Can I mitigate all risks with a Stop Market

Question: I would like to know how I can protect against a stock price falling. If a stock price is at $100 and I put a Stop Market order at $90, then will this always execute at this price so I can guarantee the loss of $10. What would happen when the stock gaps ? (btw does gaps happen only at time of day opening?)
Bit of a newbie so hope I've provided all information to answer this question.
Thanks
Comment: The only way to "guarantee the loss of $10" is to buy a put with a slightly higher strike price where the distance from $100 to the strike price plus the premium paid for the put equals $10.  If you don't like the out of pocket costs for puts and if you are familiar with  covered calls and you are comfortable with giving up most of the upside profit potential above a certain price, then sell a covered call to fund the cost of the protective put.  In this case, it might be a $110 call.  This is called a collar and your guaranteed P&L zone is $110 to $90 (strikes used can be wider or narrower).
Comment: "mitigate" means "reduce somewhat". Putting "mitigate" with "all" is a bit of an oxymoron.
Answer: In the end, the market is made by buyers and sellers. A Stop Market order at $90 means that you are offering to be a seller as soon as the price drops under $90. But there is no guarantee that there will be (sufficient) buyers at that price.
Buyers might disappear for any reason, including a large seller showing up and satisfying current demand.
If you want to be certain that you can sell at $90, that can be arranged - at a price. The method is a put option. If you buy a put option at a strike price of $90, you have the right to (typically) sell 100 shares at $90, regardless of the market price. That's not a very valuable right while the stock is priced at $100, but it becomes quite valuable when the stock hits $80. Think of it as insurance.
Comment: Buying a protective put is a viable way to insure that you have a guaranteed exit price.  Like all insurance, it's a total waste of money (and a drag on performance) unless you need it.  Legging into the position to protect equity value is one thing but if considering opening the combo position simultaneouly (buy stock and buy put at the same time) then just buy the call since the positions are equivalent and doing the latter will save on frictional costs, commissions and the margin requirement, if utilizing margin.
Answer: Since a Stop Limit order has a limit price for the order's execution, a $10 loss limit  might not be executed if your the stock gaps below $90.
A Sell Stop order will trigger a  market sell order if price drops $10.  There is no guarantee that you will be filled at $90 because the stock may gap through $90 and open at a far lower price.  And even if the stock dropped exactly $10 to $90, there's no guarantee that you will be filled at $90 because others may be in the order book in front of you, buyers will take out some but not all of them at $90, and then price will drop and your fill will be lower.
As a worst case scenario, suppose your $100 stock has traded down to just above $90 and then it gaps down through your $90 Stop Order.  Down almost 10% plus the gap.  Not pretty.
As for this almost never happening with large-cap stocks with a lot  of daily volume, that's not true.  Even rock solid Dividend Aristocrats have  had 10% down days.  Some examples include  TGT, WMT, CAH, GWW. It's not an uncommon occurrence, particularly when quarterly earnings are released.
A classic large-cap horror story example is Valeant Pharma which had  11 drops of more than 10% in less than 4 months with the worst one being down 50+ pct.  The gap that day was -23% so that would be your best case scenario though not necessarily your actual loss.  It could have been more in a fast market and most likely was.
Today's horror show was Anika Therapeutics (ANIK) which announced a failed phase 3 clinical trials study yesterday just after it closed at $46.12.  The stock was halted and when it opened around 4:30 PM, the first trade was 100 shares at $32.00, closing today at $28.77 (down $17.35).  How safe was a 10% stop loss order on this one?
Gaps are most common in the morning when the market reacts to overnight news, though they can occur at any time of the day.
Comment: Orders are prioritized according to price and time. If the price of more than one order is the same: (1) Priority: The order that was received first gets filled first (2) Precedence: If the time and price are the same, the larger order gets filled (3) Parity: If all conditions are the same, the orders are matched in the crowd and the shares are split among the orders.  Also, read:
https://quant.stackexchange.com/questions/2278/how-are-limit-orders-selected-from-the-order-book
Comment: ' because others may be in the order book in front of you' - As gaps usually happen in the time of market opening, suppose we all hear about some bad news overnight - how do other orders get in front of mine? Would I need to change my stop loss to a market order before the market opens?
Comment: @Raj Chahal - (1) They are one and the same.  When the  price of your stop loss order is hit, it becomes a market order and the fill may be worse than the stop loss set. (2) If 10 people place a stop loss order to sell at $90 before you place your stop loss order at that price then all of their shares will be filled before your order is executed, assuming that there is sufficient buying volume to match their orders.  If not, price drops and you'll get less than $90.
Comment: So the person who sets the stop loss sooner (in time) gets serviced earlier?
Answer: Not all risk, but often most risk -- keep in mind that in a stock market trade, there must be a buyer for every share you sell. With a large-cap stock that has a lot of daily volume, it's just about never a problem. With OTC penny stocks, however, you might not find a buyer at your stop loss and the price could keep falling and you'd end up selling lower.
Also keep in mind that the stop loss can and will be triggered if the price falls even temporarily! So if you place the stop loss just a bit below current market, for example, you might end up accidentally triggering and selling.
Definitions: a stop-loss will eventually execute but cannot guarantee price. A stop-limit can guarantee price but not execution. Think of it this way: when the stop price occurs, your order is either placed as a market order or a limit order.
Comment: I see your point. If I'm selling a stock, though, I'm done with it, not looking to rebuy. But OP might be a trader. Easier would be to buy stocks that you can forget about for the long term! Can't remember the last time I bothered to have a stop order.
Comment: I would change most to some.  The problem with selling, is when to rebuy.  After a stop loss is triggered you are now faced with the nearly impossible decision on when is the right time to buy.
Comment: Even in that case @Rocky.  What do you rebuy?  When do you rebuy it?  Is this stock down because the market, as a whole, is going lower?  I even think "some" is a bit optimistic.
Comment: What happens with gaps ? if There is some bad news when stock market closed and upon reopen and gaps down (two red candles with a gap and that is where I placed my Stop). when would it trigger.
I'm looking at high volume stock like Amazon, Netflix
Comment: There is no way to know when it is the right time to buy because the future is unknown.  The process for rebuying a stock is no different from what you did when you initially bought any stock in your portfolio.  On that day, you thought that the current price was a good value. There were no guarantees that you were right.


In Firefox, is it possible to save a webpage as a PDF?

Question: I'm using Firefox on linux exclusively.
Comment: One thing I like about Safari and OmniWeb on a Mac is that the operating system's built-in Print, Save as PDF actually yields **clickable links in the generated PDF**. The very same option does *not* create clickable links in Firefox though. I don't know how Safari and OmniWeb do it (one would expect a Print to PDF option to *not* know anything about some hidden links, and I certainly had not expected non-Apple software to know the internals of that). But if you like clickable links in the PDF, then that might also have an effect on the Firefox solution you choose.
Answer: You could use cups-pdf to Print the page as a PDF.
Comment: That's a decent solution, but I'd prefer a solution that uses firefox only.
Answer: Something that maybe works for you
Answer: Save web pages as PDF with Firefox 3
or use the Screengrab addon.
Comment: Awesome! Here is the link to the PrintPDF extension: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5971

Screengrab is no good though: it grabs pages as images, which is horrendously inefficient.
Answer: Another alternative is to download CutePDF and ps2pdf driver and use Print option in firefox to print PDF. Or use this Add-on.
Comment: Note that the add-on is not supported for new versions of Firefox
Answer: 1. Choice
 PDF Mage addon. Nice work in Firefox 51.0.1 (64-bit).

2. Demonstration
(Page may incorrect displayed in Firefox web preview, but if I open saved PDF in Sumatra PDF, I have not bugs)

Page, which I need convert to pdf — https://vk.com/wall245887788?offset=60, archive copy.
PDF, generate by PDF Mage — http://nbviewer.jupyter.org/github/Kristinita/SashaMiscellaneous/blob/master/pdf/KristinaKivaWall.pdf.

3. Description

Free,
Active development in February 2017,
Good PDF quality,
Easy to use. I need only click the button in web-page, which I need to save.
Save all images in page (unfortunately, sometimes I get bugs),
Generate text as text, not as image. I can search text in generate page.
Save web-pages, which not visible for all users. For example, I can save as PDF web-pages in private social network groups.
Save data, which can be seen only by following the steps on the web-page. For example, if I open page, I see:

If I click to Показать полностью..., I see:

Use PDF Mage I can save all text on image 2.

Save 1 web-page as 1 PDF-page. It does not spoil the page. For example, if I use native «Save as PDF» in Chrome, I can get result:

Image it spoiled.

Save hyperlinks.


Discrete random variable decomposition over sample space

Question: If $X$ is a discrete random variable taking values in $\{1,\dots,N\}$, does the sample space decomposition identity $X=\sum_{k=1}^N k1_{\{X=k\}}$ always hold, or are there instances where it might not be true? This might be a somewhat naive question, but I am trying to understand if we can always write that identity without "further justification"? Any comments or references to literature would be greatly appreciated.
Comment: Can you write this for an integer $1\le x\le N$?
Comment: @d.k.o. yes, but when we have a random variable I am wondering if there is any need to justify the identity?
Answer: It is true. More generally, if $X$ takes values in a countable (i.e., finite or countably infinite) set $S$, then
$$
X = \sum_{x \in S} x \mathbf{1}_{\{X = x\}}.
$$
This identity is easy to justify: both sides are equal for every $\omega$ in the domain of $X$.


Lightbulb powered with batteries

Question: I am powering a 12V 6W lightbulb with two 9V zinc-carbon batteries in series. The voltage should be high enough to power the lightbulb, but the light is only visible for around 40 seconds before it quickly dims out. Can you please help me understand this?
Comment: Supplying 0.5A, those little 9V batteries go flat fast.
Answer: A 12V/6W bulb has a nominal resistance of V^2/W = 144/6 = 24 ohms.
At 18V a 24 ohm load draws 18/24 A = 750 mA.
A 9V battery typically only has a mAH capacity of around 200 mAH or less -- and note this varies depending on the current draw.
So that's why your 9V batteries don't last very long when powering this light blub.
Here's some tests performed on 9V batteries which give you an idea of how the current load affects battery life:

Source: https://www.powerstream.com/9V-Alkaline-tests.htm
Comment: Ok, thanks. Does the mAh capacity double if I connect two batteries in series? Also, is there a way to predict/calculate the new mAh capacity if I discharge at a different current than what it was tested on?
Comment: No - the voltage doubles in series - capacity stays the same. Placed in parallel the capacity should double... but that assume each battery discharges at the same rate.
Comment: Btw - your Zinc-Carbon battery probably is very small -- like only 50 mAH.
Answer: 9V zinc-carbon battery has low capacity (200-400 mAh). Two batteries in series will have the same capacity. More important, it has very high internal resistance, about 25 ohms, and that increases as it discharges, which means it is not capable of providing high current.
9V batteries are intended for very low power appliances, like smoke detectors.
The solution to your problem is:

Use LEDs, which provide the same light for 10x less current (at least)

Use batteries with a voltage that suits the LEDs and the chosen driver, to maximize its efficiency.

Even for LEDs, a 9V battery isn't a good choice, as 2-3 AAs cost less,  deliver more capacity and higher current, and the voltage matches one LED better.
Comment: If my objective is to drain the batteries as quickly as possible (in a safe manner), is it an effective strategy though?
Comment: @figbooxy No. Always charge/discharge batteries at a safe rate, usually C/10, where C is the AH or mAH rating. So 20mA for a 200mAH battery. Otherwise there is risk of explosion depending on the battery, if the charge/discharge circuit does not have thermal protection. You were lucky that zinc chloride cells have a high internal resistance which reduced the output current.
Comment: If the battery overheats enough, the electrolyte will boil and it will vent, spewing noxious corrosive chemicals. It's not really a good idea. Besides, if you drain it quickly and disconnect the load, it will regain some charge after resting.
Comment: @bobflux Is the phenomenon your describing in the last sentence the recovery effect? I used a multimeter to test the voltage of the circuit and after about ~15 minutes it read .5V, but when I disconnected the load the battery read 5 V and slowly increased until now it reads 8.5 V (30 minutes later).

Lightbulb powered with batteries


Is an Awakened land an OK target for Ruins of Oran-Rief?

Question: I have an Awaken deck and I want to use Ruins of Oran-Rief. If I awaken a land that I placed on the battlefield earlier on the same turn, does it count as a legal target?
Comment: I've given this some editing. The original first sentence was a red herring for understanding the question (there's no "enters the battlefield" trigger that's relevant here), and I've just put the intent up front and rephrased.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [What is "summoning sickness" and how does it affect my creatures?](http://boardgames.stackexchange.com/questions/25234/what-is-summoning-sickness-and-how-does-it-affect-my-creatures)
Comment: It's not completely clear what you are asking, but I believe the linked question will have what you need.
Answer: Yes, you can use Ruins of Oran-Rief on that Awakened land - as long as, like you're describing, you played that land in the same turn.
The ability in question is this one, I presume:

{T}: Put a +1/+1 counter on target colorless creature that entered the battlefield this turn.

After your land's awakened, it's a colorless creature (as well as a land). That colorless creature did also enter the battlefield this turn. So, yes, at this point it meets all the prerequisites for targeting with this ability: it's a colorless creature that entered the battlefield this turn.
This is confirmed in a ruling on Ruins of Oran-Rief's gatherer page:

1/22/2016 - The target of the last ability didn't necessarily have to be a colorless creature as it entered the battlefield, provided it entered the battlefield during that turn. However, it does have to be a colorless creature to be a legal target of the ability.
Comment: You can quote the ruling on Oran for this too.
Comment: Would the land have to have been played the same turn as it got awakened though? I.e.: does a land "re-enter" the battlefield as a creature when you awaken it? (I thought it didn't, as transforms and other kind of things also don't count as "entering the battlefield")
Comment: @Laurens The question is about Awakening a land that did enter the battlefield in the same turn - but I'll edit to make that clear. Good thing to cover. :)


What causes weapons to become unusable?

Question: In combat challenge maps, there may be weapons for the enemies to use. I've noticed that over time, the enemies stop using some of them.
I've been constantly taking out enemies that have picked up the stun stick, the car door, or the firearm with the hope that they won't pick up the weapon again, but constantly causing them to drop the weapon seems to make no difference. Whether or not causing them to drop the weapon helps matters because the effort it takes to disarm them puts me at risk and if causing them to drop the weapon doesn't make a difference, I could spend the time that I use to disarm them attacking other enemies. Efficient use of time is important in Joker's Carnival, which is the challenge that I'm playing.
What causes the enemies to stop picking up weapons and using them? Time since the weapon was introduced? Time held/used? A bug?
Answer: If an enemy is within a certain range of the weapon, they'll pick it up. If the fight is drawn away from the weapons, the AI will not focus on them, as they are too far away.
After some levelling up, you can gain an upgrade to destroy the weapon as part of a take-down combo, making it permanently unusable.
Comment: http://youtu.be/TldMhUbPLIM

What causes weapons to become unusable?


The typewriter in The Secret In Their Eyes

Question: This is in reference to the Argentinian-Spanish film The Secret In Their Eyes.
I would like to understand what the relevance of the typewriter and its malfunctioning was to the film.
Answer: From Words on Screen by Michel Chion:

In The Secret in Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos, Juan Jose Campanella, 2009, based on a novel by Eduardo Sacheri), Benjamin Esposito (Ricardo Darin), a retired attorney who is writing a novel, uses a typewriter missing the A. Toward the end of the film, he finds a notebook on which he had scrawled TEMO (I fear) in capital letters. Seeing his typewritten text into which he had added all the As by hand, he does the same thing on the cover word — and TEMO becomes TE AMO (I love you); in this way he realizes his feelings for the heroine. The worldwide success of this film and especially this scene — even though hardly anyone uses manual typewriters with missing letters — strongly suggests the symbolic staying power of this machine as it has been embraced by cinema.
One letter's absence can indiscriminately affect all the words that include it. In a real way the missing letter imprints its absence, calling all the more attention to its place within the most varied words. As the letter shows an empathetic indifference to the content, the indifference of signifier to signified, it embodies the insistence, permanence, and in a way the fidelity of the symptom. But also, in The Secret in Their Eyes, we can see the magnitude of the change one single letter can make, allowing the character to discover the love within.
This obviously differs from the literary genre called the lipogram, illustrated by Georges Perec's novel La Disparition, in which the author imposed on himself the constraint never to use the most common letter in French, e. In The Secret in Their Eyes it's just a blank space that replaces a letter.


Hardwood floor slat is split/sagging

Question: I recently bought an older home (1895) and have all hardwood floors. In the second floor I have a floorboard that is split and sags as you walk on it. How can this be fixed? Reinforced?
Answer: I think the most likely cause is that a part of the subfloor has split/broken. You can attack this from below (messy!) or from above (hard to cut hardwood out nicely). The solution would be to support it from below, probably with  lumber screwed between joists (though there are many ways to do it).
If on the off chance you have a joist that's bad enough to require jacking, I'd suggest you have a bigger problem, as joists don't "go bad" after 100 years.
Answer: For some reason that part of the floor is unsupported. Sometimes it is because a joist is warped and has a bow in it, or is badly cut and has a hollow on the top. If you remove the ceiling below you can potentially see what it is. Normally it is fixed by forcing in shims to the gap, but if the joist is warped over a length, it would be better to jack it. To do this, you take out the whole ceiling in that area and wet the wood, then jack it up about a 1/4" a week or so and hold it in place with a screw jack. Keep wetting the wood with a spray bottle. The jacks have to go to the foundation. So, in addition to the jack on the first floor, you need a jack in the basement holding the first floor firmly in place, because you don't want to push the first floor down at all.

Hardwood floor slat is split/sagging


Meaning of Smooth Dynamical System?

Question: What does smooth dynamical system mean? It is the title of a paper that I am supposed to read in non-linear systems.
Comment: Can you provide a reference to the specific paper? The Wikipedia article on [dynamical systems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamical_system) states that smooth can mean different things in different contexts.
Comment: Smooth usually means that the function is [continuously differentiable](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differentiable_function#Differentiability_classes).
Answer: A dynamical system is a system that evolves by a rule over time. As opposed to modeling a system with a PDE, the system is modeled by some type of iterated function, $f^t(x)$. Smooth implies that the function being iterated is differentiable, so we are not talking about an iterated system like cellular automata.
Answer: Many dynamical systems involve recursive sequences of simple functions, $f(f(f(...f(x))))$ which are iterated n times to lead to some discrete iteration sequence (a Picard sequence) with often tractable properties. It is possible however, to analytically continue the discrete iteration index n to a continuous non integer one, fractional, infinitesimal, or negative, through the miracle of functional conjugation and to produce continuous orbits, $f_t(x)$, whose velocity and continuous phase-space trajectories may be monitored.
The theory that makes this possible is the celebrated Schröder's equation  (1870) which allows easy calculation of functional square (and higher) roots, and renormalization trajectories, since it turns out that the original Gell-Mann-Low Renormalization Group equation (1954) is, in fact, this very equation of Schröder, RG.
Typically, you use it, e.g.,  to extend the  Beverton-Holt map $f(x)=x/(2−x)$  to its continuous iterate
$$f_t(x)=\frac{x}{2^t + x(1-2^t)}   ~,$$
where f(x) is the above for t=1. The resulting evolution surface is thus smooth.
On a logarithmic scale, such iteration flows might well be already familiar to you from the nesting property of Chebyshev polynomials, $T_m (T_n(x))= T_{mn}(x)$, since  $T_{\exp (t)}(x)=  \cos (e^t \arccos (x))$, in suitable intervals. (Note that for continuous iteration trajectory index t these functions are not polynomials anymore, in general, as they are for integer values of expt.)
Answer: A system is  called as smooth dynamical system when, the function is continuous in its domain &  the nth order derivative for the system exists.All dynamical systems, are modeled mathematically  evolving on Smooth manifolds $C^n$ where n belongs to natural numbers& they should have a one to one correspondence with the members of the set.

Meaning of Smooth Dynamical System?


Is there a correlation between incidence of type 1 diabetes and vitiligo?

Question: Does the data indicate that if you have one, the probability of you having the other is higher than that of someone who doesn't have the one?
Comment: Is there a particular reason for you to suspect that this might be the case?
Comment: This article ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16477262 ) talks about co-occurrence of type 1 diabetes with other autoimmune diseases, but not the autoimmune disease vitiligo.
Answer: It has been associated with polymorphisms with the CD4 gene, which is usually implicated in type I diabetes. The wikipedia article for vitiligo also mentions studies for the NALP1 gene. NALP1 is expressed at high levels in T cells and Langerhan cells, white blood cells that are involved in skin autoimmunity.
Comment: References to papers? If there isn't one on the wiki page with the statements, I would be less than happy to vote this up. Also, if CD4 mutations been found to cause both diseases, is there any observational evidence (epidemiology) you have found whilst reading? It does seem likely they are related as they are both autoimmune diseases of the T-cells, but they may have independent mechanisms of action via CD4 (etc), so disease incidence may not be correlated.


Should I install wood flooring under the closet door track?

Question: I want to install wood vinyl flooring in my bedroom. Do I remove the closet track and run the flooring under the track or stop it at the track.
Answer: Really the only concern is clearance for the door. I'd say it's almost always going to be a better result to remove the track and install the floor. It'll most likely look better, be easier to clean, and be easier if you ever have to replace the door/track (eg: if new track is narrower or wider).

When you say "wood vinyl flooring" everyone seems to be assuming you meant laminate or hardwood flooring, but I suspect you actually mean vinyl flooring with a wood print, which might be either click-together style or come in a sheet:

This adds a minimal amount of height, and depending on the doors it might work or you might be able to adjust the doors (there are usually ways to adjust the positioning of rollers). If you're not sure, it would be worthwhile to "dry fit" part of the new floor in with the doors on the track before you fully commit to this.
If the door can't fit, you have a few options:

Leave a gap in the flooring, leaving the track in place
See if it's possible to adjust the top part of the track to raise it up by the amount the flooring adds. I did something similar to this that might give you an idea.
Replace the door with a shorter one or without a track (only makes sense if you were thinking of replacing it anyway)
Answer: If you want wood flooring in the closet, it's quicker to remove the track and floor into the closet, and replace it later. If you want carpet (or any other flooring) in the closet, leave the track (assuming its not fixed through carpet), and use it as a boundary.
Answer: If you floor under the track, this could raise the track up to a point of being too high, thus not allowing the doors to open/close. A laminate floor could add up to 3/4 inch height to your floor. A vinyl floor could be up to 1/2 inch increase as well. Best bet to go to the track and stop. If you want the same floor in the closet, start a run again after the track. If you have to cut the material to stop at the track, use the other piece of the cut material to start your inside run. Saves on material.


HTTP/3 No more TLS or TCP

Question: I was reading documentation about HTTP/3, and in the article, they sed that they are no longer TLS or TCP.
So it's mean that a web site with no SSL 80 will be changed to what port and 443 will be replaced with what port? Also how CA will make SSL UDP compatible?
Comment: HTTP/3 is build on top of QUIC which is using TLS 1.3 over UDP.
Comment: @Quentin -  Ports aren't just for TCP; UDP uses them too
Comment: Your question doesn't make sense. Ports are a feature of TCP. If HTTP/3 isn't going to use TCP, why would it use TCP ports?
Comment: Also [the spec says](https://quicwg.org/base-drafts/draft-ietf-quic-http.html#section-1.2) it does use TLS.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question because it is based on a misreading of the source document.
Answer: HTTP/3 is HTTP over QUIC, which uses UDP packets (instead of HTTP over TCP pakcets). This makes packet loss less costly: instead of stalling all streams in the connection (HTTP/2 supports multiple streams), only the stream with packet lost gets affected.
https://blog.cloudflare.com/http-3-vs-http-2/
HTTP/3 uses TLS1.3 over UDP (instead of TLS over TCP). Also, TLS1.3 has a feature called 0-RTT, which eliminates roundtrip for TLS hand-shaking to speed things up. So, TLS is becoming TLS1.3 (a major change though) and getting faster.
https://wiki.openssl.org/index.php/TLS1.3
https://blog.cloudflare.com/even-faster-connection-establishment-with-quic-0-rtt-resumption/
For HTTP/3, You'll continue be using the same ports (80 / 443) for the initial connection, but through the UDP ports instead of TCP ports. After the initial connection, you can then tell clients to use other UDP ports you preferred by providing alternate ports via alt-svc header and then the client will use any of the successful alternatives provided in that header.
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/draft-ietf-quic-http-27  (see section 3.2)
https://blog.cloudflare.com/experiment-with-http-3-using-nginx-and-quiche/ (see the section "Running" for an example of supporting both both HTTP/2 and HTTP/3 at the same time)
About your last question: I'm not sure of your concern here. SSL has nothing to do with the port type. It's just a public-private key certificate scheme and can be used in many different purposes beyond securing HTTP and so it can surely be used with the newer protocols too.
https://help.one.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005594265-Can-I-use-SSL-with-my-email- (SSL being used for another purpose)
https://kinsta.com/knowledgebase/tls-vs-ssl/ (see summary section - if you have an SSL cert, you're covered for all, including TLS1.3)

HTTP/3 No more TLS or TCP


Second login screen has me locked out

Question: I am locked out of my MacBook Pro. When I turn it on, I get the usual login screen which shows my username and asks for my password. I type in my password and at first, all seems right in the world--there is a progress bar as if it were logging in. But then a second login screen comes up asking me to type in both my username and my password. I cannot get past this screen. Very confused and a little distressed. I am running macOS Sierra on a late-2013 15" MacBook Pro. What am I missing?
Comment: @misterjoff did you ever fix this? Have the same issue now
Comment: Did you enable FileVault (disk encryption)?
Comment: I did enable FileVault, yes.
Answer: I have just encountered this issue. The way that worked for me is to create a new administrator as described in How can I get admin access to a Mac without knowing the current password?, then use the new administrator to reset the original accounts password. Then I was able to log into the original account.
Before this method, I have tried

resetting pram and smc

running disk check from recovery mode

unsuccessfully trying to modify the encrypted apfs to decrypt it (it seems like encrypted is default)

resetting password of my original accounts from recovery mode

changing the password to the login keychain in terminal in recovery mode in case my password on the keychain wasn't updated along with the reset password in recovery mode

I am running Mac OS High Sierra

Second login screen has me locked out


UIWebView not parsing xhtml files properly

Question: this is my chapter1.xhtml file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html [
<!ENTITY D "—">
<!ENTITY o "‘">
<!ENTITY c "’">
<!ENTITY O "“">
<!ENTITY C "”">
]>

<title>Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll</title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="application/vnd.adobe-page-template+xml" href="page-template.xpgt"/>

Chapter II

The Pool of Tears

  &O;Curiouser and curiouser!&C; cried Alice (she was so much
surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good
English); &O;now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that
ever was!  Good-bye, feet!&C; (for when she looked down at her
feet, they seemed to be almost out of sight, they were getting so
far off).  &O;Oh, my poor little feet, I wonder who will put on
your shoes and stockings for you now, dears?  I'm sure I shan't
be able!  I shall be a great deal too far off to trouble myself
about you:  you must manage the best way you can; &D;but I must be
kind to them,&C; thought Alice, &O;or perhaps they won't walk the
way I want to go!  Let me see:  I'll give them a new pair of
boots every Christmas.&C;

  And she went on planning to herself how she would manage it.
&O;They must go by the carrier,&C; she thought; &O;and how funny it'll
seem, sending presents to one's own feet!  And how odd the
directions will look!

            Alice's Right Foot, Esq.
                Hearthrug,
                    Near The Fender,
                        (With Alice's Love).

Oh dear, what nonsense I'm talking!&C;

  Just then her head struck against the roof of the hall:  in
fact she was now more than nine feet high, and she at once took
up the little golden key and hurried off to the garden door.

  Poor Alice!  It was as much as she could do, lying down on one
side, to look through into the garden with one eye; but to get
through was more hopeless than ever:  she sat down and began to
cry again.

  &O;You ought to be ashamed of yourself,&C; said Alice, &O;a great
girl like you,&C; (she might well say this), &O;to go on crying in
this way!  Stop this moment, I tell you!&C;  But she went on all
the same, shedding gallons of tears, until there was a large pool
all round her, about four inches deep and reaching half down the
hall.

  After a time she heard a little pattering of feet in the
distance, and she hastily dried her eyes to see what was coming.
It was the White Rabbit returning, splendidly dressed, with a
pair of white kid gloves in one hand and a large fan in the
other:  he came trotting along in a great hurry, muttering to
himself as he came, &O;Oh! the Duchess, the Duchess! Oh! won't she
be savage if I've kept her waiting!&C;  Alice felt so desperate
that she was ready to ask help of any one; so, when the Rabbit
came near her, she began, in a low, timid voice, &O;If you please,
sir&D;&C;  The Rabbit started violently, dropped the white kid
gloves and the fan, and skurried away into the darkness as hard
as he could go.

  Alice took up the fan and gloves, and, as the hall was very
hot, she kept fanning herself all the time she went on talking:
&O;Dear, dear!  How queer everything is to-day!  And yesterday
things went on just as usual.  I wonder if I've been changed in
the night?  Let me think:  was I the same when I got up this
morning?  I almost think I can remember feeling a little
different.  But if I'm not the same, the next question is, Who in
the world am I?  Ah, That's the great puzzle!&C;  And she began
thinking over all the children she knew that were of the same age
as herself, to see if she could have been changed for any of
them.

  &O;I'm sure I'm not Ada,&C; she said, &O;for her hair goes in such
long ringlets, and mine doesn't go in ringlets at all; and I'm
sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she,
oh! she knows such a very little!  Besides, SHE'S she, and I'm I,
and&D;oh dear, how puzzling it all is!  I'll try if I know all the
things I used to know.  Let me see:  four times five is twelve,
and four times six is thirteen, and four times seven is&D;oh dear!
I shall never get to twenty at that rate!  However, the
Multiplication Table doesn't signify:  let's try Geography.
London is the capital of Paris, and Paris is the capital of Rome,
and Rome&D;no, That's all wrong, I'm certain!  I must have been
changed for Mabel!  I'll try and say &o;How doth the little&D;&c;&C;
and she crossed her hands on her lap as if she were saying lessons,
and began to repeat it, but her voice sounded hoarse and
strange, and the words did not come the same as they used to do:&D;

            &O;How doth the little crocodile
               Improve his shining tail,
            And pour the waters of the Nile
               On every golden scale!

            &O;How cheerfully he seems to grin,
               How neatly spread his claws,
            And welcome little fishes in
               With gently smiling jaws!&C;

  &O;I'm sure those are not the right words,&C; said poor Alice, and
her eyes filled with tears again as she went on, &O;I must be Mabel
after all, and I shall have to go and live in that poky little
house, and have next to no toys to play with, and oh! ever so
many lessons to learn!  No, I've made up my mind about it; if I'm
Mabel, I'll stay down here!  It'll be no use their putting their
heads down and saying &o;Come up again, dear!&c;  I shall only look
up and say &o;Who am I then?  Tell me that first, and then, if I
like being that person, I'll come up:  if not, I'll stay down
here till I'm somebody else&c;&D;but, oh dear!&C; cried Alice, with a
sudden burst of tears, &O;I do wish they would put their heads
down!  I am so Very tired of being all alone here!&C;

  As she said this she looked down at her hands, and was
surprised to see that she had put on one of the Rabbit's little
white kid gloves while she was talking.  &O;How Can I have done
that?&C; she thought.  &O;I must be growing small again.&C;  She got up
and went to the table to measure herself by it, and found that,
as nearly as she could guess, she was now about two feet high,
and was going on shrinking rapidly:  she soon found out that the
cause of this was the fan she was holding, and she dropped it
hastily, just in time to avoid shrinking away altogether.

&O;That Was a narrow escape!&C; said Alice, a good deal frightened at
the sudden change, but very glad to find herself still in
existence; &O;and now for the garden!&C; and she ran with all speed
back to the little door:  but, alas! the little door was shut
again, and the little golden key was lying on the glass table as
before, &O;and things are worse than ever,&C; thought the poor child,

&O;for I never was so small as this before, never!  And I declare
it's too bad, that it is!&C;

  As she said these words her foot slipped, and in another
moment, splash! she was up to her chin in salt water.  Her first
idea was that she had somehow fallen into the sea, &O;and in that
case I can go back by railway,&C; she said to herself.  (Alice had
been to the seaside once in her life, and had come to the general
conclusion, that wherever you go to on the English coast you find
a number of bathing machines in the sea, some children digging in
the sand with wooden spades, then a row of lodging houses, and
behind them a railway station.)  However, she soon made out that
she was in the pool of tears which she had wept when she was nine
feet high.

  &O;I wish I hadn't cried so much!&C; said Alice, as she swam about,
trying to find her way out.  &O;I shall be punished for it now, I
suppose, by being drowned in my own tears!  That Will be a queer
thing, to be sure!  However, everything is queer to-day.&C;

  Just then she heard something splashing about in the pool a
little way off, and she swam nearer to make out what it was:  at
first she thought it must be a walrus or hippopotamus, but then
she remembered how small she was now, and she soon made out that
it was only a mouse that had slipped in like herself.

  &O;Would it be of any use, now,&C; thought Alice, &O;to speak to this
mouse?  Everything is so out-of-the-way down here, that I should
think very likely it can talk:  at any rate, there's no harm in
trying.&C;  So she began:  &O;O Mouse, do you know the way out of
this pool?  I am very tired of swimming about here, O Mouse!&C;
(Alice thought this must be the right way of speaking to a mouse:
she had never done such a thing before, but she remembered having
seen in her brother's Latin Grammar, &O;A mouse&D;of a mouse&D;to a
mouse&D;a mouse&D;O mouse!&C;  The Mouse looked at her rather
inquisitively, and seemed to her to wink with one of its little
eyes, but it said nothing.

  &O;Perhaps it doesn't understand English,&C; thought Alice; &O;I
daresay it's a French mouse, come over with William the
Conqueror.&C;  (For, with all her knowledge of history, Alice had
no very clear notion how long ago anything had happened.)  So she
began again:  &O;Où est ma chatte?&C; which was the first sentence in
her French lesson-book.  The Mouse gave a sudden leap out of the
water, and seemed to quiver all over with fright.  &O;Oh, I beg
your pardon!&C; cried Alice hastily, afraid that she had hurt the
poor animal's feelings.  &O;I quite forgot you didn't like cats.&C;

  &O;Not like cats!&C; cried the Mouse, in a shrill, passionate
voice.  &O;Would You like cats if you were me?&C;

  &O;Well, perhaps not,&C; said Alice in a soothing tone:  &O;don't be
angry about it.  And yet I wish I could show you our cat Dinah:
I think you'd take a fancy to cats if you could only see her.
She is such a dear quiet thing,&C; Alice went on, half to herself,
as she swam lazily about in the pool, &O;and she sits purring so
nicely by the fire, licking her paws and washing her face&D;and
she is such a nice soft thing to nurse&D;and she's such a capital
one for catching mice&D;oh, I beg your pardon!&C; cried Alice again,
for this time the Mouse was bristling all over, and she felt
certain it must be really offended.  &O;We won't talk about her any
more if you'd rather not.&C;

  &O;We indeed!&C; cried the Mouse, who was trembling down to the end
of his tail.  &O;As if I would talk on such a subject!  Our family
always Hated cats:  nasty, low, vulgar things!  Don't let me hear
the name again!&C;

  &O;I won't indeed!&C; said Alice, in a great hurry to change the
subject of conversation.  &O;Are you&D;are you fond&D;of&D;of dogs?&C;

The Mouse did not answer, so Alice went on eagerly:  &O;There is
such a nice little dog near our house I should like to show you!
A little bright-eyed terrier, you know, with oh, such long curly
brown hair!  And it'll fetch things when you throw them, and
it'll sit up and beg for its dinner, and all sorts of things&D;I
can't remember half of them&D;and it belongs to a farmer, you
know, and he says it's so useful, it's worth a hundred pounds!
He says it kills all the rats and&D;oh dear!&C; cried Alice in a
sorrowful tone, &O;I'm afraid I've offended it again!&C;  For the
Mouse was swimming away from her as hard as it could go, and
making quite a commotion in the pool as it went.

  So she called softly after it, &O;Mouse dear!  Do come back
again, and we won't talk about cats or dogs either, if you don't
like them!&C;  When the Mouse heard this, it turned round and swam
slowly back to her:  its face was quite pale (with passion, Alice
thought), and it said in a low trembling voice, &O;Let us get to
the shore, and then I'll tell you my history, and you'll
understand why it is I hate cats and dogs.&C;

  It was high time to go, for the pool was getting quite crowded
with the birds and animals that had fallen into it:  there were a
Duck and a Dodo, a Lory and an Eaglet, and several other curious
creatures.  Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the
shore.

but when i load this file in the UIWebView it is not rendered correctly,
I am finding the extra "]>" chatacter in my iPhone Screen.
All suggestions are welcomed ..
thanks.
Biranchi
Answer: You have to set the MIME type to something XML- or XHTML-ish, like application/xhtml+xml. If you are loading the file with loadRequest, try renaming the file to .xml. If this doesn't workj, use loadData and set the MIMEType parameter to application/xhtml+xml.


Storing spring integration routes in mongo for dynamism

Question: I have a mongo repository with connectivity between multiple components. I have a traditional java application which reads the mongo repository and performs the routing, transformation by calling appropriate java classes dynamically. I am planning to move this to spring but do not want to statically declare routes as this is highly inflexible. Is there any possibility to make sure that spring can refer routes and transformations from mongo and performs the routing.
Answer: It's not entirely clear what you are looking for but, yes, it's easy to create custom routers, transformers and/or other components.


Creating Microsoft account, stuck at solving puzzle

Question: I'm creating a new account for my wife, and I'm stuck at this robot puzzle. Each time I solve it it just sends me back to solving it again. I tried different browsers, different emails, different sites (Outlook and Hotmail), different computers, tried cleaning cache, doing it from incognito mode etc.
When searching the only hits are on Microsoft Answers, which are not helpful as usual. But seems like the bug is around since end of 2021. Does anyone have any solution to this?
Comment: I wish I could post the answer but not enough reputation. So here it is: A post about it working on iPhone, gave me a clue, so I tried a private window on Firefox on my Android phone, and it finally worked. This is after getting the endless loop on Firefox, Chrome and Edge on Windows 10. Apparently it is using the mobile site, not the desktop site, that is the solution.
Answer: Have you tried different browsers?  It eventually worked for me in a private window on Firefox.  Nothing else had worked before that.
Answer: I tried several browsers in the normal window as well as the incognito/private windows which in the last worked for me on the private window of Firefox.


How to bind one service to multiple apps

Question: We are very new to Android programming with services. We managed to make a service run with one app. Now, we have one owner app "AppA" that has initiated the service and there is another app "AppB" which wants to use the service. So how do we bind to this app "AppB" to the same running service? Should there be multiple instances of the service (is this possible?) created or can we bind multiple apps to the same instance of the service?
We have created a function called initservice() in order to bind the activity to the service.
Owner App A's code in initService():
connection = new SampleServiceConnection();
Intent i = new Intent();
i.setClassName("com.example.basicstuff",com.example.basicstuff.SampleService.class.getName());
this.startService(i);
boolean ret = bindService(i, connection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
Log.d(TAG, "initService() bound with " + ret);

The SampleServiceConnection class is the class which implements ServiceConnection class of Andorid. I have already implemented onServiceConnected() and onServiceDisconnected() functions. My first owner app, "AppA" is the package com.example.basicstuff and the class which extends the Service class is SampleService. After executing bindService() function, the LogCat displays "initService() bound with true".
I have also created an .aidl file called ISampleService.
App B's code in initService()
connection = new SampleServiceConnection();
Intent i = new Intent("com.example.GameBook_Chat.ISampleService");
System.out.println(this.startService(i));
System.out.println("service running");
boolean ret = bindService(i, connection, Context.BIND_AUTO_CREATE);
Log.d(TAG, "initService() bound with " + ret);

My second package name is com.example.GameBook_Chat which wants to communicate with the same service running in the above code. Upon execution of bindService() function the LogCat service says "initService() bound with false"
So basically I am not able to make the second app communicate with the service. Could someone tell me what corrections can be done?
Answer: Every call to bindService() results in a call to the Service's onBind() method.  The service can feel free to return the same IBinder-implementing object to each client.  You can use methods like checkCallingPermission() to authenticate any call or getCallingUid() if you just want to know who the caller is.


How often do positrons appear in a typical Wilson cloud chamber?

Question: I would like to know a rough estimate of how often positrons appear per meter cubed per second in a typical Wilson cloud chamber based off of your experience. I'm interested in the same quantity for the other typically observed particles as well. Also on a more theoretical note if you know of reasons behind there proportions that would be cool too. But in general I'm just wondering how often positrons end up running into you body while you're walking around on earth.
Comment: You say that a Wilson chamber is not a good way of getting data in an organized way. Couldn't you just use a camera record a few minutes of a chamber with magnetic field, then count the number of electrons and positrons that appeared?
Answer: A Wilson chamber is an interesting way of seeing the cosmic rays which continually bombard the earth, as well as any radioactive material placed close to it, but it is not good in getting data in an organized method so that  one can answer your question:

But in general I'm just wondering how often positrons end up running into you body while you're walking around on earth

There is a large amount of data on cosmic rays, positrons come from secondary interaction of these high energy particles, either from galactic or intergalactic origin, or by scatterings in the atmosphere, and even from scatterings in the Wilson chamber. The are a secondary component and important only for studying the origin of cosmic rays, example,  they contribute very little to the flux.
In the particle data group one finds the cosmic ray fluxes, a secondary part of which will be any positrons that have been generated from the primary (fig 29.2).
If you are worried about radiation due to positrons, it will be a very small component in the general radiation, discussed here ,
Comment: The flux of muons is about one per cm² per minute at sea level.
Comment: @Pieter that is one of the components of cosmic rays.
Comment: Yes, but at sea level, muons are practically the only component that gives rise to detected events. My comment was just adding some quantitative information that I had in my head.
Comment: @Pieter . Yes,you are correct,  as seen in fig 29.4 of the pdg reference above.


Can I edit my Northern lights photos that turned out black?

Question: I went to Iceland in December and was given a Nikon D5500  as an unexpected Xmas gift (I've always been interested in photography, but never learnt anything formally). I tried to Google how to set up my camera before going to see the lights but my images are still black (there was no clouds but the lights were not very good anyway). I was hoping that some kind of editing might help? I am going back next year hopefully more prepared!
Comment: Did you shoot RAW?  Is any of what you want to see visible at all?  If the answer to both of those is no, then the answer is no.  If the answer to one or both is yes, then there's a slim chance, but we'll need to see the actual images (or raw file if you have it) to be able to tell.
Comment: It's unlikely anything will be recoverable. However, can you post one of the images? It's very hard to give an answer without an example of what you took.
Comment: I've been astounded on occasion by how much detail was in "black" parts of a picture that were brought out with a gamma correction - but that was shadow detail, not the brightest part of the image.
Comment: I believe I had 'RAW 14-bit', 'Long exposure NR on' 'ISO high' - I still jave these settings on now as I haven't used the camera since due to work etc. I will upload tonight, thank you (its just a black screen though). And the lens cap was definitely off haha
Answer: As you have the RAW file, try this :

Get an application that can process RAW.  If you don't have one (e.g. LightRoom) try the free RawTherapee which is a very comprehensive RAW developer.
In the application open your RAW file
There will be a way to adjust exposure, typically a slider with a scale going from (e.g.) -3EV to +3EV.  Slide it all the to the right (positive side).
There are other adjustments you can try (tone curve, gamma) if that fails.
That will brighten the image and if there's anything there you should see it.


Refine definition for material-selection/medium-selection tags?

Question: material-selection and medium-selection strike me as very similar tags. How should their definitions differ and/or overlap?
Comment: If we do keep these tags a synonym would be in order to cover both uses. Same problem about which to pick as dominant. While I do _some_ art I would also consider myself a crafter first.
Comment: Medium, to me, implies drawing/painting/etc and what you're laying down or laying it down on. Material implies something you'll be working with, like fabric for clothing, yarn for knitting, etc. That said, that may not be enough of a distinction, so I'd really like to hear what others have to say.
Comment: It was more natural to _me_ to think about selecting materials then medium. Medium fits the definition better is you were selecting paints or material for sculpting or carving. Perhaps these should not be used at all and have more specific selection tags like `paint-selection`. Would yarn be considered a medium? Perhaps `yarn-selection` is better for that one as well.
Comment: I agree "material" is a little more natural, but I'm more crafter than artist ;) Technically, yarn is a medium, but I wouldn't necessarily think of that term first.
Comment: @Matt There are also potentially cases where a user is asking about what wood to use, or perhaps even whether wood or plastic would be a better base for a project. Once we get into [tag:upcycling] the possibilities increase even more. _Some_ more specific tags are probably very appropriate, but _only_ more specific tags could get overwhelmingly complex.
Comment: @CreationEdge I snipped this off an art tutorial website. Not definitive obviously but something others would find: _A medium refers to the materials that are used to create a work of art. The plural of medium is media. Some of the most common media are __oil paints__  (paints that use oil to hold pigments together), tempera ..._ So it works like you say but it also might include something like yarn.
Comment: @Erica Where to draw the line on those (a recurring theme in betas) is hard when we don't have the question base to support it :(
Answer: After reading a little bit on the subjects it would seem they are the same thing. A couple of definition examples to support the similarities.
Wikipedia

In the arts, a medium is a material used by an artist or designer to create a work.

Study.com

A medium refers to the materials that are used to create a work of art.

I don't want to get hung up on those specific examples. Mostly to show a theme in the concept. Beyond that it seems accepted, in the art industry, that medium (or the plural: media) refers to the material that make up the art. Crafting is no considered in this definition but I think it still applies.
However materials is, to me at least, a more natural way to describe these things like: paints, canvas, wood, ceramics, yarn etc.
Therefor I think we should have medium-selection as the tag but keep material-selection as a synonym so that people will still end up with the same tag.
The tag wiki excerpt could be something like this which should cover both definitions:

Question about select the materials or medium to be used in your project
Comment: No, my point was that "material" has two synonyms. - it means both "medium" and "cloth".
Comment: Since material and medium can be synonyms, and there's been confusion already that's likely to persist, I personally prefer the option of making them synonyms. We seem to take care of the "class" of medium already by including another tag, if possible, such as "paint" or "adhesive".
Comment: And what if someone actually wants to know which type of **material** to use for a quilt, for example... "cloth-selection"? I don't know that synonymizing is the best solution.
Comment: This came up in comments. We could consider this tag to be a meta tag and scrap it and used more specific selection tags like `cloth-selection` and `wood-selection`. I was trying to address this question and it is clearly the starting point of a larger discussion about the validity of this tag. Do we get specific now or later and is it worth it? What happens when the question does not know if they even want cloth or not (what material category or genre if you will). My Santa question I did not know what material genre to use so I went broad.
Comment: @Catija I think that "medium-selection" + "fabric" would do the trick, there.
Comment: Do we just do it then? Don't really have a standing ovation for this yet.
Answer: This hasn't received much attention, and to be honest I completely forgot it existed. I "rediscovered" the problem and started doing some tag cleanup when I realized the scope and then also found this question again.
By the time I realized my gaff, I'd already edited the tag wiki excerpts (but we can roll them back if we wish) based on how the tags were primarily being used:
material-selection:

When you are not sure what you material to use as a base for your project or task, such as type of fabric, paper or metal. Try to be detailed with your specifications to help narrow down choices.

medium-selection:

For questions about selecting the media to be applied to a project, such as what type of paint, pencil or adhesive.

I had noticed that "medium" was generally referring to paint and glue, and a few about ink/markers1. So, it was the things being applied to the "material". "Material" was generally used to refer to types of cloth, or things used as the canvas or structure of project2.
It makes a logical type of sense, to me, to separate out the applied vs. base, unfortunately, I don't think the naming is very clear. Even with the more-distinct wiki excerpts, without better names I think the confusion will continue.
If using two tags this way is the direction we want to go, we can pace out the retagging changes necessary over the next few days (I've found quite a few questions that don't have either tag and should have one or the other).
If we'd rather have the tags be synonyms, please vote/discuss that relevant answer.
There was also the idea brought up to have more specific tags, such as cloth-selection or adhesive-selection, so we could have other options here than the two currently listed.
1 10 out of 15 questions used it this way. (It's now 13:18 after my edits).
2 16 out of 19 questions used it this way. (It's now 16:16 after my edits.
3 Work required: About 5 questions would need to be retagged from medium-selection to material-selection. It's a bit harder to narrow down, but there at least 7 "which/what type of ..." questions without *-selection tags on them.


What is the difference between "my" and "my own" and "its" and "its" and "its own"?

Question: What is the difference between "my" and "my own" and also what is the difference between "its"  and "its" and "its own"?
For example:

This is my book.

Vs.

This is my own book.

Or

This is its cover.

Vs.

This is its own cover.
Comment: Note that the last two examples are ungrammatical because they don't have a verb.
Answer: The variant with "own" has a stronger sense of possession or ownership, and is often used to indicate that the possession is exclusive and not shared with anyone or anything else.
For example:

Let's meet at my house.

Here, "my house" is just the place where I live.  I might or might not share that house with roommates or family; it's not really specified one way or another.

I am saving money to buy my own house.

Here, I'm saying that my intent is to buy a house that belongs to me and only me. Maybe I live with roommates now, and I want to be more self-sufficient.
I find it difficult to imagine a situation where I would refer to a book's "own cover," but one common phrase where "its own" is used is "on its own merits."  For example:

You should judge the plan on its own merits, not on the person who proposed it.

Again, this is using "its own" to be exclusive. It's saying you should only consider the good and bad points of the plan when judging it; you should not consider the good and bad points of the person who proposed the plan.
Comment: Thank you for the answer. Kindly, could you refer also electrically to my examples?
Answer: This answer could take pages, so let me just add to Canadian Yankee's answer.
In some contexts own could be paraphrased as "original".

Is that your own hair, or a wig?
Is that the book's own cover, or was it added by the library?

Sometimes own is an intensifier of the closeness of the relationship and could be paraphrased as "even his own":

He's so crooked he'd cheat his own mother.

here, "even their own":

Some animals have such a strong instinct to free themselves from  a trap that they will chew off their own foot to get loose.

Sometimes it means "by myself, with no interference or annoying suggestions from you":

If you don't mind, I'd like to choose my own necktie, thank you.

Sometimes it means "not yours" or "not the one you have":

You go on without me and I will meet you there. I'm going to take my own car.


How to create surround sound from 2 different audio outputs on PC?

Question: So i have external Digital Audio Converter with 2 channels where i get signal to my active front speakers and sub. But i wish i could get signal simultaneously to my rear speakers from motherboard to create 4.1 surround sound.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because questions must demonstrate a reasonable amount of research & understanding of the problem being solved. Please edit to either a) clearly describe your problem and the research done so far to solve it or b) include attempted solutions plus why they didn't work. In either case, be sure your expected results are clearly presented.
Answer: Depends on your hardware some motherboards have multichannel outputs. In case your motherboard supports this, there should either be a digital output that supports multichannel sound. Or several normal outputs that you can directly connect to the active speakers.
If your hardware does not support this I'm afraid I cannot help you.


How to copy files into a directory by AppleScript? Convert bash to AppleScript

Question: How to copy files into a directory by AppleScript?  Convert bash to AppleScript.
Please convert the following bash commandline code into AppleScript.
cd /Volumes/B
cp f1.txt f2.txt drc

Similarly, convert the following bash commandline code into AppleScript.
cp /Volumes/B/f1.txt /Volumes/B/f2.txt /Volumes/B/drc

f1.txt and f2.txt are regular files.  drc is is a directory.  In the first code, the files and directory for cp are expressed as relative paths.  In the second code, they are absolute paths.  I am not sure whether AppleScript has the concepts of "current directory" and "relative path".
Answer: Regarding the 2nd question, this should work
(detailing the step to make it clearer; you could make a loop)
tell application "Finder"
    set f1 to "B:f1.txt" as alias
    set f2 to "B:f2.txt" as alias
    set destpath to "B:drc:" as text

    duplicate f1 to folder (destpath)
    duplicate f2 to folder (destpath)

end tell


Can all or any smartphone manufacturer ship their phones with the stock, unmodified version of Android besides Google?

Question: Can other smartphone manufacturers beyond google sell phones with stock android?
Comment: Related, but I don't think it's a duplicate: http://android.stackexchange.com/questions/29394/flash-a-smartphone-with-vanilla-android-rom
Answer: Depends on what you mean by "stock Android". Android itself is open source (see Wikipedia: Android Open Source Project (AOSP)). But that doesn't include the Google Apps. If they want to ship those, they need to sign the Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADA), which comes with a set of rules (which Google apps they must install, which must be placed prominently on the home screen, and more). It also requires them to get their devices "certified" by Google.
If they are willing to take that burden, they of course can. Many manufacturers still chose to ship devices with their own modifications of the user interface, to make their products "more outstanding", and also include a bunch of bloatware of doubtful value (often duplicating what the Google apps forced upon them by MADA terms already provide).
Answer: yes they can sell it with stock android


How Can I Back Up Win7 Before Installing Mint Alongside It

Question: Don't get me wrong, I understand how to install Mint alongside Win7.
However, I am wondering how to backup my Windows installation due to the fact that Win7 was preinstalled on my computer and, as such, I don't have an installation disk.
Comment: I'm not willing to put it as an answer since I don't know how well it would actually work, but you could make a byte-by-byte duplicate of your windows drive by using the `dd` command. Something of the form `dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb` where sda is the drive with your windows stuff on it, and sdb is the empty drive that you want windows on.
Comment: The backup program already present in windows? It allows you to create a boot DVD too.
Answer: Okay, I actually feel confident after doing some reading that using dd will do what you want.
According to this website you can use dd to create an image of your drive, which is what you want to do.
Backing up your system:
So begin by booting from your live disk.
Switch to root mode if you are not root already. su root, or sudo su root
Check that no partitions from your windows drive are mounted.
To do this, you can use lsblk, which will give you a list of all the drives and their device label. If you see an sdaX mounted to a location such as /mt/*, you will want to use umount /dev/sdaX to unmount it.
The mount your external drive that you want to create the image on.
We will call this drive hda for this example.
First, create a folder to mount into in /mnt/. I'm going to call it backup.
To do this: mkdir /mnt/backup
You use mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/backup to mount the drive to that location. (-t vfat says that partition one on your backup drive is a FAT filesystem, which it probably will be if you are running windows, though it may also be ntfs or something of that form.)
Now we actually do the backing up of the drive using the dd command.
If we follow the webpage's lead, they use the gzip to zip your image. It is at your discretion, I'll follow what they are giving. Also, I'm not so sure about creating a backup with noerror enabled. I'd personally like to know if there is an error.
dd if=/dev/sda conv=sync,noerror bs=64K | gzip -c > /mnt/backup/sda.img.gz
Then to restore your system:
First unzip the image and convert it back:
gunzip -c /mnt/backup/sda.img.gz | dd of=/dev/sda conv=sync,noerror bs=64K
You may need to store some information in order to interpret the partition table stored inside of the image.
fdisk -l /dev/sda > /mnt/backup/sda_fdisk.info
One thing to note:
dd isn't exactly designed for this job specifically, it just makes a blind bit-by-bit copy of your drive. Then when we zip, gzip will try to remove zeros and unnecessary data to make it smaller. So the best thing we can do to help it out is clear out data blocks which are filled. You have probably heard about people saying that your data is never completely gone. Well, we can get pretty dang close with the dd command. What we can do, is mount the drive and create some empty file anywhere you like. Let's call is "zero". We are going to load a bunch of zeros onto the drive and since this file will get massive, any data you thought was deleted before will actually be gone.
dd if=/dev/zero of=zero bs=8M; rm zero is the command to do this with.
Now, when you go back to zip your drive, any extra deleted bits will be zero, and so the compression algorithm can work better. Hopefully this helps.
Answer: Parted Magic is very useful, also can do this with a bootable USB or DVD using PartImage on the System Rescue CD (it even comes with the USB boot setup - instructions on the site there).
Personally though, can't go wrong with the good ol' Ghost 8 (found on older versions of Hiren's Boot CD but looks like they use a new G4L - Ghost 4 Linux now but try it out anyway)


Is Bruce Banner's human body less fragile because he is also the Hulk?

Question: In Thor: Ragnarok, when Bruce Banner falls from the space ship onto the rainbow walkway to help in the fight against Hela, he falls expecting to change into the Hulk - only to hit the ground as Banner, yet doesn't sustain any injuries.
Is this movie magic or does his Bruce Banner form share some of the healing/near indestructible qualities of the Hulk? I don't know the comics that well so apologies if this is covered there so answered for MCU but would like to hear other non-MCU points in the comments.
Comment: Banner soars through the air. It's an awe-inspiring image as we follow Banner's trajectory downwards. His face is determined, arms churning, ready to Hulk out...

...except it doesn't happen. Worry washes over his face.

SPLAT! Banner FACEPLANTS on the bridge, seeming to break every bone in his body. He looks dead.

Pause. Fenris SNIFFS him curiously. We notice one vein on Banner's neck PUMPING GREEN. Then- Banner suddenly EXPLODES UP as THE INCREDIBLE HULK, UPPER-CUTTING Fenris in the jaw! - https://www.imsdb.com/scripts/Thor-Ragnarok.html
Comment: Historically, he's effectively immortal in either form. Any damage that occurs to him is repaired as soon as he hulks
Comment: @Valorum so just before impact he begins to change and minute change is enough to save him from a proper SPLAT!?
Comment: I feel like the MCU banner is no more durable than any other man, but that his immediate transformation into Hulk when seriously injured makes Banner practically impervious to serious damage. It's like if I was completely broke, but had a rich friend who provided for all my needs and gave me a limitless allowance to buy anything I might want. I wouldn't be wealthy myself, but there wouldn't be much practical difference.
Answer: It doesn't seem like it's harder to break his bones or do soft tissue damage to him.  But things that should kill him just don't.  Instead he transforms, instantly healing the damage.  His comic book counterpart healed back from an apparent death that Banner had planned to instantly kill himself.  His movie self described how he put a bullet into his brain in as close to instant death as is reasonably possible and he simply transformed and spat the bullet out.  Ultimately Bruce Banner is a man with superpowers and not a separate being from the Hulk and their apparent distinct personalities are the product of his own psychological issues.  So even with MCU Banner it's dubious whether any damage that left him with most of his flesh could actually kill him.  Damage just doesn't stick to the Hulk, and ultimately Banner is the Hulk.
Comment: The "spit out a bullet" story might actually support the fact that Bruce's regular body *is* more durable, just because the bullet was still there to be spit out & there was no exit wound.
Comment: He probably was unconscious after shooting a bullet into his brain.  His comic book counter was definitely unconscious after Hawkeye shot him in the brain with a gimmick arrow.  If that had any effect it was just "it took longer for him to revive as the Hulk".
Comment: @david Johnston I like your point and it explains why Banner can't be killed  but I don't think it answers my question. Valorum quote answers why Banner didn't get hurt in the fall but say BB is unconcious or is sedated or just cant transform, would receive an injury the same as a normal human?
Comment: Xen2050 a low calibre bullet is very likely to remain inside the skull.  When it does that is actually more deadly because it bounces inside.
Answer: Banner is just as fragile as a normal human being. We have seen him get hurt in his human form.

While the first Hulk film is not considered canon, we do see Banner being subdued by the military.
In The Incredible Hulk, we see him cutting his finger in the soda factory, which causes drops of blood fall into the bottles below.
In Thor: Ragnarok, we do see him fall flat onto the bridge, and there's all the chance in the world that he broke a huge number of bones. However, he then Hulks out, and Hulk mode essentially insta-heals all his wounds and breaks.

So in summary, No. Bruce Banner doesn't share the physical characteristics of the Hulk.
In the comics, he dies a rather mundane death when Hawkeye shoots him with a special arrow that he helped design, meaning an arrow can penetrate him just like a normal human.


Change which language you use

Question: language are not listed and not click … at the bottom
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How to change text entry in Ubuntu 18.04](https://askubuntu.com/questions/1030418/how-to-change-text-entry-in-ubuntu-18-04)
Comment: @sudodus: The question appears to be about display languages, not input sources.
Comment: @GunnarHjalmarsson Yes, but I think it will be answered implicitly in the link that I suggested. Please answer, if you have a more direct way to solve the problem.
Answer: To get more language options to choose between, click the Manage Installed Languages button and install more languages.
The ... at the bottom was deliberately hidden in Ubuntu 18.04, since you currently can't successfully select other languages but the installed ones anyway. That may be changed in future releases.
Comment: +1. Thanks for this 'direct solution'. I was really doing this the hard way. (It is obvious that I don't know yet how to navigate in gnome :-P ) I will try to simplify my answer in that other thread according to your solution.
Comment: @sudodus: This is a delta compared to vanilla GNOME. To a large extent it's due to the use of language packs in Ubuntu.

Change which language you use


What is the most efficient way to transfer money from the UK to a US account also in my name?

Question: I am leaving for the states in around a months time and upon arrival I will be opening a US account. I'm a student and so will be sending around £2,500 each term to the US account from funds that are paid into my UK account. What is the most efficient away to transfer this to my US account without losing a lot in the exchange?
Comment: http://www.money.co.uk/money-transfers/international-money-transfer-to-usa.htm .  Check which one is the best for you. I did use Transferwise onceand they are a good one too. Doing it online is the safest way to go, that is my opinion.
Comment: consider quite simply using your ordinary UK bank card, to, withdraw USD ($500 at a time) when in the US.  very carefully examine the fees involved on both ends.  often it is by far the cheapest option.  there is just no good way to exchange (relatively) small amounts of money.  you'll pay at least $50 overall simply in wire transfer fees each time, too.
Answer: My current favorite service for this kind of transfer is Transferwise.
The fees are quite low when compared to the 2.5-3% by high-street banks for currency conversion, to which you need to add the international wire transfer fee, and it's often a lot faster, as they split it into two domestic transfers while the international part + currency conversion happens internally to Transferwise.
Answer: If you set up two Paypal accounts (one linked to your UK bank account and one to your US bank account and get them both properly verified) you should be able to transfer the money for free as far as I know.
You would have to fund the transfer directly from your UK bank account (not via a credit card).
Comment: It seems that PayPal actually charge for international transfers between accounts.
Comment: Ah, OK, I didn't know / realise that. And presumably they don't let you link a non-[country] bank account to a [country] Paypal account, either.
Comment: Actually, the main issue is that they charge 3% currency exchange fees, like most banks.


Temperature, redshift or true colour of a star?

Question: Say, for example, I am looking at a distant star. I record the different intensities of light of different wavelengths and observe some spectrum lines. Now, since there are three factors affecting what I see - the temperature of the star, the speed at which the star is receding away from me, and the components of the star - how could I, first of all, tell what components the spectrum lines are of (let's say there are many components of roughly equal abundance) and, consequently, how much each of the two remaining factors contributes to the observed intensities?
Answer: The temperature does not shift the spectral lines, it only makes them broader (it gives them a Gaussian profile). So you can measure the temperature directly from these.
And the Doppler effect scales all of the spectral lines by the same factor.
Now, you can measure the spectral lines of all of the elements in the lab. So all you need to do is scale your observed spectral lines, run the known spectral lines for each element along to see if you get any matches (if so, add to a tally), then scale the observed spectral lines again and repeat. Find the scaling factor that maximises the number of matches. That gives you the scaling factor (and therefore speed).
(This probably isn't how it's done in practice, but it's the same principle)
Comment: "The temperature does not shift the spectral lines, it only makes them broader": why, then, do we see the Sun as yellow but blue supergiants as blue - even though they are made of roughly the same material?
Comment: @Max For two very different reasons. The sun appears yellow due entirely to our atmosphere. The relation between temperature and colour of more distant stars (hot=blue, cool=red) is essentially because high-temperature stars give off more high-energy photons (more towards the blue end). See [black body radiation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_body).
Answer: And you must remember that the red shift (Doppler effect) observed is really the astronomical red shift which includes effects of the expanding universe. So it won't be as straight forward as described by @lemon.
Comment: Why not? The fact that cosmic expansion is part of takes nothing away from @lemon s answer as far as I can see.
Comment: There is no observational difference between a doppler shift and a cosmological redshift. All that differs is how the shift is interpreted.
Comment: The formula from expansion is lightly different function of redshift than for Doppler, for redshifts greater than about 0.5. I can't remember if the fractional wavelength change differs with wavelength for expansion, you can look it up. it might not make any difference, and you could then do what Lemon said.


Will lenses with filter attachment size 58mm fit my camera when the kit lens has filter size 72 mm?

Question: I need help - I want to buy 50mm f/1.8 for my Nikon d300.  The description of the lens says Filter Attachment Size 58mm.  My kit lens is filter size 72 mm.  Is 58mm is the right size lens for my camera or do I need any extra rings?
Comment: Does my edit accurately reflect your meaning, or are you actually asking if the same filters will fit both lenses?
Answer: Don't worry. That size is for attaching filters (for example, polarizing or colored) to the front of the lens. The lens mount, on the back side, is standardized and is the same for all Nikon F-mount lenses (which your camera uses).
Comment: If I understand the question correctly, the OP has a kit lens with a filter thread size of 72mm, and a 50mm f/1.8 lens with a filter thread size of 58mm. That would be two different *filter* sizes, not the difference between the filter mount and the lens mount...so wouldn't an adapter ring be required?
Comment: I _think_ that the questionner is trying to determine if the _lens_ will fit the camera, and is worried that it won't because of the filter size marking. I don't think the question is actually about filters at all.
Comment: And in that case, a filter ring certainly would _not_ be required to just mount the 50mm lens.
Answer: You can use your 72mm filters in your 50mm f/1.8. You will need a ring adapter 58 » 72 to use the same filters


HP laserjet 1020 plus printer not working in Ubuntu 14.04

Question: I have upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04. Hp Printer 1020 plus installed but device manager says not found. I cannot print. Can somebody help me out
Answer: In fresh 16.04, Ubuntu auto-detected my HP 1020, but it did not work. I ran hp-setup -i (which was preinstalled), and it started working.
Edit: works also for Ubuntu 18.04.
Comment: Works also for Ubuntu 19.04.
Answer: Install some required packages. By copy pasting following code into terminal.
sudo apt-get install hp-ppd printer-driver-hpcups printer-driver-hpijs hpijs-ppds hplip hplip-data hplip-dbg hplip-doc hplip-gui djtools

Now run hp-setup from terminal to add the printer, which will show you a gui from which you can add the printer.
This worked for me on Bodhi Linux (which is Ubuntu 14.04 based). So might work on 14.04 of Xubuntu,Kubuntu,etc.
Note:- It works nicely with KDE too.
Also see,
Problem with printing (hplip) in Ubuntu 14.04
Answer: Just open the software centre, search for hplip and select "show hidden technical elements (or something like that)". Install hplip and then you'll be able to easily set up your printer
Answer: I installed hplip including the UI. Then opened hplip and pressed the "hammer" button on the toolbar for self diagnosis.
It opened a console that did all the job, I only answered some questions out there. But now it works.
Comment: Please provide more info on this answer - like how you actually installed the hplip and the UI. Some screenshots also would be better other than just '...pressed the "hammer" button on the toolbar...'.
Answer: Try with installing HP printer drivers and config packages:
sudo apt-get install hp-ppd hpijs hpijs-ppds hplip hplip-cups hplip-data hplip-dbg hplip-doc hplip-gui djtools

Answer: Connect your printer to your PC, and make sure to switch it on,
Then used the command :
hp-doctor

This is a very interactive/easy way to install the printer.
It also installs any missing dependencies.
Answer: Simply open the app manager. Press the search icon. Type hplip. Select hplip. Tap install. Open it. Run the self diagnostics.


i am trying to install extension from magento marketplace display this error

Question: display this type error while install from magento marketplace
Answer: Yes, it looks ike you need to do a couple of things on the server before you're able to install new extensions from the Magento marketplace.
The first error says that your cron job has not yet been configured.  Cron is basically a system that checks in with the Magento site to find out if anything needs to be done.
Cron is used to send transactional emails (this was done for performance reasons, so that the system isn't trying to send out emails during the checkout process), and also used for re-indexing producdts... and many other function.
Without cron, your Magento 2 site is not going to run very well (if at all).
Second, it sounds like the extensions that you're trying to install / run on the site don't match the version numbers for what they are dependent on.
For example, if you're trying to install an extension that is "dependent" on another extension... that extension needs to make sure that the dependency matches properly.  So if you have an extension that needs the 2.1.4 framework to run, but your site is at 2.0.4, then this is going to likely fail.
I hope this helps answer the question for you.


Which Table Should be Master and Child in Database Design

Question: I am quickly learning the ins and outs of database design (something that, as of a week ago, was new to me), but I am running across some questions that don't seem immediately obvious, so I was hoping to get some clarification.
The question I have right is about foreign keys.  As part of my design, I have a Company table.  Originally, I had included address information directly within the table, but, as I was hoping to achieve 3NF, I broke out the address information into its own table, Address.  In order to maintain data integrity, I created a row in Company called "addressId" as an INT and the Address table has a corresponding addressId as its primary key.
What I'm a little bit confused about (or what I want to make sure I'm doing correctly) is determining which table should be the master (referenced) table and which should be the child (referencing) table.  When I originally set this up, I made the Address table the master and the Company the child.  However, I now believe this is wrong due to the fact that there should be only one address per Company and, if a Company row is deleted, I would want the corresponding Address to be removed as well (CASCADE deletion).
I may be approaching this completely wrong, so I would appreciate any good rules of thumb on how to best think about the relationship between tables when using foreign keys.  Thanks!
Answer: If a company is to have one, and only one address I would either leave the company information in the Company table, OR have a CompanyId column in the Address table, but regardless there doesn't seem to be much utility in that.  If the data is truly related to the Company and not used elsewhere, it is still 3NF to have the data there.
If you wanted to have say a "billing Address" and a "Shipping Address" it would make a lot more sense to have an address table that is separate with an AddressId that is an identity column and a CompanyId column that is referenced to the Company table.
However to give you a more general rule, the "Master" is the true "master" of the data.  In this case, the master record is a company, therefore its id should be referenced.  You need to have a company, before you can have an address.
Answer: Think of it as a has or has many relationship.
A company definitely has an address (in your example) so it should be the parent table and the address table should reference the company table. If, on the other hand, many different companies shared the same address, it could be the other way round. So it also depends on your needs (the logic you are trying to model).
Answer: If you want to delete the address each time you delete a company, this means that the address is directly dependent on the company and keeping the address in the company table does not violate the 3NF.
If the address attributes were dependent on something other than the company, you could put them into address table to make the address management more logically consistent.
Say, you could split the address into country / region / town / street parts, and if a part of the company's country gained independence or something, you could change the address merely by changing the country field of the breakaway regions.
However, this means that you are interested in addresses as in entities, not attributes, and you should not cascade delete them anymore.
Update:
In the normal forms definitions, the word "dependent" means "dependent in my model"
Say, the company's address is Wall Street, New York, NY, USA.
If in your model Wall Street depends on New York which depends on NY which depends on USA, then keeping it in a single table would violate the 3NF.
However, if in your model:

Wall Street, New York, CA, USA is a valid address (which means you are not going to raise an error on this address)
It is never a valid situation that you update the company's address only because you are doing the same to some other companies (this means that something like handling the renaming of the streets or merging the regions or doing the other geographical updates is not a part of your normal business rules)

, then the table with the addresses is in 3NF.
From your wish to delete an address each time your are deleting a company I judge that you are not going to track the address dependencies, and, hence, you can keep the address in the companies table.
Comment: No, your understanding is correct, but your address table is not 3NF either, e.g., changing country would require you to change city as well. 3NF would mean storing `CityID` in the `Address` table. That is FK to a `City` table which has a `Name` and `StateID`. `StateID` is FK to a `State` table which has `Name` and `CountryID`, etc. You will find flaws in my example, but it is to demonstrate how true 3NF would be done. This is not always the pragmatic approach, though, and the benefits must be weighed against the increased hassle :)
Comment: Thank you for your answer.  Maybe I'm confused about 3NF.  According to this link (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA012242471033.aspx - scroll to the bottom), 3NF says that "Third normal form requires that not only every non-key column be dependent on the entire primary key, but that non-key columns be independent of each other."  It seems that address information is not independent of other address information, which is why I thought it had to be in a separate table.  Am I thinking about this incorrectly?
Comment: @OrbMan - I wish I could give you a point.  I hadn't heard that explanation before.  I guess I just read that a higher normal form is better, but I didn't realize the many trade-offs to go with it.  Thank you for that explanation.  Really appreciate it!
Answer: You are not doing this correctly. You should have company Id in the address table not addressid in the company table. This is because the relationship is really one-to-many, one company, more than one possible address (companies often have multiple addresses). That makes company the parent table.


Is there a way to use WP filesystem without credentials when FS_METHOD is NOT set to direct?

Question: The title is handful but so is the issue.
I am building a theme than can generate/compress CSS files . So I need to move some files around etc.
All this was working flawlessly until I figured out that once you set
FS_METHOD

to anything else but direct , you need credentials to read/write to files.
Which immediately trows away the use of WP filesystem
or any kind of files moving around freely.
Now I can tell admins to do this
define("FTP_HOST", "localhost");
define("FTP_USER", "yourftpusername");
define("FTP_PASS", "yourftppassword");

but none of it sits well with me. It takes away from dynamic theme sense, and to be honest I dont want to tell user to do any kind of FS_METHOD  changing so that I dont put anyone  in harms way.
I did read this http://ottopress.com/2011/tutorial-using-the-wp_filesystem/
and yes I can put everything inline not an issue , but 1 problem I have is that I need to generate ad least  custom.css file on theme install for the user. Why generate you might ask , so that when theme is updated we dont override those files.
So the long story short , is there no way to go around this and work with files normally without restrictions or fear that if we change some settings users might get hacked.
Any help and suggestion is most welcome.
Answer:
Is there a way to use WP filesystem without credentials when FS_METHOD
  is NOT set to direct?

Short answer: No.


Password Reset throws 'Something went wrong while resetting customer password' error

Question: It is happening with one of my customer's password reset and not an issue for rest. It shows 'Something went wrong while resetting customer password' error whenever I try to reset the customer's password. I did reset the time interval of password reset option but no use. Any help would be appreciated.
Comment: This is a generic error message for end user, Can you check your error logs where you will see the actual reason why you are not able to reset the customer password.
Answer: Please set below configuration and than you can reset passwords if below condition satisfies your request.
suppose you have set 10(in minutes) than make sure second request will be done after 10 minutes.
Time between password resets from admin is configured in Stores->Configuration->Advanced->Admin->Security->Min Time Between Password Reset Requests
also make sure cron job is working in your web store.
Thanks
Comment: @Meetanshi, I think this answer is related to admin part, means reset password for admin not customer.
Comment: I tried that. After the interval, the password reset is working for other customers (sending password reset links successfully) but it is not working with one of the customers email. As you know if we try to reset the password before the interval time completes, it throws different error('too many password reset requests').
Comment: Please wait for some time to send request because all requests are in queue. one by one request get executed.


Is Xen virtualization similar with amazon's S3 creating an instance?

Question: Hi is Xen virtualization similar with Amazon's S3 creating an instance? What's the difference between then and what about cloud computing? Thanks in advance!
Answer: As a matter of fact, Amazon S3 is based on Xen. When you set up your Xen server, you get the same hypervisor features but none of the "shiny" features such as on-demand provisionning and hypervisor load balancing.
These tools make the difference between "cloud computing" and "my hypervisor".
Comment: Amazon S3 is a storage service. I think you, and the original poster, are confusing S3 with EC2.
Comment: Oh my bad. You are perfectly right =)
Answer: Yes, it's broadly similar, they both use hypervisor techniques to allow VMs to exist. Clouds are really just a bunch of virtualised hosts that run VMs, usually with little user control/visibility of where the VM actually executes.


Cardinality of subset of P(A) that contains all the sets with lesser cardinality than A

Question: $\DeclareMathOperator\Card{Card}$Let $A$ be an infinite set, and let $B=\{X\subset A \mid \Card(X)<\Card(A)\}$. Can it be proven that $\Card(A)=\Card(B)$?
Comment: Not from $\mathsf{ZFC}$ alone: if $\mathsf{CH}$ fails, then taking $\vert A\vert=\aleph_1$ we get $\vert B\vert=2^{\aleph_0}>\vert A\vert$. But this would be more appropriate at math.stackexchange.
Comment: Better say $A$ is not a finite set.
Comment: This *question* has the potential for an interesting question if it is edited along the lines of Joel David's answer (namely, as a function of the cardinality).  It should be edited rather than closed.
Comment: How should it be rephrased?
Comment: It is fine with me to close the question or migrate it to math.stackexchange. I posted an answer just to point out that the hypothesis does not have GCH or CH dependence, as it is refutable in ZFC for singular cardinals. But also, I find it interesting that it is consistent with ZFC that it fails for all infinite cardinals.
Comment: *all uncountable cardinals*
Answer: This hypothesis is refutable in ZFC for the case where $A$ has singular cardinality $\kappa$, since by König's theorem $\kappa<\kappa^{\text{cof}(\kappa)}$.
Thus, we have provable counterexamples to the hypothesis, such as the case $A=\aleph_\omega$, for which the set $B$ will be strictly larger than $A$.
For other sets $A$, however, it can be true. Set theorists would usually write $\kappa^{<\kappa}=\kappa$ for the cardinals $\kappa$ for which it holds, and this is commonly seen as a hypothesis in theorems. If GCH holds, then this is true for every regular cardinal (but still false for every singular cardinal).
Let me also mention that set theorists have produced models with a global violation of the GCH, meaning that $2^\kappa>\kappa^+$ for every infinite cardinal.  [Thanks for comment of Andrés.] We can have, for example, $2^{\aleph_\alpha}=\aleph_{\alpha+2}$ for every $\alpha$. This situation requires large cardinal strength to produce. We may also assume without loss that there are no inaccessible cardinals, by chopping the universe off at the least inaccessible.
In such a model, we will have $\kappa<\kappa^{<\kappa}$ for every uncountable cardinal $\kappa$. This will be immediate for successor cardinals by the global failure of the GCH. It will hold for singular limits by the König's theorem observation above. And there will be no uncountable regular limit cardinals by our ommission of the inaccessibles.
In such a model, there is not a single instance of $\text{card}(A)=\text{card}(B)$, to use your notation, except the countably infinite case, and the finite cases of size 0 and 1.
Comment: Your argument does not work for $\kappa$ the successor of a singular. To ensure that  $\kappa^{<\kappa}>\kappa$ for all uncountable cardinals you need to violate $\mathsf{SCH}$ badly; the consistency strength should be that of the global violation of $\mathsf{GCH}$.
Comment: @AndrésE.Caicedo Ah, yes, you are right. I have edited.
Comment: As I mentioned, this is the assertion $\kappa=\kappa^{<\kappa}$, where $\kappa$ is the cardinality of $A$. It is false for all singular $\kappa$, so if you mean the universal claim (i.e. "for all infinite $A$...), it wouldn't be an attractive axiom. Meanwhile, it can be true for other cardinals, as we've mentioned, and the hypothesis $\kappa=\kappa^{<\kappa}$ appears in many theorems, making it something like an axiom I suppose.
Comment: Is $Card(A)=Card(B)$ equivalent to any axiom?