1D Optimisation Problem with Objective function of Absolutes

Question: I have a vector of finite, real parameters $[\theta_2, \theta_3, .., \theta_{n-1}]$.
I have one variable, $x_1$.
I want to minimise the following objective function:
$$ f(x_1) = |x_1| + |x_1+\theta_2| + |x_1+\theta_2+\theta_3| + ... + |x_1+\theta_2+...+\theta_{n-1}|  $$
I would like to know if there is a simple, analytical solution for this problem. Traditional calculus techniques would suggest taking the derivative, but it is not a smooth function. In particular given the sub-function:
$$g(x)=|x+y|, \quad \frac{dg}{dx}= \left \{ \begin{matrix} -1,\; x<-y \\ +1,\; x>-y \end{matrix} \right.$$
Also I expect there to be a unique solution but am currently thinking through how to prove this also.
Comment: Why do you expect a unique solution? Try just one parameter $|x|+|x+\theta|$, then all $x$ between $0$ and $-\theta$ are solutions.
Comment: This formula is the abstraction of part of rather complicated financial process. Inution about the real action of the problem suggested a unique solution, albeit you make a neat and simple point. When there are many more theta it make the linear range very small giving the intuitive impsression of uniqueness. See my suggested answer which alludes to still a possible unique solution if certain criteria hold?
Answer: I have thought a little more about this and propose the solution. Set $\theta_1:=0$ and $y_i=\sum_{j=1}^i \theta_j$,  so that the problem above becomes minimise:
$$f(x_1)=\sum_{i=1}^{n-1}|x_1+y_i|$$
If we order the $y_i$s in say ascending order then the solution for $x_1$ should be at the midpoint which will permit the derivative to be zero (or i suppose undefined) placing $x_1$ either side of that will result in a derivative that suggests a better solution.
For odd numbers of $n$ a range of permitted values might be valid (see A.r. comment) but for an even $n$ this might result in a unique value. I havent explored the cases of repeated $y_i$ thoroughly yet.
Comment: Yes, it's the right way to start thinking. When you say "at the midpoint" you mean not in the sense of length, but in the sense of that it is as many parameters that are smaller as that that are larger than the point. Think also what happens if some $y_i$ are equal. "Derivative is zero" is not applicable here.


Leave-One-Subject-Out cv method

Question: I would like to use a Leave-One-Subject-Out cv on my datasets (I have dataset including 38, 15, 10 participants, respectively). I don't know the hyperparamenters C and gamma of my SVM so I have to estimate them with a cv grid search approach. Someone could explain me step by step how I can do all these thing? That is, how I have to divide the subjects to estimate
the hyper parameters, to train the model and finally to test it? I need to do a SVM for each subject?
Answer: Dataset division for CV appears to be done at random in most if not all implementations.
A good "plain english" explanation of how CV works in general is given by the second answer here, especially the visual.
The LOOCV case is somewhat special in that there is no randomness in assignment to different folds; each observation will, at some point, constitute a "test set" all of its own, so the modeling results should be extremely stable (unless the modelling technique itself induces additional sampling randomness) under repeated CV partitioning attempts. Try doing several iterations of k-fold CV and LOOCV for the same modeling technique, on the same dataset and you will see what I mean.
As for implementation, you can either use the caret package in R, which implements kernlab's svm functions by default or, as @DeepakML recommends, use e1071 which I have had good experiences with as well, but which requires more hand-coding for the grid search.
To use caret, the process is as follows:

Create a training parameter control object by using the trainControl function to store training parameters. You can pass the C and gamma values you wish to evaluate as vectors, and specify "LOOCV" as the resampling method parameter.
Train your model using the train function.

See here for a more detailed step-by-step instruction.
Should you wish to use a different svm implementation and do not want to submit yourself to the torture that is trying to get caret to interact with packages other than its default implementations, the high-level process is as follows:

Create a table to hold all your potential parameter combinations. In R, i recommend using the expand.grid function.
Create a place to hold your test results from the model. I recommend simply adding another column to your parameter combination table, as this will keep everything nice, ordered, and easy to keep track of.
Create a nested loop and use your selected technique to train your model on the training partition and then test it out on the test partition. The outer loops cycles through each parameter combination, while the inner loop cycles through each partition index that you have created. You will need to store your model performance results from these operations. You can aggregate them and store them as a single value for all different partition indeces for each parameter, or store a separate value for each index, depending on your objective and resource constraints.
Compare the performance of each parameter combination and see which one did best according to your chosen metric.
Train your model on the entire dataset using the best parameter combination.

As for your three datasets, if they all have the same variables, you should be able to just row-concatenate them. If they have variables they do not share, you'll need to do some legwork to exclude the noncommon ones, either from your concatenated training set, or from the model, as SVM does not play nice with missing values.
A final word of warning. LOOCV can get computationally expensive very quickly as datasets grow and SVM is fairly intensive in its own right. You seem to have a small dataset, so you might be able to get away with it this time, but I would generally caution against this combination of modeling and sampling techniques. And TBH, my personal experience has been that LOOCV is generally not worth the computational expense; I never really go above 10-fold CV in my own modelling.
Answer: I am not clear on the 3 datasets you have mentioned. Are these train, test and validation sets? If you are doing CV for finding your hyper-parameters usually you don't need 3 sets. You can keep a final test set which will give the final accuracy of your model.
Typically Leave One Out CV can be done using any statistical modelling software. If you are using R, the package E1071 can do this for you.
Use TUNE.SVM/BEST.SVM to tune the model, the LEAVE ONE OUT CV can be chosen using TUNE.CONTROL parameter within which you will have to set CROSS parameter equal to NUMBER OF DATA POINTS IN YOUR TRAINING SET (tune.control(cross=nrow(dataPoints)))
Thanks
Comment: I have three different dataset (they are not train, test and validation sets, they still include all data ) and for each data set I would like to do a LOSO cv, respectively. So, I would like to know how to carry out a LOSO cv on a dataset also with the estimate of the hyper parameters.
Comment: Use package train. See here for a related post. http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/109340/leave-one-subject-out-cross-validation-in-caret
Comment: I meant function train in package caret in my last comment.

Leave-One-Subject-Out cv method


Transparency disappearing act

Question: Running Blender v2.79b. Created a number of meshes. Have one mesh that sits above the others, which I want to be semi-transparent; it has an alpha of  0.07. However, I cannot see all of the other meshes through it. Any pointers to where I need to look gratefully appreciated.
Comment: it's a bit hard to understand, could you please show the scene and the nodes of your material? perhaps share your file? https://blend-exchange.giantcowfilms.com/
Comment: Thanks for reaching out to help. --- Consider a helicopter flying above you. Looking up, you might see the helicopter wheels and the body, with the blades spinning above. Now consider looking from above, through the spinning blades. You'd expect to see the helicopter body. In my example, I was seeing the wheels, but not the body.
Answer: There were objects on meshes added after the transparent object was added. These objects failed to appear through the transparent object.
The transparent object was on its own mesh.
Objects, added before the transparent object was added, appeared through it.
Moving the later added objects higher, in the Scene outliner, remedied the problem.
Objects were moved by creating new meshes and making them the parent of the objects added after the transparent object.
There's probably a better way to do this, but I'm just grateful to have found a solution.
Comment: What you've come up against in your project is a trait that can be used for discriminatory masking when rendering in OpenGL. As you've correctly pointed out, the solution is in the relative ages of one (transparent) object to another that's behind it... https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/117572/how-to-put-a-mask-into-3d-space/117941#117941

Transparency disappearing act


Is there a way to add a suggested edit as a comment?

Question: Just came across a suggested edit for this answer, which would fit better as a comment.  Is there a way to convert the edit to a comment, while leaving the original answer alone?
Answer: No there isn't.
Reject the edit with the "should be a comment reason".
If it was a registered user they'd see the rejection and hopefully act on it.
As it's an anonymous edit all you can do is post it as a comment yourself (if you think it's valid).
Comment: Wait. Anonymous users can edit, but new *registered* users cannot post pictures?  What a wacky system.
Comment: @Tester101 - well I don't think anonymous users can post pictures either. And it's only suggesting edits :)


Locating information on grandparents?

Question: I have the birthday, death date, burial place, spouses, children, and even military records, but I still can not locate any information on my grandpa or grandmas past information. I don't know where else to look for records (after checking FamilySearch, ancestry, findagrave, ect)
Comment: Welcome to G&FH SE!  As a new user be sure to take the [Tour].  Something we need to be careful about with a question like yours is that we must observe our [privacy policy](http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/help/on-topic) because there would seem to be a good chance that they were born less than 100 years ago .  If you can perhaps [edit] your question to include the years (as a range) in which they were born and died, and the US state, but no identifying details, then the options for trying to help you may become clearer.
Comment: Also, your question is very broad because you do not say specifically what the main question you want to answer is.  Is it perhaps where to find the birth record of your grandfather (that would probably give you his parents' names)?
Comment: Likewise, welcome to G&FH.SE.  I agree that the question as written is far too broad.  You don't say what information you were looking for, how you attempted to search, or what your sources are for all the information you are starting with. Without a time frame, it's impossible to know if the reason you can't find things is because of privacy laws, or that the information you want is not online.
Comment: If you could give us more information provided it doesn't break any privacy laws I can have a look for you. If you know when they were married, why not order the marriage certificate. I'm in the UK so I don't know what kind of laws or the availability is in the US.
Comment: Welcome to G&FH.SE, Danny.  In the USA, we don't have tidy nationwide registration of births, marriages, and deaths comparable to the GRO indexes.  Most records are held at the local level, so working any genealogical problem involves knowing where people lived.  The rules for what information is available to the public and what is shielded by privacy laws are different for every state, which is why we would like to know what states are involved.
Answer: Have you

interviewed your parents, aunts, uncles, cousins for clues and memories?
checked at family residences for documents like birth certificates, passports, funeral cards, etc.?
searched in newspapers for obituaries, marriage announcements, family events, reports from county courts?
searched creatively, using wildcards (for mis-spelled or mis-transcribed names) and date ranges and keywords?
searched in image-only databases, like many probate files?
created a time-line of family residence (county level if not actual addresses) to help locate where official records may be held?

Locating information on grandparents?


Identify the web site loaded in web view iOS application?

Question: I have an iPhone application that just shows a web page when you use it. I don't know the URL of the site it loads. Is there any way I can get the URL of the page the application loads?
Comment: This question appears to be off-topic because it is not directly related to the iPhone or iOS but is about sniffing the network (and/or jailbreaking the device) to know which website is being accessed.
Answer: To determine the web site, you will need to intercept the network traffic travelling between your iPhone and your Internet Service Provider (ISP).
To do this you need to set your phone to use WiFi and to pass network traffic through a proxy. Proxies include squid and Charles.
A good proxy will offer log files and allow you to see server addresses and, if not encrypted, requested URLs.
Alternatively, you could contact the application developer and ask.
Answer: No, You can't get the URL of the loaded page until the developer of that application intended to show the url.
Answer: The other way to intercept the traffic apart from a proxy is to set up a sniffer, such as Wireshark.
Here are some instructions from stackoverflow.
If you prefer to use command line tools you could also use tcpdump, which is available from the OS X command line.
Another good proxy which I used to use in my work is paros, but it has now been superseeded by ZED attack proxy from OWASP.
Comment: Is it possible to intercept the traffic between the iPhone and the network this way?
Comment: Hi @GrahamMiln yes it should be given the link I provided from [stackexchange](http://stackoverflow.com/a/13874035/2871638).
Comment: Thanks, I see the iPhone still needs to be switched to WiFi for this to work. That makes sense for me now.


Other country as permanent member of UN Security Council?

Question: Is there any other country which might have the ability or credentials to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council?
Comment: See http://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/8424/why-there-is-no-genuine-attempts-to-reform-the-number-of-permanent-members-in-un
Comment: This question seems to be opinon based. Can you explain further?
Answer: Apparently, not; at least, it would require amendment of the Charter of the UN:
Current edition of Article 23 of UN Charter says:

[…] The Republic of China, France, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the United States of America shall be permanent members of the Security Council. The General Assembly shall elect ten other Members of the United Nations to be non-permanent members of the Security Council […]

It has been several times suggested the addition of new permanent members.
There were also several suggestions regarding increasing the number of non-permanent seats and also "semi-permanent" members (those whose rights are somewhere in between permanent and non-permanent).
At the moment, no proposals have been accepted yet:

Any reform of the Security Council would require the agreement of at least two-thirds of UN member states, and that of all the permanent members of the UNSC enjoying the veto right. — Wikipedia, Reform of the UNSC
Comment: Amending the charter is not in itself a big problem and certainly not a basis to answer no. There is even a couple of articles explicitly providing for amendments! The politics of UNSC reform are a much bigger problem.
Comment: @Relaxed However, the fact that it requires charter amendment means the politics are much more finicky; for instance, from a procedural standpoint it's just as easy to change the structure of the UNSC as it is to add countries, so states that might be OK adding someone but would rather reform the whole thing push for the latter.


How to estimate the standard error of a particular effect size when authors reported exactly as zero?

Question: Currently, I'm working on a meta-analysis that is basically based on data obtained from individual-studies. However, there are some cases where the authors report effect size value with exactly zero standard error. I understand standard error cannot be zero & the problem is related to rounding decimal places. Is there some way to handle such cases? Any help is much appreciated!
Comment: I don't know a way to overcome the authors' failure to use a sufficient number of significant digits in their reporting.  But meta-analysis on summary data is disappointing and it's far better to acquire the raw data to do a more informative analysis that doesn't suffer from reporting format.
Answer: It might be possible to obtain the precise value of standard error from other reported characteristics. For example, if the effect sizes are computed as standardized measures, such as Cohen's d or correlation coefficient, the sample size and effect size are all the information needed for obtaining the standard error. See this question for obtaining the variance of Cohen's d - its square root is equal to the standard error. Or, if the effect size is a mean difference and the authors report the t-statistic or the p-value, you divide the effect size by the t-statistic and obtain the standard error (t = eff/se). Another option might be calculating it from sample sizes and standard deviations if there were reported and a non-standardized effect size measure was used.
If neither of those options is possible, I guess that you might try using a standard error estimate from a study that is the most similar in terms of sample size and methodology. Then check how the inclusion of this study with the "guessed" standard error affects the overall estimate and how sensitive the overall estimate is to different values of the "guessed" standard error.
Comment: Thank you very much for the tips. My case is the last one. They simply put the effect size with zero standard error only. No other information is provided!
Comment: Sorry to hear that. An incomplete reporting of results is not great. If the article is recent, you can also try contacting the authors. There is a high chance that they won't respond but it's always worth a shot.


Who first distinguished number theory and numerology?

Question: Who first distinguished number theory and numerology?
Comment: I think it is generally helpful to post more than one sentence. The term "numerology" only appeared in the early 1900s (and can refer to some traditional pursuits as well as loosely to pseudoscience). "Number theory" is also stretchable, the more so the further back we go. So it would help to specify what exactly is meant by each, and what counts as "distinguishing" prior to [Hara's 1907 book](https://oed.com/view/Entry/129129?redirectedFrom=numerology#eid).
Comment: There was never any confusion between number theory and numerology.
Comment: We do not know... IMO, at least for the Western world, there was the Pythagorean "discovery" of the properties of numbers, from which began number theoy; only later began numerology.
Answer: Looking for methods is theory, looking for results is... whatever. The interest in pythagorean triples or magic squares seems to have evolved from knowing some items to knowing a method to generate all of them. But that does not preclude a motivation e.g. some kind of power, magical or other, to be derived: knowledge is power.
A similar question aks when astronomy separated from  astrology and there is no good answer. According to Westman Copernic was still looking for a better astrology, but in his approach he was following Ptolemy who had already separated the method, that is astronomy, from the application - astrology.
It seems obvious that Euclid's proof about the infinity of primes is number theory, so at least this a terminus ante quem. Ever since Burkert's book the view about so called pythagoreans has radically changed and currently Zhmud has worked out details various writings. Also one should remember that little is known about ancient Greek isopsephy which became popular at the same time when neopythagoreanism was in vogue.
Comment: What's "isopsephy"?


Was the first depiction of "face melting" in Raiders of the Lost Ark?

Question: That was the first time I recall seeing a cinematic depiction of a face melting, but I'm wondering if some "master of horror" did it before 1981.
Answer: "Tales of Terror" (1963) starring Vincent Price.
It was an anthology film consisting of three tales based on stories by Edgar Allan Poe, the third and final one was called The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar and featured the character played by Vincent Price with a melting face. There are other movies I can think of with melting faces, The Terror, The Incredible Melting Man (1977?), etc. I think I will research this one and try to find one from an earlier film.
Answer: The Devils (1971) includes a graphic depiction of burning at the stake.  When this cuts to the actor's face at various stages, there is clear burn damage in a fairly similar "melting" way.  However it is not a continuous shot in the way that the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark is.


Could Ethereum ever be used for small purchases and services?

Question: For example, is it fast enough and is transaction cost low enough that app developers could accept it for selling $1 to $5 apps or in-app purchases?
Answer: This answer is based on the current state of the network as of 2017-11-04
Currently, you can get a transaction confirmed for less than 1 cent. For example this one cost only 0.6 cents:
https://etherscan.io/tx/0x080be4cdafc3194b4a69e115872eb693bf3965c7740db74c1c6fe6a464a4ada3
Transactions usually take from a few seconds up to a couple minutes to confirm, which can be acceptable. (if you pay a higher transaction fee, it will confirm faster)
For a local in-app purchase you don't have to wait for any confirmations from miners. The transaction can be instant. If the transaction later turns out to be fraudulent (double-spent), or not carrying enough fee to be confirmed, you can simply revert the game or app to the state before the in-app purchase or alert the user to attempt payment again.
Planning for the future
In the future the blockchain space may become more expensive, making $1 on-chain transaction unfeasable. For that situation, solutions are already being worked on:
https://plasma.io/plasma.pdf
Comment: I'm just messing around with the Ethereum Wallet.  I've created an additional account besides the base account.   The minimum fee to transfer funds between accounts is currently 0.05 ETHER (not gas or USD or whatever).   I've noticed after every failed attempt to transfer funds (because they all have failed with this release) that the transaction fee varies wildly.  I don't know how that range is calculated, but this is the highest I've seen today.  It ranges from 0.05 ether to 1 ether.  https://imgur.com/sVuNMcj
Comment: @MichaelPrescott 0.05 Ether is a ridiculously high transaction fee for a simple transfer. There must be some terrible mistake or bug, no sane wallet application would suggest paying that. Which version of Ethereum Wallet are you using? Have you gotten any transactions into the blockchain? If so, could you share the txid?
Comment: I'm using 0.9.2.  In the past, I've used earlier versions of Ethereum Wallet and had no problem with transfers; although, even then the fees were rather deflating.  With this version, I'm having no luck at all. I also recall in earlier versions I had better control over the fees.  I seem to recall being able to set a very specific value.  With this one, there is just a slider and the range is just all over the place between sessions.  I'm guessing that it is a function of how much I'm attempting to transfer and activity on the blockchain???
Comment: In this most recent test, I was attempting to transfer 0.08 ether (hence questioning practicality of small transactions).  The fee for that permitted 0.05 for slowest transfer up to 1 ether for fastest transfer.  So... up to $300 USD to transfer $25.  :(  It's crazy to me that it would even allow setting that high. I'm glad I was paying attention.


Is vector photography possible?

Question: Of course any bitmap image can be vectorized, but might we ever reach a point where a camera can make an outline image that looks exactly like a photograph? Could the resulting image even be considered a photograph, and if not, what defines a photograph?
Comment: I photographed a Vector once but he was not very photogenic or cooperative and i just could not stay on coarse. YMMV.  What defines a photograph, indeed.
Answer: I think the problem here is one of level of detail.  While vectorization works great for making an image that can scale infinitely, it relies on firm patterns that can be mathematically described.
Unfortunately, real life is full of imperfections and variations that make it impossible to describe in a pure vector format, at-least with any meaningful gain.  We could theoretically make a vector format that maps every single pixel, but then we'd have a raster image that couldn't scale any better than a normal raster image.
Image and video compression are already the applications of the kind of thinking you are talking about.  They look for the patterns that can be identified to reduce the storage required and when using lossy compression, they bend the rules further to get a match so that they can reduce the amount of information necessary to represent the image.
Vectorizing the image is another level of extreme for this, but you will notice that the image quality always drops significantly when such vectorization is applied (due to the loss of the random information that makes a photo look like real life.)
As for whether a vector image of a scene is a photo or not.  I think that's a really hard question to answer.  Personally, I'd say yes, if it is a rendering of real life based on sampling the light (regardless of how lifelike it may be), I think that it probably could be considered a photograph, but I could also see how someone might see it as more akin to a painting at that point as well.  I don't think there is a strong line answer there.
Comment: @LeeSleek - such an image wouldn't necessarily be terabytes in size if it could fit to a mathematical model, but real life doesn't typically fit that well to a mathematical model due to imperfections. An atomic level accurate raster image would be FAR larger than terabytes.
Comment: It just occurred to me a few days ago: vector photography is impossible. For an image to be truly a vector image, it would have to be infinitely scalable. But real life is not infinitely scalable. There is no way a camera could capture every atom in a scene to the point that you could zoom to the atomic level and beyond (beyond?). Such an image could be terabytes in size.
Comment: I was taking into account that vector images are generally smaller than raster images. Anyways, even if we could create a vector camera, what would be the difference between it and a camera that vectorized the bitmaps it saw?
Comment: @LeeSleek - well that's just it, a true vector representation of real life is pretty much impossible.  Best you can hope for is an approximation.  I don't think it is conceivable that a camera could do native vector capture, so it would have to be a vectorization of a bitmap image.  That's the only way a camera producing vector graphics would be possible.
Comment: @LeeSleek the closest thing you could get to a vector image camera would be an image that tried to fit visual light patterns into geometric drawing commands. In theory I guess a sensor could be set up with some kind of esoteric shutter and projected light pattern that attempted to "scan" for geometric shapes (e.g., straight lines) by combining a long series of exposures to a image sensor; it's an interesting thought experiment but the image quality would probably be worse than a standard camera; might be useful for measurement in some cases? I'd probably trust standard 2d image tools over that
Comment: One can just as easily argue that a 2-D raster image is not an accurate representation of reality, either.
Answer: Such cameras exist today such as those used to survey road accident sites.
Those cameras create a 'point cloud' of vector distance measurements based on reflected laser light and there is no need to be evenly spaced or co-located pixels although they normally are (as it's easier to do it that way).  There are ways which that captured image can then be displayed using interpolated projections (including on vector displays as used to be used by CAD operators in days gone by) or by printing using either material removal (like CNC) or an additive process (such as Selective Laser Sintering.)  There's no reason why such a camera couldn't record colour information and they may even do that anyway.
The word Photograph is a compound of Photo (light) and Graph (record) as such, yes it would be photography as it would be recorded light.
Comment: A point cloud is still a raster image though, it just has depth data.  That isn't a vector based image.  A vector image uses a mathematical model to describe where lines should appear and how the shapes they form should be filled, thus allowing perfect scaling, thus the same image can be used to fill a billboard or print a business card.
Comment: A raster image has no relationship between the points, it is simply that the input is taken for each individual point without any regard for the points around it.  A laser scanner does the same thing, but stores depth information for how far each point was from the sensor.  Sure you can make an imperfect vectorization of the scene, but any detail that was smaller than the model that approximates the point cloud can represent will be lost, the exact same way information is lost in the vectorization of a flat image.
Comment: @JamesSnell: The mathematical models have never been the limitation. You're never going to be a able to build a camera that could take a picture of the whole earth with down to the atom resolution, but there is nothing mathematically preventing you from representing such an image. This whole question suffers from a misunderstanding of the purposes of raster vs vector graphics.
Comment: @JamesSnell - that's raster scan, not raster graphics.  Raster simply means that the information is stored as a set of points or a dot matrix data structure.  A 3d scan is still this even if the method of projection is projection from a point through the grid.  You can check out wikipedia for an in-depth article on raster graphics.
Comment: I will grant that a point cloud isn't pure raster though as it could be mapped in to a 3d space and images from multiple angles could be combined to form a point cloud that can't be represented in a raster manner.  A single 3d laser scan however is fundamentally a set of raster sampleings with depth information stored.  Even if it isn't considered raster, it still does not fit the definition of vector graphics which are mathematically modeled forms used for point generation when creating a raster image from the vector graphic.
Comment: @AJHenderson - A raster is a set of horizontal scanning lines of values which is not a point cloud as points don't have to have a relation to one another only to the point the image is being captured from. That said, I'll grant that current implementations use raster scanning for simplicity.  Relationships between vertices can be mapped out mathematically which will scale smoothly and limitations on resolution would be down to limitations of the mathematical model (how many vertices, accuracy of curvature recordings etc.)
Comment: @AJHenderson - the definition of raster is a set of horizontal scanned lines.
Comment: @whatshisname - the resolution of vectors was never assumed to be infinite but for example a picture of a pool table would, when scaled up still have round balls rather than ones with jagged edges.
Answer: Please humor me:. Consider that "randomness" in nature is mostly not true randomness but fractal, stochastic and other complex but all formal mathematical patterns.  Imagine AI that can accurately extrapolate the patterns from an image with a high degree of certainty --- definitely including all the data in a raster image of whatever resolution, but also including the infinitely complex patterns between the pixels. Isn't this possible?
Comment: Is this a question asked "of the ether", or is this a Socratic question asked as a form of answer to the original question? That is, are you intending to create a dialogue, or are you intending to _answer_ the question in an oblique way, knowing the answer to your question? The difference between the two forms is the difference between discussion and Q&A. In case you didn't know, this site is not a discussion forum—it's a Q&A site.
Comment: Humoring you and taking it at face value, modern physics does not agree that nature at the lowest level is able to extrapolated; that is, at the quantum level, nature is not quantifiable. That is, it would require more bits than there are particles in the universe, or alternately, more computer power than is available in all the energy in the universe.
Comment: Only in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Episode 8.  Trintragula did it to create the Total Perspective Vortex..

Is vector photography possible?


Six-Four chord: inversion of tonic or dominant with non-chord tone?

Question: Is the triad G-C-E an inversion of C major or a dominant with a non-chord tone?
Comment: This is an English forum. Please change your question to English. Auch wenn ich die Frage einwandfrei verstehe (sprachlich, nicht semantisch).
Comment: @ggcg: This is not what the question is about. The fact that it's an inverted C chord doesn't need any discussion. The question is how do you analyze it in a I64-V-I cadence.
Comment: It is the second inversion of C Maj
Comment: I think there is an assumption you are asking about a cadential 6/4 chord. Can you clarify if that is what you mean?
Answer: I don't think there is an "answer" so much as a historically informed way to understand why it could be labelled in those two ways. Regardless of labels a cadential 6/4 functions one way in the common practice style.
There was a time when Roman numeral analysis and chord inversions were not part of music theory. This is critical to understand. There was a time when there wasn't a theory of chord roots and inversions! For reference points we could mention composers like Corelli and Bach. Their theory and notation used figured bass where a cadential 6/4 would look like this...

Historically, harmony was the result of counterpoint and chords were intervals above the bass. The thinking would have been something like: the bass goes from G to C and the G takes a chord of the sixth. The 4th over the G is dissonant and therefore must be resolved so it moves down a step to the 3rd. Then the G moves to the C.
From this perspective we do not have a form of tonic chord. It would be a form of dominant chord, because the bass is playing the dominant scale degree. Also, strictly speaking, it probably wouldn't have been called 'non-chord tones' as the 6/4 is the chord, but it's a dissonance requiring resolution. Probably I wouldn't have been called an appoggiatura.
To capture this historical view in modern Roman numerals it would look like...

As long as you mark the dissonant tones as appoggiaturas the V symbol under the cadential 6/4 is OK.
This...

...is the fully modern view labeling it as a second inversion tonic chord.
Personally, I like the older approach, because it allows me to think about it as the past composers did. But I also understand the modern way. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Answer: Nobody can tell you what it is (in a given context). Obviously, in isolation without any context it's just an inverted C major triad, but that's a rather uninteresting and obvious fact.
A more reasonable question would concern the way it is analyzed, and indeed, both interpretations are possible. And note that the context is important. When used in an authentic cadence I64-V-I, then the I64 chord can be either interpreted as the second inversion of the tonic triad, or it can be analyzed as a dominant with non-chord tones that resolve to a consonant dominant. The first interpretation is more common in traditional texts, whereas the latter is more often found in modern texts.
Comment: @ggcg: No, this is all about context, and in the given context you're free to hear/analyze it as an inverted tonic, or as a double appoggiatura of V. Who is right? Nobody can tell you, that is what my first sentence is about.
Comment: This isn't quite true,  "Nobody can tell you what it is".  Anyone can absolutely tell what it is.  It is a C Maj second inversion.  There needs to be enough of the G triad present for the ear to hear it as G.
Comment: Yes, it is not about context as the OP didn't provide any.  Just a chord period.
Comment: @ggcg: That question can only occur in the context that I assume as implied. How would that question otherwise come about? So you think the OP might as well have asked if E-G-C is some type of E chord? I don't think so.
Comment: I disagree,  It is often that students ask questions like this without context when they are learning.  Once you are told you can eliminate the 5th, a common practice with the V7 chord (because there are enough frequencies to identify it).  All bets are off in the mind of the student.  You can assume away.  My interpretation of the OP is valid and assuming turns it into another question.
Comment: Absolutely E-G-C is some type of E chord!
Comment: @ggcg: I agree that I took the liberty to add my interpretation to the question, simply because otherwise it would be quite pointless. And from the title it is clear that the OP knows that technically it is  the second inversion of C, so no need to explain that. I just know that that very same question usually occurs in the context I implied. It's up to the OP to decide what was actually meant by the question, and if the given answers are useful or not.
Comment: @ggcg: And yes, there is one (and just one) very specific context where E-G-C is an E chord, but usually it isn't.
Answer: The three notes G C and E are 1,3 and 5 of C major - in C, E, G order it's root; in G C E order it's second inversion. Dominant with a non-chord tone? If a note has been changed in a triad chord, it becomes a different chord! It can be understood that it is the dominant triad of key F - that built off the V note - which is C, but any closed or open inversion of a triad still keeps its original root name.
Comment: Not always, the interpretation I mentioned in my answer is a very common interpretation, and our ears also tell us so :) In pop/jazz terms, that chord could be called Gsus4 (the additional 'e' is just a color tone, not changing the function; same for the missing 5 of G).
Comment: @MattL. - never come across it in jazz. I understand that G with C instead of B could be construed as Gsus4, even without the D, but with E, it changes the taste somewhat. I can't come up with an outrageous 'changed chord', but surely by altering the basic ingredients, the chord itself cannot be Gsus4 - the basic ingredients thereof being GCD. In that case, any 'colour tone' can be added to anything, and given the same name. If that's the case, a sus is usually followed by a 'normal', but this 'sus' is IV of G. What am I missing?
Comment: In a jazz context you might have come across Fmaj7/G, which functions as a dominant in C. It is basically a G7sus4, and it has an E as a color note. Anyway, the question is about a standard progression mainly used in classical music, and there the two common analyses are the ones I've summarized in my answer: [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_inversion#Cadential)


Screen door track replacement

Question: I need to replace the twin plastic tracks (see pic below) guiding the tops of two sliding mesh screen doors attached to the back entrance of my house. The tracks are plastic and come in one piece, but one track (green arrow) is slightly (~0.5in) higher than the other (blue arrow). The higher track is breaking apart (red arrow) causing the door sliding on that track to dislocate when sliding. The replacement looks easy if I can buy this type of twin tracks somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it online, maybe because I don't know the right keywords to search for. Does anyone know the name of this type of twin tracks?
Answer: Sliding screen door "tracks" are not some generic part that you can replace willy-nilly. They are a part of the entire sliding glass door frame assembly. Unless you can find the original manufacturer of your door unit (unlikely) and get just a part of the frame assembly (very unlikely) then you wont be able to replace that.

The replacement looks easy

Wrong
Even if you could buy the OEM upper frame piece (very unlikely), replacement would involve very intrusive work including removal of all glass doors and panels and separation of the frame from the plaster/stucco/trim etc.
You need to pursue a repair path, which can be complex in its own right. IMO repairing your existing track is your only option.
Comment: The replacement *is* easy if I get the track. These are not glass doors, but screen doors, which I thought was clear enough. I have edited the question to now explicitly say "mesh".
Comment: The screen door track is typically **part of** the glass door track, not a seperate piece. If yours was purchased and installed as a stand-alone unit, that would be unusual, but you should have luck finding/ordering parts like this at a door and window shop.
Comment: Yeah, mine is separate. In fact, I don't have a sliding glass door - I have French doors and then a sliding mesh screen, which slides on the track in my pic. The track is just screwed on to the door frame. I've been searching online for the same kind of track, but no luck so far. I may just have to buy new mesh screens (of the same height) that don't require this special twin track.

Screen door track replacement


How to get version history of a SharePoint list item in to PowerApp

Question: I have a SharePoint (V.2016) Online List on which a PowerApp application is developed. The App is like of Approvals/Rejection timelines etc. For Audit trail we can go to the specific item in to the SharePoint list and can see who has made what changes. But i want those details to be fetched in a PowerApp Screen. Can anyone please help that how to achieve this?
Answer: You can retrieve version history of SharePoint list item using Power Automate.
Refer this article having step by step explanation to achieve this.
Comment: Hi Diksha, Thanks for the reference. I will try that by next week and will get back with the results. Regards,
Comment: You're welcome @AkshayManke. Yes share your result once done.
Also please upvote and accept the answer if it answers to your question.


rotating a fixed-width rectangle to opposite corners

Question: I need to draw a rotated rectangle in AutoCAD. This rectangle has a fixed width of 3-1/2" and an unknown length. Assuming that the lower left corner is at (0,0), I know that the top right corner is at (1'5-1/8",0'6-5/32"). How do I determine the angle of rotaion?
Answer: HINT: You have the length of the diagonal (since you have opposite points)
Also you have the width, figure out the length and then you can find the angle of rotation using right angle triangles (better draw a figure).
Comment: You are correct. Can't believe I didn't see that. Thx.


Is it true that an integral domain $R$ is a UFD if and only if intersection of any two principal ideals of $R$ is principal ?

Question: Is it true that an integral domain $R$ is a UFD if and only if intersection of any two principal ideals of $R$ is principal ?
Comment: To give a positive result: If you additionally require that every non-unit is a (finite) product of irreducible elements, then $R$ is a UFD. So your assumptions somehow give you the uniqueness of factorization once you have some factorization at first.
Answer: A ring $R$ such that the intersection of any two principal ideals of $R$ is principal is exactly a GCD domain. And a GCD domain need not be an UFD.
Comment: @SaunDev This can be derived from the following two results: First, in an integer domain, $(a)\cap(b)$ is principal iff $\text{lcm}(a,b)$ exists, and in this case, $(a)\cap(b)=(\text{lcm}(a,b))$. Second, in an integer domain, if $\text{lcm}(a,b)$ exists, then $\gcd(a,b)$ exists and $\text{lcm}(a,b)\cdot\gcd(a,b)=ab$. Which results do you need a proof?
Comment: @SaunDev If $\text{lcm}(a,b)$ exists, write it as $c$, it's sufficient to prove that $\frac{ab}c$ is the $\gcd$ of $a$ and $b$. Firstly, $\frac{ab}c$ divides $a$ and $b$ since $\frac{ab}c\cdot\frac cb=a$ and $\frac{ab}c\cdot\frac ca=b$. Secondly, if $d\mid a$ and $d\mid b$, then it's easy to see $\text{lcm}(\frac ad,\frac bd)=\frac cd$, which implies that $\frac cd\mid\frac ad\cdot\frac bd$, thus the conclusion.
Comment: Could you please add a proof to the fact that an integral domain $R$ is a GCD domain if and only if intersection of any two principal ideals of $R$ is again principal ?
Comment: I need the proof that if $lcm$ exists then gcd exists . And what about the converse , Is it true that in a GCD domain , intersection of two principal ideals is principal ?
Comment: @SaunDev Your conjecture that in  a GCD domain, lcm always exists, is true. But the converse of the second of the above result fails, that is, in a integer domain, if for a certain pair of $a,b$, that $\gcd(a,b)$ exists doesn't  imply that $\text{lcm}(a,b)$ exists.
Comment: The result that Censi Li wrote is a classical characterization of GCD domains. This theorem can be found e.g. in the book "Foundations of Commutative Rings and their Modules". More exactly it's theorem 5.1.16.
Answer: No, this is not true. A counterexample is the ring of holomorphic functions $R=Hol(\Bbb{C})$.
$R$ is not a UFD because irreducible (and prime as well) elements of $R$ are functions with exactly one zero with multiplicity 1. However, there are some functions with infinite zeroes (e.g. $\sin z$), and such functions cannot be factorized as a product of finitely many irreducible functions. A theorem by Weierstrass tells us that these functions can be written as an infinite product of irreducible functions. As an example
$$\sin z = \pi z\prod_{k=-\infty, k \neq 0}^{+\infty} \left( 1 - \frac{z}{k} \right)$$
But now, suppose $f,g \in R$. Then $(f)\cap(g)$ is generated by a least common multiple of $f$ and $g$, which can be constructed factoring $f$ and $g$ as a (possibly infinite) product of irreducible functions.
This ring $R$ is not a UFD, but it is almost a UFD. Every element can be written as a (possibly infinite) product of irreducible elements. This can be done because of the topological structure of $\Bbb{C}$. In general, in an algebraic setting you are not allowed to write infinite products.


Switch Laptop from windows 10 to Linux

Question: I want to switch a spare laptop I have from Windows 10 to Linux. I don't wish to keep windows on there at all and have nothing on there to back up. Can anyone point me towards a guide that shows me how to do this please?
Thanks
Answer: I had an old Dell Inspiron 8600 laptop running (Windows) that wouldn't boot.      I got hold of a Live distro in my case it was Puppy (Slacko) 5.5/5.6 there are many others e.g. Knoppix 7.7.1. Boot up into the Live CD. Under System find GParted and click on it. It displays all of your partitions. I selected my largest one.  A popup windows displays. I clicked format. I selected the number that would format everything. Click Apply. Select you next partition until you're thru. Remember I used Puppy Linux. 5.5.or 5.6 because of the size of my RAM.

Switch Laptop from windows 10 to Linux


How to read Email and write to a sharepoint list

Question: My scenario,i need to filter email by certain department and write those email to a sharepoint list.Any idea how that can be accomplished and i need to deploy the solution so that the whole company can use it.
Comment: Where are the email stored? Is it via site mailbox?
Comment: @VainkteshKumar the emails are on outlook app.
Comment: Are you trying to read mails of certain mailbox or all users? If certain mailbox for which you know the credentials then it is very easy. If not then please elaborate your question.
Answer: check out connectors, refer to the link:
https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/seven-connectors-and-html/
Answer: Use the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.dll to read the email from Outlook context and extract the data. Then use CSOM(C#) to add email to a SharePoint document library. Check the articles below:
Here's how to read emails from Outlook using C#
Uploading a file into a library via CSOM, even if the library does not exist
Comment: can you read others mailbox??


Converting outlets in 3 3/4 boxes to GFCI

Question: Have 4 outlets in one box and 2 outlet box with a light switch that measure about 3 3/4". Have to convert to GFCI. Are there any other options for faceplates to fit the existing boxes or will I have to remove the boxes and redrywall? Or, is there another solution?
Answer: If the box is not deep enough, as sometimes happen, get a "box extension". If it's a finished room with the boxes embedded in the wall, try a "surface conduit starter box".

If it's simple, industrial style surface mount metal box, you want either a "4x4 box extension" and/or a 2-gang mud ring, as needed to provide depth.   Then you use any common Decora faceplate. Do not use dome faceplates, unless absolutely necessary, because this.

There is no earthly reason you should need to shop for these online. Most home improvement stores will have most or all of this; a local electrical supply will be able to hand it to you in 30 seconds (and be cheaper lol).
Remember you only need one GFCI device per circuit.  The GFCI protection can be passed on to other plain outlets, if they are connected to the GFCI's Load terminals.
If you do not intend to avail yourself of this feature, do not use the Load terminals at all - leave the "For Wizards Only" warning tape on them.  Load terminals are not for onward connections (unless you mean to protect them obviously).
And especially, do not waste GFCIs by connecting the Line inputs of one GFCI to the Load outputs of another. That is sheer silliness and will create real complications when you try to reset them after a trip.
Answer: Most GFCI receptacles I have seen fit perfectly with a Decora faceplate:

You can even get combination Decora + regular switch:


Pulsing static on 6m

Question: Located in Illinois, US, I recorded this http://loami-windmill.com/sounds/6m_noise.m4a on 28-June-2023 at 1603 UTC on 50.074MHz USB.  The static has regular "pulses" where it gets slightly louder at a rate of a little more than once per second.  While I've never heard anything like this, it sounds to me that it's clearly not man-made, but I have no idea what is causing it, or whether it's atmospheric, tropospheric or ionospheric.  What might be causing it?
Comment: What makes you think it is not man-made?
Comment: I don't know for sure that it's natural, and you're right, I can't rule out that it's man-made.  But of the man-made noises I recall hearing, none of them are soft, broad white-noise sounding.
Comment: Yeah all that you describe, a human in a human environment observing noise using a human-made receiver pulsating at a human-perceptible rate points more to "human made". What is the pointer that says it isn't?
Comment: Where was the antenna, and can you rotate it? Inside your house or outside? I'm thinking that it's picking up noise from something in your house (or a neighbor's).
Answer: Dustin,  The fact that this is a regular timed noise argues that it is man made.  When do your hear it, only night, only day, all the time?   Do you live in an urban environment or rural?  Could it even be coming  from your own house?  Shut off your house circuit breakers one by one to check. You can make a simple shielded loop antenna from coax, put it on a stick and use it to get a direction on the noise.   If your radio is portable you can chase the noise down to satisfy your curiosity. 73s
Comment: +1. I listened to this a couple of times, and it sounded like RFI from digital equipment (like a computer) that I've heard. It was somewhat broadband and the sound changed as the VFO was tuned.
Comment: I can try shutting things off at my house.  The nearest neighbor is at least 1500 (300m) away.  I suppose it could also be something coming down the power lines.

Pulsing static on 6m


Stepping up voltage from solar for a power brick (5V to 15V) possible?

Question: i have a 28mAh power brick capable of charging my laptop when charged.
I bought a 28W solar panel which outputs 5V over usb capable of charging ipads etc, however when i connected it to power brick's input it couldnt charge it (or at least charging light didnt come on)
Its only then i realised power brick is running off 15-19V 2A mains charger.
Is it possible to step up my solar panel to this voltage and trickle charge the power brick at all?
Comment: 28mAh is very small.
Comment: Details of the output circuit of the brick charger would be ideal else it's guesswork.
Comment: Welcome to EE.SE! While yes, it's physically possible to step up a voltage using a switching power supply, you haven't provided enough details to gauge the possibility of charging. Please provide more information about the solar panel, power brick, and mains charger: model number and datasheet or product specifications page. A picture of the device label may help if online details aren't available.
Answer: You didn't provide enough details so I can't say for sure but it's possible to step up the voltage but it will not help you that you for a simple reason:
your device runs on 15-19 volts 2 amps which means it runs on 30-38 watts but the solar panels output is 28 watts , so if your power brick doesn't work on less than 2 amps or a voltage below 15 volts then it won't work again.
Answer: Yes, it is possible. You need a boost or step-up converter. A step-up converter can increase the voltage (but the power VI is constant.)


Reference C# Windows Service into an ASP.NET web application, is it possible?

Question: I have developed a C# Windows Service application with certain methods that I would like to call from an ASP.NET web application (it is important that there are these methods returning the result). My initial guess was that I could import the dll of the Windows Service into the web application, but I can find only the executable of the windows service, there's no dll at all.
Is it possible to compile the Windows Service into a dll? And if not, is there some other way I can reference my Web Service into the Web application?
Answer: Extract the common functionality into a class library project and reference it from both projects.
Answer: Is your windows service hosting a web service or does it just contain code that needs to be accessible in you windows service and web site?
If the former, then you can connect to it via the normal mechanims for connecting to a web service (e.g. adding a service reference in Visual Studio). If the later, then create a class library that both your windows service project and web project can reference (via Add Reference in Visual Studio).
Answer: You have two options. If you just need the code to be invoked, then you can call the windows service functionality via a custom action on the service, invoked from your code.
However, I gather that what you require is more complex, requiring a response as well. In this case, as per sga101, encapsulate the appropriate functionality into a separate class, and use this in both places. This means that the code projects should both be included in the same solution ( it is not strictly necessary, but it makes it easiest to keep the code matching ).


An employee ignores direct order not to trade in competition against us in her off time

Question: We asked our employees who are married to each other to stop trading at a local club selling food as it is a conflict of interest even though it is on their off days. We also sell food and have a pub and they lurking our clients to go there and support them on their off days. We asked them not to operate in competition, and they understood it but now continue doing it.
What are our rights?
Comment: In theory you could sue them, litigate them, but that is a non-starter.  So, simply fire their asses.
Comment: "who are married to each other" - is this bit of information relevant to the question?
Comment: Hi, and welcome to workplace.SE! Unfortunately, your question is missing vital details, and will probably be put on hold shortly. Please edit to add more information. In particular: What type of business are you? What type of "club" is it where your employees are selling food? What does their work contract say on competing with their employer? What jurisdiction are you in? Are you in the Republic of South Africa? Finally, one fairly obvious solution would be to let them go. Did you consider that? If no, why not? If yes, could you explain why have not let them go? To help us address your probl.
Comment: In South Africa, it's not that easy to dismiss an employee. There are very strict and sometimes silly procedures to follow.
Comment: "if you can't beat them,join them" - so is it worth the goodwill to support the club - do you have merchandise that could be sold at the club?...
Comment: Just to clarify: Your employees are not _selling_ food in competition to you, they are **buying** food from a competitor. Is this correct?
Answer: In my experience, people seldom leave a social event just to buy food, so it's unlikely that you would be losing any significant business unless that said social club is stationed right next door.
Also, typically a restraint of trade clause in South Africa is almost impossible to enforce as it seen as anti-competitive conduct and would only be enforceable if they are intentionally stealing your clients and they are making and selling the same food you are.
Given the protection employees enjoy in South Africa, firing an employee for selling items that do not use your recipes is almost guaranteed to come with backlash from the Department of Labor or the CCMA, regardless of any restraint of trade agreement you may have with said employees. The repercussions would be amplified greatly if these employees belong to a union.
Best case scenario given the employment issues in South Africa would be to request them to make sure they sell their products (provided it's not the same recipe as the business') in an area away from the workplace.
Answer: If your employees violate their employment contract, you fire them. If you fire people for contract violations, you first have a local lawyer read the contract to confirm that there is a violation, and that you have sufficient evidence to prove said violation.
Answer: Something I've noticed in my years of working in foodservice.

Some people frequent a business because it is convenient.
Some do it because they like the food (or drink specials, or prices.
Basically something that this place has that others don't)
Some people keep going back to see the people that work
there.

The best/most successful employees in the service industry aren't simply the ones who work the hardest. They are the ones who are most charismatic. If people are leaving your location to go visit your employees over at another location, keep in mind that it is the employee they are following. Not the food.
What does this mean for you?:
First and foremost if you fire them, the people who are following them will probably follow them wherever they go next. And they will do it all of the days the employees are elsewhere.
That leaves you with two people who are very charismatic, that you probably don't want to fire, and are passively hurting your business. Now you need to get them to actively help your business. Incentivize them to use their skills to help you grow.
Offer them a promotion. Marketing manager. Director of client relations. Something of Something. Send them out into the world to generate new clients (some of the time. They also need to stick around and help retain new and old clientele. Reiterate that you need them to not be pulling people away from you on their days off. Make it contractual. Do not sneak it on them. That will only force your hand to have to fire them, which we established probably isn't your best option.
Comment: Speaking as one who lives on the Vegas strip, never learned to cook, and eats in hotel restaurants for each and every meal, I concur with this answer; "Regulars" like me get used to certain servers and bartenders and follow them to different restaurants, only at the prompting of the server of course. (Otherwise it would be creepy like the movie "It Follows"). Anyway, if a foodservice worker is pretty, competent, and/or charming enough to woo regular customers, do everything you can to please that server. Don't fire them !
Answer: The fact is you gave them a direct order - what to do or not to do on their day off, when they are not paid by you, so you have no authority and that direct order counts for nothing.
You can't stop them from selling food at this local club. You can fire them, but then obviously they will work hard selling food at this local club on the weekend, and now on other days as well.
So what you need to figure out before you act: How much are you actually losing in trade on the weekend? Are they competing because they sell food and you sell food and it annoys you, or is this actually costing you money? And then you have to figure out: How much does it cost you to fire them and find new employees, who might need to be trained first, and how much would it cost you if they increase their competing work?
Answer: Unless you have a non-compete clause, you're out of luck as you cannot tell them what to do on their days off
UNLESS
If they are actively recruiting people during working hours at your establishment, you are well within your rights to terminate them for working on their business on your time.


Why can't I see any detail on planets?

Question: I really want to know why I can't see detail on planets.
This summer my Dad and I went on a trip to Utah I went outside to look at the planets and couldn't see detail on Mars, Saturn, and Jupiter. Saturn's rings were visible but very faint and Jupiter was a white ball and then it's four moons, this was all out in the middle of nowhere with 0 light pollution at 6000ft.
We then went into Bryce Canyon at 9100ft and still the same outcome the only difference was a very very faint strip on Jupiter, and it's so dry in Utah and at an altitude of 9100ft where the atmosphere is not as heavy.
Is there still dew? Is my telescope not powerful enough I have an Astromaster 130 reflector and a 60az explorerscope refractor. I'm very confused
Comment: Only thing I can think of is your mirrors aren't adjusted properly: stars should appear as bright single points of light, not as fuzzy balls. If they do appear as fuzzy balls, adjust your telescope.
Comment: Telescopes are fun for seeing the moons of planets, that's pretty cool, and craters from the moon, and nebulae, and all my fascination from astronomy was from following some lectures about the different types of cosmic objects and electromagnetic spectrum and distances and current debated theories and so forth. The photos of space online are so much more interesting than what's visible in telescopes, but telescopes make for awesome missions to see what they can see.
Answer: Planets are really small!  (when seen from Earth)
Deepskywatch has an example of what can been seen with a 150mm reflector and a magnification of x180 (ie slightly more than your Astromaster which has a 130mm main mirror, and comes with a x65 eyepiece)

You should be able to see the 4 moons, and one or two bands on Jupiter. This assumes good "seeing" (the amount of turbulence in the air, not the same as the clarity of the air), and a properly collimated and aligned telescope lens.
There are lots of other good deep-sky targets that benefit more from a dark sky than the planets.
Comment: "Planets are really small" might be better phrased as e.g. "planets are a very long way away and very small in comparison to those distances".
Answer: I live in a very light polluted city in Canada, and I focused in on Saturn pretty good with a 60 mm/700mm refractor, but I used a 3x Barlow lens with with an eyepiece that was 12 times magnification. I'm not too sure what that isn't total, but I saw the rings of Saturn, but I couldn't make out Jupiter just a white ball like you had mentioned.
Comment: Welcome to Astronomy! If you have a NEW question, please ask it by clicking the [Ask Question](//astronomy.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) button. If you have sufficient reputation, [you may upvote](//astronomy.stackexchange.com/privileges/vote-up) the question. Alternatively, "star" it as a favorite and you will be notified of any new answers. This doesn't really provide an answer to the question; see [answer].

Why can’t I see any detail on planets?


KEYTOOL equivalent in apache

Question: what is the equivalent command for keytool add in apache/php
Comment: You could explain what that keytool thingie does so you're able to get answer from Apache experts who may not know what it is.
Answer: Its pretty simple, any difficulty is in generating a CSR in the first place.
openssl req -batch -newkey rsa:2048 -out something.pem

This should also give you a something.key (your private key)
(hint: find a script for the above and edit; you'll perhaps come to use it a lot).
Send that to you CA to get a certificate back. We generally ask it to be returned as suitable for 'Apache on Linux'. What that means is that you get a PEM certificate, with a chain of intermediate and root CA certificates, also in PEM. You'll likely get a concatenation of such.
To configure Apache (these are for Red Hat directories with some local naming conventions):

SSLPrivateKey points to /etc/pki/tls/private/something.key and the file needs to have restricted access so that root can read it no-one else.
SSLCertificateFile points to /etc/pki/tls/certs/something.crt (or .pem -- the actual filenames matter not at all and its more useful to just be consistent). This contains your certificate (the single PEM)
SSLCertificateChainFile points to /etc/pki/tls/certs/something.ca-bundle (this is my own local convention). This contains the concatelation of intermediate and root CA certificates that the server should offer. You don't need to include the root certificate, but you need to ensure that enough of the chain is present so that all of the clients can build up enough of the chain to establish trust.

To be honest, the MOST frustrating thing about this is figuring out where to put the files when you work on a different type of server (eg. Red Hat versus Debian have entirely different conventions). For the most part, it doesn't matter, UNLESS you have some sort of mandatory access control in play (eg. SELinux -- you'll want to put the files where httpd is allowed to read them file).
The other frustrating thing is figuring out how to test it. I've developed a couple of scripts (because I do this very frequently) called ssl-get-basics and ssl-rfc-xargs, which you can find in my github scriptorium repo.
Note that you can often get the CA certificate chain in one of two very confusing orders ('reverse' -- which may be opposite to your expections), and . If you use my ssl-get-basics (or openssl s_client -show-certs -connect something.example.com:443 < /dev/null | grep (for subject and issuer) then you'll want to make sure that the issuer of one certificate is the subject of the next. I've had problems with this is in the past (but that's not specific to Apache).
Also, if you find yourself needing to combine these into a keystore in the future, it is easier to combine them into a PKCS#12 keystore rather than a JKS... anything (Java) that supports a JKS will support a PKCS#12 (aka PKCS12 aka P12)
Answer: Checkout the openssl tool, which is free, non-Java: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSSL

KEYTOOL equivalent in apache


Drupal 7 adding bulk users to group or roles

Question: Is there a way to bulk add users to roles or group in Drupal 7.
I want to add users based on Profile 2 field(s) on filters like (Gender=Male and Age>=18) and so on.
I need to do this in order for Drupal content to be accessible to a specific group(s) or role(s) only.
I went through some modules (http://drupal.org/project/content_access, http://drupal.org/project/simple_access) but I'm really confused, on what suits best.
Answer: Try User Import Framework which allows you to use a CSV file to create new users and assign roles


Detail (countable) vs detail (uncountable) vs details (plural only)

Question: I feel like I almost grasp the fine differences between detail (countable), detail (uncountable) and details (plural only), but just almost. It's still a little difficult to spontaneously know which word to use.
Here are the definitions from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary:

[countable] a small individual fact or item; a less important fact or
[uncountable] the small facts or features of something, when you consider them all together
details [plural] information about something
[countable, uncountable] a small part of a picture or painting; the smaller or less important parts of a picture, pattern, etc. when you consider them all together

It seems to me that the countable and uncountable uses are about small, trivial facts, features, parts, etc. that make up something, while the plural use is simply about a collection of pieces of information that describes someone or something. But then when I'm actually trying to use these words, I'm not sure if the distinction I think I get even works at all.

The details of this plan were well prepared. (countable, the elements of the plan were not shoddy or cursory?)
The detail of this plan was well prepared. (uncountable, the plan has an adequate number of elements, not too few?)
The details of this plan were well prepared. (plural, the pieces of information that describe this plan, such as "name", "date", "costs", "funding", etc. were adequately provided with clarity and transparency?)

attention to details (countable, attention to how each parts are made?)
attention to detail (uncountable, attention to how many parts there are? too many or too few?)
attention to details (plural, attention to info such as "name", "date of birth", "age", "occupation", etc.?)

This document contains excessive details. (countable, this document has certain parts that are too elaborate, for example, a 300-word description about the person's hair color?)
This document contains excessive detail. (uncountable, this document has too many parts, for example 100 instead of just 10?)
This document contains excessive details. (plural, this document has much irrelevant info, for example a birth certificate with info about "hobbies"?)
Comment: Your "details (countable)" and "details (plural only)" are the same thing.
Answer: Detail (countable):

I don't much like the colour, but that's a minor detail.(You urgently need a reliable car and don't care too much about its appearance.)

Detail (uncountable):

I need to study the plan in detail (considering all its features).

Details (plural):

Can you give me the details of the plan? (all the necessary
information.)
I've considered all the details and can't find anything I disagree with (all the small parts).


Can I make snapshots of an APFS non-bootable volume?

Question: I have a Samsung FIT external drive with two partitions. One is ExFAT for interchange with Linux Systems. The other partition is APFS (Encrypted). I would like to backup the APFS volume using snapshots so I can "roll back" changes in case one of the Virtual Machines I got on it gets broken. Is there a way to do this? Or is the APFS Snapshot utility only for Bootable Drives? I tried tmutil snapshot /Volumes/APFSVolumeName but when I tried to list local snapshots I got nothing.
I guess my only option is good old Disk Image of the Volume, right?
Comment: Could add the partition to timemachine. Don't forget to upgrade the size of your TM disk. 2.5 *( startupdrive + external)
Comment: The only problem is I move that USB Stick around between two computers... I could always let it get timemachined by one only, or both... but I thought the snapshots reside inside the APFS container and time machine just allows for interaction with them.
Comment: Time Machine and VMs absolutely don't mix. It has been a bad idea since Snow Leopard came out :) Nothing has changed since. At best it's a performance killer, at worst - on recent systems - it'll make you not only run out of disk space, but will make the source volume unusable.
Answer: TL;DR: Use the hypervisor's native snapshots, and never use APFS snapshots on a volume with VMs.
Carbon Copy Cloner is a good utility to manually manage APFS snapshots. Open the program, switch the UI from Simple to Normal mode (in the menu). In the volume table in the lower left of the main window, you can click on any volume and a pane opens that shows the snapshots, and lets you delete old ones. You can create snapshots by running a backup task - even a dummy one that copies just one file to some folder.
The problem is that when you have a disk with VMs on it, you should only ever use one snapshot mechanism: either APFS snapshots, or the hypervisor's snapshots, not both. I suggest that you never use APFS snapshots on any disk with VMs, and use the hypervisor's native snapshots. They are a much more mature technology.
The snapshots work by retaining all of the old data, so their effective size grows over time - no data after the most recent snapshot's timestamp is ever removed from the disk. If you use hypervisor snapshots on top of APFS snapshots, the space usage doubles and you will run out of space while doing things that should conserve space.
For example, start with a single 600Gb VM, with VMware snapshots, on a 1TB APFS volume. You want to delete a 200Gb snapshot from that VM: VMware will integrate the snapshot into the higher level disk image. The problem is that this will effectively write 200Gb of "new" data to disk - APFS doesn't have deduplication!! Thus, the APFS snapshot will have to preserve the previous state of those 200Gb's worth. You think you should reclaim 200Gb of space, but you end up using 400Gb more, and get a full volume.
At least on macOS 10.13, AFPS has bugs and APFS volumes that run out of space due to APFS snapshot activity become unusable. You won't be able to delete the APFS snapshots, nor do anything else on that disk. It's nominally read-only, all write attempts will be failing with a weird "permission denied" error. Your only recourse will be to make a backup of the disk, then erase/reformat it (How do I know? It just happened to me and it's totally reproducible).
Comment: Thanks for a very thorough answer! I will follow your advice and make snapshots on VirtualBox!


Calling a method on self while in dealloc

Question: I have a dictionary of objects that need to be cleaned up before they are released.  I have a method that does this for the entire dictionary.  Before I release the dictionary in my -dealloc method, I want to do the same thing.  However, I am not sure of the state of the object during deallocation.  In C# or Java, for instance, I would never call a method on the object being finalized, but I am not sure this applies to Objective C and deallocation.  Is it acceptable to call the clean up method on self during deallocation, or should I duplicate that functionality in my -dealloc?
Answer: Yes, you may invoke methods from inside your dealloc method, though you're wise to be cautious.  Pretty much the only methods you should invoke should be "tear down" methods, or methods that help in cleaning up an object before its resources are reclaimed.  Some of these cleanup methods include:

unregistering for notifications via a notification center
removing yourself as a key-value observer
other general cleanup methods

Note, however, that in each of these methods, your object will be in an inconsistent state.  It may be partially deallocated (some ivars may/will be invalid), and so you should never rely on a specific object state.  These methods should only be used to continue deconstructing object state.
This is the fundamental reason why we're discouraged from using property setters (setFoo: methods) in dealloc: another object may be registered as an observer, and using the property will trigger a KVO notification, and if the observer is expect the object to have a valid state, they could be out of luck and things can blow up very quickly.
TL;DR:
Yes, it's safe, as long as you're smart about it.
Comment: @Don: A tear-down method is perfectly fine, especially if it helps further the DRY principle.
Comment: Nice, thanks Dave.  That's exactly what I wanted to call: a tear-down method with no side effects.  But I am nervous about potential future refactoring adding responsibility to that method.  I can guarantee I know what it's doing now, but sometimes future me can be dumb. Maybe I just talked myself out of it.
Comment: would it be advisable to call a method that closes a database connection or deletes temporary files in -dealloc or is there a more appropriate place for such things?
Comment: @dreyln that seems like a reasonable thing to do in `dealloc`
Comment: Database connections etc. should have been closed down earlier, because there is no guarantee when exactly dealloc is going to be called. There isn't even a guarantee that dealloc is called at all (if you quit an application, all the objects just disappear without dealloc being called).


What causes gaps/holes in homemade bread?

Question: And how can I avoid them? This happens a lot when I make just regular white bread and almost every time I make cinnamon swirl bread. The top swirl creates a really big gap no matter how tight I roll the dough. Thoughts?
Comment: related (for the cinnamon swirl) : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/21699/67
Comment: And possibly related for the non-swirl bread : http://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/54361/67
Comment: It looks delicious to me!
Answer: It's typically a problem with large pockets of air in the dough before you bake it.
For the cinnamon swirl bread, try to make sure that you're not getting air trapped when rolling it.
For other loaves, you want to make sure to punch it down well after the first rise, and make sure you aren't trapping air in it if you're doing a stretch and fold when shaping it.
Answer: Interesting question! You probably have seen other ideas on-line: adding starch to your filling, rolling tightly, pulsing the filling finely, painting the dough with egg wash, piercing the dough, and the "Russian braid"—-all useful techniques and ones that I use.
There is yet another possible solution, which no one seems to have suggested (as best I can tell). I have just ordered some confectioner's erythritol, but haven't conducted any expensive experiments yet. It seems that erythritol is the only non-hygroscopic sweetener out there. As you may know, a big part of gapping is the moisture-content of the filling. The wetter the filling, the more water-expansion occurs during baking—-often resulting in those those horrible holes (even if the taste is great). Unlike sugar, which sucks moisture out of the dough and results in steam, erythritol does not work this way.
I make a lot of Romanian-style filled brioche: "cozonac." I want to try to make my dough with regular sugar in the dough itself and make a filling with less "water-attracting" erythritol. I suspect that this would eliminate/lessen the steam build-up during baking and, thus, get rid-of the holes. Erythritol is only 70 percent as sweet as sugar, so the filling will need proportionately more sweetener.
It may just be the fix you need!
Comment: Sugar does not "suck moisture out of the dough", and the bubbles in bread are not caused by steam (the interior does not reach boiling temperature during baking).
Comment: If you've ever baked cinnamon bread and seen gaps on the inside, this IS the result of steam from the filling and the extraction of sugar from the dough, proper. "Bubbles in the bread" are quite another matter.


Point in a triangle plane determining any angles

Question: Let $\triangle{ABC}$ be an arbitrary triangle. Is it true that for any angles $\alpha, \beta,\gamma\in [0,2\pi]$ with $\alpha+\beta+\gamma=2\pi$ one can find a point $M$ in the plane of the triangle such that: $\angle{(\overline{MB}, \overline{MC})}=\alpha,\ \angle{(\overline{MC}, \overline{MA})}=\beta$ and $\angle{(\overline{MA}, \overline{MB})}=\gamma$ where these angles are oriented?
Answer: Yes, it is true. Let $\Gamma_A$ be the locus of points $P$ for which $\widehat{BPC}=\gamma$, $\Gamma_B$ the locus of points for which $\widehat{CPA}=\beta$. $\Gamma_A$ and $\Gamma_B$ will intersect in a point $M$, other than $C$, for which:
$$\widehat{AMB}=2\pi-\widehat{BMC}-\widehat{CMA} = 2\pi-\alpha-\beta=\gamma,$$
done.


How to type "田" with filled upper left and lower right sub-squares?

Question: How to type "田" with filled upper left sub-square and lower right sub-square as a character in LaTeX?
Comment: You should check out the latex symbols documentation from page 118 onwards. There are a lot of symbols similar (the one you provided is called \boxplus) but I didn't see one filled how you said. ftp://tug.ctan.org/pub/tex-archive/info/symbols/comprehensive/symbols-letter.pdf
Comment: Try using the `picture` environment, with the `\put` and `\rule` commands, perhaps.
Comment: Note that 田 is a CJK character, not a picture (it means "rice paddy" in Japanese).  In many fonts it is more trapezoidal than square.  It is not recommended to use CJK characters for drawing pictures, unless you're on a BBS.
Answer: Without using any graphic packages (like tikz or pstricks), you can typeset a checkered box \cbox using \rule and \fbox. Rules take the following arguments:
\rule[<raise>]{<width>}{<height>}

while \fbox has a rule width of \fboxrule and separation of \fboxsep. As such, the following minimal example provides \cbox with a NW/SE checkered box and \cbox* with a NE/SW checkered box. The current box width/height has a default of 1ex, although this can be modified by means of an optional <width> argument \cbox[*][<width>]. xparse provides the starred interface, although it could be done without.

\documentclass{article}%
\usepackage{xspace}% http://ctan.org/pkg/xspace
\usepackage{xparse}% http://ctan.org/pkg/xparse
\NewDocumentCommand{\cbox}{s O{1ex}}{%
  \setlength{\fboxsep}{-\fboxrule}%
  \IfBooleanTF{#1}% Condition on starred/unstarred
    {\frame{\rule{0.5\dimexpr#2}{0.5\dimexpr#2}\rule[0.5\dimexpr#2]{0.5\dimexpr#2}{0.5\dimexpr#2}}}% \mybox*
    {\fbox{\rule[0.5\dimexpr#2]{0.5\dimexpr#2}{0.5\dimexpr#2}\rule{0.5\dimexpr#2}{0.5\dimexpr#2}}}% \mybox
  \xspace% Possible space
}
\begin{document}
\renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.5}
\begin{tabular}{lc}
  \verb!\cbox!: & \cbox \\
  \verb!\cbox*!: & \cbox* \\
  \verb!\cbox[20pt]!: & \cbox[20pt] \\
  \verb!\cbox*[1.5em]!: & \cbox*[1.5em]
\end{tabular}
\end{document}

Using \setlength{\fboxsep}{-\fboxrule} removes any separation between the box contents the the surrounding/boxed rule. xspace corrects for any missed spacing correction after the control sequence.
Comment: You may use `\frame` instead of `\fbox` to avoid extra width and height by `\fboxsep` and `\fboxrule`.
Comment: Thanks, but with `\frame` only the lower rule is below the baseline.
Answer: You might like my package ytableau, which does this easily by design:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ytableau}
\begin{document}
 \begin{ytableau}
  *(black) & \\
   & *(black)
 \end{ytableau}
 \medskip

 \ytableaushort{ {*(black)} {} , {} {*(black)} }
 \medskip

 \ydiagram[*(black)]{1,1+1} * {2,2}
 \medskip

 \ytableausetup{boxsize = 6pt}
 \ydiagram[*(black)]{1,1+1} * {2,2}
\end{document}

It's supposed to produce Young tableaux in mathematics, but there's no reason not to use it for general box-piling.  The syntax for this is very simple.

You can use the environment form, which is just like any array-like environment, but also takes color specifications set off by a * and with the color in parentheses (anything accepted by xcolor is good).
There's also a short form, where the rows are lists of cells (possibly enclosed in braces if they are not just single characters) with the same color specification syntax.
There's also the Young diagram form, which doesn't allow anything in the boxes, but takes an optional argument that is put in every box, which can of course be a color specification.  You can give it offsets in each row: 1+1 means "skip one space, then put one box".  That's what you wanted for the black box in the second row.
There's also the "chaining" operation: either the short form or the Young diagram can be followed by a * and then another argument list, which can only be for a Young diagram, possibly with an optional argument.  The first diagram (either tableau or diagram) is then piled on top of the successive diagrams with the leftmost ones being on the upper layers.  This way, you can construct complex color patterns.
It also has a \ytableausetup command that changes a few things, in this case, the box size.  You'll have to read the manual for the full story there.

The package is on CTAN, and therefore, also in TeX Live and (I think) MikTeX.
Comment: Thanks! Guys,
Could you tell me how to install "ytableau" package?
I checked the http://www.ctan.org/pkg/ytableau.
There is no specific "Download" button.
Comment: @Dan I converted your answer into a comment since it's not a real answer. Your question won't be seen by many people here so it would be best to repost it as a fresh question. Follow-up questions like this are more than welcome! Please use the "Ask Question" link for your new question; there you can link to this question to provide the background. However, please have a look at the [existing questions about installing packages](http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/installing+packages).
Comment: @Dan: First of all, did you check your package manager?  Anything that's been on CTAN for a while should be in there.  If you must install by hand: packages on CTAN are usually distributed as a `.dtx` and a `.ins` file, from which you can get the actual package and the documentation.  To get the package, run latex on `ytableau.ins`; to get the manual, run pdflatex on `ytableau.dtx`.  Put them in `/tex/latex/ytableau`.
Comment: @Dan: Also, see http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=installthings; this is a very Frequently Asked Question.
Answer: I don't see that symbol listed anywhere but since you are in a hurry you could consider drawing it with tikz:
\documentclass[12pt]{article}
\usepackage{tikz}
\begin{document}
Start with text, create the picture
\begin{tikzpicture}
\draw[thick] (0,0)--(0,.5)--(.5,.5)--(.5,0)--cycle;
\filldraw (0,.5)--(.25,.5)--(.25,.25)--(0,.25);
\filldraw (.25,.25)--(.5,.25)--(.5,0)--(.25,0);
\end{tikzpicture}
and then some more text.
\end{document}

By varying the coordinates, you can make the symbol as big or small as you want.
Comment: You could use `ex` or `em` units for specifying the size, which will make the symbol scale with the surrounding text. Also, you could simplify your code by using `\draw  rectangle ;`. I would suggest rewriting your code as something like `\draw[thick] (0,0) rectangle (1.5ex,1.5ex);
\fill (0,1.5ex) rectangle (0.75ex,0.75ex);
\fill (0.75ex,0.75ex) rectangle (1.5ex,0pt);`
Comment: Sounds like a good idea. I still haven't gotten far in the tikz manual.

How to type “田” with filled upper left and lower right sub-squares?


Different HDRI Resolutions for Viewport and Render

Question: I want to use the 1k version of my hdri for the viewport and the 8k for the render. I know how to set up the hdri for the render, but how can I use the 1k version for the viewport? Thank you!
Answer: You can only do this in Material Preview mode.  It won't work in any of the other three Viewport Shading modes.

Set Viewport Shading to  Material Preview.
Left click the ↓ next to the Viewport Shading mode selector in the header.  This will bring up the Viewport Shading menu:

Left click the gear icon.  This will bring up your preferences, with Lights Selected.
Under HDRIs you can add the 1k version of the HDI as a custom world.
Your HDRI will show up in the list of HDRIs you get when you left click the world sphere in the Viewport Shading Menu
Left click to select it.
Make sure that Scene World is not selected.


How can I make a static path after sprite in cocos2d-iphone?

Question: There is a sprite (paper plane) that "flows in the air". I'd like make a path that follows after (look below) but it should be static(not moving together with paper plane, just appearing after it). I supposed just to make a long sprite with the path, but in this way it would move too, and it's not so nice. Also, it should dissapear at the same time as sprite. (cocos2d-iphone 3.0)
How can I implement it?
Answer: What you could do is schedule an update method that runs every second (or faster) that checks the plane's center and adds a small line underneath the plane's center position.
You also store the new sprite in an array and when the plane disappears from the screen you loop through the array and remove each sprite from the screen.
Hope that helps
Answer: You can give this kind of effect by using CCMotionStreak
<code>CCTexture2D *mytexture=CCTextureCache::sharedTextureCache()->addImage("plane_path.png");
CCMotionStreak *motion_plane =CCMotionStreak::create(5,1,20,ccc3(255,0,0),mytexture);
motion_plane->setPosition(ccp(30,30));
motion_plane->setZOrder(5);
this->addChild(motion_plane);
</code>
Now u only need to set position of motion streak according to plane and it will show path with fading effect. it will look great . hope you understand.
Answer: I use Cocos2DX 2.2.X Version. I used CCMotionStreak for this kind of effect. I think that version also has it whatever you are using. Just have a look on that class you will get to know how to use it.


Aligning multiple objects with the same spacing to eachother, vertically

Question: :)
I did create something like a roadmap with a checklist below each subject. However, after the 7th checkpoint the auto snapping didn't work anymore and now I struggle to align them properly. They contain a square (check box) a icon (text / fontawesome) and a text description and are in folders.
I tried to select all folders and use the alignment tool but they either collapse into each other and build one huge chunk or they space each other out.
I did a little research but could only find scripts regarding the centering of objects on the canvas.
Help is highly appreciated :)
Answer: Straight forward:

Select all the layers you want to distribute, click on the first then shift click on the last if they are adjacent. Otherwise, use the Ctrl-Click on at a time to select them
From the menu, choose Layer/Distribute/Bottom edges
They will be equally spaced between the first and the last

Of course, if you do not have enough space to accommodate all, they will bunch up. I that case you will need to adjust their sizes. While you have them all selected, you can optionally align them to the left, center, or right from the Layer/Align options. If you like to align them at the center of the background, include that in your selected layers. Background will remain stationary and everything else will align with respect to that.
Here are some screen captures to show the before, adjustment, after:


Database forms VS Programming

Question: What is the benefit of using Oracle Database forms VS using C#(VB) or like this for programming? from academic view
Answer: Its a flexibility vs speed of development comparison. The forms package will be less flexible I would have thought but the barrier to entry for someone who doesn't programming is probably lower. Depends what you need. If its simply a learning exercise then a forms approach to explain generating a UI from a DB should be fine. You can lead to how to program a more complex GUI from the DB using a programming language such as C#
Answer: The major difference is that C#(VB) are more general purpose while Oracle Forms has a much smaller domain.  So if you are writing an Oracle database driven application for a well defined user population (not a public internet application), Oracle Forms can speed up development even without learning being a major factor for the developer.  One large advantage that C#(VB) would have is that there is a lot more development done in those environments so there are more resources (examples, libraries, etc.).

Database forms VS Programming


Can anybody help me identify this font I've search everywhere

Question: Been looking for this font every where can't seem to find it I'm not sure when this font comes from and what font pack family it originates thank you for anyone's help.
Comment: Welcome to **GD.SE** - *Please* look through **[tour]** to get a sense of our community – who we are and what we're about. *Then* look over **[ask]** and **[answer]** a question to see what makes a good query here, *and* how best to frame it. We ***do*** ask that your question shows some *effort*: tell us what you already know and understood; show us what you tried and failed; document what you found when searching the Internet or manual. We have specific requirements for Font ID questions: https://graphicdesign.meta.stackexchange.com/q/1083 please edit your post to meet them - thanks!
Comment: Reminds me of the lettering of Vaughn Bode.
Answer: That's not a "font"
The Os and Gs are different. It is hand drawn type.
Comment: Scott is correct, of course - but there is a reasonably close facsimile: https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/gatf/leibix/outline-condensed-regular/
Answer: See font Disko, marketed by Blue Vinyl, free for personal usage(see NOTE1):

As already said by others, your image is a drawing. "Os and Gs are different" is probably more true than member  Scott has intended. A text with font Disko can have been used only as a loose basis for a drawing.
How loose? One comment says that if there's some resemblance, it can be only a coincidence. One test:

I distorted text BAR by stretching horizontally and vertically the bounding boxes of B, A and R until the outlines matched with questioner's image. Then also the holes  of the letters fitted. I did no rotation nor warping.
The letters are colored to blue. In the top they are placed on the image, their blending mode=Screen. In the bottom they are moved aside and have blending mode = normal.
I do not believe that simultaneously matching exteriors and interiors got by stretching are a random coincidence. G and O have got new simpler outlines, but the rest resemble too much stretched Disko glyphs.
Comment: Is that font not simply a coincidental resemblance to the drawing in the question? I can see multiple differences, especially on G. "That's Disko" in your answer simply is not correct right?
Comment: There's something added about so called coincidence.


generating a custom half duplex 1 wire serial protocal

Question: I want to use a microcontroller from NXP to generate a SWD (Serial wire debug) serial signal. A SWD signal is a clock and a host to target header, a single cycle wait period, followed by either a host to target or a target to host reply. It looks ALMOST exactly like a I2C signal, but I need to be able to transfer more than 14 or 28 bits (I forget exactly) after the header is transfered. The docs for the NXP uC I looked at had a hard limit on the number of bits that could be transfered after the header data. A simple RS-232 could do it by connecting the data wire to both Rx and Tx, but I also need a clock line.
Answer: It sounds like what you want is what is known as Bit Banging.  This is where you use one or more general purpose IO lines to emulate something like I²C, SPI, RS232 or whatever else you like, purely using software.
While this gives you the ultimate in flexibility, it does tend to tie up the microcontroller while any transfers are going on.
If speed isn't too much of an issue you could tie the transfer of data to a timer interrupt - transferring 1 bit every 10µS or something.
So, transferring a bit with an active low clock would go something like:

Drive signal line to level of bit to transmit (high or low - 1 or 0)
Drive clock line low
Delay
Drive clock line high
Delay
Progress on to next bit until done.
Comment: that could work. I don't mind using the CPU for the duration of the transfer. the GPIO pins on the NXP controllers I'm looking at can interface with DMA...but I haven't figured out if I can simultaneous transmit and receive.  I think I'll need to read the manual a bit more for that.