Expected Pay Range in Job Applications

Question: I am a recent graduate still looking for a permanent job while working remotely for several companies from home. During the job search process, there are many employers that ask how much pay I'll expect to earn. I have gotten advice on opposite spectrums. Some experienced adults say that I should expect low pay, more around minimum wage, because I'm just starting out and I have to "earn my stripes" before I can expect higher pay. However, other experienced adults say that I should expect higher pay, because I graduated from a top private university, and I shouldn't be earning anything less than $15-20 an hour. I don't want to short-change myself, but I also don't want to shoot so high that I scare off employers looking for recent graduates. So my question is: If I have decent experience/knowledge in the field, a BA from a well-reputed university, but not more than a year actually working at a job in the field, what expected pay should I put on my applications?
Comment: Field of work and location matter far more to pay than where you went to college.  I'd look at glassdoor and other salary sites for your field and experience level.  A better college may get you a higher wage, but probably not.  What it will do is get your resume put higher in the stack the manager calls.
Comment: What's the actual job? Do not believe the adults you're speaking to unless they're actually working in your field. If they're not in your field, they have absolutely no idea what they're talking about. In any case, try to leave those fields blank, or write I don't know. Also most likely, you're probably speaking to 3rd party recruiters. Those are the ones obsessed with trying to get a salary range, because since their commission is so high already, most of their candidates will get rejected in favor of candidates that do not come with 3rd party recruiting surcharges.
Comment: The only real answer is found by carefully investigating the market: that is to say, carefully reviewing (for what it's worth, as a first step) all the job ads in your exact field/region; and see amelvin's excellent answer.
Comment: see [How can I determine a reasonable salary to ask for?](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/896/168)
Comment: Voting to close. If we could answer the question as written, it would only be of use to this one person at this specific time in this specific location. And a more general question would likely be a duplicate of https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/896/how-can-i-determine-a-reasonable-salary-to-ask-for
Answer: As others have said field of work and location are going to be massive factors in this and opinions of anyone ("adult" or not) are about as much use as a tissue paper umbrella unless they are in a position to know these things. So we can't really answer this question with specifics - you should be able to get a general sense however with a little research.
Use resources like Glassdoor and job postings where you match the skills and experience requirements to get an idea of the range and, with some luck you should be able to use your little advantages like the reputation of your university to negotiate yourself into the higher end of that range.
You're correct in that aiming too high may scare off potential employers but it's also true that they aren't likely to go around paying your more than you ask for! And aiming too low has the potential to make employers wary that you perhaps aren't very good, or they may see you as desperate and use that to seriously under pay you for the work, which unless you happen to be independently wealthy  or able to live on sunshine and air doesn't tend to end well for you.
Many people (and I can include myself in this all too often) end up with sub-optimal pay because they lack the confidence in themselves and their skills to ask for it. So I re-iterate, look at the job postings for your field and if you find yourself reading them and going "yep, I can do all of that" then you can reasonably apply for similar jobs at that sort of salary level.
Answer: In your situation I would approach some reputable recruiters who will be able to offer advice on pay scales.
Friends & family are unlikely to be unbiased, you have too little information - so find an experienced recruiter who can offer you unbiased advice (& maybe even a solid job lead?).

Expected Pay Range in Job Applications


Why does Visual Studio Code work slow in Ubuntu?

Question: I have installed Ubuntu 18.04 LTS
I used to use Visual Studio Code for my projects but the problem is that it is very slow.
It hooks or locks, I do not know how to put it so that they understand me, because I use the translator and I do not know what will be better.
The fact is that it is very bad, both in this version and in 16.04.
I also have it in Windows and it works perfectly.
Sometimes it crashes, blocking all processes and denying access to the computer.
Does that have something to do with Ubuntu, should I optimize it in any way?
If you give me some idea, well, as I said, I got used to Visual Studio and I tried Sublime text-3 which is much better, but I should get used to it and I do not like it very much.
Forgive the syntax, I must use the translator.
Thank you.
Comment: Please edit your question to include output from `top` and `free`. Capture the output while VS is running slow.
Comment: Your question is *why* VS is slow on your system, and we need troubleshooting information to answer that question. Are you saying that you won't troubleshoot the problem? Or are you saying that you are unfamiliar with `top` and `free`? Or are you merely asking if VS runs slow for everybody?
Comment: Is this the [same 248MB RAM laptop](https://askubuntu.com/questions/1046914) you previously asked about? If so, then VS is likely running slow for an obvious reason.
Comment: Open a terminal window. Run `top` and `free` in that terminal. Look at their manpages. Learn what they do. Why VS is slow may have many possible causes. You must provide additional information to determine which cause is affecting you.
Comment: No @user535733, it's an Acer with 2 GB DDR2
Comment: Just a hint: I have got also the problem of a slow running VS Code on my Ubuntu based Linux (Mint) - but my Linux runs inside **virtual box machine**. This is a wellknown problem on virtualization but will (unfortunately) not be fixed, see https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/22728 for details.
Answer: From https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/integrated-terminal:

By default, the integrated terminal will render using GPU acceleration on most machines. It does this using multiple  elements, which are better tuned than the DOM for rendering interactive text that changes often.

However, Electron/Chromium are slower rendering to canvas on some environment and so VS Code also provides a fallback DOM-renderer experience. VS Code will try to detect slow performance and give you the option to change via a notification.
You can also change the rendering directly by setting terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration in your user or workspace settings. (On Windows/Linux: File > Preferences > Settings)
{
    "terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration`": "off"
}

Something else that might improve performance is to ignore Chromium's GPU blacklist by launching VS Code with code --ignore-gpu-blacklist.
It worked for me, not like a real terminal but better than nothing, I hope this helps!
Comment: have the same problem with vs code, but for me just `writing text` and `selecting text` in `editor` area has `bad performance`. meaning that sometimes just works fine and sometimes `freezes for just 0.5 seconds`.
Comment: Thank you @FernandoDuz for your suggestion.
Currently I do not have a laptop for breakdown, when I manage to solve the fault, I will try your idea. But much of the problem is due to RAM.
Comment: I never use the integrated terminal, only the editor and it's still super slow. Does this advice still apply?
Comment: Yeap, this advice apply for the editor, but, with the las versión of Vscode and Ubuntu 18.04 all goes ok now. I can confirm that from new installations
Comment: starting with gpu option .. got this: `Warning: 'ignore-gpu-blacklist' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium.` got this warning on ubuntu 20.04 gnome and also on manjaro 21 xfce.
Comment: Coming here in 2021 and having severe lag on my integrated terminal. What helped for me was setting `"terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "canvas"`. Now my integrated terminal is as speedy as I expect from my way-too-powerful computer.
Answer: special thanks to this reddit post.
my problem with vs code: bad performance when writing text and selecting text in the editor. freezes about 0.5 seconds
there are several causes for this problem:

monitor refresh rate

(desktop user case) check you graphics card refresh rate. if you GPU has a max of 60hz then configure your monitor to 60hz.
if you have a secondary external monitor (laptop user case), then:

check your gpu refresh rate. (for example you find 60hz)
go to settings
make secondary monitor primary
disable built-in display (laptop display)
set secondary monitor to 60hz
reboot

for me, this option with refresh rate worked like a charm. right now its not lagging anymore when typing/selectin text and im using manaro 21 xfce. i know, why talking about manjaro on askubuntu, but i had the same problem in ubuntu 20.04 gnome too, but at that time i wasnt stroke with a refresh rate idea.

vim emulator vs code extension

usually, vs code is handling the keypresses by itself, but when vim extension is installed it overrides the control. vim extension is single-threaded and not very well optimized and when you type you may have bad performance, so uninstall vim extension.

too many extensions

try uninstalling the unimportant extensions or make a sacrifice to reduce the total number.

bad graphics driver

try using other graphics driver. use open-source ones, try performance. use proprietary ones, try performance.

laptop is in power saving mode

try setting your cpu to performance mode.
EDIT
date: (11.05.2022)
the problem was my HDD, was too slow. after moved to SSD, performance of writing text is good, because write and read speed from the SSD is faster.
but vs code is still slow. performance is really bad (compared to sublime + im very impatient).
solution: move to sublime text 4.
done.
indeed, vs code is slow
Answer: As of Feb 2022, some systems still experience poor performance in the latest VS Code with default settings on Ubuntu 20.04. However, the options below have been known to resolve the issue. YMMV, depending on system configuration and hardware.
The most likely culprit for general slowness of Electron apps on Linux is a lack of GPU acceleration, which is (often? always?) disabled by default. To check whether the underlying Chromium engine provides hardware acceleration to VS Code:

Open a VS Code window
In a separate terminal window, run code --status
Check the output for errors, and note the "GPU Status" section.

If hardware acceleration appears to be disabled, (e.g., webgl: disabled_software, skia_renderer: enabled), performance will likely suffer until that's addressed.
Option 1: Ignore GPU Blacklist
In some cases, Electron/Chromium may prevent VS Code from enabling GPU acceleration due to a blacklist, which can be disabled by launching VS Code with code --ignore-gpu-blacklist. It's expected that the following warning appears:

Warning: 'ignore-gpu-blacklist' is not in the list of known options, but still passed to Electron/Chromium

The difference will be very noticeable if this worked, particularly in the integrated terminal.
Option 2: Edit Terminal Rendering Setting
According to the vscode docs, the integrated terminal renderer can be changed with the setting, terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration. The default value is "auto".

The terminal features 3 renderers that fallback if they are detected to perform poorly in this order:

WebGL ("terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "on" or "auto")
Canvas ("terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "canvas"
DOM ("terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "off")

Note that it can be difficult to confirm whether vscode is obeying this setting. (Please, someone update this answer if you know how to check this!)
(Older versions of vscode had a similar setting, terminal.integrated.rendererType, which no longer exists.)
Option 3: Check Video Card Drivers
Linux tools provide many ways to check video card drivers, and the methods for updating drivers vary by manufacturer and preferences about third party. That's outside the scope of this question, but

Which display drivers are in use? sudo lshw -c video
Can the system render something basic at 60fps? sudo apt-get install mesa-tools; glxgears
Where do I find more? In Firefox, the about:support page has heaps of video card & driver info.
Even more???? Look elsewhere.

Option 4: Look for Misbehaving Extensions

Sometimes it crashes, blocking all processes and denying access to the computer

Even though that symptom hints at another problem, start with the GPU acceleration options above because other performance issues may be harder to track down. Next, disable extensions to narrow down whether the performance drag comes from vscode itself or a misbehaving extension. Tools like top can also be used to determine which process is overusing resources.
Option 5: Reinstall VS Code
I'm almost embarrassed to add this option, but it saved me today. After some updates (and a system restart), --ignore-gpu-blacklist stopped working, and nothing I tried could fix it. After tracking down a few of the errors in code --status, I concluded that there might be something wrong with the Snap package for VS Code. I downloaded the .tar.gz from the website, and thankfully the hardware acceleration is working again.
Option 6: Profile VS Code
I haven't gotten this far down the list, but if nothing else works, there is a way to profile vscode itself with dev tools.
Answer: In my case that was the workspace issue, It had become too big - a lot of data including photos was in a folder. After I moved the data folder outside the workspace, it became so much smoother with nearly no delay.
Answer: I have a RTX GPU and laptop (Nitro 5) having 144Hz display, connected to a Dell Ultrasharp monitor with 60 Hz display.
I had performance problem, that is lagging with first Chrome.I thought it was something to do with memory and deleted the kubernetes kind cluster running in my machine. But still there was this problem. Then installed firefox and was happy with that.
But then I opened VS Code and the same problem there. I read somewhere that both Chrome and VSCode has this Electron based backend. So I figured it was not the memory but something else. I tried to disable the GPU setting as was given in other answers. To no avail.
Then I just made the laptop screen as primary and my extended display as secondary and the problem disappeared !
Note i use PopOS which is based on Ubuntu


Where does the money from the US $2T stimulus package come from?

Question: The US Senate announced to $2T stimulus package to help keep the economy up and running. Where does the government come up with that type of money? Surely they don't have that much cash available?
Comment: Hi Phil, unfortunately economics questions are not on topic for this site; you can see more details in the [help].  Thanks!
Answer:
Surely they don't have that much cash available?

No, they don't. The US government last year ran at a deficit of about $1 Trillion, which means that it spent more than it took in, so it has to "print money" (not literally, but through complex financial transactions) and/or borrow that much money to cover what it spends. That borrowed money comes from the sale of US Treasury bonds, of which about 70% is owned by US institutions like banks, the Federal Reserve, institutional investors, pension funds, etc. and about 30% is owned by similar entities in foreign countries (the largest being China and Japan).  This stimulus package would increase that deficit, barring any action to either reduce spending elsewhere or to try and increase revenue (taxes). To my knowledge, there has been no public discussion by Congress yet as to how either or both would be addressed. One would hope that the stimulus would be seen as an "investment" in the US economy that would get partially paid back through increase tax revenue and repayment of loans, but that it yet to be seen.
The ramifications of deficit spending and accumulation of debt are subject to debate and too numerous for this forum (although I suspect there will be much debate in the comments).
Answer: There is no cash, money from the government is just bank account credits.
Then the U.S. government finances the budget deficit with issues of Treasury Bills, Notes, and Bonds.
Answer: It comes from people having money and thinking what to do with the money.
Consumption = NO, as during these times people want to prepare for the worst, and don't want to consume any excess money. Also, consumption options are rather limited due to prevalent widespread restrictions.
Stocks = NO, as in a true crisis stock values decrease rapidly and it's not a safe place to put money therefore.
So, what options are there remaining? Safe and liquid assets, i.e. government bonds.
So, the money for the stimulus package comes from people who still earn a salary and want to prepare for the worst. They lend their money to the government, and the government uses the borrowed money for the stimulus package.
There is no shortage of people willing to lend their money to the government. They trust the government pays it back with interest.
Comment: US treasuries and Short term gov't bonds/T-Bills are debatably some of the most liquid assets around. Corporate and sovereign debt definitely can be far less liquid.
Comment: "Safe and liquid assets, i.e. government bonds." - Are bonds liquid? Can/should this be reframed as "safe assets (ie gov bonds) and liquid assests (ie cash)" ? Commenting instead of editing as I'm not sure myself.


Does comprehend languages let you understand artificial languages?

Question: For example, let's say some cultists created totally new language that only people inside the cult know. It doesn't use any words from any other existing language. Does this spell still let mages understand the language, or is it left untouched as it is not even a normal language?
Comment: Highly related: [Does Comprehend Languages let you understand secret languages?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/q/115587)
Comment: Oh, and Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already and see the [help] or ask us here in the comments (use @ to ping someone) if you need more guidance. Good Luck and Happy Gaming!
Answer: Yes, it does.
Comprehend languages says:

For the duration, you understand the literal meaning of any spoken language that you hear.

If these cultists are speaking the language, comprehend languages allows a listener to understand the literal meaning of what they are saying. A language is a language.
Astute cultists would focus their efforts instead on encoding an existing language.
Notice comprhend languages conveys the literal meaning of the words. If I encode my language into an existing language, say, through word substitution, comprehend languages will convey nonsense, as it only conveys the literal meaning of the words, not the encoded meaning. For a canonical example of such a language, we have Thieve's Cant:

During your rogue training you learned thieves' cant, a secret mix of dialect, jargon and code that allows you to hide messages in seemingly normal conversation.

Regarding Thieve's Cant, Lino Frank Ciaralli explains in this answer:

So while you may understand the literal message, "The rooster flies when the blood moon rises," you will not understand that this means that, "The man with the red scar on his neck is your target for assassination by midnight tonight."
This is akin to telling somebody to read the 3rd letter of the first paragraph in a book, in which it spells out a secret message to them. Comprehend languages would let you understand the paragraph, but would give you no insight whatsoever to the hidden code inside it.
Comment: May also help to put in the obvious, which you kind of do at the end: The DM can determine how they want this to work, it's a homebrew language and needs a homebrew solution.


Can multi-rate operations of decimation and interpolation can be used to implement a rate change by a factor an irrational number?

Question: I know that common rates are integer values like 2 or 3, but can multi-rate operations of decimation and interpolation can be used to implement a rate change by a factor of an irrational number? Common sense is telling me no, because irrational numbers can't be made from any set of integers by definition, so no combination of interpolation and decimation filters can generate the irrational number. There is also the fact that the MATLAB command resample.m uses the poly phase structure for implementing a sampling rate change by a rational factor. All signs are pointing to irrational numbers can't be done. Am I wrong in this thought process?
Answer: You're exactly right, with rational operations, you can't achieve an irrational ratio.
The only way out there is using some interpolative number, i.e. an arbitrary resampler.
However, in signal processing, you basically always deal with system that only run for a finite time and within that have a boundable tolerance against jitter or frequency error - so one common solution to that dilemma is, e.g. in receivers, to do the resampling with a slightly wrong, but rational ratio, and then let the symbol synchronizer, which often does some form of arbitrary resampling internally, anyways, take care of the rest.


On the mean value of a multiplicative function: Prove that $\sum\limits_{n\leq x} \frac{n}{\phi(n)} =O(x) $

Question: There is a second part of the problem posted in Proving $ \frac{\sigma(n)}{n} < \frac{n}{\varphi(n)} < \frac{\pi^{2}}{6} \frac{\sigma(n)}{n}$, from Apostol's book, but I can't figure it out. It asks the reader to prove that if $x \geq 2$ then $\sum\limits_{n\leq x} \frac{n}{\phi(n)} = O(x)$, where the right hand side of the equation uses the Big-O notation. I've tried using the prior result, but I always end up with $O(x^2)$ . Any insights?
Comment: You can improve on your $\mathcal{O}(x^2)$ bound to $\mathcal{O}(x^{1.5})$ by making use of the fact that $\phi(n) \geq \sqrt{n}$ for $n > 6$
Answer: We can actually prove the slightly stronger $$\sum_{n\leq x}\frac{n}{\phi (n)}=\frac{315}{2\pi^4}\zeta(3)x +O\left(\log x\right).$$
Idea: Notice that $\frac{n}{\phi(n)}$ is very close in some sense to $1$.  So if we write it as $1*f$ for some $f$, and this $f$ should be very small.  The following lemma, which is one of the first was you might see to sum under the hyperbola, then tells us exactly how to deal with this situation:

If $(1*f)(n)=\sum_{d|n}f(d)$ denotes Dirichlet convolution, then $$\sum_{n\leq x} (1*f)(n)=\sum_{n\leq x}\sum_{d|n}f(d)=\sum_{d\leq x} f(d)\left[\frac{x}{d}\right]$$ and using $[z]=z+O(1)$ this is $$=x\sum_{d\leq x} \frac{f(d)}{d}+O\left(\sum_{d\leq x} |f(d)|\right).$$

Since we need only look at prime powers, we need $f$ to satisfy $$(1*f)(p^k)=1+f(p)+\cdots+f(p^k)=\frac{p^k}{\phi(p^k)}=\frac{p}{p-1}.$$  This is constant with respect to $k$, so we take $f(p^k)=0$ for $k\geq 2$, and then $f(p)=\frac{1}{p-1}$.  This can be rewritten for all $n$ as $f(n)=\frac{\mu(n)^2}{\phi(n)}$.  Hence, using the above we see that $$\sum_{n\leq x}\frac{n}{\phi (n)}=x\sum_{d\leq x} \frac{\mu(d)^2}{d\phi(d)}+O\left(\sum_{d\leq x}\frac{\mu(d)^2}{\phi(d)}\right).$$
The big-O term term is bounded by $\log (x)$, and the infinite series $\sum_{d=1}^\infty \frac{\mu(d)^2}{d\phi(d)}$ converges absolutely.  Playing around with the Euler product, we can actually find that this equals $\frac{\zeta(2)\zeta(3)}{\zeta(6)}=\frac{315}{2\pi^4}\zeta(3)$. Extending the series up to $x$ all the way to infinitely creates an error of the form $\frac{\log \log x}{x}$ which is negligible.   Hence we conclude
$$\sum_{n\leq x}\frac{n}{\phi (n)}=\frac{315}{2\pi^4}\zeta(3)x +O\left(\log x\right).$$
Remark: You are looking at the mean value of a multiplicative function.  For functions "close" to one, there is a simple generalization of the above, but much can be said about general bounded functions, even those which are not close to $1$.  Of course this is more difficult, as the mean value of $\mu(n)$ is related to the prime number theorem, but there is much interesting work.  Specifically Halasz's theorem tells us exactly when the mean value can be  large.  Granville and Soundararajan have developed this, and used it as an alternative starting point for proving theorems in analytic number theory.
Edit: To evaluate the series $$\sum_{d=1}^\infty \frac{\mu(d)^2}{d\phi(d)},$$ we may first note that since the summand is a multiplicative funciton, and since everything converges nicely, we can write this as an Euler product $$\sum_{d=1}^{\infty}\frac{\mu(d)^{2}}{d\phi(d)}=\prod_{p}\left(1+\frac{\mu(p)^{2}}{p\phi(p)}+\frac{\mu(p^{2})^{2}}{p^{2}\phi(p^{2})}+\cdots\right).$$ This equals
$$\prod_{p}\left(1+\frac{1}{p\left(p-1\right)}\right)=\prod_{p}\left(\frac{p^{2}-p+1}{p\left(p-1\right)}\right).$$ Recalling the factorization $p^{3}+1=\left(p^{2}-p+1\right)\left(p+1\right),$ multiply to and bottom by $p+1$ to get a $p^3+1$ term on top.  Since we hope to rewrite things in terms of the zeta function, multiply top and bottom by $p^{3}-1$ as well. We then get $$\prod_{p}\left(\frac{p^{3}+1}{p(p^{2}-1)}\cdot\frac{p^{3}-1}{p^{3}-1}\right)=\prod_{p}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^{6}}\right)\prod_{p}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^{3}}\right)^{-1}\prod_{p}\left(1-\frac{1}{p^{2}}\right)^{-1},$$ which equals $\frac{\zeta(2)\zeta(3)}{\zeta(6)}.$
See Also:

An answer which works out the exact details for multiplicative functions close to $n$.
This technique used on a more complicated sum involving four convolutions of the mobius function
An answer on the error term that arises when taking the average of the Totient function.
Averages of certain arithmetic functions.
Comment: Thanks Eric, that was very helpful! I still have trouble though, trying to prove that the series $\sum \frac{\mu^2 (d)}{d\phi(d)}$ converges absolutely. I know it is much smaller than the series $\sum 1/n$, but how can you prove convergence?
Comment: You can use what Sivaram mentioned, the fact that $\phi(n)>\sqrt{n}$.  This means that $\frac{\mu(d)^2}{d\phi(d)}<\frac{1}{d^{3/2}}$.  Using this bound throughout, you still get the final answer, but the error will be size $\sqrt{x}$.  (To get the near optimal $\log x$, a little more needs to be done)
Comment: @EricNaslund Thanks for these wonderful useful comments. I have posted some additional ideas regarding these types of problems at this [link](http://math.stackexchange.com/questions/233997/existence-of-closed-forms-of-certain-dirichlet-series).
Answer: @ Jane
The following might be what Apostol had in mind:
Considering conjugate divisors we may write $$\frac{\sigma(n)}{n}=\sum_{c|n}\frac{1}{c}$$
and hence $$\sum_{n \leq x}\frac{\sigma(n)}{n}=\sum_{c \leq x}\frac{1}{c}\left[\frac{x}{c}\right]\leq x \zeta(2)$$ so that $$\sum_{n\leq x} \frac{n}{\phi(n)} \leq \zeta(2)^2 x$$ It should be noted that the mean of $\frac{\phi(n)}{n}$ always stays close to some constant when considered over any reasonably large set of numbers.
Answer: if you prove that $\phi(d) \gg \frac{d}{\log d}$ then the convergence of the series is easy to see. The stronger $\phi(d) \gg \frac{d}{\log \log d}$ can be proved using the Chebyshev's estimates $\frac{x}{\log x}\ll \pi(x) \ll \frac{x}{\log x}$. A one line proof can be given from these estimates for the first inequality as follows : Every prime below $d$ is coprime to $d$ or divides $d$ and hence $\pi(d)-\omega(d) \leq \phi(d)$ from which it follows that  $\frac{d}{\log d} +O(\log d) \ll \phi(d)$ which is what you want. The estimate $\omega(d) \ll \log d $ can be obtained by taking logarithms in $2^{\omega(d)}\leq d.$


Write a raster to an Esri ArcSDE geodatabase using FME

Question: I would like to write a raster (ECW) to an Esri ArcSDE Geodatabase using FME. I think this should be possible as I have been able to copy and paste the raster layer in ArcGIS from it's original location to the desired database. However, in FME I am getting the error 'cannot write non-area feature to an area feature class".
Answer: I think you may be using the wrong writer.
You probably have "Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE Geodb)" and need "Esri Geodatabase (ArcSDE Geodb Raster Dataset)".


Macbook Pro won't load desktop on user account

Question: My Macbook Pro (running El Capitan) will not load my main user account. After I enter the password it just looks as though it's loading but never displays the desktop. I am able to log into the guest account without a problem and I have even created a new administrator account, but I need to access my old user profile. Any suggestions much appreciated.
Answer: It sounds like there is something (possibly) damaged that is preventing log in under your user profile.
Can you log into that account if you boot your Mac in Safe Mode (holding Shift during boot up)? If so there is a startup item or a preference file that is damaged and causing this problem.
I have found that temporarily moving the contents of the preferences folder elsewhere (like the desktop) and rebooting often solve such issues.

Log in to your Mac with the alternative administrator account
Open the /Users/[USERNAME] folder in the Finder
press ShiftCommand. to reveal the Library folder of the account with problems.
Get Info on that Library folder and click the lock icon and authenticate
Click the "+" icon (lower left corner) and add the current username to the list.
Select that name in the list and change the Privilege to Read and Write.
Click the Gear icon and select "Apply to enclosed items" from that menu.

All of that to give your current (admin)m account access to your non-working account.
I would move everything in that user's ~/Library/Preferences folder to another folder in ~/Library (call it oldprefs or some such, the name doesn't matter.)
Once that has completed reboot your Mac and log in with the problematic account and hopefully login will be successful.
If it is then proceed to use your Mac as you would normally. Some apps will have gone back to their default configurations. Registration may need to be reapplied, settings changed back to the way you want them, etc.
You can start putting preferences files back in their original folder if you like. I would do it a few at a time, logging out and then back in each time you do it. This will help you narrow down what preference file (if any) was causing the problem.
Comment: Thanks for the reply Steve. I am unable to log into my main admin account even when booted in safe mode. Would you still recommend I temporarily move contents of the preferences folder?
Comment: Yes, absolutely


Mandatory Access Control versus Discretionary Access Control

Question: What is Mandatory Access Control, and why is it better than Discretionary Access Control?
Comment: This question seems pretty subjective, MAC isn't "better" it's simply describing how access control is implemented
Answer: Mandatory access control : The Access control system only allows users who have already been given a clearance level to access the resource they intend to . But how do they grant access ? This  is where Levels come into action . In the further discussions , users will be addressed as Subjects and the resources would be addressed as Objects .  Each object and subject in that domain is given a "Security Level " .
Time for an example :- Assume there are three security levels . A ,B ,C . Security level of A is the highest . Security level of B is lower than A . Security eve of C is lower than B . A>B>C . Now Subjects having level A will be able to access only the objects having security levels less than A .  Now Subjects having level B will  be able to access only the objects having security levels less than B .  Now Subjects having level C will be able to access only  the objects having security levels less than C  Assume Natasha has security level B . Now assume files under /var have level A and files under /etc/ have level C . As per the rule I mentioned , Natasha will be able to access only files under /etc which have levels lower than her level .
Discretionary  access control is downright simple . When you create a file , you are the owner of that file . And in Discretionary access control , the owners of the files have their OWN "discretion"  as to select the users to which access can be given and not given  .
***P.S . The superuser can change the ownership of your file . So you are the owner of the file only if the superuser has not changed the ownership to someone else***
And answering your second question .
MAC is more secure in big companies because the whole security of the company lies in the hands of the owner of the file if they implement DAC . What if the owner decides to grant access to people to whom the access shouldn't  be given . So in the case of MAC the decision is in the hands of the Architects and they make sure the file goes to the right hands .
Comment: Please consider [fixing your post's formatting](http://serverfault.com/editing-help) -- As it stands it's pretty tough to read.
Comment: Sorry . Even I was lost in the answer . Is it clear now ?
Comment: Much better :-)
Answer: Basically, it comes down to users being able to override the access controls at their discretion. In a MAC-based system, the policy cannot be overriden by a user to allow less privileged users access to a resource. The MAC is mandatory.
In some situations, it may be necessary to have this behaviour. Typically, I've heard of MACs used in highly secure operating systems that are used in military and highly secure government installations. Until recently, no "business grade" or "consumer grade" operating system really supported MACs. Windows Vista (with the "integrity level" functionality) and SELinux both are forms of MAC.
Answer: In discretionary access control permissions are set usually by the resource owner.
In mandatory access control permissions are set by fixed rules based on policies and cannot be overridden by users.
Although mandatory is believed to be more secure and is used in places where high-security is desired, it is harder to configure and maintain and you may not have the resources to do it.
Other than that, several operating systems are incorporating mandatory access controls to further harden the system.
Answer: DAC: In discretionary access control (DAC), the owner of the object specifies which subjects can access the object.
Most operating systems such as all Windows, Linux, and Macintosh and most flavors of Unix are based on DAC models.
In these operating systems, when you create a file, you decide what access privileges you want to give to other users; when they access your file, the operating system will make the access control decision based on the access privileges you created.
MAC: In mandatory access control (MAC), the system (and not the users) specifies which subjects can access specific data objects.
The MAC model is based on security labels. Subjects are given a security clearance (secret, top secret, confidential, etc.), and data objects are given a security classification (secret, top secret, confidential, etc.). The clearance and classification data are stored in the security labels, which are bound to the specific subjects and objects.
When the system is making an access control decision, it tries to match the clearance of the subject with the classification of the object. For example, if a user has a security clearance of secret, and he requests a data object with a security classification of top secret, then the user will be denied access because his clearance is lower than the classification of the object.
The MAC model is usually used in environments where confidentiality is of utmost importance, such as a military institution.


Finite morphism from a smooth projective curve.

Question: Let $k$ be an algebraically closed field and $C$ be a smooth projective curve over $k$. Let $p$ be a prime number. Does there exists a finite morphism $f : C \to \mathbb{P}^1$ such that the degree of the Galois closure of the field extension $k(\mathbb{P}^1) \to k(C)$ is coprime to $p$ ?
Comment: This is just my gut feeling, but I suspect that the answer is "no".  I suspect that for a very general curve $C$ of genus $2$, there is no finite morphism $f:C\to \mathbb{P}^1$ such that the Galois closure has odd order ($p=2$).  Every finite, odd order group is solvable.  So this begins to sound like that old chestnut about whether the maximal solvable extension is PAC.
Comment: @JasonStarr The old chestnut involves curves defined over number fields, which are much harder, right? If I understand my argument correctly it shows the locus of solvable covers of $\mathbb P^1$ in the moduli space is contained in the union of (1) the locus of curves with non-simple Jacobians, (2) the locus of curves with gonality lower than the generic value, and (3) countably many subvarieties of dimension at most 6. However (3) might contain all the number field points.
Comment: @JasonStarr Actually not quite 6 but something small.
Comment: @WillSawin.  You are correct: the open problem is about number fields, not function fields.  By deformation-specialization arguments, this question would follow from the (FALSE!) guess that every geom. integral scheme over $k(\mathbb{P}^1)$ has a solvable point (first disproved by Ambrus Pal, if memory serves).  However suggestive it may be, that implication goes the wrong way to solve this problem.  Your solution is a true solution.
Comment: @JasonStarr Well there is another subtlety, which is that showing a curve cannot be a solvable cover of $\mathbb P^1$ does not imply it cannot be covered by a curve with a solvable cover of $\mathbb P^1$. I know think it's possible to prove that there exists a curve over $\mathbb Q$ that is not a cover of $\mathbb P^1$ with no solvable Galois group, but it still won't answer that question.
Answer: Following Jason Starr's suggestion, let $C$ be a very general genus $2$ curve, forming a covering of degree $n$ of $\mathbb P^1$. Without loss of generality there is no intermediate curve between $C$ or $\mathbb P^1$ (it would have to have genus $0$ or $1$. In the first case, we may simplify by replacing $\mathbb P^1$ with that curve, and in the second case we get an elliptic factor in the Jacobian, contradicting "very general".)
Let $G \subseteq S_n$ be the Galois group of the covering. As Jason pointed out, it is solvable. It is also transitive and primitive. Because $G$ is solvable, it has "soluble socle", hence $n=p^d$ is a prime power and $G$ acts as a subgroup of the group of affine transformations of $\mathbb F_{p^d}$ by a fragment of the O'Nan-Scott theorem (The argument goes that because $G$ is solvable, it has some normal subgroup $J$ isomorphic to $\mathbb F_p^d$ for some $d$. $J$ must act transitively, or else the action would not be primitive - the cover would factor through the cover defined y the orbits of $J$. Hence the $n$ points acted on are isomorphic to $\mathbb F_p^d$, and $G$ acts by transformations that normalize the group of translations, i.e. affine transformations).
Now the local monodromy around each ramification point is an affine transformation, hence has at most $p^{d-1}$ fixed points. Because the ramification at the non-fixed points has order at least $3$, the local contribution to Riemann-Hurwitz is at least $(2/3) (p^{d} - p^{d-1})$. Because the curve is very general, the number of ramification points is at least $6$, so that after moving the first three to $0,1,\infty$ we still have three parameters. So the total contribution to Riemann-Hurwitz is at least $4 (p^{d}- p^{d-1})$ and we obtain the inequality
$$-2 = 2-2g  \leq 2 p^d - 4 (p^{-d}  - p^{d-1}) = 4 p^{d-1} -2 p^d $$
$$\left(1-\frac{2}{p} \right) p^d \leq 1 $$
$p$ is at least $3$ so $1-\frac{2}{p}$ is at least $1/3$ so $p^d$ is at most $3$ which is an obvious contradiction as for $3$-coverings every point has full ramification and then we obtain $2-2g \leq 6 - 6 \cdot 2 = - 6$.
Because this is a contradiction, a very general genus $2$ curve cannot be so represented.
Comment: Thank you for the very interesting answer. I don't understand how you showed that the local contribution to Riemann-Hurwitz is at least $(2/3)(p^d - p^{d-1})$.
Comment: @JohnWelliaveetil Each ramified point contributes $e-1$ to Riemann-Hurwitz and $e$ to the number of sheets not fixed by Riemann-Hurwitz. Since $e$ is at least $3$, the former is at least $2/3$ times the latter.
Comment: Thanks for the clarification ! I was reading through your solution again and realized that you only show that no "very general" curve of genus 2 can be a odd number degree Galois cover of $\mathbb{P}^1$. Does this imply that the degree of the Galois closure of any finite morphism from a very general genus 2 curve to $\mathbb{P}^1$ is divisible by 2 ?
Comment: @JohnWelliaveetil It's not actually about Galois covers. My argument is about the Galois groups of general covers (i.e. finite morphisms). That's why I must consider arbitrary group actions on finite sets.


What are the limits of the Deposit of Faith?

Question: The Deposit of Faith is limited to the words and actions of Jesus' historical life--is that correct? Only those things that He taught to his disciples and commanded them to pass on to others can be considered part of the Deposit of Faith--is that correct? There were no additions to the Deposit of Faith after Jesus' ascension--is that correct? After the Ascension, all we can is interpret the Deposit of Faith since public revelation has finished and there is no more revelation to come--is that correct? Those sound like different questions, but it's hard to put the whole question into one sentence! :)
Comment: Public revelation ends with the death of the last Apostle, and that is considered part of Deposit of Faith
Comment: From which tradition are you seeking an answer? Western orthodoxy, eastern, reformed theology...?
Comment: If what you said were true on its face, my comment wouldn't be relevant, now would it? Why would I state what I did if what you had in your question was correct?
Comment: Not quite. That is why I initially pointed out the traditional definition of the end of public revelation is the death of the last apostle (John). That implies it is not at the Ascension. What might be the source of any revelation between the Ascension and the death of the last Apostle? Who did Christ promise to send after He ascended?
Comment: An apostle can't add anything to what Jesus said in his human life, can he? So, essentially, the public revelation ended with Jesus' Ascension--correct? The apostles could only transmit what Jesus said and did--is that right? The apostles didn't add anything to what Jesus said and did in his life, did they?
Comment: Is what I said correct?
Comment: I'd be interested in an answer from any tradition.
Answer: In fact, the answer attributes the premise of the concept of faith. In other words, it makes us think that the dogmas of the "Deposit of faith", which has a Roman tradition, do not hold the aegis of the divine proposal of reconciliation with God. If the origin of the word emunah is trust, and knowledge of God, which leads us to have confidence (faith), then only with reconciliation with individual God will we establish this bond.
Since the "Deposit of faith" consists of the Roman Church holding the dogmas of faith, and the bond between humanity and God, we understand that these deposits begin to be the property of the church, and what the church establishes becomes the absolute truth.
However, we know that since the rise of the pseudo-Christian Church, in the first 4 centuries, it has fought the primitive church called "The Way". Later after 320 with Constantine and 397 when Pope Innocent I, who sought the unification of the Western Church around "Roman praxis", establishing the observance of Roman rites in the West, the catalog of canonical books and monastic rules. Theologians claim that he fought the supposed heresies of the Pelagius of Britannia, which were actually principles and foundations of the Jewish religion and faith in the messiah. From them emerged the Protestant Anglican church. And also the King James Bible.
See in summary, ("Deposit of Faith" is the truth of God's Revelation expressed in Sacred Scripture, which is the Word of God inspired and written, and in Sacred Tradition (whose tradition?), which is the Word of God taught and transmitted through the teaching authority of the Roman Church(?)).
The problem with this statement is precisely the issue of the sacred scriptures, as the same sacred scripture condemns graven images, prohibits their worship and establishes and sanctifies Saturday as a holy day. See that, to answer your question clearly, many dogmas of the Roman church fall before the scripture itself. And this, of course, is complicated even today.
Answer:
OP: The Deposit of Faith is limited to the words and actions of Jesus' historical life--is that correct?

Sort of, but only is so far as Jesus told the apostles that He will send the Spirit, the Comforter, who will also teach them the truth.  To be clear, this is not a promise to disciples who were not eyewitnesses, but who believed their writings later.

But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: John 15:26

One other thing, while Jesus walked and talked with His disciples, it is not as if they comprehended all that was prophesied of Him, all that He actually did.  At the cross, they were all scattered.  After His resurrection, He opened the scriptures to the two on the road to Emmaus.  After ascension, He sent the Spirit.

OP: Only those things that He taught to his disciples and commanded them to pass on to others can be considered part of the Deposit of Faith--is that correct?

Sort of, the deposit of faith would also include what is written in the New Testament.  It would not include oral teachings, assumptions, and other pious ideas developed centuries later.

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 1:3

Contend is in the present tense, about the faith here and now.  It's not an instruction about believing pious opinions developed later by someone in authority.

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name. John 20:30-31

The deposit of faith was delivered once for all.

OP: There were no additions to the Deposit of Faith after Jesus' ascension--is that correct? After the Ascension, all we can is interpret the Deposit of Faith since public revelation has finished and there is no more revelation to come--is that correct? Those sound like different questions, but it's hard to put the whole question into one sentence! :)

Correct.  Although some try to add/subtract from the "it is written", there are no additions to the deposit of faith.  To be clear, it covers the period of Jesus' life and sending of the Spirit to His apostles.  It thus is only those things written between the first and last apostles to die who are James and John sons of Zebedee, renamed sons of thunder (as in God spoke, Job 40:9, Ps 29:3, etc).
To say otherwise is to assert the apostles forgot to write something necessary to our salvation.  Worse, it is to blaspheme the Spirit who forgot to let them know.
Answer: What are the limits of the Deposit of Faith?
The "Deposit of Faith" is not only limited to the words of Jesus Christ during his life, but also to the teachings of the death of the last Apostle.
Public revelation ends with the death of the last Apostle, and that is considered part of Deposit of Faith.

The deposit of faith  (depositum fidei or fidei depositum) is the body of revealed truth in the scriptures and sacred tradition proposed by the Roman Catholic Church for the belief of the faithful.
Catholic usage
The "sacred deposit" of the faith (depositum fidei) refers to the teachings of the Catholic Church that are believed to be handed down since the time of the Apostles – namely scripture and sacred tradition. St. Paul uses the Greek word paratheke ("deposit") in 1 Timothy 6:20: "O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you"; and again in 2 Timothy 1:14 "Guard this rich trust with the help of the holy Spirit that dwells within us" (NAB).
According to Dei Verbum, "Sacred tradition and Sacred Scripture form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the Church [...] both of them, flowing from the same divine wellspring, in a certain way merge into a unity and tend toward the same end."
They are interpreted and transmitted through the magisterium, the teaching authority of the Catholic Church, which is entrusted to the pope and to the bishops in communion with him.3 On the occasion of the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Pope John Paul II issued the apostolic constitution Fidei depositum, in which he said: "Guarding the deposit of faith is the mission which the Lord has entrusted to his Church and which she fulfils in every age."
According to Catholic theology, divine revelation ended with the death of the last apostle, John. The development of doctrine does not add to this revelation, nor does it increase the deposit of faith, but it increases the understanding of it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "Even if the Revelation is already complete, it has not been made fully explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries". - Deposit of Faith

Apostolic Tradition of the Apostles aided the Church before the Biblical Canon was established.
Now, let us clarify a few terms.
What is Sacred Tradition and how does this differ from other Church traditions?
Catholic maintain that 2 Thessalonians 2:15, upholds this stance or appeal to Sacred Tradition: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle."
The word tradition is taken from the Latin trado, tradere, meaning "to hand over, to deliver, to bequeath". According to Catholic theology, the Apostle St. Paul exhorted the faithful to "stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by our letter." The Pauline Epistles form part of Sacred Scripture; what he passed on by "word of mouth" is part of sacred tradition, handed down from the apostles. Both are the inspired word of God; the latter helps to inform understanding of the former. Sacred tradition can never be in conflict with sacred scripture.
There are differences between Sacred Tradition and other Catholic traditions. At times, the early Tradition before the written New Testament is called "Apostolic Tradition".

To begin, it is important to note that Sacred Tradition is not the same as what we commonly understand by the word "tradition." We need to distinguish between the terms "tradition" spelled with a lower case "t" and Tradition" spelled with a capital "T." When we spell the word tradition with a lower case letter, we are referring to those things that are more often referred to as "traditions" and have a meaning closer to the word "practices" which are not part of Divine Revelation itself, but are pious customs that have arisen later in the history of the Church (CCC 2651). Examples of traditions include praying the Rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet, devotions to favorite saints, making the sign of the cross and the like.
When Tradition is capitalized in this context, it refers to Sacred Tradition. The word tradition comes from the Latin word tradere which means "to hand on." Sacred Tradition is the Scripture as it is lived out in the Church. It is nevertheless the Word of God. Specifically, it is the Word of God that the prophets and the Apostles received through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This message which they received was "handed on" to the Christian world by the Church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
The concept of Tradition has been a difficult, confusing and divisive one ever since the Protestant Reformation. For this reason, it is helpful to break down the concept piecemeal. First, tradition is a "what"—the content of the gospel proclamation given first by Jesus Christ and subsequently by the apostles, in terms of their oral preaching and teaching (2 Thess 2:15; Matt 28:19-20) and in terms of their writing (CCC 75-76). Sometimes the early Tradition before the written New Testament is called "Apostolic Tradition" (CCC 83). Those who wrote about the Christ event in the New Testament did so under the special inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit of Truth," who is the sacred Author of the Scripture. These inspired writings came into existence within a definite Tradition, a living context of faith. Some elements of Tradition were based in the sayings and deeds of Jesus Christ, especially his death and resurrection. Other elements were not revealed directly by Jesus, but rather at the prompting of the Holy Spirit which he sent:

"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. (John 16:12-15)

What is Sacred Tradition

The Bible as we have it now, does not tell us which books are inspired. For the Church, this  required spiritual discernment. The assembling of all the canonical books of the New Testament was a lengthy process, not completed until the end of the fourth century, with the Council of Rome under Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D.
Among the earliest examples of the theological appeal to tradition is the response of early orthodox Christianity to Gnosticism, a movement that used some Christian scripture as the basis for its teachings. Irenaeus of Lyons held that "rule of faith" is preserved by the Church through its historical continuity (of interpretation and teaching) with the Apostles. Tertullian argued that although interpretations founded on a reading of all Holy Scripture are not prone to error, Tradition is the proper guide. Athanasius held that Arianism fell into error primarily by not adhering to to this Tradition.
In a Catholic perspective, not everything is written in the Sacred Scriptures. This is evident by the writings of both St. Paul and St. John:

15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.
16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word. - 2 Thessalonians 2:15-17

29 Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. 30 Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name. -  [John 20: 29-31

23 This saying therefore went abroad among the brethren, that that disciple should not die. And Jesus did not say to him: He should not die; but, So I will have him to remain till I come, what is it to thee? 24 This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things, and hath written these things; and we know that his testimony is true. 25 But there are also many other things which Jesus did; which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written. - John 21: 23-25

The New Testament, while being the primary source for all that God revealed in Christ, is itself a product of Tradition. Tradition is a living and active process which the Church experiences from one age to the next while meditating on the Word of God and the events of salvation history. The Holy Spirit guides the Church in this process and guarantees that Tradition will be an authentic expression of God's Word for each generation. After the writing of the New Testament, subsequent generations could reflect not only on Jesus' teaching but also on that privileged experience of first generation Christians who knew Jesus when he walked the earth.
The Church in each generation, through prayer, study, and contemplation, reflects on God's Word in Scripture and gives new interpretation to it while never altering the Revelation it contains. In every generation, she expresses anew the Word of God against an ever changing landscape of human society and culture. The diversity of devotions and styles of worship is beautiful and expresses the Church's catholicity or universality. But these various local traditions are not what we mean when we speak of Tradition. As times change and in light of Tradition, these religious customs and practices may be changed or discarded. Sacred Tradition does not change. It is expressed differently from one age to the next but is always consistent with the truth of God's Revelation.
The following articles may be of interest to some.

Scripture, Tradition and the Church: Why Sola Scriptura Does Not Work
Tradition and Living Magisterium (Catholic Encyclopedia)
The Complex Relationship between Scripture and Tradition
Comment: Thanks for the comprehensive answer! But I'm still left with the question: Could the apostles, in the process of passing on the teachings of Jesus by means of Tradition, add new teachings to that Tradition? Could an apostle add something Jesus didn't do or teach to Tradition? In which case, did God not reveal all of Himself in Jesus? Did He need to add to His Incarnation by giving extra teachings to the Apostles?


Is this INTERNET REGISTRAR email a phishing scam?

Question: I am the "acting" IT person (very loose term) for our small company. I received this email yesterday. I am going to ignore it, but I was just curious how this could negatively effect me/us if I replied to it. I did some searching and found a few similar email reports on this, but no good explanations.

Comment: The signature block does not list the company, it is addressed to the CEO by title but sent to the tech, and a registrar would know who the contact person was and would be able to properly address the query. What does the header say?
Comment: Looks to me that the chinese want to scare you into buying additional domains to protect your "brand". Its not only ICANN who can play this game.

I've encountered this type of scam before myself.

Also, a guy have a great blogpost about this type of scam: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/spot-chinese-domain-name-scam/
Answer: There is nothing that will harm you in responding, but you have to realise that this is a scam and they are trying to get you to respond in order to suck you into their trap. When they respond to your reply, they will ask you to open an attachment, send business details including bank info, or other things that will harm you.
When dealing with scams, unless you know what you are doing, it is best not to respond at all else you step onto their slippery slope. Remember, they do this for a living; you're just curious.
Answer: Looks really sketchy.
General rule of thumb is:
Grammar/Spelling issues + China domain == suspicious at best, malicious/phishing at worst.
Recommendation
Check your domain and registrar information using a tool like:

whois <domain> OR whois
ARIN

Then contact the Registrar directly.


Evidence of emergence of "genuine" novel protein interactions by aa mutation

Question: Anyone knows of an example of a protein that, without coming from a recent duplication event, underwent a mutation(s) that caused it to have a novel interaction with a new ligand, substrate, other protein or molecule?
By novel I imply that it doesn't "go back" to an ancestral interaction or doesn't develops an interaction that it's already performed by a close relative.
I assume that these mutations are extremely rare, and that a duplicate is almost always necessary to have them fixed in a lineage.
Answer: HA Sialic acid receptor binding in influenza virus determining host specificity, viz. Bird flu vs human flu.
Answer: That's easy, red blood cells and the single mutation causing the switch in charge resulting in sickle cell anaemia. There are five different convergent mutations although the concept of convergence here has been challenged. The mutation results in the physical collapse of the protein structure and massively reduces its binding with oxygen. The receptor interactions with the malarial parasite render infection of the red blood cell impossible. Even in the heterozygote state, oxygen binding with the heme group is not massively disrupted, but the ability of the malaria parasite in particular plasmodium falciparum, to invade the red blood cell is again greatly impaired. It is an incredible example of human evolution and demonstrates the selective pressure of holoedemica malaria. There is no gene duplication involved here and again due stress there are potentially 5 convergent events resulting in the same phenotype and the scale of protein collapse from circular red blood cell to sickle cell shape is the result of what would otherwise appear to be a small change in amino acid charge for a single amino acid substitution.
Comment: Thank you, I'm aware of those mutations, but they don't induce a novel interaction. As you say, they disrupt the tertiary and quaternary structure of hemoglobin. I'm asking for "constructive" mutations. Like for example if some mutation caused hemoglobin to bind preferentially other molecule instead of their known ligands.


Are there any Python libraries that are able to take input from keyboard and be able to understand what key I used

Question: I'm making a robot car and I need a library like pygame that is able to recognize keyboard input and do a task (a created function, i.e. move forward, backward, left, right). But I need a module that doesnt bring up a GUI like pygame does and has a time delay function like pygame has. Basically everything that pygame has without the game creation part and the GUI part. Thanks.
Comment: Which keybindings do you need? The answer to your question in part depends on that. Would you personally count things made with curses as GUIs?
Answer: The standard termios and tty library can be used.  See the answers here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27750536/python-input-single-character-without-enter


Show product information on right side

Question: I'm working on this website which uses woocommerce. As I've added a product it's featured image and gallery image shows on the left side but the product details are not on the right but they are shown below the gallery images. Here are some screenshots:

In the image above you can see black space on the right. The content that is supposed to be shown here is in the picture below:Here is the link to this page: https://www.embroyalluxury.com/shop/03-peachy-pastel/.
Now if I zoom out the page using my browser zoom it goes to the right. So I understand this has something to do with responsiveness of this website but the client has this 13" MacBook and I'm not a coder. So can anyone tell me how to get this done? I can insert the code in style.css or custom .css section the theme options have provided.
Comment: Found this when searching for how to put product on the right.  Here is what worked for me: (add the following to additional CSS)   .woocommerce-product-gallery {
 float:right !important;
}

.summary {
 float:left !important;
}
Answer: You have to chave line number 12557 in your style.css. Go to your style.css file and search for the code bellow and delete it.
<code> .woocommerce #content div.product div.images, .woocommerce div.product div.images, .woocommerce-page #content div.product div.images, .woocommerce-page div.product div.images {
    width: 50% !important;
}
</code>
Is your theme really responsive? I think your theme have a big issue with responsive.

Show product information on right side


A filter is being applied to all of my sent emails, how do I stop that?

Question: A filter is being applied to all of my sent emails,  and causing them to be added to a folder they should not be in. How do I stop that?
Comment: Please [edit] the question to provide additional details. Is this happening to every sent message or just a lot of them. How many incoming mail filters do you currently have?  Did you apply any labels manually? If you switch off "conversation view" are the sent messages still in the wrong folders? Provide any additional context that can help us understand your problem.
Comment: Please edit the question to limit it to a specific problem with enough detail to identify an adequate answer.
Answer: In Gmail, filters are applied to incoming messages, not outgoing / sent messages; however, some conditions might explain what you see.
The Gmail user settings are set to use the Conversation view by default. This group emails messages that meet some conditions together. On this view, the top message might look like it has a label, but the label might be applied to another message that belongs to the same conversation, like a reply that you received.


how to update laptop firmware on linux

Question: Lenovo does not seem to provide laptop firmware updates for linux. Laptops tend to lack a dvd drive lately. How do I update under Linux/Unix?
Answer: UPDATE: lately I've been using VENTOY to boot from ISOs easily.
Here's what a colleague shared recently. Thought it might be useful to a wider audience. Marking as a community wiki as I don't share credit for it. Procedure might work for other laptop makes I guess.

Visit the driver matrix for your T460p on support.lenovo.com and download the image of the "BIOS Update CD for Windows 10". (I ended up getting the version for dos But I don't think it really matters)
If not already installed, install genisoimage and geteltorito:

yum install genisoimage geteltorito

Extract the El Torito boot-image from the downloaded *.iso-file,

in my case that is r07uj12wd.iso:
geteltorito -o bios.img r07uj12wd.iso
Find out the block device name of your USB flash drive: lsblk (e.g. /dev/sdb)

Write the extracted image to an USB stick. In my case it is the USB (I had a old 1G laying around I used) stick is attached as /dev/sdb:

dd if=bios.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1M status=progress ; sync
Boot from the USB stick and follow BIOS upgrade instructions

I did this on my t420s And it worked with out a problem
Attention: the above dd command is very dangerous as you can wipe out important data in case you choose the wrong device name. That's why I've put X in place of letter there - to avoid careless copy/paste troubles. Proceed with care!

how to update laptop firmware on linux


Shem Cham and Yafes - were they triplets?

Question: I heard a Dvar Torah regarding the 3 sons of Noach, according to which it would indicate that they were triplets. Are there any commentaries that indicate that Shem Cham and Yafes were triplets?
Answer: Rashi to Bereishit 10:21 says that Yafet was two years older than Shem.

...When Scripture says (11:10): "Shem was a hundred years old, etc." two years after the Flood, you must say that Japheth was the elder, because Noah was five hundred years old when he first had children, and the Flood came to pass in the six hundredth year. Consequently, the eldest of his sons was a hundred years old [at the time of the Flood], and Shem did not reach [the age of] a hundred until two years after the Flood. — [from Gen. Rabbah 37:7]
Comment: Does anyone say otherwise?
Comment: @doubleaa: No idea.
Answer: Although it is a dispute among the different Rishonim which one was older, the Pasuk (11:10) that says Shem was a hundred years old two years after the Mabul strongly implies that the others were not the same age.
So I guess my contribution to the answer is that it isn't just Rashi on that verse, and on the verse which introduce them in the order of Shem, Cham and Yafes, that sites their ages, and they don't say triplets.
That doesn't exclude learning that they are triplets, but it makes it difficult. It is completely incompatible with Rashi (not just his opinion, but his whole approach to 11:10), for what that is worth.
Answer: The Gemara in Sanhedrin 69b says expressly the following:

תדע דקא חשיב להו קרא דרך חכמתן דכתיב (בראשית ה, לב) ויהי נח בן חמש מאות שנה ויולד נח את שם את חם ואת יפת שם גדול מחם שנה וחם גדול מיפת שנה נמצא שם גדול מיפת שתי שנים וכתיב (בראשית ז, ו) ונח בן שש מאות שנה והמבול היה מים על הארץ וכתיב (בראשית יא, י) (ו)אלה תולדות שם שם בן מאת שנה ויולד את ארפכשד שנתים אחר המבול בן מאה שנה בר מאה ותרתין שנין הוה
Know that it is true that the verse sometimes lists brothers not according to their birth order, but in the order of their degrees of wisdom, as it is written: "And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth" (Genesis 5:32). According to this, Shem was at least one year older than Ham, and Ham one year older than Japheth, so it turns out that Shem was two years older than Japheth. And it is written: "And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth" (Genesis 7:6). And it is written: "These are the descendants of Shem; Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arpachshad two years after the flood" (Genesis 11:10). If Shem was the oldest brother, how could he be only 100 years old? He must have been at least 102 years old, as Noah was 500 years old when his third son was born, and he was 600 years old at the time of the flood.

(Sefaria translation and notation)
Comment: What was cham's great wisdom that was more that yefes.
Comment: Dunno? Will need to look through the mefarshim to see if they say anything. I brought the above chazal more to prove that they were clearly not triplets.


A question about the size of the set of all countably-infinite subsets of a countably-infinite set

Question: Let $A$ be a countably-infinite set , then how do we prove that the power set of $A$ and the set of all countably-infinite subsets of $A$ have the same cardinality (i.e. that there is a bijection) ?
Answer: Instead of talking about an arbitrary countable set, let's talk about $\omega$ (the first limit ordinal, the set of finite ordinals). Of course this has nothing to do with which set we take, it's just a matter of cardinality.
Let us use some common notations, $[\omega]^{<\omega}$ is the set of finite subsets of $\omega$ and $[\omega]^\omega$ is the set of countably infinite subsets of $\omega$. Since $\omega$ is countable, being infinite and being countably infinite is the same thing.
It is clear, if so, why $\mathcal P(\omega)=[\omega]^{\omega}\cup[\omega]^{<\omega}$ and that union is disjoint.

Show that $[\omega]^{<\omega}$ is countable. This can done using the classic function $f(X)=\sum_{i\in X}2^i$ when $X\in[\omega]^{<\omega}$, and this is a bijection.
Now you have two options.

If you have the axiom of choice, you're about done. $|\mathcal P(\omega)|=|[\omega]^\omega|+\aleph_0=\max\{|[\omega]^\omega|,\aleph_0\}>\aleph_0$, and so equality is easily deduced.
If you wish to avoid the axiom of choice, fix an enumeration of $[\omega]^{<\omega}$, say $F_n$ for $n\in\omega$. Now consider the bijection from $\mathcal P(\omega)$ into $[\omega]^\omega$ defined as follows:
$$f(X)=\begin{cases}X & X,\omega\setminus X\in[\omega]^\omega\\ \omega\setminus F_{2n} & X=F_n\\ \omega\setminus F_{2n+1} & X=\omega\setminus F_n\end{cases}$$
This bijection shows that $[\omega]^\omega$ has size continuum.

(Coming to think about it, you can just do steps 1 and 2.2 directly.)
Answer: Let $B$ be the set of all finite subsets of $A$ and $C$ the set of all countably infinite subsets of $A$. Then $$|\mathscr P(A)|=|B|+|C|\leq2|C|=|C|\leq|\mathscr P(A)|$$
because surely $|B|\leq|C|$.


IDA pro CTRL and + keypad whenever debugging

Question: How can I remove the CTRL and + keypad whenever I am debugging PE file in IDA?
All of the disassembled codes are wrapped up whenever I debug a PE file and I see the message CTRL and + keypad to collapse the code. How can I remove that mode so I have all the code collapsed down while debugging in the first place?
Comment: I'm not sure if i understand the question. But when debugging, you generally need all code expanded, because IDA won't be able to show the current instruction otherwise.
Answer: In the Browser tab of IDA's Options window, check Unhide collapsed items automatically when jumping to them:

From IDA's help file:

If this option is set on, IDA will automatically uncollapse hidden
  functions if the user decides to jump to them. As soon as the user
  quits the function by pressing Esc, the function is automatically
  collapsed again.
Comment: How to open the option window ?


Probability for a graph algorithm

Question: Let $G = (V, E)$ a graph. A 'dominant set' $W ⊆ V$is a set of nodes, so that for each node $v \in V$ holds that either $v$ itself or a neighbor of $v$ is contained in $W$.
Assume that $G$ has minimum degree at least $d > 1$, i.e. each node $v \in V$ has degree $deg(v) ≥ d$.
The algorithm consists of two rounds. In the first round we mark each node independently from the other nodes with probability $p$. In the second round we look at each node $v \in V$ , if neither $v$ nor any of its neighbours were marked in the first lap, we mark $v$ .
Let $X$ be the number of knots marked in the first round.
So $E(X) = |V|*p$, because $X \sim Bin(|V|,p)$, right ?
Let $v ∈ V $any (but fixed) node. If think the probability that neither v nor one of the neighbors of v was marked in the first round would be $(1-p)^{deg(v)}$ right ? But how can i finde a upper bound  which is only dependent from $d$ and $p$ (and not from $v$).
Let $Y$ be the number of knots marked in the second round. How can i finde a upper bound for $E(Y)$.
Answer: The probability of being selected in the second round is $(1-p)^{\text{deg}(v)\color{red}{+1}}$.
Use the fact that $\deg v \ge d$ to conclude that $(1-p)^{\deg v+1}\le (1-p)^{d+1}$. Then $EY\le |V|(1-p)^{d+1}$.

Probability for a graph algorithm


I'm looking for a book about an experiment a couple decided to do on their child to make him smarter

Question: I'm looking for a book I read in the 90's...it was about an experiment a couple decided to do on their child to make him smarter. I think the child ended up being too smart or something but I remember it getting kind of scary...his brain got bigger and bigger. I know I'm being vague but I was really young when I read it and it was way too advanced for me but I'm trying to find it!
Comment: "When the Bough Breaks" by "Lewis Padgett" (Kuttner & Moore) involves a couple who has a number of men from the future come back and enhance the intelligence of their child. His brain does indeed swell and it is very scary for them because he gains psychic powers, but has all of the restraint of a toddler.
Comment: In the Shadow series, a squeal to the popular Ender's game by orson scott card, Bean is a genetically enhanced child whos extremely smart, but because of issues with the process he will keep growing until he dies.
Comment: I believe I've read this, or something similar - it was an experiment in making babies smarter, but it was too successful, though I can't remember the ending. It was a short story, rather than a novel, and I've got the author in my head as Orson Scott Card, but I can't find anything it might be in his bibliography. I can also remember what the cover of the book looked like, but alas my google fu is weak....
Comment: That does occur in [Ender's Shadow](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ender%27s_Shadow), but that was published in 1999, so that doesn't seem likely.  That being said, Card often expands earlier short-stories into book later, so it might be one of his short-stories that I'm just not remembering that he later expanded.
Comment: Ah-ha! This is the short I was thinking of: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/121626.Dr_Pak_s_Preschool - it's by David Brin.
Comment: possibly the same as https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/216433/novel-where-a-genius-child-secretly-makes-clones-of-himself (which is newer and has an accepted answer)
Answer: Mutation by Robin Cook (1990)

Victor Frank, and his wife Marsha, are unable to have a second child
  due to Marsha's infertility. They turn to surrogacy as an alternate
  method of conception. Victor, an obstetrician-gynaecologist and owner
  of the biochemical company Chimera Inc., injects the egg implanted in
  his wife with an agent called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) into
  chromosome six, which causes the baby to grow more neurons than usual,
  as a result making them super intelligent. Their son, VJ, is born a
  genius. He is able to talk in six months and read in thirteen.
Comment: VJ does not suffer from the cranial expansion problem, but his siblings do, due to them getting dosages of an antibiotic that triggers the brain growth again. But otherwise, it's an excellent match!


Will copper/iron pipe last longer with/without stand water in shower riser?

Question: I have very specific practical question. Which way a pipe will last the longest and less corrosion will appear inside (internally) the pipe while it last?
1 I have one shower water IRON pipe, the question is it good idea to leave water inside the shower pipe after each use (use shower almost every other day) or let it out (through the faucet) ?
2 I have another shower water COPPER pipe, the question is it good idea to leave water inside the shower pipe after each use (use shower almost every other day) or let it out (through the faucet) ?
Thanks a lot
Comment: Hopefully all questions on this site should be both specific and practical.  You should edit the title to reflect your actual question.
Answer: The water can stand in the shower riser between showers without ill effect, however dumping the water after each shower is also a common practice and results in little or no long term effects. Both are acceptable and common practice.
Comment: Though if copper and iron pipe are connected together, there can be galvanic corrosion of the iron when allowed to stay wet.
Comment: I would say no possibility of a dry pipe with copper, but possibly some galvanic corrosion if left full. With iron I could go either direction, if left full the zinc not the pipes will be slowly etched and or solids from the water can build up (over 26p0 years). Or if drained air could get to the metal and rust (again over 20 years). So I don't think it really would matter with iron but copper I would drain to prevent galvanic corrosion.
Answer: It depends mostly on the water. A mildly scaling water will put a thin , protective scale in the pipes; no corrosion problems. A soft acidic water ( rain or many river waters ) will cause some corrosion ; the copper is likely to last longer than you. Steel ( eg Sch.40 ) may require replacement in 20 years. Letting them empty and dry periodically probably does not accelerate the corrosion. A water softener would make the corrosion worse. Shower extensions in the US are usually brass -about the same corrosion as copper in this case.


PS4 Data Transfer

Question: I bought my PS4 from Argos 2 years ago with their 3 year warranty, my playstation has began to act up so i got into contact with them, they said they can try to fix it or send a replacement but i would need my old PS4 to do a data transfer to the new one. Is there a way of putting all my games and applications onto a USB and transferring that way ?
Answer: Not via USB like that. You need both PS4s in working order (and hooked up) and use the PS4's built-in Data Transfer Utility. You'll need either both PS4s connected to WiFi or by a network cable for this to work.
If you ask them to fix your old PS4, then you'll want to backup your PS4 to an external hard drive, however PS4 backups can only be restored to the original PS4 (it is console locked).
Alternatively, backup your saves to USB, get a new PS4 and just redownload/install your games. I believe game saves aren't encrypted. If they are, you'll need PS+ to take advantage of PS+ cloud saves.
Comment: I believe that as long as both PS4's have the same PSN account, then USB transfer of Save Data should work.

PS4 Data Transfer


What is the purpose of Xcode 4's workspaces?

Question: I don't quite understand the utility of Xcode 4's workspaces.  What are they used for, and how do they aid with development in Xcode?
Answer: E.g. you have a library, that you use in two applications. You will most likely have an own project for this library, correct? Now, you are free to treat this library as an independent project with versioning and regularly do releases; but this can be very cumbersome, if you need to change the library code pretty often and all these changes are directly caused by changes to your two applications using that library. Instead you can create two projects, one for each applications and then two workspaces, one consisting out of the library project and app 1, the other one out of the library project and app 2. Opening a workspace always opens both relevant projects, workspace build settings automatically apply to both of them, they both build to the same build directory (which is actually chosen by Xcode automatically, but it is chosen by workspace, not by project) and when you do global searches, search for symbols, etc. Xcode will always do so in both projects. Further if you change build settings to the library project, because you have to, the changes are also correctly set when you open up the other workspace, which is an advantage to directly importing the library files to two different projects. And now think of 50 libraries, 20 apps and each of them uses various of those 50 libraries.
This may not be the idea Apple had in mind, it may not be the perfect use case for workspaces and other people may have better ideas, but this is one use case I can think of.
Answer: A workspace is mainly used to manage multiple projects in one logical space. This facilitates the management of dependencies between multiple projects. Very useful when you are involved with open source development.


Galaxy S6 Folder is Empty on PC

Question: I connected my Galaxy S6 to my PC (Windows 7) for the first time.  My computer installed the driver successfully and the device is showing under "Removable Storage."  When I click on the device from my PC, however, the folder is empty.  There are no folders visible at all.  I tried the option of automatically importing the pictures, too.  I got a message the no pictures were located.  I have never had trouble doing this with any other Android phone.  I tried a different USB cable, but the result was the same.  Thank you for your help.
Comment: You have to unlock the phone for it to show any files. This is a security feature on newer Samsung phones to prevent files being accessed when charging at unknown locations.
Comment: Also you have to swipe down the notification bar and select "MTP" (or labeled slightly different), as I believe the default is "Charge Only".
Comment: @GiantTree , Not just Samsung phones. I guess anything with MTP enabled from KitKat and up (my Micromax Chinese phone on 4.4.2 has the same behaviour).
Answer: I just had this problem resolved. On the home screen of your Samsung, pull the notifications menu up by swiping your finger from the top of the screen.
Click on USB charging tab.
Click on File transfer or Photo transfer.
In windows explorer on your computer, click on your device. You will then see your phone details come up.
Answer: I wound up going into the Developer options in Settings and changing USB configuration to MTP. It worked fine.
Answer: I would agree with Marty L.  I recently upgraded my Nokia to a Gallaxy s7, and couldn't figure out why my desktop PC would "see" the phone, but when I clicked on it in the PC's file directory, there were no files or directories shown - just a big blank area where they should be.  If you've just gotten a NEW phone, then you'll need to address this challenge in two steps.
First step is, you need to turn ON the Developer Options.  This is turned off  by default at the factory, and turning it on is a bit of a chore.  A blog at Recomhub.com explained it as follows:
"When users turn on and enable developer options on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, you have the ability to control some hidden features that you can change. With Developer Options you can control additional aspects of your device, change settings, or enable USB debugging for advanced functions will need to enable the hidden developer menu in settings."
So to turn on Developer Options, go to Settings>About Phone (all the way at the bottom of the menu list).
After opening "About Phone", you'll see there are a lot of items listed.  The item you want to find is called "Build Number".  Now here's the bizarre part.  Start tapping on the "Build Number" item.  After a number of taps, the phone will notify you that it's turning on Developer Options.  (Weird.  I wonder who came up with that idea......)
Once you've activated the Developer Options, use the "Return" arrow on your phone to back out of the menus until you return to your Settings list.  Now when you scroll to the bottom, you'll see a new menu item called "Developer Options" above About Phone.
Now for Step 2.  Go into Developer Options menu, and scroll down until you see the "USB configuration" menu item.  In smaller letters below that menu item, it should identify the status as "Charging".  What that means is that the USB port is only configured to "Charge" at this point, not transfer files.  Tap on the USB configuration menu item and change it to "Media Transfer Protocol (MTP)".
Now back out of Settings completely and return to your phone's main screen.  You will discover that your PC will now "see" the files on the phone, shown as a "Card" directory (assuming you've added extra memory), and a "Phone" directory.  Double clicking on the directories will show you what's stored in each on your phone.
The unfortunate part is this - and others here can correct me if I'm wrong.  It seems that every time you hook up your phone to your PC to transfer files via the USB cable, you will need to turn on the MTP again (Step 2 in my instructions).  That means you'll need to remember to navigate to the Developer Options menu items in Settings, and scroll down to "USB configuration" and turn on the MTP.  A real pain, but it's a security feature, so I guess it's worthwhile.  But hopefully, you can save this information to your phone, and just reference it next time you want to transfer files.
To everyone else out there, please comment if I've gotten this wrong.
This was all a little challenging to figure out.  The multiple sites I visited each seemed to have pieces of the solution.  However the posters invariably left out key steps, or their information was incomplete.  I'm hoping my post contains the whole shooting match, and is a help to folks.
Comment: I also just got a new S7. After connecting with USB to Win7 or Win10, the phone just pops up with a message asking whether you want to allow your computer access to your device. Click _Allow_ and the files appear. There should be no need to go through _Developer options_. However, sometimes this popup doesn't appear (and it doesn't if you're not logged into your phone). Disconnecting/connecting again fixes it. More info and solutions: https://thedroidguy.com/2016/05/transfer-files-galaxy-s7-pc-issues-1060041

Galaxy S6 Folder is Empty on PC


Is it possible to artificially select for flight in pigs?

Question: After reading this rant by Fodor, as a layperson, I was idly wondering whether it would be possible to artifically select for flight in  pigs. Of course by that time the porcine lineage will probably comprise an entirely new species, but what would be the first step in our breeding experiment? And how would it develop thence, hypothetically speaking?
Comment: If this is a classic breeding experiment the answer is: nobody can tell. Mutations are (more or less) random. You will have to wait what you get to decide what you can select for.
Comment: Nature/environment selects. Would you put selection pressure on pigs by throwing them off of buildings and selecting those who don't hit the ground?
Comment: @anongoodnurse : that would be one way but it might take longer than thinking about it a little first, deciding what changes you think you need to achieve flight in pigs & then working out the pre-adaptions & steps you think you'll need to get there then breeding for those stage by stage, which still takes a long time of course.
Answer: Intro course to evolutionary biology
I doubt you can get much from the below answer. At the end of the day, the only thing that would really allow you to increase your knowledge is probably an intro course to evolutionary biology such as Understanding Evolution by UC Berkeley for example.
Question

Is it possible to artificially select for flight in pigs?

If by 'artificially select' you refer to selection on available genetic variance, then No, it is not! You'll need plenty of new mutations and it would take a very long time.
Selection
You cannot select for something that does not exist. Selection requires pre-existing phenotypic and genetic variation for the trait of interest. No pigs are flying today, so you cannot increase the frequency of individuals flying by selection.
You will need to wait for mutations that confer such flying ability. Of course, there won't be a single mutation that turns a pig into a flying pig. Simply because flight is really not a simple adaptation for a pig! There are few species you could have chosen for which flight would be harder to think of! You are going to go on a long step-by-step procedure, fixing mutations one at a time by selecting every one of them and that will probably take hundreds of thousands of years or maybe millions of years.
Step-by-step procedure
I suspect you would consider using their front limb for flying. Here is a potential and extremely simplified step-by-step procedure. Of course, if you were thinking of pigs flying using their ears, the procedure wold be drastically different!
You should probably start by attempting to modify their limbs then. You can maybe try to start by selecting for individuals that are better able to manipulate objects with the front limb. Also start selecting for lighter bodies. Also, remove any selection for the ability of fast displacement or moving in the mud as that would select for their current front limbs. Start with some very very simplistic manipulation and increase up to eventually ending up with individuals that have pretty flexible front limb. Make sure to select for front limb that can move perpendicular to the body axis.
Then I don't know if you should aim to make wings out of skin or out of hair-feather like structure. If you're aiming with feather-like structure, you can try play it out with sexual selection just like it evolved in birds. Let's say you're choosing skin wings. Then, maybe selecting for those having broad and thing front limbs might be a good way to go. In the meantime, you've reached anything like that, you probably managed to reduce the body size of your pigs to the size of a mouse with a very elongated body.
Select for jumping abilities and then slowly for flying abilities. You've got flying organisms who's ancestors were pigs! Be aware nobody is going to fund such a useless and incredibly long experiment.
Comment: _"If by 'artificially select' you refer to selection on available genetic variance, then No, it is not! You'll need plenty of new mutations and it would take a very long time."_ hmm. _"**Yes, it is!** **But** you'll need plenty of new mutations and it would take a very long time"_ there, fixed it for you :)
Answer: Evolution really is all about random rolls of the dice, with natural selection deciding the outcome. The question of pigs flying has a precedence. Birds evolved from therapod dinosaurs (one of which is T-rex). But birds have an awful lot of adaptations for flight, including many that must have functioned for some other purpose before they could fly, such as feathers for thermo-regulation. The first wings must have served some function other than flying.
Artificial selection is different from natural selection in that it is accelerated through selective breeding. But the principles are the same. You would first breed for small size and light weight. All three tetrapod species that evolved flight did so with their forelimbs. So you would need to look for long forelimbs, and skin in the armpits...Keep in mind these changes would be random. It would require a staggering number of generations. But perhaps, and entirely hypothetically (as you asked), one could try, and it could be done.
Answer: I think you have to consider constraints imposed by embryology in this case. Mutations are "random" in the sense that you can't look into the future and plan what would be good for the organism.  It doesn't mean that absolutely anything is possible. Wings could only evolve if the process of development allows them to.  So you could try with all your might to artificially select pigs that you think might have qualities that allow other flying animals to fly, but wings are never going to appear unless embryological processes are susceptible to this kind of modification.


Laptop key sticking down from lots of use

Question: My Acer Aspire 7741 keyboard's W key has been used a lot due to gaming, and now it sticks down a little bit when I play and hold it for an extended time. The keyboard isn't sticky from a spilled drink or anything. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
Answer: Most likely debris stuck in your key spring mechanism.
I had a similar problem but with the N key. After a year I decided to pop up the key even if I permanently broke it. I found a finger nail clipping was lodged in the plastic spring.
Comment: If the mechanism separates from the spring mechanism I would then replace the mechanism from another key in that row you don't use. I say that row because sometime each row has a different height spring. If they are all the same then switch it with an unused key if you can...  OR you can by a [keyboard replacement](http://www.amazon.com/Keyboard-Aspire-Replacement-AS5810T-8952-NSK-AL01D/dp/B004Z4UAIE) for about $15 and keep the old pad for spare keys...
Comment: I just checked ad there isn't anything under it.
Comment: Wow I never knew that. Buying a new keyboard is not an option for the next month because I will be traveling, so thanks for your input.
Answer: I reseated the key and it seems to work fine now.
Answer: New keyboards are pretty cheap and can be found on Amazon. $10-$40 and fairly easy to install. In the mean time, try side stepping or retreating. ;)