Do you collect $200 in Monopoly if you don't ask for it?

Question: If a player passes Go but doesn't ask for their money and the next player plays, does the first player still get their money if they ask only after the next round is played? I could not find this in the Monopoly rules.
Comment: To what end? The point of a game is to be fun, and the rules are there to facilitate that. How does this rule increase the enjoyability of the game, for anyone? The person who missed out on $200 is pissed off about losing $200, and everyone else's game experience is diminished by making the game unjustly easier for them.
Comment: If you don't ask for your direct deposit does your employer still pay you?
Comment: Ahhh, "house rules". People have lost friends over less. You need to use a little philosophy here... There's worse things at steak than £200 of monopoly money. So agree to the house rules BUT maintain them rigidly when the house-rule-er breaks their own rules. Be consistent and balanced, then you've got a workable game.
Comment: @jpmc26 A game where any one player decides to dispute, and continue disputing, some minor point in the rules is never fun. Conversations where someone blames a minor point for losing a game are not fun. (Neither are ones where a player gloats continually). A good game may not be strictly correct, but will be amiable.
Comment: @AJFaraday Workable is not the same as fun.
Comment: @AJFaraday If you are uncomfortable with the rules, you need not play the game. Choose a different game, or find something else to do. *Starting* a game with rules you don't want to play by is the first mistake there. You *will* be unhappy if they bite you, and your host will be unhappy if you spitefully turn the rule against them. Just say no to bad games. =)
Comment: @jpmc26 or, you know, play with people you actually like, and trust, and don't play for death or glory... I suppose this discussion belongs in the philosophy SE, really.
Comment: @Alexander-ReinstateMonica If you look at the history of the game monopoly, the point of the game actually WASN'T to be fun. This game was invented as a teaching tool to teach anti-monopolist ideas, to teach how dangerous monopolies were to society at large, and to that end only the person winning would have fun.
Answer: Yes, you still collect $200.
From the rulebook:

Each time a player's token lands on or passes over GO,
  whether by throwing the dice or drawing a card, the Banker pays
  him/her a $200 salary.

No mention of the player "asking" for the money or anything. It says the Banker pays him, so the Banker pays him.
Comment: Monopoly suffers from many, many, house-rules – in other words, rules that people decide to use despite the fact they aren't the ones written down. I've heard of this being one such house rule. In my opinion, this house rule doesn't improve the game – it just allows people to be smug at other people's discomfort even more…
Comment: To be clear, this says that it is the Banker's responsibility to ensure that the player is paid. If the Banker is deliberately withholding money because the player didn't ask for it, they are the ones breaking the rules (unless the table has agreed to a house rule that says otherwise).
Comment: @BillMichell Suffers is the perfect word for it. "It's so lame without money in the middle. You run out so fast." Three hours later "Wow this game sucks it takes forever..."
Comment: @TOOGAM I believe you are mistaken; the property owner has until the _next_ player rolls the dice--it doesn't have to go all the way around, and doubles wouldn't matter as it's still the same person who owes the rent.  "The owner may not collect the rent if he/she fails to ask for it before
the second player following throws the dice."  https://www.hasbro.com/common/instruct/monins.pdf
Comment: The only time I'm aware of where a player is required to ask for the money is when demanding rent because another player lands on owned property.  The rules specifically state that the player does need to catch the opportunity before the potentially-owing player rolls the dice.  When I played, my parents enforced the rule that a player cannot just roll dice twice quickly (due to rolling doubles) without giving the property-owner a fair chance to notice and request the rent, but if all (remaining) other player(s) took a turn (including the property owner), that was plenty of opportunity.
Comment: @BillMichell nah it suffers from people that only wants to win even if it means to ruin the fun. "You forget to ask, I do not pay you", "I stole in the bank ? You didn't see me".
Comment: @thumbtackthief : Indeed, it looks like that was a house rule that snuck into my understanding.  Thank you for keeping me on the straight and narrow.  As phrased, there's no reason that a person has to hurry to yell before the active player throws dice another time (due to doubles).
Answer: Yes, it's an "accounting" transaction.
Another poster pointed out that the "banker" is supposed to pay the player. Let's say the banker doesn't. (There are only two players, and they're using "honor system" for "banking" transactions.)
The player is "entitled" to his $200 for passing go, and the honor system permits him to take it. In "real life," people sometimes "forget" or delay in collecting their paychecks, but the pay is still real.
Another example: The rules say that there are 32 houses and 12 hotels. Some of them are missing from the set. You use coins or other tokens to make up the difference, so that the game plays fairly. On the other hand, if a 33rd house somehow got mixed in from another set, you should play without it.
Answer: thus is what Wikibooks says under "general play" rules for Monopoly...
If the player lands on or passes Go in the course of his or her turn, he or she receives $200 from the Bank. A player has until the beginning of his or her next turn to collect this money. ...There you go!
Comment: There is no mention of not getting it if you miss it after your next turn starts.
Comment: Hasbro, not Wikipedia, is the final arbiter on questions of rules...


How does the brake fluid return to reservoir in Disc Brakes after brake pedal is released?

Question: In drum brakes i think there is a spring that returns the shoes of the drum to their original location which pushes fluid back into reservoir. However for example in the video at timestamp https://youtu.be/FeuZJ76J12I?t=77, i dont see any return springs used in disc brakes. How exactly does the fluid return back to reservoir after brake pedal is released in disc brakes?
Answer: In the caliper, the seal is designed so when you press the brake pedal and fluid enters, the seal twists sideways. When you release the brake pedal, the force of the seal pushes the piston and thus the fluid back, which returns it into the master cylinder. There is enough slide in the seal it allows the piston to move forward if needed to take up space from worn brake pads or during brake maintenance. This action retracts the piston so the pad doesn't constantly stay in contact with the rotor surface.
Comment: Yes, works the same for both fixed and floating.
Comment: Thanks, is this also true for fixed calipers? The one in picture you posted is for floating calipers i think and im also wondering if the fixed style calipers used in high performance vehicles utilize the same or similar seal mechanism to let in and out the brake fluid


Energy loss in capacitor for slow charge transfer

Question: From these questions:
Energy loss in Capacitors
What happens to half of the energy in a circuit with a capacitor?
I come to the conclusion that energy loss in a capacitor is explained by the fact that the the potential applied accelerates charges and since the end configuration is stationary, there needs to be some damping to get a steady state.
Now assuming a hypothetical situation where we somehow bring $dq$ charge infinitely slowly. We repeat this a number of times and thus charge the capacitor to charge $Q$. Thus we lose zero energy as heat as we have avoided any acceleration of charges and the work done and the energy stored would both be $\frac{Q^2}{2C}$. Ignoring the practical limitations of this experiment, is this theoretically correct?

The charges are brought from infinity are used to charge a single spherical capacitor of capacitance C.
Comment: What mechanism do you actually use to transfer the charge? If you bring your microscopic tweezers in and start picking up electrons from one capacitor and moving them, then the electrons will do work on the tweezers to account for the change in energy between the initial and final states.
Comment: Yes, the charge we pick up by our "microscopic tweezers" would be repelled by the charge already present on capacitor. That is why work needs to be done on the system to change the configuration. Though, i cannot see the relevance of an actual mechanism here.
Comment: The energy loss doesn't really doesn't have anything to do with the speed of the charge transfer. I answered a similar question to yours awhile back. See https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/209215/energy-loss-in-capacitors/209263#209263 and the "two water tanks" analogy in my answer. Even if you trickle the water transfer extremely slowly between the water tanks, there will still be a loss of energy.
Comment: @SamuelWeir Well, i read your analogy and have come up with a different conclusion. Suppose we redo that experiment (assuming 0 atmospheric pressure), then by Bernoulli theorem, we must have the same energy. Since potential energy decreases then water must acquire some velocity. Assuming elastic collision of water molecules with walls, the molecules must acquire some velocity in the equilibrium state. We cannot use this energy to regain initial configuration and entropy is increased and it is thermodynamic limitation. Bringing water molecules from infinity slowly has no such limitation.
Answer:
I come to the conclusion that energy loss in a capacitor is explained
  by the fact that the the potential applied accelerates charges and
  since the end configuration is stationary, there needs to be some
  damping to get a steady state.

First, there is no energy loss in a (ideal) capacitor$^*$.
The first question linked regards the case of 'missing' energy when two capacitors, one charged and one not, are connected together at some instant.  In that case, energy is lost from the circuit to the environment in the form of heat and/or radiation.  This case has been covered in several Q & A, e.g., here.
The second linked question regards the case of 'missing' energy when charging a capacitor with a constant voltage source.  Again, energy is lost to the environment in the form of heat and/or radiation.  And again, this case has been covered in several Q & A, e.g., here.
Regarding your idea of slow charge transfer, note that the results in the answers linked above are independent of the rate at which the capacitor charges.  The essence of the energy loss in these types of problems is in the fact that voltage across the capacitor cannot change instantly.
Note that if, instead of a voltage source, a current source is employed to charge the capacitor, there is no 'missing' energy.  If the current through is given by $i_S(t)$, then the voltage across the capacitor is given by (assume $i_S(t)$ is zero for $t<0$ and the capacitor is initially uncharged)
$$v_S(t) = v_C(t) = \frac{1}{C}\int_0^t\,i_S(\tau)\,\mathrm{d}\tau = \frac{Q(t)}{C}$$
and the work done by the source equals the energy stored in the capacitor for any time $t$.
$^*$ there's a subtlety here that's not worth bringing up in this answer.
Comment: Thanks. I now realize that my earlier understanding was not complete. Can you just mention that "subtlety" very briefly, possibly just name ?
Comment: @newuser, it's been quite a while since I looked into this but an ideal parallel plate capacitor can radiate.  See, for example, this arXiv article: [Capacitors can radiate - some consequences of the two-capacitor problem with radiation](https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0305062)


Unicode mirror character?

Question: ?retcarahc "rorrim" edocinu eht htiw detaicossa ytilibarenluv fo tros emos ereht sI?ksir yna ereht erA ?rof ti si tahW
Comment: The official name of the character U+202E is "OVERRIDE, RIGHT-TO-LEFT". Just FYI.
Comment: Officially, "Mirrored" is a property of characters "(", ")", "༺", "༻", etc.
Answer: We've talked about attacks using the RLO (U+202E RIGHT TO LEFT OVERRIDE) character in the past, which shifts the 'visual' display of a string from the position it's placed inside that string.  So for example:
document[U+202E]fdp.exe visually looks like documentexe.pdf
I talked about these and other attacks of this sort here http://www.casaba.com/products/UCAPI/.  In fact we're starting to hear of real world attacks using these techniques to bypass spam and other filters.  Firefox closed a bug in their file download dialog box.
I see a big difference between attacks leveraging BIDI text and the playful sort of 'mirror' effects you get from tools like txtn.us.
!luʇmɿɒʜ ƨɒ mɘɘƨ ƚ'nƨɘob ƚxɘƚ bɘɿoɿɿim ɘʜƚ
Answer: Well, you can abuse it for pishing attacks. Take this URL for example:
<code> http://www.example.com?site/moc.elgoog.www//:ptth
</code>
It looks like if you click it it will take you to google.com, where in reality it will take you to example.com. Not all browsers support it, though.
Comment: Oh please note that this dosnt work with all browsers. I was just viewing it on chrome for mobile and the mirror char is compleatly ignored here...
Comment: Does any browser support it?  That sounds like a bug.
Comment: I certainly believe no browser nor URL library should support it. But since it's a regular char in the unicode space if no proper exceptions have been made in the application's URL encoding then it will work. Thus, I'd see it as a potentialy exploitable bug.
Comment: As of September 2023, Opera GX (which is based on Chromium) still directs me to example.com.
Answer: There are no digital risks, but there can be human risks as it may cause things to be misread or misinterpreted.
Comment: What do you consider to be the boundary between a "digital risk" and a "human risk", in the context of a human interacting with the digital world?  Seems like a fuzzy line, to me, which makes the first phrase of your sentence seem a bit... unreliable.
Answer: Poorly written code could make itself vulnerable to anything.  In that regard, there is nothing special about this character.
In the past, non-conforming (deliberate miscodings) UTF-8 was used by some malware to take advantage of some poorly written code.  There is still nothing special about this character.

Unicode mirror character?


Ich habe (mir) ein paar Angebote schicken lassen

Question: Does the reflexive form of the verb "schicken" have a different meaning? Can't it be hier: Ich habe ein paar Angebote schicken lassen.
Comment: "Ich habe Dir ein paar Angebote schicken lassen./Ich habe der Firma ein paar Angebote schicken lassen./Ich habe ein paar Angebote schicken lassen." Das mir/dir/ihm spezifiziert, wem man die Angebote hat schicken lassen.
Answer: First, the correct form would be:

Ich habe mir ein paar Angebote schicken lassen.

If you omit "mir" ("Ich habe ein paar Angebote schicken lassen."), you had the offers being sent somewhere, but not necessarily to yourself.
So in the German sentence, "mir" is important, and omitting it would change the meaning considerably.
Comment: so: Ich habe mir ein paar Angebote schicken lassen ... means that I have sent the offers to me?
Comment: @Millen: yes, of course. Well, you had them sent (by others) to you, you did not send the offers to yourself. Basically, that is what the Dativ "mir" means: "to me".  Alternatively, "Ich habe ihm ein paar Angebote schicken lassen" then the offers are sent "to him", and "dir" = "to you". etc.
Comment: So to clarify: "Ich habe mir ein paar Angebote schicken lassen" = "I had a few offers sent to me". That means you asked a few other people each to send you an offer.
Answer: The verb schicken (to send) takes three mandatory completions:

Who?
Who is initiating the action, i.e. who is the initiator of the sending-process?
The answer to this question is the subject of the sentence, and it has to stand in nominative case. In you sentence this is the word »ich« (I).
What?
What is it that gets sent, i.e. what is the thing that moves from the sender to the receiver?
The answer to this question is a grammatical object, that has to stand in accusative case. So it is an accusative object. In your sentence this is the nominal phrase »ein paar Angebote« (some offers).
Where to? or Whom?
To which place is thing sent? or To which receiver is it sent?
If it is a place, then you ask "where to?" (in German: wohin?) and the answer is a prepositional object like »an meinen Arbeitsplatz« or »ins Büro«.
But in your case it is not sent to a place, but to a person, and you ask for this receiver with "whom?" (in German: wem?) and the answer to this question is a dative object. In your sentence it is the word »mir« (to me).

If you omit the mandatory third part, you get an incomplete sentence, and you don't know where to, or to whom the offer will be sent.
If you omit mir, you have to translate your sentence to this:

I let someone send some offers.

So you have no idea, where the offers might go to. Adding the receiver helps to clarify this:

I let someone send some offers to me.


gotomypc and aircard?

Question: My boss is looking at getting an aircard ( internet over cell network ) for his laptop. One of the uses he mentioned was gotomypc. I couldn't find good information on it, but I was thinking it would blow out the bandwidth because it was like streaming a movie. Is gotomypc really feasible with an aircard at this point?
Answer: Most aircards have monthly throughput caps (Verizon is, or recently was, 5 Gb, I think), with a charge for every extra Mb over. If your boss is going to use GoToMyPC a lot, he's probably gonna go over each month. However, all those cards come with software that track bytes in and out, so you could teach him how to monitor his usage.
Comment: We'd like to figure out if we can afford this before we sign up, find out it's too expensive, and cancel it. We don't have an aircard already.

gotomypc and aircard?


Why is this electric field due to one plate of a capacitor $\sigma / 2 \epsilon_0$ when the capacitor plates are finite?

Question: We know that electric field due to an INFINTE large sheet is constant and at INFINTY the electric field is not zero. But say if I take a finite sheet of length l and width w. Then the electric field would be zero at infinity. Also we say that electric field is constant for a infinite sheet but for a finite sheet of length l and width w , it won't be constant. Electric field for a finite long sheet at a point x above it whose length is l and width is w is given in th following website:
http://people.rit.edu/jdasps/jdainfo/313_tp/UniformlyChargedFinitePlane.pdf
Just give a look where E finite plane is written in tha website....in the second page ....And that formula is in box. When you put x as infinity you would make arctan tending towards zero and hence the you would make the electric field when x is tending to infinity as zero. So the formula E=sigma/2ϵ0 (which is constant) is only for the plane sheet which is infinitely large and for this infinitely  large sheet of charge at infinty the field is same i.e. E=Sigma/2ϵ0. But for a finite sheet at infinty the electric field is zero and also for a finite sheet the electric field is not constant with changing the distance from the plate. Then in the case of capacitors, whose plates are finite, why then we say that electric field due to one of its plate is sigma/2ϵ0? So my first question: it right to say that for any plane sheet of charge which is not infintely large electric field is not constant and at inifinty the electric field is zero? And my second question:  plz explain why we say that electric field due to one of the capacitor plate is sigma/2ϵ0 while the capacitor plates are finite.
Comment: There are no infinitely large objects in physics and "infinity" is only physics speech for "far enough". The better way to work these kinds of problems would be to say "sufficiently close to a finite charged plate", but many textbooks are setting their students up for failure on real world problems by making unphysical simplifications like above. One can only hope that future textbook authors will do better. So what is "sufficiently close"? It's in the part of the field above where the charge density on the plate is almost constant and the field lines are almost parallel.
Comment: Two truly-infinite parallel plates cannot be at different potentials since they "meet" at infinite.
Answer: Yes it is right to say that electric field by a finite plate is not constant and zero at infinity. But in case of capacitors,the separation between the plates is so small as compared to dimensions of plate that with respect to the separation between the plates the plate itself can be considered as infinite. It is just a relative assumption to simplify things. Take care :-)
Comment: Sir, actually I didn't get you when you said "the separation between the plates is so small as compared to dimensions of plate that with respect to the separation between the plates the plate itself can be considered as infinite." Sir can you plz plz plz plz explain it a bit....plz sir..
Comment: Actually the thing is that in mathematics, the word infinity follows its literal meaning, i.e. a quantity so large that it does not has an upper limit. But in physics infinity has a relative meaning. For example, relative to you, the area of your city is finite, but for a microorganism it is infinite because it will never be able to cross it. Similarly the dimensions of capacitor are so many times greater than the separation between them that those dimensions with respect to that separation can be treated to be infinite. And we are interested in electric field in that small separation only.
Comment: @Krishna behera. No need to address me as sir yaar :-) I am just a 17 years old school boy :-)
Comment: Yes, I get it thankx .... M also in 12th class like u.... Can u just give ur email, plz... If I have further doubts I can send it 2 u?
Comment: sure bro. Its   firstname.lastname@example.com      Feel free to contact me.
Comment: @Krishna behera


Can dummy claim points for honors in contract bridge?

Question: North won the bid at 4 hearts.  When South laid down his dummy hand, South had 4 of the top 5 hearts.  Is the North-South team eligible to declare 100 honors even though North won the bid and South had the honors?
Answer: Yes. Either hand, by either side, may claim honors. The only restriction is that the honors claimed must all be in the one hand. This has been the rule since before I first learned the game in 1963.
From The Laws of Rubber Bridge (2014):

PART VII - The Score*
Law 72 - Points Earned
A. Trick Points ...
B. Premium Points Either side or both sides may earn premium points. Declarer's side earns premium points ..., by holding scorable honors in either of their hands, or ....  The defenders earn premium points ... by holding scorable honors in either of their hands. (see Law 81)
...
Law 81 - Scoring Table
...
HONORS
<code>Scored above the line by either side

For holding four of the five trump       100
honors (A, K, Q, J, 10) in one hand

For holding all five trump honors        150
(A, K, Q, J, 10) in one hand

For holding all four aces in one hand    150
at a no trump contract
</code>


What kind of RAM should i buy for my laptop

Question: I have a HP Pavilion dv6-7000-sy laptop. It's about 5-6 years old now. It has a nvidia geforce 630m 2GB grpahics card. Laptop itself has 6GB ram installed, but with some investication it seems that 2gb of ram is reserved for the graphics card. It has a 4gb and 2gb ram installed. It has gotten very slow on booting and overall usage, it seems that its running out of ram, as in even when idel its using ~50% of the ram it has. I want to upgrade to larger rams, as it might help the situaton, but after seeing the setup, can i even upgrade both of the rams, or can i upgrade only 1 of the rams.
Comment: Slow on boot is probably the hard drive and not the ram. Graphics use VRAM not RAM. Even if that is the case and your system is actually using RAM in place of VRAM if you physically replace the chips with bigger/better ones all you need to worry is getting compatible ones.
Comment: i have defragmented the HDD and and also made changes to the booting to use all the cores and memory to speed it up. CPU-Z is telling me that my GPU is using DDR3 2GB. Its weird.
Answer: Here is the documention of the Laptop :
https://support.hp.com/au-en/document/c03279693
According to the documentation, I think 2 x 4Go DDR3 1333Mhz (for Laptop) can do the job.
To make boot and applications faster, you should also replace the HDD by a SSD.
Comment: Well... if im gona change HDD for SSD i also need to get a new windows. Since the installation and recovery and everything is on that HDD and when i bought the laptop there was no separate DVD or CD for the OS. Im hoping that the RAM upgrade can speed it up enoguth that i can use it for another ~1 year.
Comment: You will see changes with RAM. 8Go is the minimum in 2018. SSD is a plus. And yes, changing HHD can be a pain to backup drive. You need an external drive. If you have Windows 10, no need to buy a new licence, just backup the drive and install the backup on the new one.
Comment: Personally I would just clone the HDD into a new SSD and then replace the hardware.
Comment: "Since the installation and recovery and everything is on that HDD and when i bought the laptop there was no separate DVD or CD " There should be a HP program on the PC to create HP recovery media, which can be used to restore Windows to a new hard drive, that or clone the old hard drive to the new one.


How do I use my SP Ethernet connection between HQ and Branch for Layer 2 and Layer 3

Question:
I am looking to use my provider Ethernet Connection between our HQ and Branch to do Layer 2 and Layer 3. The Ip addresses I hope to use for the remote are those being advertised to the ISP using BGP. This will help with Internet access. On the other hand, I want the Trust SVR1 and the HQ SVR1 etc to be able to talk to each other. My major problem is "Do I use private IPs, OSPF and VLAN to connect the remote to the HQ over the SP Ethernet (Q-in-Q is allowed)and then route from there. I see this to be a problem since I have to still setup Zoning on the Branch FW. Zones here would include Internet, trust, DMZ. I will also do NAT for the remote and DMZ servers. I am looking for guidance, i can get the commands to implement any suggestions.
Comment: Unless you have a compelling need to have the broadcast domain extend between the sites, just forget about extending layer-2 between the sites. Having layer-2 between sites can be a lot of trouble with no gain. Today, very little needs this; it has become a layer-3 world. It used to be, "Switch where you can, route where you must," but that is now reversed.
Comment: Thanks so much Ron. I will have this in mind and minimize L2 as suggested.
Comment: Did any answer help you? if so, you should accept the answer so that the question doesn't keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you could provide and accept your own answer.
Answer: You've tagged this post Juniper, so I'm assuming those two Firewalls are SRXs of some variety, in which case - just create Zones for each interface as follows:
<code>HQFW:
Internet Zone
HQ Server Zone
WAN

BranchFW:
Trust/Branch Server Zone
DMZ Zone
WAN
</code>
Then just write explicit policies (meaning reference Server IPs) to allow traffic between zones.  You do not want to extend/tunnel L2 across your Wide-Area Network except in very specific use cases.
Having said all that, the SRX is quite capable of supporting tunnelled L2 as either point-to-point (via L2Circuit-over-MPLS-over-GRE), or multipoint (via VPLS-over-MPLS-over-GRE).
Juniper VPLS example below (uses IPSEC, but this will work fine with GRE once you sort MTU issues):
http://www.juniper.net/techpubs/en_US/junos15.1x49/topics/example/vpls-over-gre-ipsec.html
Comment: Thanks so much Benjamin for your answer to my question. Yes, these are Juniper SRXs. I will try to minimize l2 broadcast over the wan as you and Ron have commented. My biggest challenge is where to use public IP, HQFW or BranchFW and where to use private. I want to NAT some of the servers on the BranchFW and also have users use the same block of IPs advertised via BGP on the HQCore to have access to the internet. Some servers in the Brach trust zone will talk to some servers in the HQ trust zone but not to the internet.


is mysql capable of managing the data for a site which holds lots of data

Question: is mysql capable of managing the data for a site which holds lots of data (say with hundreds of millions of users)? which database would be the most capable/beneficial?
Comment: AFAIK even facebook is based on mysql.
Answer: Wikipedia is based on MySQL.  I don't think it has 100M users, but it must be close by now.
Comment: Wiki(Media|pedia) has a massive static cache though, most requests never hit MySQL
Answer: No database will handle hundreds of millions of users unless you know how to set it up properly. No single server could handle that kind of traffic, so you need to know how to setup replication and load balancing. Once you reach a certain level, there is no out of the box solution, only tools you can use. MySQL being a very capable tool.
Answer: Your question is really irrelevant, because creating a product or service that hundreds of millions of customers actually want is a much bigger and more difficult challenge than choosing a database engine.
If you're starting a business from nothing, pick a technical platform you already know and go with it: productivity and quick implementation will be more important than being scalable to a level you may never reach anyway.
If you do eventually become successful enough to have to deal with hundreds of millions of customers, then you'll certainly be able to raise the cash to buy whatever expertise and hardware you need.
Comment: about almost all technologies have "quick implementation" or rather sometimes its hard to tell which is easier to implement hence my question (since i could either sql server or mysql why not find out which is better so that i could have both quick implementation and good scaling?)
Comment: @Pacerier: as I mentioned, the quickest/easiest database engine to implement is always the one that the implementation team already knows best.
Answer: There are a couple of answers to this.
Yes, MySQL can store hundreds of millions of records; you need to know what you're doing, have a decent database schema, pretty robust hardware, but you're not pushing the limits.
When you talk about "hundreds of millions of users", you're talking about a site along the lines of Wikipedia/Facebook/Google/Amazon in scale. You need a custom, highly cached, distributed architecture to run a site at that scale - and the traditional database driven application architecture will almost certainly not be enough. You could still store your data in MySQL, but you'd need a whole bunch of additional components to make it all work - and without knowing more about the application, nobody could tell you what that might be. At that scale, none of the commonly used databases would suffice, so MySQL is no better or worse than any of the other options...


Allow users to choose multiple authentication methods with Azure Mobile Service

Question: I would like to allow my users to choose from all the available authentication options that Azure Mobile Services provides when signing in but I'm not sure how to link their accounts together if say they choose to authenticate with Facebook the first time and then the next time they run the application they choose a different service.
Answer: You have to use a username that upon inserting to your table, you go through as to see if a username of this exists and then link it. Of course this could be a problem if another person wants to login with the same username.
The smartest thing is to retrive some information from the users account so you have some values you can see that are the same. And then you can link them inside.
You could look at this
Windows Azure Multi-Factor Authentication: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/services/multi-factor-authentication/
Comment: If you are using a windows phone you can access phone Token such that you know the login comes from the same phone. Scrool down to  PrimaryToken http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsphone/develop/ff769509(v=vs.105).aspx


Does any dialect of English pronounce "sojourn" with emphasis on the second syllable?

Question: I used to think that sojourn was pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable (So-Journ'), and until now that's how I'd heard it,  then I heard from some learned people that it's on the first syllable (So'-Journ), and I checked dictionary.cambridge.org and indeed, emphasis on the first syllable.  And that makes me wonder: is pronouncing it So-Journ' a mistake?  Is there anybody that pronounces it So-Journ' and is correct to be doing so?
Comment: A good reference for online dictionaries is the [OneLook Dictionary Search](http://www.onelook.com/?w=sojourn&ls=a). I often use it when I'm trying to see what pronunciations exist for a word. For the verb "sojourn," several dictionaries do indeed list a pronunciation with stress on the second syllable, such as http://www.dictionary.com/browse/sojourn
Comment: I have heard "sojourn" pronounced several different ways.  It's a relatively rare word, so it's not unexpected that there would be a divergence of pronunciations.
Comment: (It's also a word which has, in the past, gained currency in certain religious sects, and it's not unusual for such sects to have non-standard pronunciations.)
Answer: Often noun/verb pairs are pronounced with contrasting first/second syllable emphasis.  There is a really great chart of these pairs that include other noun/verbs like "concert" "exploit" "protest" "dictate" in the article "Variation and change in English noun/verb pair stress," by Morgan Sonderegger and Partha Niyogi, from page 265 of the book Origins of Sound Change: Approaches to Phonologization, edited by Alan C. L. Yu.
Sonderegger and Niyogi say the position of the stress in each word in the noun-verb pair ["sojourn" (n), "sojourn" (v)] has been observed to have shifted over time from [1,1] to [1,2]. In other words, the older stress pattern is to pronounce "sojourn" with stress on the first syllable for both the noun and the verb, and some speakers still use this pattern, but some other speakers now pronounce the noun with stress on the first syllable and the verb with stress on the second syllable.
"Sojourn" is definitely one of those fun words to ask everyone how they pronounce it, but you might want to consider usage more than dialect...
(In ASL many noun/verb pairs are distinguished by a single morpheme, though regional/social variations exist too.)
"You say tomayto, I sat tomahto, you say potayto, I say potahto..."
Comment: Yes!  Sorry about that.  On the page prior, there is a paragraph that explains the notation [1,2] is with emphasis on the first syllable and [2,1] indicates emphasis on the second syllable.  There's more too it, but mu ipad isn't very compatible with google books so I couldn't quite get at it all.  There were some pre-print drafts of the paper on a few academic websites, but the docs wouldn't open for me.  A search of the authors might yield more for you.  But my gut tells me the difference has to do with noun/verb pairing as well as regional dialect...


sfdx jwt:grant unable to authenticate

Question: I'm having issues trying to use jwt:grant to log in while specifying the instanceurl in the command.  I'm currently working on this in a sandbox.  But our orgs are configured to not allow log ins from login.salesforce and test.saleforce.
When I try this command
sfdx force:auth:jwt:grant -u email@example.com -f ~/Documents/JWT/server.key -i [The client Id] -r https://my-custom-domain.cs14.my.salesforce.com

I get the following error
ERROR:  This org appears to have a problem with its OAuth configuration. Reason: invalid_grant - audience is invalid
username: firstname.lastname@example.com,
clientId: [The client id],
loginUrl: <Not Specified>,
privateKey: [correct location]/server.key.

Try this: Verify the OAuth configuration for this org. For JWT:
Ensure the private key is correct and the cert associated with the connected app has not expired.
Ensure the following OAuth scopes are configured [api, refresh_token, offline_access].
Ensure the username is assigned to a profile or perm set associated with the connected app.
Ensure the connected app is configured to pre-authorize admins.

But if I disable the login policy and change the instance url to https://test.salesforce.com.  It works.
Any ideas how to solve this?  I won't be able to turn the login policy off in out full sandboxes or production.
Comment: Were you able to progress?
Answer: The answer is here:
This org appears to have a problem with its OAuth configuration. Reason: invalid_grant - audience is invalid
Run the following command first
export SFDX_AUDIENCE_URL=https://test.salesforce.com

sfdx jwt:grant unable to authenticate


Use X-Forwarded-For headers on Magento

Question: So here's the deal:
We're trying to setup Google Page Speed to work with Magento and we're worried that since all the pages will be served by Google we won't know the client IP address for my users' requests. This we fear will affect our our user's ability to interact with the website (login/logout and checkout) and our ability to use analytics (Google Analytics). Is this really going to be a problem/issue?
We did some research and found that we need to setup X-Forwarded-For headers either in Apache or PHP. Our host says that they can't do this because:

Normally we would use mod_rpaf which does what you want (translates a forwarded IP into the real one before it gets passed to your code) but mod_rpaf requires you provide it with a list of the forwarding servers. Google doesn't supply this, so we can't use that.

So now the only option left is to set it up with Magento's PHP, how do we do this?
While going through the Magento Admin (System > Configuration > Web > Session Validation Settings) we noticed 'Validate HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR': would changing this to 'Yes' help?
-Thanks.
Answer: Google page Speed will will set the http_x_forwarded_for header in the request that it sends to magento, this means that magento can pick it up using PHP, like this:
<code>$real_customer_ip = $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];
</code>
Magento will capture ip information passed via the http_x_forwarded_for header without extra configuration.
To test this, set up a test instance of your site working with Google Page Speed and place an order. If you then examine the order you will see that it has values for both 'remote_ip' and 'x_forwarded_for'. These values are stored in magento's MySQL database, in the 'sales_flat_order' table.
The IP address of a customer is irrelevant to magento's login/logout/checkout functionality, it uses information stored in the http-session.

Use X-Forwarded-For headers on Magento


In LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, what are the unlockable ships used for?

Question: In LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga you can unlock ships. What are they for? Where can I use them?
Answer: Ships are used in the various vehicle missions (pod-race, death star, battle of hoth) etc.
By unlocking them, you get to use them in these missions. Most of these missions have special "imperial" areas (marked by red and black gates) that only imperial ships can get through. Most (if not all) of the imperial ships are obtained by unlocking/purchasing them, so you'll want at least one to get 100% completion.
If you are referring to the minikit ships, you use them in the minikit "bonus" levels. Other than that they are just for completion and fun :).
Answer: The ships are used for Free Play Mode.
When you complete a level, you have access to "free play mode" where you can use and character- or ship- you have unlocked.
Ships are used in the Mos Espa Pod Race and a bunch of others/


Is there a specific theorem or name for this particular fact about primes? (Mod 6)

Question: Is there a particular theorem or name defining the property/behavior of primes such that all primes (greater than 3) are congruent to 1 or 5 (mod 6)? I could have sworn I saw one years ago, but I haven't been able to find it again. I don't have a formal background in number theory, so that could be part of the reason, since I don't know the proper terms to search. I have been doing some work with Cuban primes. and I would like to know the name if there is one before speaking with a professor from a different country. The more we are on the same page the better.
Comment: Welcome to Maths SX! I don't think there's a special name. Simply, it' obvious that the other numbers, congruent to  $0,2,3,4,$ can't be prime (except of course $2$ and $3$) since $6$ is divisible by $2$ and $3$.
Comment: Cf. [this question](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/41623/is-that-true-that-all-the-prime-numbers-are-of-the-form-6m-pm-1)
Comment: The term you're looking for may be "relatively prime", as in "$1$ and $5$ are the residues relatively prime to $6$".
Comment: This observation was surely made shortly after primes have been "invented" !
Comment: I am mostly looking for a term to make conversation/explanation more simple, like "and because we know theorem x to be true" or "and from theorem x" within the context of conversation. I already know how it works and how I am using them, but I am changing a one variable equation for a type of prime into a three variable problem. The visual presentation (being the most simple) is complicated enough, so I am going to try to find any ways I can to make the written/verbal part more simple and math friendly.
Answer: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplicative_group_of_integers_modulo_n  list just a few possibilities, depending on use. These include:

Multiplicative group of integers mod n
Group of primitive residue classes modulo n
Group of units of the ring of integers modulo n.

Specifically, n is 6 in this case.
Comment: Thanks, I found the link very interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't able to solve my problem, but I always like to add more knowledge to my arsenal, since I wasn't able to finish my degree. I just need a term or phrase to define the concept, if one exists.
Comment: how does this fail ? $$1\cdot 1\equiv1 \bmod 6\\5\cdot 5\equiv 1\bmod 6$$ showing multiplicative inverse( last term). Furthermore: $$\gcd(1,6)=1\\gcd(5,6)=1$$ Showing coprimality ( fitting second term). Lastly, they fit all the group axioms with multiplication ( fit the first term)
Comment: I understand, however I was never looking to prove coprimality, so I am unclear of your direction. I am working with cuban primes and extending their range, and in doing so I use mod 6 a lot and depend on the fact that all primes are congruent to 1 or 5 mod 6 for the foundation of the work. I was just trying to see if there was a particular theorem that stated that they are all congruent to 1 or 5 mod 6 to clean up what I am writing. I am already very familiar with using modular arithmetic with multiple variables within this work. I am just looking for a word/phrase.
Comment: and any of the above can work. primes need to be coprime to a modulus or a prime factor of it.


From tensor seen as linear maps on vector spaces to index contraction

Question: I am considering a second-order tensor $\mathbf T$ seen as a linear maps on vector spaces, acting on a vector $\mathbf v$ to create a new vector $\mathbf u$, thus, $\mathbf u= \mathbf{T}(\mathbf{v})$. Starting from this very basic fact, how do we properly introduce the notation $\mathbf u= \mathbf{T}(\mathbf{v})=\mathbf{T}\cdot \mathbf{v}$ where the "$\cdot$" denotes the tensor product contracted once (or inner product, or scalar product when we deal with vectors)? In other words, how do we know that these two notations are interchangeable?
Comment: For a linear function of $\mathbb R$, $f(x)=F.x$. I think it is the same thing here: $T$ is a linear mapping over $v$, so $T(v)$ (= image of $v$ by a function) is equal to $T.v$. The notations are interchangeable because by definition of the function $T$ as linear, $T$ can be written $T.v$. Does it help?
Answer: If you are asking about notation, the comment of @anderstood is spot on. If $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is any real function, writing $fx$ instead of $f(x)$ is confusing, because $fx$ could be the product of $f$ and $x$. However, if $f$ is a linear function (linear in a linear algebraic sense, eg. homogenous linear), then $f(x)=ax$, so identifying $f$ with $a$ gives us $f(x)=fx$.
The same notion is carried over into linear algebra, except in that case, $Tx$ is even less confusing, because there is no product operation on a general vector space and $T$ is NOT an element of the vector space anyways, so $Tx=T(x)$ is the only possible interpretation, even for nonlinear maps (unless you are explicitly identifying everything with matrices...).
So if we declare $T(x)\equiv T\cdot x$, this is a perfectly fine and unambigous thing to do.
If you are asking to prove if the action of $T$ on $x$ is the same as the contraction performed on $T\otimes x$ over the last two arguments, we can invoke the universal factorization property of tensor products, that essentially states that any multilinear function over the direct sum of some vector spaces has a unique representation as a linear map over the corresponding tensor spaces.
Now, if $T$ is seen as a linear operator on some finite dimensional vector space $V$ (over $\mathbb{F}$), then the space $\hom(V)$ of such maps is naturally isomorphic to the tensor product $V\otimes V^\ast$, and the action $T(x)$ can be seen as a bilinear map $(\cdot,\cdot):V\otimes V^\ast\times V\rightarrow V$. By the universal factorization property, there is a unique linear map, which we now call $\mathrm{tr}^2_1:V\otimes V^\ast\otimes V\rightarrow V$ so that $(T,x)=T(x)=\mathrm{tr}^2_1(T\otimes x)$, which is what we call "contraction over the first lower index and second upper index".
By this argument, any tensor action can be seen as a contraction performed over a tensor product.
Comment: Well, yes interesting answer but a bit too advanced for my needs. When you say "So if we declare T(x)≡T⋅x, this is a perfectly fine and unambigous thing to do.", you seem to go a bit fast because "$\cdot$" has a very specific meaning, and it might not be that clear that all possible actions of T on x can be completely expressed as an "inner product" T⋅x.
Comment: @pluton I'm sorry, I don't understand you, $T\cdot x$ has *no* specific meaning, unless the vector space in question is $\mathbb{R}^n$, and it is explicitly identified with the matrix space $\mathbb{R}^{n\times 1}$, with all linear transforms identified with $\mathbb{R}^{n\times n}$. If that is not the case, there is no intrinsic meaning to $T\cdot x$, we can however **define** it as $T\cdot x=T(x)$.
Comment: ah ok: just because in my question, I said it was the usual inner product and I was not sure whether you kept this meaning or not in your answer.
Answer: Given a $(1,1)$ tensor as a map
$$
\tau\colon V\times V^*\to\mathbb{C}
$$
such element can be always expressed as $\tau = \tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\nu}e_{\mu}\otimes \alpha^{\nu}$, with $(e_{\mu}, \alpha^{\nu})$ being a basis of $V, V^*$, respectively.
Using your notation, let us act with $\tau$ upon a vector $v\in V$. We have
$$
\tau(v) = \left(\tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\nu}e_{\mu}\otimes \alpha^{\nu}\right)(v)= \left(\tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\nu}e_{\mu}\right)\cdot\alpha^{\nu}(v) = \left(\tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\nu}e_{\mu}\right)\alpha^{\nu}(v^{\lambda}e_{\lambda})=\tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\nu}v^{\lambda}\delta^{\nu}_{\phantom{\nu}\lambda}e_{\mu}
$$
which reduces to $\tau^{\mu}_{\phantom{\mu}\lambda}v^{\lambda}e_{\mu}\in V$. The action of the $(1,1)$ tensor $\tau$ on $v$ is denoted, with abuse of notation, as $\tau(v)=(v,\tau)=\tau\cdot v$.
Have a look at this other answers of mine here and here as well.
Comment: Thanks. Do you really need the notion of basis to show the equivalence in the two notations? I am trying to simplify as much as possible.
Comment: One doesn't necessarily need it. You may as well just consider the definition as $\tau\colon V\times V^*\to\mathbb{C}$ and see that $\tau(\cdot, v)\colon V^*\to\mathbb{C}$ and thus isomorphic to a vector (as element of ${V^*}^*$.


Does the Micro-Miniaturized feat give me a free Mechanism pick with each gadget housing?

Question: The micro-miniaturized feat says that whenever I build or request a gadget, I may include one additional mechanism per gadget.  Does this mean I get an additional gadget pick, or that I may simply expend another gadget pick to put more mechanisms in a housing than what is usually possible?
Answer: The Feat Doesn't Provide Free Stuff
The Benefit of the feat Micro-miniaturized (Spycraft 2.0 197) says

When you build or request a gadget, each Mechanism is 1 size category smaller, and you may include 1 additional Mechanism per gadget.

No mention is made of how to include the additional Mechanism therefore standard rules apply. The feat Micro-miniaturized merely allows an additional Mechanism in a housing--it doesn't provide a free Mechanism. The additional Mechanism must still be built or requested,1 its cost paid normally.

That is, gained when mission or personal gear can be selected, not only upon making a successful Request Check:

[The game] generally use[s] the term "request" to mean "acquire" through any means other than picking it up in game, so the feat [Mirco-miniaturized] covers possessions and mission gear as well.
--Patrick Kapera (04/15/08)
Comment: Please see this forum clarification on why Micro miniaturized applies to mission and personal gear: http://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=1465.0
Comment: @Mystagogue Fair enough. I like Pat a lot, but, man, that's a terrible design decision--[thesaurus](http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0012.html) FTW, dudes. Answer edited. Anyway, why not ask on the Crafty forums? The Crafty folk are good people, too.
Comment: I agree with your answer, and that's how I'd been playing it.  I didn't think there was any ambiguity.  But apparently my DM ruled that it was far more powerful in a previous game of his.  I mean, I'd love to take all my possessions as miniature gear and get a free mechanism with each, but come on.
Comment: @Mystagogue That's... pretty crazy, actually. I can see a new Control who doesn't fully understand the gear system's nuances making that call, or a Control wanting ultra-tech but infrequent gadgets (cyberpunk on a shoestring budget, maybe?), but the house-ruled feat'd be a no-brainer once everyone had some system mastery.


In the anime, what happens to Akame after the fall of the empire?

Question: At the end of the anime adaptation of Akame ga Kill!,

 everyone died,

but what happened to Akame?
They mentioned her needing to get out of the country because the people would call for her execution due to her time as an imperial assassin, but did she get out, or was she caught? If she escaped, where did she go?
Comment: in that case it'd be all open to speculation, since the anime is its own timeline, I tried to find interviews with the staff but none of the ones I found really went into what happens with Akame after the ending, I guess they just left her fate open-ended. I don't think any developments in the manga would mean anything to the anime ending since by the end it was an original work by the studio.
Comment: I'm not sure how the manga ends, but maybe some clarification to wether you refer to the manga or the anime adaptation would help, as I'm pretty sure the anime had an original ending.
Comment: I was referring to the anime, but I'm well aware that they strayed from the manga.
Answer: What happened to Akame?
I only read the manga but as paulnamida mentioned, if you want anime-only events about Akame's whereabouts, you are out of luck since all you get is a post-credits scene which does not even mention specifics as to where she is exactly:

'In a post-credits scene, Akame wanders in a desert, ambushed by several people who appear to be Teigu users. She again states that as a survivor, she shoulders the feelings of her deceased comrades, and begins battle with the group of bandits.'

This doesn't tell really tell much. Did she get out, or was she caught? If she escaped where did she go? As mentioned above, she was not caught but as to where she went or where she was headed to during the post-credits scene, no one knows.


What causes a yard to become lumpy?

Question: What causes a yard to become lumpy and uneven.  has just happened over the past few years.  how do you correct it? thx
Comment: When you say 'yard to become lumpy', do you mean a lawn or just the soil generally? Please clarify, if you mean the soil, whether the area is planted, what, if any, cultivation or work you've carried out, as well as making it a bit clearer what you mean - do you mean the garden's developed hills and low spots, or lots of stone on the surface or something else?
Comment: Pictures and your location would help too...
Comment: Is your house new/new-ish? If so, when was it built and what was on the land before it was built?
Comment: On the prairie and former prairie, many native grasses form root lumps. Kill the grass, and the lump remains.
Answer: There could be various reasons. A photo could eventually help.
The most common problem (in my opinion): bad preparation of the lawn. Like road, the soil need to be compressed and well prepared, so that it should remain mostly even. Possibly with more compression on lower part, before to put the good soil.
Usage is also a problem. If you walk always in the same place, or you put the car in the same place, the pressure will more soil on the side. There is not much to do (but if you want to have the parks with "do not walk in". [because it is not a part, there is no tragedy of the commons, so ... not a good solution];
Water is also a problem. Soil is in any case never static, it change, geology (and hydrology) makes movements of soil (and they more away stuffs). If you think there could be such problem, first thing to do: check your home and fundaments. Speak with a construction worker about solution [remember that you have an house, so any solution should not move the problem from lawn to the house].
And possibly many other problems. A photo or more description could help.
What do? You can put some soil, sand on the "holes", usually in winter or when you use less your lawn. Not too much, so that existing grass will survive, but so that the soil will be more even. Rain and snow will help to make lawn even, by moving some of your added soil. You may do this twice every year. On next years usually you need much less soil.
If it is very bad, redoing the lawn is the simpler and quicker way (but only if you know the original cause and you solve it, e.g. bad preparation)
Comment: @Michael RICKETT my mind goes to moles, voles, and gophers. It's amazing how they can change the evenness of a lawn. And if you are not paying much attention, the changes could happen before you realize that there are burrows.
Answer: Freeze/thaw will make a lawn uneven . In locations like garden zone 5 ,it is common to "roll"  lawn in the spring to flatten it. Typically an 18 " diameter steel roller is partly filled with water ( full is too heavy) and pulled over the lawn with a riding mower. I did it a couple times when a neighbor lent me his rig , but generally I was not that interested in lawns. It does make a smoother ride on a riding mower for the rest of the year.

What causes a yard to become lumpy?


Why aren't there any airbenders in Profession Tournament Bending?

Question: In The Legend of Korra (second Avatar Series from Nickelodeon) professional tournament bending has a trio of earth, water, and fire benders squaring off against one another; but why isn't airbending represented?
Comment: Well pal, you know this dude called The Fire Lord? He kinda killed all the airbenders.
Answer: Avatar Aang is the last of the Air Nomads, a group wiped out by the Fire Nation. He had three children who could have been airbenders:

Kya is the first of Aang and Katara's three children and their only daughter, as well as the only waterbender that the couple parented.

Kya and most likely her children are unable to airbend, so can be discounted.

Bumi is Aang and Katara's second child and oldest son, as well as the only non-bender among the couple's three children.

Bumi is a non-bender, so he and his lineage can likely be discounted.

Tenzin, the youngest son of Avatar Aang and Katara, is the only airbending master, and represents the Air Nation on the United Republic Council. He resides on Air Temple Island,... with his pregnant wife, Pema, and his three children, Jinora, Ikki and Meelo.

Tenzin is a master airbender and until the first few episodes looked down upon the Professional Bending tournament. His three children, though all airbenders, are not skilled enough to be considered for a team (And likely too young - though who knows the rules, if Toph could previously compete in a similar tournament?)
Tenzin lives on the island with Air acolytes, but none of them are airbenders:

Air Acolytes are monks and nuns that reside on Air Temple Island. Although not airbenders themselves, they carry on the teachings of the Air Nomads, their culture, and their traditions through practice.

So as far as we know the only air-benders in existence are Tenzin and his children. None of who are eligible or willing to join the tournament.
Bear in mind that there could be a team with an airbender that we haven't seen, but it's highly unlikely.

Further to this, given that in the current rules there is one (and only one) representative for each element required for a team. If an air bender was needed, there would need to be at least as many air-benders as teams, which is unlikely given Tenzin and his family's status as the last air-benders.
Quotes taken from the Avatar Wikia
Comment: I would quibble with you that Kya and Bumi's children can be dismissed as airbenders; after all, Mako and his brother are both benders, but of different elements, so it might be able to skip a generation or something like that. However, you're probably right; if any of Tenzin's nieces or nephews were airbenders, I think he'd have tried to keep them on the island.
Comment: Actually, Tenzin is the youngest of Aang and Kitara's children, and *his* children were all born after Aang died (I'm guessing that's when he realized he really needed to stop being such a monk). If Kya and Bumi have kids, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they're Korra's age or older (and that they had a similar breakdown when Tenzin tried to teach them airbending, if applicable :)
Comment: In my answer I do say 'likely', even so I doubt they be old enough to join a team. And yes most likely, if they *could* air-bend they'd be with Tenzin
Comment: @Tacroy Is there evidence that Mako and Bolin's parents weren't benders?
Answer: It's likely that when Pro-bending was invented that the only airbenders were Aang and Tenzin. If Air bending was to be represented all pro bending teams would have to have an air bender. There are quite simply not enough air benders yet for it to be represented in the sport. I think it's safe to say that the only air benders during the popularity of pro-bending so far are Tenzin and his offspring. In "Welcome to Republic City" Korra says she would, "love to find another air bending master but [Tenzin is] the only one." It could be that if Kya and Bumi have children, they could also be air-benders but if they were, they are probably too young to know that they have the ability. If they are older it's unlikely that they are airbenders because they would be training with Tenzin if they were. The claim that Tenzin and his family are the only airbenders in existence is supported in "Turning the Tides" when Lin Bei Fong says to Tenzin, "You and your family are the last airbenders" Also in "Endgame" when Amon is about to take away Tenzin, Dinora, Ikki and Meelo's bending he refers to it as "rid[ing] the world of airbending, forever." further supporting that they really are the last airbenders. Counting only Tenzin and his children that's only four known airbenders. Which is not even enough to supply the 17 notable pro-bending teams not to mention unknown teams. Also pro-bending teams come from all over world, across the united republic of nations and the only place airbenders live are in Republic City's air temple island making it unlikely for more people to compete if they need an airbender to play. Other reasons might be because airbending might be a more difficult to include because a lack of understanding of the practice, the spiritual practice of airbending might also have principles that contradict competitive fighting. It might also be that air bending is difficult to put rules and regulations as the other elements are. Another element that is not represented in Pro-bending (probably because of ethical reasons for the most part and also that it's difficult to regulate) is Energybending.
Answer: Ang was the last air-bender alive in his time of the first Avatar Series.
Wikipedia's Last Air-bender page reports:

Fire Lord Sozin then carried out a genocide of the Air Nomads; the entire people were wiped out, leaving Aang as the eponymous last Airbender.

As a result, his family are likely the only airbenders left alive. Unlike the other groups, unless other air-benders were found, there would be very few air-benders in proportion to the other bending groups. This would probably preclude there being enough air-benders around to form a league or to be members of the Professional Bending Tournaments.
Answer: (This review contains SPOILERS for like, the first major point after Season 2. MAJOR SPOILERS SERIOUSLY MAN IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED SEASON 3 GO WATCH IT)
Like everyone else says above there were only five living Airbenders not including the Avatar. 4 of them are too young to participate in Pro Bending (Tenzin's kids), and Tenzin wouldn't have joined for sure.
(here's the spoiler-->) However, with the recent development of all those nonbenders who received Airbending, I don't see how, once they've been trained and stuff, Pro-Bending can't be altered. After all they wouldn't even have to do much to create another spot on the field for them because there's always air everywhere. The only problem is that if they did that, all teams would then be required to get an Airbender, and there aren't enough of them yet to supply the spots, who would want to be in Pro Bending. It'll probably be another generation or so before anything like this happens, since Airbending isn't widespread enough yet. This entire paragraph is speculation.
Comment: Hi @sagelynaive, Welcome to SFF.SE! Note: for spoilers you can use the spoiler markup ">!": http://scifi.stackexchange.com/editing-help#spoilers


using cental ac circuit in winter for regular outlets

Question: Is there a way to have your 240 central ac unit circuit double as a regular outlet in winter time for use in christmas decorations
Answer: What you could do is install a small sub panel at the end of the wires. Install an additional 240 volt breaker, same amperage as the breaker feeding the AC unit and a 120 volt, 15 or 20 amp breaker for the outlets. This requires that you have 4 wires feeding it, two hots, a neutral and a protective earth. If you only gave three wires (no neutral) you'll need two 240 volt breakers and a step-down transformer to get the 120 volts.
Answer: You would need a converter to go from 240 to 120 and then you could.
Check out this post Replacing 240V outlet with 120V. It'll give some ideas.
Answer: The circuit protection device for your AC unit will likely be way too big for protecting small things like decorative lights. That would have to be changed, then changed back again when you want the AC again. Not worth it...


Is it possible to combine "super" and "slightly" to mean something smaller than slightly?

Question: For example : "She looks super slightly similar." would mean she looks a really small bit similar.
From a french background, we allow ourselves to combine certain superlatives in this way, but I cannot find anywhere with such usage in english.
Answer: No. These Google Ngrams strongly suggest that 'super slightly' is non-idiomatic, with which indication I'd agree. We'd use

She looks ever-so-slightly taller.

[Hyphens optional IMO] [and I've switched to the 'taller' example]
(57 000 Google hits for "ever so slightly taller"; 7 dubious hits for "super slightly taller")
From ODO

ever so (phrase)
Very.
'I am ever so grateful')

[no hyphens when used predicatively]
And an adverb-modifying example from Collins:

I saw him pause ever so slightly.
Comment: We also use *very* as in "*very slightly taller*".


how to linearize the full model for TSP quadratic formulation?

Question: I tried to solve this problem but I failed, please how to linearized full model.
Answer: You can linearize a product of binary variables by introducing a new nonnegative variable and linear constraints, as shown here.  In the present case, you can exploit the fact that the product appears only in the objective with a nonnegative objective coefficient.  So only one additional linear constraint (instead of three) is needed per product:
$$z_{k,i,j} \ge y_{k,i} + y_{k+1,j} - 1$$
The linearized objective function is then
$$\sum_{i,j} d_{i,j} \sum_k z_{k,i,j}.$$
Because of the original equality constraints, you can reduce the linearized problem size by using a single additional variable per edge:
$$z_{i,j} \ge y_{k,i} + y_{k+1,j} - 1$$
with linearized objective function
$$\sum_{i,j} d_{i,j} z_{i,j}.$$
Comment: Thanks a lot, I appreciate your time.


Alternative XAML authoring tools?

Question: If I am writing XAML, do I have to use Expression Blend or Visual Studio, or are there alternative tools around?
Answer: Are you designing graphics/assets with XAML or creating user intefaces for applications?
If you're designing, you have a lot of options. Expression Design, of course, but there are good converters out there to get XAML from powerhouse formats/apps like Adobe Illustrator.
If you're coding, while Blend has severe UX shortcomings, it has a pretty solid feature set -- far more than any alternatives I've seen so far. There are alternatives, though, as Dave pointed out.
Comment: Blend is great for making things look pretty, but personally I find it absoutely terrible to work with. Plus if I "dare" to have Blend and Visual Studio open at the same time, my machine eventually dies...
Answer: There Microsoft's XAMLPad application:
Answer: Depends on what you want to accomplish and how much money you are willing to spend. As Jay said, if your main goal is to code your application go for Visual Studio (and get Resharper if you can, makes your life way easier). If your goal is design, go for Expression Blend/Design.
XAMLPad can also come handy (it shows you a nice preview for your code too) and it is very light weight.
+1 for Kaxaml as well.
Answer: There is an open source application called XDraw on CodePlex if your interested in creating drawings using XAML. There also was a product called Vector Architect which looked pretty slick but it looks like the authors of this application have stopped selling it.
So far I've been pretty disappointed by the tools out there for creating graphics and/or designing UIs with XAML including Expression Blend and Expression Design. The tool that think is the best for WPF based UI is Visual Studio 2010 but it definitely has its limitations when dealing with assets in resource dictionaries.
Comment: Unfortunately it looks like OwlIsland is no longer offerint the Vector Architect product.

Alternative XAML authoring tools?


How to prevent access from VM-Ware to Host machine

Question: I would like to know if it is possible to prevent access from VM-Ware guest in full screen to the Host machine?
Answer: If this was possible, and I think it is not, you won't be able to restart the host machine or handle any problem it has.
And if you plan to hide to the user that he's working on a VmWare you will need to start it automatically when for any reason the guest stopped.
EDIT: You can also set the hotkey combination to something hard to find like Ctrl + Alt + Win + Shift
Answer: Try remapping the fullscreen escape hotkeys with AutoHotkey.
example:
<code>!f::return
</code>
Answer: One completely hilarious way to do that accidentally is to configure the escape key to some key that is not on the particular keyboard.  Easy to do on laptops, that sometimes don't have left and right ctrl or alt.


Does the pot I use affect my plant type?

Question: I play Flower Town on my red 3ds and I haven't bought pots in some time. I use the pot that you can use unlimitedly, but does that pot affect the color of my plants, the plant breed( does it increase the percent of a new breed?), or the plant's seeds?
Answer: Pots are solely cosmetic!  You can use any pot you want, and swap anytime you want, and it won't affect anything at all anywhere.  It's just up to you which pots you like the look of and want to have your plants in.
Answer: No, The pot is purely a decorative piece meant to make your gardens look different - it has no bearing on the plant's colour or breed.
The colour and breed comes from the seed itself - when viewing the seed box you can see what the plant will potentially grow into. The higher the percentage chance, the more likely it is you will get that variation.
Remember you can always change the pot that your plant is currently in at any time, if say you earn some money and want to splurge on some nicer pots.


Android Marshmallow usb problem moto g2

Question: My moto g2 is not being detected via USB when I connect it to my PC. It still charges however. Its not getting recognized since i have done marshmallow update. i have even enabled MTP in developer options. but still its not showing any notifications when connected. Please help me.
Comment: Does it show up in Device Manager (Windows) or in `lsusb` (Linux)?  (See [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17058134/is-there-an-equivalent-of-lsusb-for-os-x) for Mac.)
Answer: My moto g3 had similar problem.  After connecting the USB cable the device would appear within windows explorer but no file structure would appear.  This is because the phone was in USB charge only mode.  I double tap the very top status bar and a USB notification appears as shown below.

After selecting the USB for file transfer notification the following display appears:

Select the MTP protocol (or PTP) and you should see the media of the phone appear in the explorer window.
Every time the phone is connected to USB it will default to charging mode.
I hope this was a useful tip!
Comment: This is a good tip, but the questioner said his phone doesn't show the notification when connected, so it's unlikely to be the issue here. I'm sure some other visitors will find it helpful, though. Welcome to our community!

Android Marshmallow usb problem moto g2


Why are products of vectors just the way they are, and not the other way around?

Question: The scalar product and vector product of two vectors $\vec{A}$ and $\vec{B}$ are $AB\cos\theta$ and $AB\sin\theta\space\hat{\eta}$, respectively. They could have been the other way around—that is to say, $AB\sin\theta$ and $AB\cos\theta\space\hat{\eta}$, respectively—but why aren't they? Is there any particular significance behind the fact?
Answer: It comes down to the definition of the angle between vectors, as a scalar between $0$ and $\pi$. The scalar product gives you the length of the projection of one vector onto the other: $$\textrm{proj}_\vec{A}\vec B=B\cos\theta=\frac 1AAB\cos\theta =\frac{\vec A\cdot\vec B}{|A|}$$
The scalar product is positive if $\vec B$ has a component parallel to $\vec A$, negative if it has an antiparallel component, and $0$ if the two are perpendicular.
The vector product is used to describe a direction that is perpendicular to the plane of the two vectors. Now obviously, if the vectors are parallel or antiparallel,  then they form a line, so there is no meaning to $\vec A\times\vec B$. Also or if one is $0$ you cannot define uniquely the perpendicular direction. All these cases are described by the $AB\sin\theta=0$ expression. That's why it was chosen for the vector product. It also has the advantage that this expression is the area of the parallelogram formed by the two vectors.
Answer: If you swap vectors, $\theta$ becomes $2\pi-\theta$. This preserves $\cos\theta$ but changes the sign of $\sin\theta$. On the other hand, their definitions tell us the dot product won't change sign but the cross product will.


Does etymology have a word like cladistics?

Question: A recent question on EL&U about a current hip-hop expression led my research into a meme that is evolving faster than drosophila. This expression and its variants have gone viral on internet videos, and are morphing quickly. Urban Dictionary lists several dozen closely related variations. Of particular interest is how this meme is attaching itself to other "loaded" expressions to spawn combination phrases. In trying to wrap my brain around the complexity of this cultural phenomenon, I imagined trying to draw a sphere-of-influence graph of this meme. Which leads me to my question. Biology has cladistics. Does etymology have something similar? Is there a standard means of diagramming the evolution of a word or phrase, and, if so, what is it called?
Comment: It's possible, but we're not there yet. One can study the evolution of languages, and a great deal is known about them, and they can be grouped into clades of various characteristics. The problem is that, while biological evolution (for practice, count the biological semantic metaphors in the OQ) is Mendelian, language evolution is LaMarckian, in that acquired characteristics are passed on, and gene analogs are widely shared. Language cladistics is much closer to bacterial cladistics, and that's a mess too, for the same reasons -- bacteria share genes.
Comment: I don't think etymology does, for the reasons mentioned in both of the comments above. The closest parallel I can think of is in textual editing, which has *stemmatics* - the process of tracing the transmission of a text from one manuscript to another. The word "stemmatics" can only be used for manuscripts, not the words contained in them; and even this depends on what I have always thought is a false assumption that a manuscript can only descend from one ancestor (like a tree) and not multiple ancestors.
Comment: Given the way words from wildly different origins tend to cross-pollinate gleefully and with abandon in English, it's difficult to envision how anything like cladistics would be possible.
Answer: The evolution of words and their meanings is called  semantic change and has implications in different fields of linguistics:

Semantic change:
  (also semantic shift, semantic progression or semantic drift) is the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage. In diachronic (or historical) linguistics, semantic change is a change in one of the meanings of a word. Every word has a variety of senses and connotations, which can be added, removed, or altered over time, often to the extent that cognates across space and time have very different meanings.
The study of semantic change can be seen as part of etymology, onomasiology, semasiology, and semantics.
Answer: I'm unaware of any "standard means", but I do recall young children being taught to use "semantic mapping". I think there may be an advanced form of this in use by some etymologists.
A cursory search yielded these STEDT etymologies and a book on etymology. I quote a potentially relevant passage from the book, Lexical and Structural Etymology: Beyond Word Histories (emphasis mine):

To represent the full story of the etymology of some relative clause constructions we would need to include not only these complicating factors, but also different kinds and different strengths of links between them and their sources. For example, we may have a borrowing of a marker from one language to another, calquing without lexical borrowing, reanalysis, extension of a marker by analogy, or transfer of word order patterns.
Semantic maps and "conceptual spaces", both for individual lexemes and for constructions, allow the mapping of the terms/constructions of an individual language onto the typological diagram, showing at the same time synchronic and diachronic reality.

Perhaps this can lead you in the right direction.
Answer: In an unsearchable and potentially ephemeral comment to the original posting, Professor Lawler kindly presented the following answer:

It's possible, but we're not there yet. One can study the evolution of languages, and a great deal is known about them, and they can be grouped into clades of various characteristics.
The problem is that, while biological evolution (for practice, count the biological semantic metaphors in the OQ) is Mendelian, language evolution is LaMarckian, in that acquired characteristics are passed on, and gene analogs are widely shared.
Language cladistics is much closer to bacterial cladistics, and that's a mess too, for the same reasons — bacteria share genes.

I've marked this posting Community Wiki because it is John's answer not my own, and so I deserve no reputation from it.


Why are the fingertips not moving with my hand in pose mode?

Question: My armature moves but the fingertips on the hand are staying in place.
Answer:
I belive I have recreated the problem with the image above
Check to see if the finger tips are weight painted. Weight painting controls how a model's mesh is manipulated whenever bones are moved. This means if a mesh is not painted correctly, you will get issues like part of the fingers not moving with the rest of the hand.
When in "Object" mode, select your armature, then also select your mesh which contains the fingertips

Weight painting mode 101:

Single bone's weight paints can be viewed with ctrl and selecting that bone
Multiple bone's weight paints can be viewed with shift and selcting multiple bones
this mode will show a heatmap showing the weight of parts of the mesh

dark blue = weight 0.0 -> this part of mesh is not affected when the selected bone is moved/ will               stay in place no matter how the bone(s) are moved
dark red = weight 1.0 -> this part of mesh will completely move with the selected bone

click on the mesh to paint on weights for certain bones

For more reading, here is the Blender Weight Painting Manual
So to fix the fingertips, you would select each of the bones at the tips of the fingers indivisually and paint the tops red with a brush with weight 1.0. This should make the fingertips snap into place as shown below.

Once you've done this with each finger and its respective bone, you should be able to go into pose mode and pose it however you want without the issue

Hope this helps


Import sub view to another view

Question: It's possible to export sub view and import it to another view? For example I have views "A" & views "B" and each one has sub views [blocks - pages - ...etc]. How to export sub view from A to B?
Comment: Why you need that? Can't  you use single view?
Comment: Because the project built on views & sub views
Comment: No I mean need of importing a subview into another one.
Answer: You might be needing this module views_field_view to insert a sub view inside a view as a field.
Comment: No, not that way, i want change the sub view instead of under A view to be under B view.
Answer: Yes, how do you export a page view, into another page view so that it has 2 page views and they can share the same theme template?
Nevermind I don't think that would be possible because each view would have its own machine name and it doesn't look like there is a tpl suggestion that would work for 2 views. So not to hijack but is there any way to have more than one view share the same theme file?
OK so here is the solution I used:
https://www.drupal.org/project/views_custom_template
It does just what I need and probably you too.

Import sub view to another view


Double Slit Experiment with detector on the double slit screen itself

Question: I've looked for a version of the double slit experiment in which the detector (of photo, electron, etc.) is also placed on the slit screen itself, the side facing the emitter. Thinking: As we know, the probability wave of a single emitted photon passes through both slits (assuming no measurement there) and then the photon is measured in a specific spot on the screen on the other side (as photons collect, an interference pattern emerges). The space between the slits (and above, etc.) must also be included in the probability set of the photon's journey or impact point—ie is included in the wave function. In other words, presumably, not all photons register on the detector screen, some must be lost to areas outside the detector. Would measuring a case where the photon is measured hitting the screen instead of passing through the slit(s) disrupt the interference pattern of photons on the final detector screen (the one on the other side of the slits)?  Thanks in advance…
Comment: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/675002/how-does-the-double-slit-experiment-ensure-phase-coherence/675422#675422
Answer: No, in principle detecting photons that would otherwise have hit the barrier, rather than passing through the slits in the barrier, should not affect the interference pattern.
Quantum mechanical explanations of the two slits experiment typically treat the barrier as something that blocks the propagation of the wave function everywhere apart from through the slits. Effectively it means that the barrier is assumed to be opaque, so it will either reflect or absorb particles that hit it.
The barrier could, for example, be a photographic film with two slits cut into it, which would show where particles had impinged upon it.


stock chart volume by price

Question: I am currently using php, mysql, amcharts. I have tried to find different charts but cannot find one supporting "Volume by Price" chart, i.e. with normal price candlestick chart, on the same graph(overlay), add the horizontal bar chart for the price on the y-axis that indicate the volume transacted at that price level. Please advise how can I do so . Thanks a lot.
The desired output is per attached below got from internet.
sample graph:
http://www.financialsense.com/sites/default/files/users/u26/images/2010/0809-spy.jpg
http://www.sierrachart.com/images/doc_VolumeByPrice_img2.png
Answer: Interesting graph. I suspect most out of the box charting applications don't support this type of chart as it requires access to order book data. What I would suggest doing is:

Creating the candlestick chart
Create the bar chart, specifying exactly the dimensions of the candle chart.
Overlay them using a graphics program or something.

stock chart volume by price


Importing 3d models opengl

Question: I wanna write my own importor and it would be pretty much the first i would write. I wanna import a 3d file that also has animations in it.The Question is which would be easier ? I wanna import smt that programms like 3ds Max and blender can export to but im not really sure which would be eaier ( i don't care if it takes a long time but i just want it to be understandable)
Answer: I think you can easily find a number of sources for code fragments to get you start on either format.  For instance, here's a pretty small fragment of C++ code to get you start on 3DS loading into an OpenGL format:
http://www.codersource.net/MFC/OpenGL/Loading3DfilesfromOpenGLOpenGLTutorial7.aspx
Most of your work will be decoding the file formats into the appropriate C++ and OpenGL constructs.  Blender has a nice aggregator on file formats:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Ref/Resources/File_Formats
I haven't worked with both of these formats, so can't offer an opinion on which is easier.

Importing 3d models opengl


How many different plant families do you need for a self pollinating garden?

Question: I would like to grow certain plants in a self contained habitat (like cattails, fireweed, thistle, and other edible plants that are semi easy to maintain) but I read that siblings can't pollinate each other. Which means that I can't just grow a garden out of two of the same plant. How many plant families would it take to make sure all plants has a pollination partner?
Comment: You'll want to note that thistles are commonly regulated as noxious weeds, depending on species. If the species you want to eat are indeed considered to be noxious weeds, then it will be illegal for you to plant them in your garden. If a neighbor complains, you will possibly be liable for fines and/or costs for the city/town to "clean up" (i.e. RoundUp) your garden. Also ------- this sounds like a school assignment, so you may not get any answers (we, as a community, prefer that students do their OWN work).
Comment: Thank you for that information. I am not a student, though. Too old.
Answer: Either you are using terms like "family" incorrectly or there is a basic misunderstanding here.
Plants from one species are (normally) only pollinated by other plants of the same species. Edible plants, and cultivated garden flowers, often have many different varieties within the same species - for example all the named varieties of tomatoes or roses will pollinate each other.
You may be confused by the fact that some individual plants (e.g. apple trees) can not pollinate themselves, and in some species each plant only has male or female flowers. Some other species have different male and female flowers on the same plant.
In some self-pollinating plants (for example peas) the flowers are actually pollinated before the flower buds open.
The idea of a "species" can be confusing though. For example many the commonly grown types of brassica (cabbage, cauliflower, brussels sprout, kale, kohl-rabi, etc) are actually the same biological species (Brassica oleracea) and can cross-polliate each other, even though they look quite different. But when they are grown as vegetables, you don't want them to flower and set seed at all, so that is irrelevant in practice.
To summarize all that, unless you want to grow only one single plant of a particular species, you are unlikely to have anything to worry about. Any plants that are usually classed as "weeds" will be prolific at reproducing themselves, without your help.
Comment: Thank you for responding. I was trying to say that I read that if two plants pollinate each other and their seeds grow, then none of their seeds can pollinate each other because the dna is too similar. Are you saying that cattails and other plants like them have both male and female organs and do not need pollination? Also, why do you not want vegetables to flower or set seed?
Comment: Plant reproduction is complicated compared with animals! But as a general rule, for flowering plants, the part of the flower that develops into the seeds is the female sex organ, and the pollen is equivalent to sperm. You don't want vegetables to flower if you want to eat the leaves (e.g. cabbage) and not the seeds or fruit. If a cabbage flowers, you get a flower stalk and the plant then dies, having completed its purpose in life, which is to reproduce itself, without ever producing a cabbage-sized collection of leaves for humans to eat.
Comment: --- some plants can also reproduce *asexually*, by budding, growing new plants from the roots, physically breaking apart and the resulting "cuttings" rooting in the ground where they fall, etc, etc. Some species even produce things that act like "seeds" asexually, to add to he general confusion.
Comment: Then how do farmers keep growing vegetables each year without getting the seeds?
Comment: Seed producers grow the plants in the ideal conditions to flower and produce seed (which are different from the ideal conditions to harvest the plants for food) and farmers buy new seed every year. Of course gardeners can do that themselves on a small scale, but for commercial growers it isn't worth the risk of the "seed plants" getting infected with viruses etc which are transferred through the seeds and reduce the quality or quantity of the crop.
Comment: @user11937382: pollination usually works only on same species. With different species you may not get viable seeds (botanics is "special", so we have many hybrids, but never at level of family). often to have fruits or larger fruits, one needs pollination (to force making fruits, on vine grapes the size of grape is proportional to the seeds). Few plants do not like auto-pollination (so usually with the same plant or same clone). You may get this for perennials, but often seeds are already diverse (not clones). Small mixes is enough. In botanic we use "population" (genetically related plants).


How to determine which processes are running on outdated packages and needs restarting?

Question: So, I know that it is possible to view or recover deleted files that are currently being used by a process. I've found out that this also applies to packages that were updated. So, let's say we update a package, but that package is still being used by another process and ultimately running on an older version of that package since it has not been restarted. So, my question is, how do we determine the processes that are running on an older version of that package due to it not being restarted?
Comment: With regards to how your question starts (recover deleted files) is your intention in listing the processes not restarted after a package update to recover the files deleted by the package update ? In which case, since packages are generally made of several files including possibly several libs, several configuration files, dbus services, icons and much more… and since it is pretty unlikely that whatever running process will have needed / kept open all of these… you of course cannot expect recovering a package that way.
Answer: Shared libraries inodes are registered in /proc/PID/maps, i.e. for nginx running on Fedora 36:
7f9190a00000-7f9190a9a000 r--p 00000000 103:04 794344                    /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.30

The format of this file is explained here.
Basically the fifth field is the inode number. Once you update libraries, you have to traverse /proc/[0-9]+/maps and check whether individual shared libraries correspond to their real filesystem counterparts. To get the real file inode number you could use ls --inode /path/file or stat --printf=%i /path/file.
Here's a script which I've just penned which shows such processes:
#! /bin/bash

cd /proc || exit 1

for i in [0-9]*; do
    test ! -d $i && continue # PID could have already died
    awk '$6 ~ /\// {print $5" "$6}' "$i/maps" | sort -u | while read inode_p so; do
            if [ -f "$so" ]; then
                inode_r=`stat --format=%i "$so"`
                test "$inode_p" != "$inode_r" && echo "PID $i `cat $i/comm` maps stale file '$so'"
            fi
    done
done

It shows all mapped files issues. If you want to limit it to shared libraries only, replace -f "$so" with -e "$so".
Comment: This is a nice idea but only as far as only libs are concerned. Some package updates only update configuration files which would also need some application to be restarted. Say for example baselayout's upgrade updating some /etc/profile or whatever needing to at least run env-update && . /etc/profile or logout/login. (I've got not clue how to take this into account though)
Comment: Off the top of my head I don't know a single package which depends on changes in configuration files in *other* packages. I mean certainly there are such packages (e.g. you may alter `/etc/nsswitch.conf`) but I think that's not what the OP was asking about. And if a file is only read once when a daemon/service starts, there's no way to find out whether it needs to be restarted.


CSS: Understanding and adjusting leading / line-height of fonts

Question: A very similar question was asked here but the really answered sufficiently...
The CSS line-height property controls the amount of white space above the letters. Making it bigger/smaller spaces rows of text farther/closer together. But if you set the line height to the exact same value as the font-size, the text will still have white space above them.
So this DOESN'T quite work...
div { height: 80px; }
span { font-size : 80px; line-height : 80px; }

Foo

http://jsfiddle.net/s_d_p/yMHVs/
The degree to which the enclosed text actually matches the container height seems to differ from font to font.
So my question is two parts:

What are we actually adjusting when we set line-height?
Is there a way to remove it entirely so that letter fit precisely inside their container?
Answer: Note that the remaining/extra space is typically a symptom of the font being used, as designated by its designer.

Thus, the 80px includes the allocated white space above and/or below. Additional white space above is typically provided to allow for accented characters, which would otherwise require the letter itself to be compressed- producing an inconsistent typeface.
See here & here for further information.
Line height refers to the total height of the typeface, inclusive of any allocated whitespace.
Comment: Thanks. One follow-up. How does the arbitrary amount of whitespace set by the designer interact with the font-size property? Does font-size :16px mean the entire character + whitespace will be 16px tall? So the actual glyph will always be that height less the whitespace?
Comment: Yes, the font-size is always inclusive of any allocated whitespace
Answer: i'm sure that space is reserved for some characters that need more space. like this one:

Fj╛
character "j" need more space that "F" and i'm sure again that there is other characters (like "╛") that needs some space in above and bottom. so font designer reserved this space for that characters.
jsFiddle


How does Weka combine the decision trees in a random forest?

Question: When building the random forest, I am wondering if Weka combine the decision trees by averaging their probabilistic prediction or if Weka let each decision tree vote for a unique class?
Answer: Weka documentation does not tell much, but it refers to following paper

Leo Breiman (2001). Random Forests. Machine Learning. 45(1):
  5-32.

and for more details you could check it. Slides from Data mining with Weka MOOC by one of Weka authors says that it

Uses voting (or, for regression, averaging)
  -- but weights models according to their performance

So basically: in classification case it uses voting weighted by performance and in regression case averages models weighting on their performance. However this does not seem to be well documented so if you want to be 100% sure you'd have to check the source code, or e-mail it's developers.
Answer: Wikipedia states the following:
After training, predictions for unseen samples $x'$ can be made by averaging the predictions from all the individual regression trees on $x'$:
$$\hat{f} = \frac{1}{B} \sum_{b=1}^B \hat{f}_b (x')$$
or by taking the majority vote in the case of decision trees.
In sum, there is an equation when regression trees are adopted. Voting is only accepted when the random forests employs decision trees.
Comment: I don't think this is a helpful answer to OP's question. OP is asking about how Weka implements random forest, not what Wikipedia says.
Comment: I agree with @user777.


Is it possible to insert a PDF into a Word mail merge using C#

Question: I need to print one or more PDF brochures with each letter in a Word mail merge (based on the value of a field in the source query from SQL Server). Is this possible? Or is there another way of achieving this?
Answer: You can use the Microsoft Word Add-In (dox42) to do this.
There is a (sample template) for free download where a school report is produced for a class, based on a Word document and SQL queries. The SQL queries are controlled by parameters (school and class). For each pupil the school report is automatically saved as PDF. I understood, that is what you want to achieve.


Replacing whole milk with sweetened condensed milk for cheescake

Question: I am making a no bake cheesecake. It calls for milk but I just ran out. Can I substitute with sweetened condensed milk?
Comment: I use powdered whole milk, where I could control the thickness. I use Nestle Nido found in Walmart's hispanic foods section, rather than the flaky stuff that comes in a paper carton,as it gives a more authentic milky taste. Whereas, the flaky stuff tastes like detergent. A $13.88 can would make me an equiv of 10 gallons of fresh milk. With the economic crunch, more non-hispanics are using this to replace fresh milk that it disappears of the shelves fast.
Answer: Sweetened condensed milk is approximately 40% sugar, so you would need not quite double the sweetened condensed milk, and you would have to deduct the additional sugar from the recipe.
You would need to multiply the amount of milk by about 1.7 to get the amount of sweetened condensed milk, and then deduct 40% of that (by weight) from the sugar in your recipe (you can assume that sugar is  7 ounces to the cup).
The thing is, sweetened condensed milk may have a cooked down taste, so you may not get the same pure creamy flavor that you would from fresh milk.
If you have additional cream or half and half in excess of what is called from in the recipe,while it may make the cake somewhat richer, you may have a better outcome using that in lieu of the milk.  You also will not have to adjust the sugar if you go that route.
Answer: Many no bake cheesecake recipes call for sweetened condensed milk. May I suggest finding one of those instead of attempting a substitution?
Answer: Sweetened condensed milk (SCM) is a milk reduction. If you add water to it (1:1 ratio) it can then be used as a replacement for whole milk.
Keep in mind that it has close to half a cup of sugar added per cup of SCM so if you are mixing it with water for a recipe you should reduce the sugar you add by 1/4 cup per cup of milk needed.
Answer: I tried to use the percentages (almost doubling the condensed milk and reducing the sugar) for no-bake cocoa/oatmeal cookies. They came out okay--they held together and tasted good. I could have reduced the sugar even further.