass delete attachments with Data Loader knowledge article.


Why is the ancient land so much more dangerous than America?

Question: In the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, the ancient lands (Rome and Greece) are a lot more dangerous than America. I would think that the monsters from the ancient lands would have moved along with the gods and others mythological creatures. There are a lot monsters who did move to America, but why didn't they all move. Why is the ancient land way more dangerous than America?
Answer: It's not explained very clearly in the book (Mark of Athena is where the concept is introduced, and the other 2 books of Heroes of Olympus simply reinforce the idea that it's super dangerous AND forbidden by Roman camp laws):

Reyna plucked an apple from a passing fruit tray. She turned it in her fingers, studying the dark red surface. "You propose an expedition to Greece in your warship. You do realize that the ancient lands—and the Mare Nostrum—are dangerous?"
  "Mary who?" Leo asked.
  "Mare Nostrum," Jason explained. "Our Sea. It's what the Ancient Romans called the Mediterranean."
  Reyna nodded. "The territory that was once the Roman Empire is not only the birthplace of the gods. It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans and giants…and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."

Presumably, being the ancestral home would make things worse in 2 ways:

Monsters are stronger there, and there are more of them

Percy hoped the ancient lands wouldn't be as bad as they'd heard. But it was almost like a commercial: You'll notice the difference immediately!
  Several times an hour, something attacked the ship. A flock of flesh-eating Stymphalian birds swooped out of the night sky, and Festus torched them. Storm spirits swirled around the mast, and Jason blasted them with lightning. While Coach Hedge was having dinner on the foredeck, a wild pegasus appeared from nowhere, stampeded over the coach's enchiladas, and flew off again, leaving cheesy hoof prints all across the deck.

One reason why the monsters are stronger is because many monsters are children of Gaeia, and she said she is strongest in Ancient Lands.
There are some monsters who didn't follow the Western Civilization to America and stayed, meaning they would face those monsters as well - or evil demigods (as random example, Chysaor).

I also reviewed nearly all of his interviews pertaining to HoO series, and none asked this question.
Comment: Caveat: I Twittered to Riordan's account asking the question, but he (as is typical for him) ignored it. He pretty openly declares that he almost never answers fans' questions (except really inane ones early teens ask during interviews).
Answer: The gods moved to America due to the change of dominance. Nowadays, they reside in the U.S because it is one of the most successful countries in the world. Monsters also immigrated here. But, they as like the gods, are most powerful where they were born. Gaea and Ouranos were also created there by primordial Chaos. The monsters have more power there, especially since Olympus moved with the gods.
Presumably, the monsters now have more control because their "home" is Tartarus which is under the crust of the Earth. Since it is a big pit, Tartarus would stretch throughout the world, just under it. Not having to change much, monsters would have better control over ancestral lands, making them much more dangerous, even though monsters spawn regularly all over the U.S and Canada.
Basically, because gods have followed the Western Civilization, there are presumably less and over time, monsters have gained more or all power there because their home is located underneath the surface of the Earth, giving them the entire world to spawn. Most spawn in America with the rest of the Western Civilization. In addition to that, some monsters do not venture into North America, i.e Chysaor, and Sciron, making them hard to prepare for as they have never been faced before.
Reyna even stated herself that no Roman would dare go to the ancient lands due to the massive power and amount of monsters there. She also said that:

"It's also the ancestral home of the monsters, Titans, and giants…and worse things. As dangerous as travel is for demigods here in America, there it would be ten times worse."

These 'worse things' can be the primordial gods. Where Gaea is strongest, Tartarus's heart is, and the final resting place of Ouranos, Greece, and Rome are filled with primordial gods, dead or alive.
Answer: On the contrary, the monsters avoid gods and therefore stayed back in the ancient lands as it is their birthplace and where they are also strongest
Comment: Quotes to support this would make it a much stronger answer :)


What is a "channeled ability"?

Question: A couple abilities in Starcraft 2, such as Neural Parasite, indicate they are a "Channeled Ability". What does this mean?
Comment: I appreciate the answers but how can you deduce that the "Channeled ability" tag is a synonym for the 2nd sentence in the description?
Comment: The picture in your question gives you the answer, while channeling the Infestor cannot move or do anything else while using Neural Parasite. turboSwag said it well enough as well.
Comment: Channeled ability and the sentence "The Infestor cannot take any other action while controlling an enemy unit." are in the same description tag so if you [deduce](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/deduce) then you will definately understand what it means. Do you by chance play any MMOs where they use the term channeling ability?
Comment: I never did. My best guess was correct about its meaning but it didn't make sense to me that there would be a redundant "channeled ability" tag when other spells don't have such tags.
Answer: It pretty much defines it in the description. It means that the unit can't move or do anything else until the ability is completed or interrupted by being killed or stunned.  Usually the ability lasts x amount of seconds and is not a cast and forget about it type ability like psionic storm for example.
See wowwiki for more information.  It works similarly in most Blizzard games.  It's a bit more complex in WoW, but the idea is pretty much the same.
Answer: Channeled abilities, in Starcraft and elsewhere, have two primary implications:

The unit can do nothing else while casting the ability.
If the unit is killed/stunned/interrupted then the effect ends prematurely or the final result does not occur.

This is true in Starcraft, Warcraft, DotA, and many other games. It's interesting to note that all the games I can think of that use channeled spells (and refer to them with that phrase) are made by, or originated with, Blizzard.

What is a "channeled ability"?