How can I make a cedar hedge appear more dense than it is?

Question: Is there anything I can plant on the inside base of a cedar hedge to make it appear more dense without damaging the cedar ie., ferns?
Answer: Cedar trees make difficult growing conditions. They tend to create dark, dry, acidic soil. So you need a plant that can not only tolerate those conditions, but thrive in them, producing dense, bushy growth.
I looked for plants that can grow under cedar trees, and got these suggestions (source). Choose one(s) that will grow to the height you want.

Ground covers: Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) grows 6 inches tall; several cultivars of Japanese spurge* (Pachysandra terminalis)
Perennials: "Big Blue" lilyturf (Liriope muscari "Big Blue") grows 12- to 16-inch-tall; Bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia) grows 1 to 3 feet tall; hostas grow 1-3 feet tall, but you may need to water them.
Shrubs: dwarf blueberries will tolerate the acidity and shade, but you won't get many berries; shade-tolerant dwarf rhododendrons will grow to about 2-3 feet, varieties include Snow Lady and Ramapo. Regular-sized rhododendrons are fine if your lowest cedar branches are above 5 ft.
Ferns: (most ferns don't tolerate drought, but the few that do will enjoy the shade and acidity): Lady fern (Athyrium filix-femina) grows up to 3 feet tall; Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides) grows 1 to 2 feet tall.

*Don't plant Japanese spurge / pachysandra unless you're sure you want it forever, because once established it's quite difficult to get rid of. Make sure it's surrounded by a barrier like regularly mowed grass or pavement, otherwise it will invade nearby areas and become a pest. A weed edge barrier will help, but you'll need to regularly monitor the border and dig out any escapees. If you mix it with other plants such as ferns, you will need to constantly defend those plants from the spurge or it will slowly devour them.
Have a look at the space under your cedar hedge, paying attention to how dense the shade is, how dry the soil is, and if the soil is very acidic (you can test soil acidity inexpensively with pH strips). If one or more of those conditions is not too severe, then you can choose from a wider range of plants.
SF has a nice guide to plants that tolerate shade and high-acidity soil. Here's a similar guide from Gardening Know How. Here's a guide from Better Homes and Gardens about perennials that tolerate dry shade. If you do a search for "plants that tolerate shade, acidic soil and drought" and include the name of your state, region or hardiness zone, you can find similar guides that are more tailored to your area.
Answer: A landscape is a dynamic process - plants grow, then die, to be replaced by other species that suit the new growing conditions. While it is possible to find temporary colour to fill a gap that arises, the problem remains in that shade was created and will get worse until the canopy dies off. It's a problem particularly acute in historic landscapes where a goal might be to freeze a landscape to represent a particular era. Irrational emotional attachments develop towards particular specimens that do not represent the era or the original function.
So the problem might not be the shade that the cedars create, but the cedars themselves. It invites the question "Should the cedars be there?" At which point many factors arise such as privacy and boundary delineation. This leads to a more drastic solution, tear out the cedars and either replant with young replacements or choose a more suitable replacement and prune it appropriately to ensure that the base is filled for the life of the individuals.
No doubt your particular circumstances dictate many more constraints than you have indicated in the question. This answer is intended as an encouragement to think more abstractly about the issue and where the cedars themselves stand in the landscape.


How do i reset my frozen phone without losing all my data

Question: My Lg g4 shut off on me and won't turn on. It freezes on the lg screen. I know i can reset it but i have over 1000 pictures that weren't backed up and i cant afford to lose them. The past year of my life is on the phone.I need a way to turn on my phone without losing everything. There has to be a way
Answer: Well, unfortunately you can't really recover your photos. If they were on a SD card it would be a lot more easier but it seems like the photos are in the internal storage.
There is still 1 thing you can try:
Your recovery! Find a way to boot your phone into the recovery. I assume your phone is still startable (not bootable). In most recoveries is an option for browsing the storage. If that's the case you just need to copy your photos to an external storage.
But what if your recovery doesn't support such a feature?
But you must have tried the first option first because this option is more risky:

Download TWRP (twrp.me) <- You will love that thing ;D (EDIT: This will only work if your bootloader is unlocked!!!)
Copy the TWRP zip to your external storage
Boot in your recovery and flash the zip
Reboot into your recovery (should be TWRP now) and now I believe there is a way to open the doors to your internal storage for your computer. Otherwise there is an option for browsing your phones internal storage (on the phone)
Last step! Copy the whole thing over there ;D

Hope I helped ya! ;D
Comment: TWRP was my first thought, too. Only drawback here: If the device's boot loader wasn't already unlocked, OP won't be able to flash or even boot (e.g. via `fastboot boot twrp.img`). And unlocking the bootloader usually implies a factory reset – which makes this a hen-and-egg thing.
Comment: @Izzi right but there might be an locked-bootloader-recovery out there (maybe?) on XDA like that one for Sony. I'll do some research
Comment: I doubt that. It's the device that rejects write attempts to the recovery partition if the bootloader is locked, nothing much the recovery-devs can do about that.


Where are the vanishing points in this picture?

Question: I followed the line where the sea meets the sky for the horizon line but it just doesn't quite line up with the boat? I'm extremely lost, I would really appreciate someone to crack this one for me by drawing the lines on top...!
A man on a boat holding a freshly caught fish that's as large as he is; his pants and the deck of the boat are covered in blood
Comment: Note - sample image is of a fishing scene and may be unsuitable for some readers because gore.  I was going to in-line it, but best not to.
Comment: @Criggie its also possibly problematic to inline an image link. As technically inlined images license will change when doing so. So if somebody has an image and wants to retain its copyright having it linked is the only way not to taint it. So because of this one should be careful when inlining images as it can cause harm to others. This can be a problem on site that deals with livelyhood of people that rely on copyright protections.
Comment: I'm curious - are you looking for the vanishing points - or are you just trying to level the horizon and also level the boat relative to the horizon?
Answer: You seemingly have red or heard and maybe several times that there should be a vanishing point in the horizon. I guess you wonder now why this so often repeated sentence looks wrong.
The sentence is true in drawing construction theory in a case where you search the vanishing point of a set of lines which are all exactly parallel and horizontal above a flat ground.  The horizon is the apparent line where the assumed flat ground and the sky meet in perspective images.
Every set of straight parallel lines have their own vanishing point and that point happens to be in the horizon only if the lines are horizontal.
If there are parallel lines in the 3D scene your photo presents they really converge towards a vanishing point in the photo (assuming the lens distortion is low enough), but it's not on the horizon because the boat is more or less tilted. In addition the lines of the real boat may be curved or non-parallel. And, as said, lens distortion can also spoil the effect by making the imaged lines curved.
In the next image I have drawn 2 perfect rectangular boxes.

I have sketched on both of them 2 sets of parallel lines which converge at total 4 different vanishing points. The brown box is oriented to be horizontal. It's horizontal lines converge on my horizon line. Actually that's my way to tell to the watchers the box is horizontal.
The rest of the vanishing points are elsewhere. The line sets are not horizontal. The blue box is in a tilted position and the vanishing points of the sets of dashed lines are outside the image area.
BTW in GDSE vanishing points have inspired numerous questions before yours. The next old case contains a photo which has numerous vanishing points and not all of them are on the horizon because some sets of parallel lines (=edges of climbing and descending streets) contain non-horizontal lines.   What is this type of perspective called?
Comment: Thank you! youre really good with your words, simple to understand even if im a bit slow, i wish i had a teacher like you :) im struggling a bit with doing it by myself but i will study more with everyones replies
Answer: This question is important. It shows a typical problem with understanding hierarchy of information that early and intermediary learners make. The common mistake is not being able to answer the question:

What is the limitation of the thing I am being shown?*

A lot of examples like this arise. For vanishing points and perspective drawing the answer is:

Vanishing points only apply to lines that are parallel. Additionally the horizon line only acts as a focus for things that are parallel to your ground plane.

So, essentially the basic perspective drawing rules one is typically shown applies to things that lie one the ground and are parallel to each other. This only really good rule of thumb for to cities or individual objects in your scene. It is not a good generic rule.
Any real picture has infinite number of possible vanishing lines because the set of possible parallel lines are infinite.
In your picture there is very few lines that can be verified to be parallel. Thus its nearly impossible to say anything about the vanishing points of those lines. But certainly there is no reason to assume that the boat is parallel to the horizon plane.
* This is admittedly the magic thing you should learn. It would be way better if you never learned the method over the limitation. You can always look up the method, but you are capable of missing the limitation forever.
Answer: The image is a static snapshot of a dynamic changing environment.
As presented, it conveys a sense of movement - we know from experience that boats rock, pitch and yaw on the water, and seeing the vessel's deck is non-congruent with the horizon shows that it is a snapshot.
The same scene 3 seconds later might be level or reversed.
Answer: the vanishing point in-line with the deck is oscillating above and below the horizon with the motion of the boat over time.  Photo is a single point-in-time.


Stamp duty for a couple with one person owning less than £40000 of property overseas

Question: Suppose a couple is buying a house in the UK. One partner is a first time buyer, another owns a share of property overseas with value less than £40,000 (and nothing else). Suppose they are buying a house for £400,000. What then will be the amount of Stamp Duty?
Answer: The UK government has published guidance notes on Stamp Duty that answer these questions and more. That document makes it clear that.

To count as a first time buyer you must not have ever owned any residential property anywhere in the world before and you must be buying the property as your main residence.

If you're buying the property jointly and one of you does not qualify for first time buyer status then neither of you can get the first time buyer discount.
Comment: Agreed. The fact that the property is overseas, and that the person only owns a part of it - even if they only owned £1 worth of it - makes no difference at all, it prevents you as a couple from qualifying for first time buyer discount.
Comment: Robert, @Vicky, many thanks! I wonder, would it be possible in such case for one partner to buy the property and qualify for a first time buyer?
Comment: Thanks Robert! I wonder, in such situation, if only one partner applies for the mortgage (the one who doesn't own a property), can the money for the other partner be used in the deposit?
Comment: I was about to suggest that you asked that as a separate follow up question, then I found https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/145851/mortgage-for-a-couple-where-one-partner-is-not-a-first-time-buyer - linking for other readers' benefit.


Ctrl + U deletes whole line regardless of cursor position

Question: I am learning terminal tips. In this tutorial, the guy says that Ctrl + U deletes everything from the cursor until the end of line. In my case, it always deletes the whole line. I am using zsh on macOS.
Comment: @JohanMyréen that's not my case, even if the course in the middle of the line, Ctrl + U still deletes the whole line
Comment: Actually, he says `Ctrl-U` kills to the beginning of the line. 2:40 into the video.
Comment: @JohanMyréen so how can I delete text from the course back to the beginning of the line ?
Comment: `Ctrl-U` deletes between the cursor and the beginning of the line. Of course, if the cursor is at the end of the line then the whole line is deleted.
Comment: The equivalent of `Ctrl-U` on zsh is `Ctrl-W`. This is why is "doesn't work" as expected. Found it on this askubuntu thread: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1047849/clear-the-characters-before-the-current-cursor-position-in-zsh/1047874#1047874?newreg=52827d7cd9c64cdea63dc975e9b29d89
Answer: First map the key binding by typing bindkey \^U backward-kill-line. Then test to see if this worked. If it works, make it permanent by adding the same line to an appropriate zsh RC file.
echo 'bindkey \^U backward-kill-line' >> ~/.zshrc

The Z Shell Manual, section 18.6.3, defines the "widgets," such as backward-kill-line.
Comment: it works! cool!
Answer: if youre talking about GNU readline in the shell you will want to use Ctrl+K to kill to the endof the line.
Alternatively you can also use Alt+D to incremently kill on a breaking point
Edit: Just realized you're using zsh on Mac. The only server I haveusing zsh is in the cloud. Ill test real quick and verify.
Edit: Yes still works for me on Linux Ubuntu. Note that I installed zsh (and fish which is quite nice) on that machine about 2 weeks ago and never made a zshrc file. So there has been no special customizations as far as I can tell. Im guessing all these ZSH questions are in regards to what I heard was Apple leaving their ancient version of bash finally because they found something they can conveniently use


AWS Costs Explorer - Data Transfer charges

Question: Is there any way to find out where exactly the "Data Transfer" charges in AWS originate from? I'm running a EC2 and a RDS micro instance (Free Tier, both Ireland) + Snapshots and $10 of my $20 bill (not much but still) are "Data transfer" charges.
Answer: The detailed billing reports have much more information, although if you're asking "which URLs are consuming the most bandwidth" then the detailed reports won't answer that.
Assuming you serve HTTP, if you what to know which requests are using the most bandwidth then you'll need to analyse your HTTP access logs. Personally I have my HTTP access logs go to CloudWatch logs, then every now and then I run a script that dumps them to S3 and I analyse them in EMR. If you don't have a huge volume of traffic you might be able to make do with just a spreadsheet application.


How to access the registry with date field?

Question: I am a beginner to MFC VC++ . I am working on the project which is a trail version. It should run on system for 60 days trail period. I have to use the system registry to create a key with the installed date. Every time the user runs the software I have to match the installed date with current and show the remaining days the software could be used.
Comment: Beginner for MFC eh? Quit fast! While you can still be rescued from that mess!
Answer: You will need to use the windows API functions to read/write from the registry:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms724875(v=vs.85).aspx
Particularly you will need RegCreateKeyEx, RegSetValueEx and RegGetValue
That being said. I would seriously consider using a third party, tried and tested, licensing solution as opposed to rolling your own.  If you are just writing a registry key and setting the date in it, then it will be very easy to hack your software. All one needs do is monitor the registry to find the values being written and then change them. You also need to take into account someone rolling the clock back to gain more time. A quick google search yielded several options. I do not have one I can recommend, just wanted to suggest that you consider it.
Answer: Sorry,But I don't understand that why you want to store the "Install_date" in new key.It is already store in the registry.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall{......}\

From here you can use these registry............


What's the Purpose of the Vertical Rule Dividing the Work-Space in Browser-Solidity?

Question: And can it be eliminated? I find it distracting.
Answer: It looks to be a guide line, to suggest to developers to not write code that is too wide.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be configurable, so that it can be disabled like in other editors.
If you have a Github account, a suggestion is to file a request here:
https://github.com/chriseth/browser-solidity/issues
(You could include link to this question as you have a helpful picture.)
Comment: Thanks.  I've submitted a request [here](https://github.com/chriseth/browser-solidity/issues/109)
Answer: It's the 80 character limit. The practice of keeping code to 80 (or 79) columns was originally created to support people editing code on 80-column dumb terminals or on 80-column printouts. Those requirement have mostly gone away now, but there are still valid reasons to keep the 80 column rule:

To avoid wrapping when copying code into email, web pages, and books.
To view multiple source windows side-by-side or using a side-by-side diff viewer.
To improve readability. Narrow code can be read quickly without having to scan your eyes from side to side.

The last point might be the most important. Though displays have grown in size and resolution in the last few years, eyes haven't.

The origin of 80-column text formatting is earlier than 80-column terminals - the IBM punch card dates back to 1928. This is reminiscent of the story that the US railway gauge was determined by the width of chariot wheels in Roman Britain.
It is sometimes a bit constricting, but it makes sense to have some standard limit, so 80 columns it is.
Comment: My guess was 80 also, but when I tried it before posting my answer, my line was beyond 80.  Maybe it's different on some browsers.
Comment: Fascinating historical insight.  Well considered, thank you.


Difference between 濠 and 堀

Question: I wanted to know what is the difference between 濠 (gō) and 堀 (hori). I've only seen 濠 in context of 環濠 (kangō), 豪華な (gōkana) and 豪州 (gōshū). From what I know 環濠 and 堀 both means moat. Well, then, what does 濠 means alone?
Comment: Are you aware that 豪 濠 are two different kanji? You may also be interested in 壕 which is also ほり I believe.
Comment: Oh, yeah I have bad eyesight, sorry, I meant 豪. I didn't realised they were different kanji sorry! I have to rephrase the question.
Comment: @Danieru remember to accept one of the provided answers if they were helpful.
Answer: 堀 refers to artificial ditches in general. 壕 is a dry version, and 濠 is a wet version filled with water. Practically, I kind of feel 壕 and 濠 tend to be used in military contexts, whereas 堀 tends to refer to permanent and beautiful ones surrounding large castles.
Note that 壕 and 濠 are phono-sementic kanji; the left parts (土 = soil and 氵 = water) contribute to the meaning, but the right part, 豪, just represents the sound ごう. The kanji 豪 on its own means something like "great" or "magnificent", as in 豪華, but its meaning is not important in 濠 and 壕. 豪 in 豪州 is just an ateji.
Answer: Etymologically, in Chinese, 濠 or 壕 (depending on whether it is watered or dry) is the character that represents the word háo "moat, trench". 堀 is a now rare variant of 窟, which stands for the word kū "cave, burrow, hole", and does not have the same meaning as the former.
However, in Japanese, the notion "moat" is represented by the word ほり, which obviously derives from 掘【ほ】る "dig, bore", as if literally saying "dug" or "digging". Consequently it is felt more natural for Japanese to employ the character 堀, which looks similar to 掘* and has radical 土 associated with "building", when writing this word. It is an example of 国訓, a Japanese-only meaning the Chinese language has never given to the character.
Although assigned the kun'yomi ほり as well, 濠 is far from the primary option for representing the native word. Instead, it is used as a synonym to build on'yomi compounds such as 環濠 (or 防空壕, 塹壕 via 壕). This is just contrary to 堀, which seldom appears in on'yomi クツ it technically has.

* Unlike Japanese, 掘 and 堀 are not homophones in Chinese (jué < *gjwot vs kū < *khwot), though they are presumably cognate.

Difference between 濠 and 堀


FaceTime on my MacBook

Question: I just noticed that my camera light was on on my MacBook. I looked down at my dashboard and it said 9 users were on my FaceTime. I freaked and shut it down. Now is there anyway I can find out who was watching and how they turned it on?
Comment: Could it be that you just had the FaceTime app open (which turns the camera light on because it is using the camera) and noticed the recents list? The green light doesn't mean that it is on a call, it merely means that an app is using your camera (in this case that would be the FaceTime app).
Comment: I have never used it though
Answer: Facetime is a 1:1 system. So, you can only be connected to 1 person. It's more likely the app had gotten run as bassplayer7 suggested and the green light just indicated that your camera was in use by an application. The 9 may have referred to the number of people in your address book you can Facetime with or that there are 9 recents in the recents list.

FaceTime on my MacBook


PLEASE HELP!!! Driving with emergency brake on

Question: I was driving a friends car on highway in a 2010 Mercedes for 9 miles @ 60 mph with the emergency brake on, the rear tires smell like burnt rubber. Do I need new brake pads???
Answer: About the same thing happened to a woman I know.  She went down the road in a Volvo with the brakes smoking like crazy.  Eventually some nice man got her attention and she discovered her error.  Prior to that the car was just not as "peppy."
The shoes (rears were shoes for parking brake, and disc pads for main brake) were ok, but the paint I used on the drums was burnt off.
I married her anyway.
Answer: Maybe, maybe not. What is certain is you should have them properly inspected as soon as possible, then you will be confident you have a good set of brakes whatever the outcome.
I saw a car that did this V6 Capri on a road test for 20 mins - new pads and discs on back, when it came back into the workshop the discs were red...
Comment: Did they need to be replaced? And was it just the discs? Just trying to figure out what is usually damaged by this, and what I may need to replace. It's not my car and I'm panicked! Lol
Comment: New pads and new discs on the rear - yes they did need to be replaced...


How to convert MP3 to WAV in Python

Question: If I have an MP3 file how can I convert it to a WAV file? (preferably, using a pure python approach)
Comment: To the best of my knowledge, nobody has ever attempted to write an MP3 decoder in Python.  The resulting decoder would be terribly slow, and there is no sense in the project anyway; the more natural thing would be to make a Python module that wraps a C library.  Re-use the already-written and already-debugged C code, and don't try to reinvent the wheel.  I love Python too, but there are some projects that are not appropriate for Python and an MP3 decoder is one.
Comment: Decompressing MP3s is not an appropriate task to implement in Python.
Answer: I maintain an open source library, pydub, which can help you out with that.
from pydub import AudioSegment
sound = AudioSegment.from_mp3("/path/to/file.mp3")
sound.export("/output/path/file.wav", format="wav")

One caveat: it uses ffmpeg to handle audio format conversions (except for wav files, which python handles natively).
note: you probably shouldn't do this conversion on GAE :/ even if it did support ffmpeg. EC2 would be a good match for the job though
Comment: @NikhilWagh The most common reason to get that error is because the ffmpeg executable can't be found
Comment: this will give an error  3rd line should be
sound.export("/output/path/file.wav", format="wav")
Comment: @Jiaaro Why am I getting a `OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory`. Even thought the file is there.
Comment: How to install ffmpeg in windows? Pip install ffmpeg not working
Comment: @Kaushal28 That's covered in the pydub docs https://github.com/jiaaro/pydub#getting-ffmpeg-set-up
Comment: @Jiaaro How can ffmpeg installed on windows 10?
Answer: This is working for me:
import subprocess
subprocess.call(['ffmpeg', '-i', 'audio.mp3',
                   'audio.wav'])

Comment: No matter how I do it it gives me "FileNotFoundError: [WinError 2] The system cannot find the file specified"
Comment: `pydub` (@Jiaaro's answer) is doing this in the background.
Comment: @Frobot have you installed ffmeg correctly?
Answer: I think I am right person to answer this question because I am student who tried hard to get answer for this question. I am giving answer for Windows users but I think this may work with MAC OS too. But apt for windows.
Lets discuss answers in steps:
first check for pydub and ffmpeg package. If you computer dont have these packages then install pydub in you command prompt
                    pip install pydub

Next and imp thing is ffmpeg package which converts images to different formats. For this you should manually install this package. Let me give you reason why when we can use pip for installing package. First pip installs the package but it will not stores the path to the system. So computer cant recognize this package path. For this I suggest you to install manually but how.... dont worry will give you steps.
STEP 1:
#Present link
This first link that you have paste it in google
https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/ffmpeg-release-essentials.zip
#Use for future students
But people will have question now this link might work what about future. For that simple answer is
https://www.gyan.dev/ffmpeg/builds/
After typing this in google go to releases and download zip folder always don't download 7.zip.But thus is only when my first link will not work for future is any student search for answer.
STEP 2: After downloading the zip file from first step first link. Now make a folder in C drive. For this just click on my My PC, then OS(C:),make a new folder. Copy paste the zip file downloaded to this folder. Extract the zip file in this new folder. Now go into the folder and copy path of "bin" present in this folder from properties.
STEP 3:This is final step and imp one where you will set path. In search bar in your laptop search for "Edit the system environmental  variables". Then click on "environmental variables" at bottom for path. Here they are two parts in screen system variables and user variables. Now you have to search for path "Path" in system variable is you want to use for whole system. Double click on "Path" in system variables. A window appears where you have to choose "New". Here copy paste the path of bin folder. Then click on Ok in all and close all tabs.
Step 4:Check for correct installation of ffmpeg. In command prompt type ffmpeg now you will get the list of paths and its features. This shows you have finished your installation.
Step 5 : Download a mp3 file. If your have downloaded python then open IDLE prompt. The click on new in File a note pad appears. One imp point to remember here is copy paste the mp3 file where you python code is stored. Example If I want to save the python file in Desktop the mp3 file should be stored in desktop. I think you go an idea. Now copy paste the code which I am using
                import subprocess
                subprocess.call(['ffmpeg', '-i', 'ind.mp3','ind1.wav'])

then click on run module
you will get the conversion.
Thank you
This answer might help you. If you want code and method for converting speech to text code and method you can post me. I wish this answer for 10 min may save you hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBb_eYThfRQ
use this video for path configuration or step 3 for reference but copy path to system variables not user because whole system can use this package then. If my language is bad don't mind I think it is understandable.
Answer: Install the module pydub. This is an audio manipulation module for Python. This module can open many multimedia audio and video formats. You can install this module with pip.
pip install pydub

If you have not installed ffmpeg yet, install it. You can use your package manager to do that.
For Ubuntu / Debian Linux:
apt-get install ffmpeg

When ready, execute the below code:
from pydub import AudioSegment

# files
src = "transcript.mp3"
dst = "test.wav"

# convert wav to mp3
sound = AudioSegment.from_mp3(src)
sound.export(dst, format="wav")

Check this link for details.
Answer: For Those using windows 7 and above:
Step 1: This link will help you install ffmpeg:
How to Install FFMPEG on Windows
Step 2: This code will help you convert multiple files from one format to another ( which of course is supported by ffmpeg)
import os
import subprocess

input_dir = r'C:\\Path\\To\\Your\\Input\\Directory\\'
output_dir = r'C:\\Path\\To\\Your\\Output\\Directory\\'
path_to_ffmpeg_exe = r'C:\\Path\\To\\ffmpeg-2022-YY-MM-git-blabla-full_build\\bin\\ffmpeg.exe'

files_list = []

for path in os.listdir(input_dir):
    if os.path.isfile(os.path.join(input_dir, path)):
        files_list.append(path)

for file_nm in files_list:
    print(file_nm)
    subprocess.call([path_to_ffmpeg_exe, '-i', os.path.join(input_dir, file_nm), os.path.join(output_dir, str(file_nm.split(".")[0] + ".wav"))])

Comment: For Step 1, provided link is not accessible right, all you need to do is check out the official builds & releases here; https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/ download the latest one, At the time of writing this, the latest build is from https://github.com/BtbN/FFmpeg-Builds/releases/download/latest/ffmpeg-master-latest-win64-gpl.zip.

How to convert MP3 to WAV in Python


Pyroclastic density currents interpretation

Question: How to interpret bubble voids in pyroclastic density currents? You may see the case on the photo attached. It is; Miocene, densely welded, crystal bearing, LT. Do they have to occur on the top of the current?
Answer: The name of the cavities are lithophysae. They show that the current has high volatile content. Vapor phase devitrification is the origin of litophysae. Pyroclasts in the curremt maintain their volatile content till compaction. volatiles escapes from the clasts during deposition to the weakness zones of the flowage. After exsolution, the laminae (source of the volatile) will be compacted and vapor phase minerals tridymite, crystobalite and feldpspar crystallized.
The cavities don't have to be on the top of the pyroclastic density current. They may occur on the flowage shearing surfaces and a syn-depositional incident.
The answer is not complete but it may give some idea.


Please tell me how to run bedwars on the wii-u

Question: My son and friend want to play bedwars on the wii-u. Do I need to register with a server that runs bedwars in order to access it via the wiiu minecraft menu? I am a noob in this field, so please any hints gratefully accepted :-)
Answer: Okay so wii-u appears to be the exception for this fun :-( On the ipad minecraft version is a server tab and you can connect to the "Lifeboat Network" in order to play bedwars.
Answer: If you and your son want to take the time and effort and establish rules, your son and his friends could make a bed wars map, me and my siblings made our own homemade bed wars with a working system. Happy crafting!


How to set a custom font for controls in SFSafariViewController?

Question: I haven't seen any ways to customize SFSafariViewController besides color, so I was wondering if anyone found a workaround, specifically for the font of the controls. (Swift 4, iOS 12, etc.)
Comment: I think SFSafariViewController was not meant to be all that customizable. You may have to look into using WKWebView if you want more control.
Answer: SFSafariViewController is intended to be used majorly for showing a web content within application. Level of customisation you can achieve on a page to be rendered in SFSafariViewController is really low. Apple mentions to use it majorly to show a webpage with your app.
For overriding/ customising web page, you should use WKWebView. It gives functions that will help you customising HTML/ JS content like evaluateJavaScript // This will give you option to perform your action on existing JS loaded in page
With WKWebView, you may do something like this when you load page in WKWebView.
webView.loadHTMLString("<meta charset='utf-8'><meta name='viewport' content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1, shrink-to-fit=no'><meta name='theme-color' content='#000000'><meta name='viewport' content='width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0, user-scalable=0' /><meta name='theme-color' content='#5A9C14'><meta name='msapplication-navbutton-color' content='#5A9C14'><meta name='apple-mobile-web-app-status-bar-style' content='#5A9C14'><link href='https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto' rel='stylesheet'>\(htmlIsi)", baseURL: nil)


Patent enquiry for Eco friendly products

Question: My application requested for an existing U.S. patent was filed,
 I received a copy personally signed by a certifying officer in the mail.
Does this mean I have been granted the use of this patent. Or is it just a basic copy of the patent.
 I am starting up a recycling plant and am in desperate need of this specific patent in order to export the End Use waste capturing products and to prevent added waste into landfill sites.
Please guide me so I can accelerate to commercialisation
Thank you
Answer: Ordering a certified copy of a patent from the patent office does not grant the right to practice the invention. It is simply a copy. Certified copies are commonly used when filing in a different country or when the patent is required in court.
In order to practice the invention, you need to either own the patent or have permission from the owner. Purchasing a patent may be prohibitively expensive, or simply not possible.  The the more likely course of action is to negotiate a license.
In either case, you will need to contact the owner of the patent. See How can I contact the owner of a patent?


In what sense is economic growth cumulative?

Question: In my economics syllabus, one of the student competences is to "Show the cumulative nature of growth and measure average and annual rates of growth". What I don't understand is how a country's GDP growth can be subject to cumulative or compounding effects?
Answer: The basic idea is simple. If you grow 1% each year for five years you end up with a GDP that is (1.01)^5 of what you started: the 1% growth of each year accumulates over time.


Make Java runtime ignore serialVersionUIDs?

Question: I have to work with a large number of compiled Java classes which didn't explicitly specify a serialVersionUID. Because their UIDs were arbitrarily generated by the compiler, many of the classes which need to be serialized and deserialized end up causing exceptions, even though the actual class definitions match up. (This is all expected behavior, of course.)
It is impractical for me to go back and fix all of this 3rd-party code.
Therefore, my question is: Is there any way to make the Java runtime ignore differences in serialVersionUIDs, and only fail to deserialize when there are actual differences in structure?
Answer: If you have access to the code base, you could use the SerialVer task for Ant to insert and to modify the serialVersionUID in the source code of a serializable class and fix the problem once for all.
If you can't, or if this is not an option (e.g. if you have already serialized some objects that you need to deserialize), one solution would be to extend ObjectInputStream. Augment its behavior to compare the serialVersionUID of the stream descriptor with the serialVersionUID of the class in the local JVM that this descriptor represents and to use the local class descriptor in case of mismatch. Then, just use this custom class for the deserialization. Something like this (credits to this message):
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InvalidClassException;
import java.io.ObjectInputStream;
import java.io.ObjectStreamClass;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

public class DecompressibleInputStream extends ObjectInputStream {

    private static Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(DecompressibleInputStream.class);

    public DecompressibleInputStream(InputStream in) throws IOException {
        super(in);
    }

    @Override
    protected ObjectStreamClass readClassDescriptor() throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException {
        ObjectStreamClass resultClassDescriptor = super.readClassDescriptor(); // initially streams descriptor
        Class localClass; // the class in the local JVM that this descriptor represents.
        try {
            localClass = Class.forName(resultClassDescriptor.getName());
        } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
            logger.error("No local class for " + resultClassDescriptor.getName(), e);
            return resultClassDescriptor;
        }
        ObjectStreamClass localClassDescriptor = ObjectStreamClass.lookup(localClass);
        if (localClassDescriptor != null) { // only if class implements serializable
            final long localSUID = localClassDescriptor.getSerialVersionUID();
            final long streamSUID = resultClassDescriptor.getSerialVersionUID();
            if (streamSUID != localSUID) { // check for serialVersionUID mismatch.
                final StringBuffer s = new StringBuffer("Overriding serialized class version mismatch: ");
                s.append("local serialVersionUID = ").append(localSUID);
                s.append(" stream serialVersionUID = ").append(streamSUID);
                Exception e = new InvalidClassException(s.toString());
                logger.error("Potentially Fatal Deserialization Operation.", e);
                resultClassDescriptor = localClassDescriptor; // Use local class descriptor for deserialization
            }
        }
        return resultClassDescriptor;
    }
}

Comment: Is the latter message link broken ? (after six years, I'm not hugely surprised, mind)
Comment: Many thanks. This snippet did in fact save the day for me as well.
Comment: This can be greatly simplified to just `return ObjectStreamClass.lookupAny(Class.forName(super.readClassDescriptor().getName()))`. None of the checks/catches are needed.
Comment: A rea life saver! Thanks!
Comment: It is quite old, but how to use this then ? How to call it ?
Answer: Use CGLIB to insert them into the binary classes?
Comment: Good idea but... what value do you insert exactly? You need to read the serialVersionUID of the serialized version. That's the tricky part.
Comment: Oh, whoops. Yes, you'd need to know what's out there.
Answer: How impractical is this to fix ? If you have the source and can rebuild, can you not just run a script over the entire codebase to insert a
private long serialVersionUID = 1L;

everywhere ?
Comment: I am sorry but you need to really understand the ask before proposing some non workable solution. He said the objects are already serialized and he does not own the third party libraries. I am in the same boat, it would be been nice if Java had a flag to ignore UID.
Answer: The serialization errors at runtime tell you explicitly what the ID is expected to be. Just change your classes to declare these as the ID and everything will be OK. This does involve you making changes but I don't believe that this can be avoided
Answer: You could possibly use Aspectj to 'introduce' the field into each serializable class as it is loaded. I would first introduce a marker interface into each class using the package and then introduce the field using a Hash of the class file for the serialVersionUID
public aspect SerializationIntroducerAspect {

   // introduce marker into each class in the org.simple package
   declare parents: (org.simple.*) implements SerialIdIntroduced;

   public interface SerialIdIntroduced{}

   // add the field to each class marked with the interface above.
   private long SerialIdIntroduced.serialVersionUID = createIdFromHash();

   private long SerialIdIntroduced.createIdFromHash()
   {
       if(serialVersionUID == 0)
       {
           serialVersionUID = getClass().hashCode();
       }
       return serialVersionUID;
   }
}

You will need to add the aspectj load time weaver agent to the VM so it can weave the advice into your existing 3rd party classes. Its funny though once you get around to setting Aspectj up, its remarkable the number of uses that you will put to.
HTH
ste
Comment: This is a good idea but this is not enough. The problem is not to add a serialVersionUID, the problem is to add the same serialVersionUID as in the serialized version.


Problem with the tax code on my first job

Question: Hi I have a yearly income of 30000£ in UK, this is my first job and my tax code is 1210 L. I didn't get taxed for the first month. Could anybody please let me know whether I need to change tax code to pay tax? Also I would need to know how much I would be taxed after the threshold and how much I would receive as my take home salary. I don't have any pension deductions.
Thanks
Answer: It's to be expected that you won't get taxed for a few months. Because this is your first job this tax year, and tax is calculated cumulatively over the course of a whole tax year, you have a lot of "unused" personal allowance from April.
As 24601 said this tax year, you'll ultimately get taxed on about £2900 (15K-12100), and will pay a bit under £600 in tax. Most of that will be taken in February and March. Then from April 2022, you'll pay a "normal" amount of tax each month - with earnings of £2500/month and a personal allowance of about £1000/month, that'll be tax of £300/month.
As 24601 also said, on top of the tax you'll pay National Insurance contributions, but that should be already happening as they are calculated on a weekly/monthly basis.
Comment: Will I be getting much less salary in Feb and Mar? Could you please let me know how much salary I would be getting in Feb and Mar. Thanks for your reply
Comment: My rough guess is that you will pay £0 tax until January inclusive, and £300/month tax from February onwards (including the following tax year). But it's only a rough guess.
Comment: Thanks for you comment. Will HMRC change my tax code automatically after January?
Comment: Your tax code doesn't need to change for the right amount of tax to be collected - the system correctly handles the cumulative calculation anyway. Your tax code may change for other reasons though, as @24601 points out we don't know why you have a non-standard tax code right now.
Answer: It may not be a problem at all.
The current free tax allowance (2021/2022 tax year) in the UK is £12,570 which is the basic rate - this would normally give a tax code of 1257L
Your tax code may be different if you have already underpaid tax to HMRC as they may adjust the code downwards in order to recover any underpayment.
The tax code works cumulatively and you can be assured that your employer will correctly apply the code to earnings. It's entirely possible that your first salary was paid before they obtained the appropriate paperwork from HMRC authorising them to make the deduction but there will be a catch-up probably at your next pay date.
If you have any concerns about your tax status you can do your own checks by referencing https://www.gov.uk/tax-codes which is the only reliable way forward.
For reference, these are the UK tax bands:

so you will normally expect to pay 20% tax on income above £12,570 (the normal personal allowance) to £50,270 although in your case, it would seem that you will only have a (currently unexplained) tax free allowance of £12100
As to your question about likely take home pay... consider that earning £30k pa will realise (£30,000 ÷ 12 * 6 months Oct21 - March22) = £15,000 against the free pay amount (assumed at £12100 in your example) for the whole tax year or put another way £15000 - £12500 = £2500 on which tax will be due at 20% ie ⅕th of your monthly pay will be taken in income tax.
That is only the tax position of course. You will also pay National Insurance Contributions on your earnings which will reduce the amount further. This reference and this from HMRC explains more.


Is there a reason to not use VPN all the time on iOS?

Question: I have setup a VPN connection by using my FritzBox WLAN Cable Router. I'm using this on my iOS devices to protect me from Wifi honeypots. Just by coincidence I switched VPN on on my device while on the 3G network and didn't notice it. Now I'm wondering: why would I if I want to switch off this great feature? Does it have a negative impact on performance, battery life or network speed?
Answer: When you use a VPN to send all your traffic to another network, you are reducing the ability of the internet to route your packets directly from your phone to the servers and instead are forcing the network to put the packets the VPN embeds to travel first to another network and then to the destination.
In the case where you need to hide / encrypt traffic, this downside is clearly worth bearing. For general purpose use, you will almost always add latency and perhaps bandwidth constraints that make the network response slower - even assuming all the encryption is done in hardware and has no effect on battery life on the device nor on performance due to delays in the encryption / decryption.
Also, your network is far less resilient and you have introduced a single point of failure (the VPN termination) into your path to the internet.
These downsides can be mitigated when you apply VPN to some traffic as opposed to all traffic and ensure your VPN is well connected to the internet.
In some cases VPN speeds the network if the traffic you send elsewhere is throttled and the traffic to the VPN is not throttled, but this is an edge case and worth considering, but rarely a reason to use VPN exclusively.
Comment: the main downside of a VPN on iPhone is that the Encrypting and decrypting the packets take some CPU which means that the battery usage increases sharply. See https://www.reddit.com/r/VPN/comments/6e5cdj/does_a_vpn_use_more_battery_on_ios/
Comment: Some CPU and sharp usage increase seem at odds. I personally can't measure any decrease in life whether VPN is on for hours or off for hours. perhaps there are certain apps that drive VPN power consumption more than others @FyodorGlebov?


Search Preferences set a custom Profile quick search - autocomplete fields drop down stops working. This is Why!

Question: pretty sure this is related to TypeError: array_flip():
New install, CiviCRM 5.55.2 on drupal9 php7.4

setup few custom fields for INDIVIDUAL in new group, fields searchable. Not View only!
Create profile with fields, used for search listing, directory.. all fields searchable. and result
Set new profile as default contact - save

Autocomplete fails to list fields. clear cache, reset DB-triggers rebuild menu, etc no effect. return to search preferences, and get...

If you remove the custom profile, everything returns to normal and fields list under autocomplete again..
With this in mind I

went back to my Profile and added a couple CONTACT fields, email, etc..
set profile in search preferences
Autocomplete stops working again
I select another option in autocomplete contact search PHONE, etc and save.

Autocomplete field lists come back! with all the previous fields selected.

adding contact fields with individual custom fields was not the fix.
Selecting deselecting any of the fields, reordering the list causes it to break. whether or not a custom search profile is used or not.
Answer: There is a fix at https://github.com/civicrm/civicrm-core/pull/25170, also with an upgrade script to fix any broken values in the database.


Is a supernova's core temperature absolute zero just before collapse?

Question: I thought a supernova's core temperature was absolute zero just before it collapsed, as it has run out of all nuclear and thermal energy, but I haven't been able to confirm this online anywhere and I was wondering if anyone can confirm this for me.
Comment: As far as I know (and I'll let smarter people than me answer this, so I'll just comment), but not even close.  The fusion process slows down significantly and that makes the collapse possible, but there's too much heat present for it to cool down much as the fusion slows down.  It's still inside of star temperature - many millions of degrees, and the temperature likely shoots up might higher than that, probably into the billions as the core collapses.
Comment: You can't just kill the heat by switching off fusion, you have convection and radiative processes which will keep the temperature from being anywhere near absolute zero. We also have the fundamental laws of thermodynamics to contend with. Absolute zero is not possible.
Answer: No, absolutely not. The core of a core-collapse supernova is one of the hottest places in the present-day universe. The temperature as the star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core is around 6-10 billion Kelvin. As it collapses, the core gets even hotter, perhaps as high as 100 billion Kelvin for a few seconds, before neutrino cooling starts to become effective.
We know that the temperatures are getting as high as this because at least two neutrino instruments on Earth detected roughly "thermal neutrinos" with energies of $\sim 10$ MeV coinciding with SN1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud (see for instance Mirizzi et al. 2015).


How can I fill in the gap between my chain-link fence and its gate

Question: We have a couple of gates in our chain-link fence and bunnies and large rodents like to squeeze through them.  I would like to fill the gap somehow so the gates are still usable and look halfway decent. Here are a couple of pics of the gate. The gaps are about 5 inches wide.
Comment: Remember that the rabbits are just going to go under, and they don't need much of a gap to squeeze through.
Answer: I realize this question is old but perhaps my answer can help someone else who comes across this post while searching for a solution as I did.
What I ended up doing was the following:

Get some '1 3/8" panel clamps'. I bought mine from Home Depot. These are also called "kennel clamps". They will hold two 1 3/8" pieces of tubing parallel to each other. You will need one clamp for the top and one for the bottom.

Get some '1 3/8" post caps'. I got mine off Amazon, since Home Depot didn't have any. You will need one cap each for the top and bottom of the tubing you will use to fill the gap. This will keep water and nesting wasps, etc., out of the tubing.

Get some 1 3/8" chain link fencing "top rail". In my case I had some left over from a prior project.

Measure the length of the gap beneath the gate latch to the bottom of the gate. Be sure to leave a reasonable amount of space beneath the latch so there is room for the post caps and things don't end up looking like they are crowded together.

Cut a length of the top rail according to your measurement. I used an abrasive cut-off saw because I have one, but a hacksaw or even a Dremel tool with cutting wheel and patience will do. Put one of the post caps on either end of the tubing.

Fasten the length of tubing to the side of the gate using the panel clamps, suspended between the gate and the terminal post beneath the latch.

Once assembled, the new filler post will move with the gate. It even looks professional.
In my case, my fencing is black powder-coated. None of the materials I was able to purchase quickly were black, so I spray painted everything with two heavy coats of black gloss paint before assembly. It looks good.
This was done in my case to prevent my wife's rather devious Scotty dog puppy from getting out through the gap.
Comment: This is the best solution I've seen, especially if you care how it looks.
Answer: If you don't care about how it looks, a piece of plywood or other rigid material mounted to the gate would bridge the gap.  You could attach it to the vertical part of the gate using a variety of types of u-bolts/brackets.
Otherwise the easiest thing is to replace the gate with a wider one. Another alternative is to move the posts to reduce the gap on the existing gate but this requires installing posts and replacing the section of fence.
Comment: I am not sure plywood would pass the looks test, but some other type of material might. How would you fasten it to the gate?
Comment: @OffTheGold I've updated the answer
Answer: Use a chainlink "terminal post" the appropriate diameter and length and attach it to the existing posts using a zip-tie or ideally a chainlink "brace band."  I got the idea from watching this video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GulJ53J-nYs
Comment: Thanks for the idea, but i doubt i would be able to close and latch the gate then.
Answer: I had the same problem at my house and my dog always got out of that gap in my chain link fence. What I did to solve the problem was put in a little bit of chicken wire. It doesn't look that great either, but I thought it looked better than a piece of plywood. Hope this helps.
Answer: For top picture:
The cheap solution is to buy a new cross bar for the left side of the gate. Buy one size longer than what you have. Cut to size. Splice the existing cross wood by one picket and extend the chain-link accordingly. In theory, you can reuse the bolts and ties. The ordeal is a pain but not that hard or expensive. I'd say less than a day and less than $100 if you DIY.
Answer: Get some  white, coated wire shelving pieces. Cut them to size and length of  the  gap.
Install it vertically on the Gate so that  when you close the gate the "extension" from gate will cover the gap. I.E. On the gate, on the inside, so it will allow gate to close/open normally, but the added shelf material covers gap.
I used wire and zip ties to secure the wire shelf to the gate.  It worked for me and it's almost rust/insect/water proof.  Good Luck.
Comment: Hello, and welcome to Home Improvement. Thanks for the answer; keep 'em coming. And, you should probably [take our tour](//diy.stackexchange.com/tour) so you'll know the details of contributing here.
Comment: Are those coated wire shelving pieces rust proof?
Answer: All but the largest rodents will get through the chain link itself, bunnies & squirrels included - It's a loosing battle.


Cocos2dx - Touch not recognized on Android

Question: I'm having trouble with a touch listener not picking up touch events on android, but doing fine in windows (mouse input). I've got a Node listening for touches (not a Layer), but from what I've been seeing around it seems having it on a Layer isn't a requirement anymore?
Setup
<code>void DodgePlayerController::setupPlayerInput()
{
    CCLOG("DodgePlayerController::setupPlayerInput()");
    if (myPawn)
    {
        Pellet* myPellet = dynamic_cast<Pellet*>(myPawn);
        if (myPellet)
        {
            CCLOG("DodgePlayerController::setupPlayerInput() !!2!!");
            //setup the player input and events (should build some sort of player controller)
            auto listener = EventListenerTouchAllAtOnce::create();
            listener->onTouchesBegan = CC_CALLBACK_2(Pellet::setTargetPosition, myPellet);
            listener->onTouchesMoved = CC_CALLBACK_2(Pellet::setTargetPosition, myPellet);
            listener->onTouchesEnded = CC_CALLBACK_2(Pellet::clearTargetPosition, myPellet);
            listener->onTouchesCancelled = CC_CALLBACK_2(Pellet::clearTargetPosition, myPellet);

            auto dispatcher = getEventDispatcher();
            dispatcher->addEventListenerWithSceneGraphPriority(listener, this);
        }
    }
}
</code>
When logging on Android, I'm getting through both CCLOG messages correctly (I have a 'disablePlayerInput()' which isn't being called, so the listener shouldn't be removed). This all works fine in the windows application, but when I load it in Android the touches aren't picked up (Pellet::setTargetPosition also has a log message which doesn't get thrown in android).
Anyone know what I might be missing?
Answer: Try to add
setSwallowTouches (true);
after creating the listener.
Comment: This answer would be improved by explaining to the asker what this function does and why it would solve the described problem.


"System Update Available" after already sideloaded Oreo

Question: I recently sideloaded Oreo onto my Nexus 5X, and everything went smoothly. However, today I received a "System Update Available" notification to "upgrade" to Android 8.0. I'm a bit confused; if I go through with this update, is it any different to what I sideloaded? And even if it is, is it better that I go through with it so that e.g. my phone believes that I have indeed upgraded?
Comment: Odds are its Sept security update.
Comment: It described itself as the update to Oreo though, and it was a 947 MB download.
Comment: I mean I wouldn't be to worried about it. Way their ota works it compares some build id's and doesn't mess with data partition. I'm assuming you used googles factory image fully and not some half flash, which case no one would know  if something will go wrong except you.
Comment: Okay, I'll chalk it up to the fine details of how their update system works and assume they've just not implemented it efficiently for this scenario. Thanks!
Answer: As far as I can see it'll be a new build update, but simply prefaced with the android Oreo blurb.
I had exactly the same thing... And after updating compared the previous sideloaded build to the new one (even though it had been the sept 2017 security updates originally sideloaded) and the build number had bumped up.


Automated smoke testing of a WPF App?

Question: We've got a WPF app we'd like to run automated smoke tests on it. Simple tests like load document, save document, etc, etc. I was wondering if anyone could suggest existing frame works or applications that would help with that.
Thanks!
Answer: For testing frameworks both NUnit and MSTest are good. MSTest does have the advantage that it integrates very will with visual studio, so that makes things a bit easier. (There are nunit addins available for vs, but they are quite as fully integrated as mstest).
In terms of how you write the test, if you have written you app according to the MVVM pattern it's pretty simple to have your tests create and run your app using the view models and the commands without actually creating a view.
Even if you haven't used MVVM, hopefully you've still abstracted your logic layers away from your gui, so your tests can call into them without too much difficulty.
In terms of actual GUI testing, you can take a look at the MS UI Automation framework which should allow you to automate parts of your UI to run tests against it.  There's a blog post here about how to get going with that, and an article here. There are also some commercial frameworks that overlay the UI automation stuff to make it a bit easier. One example is testautomationfx.
Comment: Sounds like a good start. I'll look into those.
Answer: As a spoke test should be "end to end", then I would look at automated UI testing tools like Test Complete, rather than unit testing tools – scripting the creation of a VM and then run yours installers is another good option..   You spoke test should include the installer for your app, as they tend not to be covered by unit tests, or used by your developers.
You are trying to avoid your testers spending time on "hopeless" builds – hence the need to include the installer.
Think of all the "daft" reasons that stops your test team being productive after they have spent time installing a new build – how many of these can you include in an automated system without having tests fail due to changes in the app.
A lot of people make the error of trying to cover too much in a spoke test – "deep testing" that covers all your logic should be in unit tests and/or "story tests" not your spoke test.

Automated smoke testing of a WPF App?


How to install packages in ubuntu without internet connection?

Question: I am using Ubuntu since last 2 years but still I couldnt find better way to install Ubuntu packages offline. As each package needs multiple dependencies its harder to find & get all the required dependencies.
Answer: You can use Cube. It is a portable package manager capable of downloading packages and list of latest repositories from other computers with internet connection (Linux or Windows), and installs it back to your original computer, offline.
Check this tutorial on how it works.


Is it possible to drive TTL inputs from 3.3v microcontroller

Question: I need a quick heads up on a problem I am trying to solve at work. I'm trying to connect to a parallel data port on an interface module we use to access smart cards. The port has an 8bit input and an 8 bit output with associated strobe/ready pins. I have a microcontroller board with an ARM cortex (mbed.org) which would be perfect to interface to these ports to my PC for test purposes. The ARM board has loads of i/o but its a 3.3v part. I have used it with your typical 2 line LCD display (5v part) with no problem (I know the ARM i/o is 5v tolerant) and I can control the LCD no problem. What I'm wondering is, is it ok to assume that I can drive any 5v TTL level input from a 3.3v output pin ? I'm happy that I can read the 5v ttl levels as I said the ARM Cortex chip's documentation says it 5v tolerent. The connection will be very short (<10cm).
Answer: The datasheets should tell you the minimum voltage required to register as a digital high for your receiver, and the minimum voltage guaranteed at the output for a high from your sender.  Just make sure they're within each other's limits.

A TTL input signal is defined as "low"
  when between 0 V and 0.8 V with
  respect to the ground terminal, and
  "high" when between 2.2 V and 5 V
  (precise logic levels vary slightly
  between sub-types). TTL outputs are
  typically restricted to narrower
  limits of between 0 V and 0.4 V for a
  "low" and between 2.6 V and 5 V for a
  "high", providing 0.4V of noise
  immunity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor-transistor_logic#Interfacing_problems
Answer: The problem with the term "TTL" is it's often used rather loosely. People often say "TTL" when they really mean 5V CMOS.
Real 5V TTL (74LS and similar) has 3.3V compatible input thresholds but has much higher input current requirements than any CMOS device does. So you need to make sure your 3.3V device can deliver enough current for the TTL inputs. This is probablly not a problem for driving a single gate but could become troublesome at high fanouts.
5V "TTL compatible CMOS" (74HCT and similar) inputs are fine to drive from 3.3V signals.
5V "traditional CMOS" (HEF4000 74HC and similar) inputs will usually be out of spec with 3.3V signals but in practice will often work despite this.
5V "CMOS schmitt trigger" inputs are very likely to fail to respond to 3.3V signals.
Be aware that different pins on the same device may have different specs. I've got caught out with this on PICs where many of the pins have TTL compatible input buffers but some have schmitt trigger input buffers.
Answer: Pericom AN66 is a useful application note on logic family interfacing. It covers driving TTL from 3.3V CMOS.
Answer: "is it ok to assume"
your number of assumptions should be inversely proportional to the amount of money invested in your work. I am not sure how much is in this project but I always try to keep that in mind.
As for the device: are you reading, writing or both? If reading, should be ok since you said your device is 5V tolerant. If you are writing then I would still stick with some sort of level shifter like this. You really can't know what will happen if you use a device out of spec (could get lucky but you could also get really really unlucky).
I have used one of the level converters and they work great!
Comment: The single mosfet (plus two pullup resistors) level shifter is a cool trick but be aware it's generally not appropriate for high speed signals.


A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client

Question: I have one asp.net application, which has some problems while i am entering the special characters such as ": &#, " in the search box. If i enter this text in search box, i got the exception like this.

A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client (txtValue=": &#, ").

then i searched on the net, i got one general solution for this that to set the validaterequest to false. But no changes has been made on my application. Please help me for solving this issue. Any response that would be appreciated.
Comment: Where exactly did you set ValidateRequest?
Comment: <%@ Page ValidateRequest="false"
Comment: Possible duplicate of [A potentially dangerous Request.Form value was detected from the client](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/81991/a-potentially-dangerous-request-form-value-was-detected-from-the-client)
Answer: Add a web.config containing
<system.web>
    <pages validateRequest="false" />
</system.web>

to the directory with the page that has the form in question.
See http://www.asp.net/learn/whitepapers/request-validation for a complete description.
In case you use asp.net 4.0, you may try
<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="2.0" />

See also

ValidateRequest="false" doesn't work in Asp.Net 4
ASP.NET 4 Breaking Changes
Comment: If you need to set ValidateRequest="false", you should do it on a page-by-page basis in the <%@ Page %> directive; otherwise you're potentially opening a security hole in your whole application.
Comment: @PhilPursglove I agree that it is best practice to do by a page-by-page basis - unless you know what you are doing. ValidateRequest=true is a security measure for web applications which are not properly coded. From the above linked page on www.asp.net: "This request validation feature can be disabled when the application has been designed to safely process HTML data." And of course we do exactly that, don't we?! I usually do it on a directory basis. Special care is to be taken if you use 3rd party components that rely on that request validation (but you shouldn't use those anyway...).
Comment: Hm, works in all my web applications. Do you use .net 2.0 or above? Which OS?
Comment: .net 3.5 and OS is server 2003 IE8
Comment: Sorry, works for me in the same environnement. I'd try to reproduce this behavior on a clean web site in order to exclude other components and web.config settings.
Comment: It saved me.. Thanks :
Comment: I'm afraid the above no longer works. What works is that specified by Jamie M , i.e. adding the [ValidateInput(false)] attribute on the controller in question.
Answer: A little late, but in agreement with those saying putting this in web.config is a security hole.
I do it with the [ValidateInput(false)] attribute on the controller in question.
ValidateInput is found in System.Web.MVC in MVC2
Answer: I created a table article with columns articleId and article_content. I also used html editor for article_content column. When I tried to save I got the same error. It was resolved by adding [AllowHtml] to the article_content property in the class.
Don't forget to include the namespace using System.Web.Mvc. For more details:
http://www.infinetsoft.com/Post/A-potentially-dangerous-Request-Form-value-was-detected-from-the-client/1246
Answer: Using Framework 4.5 the solution is to modify web.config adding following line:
<httpRuntime requestValidationMode="4.5"/>

And getting the request as follows:
string reportXML = this.Request.Unvalidated.Form["reportstream"];


Changed wheel cylinders and now pedal only hits floor

Question: I tried to bleed system but when I step on pedal no fluid comes out of the bleeder bolt.
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! Please explain *exactly* how you are bleeding the brakes.
Comment: It will take several steps on the pedal to bleed all the air out of a new wheel cylinder, keep the brake fluid reservoir full while doing this.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [After brake bleed, pedal goes to floor](https://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/22320/after-brake-bleed-pedal-goes-to-floor)
Comment: When you mean wheel cylinders do you mean brake calipers? Or did you replace the master cylinder? Please give a lot more detail on the car and the exact steps and equipment you have used.
Comment: @GdD Wheel cylinders are part of a drum brake setup.
Comment: Aha, an old car then @NickC, I forgot about that.
Comment: Toyota Sienna 1997-2018 is an *old* car? Pedal-to-the-floor could also occur if there's a failure in the master cylinder. Is there a puddle on the garage floor?
Answer:
Most commonly the oil would have been dripped off the unit while removing and air would have mixed or there would be leak in the
  system.

If the case is too much air, you could solve it be slightly loosening the hose attached to the caliper or removing the bleeder screw completely that comes from the reservoir.
Once you see the oil coming out from the screw, you could tighten it and carry on the brake bleeding task.
Here are few other troubleshooting steps:
Reservoir :
Check if the reservoir is full of oil.
If you do remove the oil completly out of the system and you are refilling it again, please give some for the oil to fill the system
Issues with Bleeder Screw:
Please check if there is no Blockage in the Bleeder Screw.
Hose:
If the Bleeder screw is Good try removing the Hose that runs to the calipers. Check if the oil is comming out of it.
Caliper Unit:
Check if the brake fluid is leaking from any other point.
If the rings are loose on the caliper piston or if the caliper piston is damaged there are chances of oil leakage from the piston
Answer: On many brake systems you need to push the pedal down and close the bleeder valve before you let the brake pedal return,this is to avoid sucking air back into the system.
An other alternative is to use a brake bleeder with a return valve,this do only let brake fluid and air pass in one direction.
For the first solution you need to be two people one in the car pumping the brake and the other opening and closing the bleeder valve,you need to repeat this until all the air is gone so it only comes brake fluid when you push the pedal.
Be sure to keep an eye on the reservoir to avoid it running dry during this operation.


What is the process involved in performing a mass spectrometry experiment?

Question: I have heard that mass spectrometry is very time consuming: why is this?  What is the process involved in performing a mass spectrometry experiment?  What steps are the most time consuming?
Comment: Please do not cross-post your questions.  I think it's more appropriate over here and I have recommended that the Biology version be closed.
Comment: You submit the sample, it is shot in, the databased answer is e-mailed back, your PI gets billed.
Answer: This is hard to answer, because in my experience mass spectrometry isn't that time consuming at all. The experiment itself doesn't take that long. In this experiment the sample is ionized and charged fragments are accelerated in an electrical or magnetic field. Depending on their mass/charge ratio they will end up on specific locations in the detector.
The process around the experiment itself is dependent on your specific lab, but typically the mass spectrometer is operated by only a few people that do all the samples of the entire department. Because of that, there will often be a queue which could be several days. Additionally, not all mass spectra can be digitally identified as coming from a certain chemical, especially for larger molecules there are often various options that require human interference for the identification. In our lab this human interpretation is left to the person owning the sample, but if that part is also done by the mass spectrometer operators (I know in some labs this is the case) then I can imagine that this last step will be time-limiting.
To summarize: the experiment is short, the procedure around it (dependent on your specific lab) can take quite some time.
Answer: The problems are mainly in the pre-analytical steps, in most of the cases you can't analyze the sample as it is. You have do perform extraction, digestion and so on. Then if you want to have quantitative result you have to use standards. The calibration can be a quite difficult process.
So the time required depends from your sample and what and how you want achieve from your analysis.


Is seeing the Apollo Moon landers via an Earth-based telescope that hard?

Question: There are interferometers that fuse the images produced by multiple telescopes and achieve a resolution of 0.001 arcseconds. With changes, couldn't these observe the Moon landers? Is the reason why nobody is seeing the Moon landers related to effort and not actual technical limitations (besides atmosphere interference, brightness, time use, and other general issues)?
Comment: What would be the point of such an exercise? The promulgators of the "The Moon landing was a hoax" meme would reject such imagery, just like they have rejected Every. Other. Piece of evidence that humans did land on the Moon. There is no doubt that humans did land on the Moon, six separate times. Time on those expensive telescopes is allocated judiciously, with the primary metric being the expected scientific payoff. Pointing such telescopes toward the Moon would be an absolute waste of those very precious resources.
Comment: Another reason is that nobody with an ounce of intelligence could be bothered with doing so? The detritus of the Moon landings have already been imaged from orbit. What do you think the purpose of obtaining some more grainy images would be?
Comment: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_evidence_for_Apollo_Moon_landings
Answer:
Is seeing the apollo moon Landers via earth telescope that hard?

Yes, it still is.

If the resolution of an interferometric telescope is really 0.001 arcseconds, that translates to 4.85E-09 radians. At a perigee of 362,600 km that's 1.8 meters.
The top part lower half of the Lunar Modules (that remain on the surface after the astronauts leave) is about 4.2 meters wide which is a little more than double the resolution, so if there is some good contrast then it might appear in a reconstructed interferometric image.
However, those optical interferometers are not designed for imaging of extended objects. They only have a few telescopes and so are mostly limited to resolving more than one point-like object from each other, such as a double star or a star and an exoplanet.
With so few telescopes in an optical interferometer, a complex image like lunar terrain would be difficult or impossible to reconstruct without a model. For example, the images of the accretion disk of a black hole by the event horizon telescope required some input modeling to interpret the interferometric data.
Near sunrise or sunset however, the shadow of a lunar lander will be much larger. The lander is about 7 3.5 meters tall, so the shadow could be 4 or more meters wide by several tens of a dozeon meters long. Since the Moon's orientation, as well as that of the lander and the local terrain is extremely well documented, then at each moment you could estimate what the shadow would look like in size, shape, and orientation. With that model, an interferometric image based on a few telescopes could be used to confirm the shadow.
However, using a model like that won't appease conspiracy theorists.
 Source
Comment: Is it true that the longer the lander isn't observed, the less likely it is to be real?
Comment: @user29247  Unless your cat is doing the non-observing
Comment: But if telescopes continue to improve/get larger will it happen?
Comment: Just as a nit to this otherwise excellent answer, the part of the landers that remain on the moon are only the decent stages, and those are only (approximately) half the height of the overall lander, because the cabin/ascent modules are no longer present on the moon.  To be more correct, however, 5 of the 6 ascent modules are on the moon, but not intact since they (except for Apollo 13) left the ascent modules in orbit around the moon to eventually crash back onto the lunar surface.
Comment: @Milwrdfan oh my goodness - those are *several meter tall* nits! Okay I've made an adjustment, thanks!


How do you solve the ODE $x'+2tx=2t^3$

Question:
I do not get their explanation here at all. In class, we derived the following formula for the method of integrating  factors for solving first order inhomogeneous linear ODEs of the form $$y'(x)+p(x)y(x)=q(x).$$
$$y(x)=\dfrac{1}{u(x)}\left[\int u(x)q(x)dx+C\right],$$ where the integrating factor is given as $$u(x)=e^{\int p(x)dx}.$$ Following their method, I indeed got the same integrating factor $u(t)=e^{t^2}$, but with the formula above, how then am I supposed to arrive at their conclusion? Integration by parts on the $u(t)q(t)$ part seems to get me nowhere as (without using the error function), $e^{t^2}$ cannot be differentated away or integrated. Could someone perhaps help fill in the missing lines of working or explain the intermediary steps?
Comment: $\int u(t) q(t) \, dt=\int e^{t^2} \, 2t^3 \, dt$. Use substitution $t^2=w$ to write this as $\int e^w \, w \, dw$. Now use integration by parts.
Comment: The function given by this method of integrating factor is always a solution of the differential equation, whether you have a "nice" antiderivative in terms of elementary functions or not.
Answer: $$x'+2xt=2t^3$$
Integrating factor is $e^{\int2tdt}=e^{t^2}$
Multiplying I.F. both sides,
$$xe^{t^2}=\int2t^3e^{t^2}dt$$
Let $ t^2=z$ .Then $2tdt=dz$
$\therefore xe^{t^2}=\int ze^zdz
=z e^z -e^z+c$ [ $c$ is integrating constant]$=(z-1)e^z+c$
$=(t^2-1) e^{t^2}+c $
$$\therefore x =t^2-1+ce^{-t^2}$$
Answer: The method of integrating factors applies to differential equations of the form:
$$ \frac{dx}{dt} + P(t)x = Q(t) $$
which we solve by searching for a factor $I(t)$ such that:
$$ I(t)\left( \frac{dx}{dt} + P(t)x \right) = \frac{d}{dt} \left( I(t)x \right) = I(t)Q(t) $$
Such a factor can be computed to be:
$$ I(t) = e^{\int P(t) dt} $$
The solution $x(t)$ is then:
$$ x(t) = \frac{1}{I(t)} \left( \int I(t)Q(t)dt + C \right) $$
Now, in our case we have:
$$ \frac{dx}{dt} + 2 t x = 2t^3 $$
so $P(t) = 2t$ and $Q(t) = 2t^3$. The integrating factor is then:
$$ I(t) = e^{\int P(t) dt} = e^{t^2} $$
the solution is then:
$$ x(t) = e^{-t^2} \left( \int e^{t^2} \cdot 2t^3 dt + C \right) $$
$$ = e^{-t^2} \left( \int e^{t^2} d\left( \frac{t^4}{2} \right) + C \right) $$
$$ = e^{-t^2} \left( \int \frac{1}{2} e^{t^2} d\left( t^4 \right) + C\right) $$
We take $u = t^2$ and apply integration by parts:
$$ x(t) = e^{-t^2} \left( \int e^u du + C\right) $$
$$ = e^{-t^2} \left( \int u de^u + C\right) $$
$$ = e^{-t^2} \left( ue^u - \int e^u du + C\right) = e^{-t^2} \left( ue^u - e^u + C\right) $$
And so:
$$x(t) = e^{-t^2} \left( t^2 e^{t^2} - e^{t^2} + C \right) $$
$$ = t^2 - 1 + C e^{-t^2} $$

How do you solve the ODE $x'+2tx=2t^3$


Copyright statement in contract

Question: I founded my own software development company a couple of months ago. I was able to find a customer now (a smaller football club) that needs a custom software for tracking the staff, players, etc. Before I start working, I need my customer to sign my software contract which I got from my lawyer. The contract is basically ok, but one thing makes me think:
The contract stipulates that the copyright of the software remains with my company and that the customer is not allowed to sub-licence it to other potential customers. However, I can sell the software to other potential customers if I want.
But isn't that unfair to my customer? The customer needs to buy the software for a lot of money and in the end, is not able to make money with it. My lawyer said that this is ok and normal. Do you know if this is common practice? I don't want that my company gets a shady reputation over time.
Answer:
I can sell the software to other potential customers if I want. But isn't that unfair to my customer?

That is subjective. That depends on the parties' intent, priorities, the pricing of the product, and so forth. From a legal standpoint, there is no requirement that contracts be symmetric or to establish the same rights & obligations to all parties.
You are not even imposing that clause. You are proposing it to your client as part of your offer, who will decide whether to accept the terms, require amendments, or decline the contract altogether. The sense of the client's decision will indicate that he considers the contract/clause(s) fair or unfair, accordingly.

Do you know if this is common practice?

It is very common. For instance, you are not allowed to sub-license the lawful copy of Windows OS you use.
Comment: Thanks for you answer. You wrote "For instance, you are not allowed to sub-license the lawful copy of Windows OS you use.".
But this is a another use case because I buy Windows for e.g. for 50€. But in my case I sell the software for 30.000€ so these are other dimensions.
Comment: @NMO That difference in pricing pertains to economics & marketing and has nothing to do with the law. The software the client is purchasing from you is much more customized than a generic product such as Windows. From a legal standpoint what matters is that both parties obtain what they agreed.

Copyright statement in contract


Am sprouting beans in machine is the color normal

Question: I have been sprouting my beans for three days now I am not sure if it is ready to harvest and is the color normal and what is the best way to store it? I've attached photos.
Thank you
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this question seems to be about growing food, not cooking it.
Comment: Catija, while the question isn't about cooking them,  I still think it's related. As for growing food, most people think of growing plants and in a garden, nit the kitchen. For that matter, when we make yogurt, it's basically growing a bacterial culture.
Comment: You should tell us exactly what you're sprouting. I can think of several beans all of different colours.
Answer: I can't see anything wrong with your sprouts as far as colour. If you're referring to the blush of the beans, yours are a bit pinker than most I've seen but still normal. I've spen them ranging from an almost white tan to blush. Since I don't know whether you kept yours in utter darkness, so I can't say whether it's related to light levels. It's also possible that a number of different mung bean cultivars are used for sprouting (since the majority of food we eat has countless cultivars). If so, possibly different cultivars might show different variations in colour.
I'm surprised that your sprouts are only 3 days old though. They already have developed leaves and that doesn't usually happen that quickly. Perhaps a little warmer than usual? That might even account for colour variations too.
There's no harm eating them with developing leaves but they taste milder when the leaves just start peeking out for the two halves. I gave up sprouting mung beans as I never could figure a good way to get rid of most if the loose skins.


Core-Plot: How to add button on CPLayerHostingView

Question: I would like to add some buttons on CPLayerHostingView. I have tried the same by creating some an object of UIButton and adding it as subview on my CPLayerHostingView but it didn't worked as expected. Please help me to do the same.
Answer: You're better off not adding subviews into a CPLayerHostingView. Add the buttons to the CPLayerHostingView's superview instead.
Answer: Nice to know that the answer given by Eric Skroch is worked for sandy.
But I am just trying here to help other people who have the same question and when come here, found no code examples. (Because I had the same experience)
You can find the example code here. (open the link and read the post of 'Ivan Rambius Ivanov' )


Can you shape a magnet and how would it effect its field

Question: Long story short im playing with mental designs of an electric motor and I'm not sure on some things regarding magmets/magnrtic materials and my designs are in flux do to these variables. I'm wondering one if you can put a "blade" along an auger that holds a current to act as an electromagnet basically build a case to hold the blades n wires or if youd have to shape a magnetic material into the full auger. This idea is kind of like the wind towers that spin like a cyclone instead of the air making the rack spin I'm wondrring if you can force rotation with a coil around it. My idea is basically put the auger in a coil launcher set up so that when a current goes through the coil it spins the auger.
Comment: A drawing might help us understand what you are asking. Also, please consider cleaning up the spelling and such.
Comment: Shortest explanation I can come up with is a coil launcher used to spin an auger that has a magnetic blade I have a very rough sketch in gravity sketch on VR but bein I have no sschooling after basics I'm not sure how to pull it off. Basically I'm thinking replace piston with augers on axles the coils magnetic propulsion would be used to push up on the blades causing circular motion due to the blade angles. If anyone has info on how I can upload the quick sketch ill add that
Comment: I have no idea what a "coil launcher" is.
Comment: Coilgun or motor. Uses the magnetic field generated in a coil to push objects. Basically the catapults of the rail gun family. Originally I had thought of a puck on the end of a rod for a cramshaft but I think a magnet cork screw n driveshaft maybe more efficient n harnessing the push from the induced field traveling the coil
Comment: Are you thinking of turning an auger with an electric motor? Fine. If so, what is the rest about?
Answer: To help with your intuition you can imagine any form, filled with tiny ball magnets. Each small piece of magnet can have its own orientation of the field. There is no rule that says that macroscopic magnetic field has to be of a particular direction such as axial or radial, reason for it is pirely convinience of making such magnets.
With your 'spinning if magnetic field is present' closest analogue is this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homopolar_motor
It is one of the most unusual motor. While reading about how it works, and what changes to it stop it from workinf, you will understand more about your model too.
In short - stationary magnetic field doesnt make a 'whirl', it makes a 'well'. Magnetic field has magnitude and direction, so intuitively it seems that it can be made in a way similar to a whirl in a bathtub, using magnets at an angle inside or outside the whirl. But in practice such arrangemenr makes similar magnetic field that a radially magnetized ring would make. Difference in intuition and practice is hard to pin down, but probably this will help:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauss%27s_law_for_magnetism
To check your model for correctness you need to draw a closed loop and make sure that magnetic field cancels out within this loop. A well consist of closed loop, a ring. A whirl consist of open lines, that dont cancel out. This contradicts the Gauss law and shows that model is not working.


Who is the Marvel character with short black hair and a huge collar on this button?

Question: Please help me identify this character. He's on a button that only says "1986 Marvel comics" on the back.
Comment: It's clearly Peter Quills dad, David Hasselhoff.
Answer: It's the Beyonder, a godlike being from Marvel Comics in the eighties. He was responsible for the Secret Wars events which occurred during that time.

Despite his hokey and completely contrived origin for the Secret Wars Sagas, he has, by virtue of materials written about him after the Secret Wars, become the second most powerful being in the Marvel Multiverse. I will keep it brief:

The Beyonder was originally from an infinite realm beyond the Marvel Multiverse, called the Beyond-realm, and was the sum of everything outside the multiverse (our multiverse was a drop in the sea compared to the Beyond-realm). It became self aware and formed a being of immeasurable power. (He was originally described as millions of times more powerful than the entire multiverse.) ~Comicvine

The Beyonder was, at one point in his history more powerful than all the conceptual beings in the Marvel Universe and even manages to kill Death itself.

This picture shows The One Above All (Celestial), The Stranger, The Living Tribunal, Master Order and Lord Chaos, Eternity, The Watcher (lower left) The In-Betweener (in black and white) The Beyonder (in the orange jumpsuit), Mephisto (in red) and Death.
The Beyonder was vain, arrogant, annoying, petty and capricious. But there was no denying his powers. At his peak he would have certainly been considered omnipotent, his raw power having the ability to do anything he wanted, but he lacked a clear understanding of the Universe so he is not omniscient (unless he wanted to be) and not omnipresent (unless he thought about it).
One final note: The Beyonder has been retconned MANY TIMES. His origins are no longer clear to anyone and his recent appearances claimed he might be a mutant or he might not. Don't think too hard on it. If you're lucky, you'll never see him again.
One other note: The Molecule Man who depending on when you ask, derived his powers from the Beyonder or the Beyonderverse as well, so he would also be in the same class as the Beyonder, capable of creating entire universes if he so desired. He's currently dead, but since he has resurrected himself in the past, his death is "relative" and likely not permanent.
One final note: With the impending new Secret Wars II, there is the possibility the Beyonder may return. Heaven help us all.
Comment: @PLL - The One-Above-All is the most powerful being in the Marvel Omniverse. It is the power which created everything including the Beyonder. See: [Are there any actual gods in Marvel comics?](http://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/55365/2765)
Comment: Molecule Man is not dead.  He was in a recent issue of Hickman's Avengers working for Dr. Doom, who is also not dead despite being irrevocably destroyed by dimension hopping Celestials, in Hickman's FF about two years ago.  Basically, no one ever really dies in the Marvel Universe.  Just add six months and their back, no explanations needed, apparently.
Comment: Wasn't there some talk that The Beyonder was supposed to represent Stan Lee? Or was that a separate character?
Comment: "he was […] the second most powerful being in the Marvel Multiverse"  So who was the first most powerful?
Answer: It's the Beyonder in one of his forms.

He came into existence in the same incident that created Molecule Man; when Owen Reece tapped into another dimension, part of the energy from that dimension gave him his powers, while the rest of it gained sentience and became the Beyonder. His powers were nearly unlimited.
Fascinated by the eternal battle between good and evil, he created a planet "Battleworld" and abducted a number of superheroes to it, so they could fight while he could observe. It's where Spider-Man got his famous black costume, which turned out to be an alien symbiote. This event was known as the Secret Wars.
More information can be found on the Marvel wiki.
Answer: Just for completeness, it seems that the image was taken from Avengers #261 (August/November 1985) cover. Pencils by John Buscema, inks by Tom Palmer.
Comment: @Valorum Sure, on it :-)
Comment: Good man. Find them *both* and you shall receive my munificence
Comment: Awesome find. Now go and do this one...https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/280050/please-help-me-identify-this-character-hes-on-a-home-made-button-badge
Comment: @Valorum. Done! Found it! Recently I bought those Warlock comics in a Spanish edition :-) It seems that they are going to publish an omnibus in the US, just in case you're interested
Comment: @Valorum Thanks for the bounty! :-)
Comment: Answer any of these and I'll happily give you a thousand more; https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/153541/can-anyone-identify-what-sci-fi-movie-this-character-was-in / https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/246244/can-you-identify-this-indiana-jones-like-hero / https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/268819/need-help-identifying-this-character
Comment: @Valorum Good incentive but no comic characters there. :-( In any case, I'll have those in mind.


Difference between apex:composition and apex:component

Question: Please let me know the difference between apex:composition and apex:component
Help is much appreciated..
Thanks
Answer: Composition: An area of a page that includes content from a second template page. Template pages are Visualforce pages that include one or more  components. The  component names the associated template, and provides body for the template's  components with matching  components. Any content outside of an  component is not rendered
This is Page which define template and use composition element

<apex:page>
    <apex:outputText value="(template) This is before the header"/>

    <apex:insert name="header"/>

    <apex:outputText value="(template) This is between the header and body"/>

    <apex:insert name="body"/>
</apex:page>

This is Page which define elements of composition

<apex:page>
    <apex:composition template="composition">
        <apex:define name="header">(page) This is the header of mypage</apex:define>
        <apex:define name="body">(page) This is the body of mypage</apex:define>
    </apex:composition>
</apex:page>

Component: Components are reusable section of UI. For ex. Header, footer, widgets etc.
This is Page:
<apex:page>
    <c:myComponent myValue="My component's value" borderColor="red" />
</apex:page>

This is Component Definition:
<apex:component>
    <apex:attribute name="myValue" description="This is the value for the component."
        type="String" required="true"/>
    <apex:attribute name="borderColor" description="This is color for the border." type="String" required="true"/>

        <apex:outputText value="{!myValue}"/>

</apex:component>

So, you can use various section of Composition at various places but you will have to use whole component at given time.
Answer: apex:component are discrete standalone items, when we use a component it will fetch all component into a page where we used it.
But in apex:composition we have apex:define to define something into a composition and we can use it by apex:insert.
So it will not include whole apex:composition but only provides body for the template's apex:insert components with matching apex:define component