How to put the text in next line without having space in between

Question: I am working on the req in which i need to put the text in the next line without any space between them
i am trying to use the  tag but it is creating unwanted extra space between the line
can i get some input in it.
below is the code.

                                Active Traders are looking for short-term to
                                intermediate term opportunities.These clients
                                includes those who:

.are using options as a stand-alone strategy

.are using leveraged or volatility ETFs

.have a high account principal turnover rate

.are enabled for future trading

.are enabled for portfolio margin trading

.and/or are shorting the market

can some one help me out to remove the extra space between the two line as shown in the image.
Comment: Why did you edit this question and remove the technical detail of what markup you are using?
Answer: You can simply use div tag and remove br/ tag in between it would work.


What is the minimum acceleration that stops the rod from sliding in the frictionless surface?

Question: What should be the block's acceleration 'a' such that the rod present inside, inclined at at the angle 'theta' and mass 'm' will be obstructed from sliding down. From car's frame of reference, a pseudoforce 'ma' must indeed act opposite to the direction of acceleration to stop it from sliding, but my calculations are not bringing the actual answer according to my book(a=gcot(theta)). The given picture is about what I tried with all the forces acting.
Comment: Please note that Physics.StackExchange is not a homework help site. Please read [this Meta post on asking homework-like questions](http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/714) and [this Meta post for "check my work" problems](http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/6093).
Answer: You've basically drawn the diagram right; for a steady-state the net force must be 0 and hence $|\vec N_2| = m~g$ and  $|\vec N_1| = m~|\vec a|.$ The remaining relation is a torque balance, because it's also in a steady-state rotationally. Let's take the torques around the point that $\theta$ is being measured around; then $\vec N_2$ and $m \vec a$ provide no torque and it's all about $\vec N_1$ contributing a torque $|\vec N_1| \sin\theta$ and the gravitational force contributing a torque $-m g \cos\theta$.


Secure tunneling options between datacenters

Question: My setup is main website server in one datacenter and mirrors in multiple other datacenters.
I'd like to know what are my options to transfer traffic secure and stable between servers?
Ssh tunneling or maybe stunnel or something else?
Answer: You probably want to use IPSEC in transport mode. Loosely related are discussions about opportunistic encryption. That term will give you many guides on implementation. Dropping the "fallback" part of those will provide you what you want.
You can do this node-to-node (each machine) or establish it between your routing choke points... probably at the edge routers.


ProFTPD accounts

Question: I have inherited a server where ProFTPD is installed. I can login to it with account joe_test and its password - but the problem is there is no such user as joe_test in /etc/passwd. If I do ls -la of /var/ftp then /var/ftp/joe_test is: drwxr-xr-x  11 2022          ftpgroup    512 Jul 31 13:13 joe_test as you can see 2022 is user id. My question is - where ProFTPD is storing it's passwd? (as I guess it have its own passwd file.)
Answer: Direct from the proftpd docs:

Question: If virtual users are not defined in the system /etc/passwd file, then where are they defined?
Answer: There are several other locations where user information can be stored, e.g. AuthUserFiles, LDAP directories, SQL databases, and RADIUS servers. Note that virtual users are not defined in the proftpd.conf file directly.

So the answer is "It depends". You'll need to look at your /etc/proftpd.conf file to determine which method(s) are in use.
Comment: thanks. it seems that this configuration uses MySQL. what a stupid way to do it - any specific reason to do SQL quota rather than set size limit in `ftpd` configuration, eh?

ProFTPD accounts


Bathroom floor sealer

Question: What sealer can I use for upstairs bathroom floor I have ceramic tile and it's leaking on kitchen ceiling. I want a seal between tile and baseboard.
Comment: **What** is leaking? Fix the leak in the bathroom, or the overflow. Unless designed as a basin from the start, a bathroom floor will not contain water.
Answer: I imagine you're talking about the bit of splashing that can easily occur, especially when children are coming out of the bath or shower.
Someone happened to mention to me just yesterday his point of view about this.  He recommended bathroom caulk.  I've seen this in the DIY stores.  You can either get a squeeze tube and just squeeze as you go, or get the rigid cylinder that goes into a caulking gun.
After you squeeze it out, you can smooth it out with a damp finger.  (You can wear rubber gloves if you wish.)

Bathroom floor sealer


Is it possible to get the normal login screen when resuming from suspend?

Question: I noticed that the login screen that I get when the system first boots up is different from the login screen I see after I resume from suspend. I'm wondering if it is possible to get the same login screen that I saw when it first booted up as the one I get when I resume the system from suspend. I think the first boot login one is called LightDM greeter or something, not sure about the second one.
Answer: Yes,
first remove gnome-screensaver
sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver

Then install Lightlocker
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:light-locker/release
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install light-locker

For more info on the project see Lightlocker's github page
Answer: LightDM launches unity-greeter, which shows the login screen. You can click Switch User on the unlock screen in order to return to the unity-greeter screen.
Comment: @minerz029 I disagree. The OP did not mention he knows about this and I think it's a viable answer. I would argue that a single click is a better option than adding a PPA and removing a package that is part of `ubuntu-desktop`. Moreover, the PPA page says it takes you back to the LightDM greeter, but a standard Unity desktop is using `unity-greeter`. Plus, it says you may have to add custom keyboard shortcuts to make it work. It's not really shown in the answer that it provides exactly what the OP wants. With respect, I'll say again that a single click may be just the thing he's looking for.
Comment: That sort of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? OP wants this automatically, not just clicking a button to have the normal screen.


Assets 2.0.2 Fatal error

Question: I just updated Assets 2.0.2 from 1.x and on one of the pages of our site, we're receiving the following fatal error:
Fatal error: Uncaught exception 'Exception' with message 'unknown_source' in ...expressionengine/third_party/assets/libraries/assets_lib.php:1188
I'm not sure, but I think it has something to do with upload preferences.  I should note that in the code at line 1188, the $settings variable being inspected is not empty, though when tested the Exception is still being thrown.
Has anyone experienced this, and if so, is there a fix?  Or is there some configuration setting that I'm missing?
Thanks for any help you can provide!
Comment: Please direct bug reports directly to developers - thanks!
Answer: This error will be fixed in the upcoming Assets 2.0.3 release.

Assets 2.0.2 Fatal error


How do I make the most out of a relatively small amount of money?

Question: I am < 18 and have been investing in the markets frequently (stocks & ETFs) over the past couple of years. I put in 200-400 dollars at time and have < $2000 in the market. I feel that by the time I make a profit with this small amount of money, I lost all my profits by having to pay fees to sell. Am I investing my money wisely, or is there a better solution for my situation?
Comment: Have you looked at your broker's no-commission no-load funds?  That will spare you some fees when your account is so small.
Comment: What is your intended purpose with this investment?  Retirement savings, long-term (but not retirement age), short-term, immediate profit?
Answer: First of all kudos to you for seeing the value in saving at a young age.

I feel that by the time I make a profit with this small amount of money, I lost all my profits by having to pay fees to sell.

There are several different things you can mean by this and I'm not sure which is accurate so I am going to address the first two that I thought of.
If you are selling your investments because you need the money (emergency expenses, saved enough for a short term goal, whatever the reason) then this may not be the best solution for your savings.  Investing in mutual funds, ETFs, stocks, 401k, IRA, etc are typically for longer term goals such as a goal that is 10+ years away (maybe buying a home, paying for college for your children, retirement, etc).
If you are selling your investments because you believe that another investment is performing better and you want to get in on that one instead, what I would suggest is leaving the money you have invested where it is and starting future investments in the new fund/ETF you are interested in.  For example if you have $2000 invested in fund X and now you do some research and fund Q looks more appealing that is great, start investing in fund Q with your next deposit.  Any research you do will be based on past results, there is nothing that guarantees that fund Q will continue doing better than the fund X you already have.  Trying to time the market rarely ends well for the investor.
I would encourage you to continue saving money a bit at a time just like you have been doing.  Avoid selling your investments until it is time to sell them for whatever goal you intended them for.  Set aside some cash to cover any unexpected expenses so you won't have to sell your investments to cover the costs, even at 18 unplanned things happen.
Answer: Consider trying a broker that offers free trading. Robinhood is one such broker.


How do you tell if a Li-ion battery has a protection circuit?

Question: I bought a li-ion battery off of ebay. The listing claims that the battery has a protection circuit, but a week later, the battery didn't cut out or anything. With a multimeter, it is reading 10V when the battery is listed at 10.8-12.6V. Does this mean the battery doesn't have protection or should the cutoff be lower?
Comment: 1. It comes from China on eBay, so who knows. 2. I see _nothing_ indicating it has built in protection.
Answer: The battery is most likely a 3S Li-ion pack, i.e. 3 cells/packs in series. Protection circuits for single cell Li-ion normally have overdischarge protection set somewhere in the range 2.5V-3.2V per cell, which translates to 7.5V-9.6V for a 3S pack. So this is the range that you should test to ensure that the undervoltage protection correctly triggers.
The listed output voltage 10.8V-12.6V is probably meant to be a conservative estimate of the usable voltage range, since there will be little accessible capacity left below 10.8V (except at very small currents).
Edit To respond to a comment on the question, if you do a search on the model number "DC 12680 protection" you will find other listings (e.g. on Amazon) where it claims to include protection circuitry.
You will also find pages that unmask the typical overinflated capacity claims on these packs. For example, here it is discharged at 1A down to 8.5V and tests at only 25Wh. Notice that this is 3.7V * 6.8Ah = 25Wh, not 11.1 * 6.8Ah = 75Wh. The industry standard is to quote capacity at the cell nominal voltage 3.7V not the pack voltage (here 11.1V). Many unscrupulous sellers exploit this ambiguity to mislead the buyer into thinking that the pack has much higher capacity, here 75Wh vs. 25Wh. Caveat emptor.
Comment: I would generally advise Li-Ion to cut out at or above 3.0V per cell. A pack for general use with a protection board letting it fall to 2.5V per cell is bad design. From 3V to 2.5V you get about 2% remaining energy content at 1C and increase the risk of premature hardening by 400%. At 3.6V however (10.8 / 3), you still have 18 reasonably safe percent left till you're at 3V with 1C. Other words, for three cells 10.8V as nearly empty is quite conservative, but cutting out below 9V equates to no protection for a compound 3 cell polymer pack.
Comment: @Asmyldof The protection circuit is supposed to be set at a voltage you don't want to ever get to. The user product should be shutting off at around 3.0V, the protection circuit is there in case that fails for some reason and so needs to be set to a lower voltage. The protection circuit is a fail safe and should never be triggered under normal operating conditions.
Comment: @Asmyldof One thing to keep in mind is that designers often lower the undervoltage limit for packs designed for high current loads, in order to counteract the high voltage sag caused by cell internal resistance. Failure to do so would result in much less usable capacity in such cases. In practice I've encountered limits across the whole spectrum that I mentioned, and the extremes were not "bad design". Rather, they were designs that were highly optimized for specific applications
Comment: @Asmyldof The listed UVP range was not meant to be advice for any particular design but, rather, to reflect the range that one  may encounter in various devices, which is what is relevant for the OP's question
Comment: A hard limit at 2.5V is bad design. Period. If you design for more than 2C you use Feed Forwarded design concepts that push down limits based only on currents within the normal ranges. If you can connect a 1k resistor and measure any voltage below 3V per cell, it's just bad design. There's dozen upon dozens design and app notes freely available using feed forward limiting.
Comment: Keep in mind that the UVP setpoint regulates other things too, e.g.  voltage sags in very cold conditions, before *self heating* kicks in, e.g. see the discharge at -20°C  [here.](http://shop.battex.cz/pdf/NCR18650B-D.pdf) But this is not the best place to discuss such matters since they are far removed from the OP.
Comment: @Andrew That is possibly correct for single cell systems. In a pack cutting off at the last moment will invite all kinds of problems, because most, if not all, these systems do not put switches between the individual batteries to protect from charge differences. As said above, the energy content difference is negligible, the risks are very real.
Answer: Without actually looking in the pack to determine if there is protection circuitry, it would be very difficult to test for the circuitry.  The main reason being that in order to do a voltage or current test, you would need to test the extremes( Highest voltage, lowest voltage, max current draw, temp, etc.) and if the battery is not protected you will most likely end up destroying the battery.
Ex: You decide to test if it has under voltage protection, so you start to drain the battery and observe the voltage.
outcome a) The battery has protective circuitry, so as the voltage reaches a low level, around 2.5V per cell(can vary quite a bit, determined by the manufacturer), the output shuts off and you suddenly read 0V.
outcome b) There is no protective circuitry, so the battery keeps draining and the voltage reaches a range where you can determine that there is no protective circuitry and the voltage is still high enough that the cells have not completely died, around 2V-2.5V, depends on chemistry.
outcome c) There is no protective circuitry, and the voltage on the cells becomes low enough that they start plating lithium and become useless.
It then becomes a game of trying to achieve outcome b while avoiding outcome c.  If testing is the only option to determine if it has protective circuitry, I would recommend draining the battery to about 2.4V per cell or so, and if it gets that low with out shutting off then there is no circuitry, at least none of any value. You need to be very careful not to go much lower, because all it takes is one cell dropping below 2V to make the entire battery useless.  I would not recommend test over voltage or current, as these can easily lead to the battery "rapidly disassembling".
TLDR;
It can be done by very carefully lowering the voltage, however it should only be done as a last resort as cell damage can easily occur if not careful.
Comment: This is not optimal answer, but the only one that tries to provide a guide how to answer the titular question instead of trying to help with that particular single battery pack.
Comment: Above is quite misleading. Li-ion cells don't "completely die" if once drained a bit below the recommended minimum voltage, nor do they "plate lithium" (that is due to overcharging). Rather, copper current collectors can start dissolving if the cell remains at very low voltages (esp. < 2.0V) for long periods. But a slight undervoltage due to a quick test as above is unlikely to cause any serious degradation.
Comment: @BillDubuque: so I can safely drain the battery dry as long as I immediately recharge it afterwards?
Comment: @SF No, you should never do that for Li-ion batteries.
Answer: re:  "...battery has a protection circuit..."
What kind of protection?  Over charge protection (max current &/or above the cutoff V), over discharge protection (max current &/or below the cutoff V), max current protection or all three? If you want to know for certain which type/s of protections your battery provides, your battery will need to be monitored (V & A) while charging & discharging it.
If the li-ion cells are 3.7 Vnom, then the max charge should be 4.2 vdc per cell an 12.6 vdc for 3 cells that are connected in series.  If the charging current cuts-off before the in circuit charging V exceeds 12.6V, then your battery has over charge protection.  If the discharge current cuts-off at or before the battery reaches typical cut-off voltage levels (~3v per cell), then your battery has over discharge protection.


Unexpected rotation when exporting .fbx for Unity

Question: I have had no problems exporting .fbx files for Unity except recently some of my .fbx started to rotate the mesh. The asset is correctly oriented, but the mesh is rotated 90 degrees. Is there an explanation and fix for why this happens sometimes, and works properly otherwise?
Comment: Related: http://blender.stackexchange.com/q/1902/599
Answer: That is because Blender uses +Z as a up direction whiles Unity uses +Y (most other 3D packages do so). So when exporting your file make sure you have pressed:

PS: I am not sure about the forward, you might have to try both -Z and +Z as I am not sure of Unity.
Answer: I also had that problem but just figured it out.
Here is a Link to a pretty good explanation, found this on Unity3d.com.
Sarper Soher wrote:

"It's the FBX exporter and the difference of the coordinate systems between Blender and Unity, and simple to fix.
In object mode, set the X rotation of your model to -90. Press Ctrl+A and apply rotation, X rotation appears to be 0 now in Blender, set it to 90 and save/export it. You'll see that it will appear both correct and at 0 rotations now."

http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/319802/rotation-when-importing-from-blender.html
He also wrote a script, but when I use it and import to Unity I always have 0.0002 Rotation on X. I have no idea how to fix that one, but if you hit in the 90 degrees manually again after running the script it's fine. (Blender only shows three decimals on rotation, that's why you can't see the 0.0002 D:)


Key expansion in AES CTR mode

Question: While working with AES 256 in CBC mode, I learned that it requires Key Expansion - forward (for encryption) and reverse (for decryption).
Does AES CTR mode also requires such a step ? Or can the 256 bit key be used as is ?
Answer: When AES performs an encryption (or decryption) with a key, it internally converts the key into a series of subkeys (either 11, 13 or 15 subkeys, depending on whether you start with a 128 bit, 192 bit or 256 bit AES key).  This process is known as key expansion and needs to be done, whether you encrypt and decrypt.
And, yes, this needs to be done for AES-CTR (or any other mode of operation of AES).
Now, when AES is implemented in software, we usually generate the subkeys once (and store them in memory); in hardware, it is not uncommon to generate the subkeys on the fly in parallel with processing the AES block (because the logic to do this on-the-fly generation is cheaper for hardware than storing the subkeys).
Comment: When you're saying "in hardware it's cheaper to calculate than to store" do you mean that the required FPGA / ASIC logic for the expansion is more compact than storing  the pre-calculated 128 * 15 bits per AES256 key ?
Comment: @shaiko: I believe it might be.  In addition, some hardware (including the ones I dealt with) can deal with multiple keys; the on-chip hardware to store all those subkeys, or alternatively, to shuffle in the subkeys from off-chip, is rather more expensive than the on-the-fly computation.

Key expansion in AES CTR mode


How did Paul know that "the whole creation has been groaning"?

Question: Romans 8:22

We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

What is the source of knowledge? Is it written in the OT? Any specific verse?
Comment: Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunami ? (Up-voted +1.)
Answer: I think it refers back to Genesis 3:17-19 and the curse place upon the earth by God.
Perfection in Eden has now been changed to a cursed ground, whereas there were fruit trees, green plants etc. there is now thorns an thistles.
Where fruit/food was readily available at an arm's reach- there is now labor to be done and by the sweat of the brow there will be food.
Comment: Plants are only one part of creation. That doesn't really suggest all creation.
Answer: Apart from personal observations and experience, Paul was intimately acquainted with Scripture.
Paul knew that since the fall of man, every part of God's creation was subjected to a curse. Under that curse, all creation groans: the ground was cursed for Adam's sake, thorns and thistles and noxious weeds began to grow, all of Eve's daughters have laboured painfully in childbirth, and death entered the world (Genesis 3:14–19).
Paul also knew about God's promises to lift the curse of sin and to restore all creation to the Eden-like reflection of God's glory:  "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind" (Isaiah 65:17).
In Romans 8, the apostle Paul is teaching believers that their new life in Jesus Christ is solidly founded on God's promises and plans for His children. The first promise Paul touches on is that of future glory.  Then, in verse 19, Paul says that all creation is eagerly awaiting that future glorious day when God's children become who they were always meant to be, that the creation would be liberated from its bondage to decay.
Elsewhere Paul uses the illustration of a woman in childbirth to show how believers long to be clothed in their heavenly bodies: "For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling" (2 Corinthians 5:2).
P.S. Almost forgot to mention the glaringly obvious: Paul was writing under divine inspiration.
Answer:
What is the source of knowledge? Is it written in the OT? Any specific verse?

First, as to the meaning of the phrase οἴδαμεν γὰρ ὅτι ("for we know that").  Douglas Moo, in his commentary to Romans, said the phrase is:

to introduce a commonly recognized truth (see also 2:2; 3:19; 7:14; 8:28), and it may be that he sees the violence and disasters in nature as evidence of the "yearning" he speaks of in this verse.

Joseph Fitzmyer, in his Anchor Yale Bible Commentary to Romans said that Paul owed this knowledge to the OT and to the intertestamental literature:

Paul alludes to Gen 3:17–19 and 5:29, where the earth has been cursed because of Adam's sinful transgression. But he is also thinking of the OT promises about "a new heaven and a new earth," the apocalyptic promises in Trito-Isaiah (Isa 65:17; 66:22). In intertestamental literature such promises were transferred to the messianic age: 1 Enoch 45:4–5 (the earth will be transformed for the upright along with the Chosen One); Jub. 4:26; 2 Apoc. Bar. 31:5–32:6; 4 Ezra 7:11, 30–32, 75. This notion is also found in Rev 21:1 and 2 Pet 3:13 in the NT and is echoed in later rabbinic literature (see Str-B 3.247–55): the world, created for humanity and the service of it, was drawn into Adam's ruin; the blessings given to him (fertility of the soil, fecundity of trees, brilliance of stars, friendliness of animals, limitation of insects) were all lost, because Eve gave Adam (= humanity) to eat of the forbidden fruit. Paul is tributary to such Jewish thinking. He realizes that through Adam came not only sin and death (5:12–14), but "bondage to decay" and the "slavery of corruption," which affect all material creation, even apart from humanity (8:19–23).
Answer: How did Paul know that "the whole creation has been groaning"?
For some six thousand years since the fall of Adam, mankind has been in bondage to pain, death, wars, famines,  deceases, mental and emotional disturbances, fear guilt, worry e.t.c. Paul observed all  these  and with his knowledge of the  scriptures, he  realistically summed the human experience:
Romans 8:22  (NET Bible)

22 For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers together
until now

To dust you will return
Genesis 3:19 (NASB)

19 By the sweat of your face  You shall eat bread Until you return to
the ground,  Because from it you were taken;  For you are dust,  And
to dust you shall return."
Answer: In addition, note the phrase "as in" which signals a biblical metaphor but not an exact likeness. In this specific question's case, it is "as in the pains of childbirth" with which no previous replies have dwelt.
The NT biblical authors were much more steeped in the OT than we can possibly imagine. (This statement needs no overt reference as much of Jesus' words drew from the OT and these references are provided in bible versions.)
In the story of Israel, the metaphor of "pains of childbirth" could signal two other events:
First is the labor of Rachel (the beloved of Jacob), the birth of a son of Jacob's old age, Benjamin, the subsequent death of Rachel, and the yet future symbolism of Rachel, no longer alive on earth, but in spirit, weeping for her children. Rachel is buried near Bethlehem, where baby boys of Israel would be killed by Herod in the act of trying to kill Jesus. She would have reason to weep.
Genesis 35:16-19

16 Then they moved on from Bethel. While they were still some distance
from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth and had great difficulty. 17
And as she was having great difficulty in childbirth, the midwife said
to her, "Don't despair, for you have another son." 18 As she breathed
her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni But his father
named him Benjamin.
19 So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is,
Bethlehem). 20 Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day
that pillar marks Rachel's tomb.

Now harkening back to Genesis:
Jeremiah 31:15

"This is what the Lord says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and
great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted, because they are no more."

and then the fulfilled moment from Jeremiah noted by Matthew 2:18:

"A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping
for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no
more."

All of these relate back to the childbirth event of Rachel's death; the pain of childbirth directly relates to what all humanity experiences. Rachel knew she was going to die; she saw her fate coming, as all of humanity does. Surely, she cried out in pain and possibly bled to death. Her body, racked in the waves of contractions and pain, becomes the mother figure of giving one's life for another. Even in the poor and humble lives on earth before Christ, people would have been able to look around at the world and feel this similar wracking, screaming, and gasping for breath as one craves for justice, relationship with God, and the end of pain and death in this existence.
Second: childbirth, as designed, brings quickly following a joyous event. Indeed, Benjamin survived his mother's death. The special mothering of Joseph and Benjamin were the channel through which salvation moved through the family of Israel. Birth brings the arrival of new life on earth. So the emphasis in Romans 8:22 is on pain and chaos before new creation and peace (Genesis 1).  Jesus' arrival signaled the arrival of that long-sought-for justice, recompense (making things right), that new close relationship with a parent and the arrival of Life.
Answer: In addition to Rick Martin's observation, in Isaiah 35:1-10 (NASB)

1 The wilderness and the desert will rejoice,
And the desert will shout for joy and blossom;
Like the crocus
2 It will blossom profusely
And rejoice with joy and jubilation.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it,
The majesty of Carmel and Sharon.
They will see the glory of the Lord,
The majesty of our God.
3 Strengthen the exhausted, and make the feeble strong.
4 Say to those with anxious heart,
"Take courage, fear not.
Behold, your God will come with vengeance;
The retribution of God will come,
But He will save you."
5 Then the eyes of those who are blind will be opened,
And the ears of those who are deaf will be unstopped.
6 Then those who limp will leap like a deer,
And the tongue of those who cannot speak will shout for joy.
For waters will burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
7 The scorched land will become a pool
And the thirsty ground springs of water;
In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,
Grass becomes reeds and rushes.
8 A highway will be there, a roadway,
And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean will not travel on it,
But it will be for the one who walks that way,
And fools will not wander on it.
9 No lion will be there,
Nor will any vicious animal go up on it;
They will not be found there.
But the redeemed will walk there,
10 And the redeemed of the Lord will return
And come to Zion with joyful shouting,
And everlasting joy will be on their heads.
They will obtain gladness and joy,
And sorrow and sighing will flee away.


What is the difference between "anybody", "nobody", "everyone", and "everybody"? How are they used?

Question: How are these pronouns placed and used in AmE?
Answer: Anybody - Means any one from (say) a Group.
Nobody  -  Means none from a Group.
These two were pretty obvious, Yes.
Now, everyone and everybody actually means the same. It means Every Person.
However, the difference comes in usage. Everyone is considered a bit formal while Everybody is more casual.
Hope this helped.
Comment: Note all three have "one" and "body" versions: "anyone", "anybody", "everyone", "everybody", "no one", "nobody". ("no one" is written as two words because otherwise the two "o"s in row would confuse the pronunciation.) Both versions of each mean the same thing.

What is the difference between “anybody”, “nobody”, “everyone”, and “everybody”? How are they used?


I Drawing Humanoid robots haram?

Question: is drawing human shaped robots haram in 2D,well robots don't have a soul and muslims can draw things without a soul,i don't know if it is halal but if it is not,can we draw a human body shaped robot with a non human head(es.camera head,tv head)
Answer: Depends, if the robot depicts humans or not. But from your question it seems that the robot is humanoid, meaning it depicts humans. In the following hadiths:

Ibn 'Abbas (May Allah be pleased with them) said:
I heard the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) saying, "Every painter will go to Hell, and for every portrait he has made, there will be appointed one who will chastise him in the Hell." Ibn 'Abbas said: If you have to do it, draw pictures of trees and other inanimate things. (https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1680)

In the previous hadith:

'Aishah (May Allah be pleased with her) said:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) visited me after returning from a journey, and I had a shelf with a thin cloth curtain hanging over it and on which there were portraits. When he saw it, the colour of his face changed (because of anger) and he said, "O 'Aishah! the most grievous torment from Allah on the Day of Resurrection will be for those who imitate (Allah) in the act of His creation." 'Aishah said: We tore it into pieces and made a cushion or two cushions out of that. (https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1679)

From these hadiths it is obvious that drawing the pictures of animate living things is a sin. So if the robot resembles humans or any other animate living thing, then it is a sin to draw it. Based on what you said to replace the head with a non-human head, then it could still be considered impermissible if the rest of the body resembled a human being.

Abu Hurairah (May Allah be pleased with him) said:
The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) said, "The Almighty Allah said: 'Who is more an oppressor than him who goes to create like My creation? Let him make an ant or a grain of corn or a grain of barley."' (https://sunnah.com/riyadussalihin:1683)

I am a human, and I might have said something wrong. But this is only from what I had. And Allah knows best.
May Allah grant us knowledge and guide us to the right path, and grant us Jannah and Al-Firdaus. Ameen.

I Drawing Humanoid robots haram?


Would Animal Handling apply when interacting with a young dragon?

Question: From when a dragon hatches from its egg to the end of its life, could a character use Animal Handling to interact favourably with it? If so, when (in terms of life stages of the dragon) would it apply and when does it cease to be effective (given that Dragons are highly intelligent and may not necessarily be counted as 'animals')?
Answer: To answer your question with a question:
Would you use Animal Handling on a human infant or a human toddler?
If your DM does allow use of Animal Handling, the time where that skill is applicable would be very short.  Dragons are by nature very intelligent beasts. This possibly related discussion on Animal Handling is provided with a caveat: Animal Handling isn't the right tool for long, if at all.
Why is the Animal Handling skill a bad fit?
Dragons are smarter on average than humans are.
The age category "Young" will have an Intelligence better than that of the average  human.
Example: 16 Int score for a Young Green Dragon.  At "Young" a dragon already speaks the Common tongue.  (Basic DM Rules, p. 52).
A Wyrmling (Green) has a 14 Intelligence, and speaks Draconic. (p. 95, MM, SSD assist appreciated).
Argument against using Animal Handling
Dragons are not Beasts in the way that the term is used in the game as a tag.

Dragons are large reptilian creatures of ancient origin and tremendous power. True dragons, including the good metallic dragons and the evil chromatic dragons, are highly intelligent and have innate magic.
Beasts are nonhumanoid creatures that are a natural part of the fantasy ecology. Some of them have magical powers, but most are unintelligent and lack any society or language. Beasts include all varieties of ordinary animals, dinosaurs, and giant versions of animals (Basic DM Rules, p. 2).

Example Dragon (p. 52)

Young Green Dragon: Large dragon, lawful evil

Example Beasts (p. 9, 10)

Allosaurus Large beast, unaligned
Ape Medium beast, unaligned

As DM, I wouldn't allow it.
Comment: I would use animal handling on a toddler. Bathroom training for a toddler is not very different than for a dog. Plus even adults are subject to classical conditioning ;)
Comment: In real world examples we have the dog whisperer some that know how to handle felines and others that talk with dolphins. Animal handling in general boils down to understanding a particular animals language. Body language mostly so the "whisperer" knows what action to take next depending on the actions of said animal. I suppose knowing how to interrupt and react to dragon nuances It may help hatchlings to imprint upon you.  If you raise a creature from infancy to trust you then you have a bond and the animal handling would have paid off.
Comment: People forget that we too are animals and raising children is no less then animal handling. :)
Comment: For this games purposes KorvinStarmast is correct and I like Andrew Coopers point..  However to follow up with Lucas Leblanc, keep in mind that "animal handling" in the real world does not necessarily rely on Intelligence to defend against the attempted manipulation (because that's what the skill lets the player do). For intelligent animals such as humans, dolphins, mice, dragons and the like we would use social engineering skills such as Bilbo did to Smog.  Many intelligent people get Dupped into purchases they would not have if not for the animal handling skill of the sales person.
Comment: Not usually necessary! The advantage of accidental redundancy is that the difference in expression can sometimes be a significant differentiator that shows up in voting.
Comment: I think you are taking a game thing a bit too far, thanks.
Comment: @UhlBelk It's really not the same thing. Think about human geniuses, people with truly exceptional intelligence (keep in mind 16 INT is AVERAGE for a Young dragon). These are people that learned how to recite the alphabet within months of being born, learned how to read at or before the age of 2. There are examples of folks that went to college when most others hadn't made it into high school. How and when exactly does animal handling apply to that?
Comment: @ohmusama Having raised two kids, I see what you are getting at with learning and teaching responses and behaviors.  Consider the toddler who is _off the charts_ intelligent, high IQ, way ahead of peer group.  That is how a dragon compares to a human child, and way ahead of animal intelligence beasts Animal Handling is generally directed at.  The linked QA I chose explores some other approaches to dealing with dragon hatchlings.
Comment: What is the actual age in years of a dragon to be consider a youngling? I certainly agree that by then the dragon would be aware of any manipulation tactics just as any teenager understands reverse psychology better then an 4 year-old.  Apply that logic to said hatchling and hopefully by the time the creature is aware of its own free will you would have imprinted. Hopefully it being intelligent and perhaps even grateful enough not to eat you when it realizes it can.
Comment: Most all creatures on this planet can be conditioned with easy food and providing you don't spook it can get used to your presence. And for the most part intelligent creatures form relationships only when there is something to be gained. Easy food, shelter, love and other chemical reactions that bring a joyous stimuli. But why does a beaten dog still come home. A normal dragon may not have family values if the mother does not raise it but as with most higher lifeforms our values are imprinted at a young age which makes it hard to unlearn or meta-program as an adult.
Answer: KorvinStarmast is correct, I think. The Animal Handling Proficiency is fairly tightly defined.  On page 178 of the PHB is says, "When there is any question whether you can calm down a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked , or intuit an animal's intentions, the DM might call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check."
Dragons (in general) aren't animals. They certainly aren't domesticated. They are thinking, self-aware creatures. Animal Handling is used for dealing with horses, cattle, dogs and other domesticated animals.  I might allow someone to use Animal Handling to intuit whether a bear or wolf is about to attack, since the PHB says something about an animal's "intentions". That would be situational in my opinion though.  The Proficiency has a very heavy implication that it is intended for animals you'd typically find in the company of humans either as mounts, pets, draft animals or whatnot.
Answer: You can use Animal Handling only to ride the dragon
You can use Animal Handling by the rules to interact with a Dragon, if the dragon is willing to serve as your mount.
Here is Animal Handling (p. 178, PHB):

Animal Handling. When there is any question whether you can calm down a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked, or intuit an animal's intentions, the DM might call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. You also make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to control your mount when you attempt a risky maneuver.

The examples given are not neccesarily an exhaustive list:

calming down domesticated animals
intuit an animal's intentions (domesticated or not)
controlling a mount in a risky maneuver or keep it from being spooked (not limited to animals at all)

What are mounts?
Mounts ar listed in the Mounts and Other Animals table and include camels, donkey or mules, elephants, horses, ponys, and mastiffs. The rules further state:

Mounts other than those listed here are available in the worlds of D&D, but they are rare and not normally available for purchase. These include flying mounts (pegasi, griffons, hippogriffs, and similar animals1) and even aquatic mounts (giant sea horses, for example). Acquiring such a mount often means securing an egg and raising the creature yourself, making a bargain with a powerful entity, or negotiating with the mount itself.

So, essentially any creature you can ride could be a mount. And you can ride a dragon in D&D. Even a young dragon is Large size, and thus large enough to act as a mount for a medium-sized or small character.
The challenge is to get the dragon to agree to serve as your mount in the first place. For that you actually convince the dragon to act as your mount. Could you use the skill, if you interpret "calming" as generally influencing? Not by the examples in the skill, as the dragon is not an animal.
What is an animal in the game?
There is no explict definition of what counts as an animal in the game, so we need to use the dictionary. Here is Merriam-Webster's:

any of a kingdom (Animalia)]** of living things including many-celled organisms (...)

Kingdom animalia is a biology technical term. You can make the case that as it refers to real-world, naturally occuring animals listed thereunder, this defintion means that in the game, only such real-world animals should be covered.
Another approach is to look at monster types (MM, p. 6f). There are only 14 distinct monster types, and each creature in the game must have exactly one of them. For example, the Half-Dragon is just a humanoid, not a dragon humanoid. Animal is not one of the monster types, but  animals are listed as a subtype of Beast:

Beasts are nonhumanoid creatures that are a natural part of the fantasy ecology. Some of them have magical powers, but most are unintelligent and lack any society or language. Beasts include all varieties of ordinary animals, dinosaurs, and giant versions of animals.

You can make the argument that this list is not exahustive, and other creature types like Monstrosity could be considered to include animals too. However, none of the other monster type descriptions includes any reference to animals. Dragons do not, and neither do Monstrosities:

Monstrosities are monsters in the strictest sense -- frightening
creatures that are not ordinary, not truly natural, and almost never benign. Some are the results of magical experimentation gone awry (such as owl bears), and others, are the product-of terrible curses (including minotaurs and yuan-ti). They defy categorization, and in some sense serve as a catch-all category for creatures that don't fit into any other type.

I think this description makes it unlikely that even monstrosities which by their looks could be mistaken as animals of some kind, like an Owlbear or a snake-transformed Yuan-Ti, are part of the animal category. They defy categorization.
For both these reasons, I'd rule that animals for the game are just natural animals, maybe including giant versions of those, and nothing else. But there remains a slight fuzziness, so I think this is an area each DM needs to decide, in the end.
What can you do with a skill
The game only has a small number of skills that you can be proficient in (18, in total). The DMG (on p. 239) advises the DM on handling proficiency as follows:

When you ask a player to make an ability check, consider whether a skill or tool proficiency might apply to it. (...) One way to think about this question is to consider whether a character could become better at a particular task through training and practice. If the answer is no, it's fine to say that no proficiency applies. But if the answer is yes, assign an appropriate skill or tool proficiency to reflect that training and practice.

And there is a lot of things that and you could try to do or learn to get better in, that is not covered by any of the skills. For this reason, many DMs interpret the skill descriptions generously, and allow you to do things using the "closest" skill if you can make a good case for it, to add your proficiency to the test.
Here however, I would doubt that Animal Handling is the right or closest skill when it comes to influencing: you are dealing with a dragon which firstly is not an animal, and secondly has an intelligence that is much higher than that of an animal. The right ability score to use here would likely by Charisma, and the best skill, Persuasion or Intimidation.
Your DM may be more generous, and allow you to use it, or maybe allow you to use its proficiency bonus on a Charisma check as per the Variant rule on page  175.

1 You could use this phrase to claim Celestials and Monstrosities must include animals, because Pegasi are Celestials, and Hippogriffs and Griffons are Monstrosities, and "similar animals" in the same enumeration implies that they count as animals, too.
Comment: Dragons are not beasts.


My turtles just won't lay eggs

Question: I have two turtles in minecraft. I give them both seagrass, then they bread and I get xp, but they just don't lay eggs! By the way, after they've breading, I can give one endless amount of seagrass and the other not at all. When I let them go to their home beach, he only swims in circles. What's the problem? Could it be a minecraft bug?
Comment: Are you sure they're making it to their home beaches?  sometimes people destroy them, or build up around them and make the home beach inaccessible....
Answer: The turtles have to be where they spawned, unrelated to the question the baby turtles when they grow up they can also only lay eggs where they spawned/hatched
Answer: This sounds a lot like a known Bedrock Edition bug that causes turtles to swim in circles and not lay eggs after breeding. Unfortunately, if this is the issue, there's not much of a way around it without using cheats; it is, however, being fixed in 1.16.
For Java Edition players, there are a couple other possibilities.
According to https://minecraft.wiki/w/Turtle#Breeding:

Feeding two turtles seagrass causes them to enter love mode, causing one of the turtles to have eggs in its inventory and appear a bit bigger (about .2 of a block) than normal turtles. The pregnant turtle then travels back to its home beach, which is where it first spawned. Upon arrival, it seeks a nearby sand block on which to lay its eggs. The turtle digs vigorously for several seconds a few times - with pauses, on top of the sand, and then lays 1–4 turtle eggs. The pregnant turtle can breed again immediately after laying the eggs while the other turtle can mate immediately after mating.

So in short, turtles can only lay eggs where they originally hatched/spawned. Turtles won't lay eggs when kept in an enclosure unless it happens to be on their home beach. It sounds like you've already ensured they have a clear path to their home beach, but also make sure the beach has plenty of sand blocks to lay eggs on.
Also remember that zombies and drowned will seek out turtle eggs and try to stomp on them. It is possible that the turtle laid its eggs but they got destroyed before hatching.
Note that turtles grow slightly larger in size when they're pregnant; try comparing the turtle you believe to be carrying an egg to another one to confirm the breeding actually worked properly.

My turtles just won't lay eggs


How do you counter Camouflage first?

Question: As marines, how do you counter the aliens rushing camouflage?  A handful of camo Skulks can walk into the main (or any location that the marines are trying to build) and kill everyone before they hardly have a chance to react.  Observatories are costly, weak, and immobile, and scan is on a not-insignificant cooldown.
Staying in a tight ball helps, but it seems to be impossible to build obs in critical areas (tech points, doubles, etc) quickly enough to not give up control of over half the map and it's resource nodes.
Answer: Camo is pretty overpowered, I think it will be changed in future updates.
For now the best viable option is to have your comm get armor upgrades ASAP.
Armor 1 give you an extra 1-2 bites before death which gets you closer to an even fight.
Additionally:

Good placement of observatories is essential. They must be placed in locations that give you as much sight out of your bases as possible yet are still protected.
Shooting off rounds where they should be.  Try to out think the khara players. I have often guessed where skulks will be and end up killing them before they even move since they think they are safe in their camo.  Yes this does waste ammo but dying is worse.  Like CS or any of these style games players often hide in the same spots.
Organize your team. In NS2 a well organized marine team should beat Khara most of the time(although it is rare). If your marines travel in groups with a few meteres inbetween you a skulk taking its first bite should be an easy target since it will still be moving slow out of cloak.
Lastly, if your party is about to assualt infested area's the scan really is worth the 3 res.

Currently the Khara win rate is too high so expect certain game mechanics to change.

How do you counter Camouflage first?


Contacts stuck in favourites widget on HTC Legend

Question: Until recently, I was able to remove contacts using this method. Now those methods don't work. I can remove a person from the favourites group, but that only removes them from the widget until I restart. When I visit the contact profile I see them listed as being in the favourites group, but when I go to edit, they are not listed as a member. Removing the contact from my "Starred on Android" group doesn't work either. Is there any other way to remove contacts?
Answer: Sounds like you need to delete the widget, clear the data and cache for Contacts Storage, re-sync, and re-add the widget.  That should get rid of bad data that is likely screwing things up.
Comment: Thanks for the suggestion, but I actually solved by going to the group, then editing the group's members; rather than going to the person, then editing the person's group
Comment: That's strange.  Oh Google ...


How to get rid of the taste of flour in homemade bakery?

Question: I usually get random cookie and cake recipes from the internet and try them. They are good but all of them have floury taste to me. Possible culprits are the flour I use and how I mix and bake dough. I use Gold Medal All-Purpose Flour and my hands to mix ingredients, having no mixer. What can I get wrong? Is there an easy fix?
Answer: Assuming you aren't very unlucky and happen to download a series of bad recipes I think it's one of a few things.
It's possible you could be undercooking your goods. Fully cooked baked goods should not taste like flour.
It's also possible that you could be mixing insufficiently. If this were the case though you'd  likely have some cookies that weren't floury.
The most likely culprit though is packed flour. If you are using volume measurements (most likely given the source) for flour, it's quite possible to use nearly twice as much flour as the recipe intends simply because your flour is packed down more than the author's was.
I recommend using either a food processor or a sifter to sift your flour adequately before measuring. Don't undo your sifting by rapping your measuring cup on the counter either! Simply scoop, scrape to level and dump it in the mixing bowl.
See Also:

What Kinds of Recipes Should I Sift/Aerate The Flour?
How can I make sifting easier?
What is the purpose of sifting dry ingredients?
Comment: Better yet, find a recipe that measures the flour by weight.
Comment: You shouldn't have to buy a sifter if you own a whisk. Just get a bowl and stir it around with a whisk, works nicely. :)
Comment: Alternatively, convert the recipes to weight. Flour is around 120g (4¼ oz) per cup, depending on measurement method. And once you've converted a recipe, you can make it again in the future with near perfect consistency.
Comment: I had never understood the need of sifting flour before measuring. Thanks a lot. I will try with the same recipe and see the result. First, I have to buy a sifter and, probably, a proper cookbook.
Comment: @puri: there's a rumor over here that in ancient times it had the purpose to sift out mealworms & Co...
Answer: I've only ever had this issue if I under cook the baked item.
You get the same issue if you don't cook your roux long enough.
Answer: My grandmother was born in 1909 in New Zealand. She moved to the UK and started her family. When we were young she was always busy in the kitchen, making bread, cake, lemon curd, fruit scones...… she would allow the mix to sit, somewhere cool before she cooked the scones. It made all the difference. I tried her recipe which the family recorded, my father's verdict.... 'its a bit floury!' and the reason? I hadn't allowed the mix to sit long enough- I was too impatient. SO my suggestion, try setting the mix aside for several hours and seeing if it makes a difference. Same with making pastry. You would mix it, roll it out on grease proof paper and then stick in the fridge for a few hours of the next day before using. Its funny because this is how things were done 100 years ago- and none of the modern recipes either online or in cook books mention this. But it was once de rigueur!
Answer: So my husband got this cookie recipe recently, and they just tasted like flour too. I decided to tweak the recipe I added more sugar, vanilla, and blueberries as they were blueberry cookies so I'd recommend vanilla extract, and more sugar.


Suppose GCH, then Aleph function and Beth function are isomorphic?

Question: GHC claims that:
2^($\aleph_0 $) = $\aleph_1 \ $
2^($\aleph_1 $) = $\aleph_2 \ $  and so on.
Since the aleph function defined as:
$\aleph_0$ = $\omega$
2^($\aleph_\alpha$) = $\aleph_\alpha^+$ and so on.
Since the beth function defined as:
$\beth_0$=$\aleph_0$
2^($\beth_0 $) = $\beth_1 \ $
2^($\beth_1 $) = $\beth_2 \ $  and so on.
If we assume GCH then aleph numbers and beth numbers would not be same?
Comment: Yes. ${{{{}}}}$
Answer: You have a mistake in the definition of the $\aleph$ cardinals. $2^{\aleph_\alpha}$ is not $\aleph_\alpha^+$, at least not in general. This is $\sf GCH$, and not the definition of the $\aleph$ numbers.
The $\aleph$ numbers are defined as follows:
- $\aleph_0=\omega$;
- $\aleph_{\alpha+1}$ is the least ordinal whose cardinality is larger than $\aleph_\alpha$ (such ordinal exists due to Hartogs' theorem); and
- If $\alpha$ is a limit ordinal, then $\aleph_\alpha=\sup\{\aleph_\beta\mid\beta<\alpha\}$.
The $\beth$ numbers, on the other hand, are defined using power sets for successor steps.
Since $\sf GCH$ is often formulated as $2^{\aleph_\alpha}=\aleph_{\alpha+1}$, we can now prove by transfinite induction that $\aleph_\alpha=\beth_\alpha$ for all $\alpha$.
Comment: You have of course right. In the script of my lecture there are several definitions and theorems before the aleph sequences. I did not state them all. On the 40th page of the script (http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/ag/logik/teaching/2016WS/Aktuelles_Skript.pdf) you can see that it is stated similar to your statement with the previous Definition. (I mean the Def. 105 and then Def. 107) I see if we assume GCH, then the answer is obvious but I wanted to be sure that I do not skip any important step.


Is there any available way to discover/find the public key of a specific address?

Question: Is there any way to discover/ find out the public key of a specific bitcoin address? If not, are there any available tools online to help find the public key of a specific bitcoin address?
Answer: The only way is to see if any outputs for that address have been spent before, and then looking at the spending transaction(s). Those spending transactions will contain the scripts and public keys for that address.
Otherwise, no, it is not possible. Addresses are constructed by hashing public keys or scripts, and one of the key properties of hash functions is that they are not reversible. So you cannot take the hash encoded by an address and compute what was hashed (i.e. the public key or script).
Comment: So does it mean that a bitcoin address that actually has an incoming transaction but no outgoing transaction doesn't typically have a public key?
Comment: And I almost forgot... Is there any way I could use the public key I have to track the address which the public key has been specified to?
Comment: Every public key hash type address (1... and shorter bc1q... addresses) have a public key. Only once there are outgoing addresses is the public key put into the blockchain for everyone to see. Likewise, if you have a public key, you can compute the addresses for that public key.


Creating a Pdf with a cartesian grid using itext?

Question: Could anyone please provide me a sample program to create a pdf which can dynamically create a grid or even dots starting at (0,0) at bottom left corner on the Pdf of PageSize.Letter either using itext or any other framework
max X= 8.5 Inches
Max Y =11 Inches
Comment: You're not even trying, you're just asking for it.
Answer: Please take a look at the Grid example (you can download the full code here). In this example, I define the pagesize variable like this:
Rectangle pagesize = PageSize.LETTER;

I use this variable to create the Document instance, and I also use it in the loops that draw the grid:
PdfContentByte canvas = writer.getDirectContent();
for (float x = 0; x < pagesize.getWidth(); ) {
    for (float y = 0; y < pagesize.getHeight(); ) {
        canvas.circle(x, y, 1f);
        y += 72f;
    }
    x += 72f;
}
canvas.fill();

In this case, I increment x and y with 72 user units. This means that the distance between the dots will be 1 inch.


what type of switch would this be?

Question: what type of switch will normally be off/ open but when activated and held in the on/ closed position will then go back to the off/ open and rest when the switch is released?
I am wanting a to make a light flash once with each press of the switch and not stay on and then i want it to reset when released so that when switched the process will start all over again. so picture a gun you pull the trigger and a bullet comes out and when you release the trigger it resets and is ready to fire with the next pull or trigger in fact this is exactly what i want to do but instead of bullets I want a laser to flash.
there is a video of the part I would like to make at Min 4:00 & 7:45
 youtube.com/watch?v=B0Yax6VeOF4
and this page you can see how small the switch is, how ever there is a bit more room if I had to make it a bit bigger.
 http://www.glockstore.com/training-resources/training-devices/laser-module-only-for-ar-15
Comment: A **Momentary** switch.
Comment: A normally open pushbutton with only "ON operation"? You mean like these: http://si.farnell.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?catalogId=15001&langId=386&storeId=10175&categoryId=700000006197&st=button&pageSize=25&showResults=true&pf=110175953
Comment: @Passerby, hmm, what is it the rest of the time? :D
Comment: @wossname a cat in a box
Answer: That's just a normally-open momentary closed switch, available in either push-button or spring-return toggle flavors, and you'd use it to trigger something like a 555 timer in order to keep the light turned on for as long or as short as you liked.
Like this:
Comment: Thank you for the help and answer, I think is makes sense to me! I found a video of the exact thing I want to make but it cost $300 I know there is no where close to that in parts and labor. I can source the laser cartridge petty cheaply on amazon and the aluminium part will not be hard to make but the switch and 555 time are they small enough to fit in to the size package I need pleas see Video and at min 7:45 he shows the part and how it works. youtube.com/watch?v=B0Yax6VeOF4 THANKS a gain @EM Fields for the info above! –  Aaron Virgo 8 mins ago
Answer: It's called a normally open momentary switch.  A common example is a pushbutton.  Most pushbuttons are open until pressed.
These things are very common.  Try the search term "pushbutton" on a site like Mouser.

what type of switch would this be?


Server down - server on domain dcpromo

Question: so here´s the problem. i have a small domain, controlled by a machine with the windows 2000 server. one of the pcs on the domain is another server, with windows 2008 server installed, where i run a management software from. so, bad politics = bad luck. domain controlller melted down, domain controller gone, completely gone. is it ok to DCPROMO the windows 2008 server machine i have in the domain? will something go wrong?
Comment: To create a second DC you need a working DC.
Comment: If you promote a server to DC while no DC is available you will create a new domain. You'll basically start from scratch ... or even worse, since you have to migrate everything (user, computer, permissions etc) from a not existing domain to a new one. Personally I'd try everything possible to revive the old domain controller before I have to do all that.
Comment: so, if i change the name to the name of the other server (ipaddress, everything like the old one), and keep all the definitions in the domain pcs/users, it wont matter, it will still go wrong?
Comment: `will something go wrong?` Most likely yes.
Answer: There are a number of things to consider here:

Promoting the Windows 2008 member server will create a new forest. You cannot "salvage" your existing environment unless you have a backup of the 2000 server that you can restore. I'm assuming you don't, since you're asking this question. In this case, all of your policies will be gone, everything AD related will have to be reconfigured and workstations and member servers will have to be joined to the new domain.
If you're going to use Active Directory you should have at least two domain controllers that can survive hardware-level failures - i.e. are not VMs on the same host, are not on the same underlying storage environment, etc. This is the cost of using Active Directory. If you're not ready to dedicate two servers to AD, then you shouldn't be using it.
If you promote the already-configured 2008 server, local users become domain users. Locally privileged groups become domain-privileged groups. Also, as a best practice, domain controllers should host the AD DS service, DNS, and nothing else. That doesn't sound like that's the case here.
Windows Server 2008 goes end-of-extended-support on January 14, 2020. That is less than two years away. You should be actively migrating away from it.

So with all that being said - assuming you can't simply restore the environment to its previous state - you should deploy two new Windows Server 2016 servers and promote both of them to Active Directory Domain Controllers in the same domain.
You should then re-join all of the member servers and workstations to this new Active Directory domain and take proper backups, including system state, which will allow you to do an authoritative restore of AD if you ever need to again.
Answer: Windows 2000 is really, really old.. please make sure you create a upgrade plan in the futur for your gear.
For a small number of clients it can be faster to create a new domain.
Usually it's around 2 hours to migrate a profile on a computer from a domain to another. So you can calculate the time you will loose on all PC from there.

You dcpromo the 2008, I hope it's an R2, as the 2008 without R2 is no longer supported by Microsoft too. (some step there)
You rejoin the new domain for all PC.
You migrate all profile.
Do you have data on that 2000 that you need to restore ?... I hope not, as now with the dcpromo you did on the 2008 that 2000 must stay down, or if you bring it up remove the network cable before you boot it.

Server down - server on domain dcpromo


hangs problem after logged in

Question: I installed Ubuntu 12.04 LTS using USB flash drive. The problem is Ubuntu stops responding after 1-3 minutes after logging in and it does not respond at all.
Specifications:
Processor:AMD Dual-Core C60
RAM:2GB DDR3
Answer: This may be driver related.  The C60 uses ATI graphics.  By default, Ubuntu uses the opensource drivers for this chipset.
Try to open up the Additional Drivers from the dash and install the official ATI drivers.
Alternatively, do this:
sudo apt-get install fglrx

Answer: After this step:
"I got out of x by pressing keys like ctrl alt backspace, or ctrl alt del, or ctrl altgr del, or alt F!, or something like that (cant remember whch one worked)"
I install via console using that line "sudo apt-get install fglrx".
I'm using ubuntu now without problems.
Remember to do all updates for last :)
Regards,
Helder

hangs problem after logged in


How to convert list of bytes (unicode) to Python string?

Question: I have a list of bytes (8 bit bytes, or in C/C++ language they form wchar_t type string), they form an UNICODE string (byte by byte), how to convert those values into a Python string, tried a few things, but none could join those 2 bytes into 1 character and build an entire string from it. Thank you.
Answer: Converting a sequence of bytes to a Unicode string is done by calling the decode() method on that str (in Python 2.x) or bytes (Python 3.x) object.
If you actually have a list of bytes, then, to get this object, you can use  ''.join(bytelist) or b''.join(bytelist).
You need to specify the encoding that was used to encode the original Unicode string.
However, the term "Python string" is a bit ambiguous and also version-dependent. The Python str type stands for a byte string in Python 2.x and a Unicode string in Python 3.x. So, in Python 2, just doing ''.join(bytelist) will give you a str object.
Demo for Python 2:
In [1]: 'тест'
Out[1]: '\xd1\x82\xd0\xb5\xd1\x81\xd1\x82'

In [2]: bytelist = ['\xd1', '\x82', '\xd0', '\xb5', '\xd1', '\x81', '\xd1', '\x82']

In [3]: ''.join(bytelist).decode('utf-8')
Out[3]: u'\u0442\u0435\u0441\u0442'

In [4]: print ''.join(bytelist).decode('utf-8') # encodes to the terminal encoding
тест

In [5]: ''.join(bytelist) == 'тест'
Out[5]: True

Comment: brilliant answer, you have saved me a lot of time, since this is my first try at Python :), thanks a lot Lev
Comment: Demo for Python 3?
Comment: @stackprotector in Python 3, `Out[3]` from the answer would show a regular (Unicode) string. Output 4 would print the string (almost the same thing).
Answer: you can also convert the byte list into string list using the decode()
stringlist=[x.decode('utf-8') for x in bytelist]

Comment: This would only work for ASCII bytes. Anything else *will* fail because you can't decode any value over `b'\x7f'` as UTF-8, which is what the code in this answer would do. And given that the OP has stated they have 8-bit bytes from a C++ `wchar_t` data type it is almost *guaranteed* to not be ASCII *or* UTF-8.
Answer: Here's what worked the best for me:
import codecs

print(type(byteData)) # <class 'bytes'>
strData = codecs.decode(byteData, 'UTF-8')


Firing a trigger group multiple times on a page

Question: I need some help with Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics.
I want to send a pageview to Google Analytics if a user is viewing an image in a gallery on an article. The user is staying on the same URL, when he is viewing an image.
I created a trigger group which consists of two events
• Consent given by the user to use Google Analytics
• Event which is fired when an image in a gallery is being viewed
This works so far so good. Unfortunately, the trigger group is only being fired once on a page. When a user open the gallery and views the image and scrolls to next image, he is staying on the same URL. In that case, the trigger group is only being fired once.
How can I achieve that the trigger group is being fired multiple times on the same page without removing the second trigger (consent)?
I found out that I can create a second trigger group and add two image views and the consent as a trigger. But this solution means that I have to create 100 new tags, which is kind of crazy. Is there any workaround?
Thanks in advance
Answer: Once consent has been given by the user in a way that each pageview can pick up (e.g. you're setting it in some persisted state: data layer, cookie, etc.), you're ultimately just looking at triggering when the event happens.
Since you describe a scenario where it happens only once, I'd urge you to take a look at the other triggers on your tag and remove the page-specific trigger your description suggests you have in place. Replace it with only your event and consent triggers and it should work every time an event is observed.


Need sql to remove tags from older posts

Question: I've realized the Wordpress Tag Cloud has no weighting for newer posts. I have thousands of old posts that I want to no longer be counted for tagging.  So, what I want to do is remove all tags from older, archived posts. All of these older posts have a category of Archive and a category_ID of 705.  I need help constructing the  Mysql query to remove all tags from posts with the category_id of 705.   - G Arnold
Answer: To select all terms IDs that need to be deleted:
select wp_terms.term_id from wp_terms
left join wp_term_taxonomy on wp_terms.term_id = wp_term_taxonomy.term_id
where wp_terms.term_id in (
    select term_taxonomy_id from wp_term_relationships where object_id in (
        select object_id from wp_term_relationships where term_taxonomy_id = 705
    )
)
and wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'post_tag'

Don't forget to create first a backup of your database.
Basically, first I get all posts IDs that have category ID 705 (select object_id from wp_term_relationships where term_taxonomy_id = 705), then I use those IDs to get all terms IDs that were added to those posts on wp_term_relationships table (select term_taxonomy_id from wp_term_relationships where object_id in ...) and finally I get all IDs that matter from wp_terms by filtering only those that tags (and wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'post_tag').
After you get all these IDs you can use them to delete with a SQL query like the_dramatist answer, or you can use Wordpress functions so that WP takes care of everything needed to have a clean database:
<?php
$ids = array(12, 23, 45, 100);
foreach($ids as $id) {
    wp_delete_term( $id, 'post_tag' );
}
?>

Comment: Would you please describe the query a little bit ? Cause as far I see the query doesn't delete any thing and without deleting you can't remove tags form database. @dbeja
Comment: yes, I just created the sql query to get the list of IDs of terms to be deleted. I edited the answer to explain the query and what you can do with those IDs. Hope it helps.
Comment: Well, I appreciate your effort, but this is bad practice. I don't know if your code will work or not, but for this kinda one time task you should not use WP functions. Full SQL is better. And beside he/she has mentioned SQL in his/her question.
Comment: yes, I was just giving more options of what could be done with the list of IDs. my code was tested and my suggestion of WP functions was just so that you don't need to worry with all tables relations, but I agree your answer is the right one, that's why I mentioned it on my answer. thanks for reviewing it.
Answer: Well, think splitting the task in multiple pieces. First we need to get the post id's which has the category with id 705 and then we'll remove the tags from those posts.
Now if we transform this idea in to SQL then the query will be-
DELETE wp_term_relationships FROM wp_term_relationships
INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy ON ( wp_term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id = wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id )
WHERE wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'post_tag' AND wp_term_relationships.object_id IN (SELECT id
FROM (SELECT wp_posts.id FROM wp_posts
       INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships
               ON wp_term_relationships.object_id = wp_posts.id
       INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy
               ON wp_term_taxonomy.term_taxonomy_id = wp_term_relationships.term_taxonomy_id
       INNER JOIN wp_terms
               ON wp_term_taxonomy.term_id = wp_terms.term_id
WHERE wp_terms.term_id = 705 AND wp_term_taxonomy.taxonomy = 'category' ) AS posts)

This is tested. Don't forget to backup the DB first. Anyway, the table prefix(wp_) may vary based on settings. So please check the table prefix before running the query.

Hope that helps.
Comment: Your query above worked perfectly, many thanks, Dramatist!  - G. Arnold
Comment: One more thing, though, the query above did delete all tags from the category of posts I needed, but I noticed that the Tag Count was not updated.  So I ran this query to update the counts, and everything seems good now:  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18669256/how-to-update-wordpress-taxonomiescategories-tags-count-field-after-bulk-impo
Comment: If this answer helped you then please accept the answer by checking the check sign left side of the answer. That would be very generous ! @user3874046


when debugging in xcode an app that has cursor hidden, how can I force it to reappear

Question: In debugging a game that is full screen (on one of my two monitors) when it crashes and the debugger (on the other monitor, not captured) displays the crash location, the cursor is still hidden. Is there any way to force the cursor to reappear? I can click around blindly and it works, but it's not terrible accurate.
Answer: Sorry, I can't be of help with this, but may I ask you to report this as a bug to Apple, at http://bugreport.apple.com/
That way, maybe we'll all benefit from it in a few weeks or months when a new XCode gets out.
BTW, how do you hide your cursor? I thought that each process has its own private cursor. So, once you move the mouse to some other app, it should set the cursor anew.
Maybe you could use a different means of hiding the cursor in your game? E.g, instead of turning it off, leave it visible but give it an empty image.
Answer: How did you hide the cursor? If you used CGDisplayHideCursor, you should be able to call CGDisplayShowCursor(x), where x is the main display id?
For example, in gdb, type:
call (unsigned long) CGMainDisplayID()

the id will be returned.
Then type:
call (long) CGDisplayShowCursor(id)

If you used Cocoa functions, you should still be able to call the appropriate Cocoa functions in the gdb console to display the cursor.


Cap/Floor on a SpreadOption grid

Question: I have a spread option data from a broker. The rows are the following :
STK
ATM
-0.5
-0.25
... and the values are forward price ( the strikes used are absolute strike and the value of the raw STK is the the forward reference )
I'm trying to partition my data into two parts with respect to the claim type ( Cap / Floor ) but i don't know what criterion should i use ( Assign a claim type "Cap" to positive absolute strikes and "Floor" to the negative ones ) or should I compare the absolute strike to the fwd ref .
Can someone help me please?
Answer: Not sure exactly how your data looks but you should be able to distinguish whether you have a cap or a floor depending on how the instrument is reacting to increasing and decreasing rates (forwards in your case) for each strike.  If the value of the option is increasing in value as interest rates go up, you have a cap (note: this is from the perspective of a long cap position).  If the value of a option is increasing as interest rates go down, you have a floor (again from the perspective of a long position).

Cap/Floor on a SpreadOption grid


Can we get an [ancillary-sword] tag?

Question: Can we get an <code>[ancillary-sword]</code> tag to go with the ancillary-justice and ancillary-mercy tags?
Comment: What prevents you from just creating the tag? The need for it seems quite apparent from the existence of the other tags listed in your question.
Comment: You get the ability to create tags at [300 reputation](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/create-tags) :-)
Comment: @Mithoron To clarify here the tagging currently used is fine. Franchise/series tag + book tags is perfectly acceptable. Different works handle this differently but if the precedent is already set for series + work then we should follow that. Importantly we should always try and use the series/franchise tag in any case. Lastly, author tags are only really to be used on questions about the author. There are a few exceptions to this but they don't apply in this case.
Comment: @Mithoron We should follow whatever the site policy is for trilogies, etc. For example what does it do with LotR or HDM?
Comment: It looks like if we remove the individual book tags for this we have a lot of cleanup to do throughout: Those and many other others have tags for each book.
Comment: @Mithoron I'm not sure what you mean by "needed". Having a convenient way to find out that there are only a few questions about something is pretty helpful, imv. But if that's the site policy, sure. (Though I'm not sure it is: most [new SO tags](https://stackoverflow.com/tags?tab=new), for example, have less than 3 questions.)
Comment: Doh — I didn't realize [I had that ability](https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/ancillary-sword)!
Comment: I have a feeling there's too much tags around here. Just the tag for Imperial Radch would do.
Comment: Did I say anything about this policy? What I said is about tag making. Tags are made when they're needed and tag for 1 or even 3 questions isn't particularly useful when there's a bigger tag with still only 10 q.
Comment: That's just my ideas: adding first author tag, second franchise, third separate instalments when number of questions grows.
Comment: @Mithoron Like I said, whatever the site policy is.
Comment: Well, there was this https://scifi.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4860/how-should-we-handle-tag-hierarchies but SE communities aren't all that rules-driven, ultimately things are kinda fluid...
Answer: status-completed
As you found out you already had the required reputation (300) for the Create Tags privilege and so have since created it. See: ancillary-sword.
In the future when you create the tag you can also edit the tag wiki to add in a usage excerpt to describe how the tag should be used. Please do so as this helps other users work out when to use the tag!

Can we get an [ancillary-sword] tag?


How to prove that $\frac{| x_0 \rangle + | x_1 \rangle}{\sqrt{2}}$ hides one of $x_0$ or $x_1$?

Question: I create a quantum state $| \psi \rangle = \frac{| x_0 \rangle + | x_1 \rangle}{\sqrt{2}}$ for a randomly chosen $x_0,x_1$ of 50 bits. I give this quantum state $|\psi \rangle$ to you and you return me back $x_0$. How do I prove that conditioned on you returning me the correct $x_0$, the string $x_1$ is totally hidden from you? i.e. if I now give you either $x_1$ or a uniformly random string of same number of bits, you can't distinguish between them with probability better than $0.5$.
This certainly seems true, because if you can return me back the correct/same $x_0$, it must be the case that the system collapsed to $|x_0 \rangle$ and hence $x_1$ is hidden from your point of view.
But how would I go about proving this using information theoretic tools? Perhaps we can somehow show that there is entropy in $x_1$ from the receiver's point of view. But I am not sure on how to do this.
Answer: We can bound the amount of information that can be retrieved from $|\psi\rangle$ using Holevo's bound.
Alice and Bob
Let us first reformulate the situation in the terms usually employed in the context of Holevo's bound. Suppose Alice chooses two $n$-bit strings $x_0$ and $x_1$ independently and uniformly at random. Let $X$ represent the random variable associated with Alice's choice. Thus, for any $n$-bit strings $x_0$ and $x_1$ we have $P(X=x_0x_1)=p_{x_0,x_1}=2^{-2n}$. Having chosen $x_0$ and $x_1$, Alice prepares the state
$$
\rho_{x_0,x_1} = \left(\frac{|x_0\rangle+|x_1\rangle}{\sqrt{2}}\right)\left(\frac{\langle x_0|+\langle x_1|}{\sqrt{2}}\right)
$$
if $x_0\ne x_1$ and $\rho_{x_0,x_0} = |x_0\rangle\langle x_0|$ otherwise. She then sends the state to Bob who performs some measurement on $\rho_{x_0,x_1}$ obtaining a classical outcome represented by the random variable $Y$.
Holevo's theorem
Holevo's theorem says that the mutual information $I(X : Y)$ between $X$ and $Y$ is bounded by
$$
I(X:Y) \le S(\rho) - \sum_{x_0,x_1} p_{x_0,x_1}S(\rho_{x_0,x_1})\tag1
$$
where $\rho = \sum_{x_0,x_1} p_{x_0,x_1}\rho_{x_0,x_1}$.
Entropy
Now, all the states $\rho_{x_0,x_1}$ are pure, so the second term on the right hand side of $(1)$ is zero. In order to evaluate the the first term, let us first compute
$$
\begin{align}
\rho &= \sum_{x_0,x_1} p_{x_0,x_1}\rho_{x_0,x_1} \\
&= \sum_{x_0} \frac{1}{2^{2n}}|x_0\rangle\langle x_0| + \sum_{x_0\ne x_1} \frac{1}{2^{2n}}\left(\frac{|x_0\rangle+|x_1\rangle}{\sqrt{2}}\right)\left(\frac{\langle x_0|+\langle x_1|}{\sqrt{2}}\right)\\
&= \frac{I}{2^{2n}} + \frac{1}{2^{2n+1}} \sum_{x_0\ne x_1} |x_0\rangle\langle x_0| + |x_0\rangle\langle x_1| + |x_1\rangle\langle x_0| + |x_1\rangle\langle x_1| \\
&= \frac{I}{2^{2n}} + \frac{2}{2^{2n+1}} \sum_{x_0\ne x_1} |x_0\rangle\langle x_0| + |x_0\rangle\langle x_1|\\
&= \frac{I}{2^{2n}} + \frac{1}{2^{2n}} \left((2^n-2) I + 2^n|\phi\rangle\langle\phi|\right) \\
&= \frac{(2^n - 1)I}{2^{2n}} + \frac{|\phi\rangle\langle\phi|}{2^n}
\end{align}
$$
where $|\phi\rangle=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2^n}}\sum_i|i\rangle$ is the uniform superposition of all computational basis states of $n$ qubits. Thus, the spectrum of $\rho$ is
$$
\lambda_1 = \frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}}, \lambda_2=\dots=\lambda_{2^n}=\frac{2^n-1}{2^{2n}}
$$
and its entropy is
$$
\begin{align}
S(\rho) &= - \frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}}\log\frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}} - \frac{(2^n - 1)^2}{2^{2n}}\log\frac{2^n - 1}{2^{2n}} \\
&= 2n - \frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}}\log(2^{n+1}-1) - \frac{(2^n - 1)^2}{2^{2n}}\log(2^n - 1).
\end{align}
$$
For large $n$, the entropy can be approximated as
$$
\begin{align}
S(\rho) &\approx 2n - \frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}}(n+1) - \frac{(2^n - 1)^2}{2^{2n}}n \\
&= 2n - n - \frac{2^{n+1}-1}{2^{2n}} \\
&\approx n - \frac12.
\end{align}
$$
Conclusion
Thus, Bob cannot retrieve more than $n$ bits of classical information about $x_0$ and $x_1$ chosen by Alice. In particular, if Bob has already learnt one of the bit strings, e.g. by measuring the state he received in the computational basis, then he already retrieved $n-1$ bits of information ($-1$ corresponds to the fact that Bob doesn't know whether he learnt the first or the second bit string). Thus, by Holevo's bound he cannot learn even one additional bit of information after that.
Comment: Thanks for the detailed answer! I had one followup question. Why is the entropy of the state $\rho$, which is a uniform superposition over $x_0$ and $x_1$ less than n bits? I mean i would have expected that this state has at least n bits of entropy, since on measuring we learn n bits ; but the calculation seems to suggest that there is less than n bits of entropy ; would be very helpful if you could share any intuition.
Comment: IOW, the TL;DR is: the entropy is $<n$ because the pure states $\rho_{x_0,x_1}$ are not orthonormal. (Great questions BTW.)
Comment: Your intuition applies in the classical setting, i.e. when the pure states $\rho_{x_0,x_1}$ are reliably distinguishable, i.e. orthonormal. Then, by Shannon's noiseless channel coding theorem there are indeed exactly $n$ bits of entropy in $\rho$. However, the pure states $\rho_{x_0,x_1}$ are in fact *not* orthonormal and therefore Shannon's theorem does not apply. However, its quantum generalization called Schumacher's noiseless channel coding theorem (Th.12.6 on p.544 in N&C, see also discussion on p.54 and box 12.4 on p.547) does apply and states that the entropy is $S(\rho)$ bits.
Comment: Hi, I was trying to write this down formally, but I am getting stuck. How do I argue the last part (the conclusion part above) - i.e. $H_{min}(X |$ residual quantum state of adv $) \approx n$? The problem I am facing is this latter thing looks like quantum conditional min entropy, while Holevo's bound only says about $H_{min}(X | Y)$ - where Y is the measurement outcome of the other party. The difference is the latter is classical conditional min entropy, while we want quantum conditional min entropy - and it is perhaps more than just this - for eg, how do we know the adv did indeed measure?
Comment: ^To elaborate more on this, maybe Bob did not measure the state, but only guessed everything - that would mean he still has the state and $H_{min}(X | \text{residual state of Bob}) $ is very less. But this probably doesn't happen since if $x_0,x_1$ are long, Bob can only guess with low probability. I am probably just missing some simple entropy argument and would really appreciate if you can clear this up.


Why does my Nikon camera get stuck when using A,M or S mode?

Question: I own a Nikon D5200 and I am a beginner. I've been watching videos on Youtube and exploring the ways to use it. When I use A, M or S mode, after pressing the shutter button, the camera hangs. I have to switch it off and on again and again. Are there any technical issues with the camera, or is my usage wrong?
Comment: When you switch it off and back on is the picture you took saved to the card? It sounds like you may have *Shutter Delay* enabled, which means the shutter press raises the mirror (and blocks the viewfinder) for 2 seconds before the photo is actually taken.
Comment: Seems you have a very low (even bulb mode) in M, S mode. And very dark object so the time is slow, too. What value of shutter speed is displayed?
Answer: Switch the camera to S and take a picture, record the time it takes to take a picture with a stopwatch. If it is anything over 30 seconds then you have a fault with the camera because bulb mode requires a cable release for anything over that speed.
If you find that the time delay is 30 seconds then you can adjust the shutter speed to a shorter time, for 30 seconds a 30" will be displayed on the info window.
If you use your camera in A mode then it will adjust the shutter speed. If you are testing it in dark conditions than you will have a long shutter delay so go outside and in the daylight, put it in A and see how long it takes, it should not that long.
Then providing these conditions are true it means your camera is OK and that you need to read the manual for information on how to use those modes.


Finding package name of installed software

Question: Since I have not been able to open Dash Home in 12.04.4 see Dash Home will not open, I am hoping for a work-around. Is there another convenient way to open apps/programs without having to search through folders? Is this question clear enough? For example, I just installed Kile (publishing program) from the Software Center, but I can't find a link/tile/icon/shortcut to open it. Thanks, to whomever can help.
Comment: How did you install kile? Typing Alt+F2 and then typing the name of the application will usually open the application for you.
Comment: Thanks, Jobin. I installed Kile from Software Center. Alt+F2 appears to try to open Dash, anyway the result is the same -- grey Unity tiles and no Dash.
Answer: In Ubuntu you can easily find GUI programs that you installed from the Ubuntu Software Center by searching for them in the Dash as you mentioned in your question, but if you can't open the Dash or if the program you installed was not a GUI program, you can also find the executable file for the program from the terminal.

Typing the name of the application in the terminal will usually open the application for you.
If that doesn't work you can find the package name of an application, if you have it installed, from the terminal using dpkg -l | grep <substitute-search-term-here> and then open it by typing its package name. For example, to find the package name of Chromium if you have it installed type:
dpkg -l | grep chromium

...which will return results including:
ii  chromium-browser
Chromium browser

The package name of Chromium browser is chromium-browser, so to open Chromium from the terminal you would type: chromium-browser

The dpkg -l | grep chromium command doesn't work for applications that have a completely different package name like the Files application in Ubuntu which is provided by the nautilus package. In this case run the following command:
locate -b '.desktop' | xargs grep -ls '^Name.*=Files$' | xargs grep '^Exec.*'
The application name Files in the above command is case sensitive, and so is any other application name that you replace it with.
If you know only the name of a file from an installed package, you can find the name of the package that installed it using this command:
dpkg-query -S <filename>

Answer: Press Alt+F2, and just type the name of the program.
Comment: Thanks, Mayukh Nair. Alt+F2 appears to try to open Dash, anyway the result is the same -- grey Unity tiles and no Dash.
Answer: If the package is properly installed, dpkg-query -S $(which totem)
provides results in the form package: full/path/to/program as shown in the example below. Just replace totem with the name of the program you are looking for.
dpkg-query -S $(which totem)
totem: /usr/bin/totem

The $(which program) uses the output of which as a parameter for the dpkg-query which in my experience provides much cleaner output than many of the alternative methods. Compare to dpkg-query -S totem and the even less accurate apt search totem
If you haven't installed the package or something is broken with the installation and you don't get the expected results you can always get info on what package contains a program (or file} using Ubuntu Packages Search
Answer: You can list all your installed applications using:
apt list --installed

apt list is similar to dpkg-query and also accepts globs for matching package names, as can be seen in man apt:
list
    list is somewhat similar to dpkg-query --list in that it can display a list of packages
    satisfying certain criteria. It supports glob(7) patterns for matching package names as well
    as options to list installed (--installed), upgradeable (--upgradeable) or all available
    (--all-versions) versions.

For example, if I use apt list --installed to search my system for installed packages containing "chrome" in their name, I get:
$ apt list --installed "*chrome*"
Listing... Done
chrome-gnome-shell/focal,focal,now 10.1-5 all [installed]
google-chrome-stable/stable,now 88.0.4324.182-1 amd64 [installed]


Best way to return status from long running Rails controller function?

Question: What is the preferred way in Rails 3 to send back status to the user for a long running application?
TY,
Fred
Answer: It is advisable to perform lengthy tasks in a background process, and return from the main function as soon as possible / immediately.
Check out the answers for Ruby on Rails: How to run things in the background? and Background processing in Rails to know about some of the options for background processing with Rails.
Answer: Have that long running application write it's status to a fixed location where it is readable by Rails.  The status is usually of two forms, an ever increasing number in the range of 1 - 100, used for progress display,  or a status, i.e. 'reading, processing, writing'.
Then you have to develop an AJAX controller action that will read that file.  Create a corresponding javaScript file run when the AJAX action fires.
i.e. in app/controllers/some_controller.rb
def get_status
  @status = File.open("#{Rails.root.to_s}/tmp/lrp_status.txt","rb") { |f| f.read }
end

Then in app/views/some/get_status.js.erb:
$('#my_status_div').html('
 the status is <%= @status %>
');

Then you have to set up some javascript using your preferred timer javascript thingy.  The point here is to every (? 1 second),  fire off that get_status AJAX call.
Comment: I posted a somewhat simplified example,  not taking into account there might be MULTIPLE processes running on behalf of different users.  That's an esay mod if you're interested.


How to apply fast & slow camera transition

Question: I know there is a lerp function there that smoothens the camera but I wanted it to work the other way around. Lets say starting position of the player is at the left side of the camera/screen and when the players goes around the right edge (or as long as more than half width) screen travelled I want to camera to snap to the player but with smooth transition and this is the hard part I wanted to make the camera move fast as long as it is less than half of the players distance travelled and apply a slow speed as the camera travels more than half the distance of player.
Answer: Let cameraX and playerX being the camera's and player's X position respectively. I assume that the camera is following the player only on the X axis (from left to right) and when the camera's X is the same as player's X, then the player is exactly in the middle of the camera view. I also assume that
If, for example, cameraX is bigger than playerX then cameraX needs to decrease in value until it has the same value as playerX. You can do something simple like:
cameraX = playerX;

This will make the camera "Jump" to follow the player, no matter how far away from the camera they get. If the player teleports outside of screen boundary, on the next frame the camera will follow.
Instead what you want, is to make the cameraX constantly go closer and closer to the player. From the above example, you can do something like:
int camera_movement = 1;
int camera_collision = 10;

// Camera is on the right of the player - move it to the left
if (cameraX > playerX) {
    cameraX -= camera_movement;
}
else
// Camera is on the left of the player - move it to the right
if (cameraX < playerX) {
    cameraX += camera_movement;
}

/* Camera is close enough to the player, so just move it to the player
 * this prevents the camera from keep jumping back and forth
 */
if ( Math.abs(playerX -cameraX) < camera_collision ) {
    cameraX = playerX;
}

This moves the camera with a constant value towards the player, when its too close, it just "locks" on the player. Make sure to tweak camera_movement and camera_collision to suit your game.
This can work for some cases, but not for others. So another solution is:
cameraX = Math.Lerp(cameraX, playerX, 0.5);

This is using an integer Lerp, that makes the camera keep moving towards the player based on the distance between them. For the last argument, if you give the value 0.5, the camera will always travel half the distance between it and the player. If you give it a lower value, it will move there slower, but smoother.
Make sure you change some of the values based on your game. From what I understand, you mentioned the player can be on the left side of the camera only, in which case you can tweak the playerX variable to something different than the player's X position, depending on where you want the camera to look at.
Comment: Does Lerp function has like a constant speed and can I make movements like fast to slow.
Comment: @Shulz If you put a constant value on `Lerp`, it will move smoothly from fast to slow.  As explained in my answer, if you put `0.5` the camera will move half the distance every update, which is a big value if the camera is far away, but a small value if the camera is close. Alternatively, nothing is stopping you from giving a variable to `Lerp` and controlling its value through some logic that you like.