On creation of campaign in Pardot, Send an emails to users and Tack if the users have accessed/Open that mail

Question: We need to build a Campaign in Salesforce Marketing Application called Pardot, Where we need to create a Campaign which will send out an email with a webinar link to the list of users and we need to track if the users have accessed the links? and we need to send three emails with 3 different link and track the activity by user.
Comment: Would you please explain more elaborately? In which part of these processes you face with a problem, what did you do and what did you get as a result?
Comment: Hi Selim, Thank you for looking this Issue. I am new in Pardot and I have a requirement that on creation of campaign to send an emails to the list of users and Track the status of that emails. Do let me know If you have any references to implement this requirement.
Answer: You can use Custom Redirects to track whether the link has been accessed. Depending on your use case (do you e.g. want to send reminders to recipients who haven't visited the link), you could use completion action on the links to remove the recipient from a list - leaving you with a list of non-clickers. This can be used as a target list for a follow up email.
Brgds
Lukas
Comment: You're welcome. Remember to mark the answer as accepted


ArcGIS Server JavaScript: copy attribute from feature snapped to

Question: I have an application that allows the user to add a point (in this case, pipe breaks) and snap to a line (water main).  I have been asked to pre-populate one of the attributes in the point feature with the same attribute from the line that it is snapped to.  Simple enough, theoretically, yet complicated, I believe, programmatically.  I should also mention that I am not a good programmer. I am also using the GitHub CMV template, but since this is so outside the realm of CMV, I did not post there.
So, has anyone done this?
Answer: You are probably going to want to find either a good programmer or start reading and figuring out JS.
The basic way to do this would be to either find the feature being snapped to (might be a property of the event) or run a spatial query from the feature you added to find the nearest feature in the other layer (assume distance = 0).  I do this in a .NET application and here is my process. In complete pseudocode/gibberish, by the way.
//typically I add things by clicking a point or something

//I handle my mouse click event, get the x/y (map or screen coordinates)

//create the new feature..you might already have it though

newFeature = new Point(x,y);

//find the feature(s) nearest -- depending on the query API if it returns a

//single or collection of features

nearFeatures = myJoiningLayer.GetFeaturesNearest(newFeature); //collection

nearFeature = myJoiningLayer.GetNearestFeature(newFeature);//single

//if there is a collection, you'll need to iterate through it to find the closest

//there might be a distance column add (some of ESRI tools do it)

//or there may be the need to individually compare each feature to the source

myJoiningFeature = ;//whatever process it takes to get a feature

//then you take your feature and move field values from one to the other

foreach (object value in myJoiningFeature.fieldValues){
newFeature.valueField = value;

//you'll have to determine how to access the mutator of this object
}

//save your feature and be done

This may be a lot of gibberish, but it should give you an idea of what process you need to take to get to the end.  I have seen different APIs code things very differently.  You'll probably find it easier to set up a geoprocessing service on your server (if you're hosting the data) and return either a new feature with the transferred values or some JSON that gets parsed and new values pulled from there and moved on the client side.
There are numerous options to get this done, too.  While writing, I thought of taking the geometry from your new point and passing it back as an IdentifyTask of sorts and intercepting the return JSON (or some other data set) to be manually interpreted.
Overall, you might not be able to figure this out, and you might find it easier to just post-process the data (spatial join) to grab the attributes you want.  I do it on the fly on my collection program because we need to establish that relationship up front instead of waiting, but your case may be different.
Comment: Thank you, Branco, for your response and sorry I am so late on the thanks.


Difference in Usage of Specificity & Specification

Question: I found two noun words such as Specificity and Specification.
When can we use Specificity over specification.
Comment: Please consult a dictionary first and include the results of your research in the question. Also provide the context where the word is intended to be used -- that makes a lot of difference.
Answer: The short answer is that specificity refers to a quality and specification refers to a description of a subject. You could give specification of specificities ;) They are both nouns, but they operate in different ways.
Specificity is word of denoting a resolute characteristic. The components of microprocessors reflect the tremendous specificity involved in their development and a decent baker or chocolatier works with similar specificity. Whether used with another noun or verb, specificity is a quality, trait, or characteristic of the subject.
Specifications describe something. Unlike specificity, specifications are removed from the subject itself. By that I mean that specification is not the object itself but how the object is perceived (or designed) by an observer. Amazon lists an item's specifications to cover important details of an object and mechanized manufacturing excels at making objects that conform to specifications. Specification describes (or prescribes) the qualities of a subject, typically an object.
Keep in mind that specificity has special significance in chemistry and biology not covered above. Here's an example of that usage.
Answer: Specification generally refers to some sort of categorization or set of instructions: "The specifications for building the house were delivered by the architect." Specificity refers to the clarity of something: "Without knowing what sort of wood the architect wished them to use, the contractors could not shop with any specificity."
Specification: an act of describing or identifying something precisely or of stating a precise requirement.
Specificity: the quality of being specific rather than general


How to split dataset into training and testing when intending to go into production?

Question: I am doing a customer retention/churn prediction project where I have a dataset where each row comprises a customer's data/activity. Each column comprises the past 6 months of a customer's activity/behavior: past_6months_no_of_orders, past_6months_total_gmv, past_6months_total_logins, past_6months_time_spent_on_app, tenure, etc. (The past 6 months are taken rolling back from start of the fully completed month. For example, if the current date is 10-12-2021, I take June to November 2021 data.) The goal is predicting/classifying whether they churn or not in the next month.
Example of the dataset:

customer_id
past_6_months_orders
past_6_months_gmv
past_6_months_xx
churn_indicator

01234
32
2,223
xx
0

01235
2
21
xx
1

Currently, I split my data 80% train and 20% test as of Nov 2021. If I want to start front testing my model for the upcoming months, I realized that I can't use this split method because I wont be able to predict the 80% of customers that were used as training data to train my model.
How should I change the input of my dataset to train and test my model as the new months of data come in? Can I use the same customer data to train my model? and test it using the same customer data, but with newer months of data?
Answer: The model in production should have been trained on all the data you have.
Assuming your model selection workflow is sound, that's the best model you can make. Test it periodically against new data, to check that it's still fit for purpose.


Mountain bike ID help

Question: Can anyone ID my bike. I was given it about 25 years ago. I think it is a 1993 Cannondale M series frame. I only found one number on the bike 02007902204. It has Shimano XT components with RapidFire shifters and a Manitou 3 front suspension fork.  Any help would be great.

[![enter image description here][7]][7]
[7]: https://i.stack.imgur.com/hTDMW.jpg
Comment: http://vintagecannondale.com/info/serial_numbers/
Comment: So from the vintage Cannondale link it doesn't look like that the number on my bike corresponds to anything from that site except the location of the number.
Comment: You might look around for another Cannon serial number site -- it's possible that they had a third scheme in that timeframe.
Comment: You already know its a 1993 M series from Cannondale - what more are you wanting to know?    https://knowyourbike.com/cannondale/m/1000/1993  suggests it was a rigid, and therefore the fork is a replacement.  And that it had suntour shifters, so the Deore is a replacement.
Comment: @Criggie "I _think_ it is a 1993 Cannondale M series frame" (emphasis mine).
Comment: I'm sorry.  I was assuming it was an m series from Cannondale.  I was not 100% on the mfg or year. I just assumed from the fork and when I got the bike.  I just wanted a little more info about the bike.  Thanks
Comment: @Jeff There's no need to post a comment to say that you've answered. When somebody asks a question, they receive a notification for each answer that's posted.
Comment: It is absolutely a cannondale frame.  The cantilevered rear dropouts are a dead giveaway and were used on both road and MTB frames. Te pinhole serial number font is identical to my cannondale.
Answer: This is a Cannondale frame, and i believe its from the model year 1990. The serial number reveals it was made July, 1990. Your bike does contain an aspect of the 1991 models which I'll discuss in a sec.
From 1986 to 1992, Cannondale used two versions of serial numbers, one of which was located on the bottom of the left chainstay as we see in your pics.  Your serial number version breaks down like this: First digit=rear dropout width.  0 correlates to a dropout width of 130mm.  Is this correct? The next two digits reveal the frame size. 20 inches in your case.  The subsequent four digits (here, "0790") are the month and year of manufacture.  The final four digits are the production sequence number, which i take to mean this is the 2204th bike of this model* made.  *It may refer to a sequence differing in detail than what i assert here (for instance, 2204th 3.0 Aluminum frame, size 20 inches, etc).  Reference: Vintage Cannondale.
It appears to me based on perusing the 1990 and 1991 Cannondale catalogs, that you may be riding a 1990 SM2000 Mountain bike from Cannondale.  Original paint scheme was  metallic blue rear 2/3's fading to silver in the front.  The decals were pink. This was the last year for the crimped chainstays, going to oval model year'91.
Your crankset appears to be a flavor of Deore and the '90 M2000 sported Deore XT crankset 48-38-28.  Looks like yours may have a 46T or 44T large ring, and several of 1991's models used Deore LX 46-36-24 cranksets. Other anomalies to my proposed model include your bike having an after market suspension fork; most models this year came with center-pull cantilever brakes, where yours are linear pull; the top tube of most 1990 mountain bikes sported 3 cable stops along the top. Yours appears to have only two. Is there evidence of a missing middle cable stop on yours?  At any rate, I do not believe any of these differences are fatal to my speculation. Even the lack of a third cable stop can perhaps be explained by production changes related to going into the next model year, 1991, where only two cable stops were on the top tube.  Being produced in July 1990, your bike was created at the beginning of the '91 fiscal year and it would be typical to start producing 1991 models the summer of 1990.  (I base this on my experience in manufacturing at Winnebago Industries--motor homes and John Deere--farm equipment). You have aspects of a '90 SM2000 (XT components, crimped chainstays) and 1991's model (namely, 2-cable-stop top tube).
Note that I do not believe your frame is the SM800 (the venerable "Beast of the East") based on your top-tube being level and not angled as the SM800.   The components are wrong for the SM700 and SM1000, however its possible your frame is these.  Measurements would help the case, and these figures can be found in the catalog.  "Mountain Frame Geometry" 1991 on page 15 and 1990 on page 31.  Here's the link to them via Vintage Cannondale
You have an excellent ride. Enjoy
Comment: Damn Jeff!!! You nailed it. 130mm dropout. The middle cable stop is missing but there are holes for it. 20" frame and I did find the little plastic cable guide on the bottom of the bike that says Cannondale.  Added some more detailed pics to the original post.  Thanks again!!
Comment: Wow. Now that's the answer I was looking for!!  I will verify the measurements and cable stops and let you know.  Thank you so much!
Comment: @David Richerby.  Agree and appreciate the edits.  Looks much cleaner. It seems that my attempts at spacing of paragraphs and such doesn't affect the copy that appears online. I'm either using a windows laptop or Android smartphone to interact online. Is there something different i can do to get a better structured copy out? Or does that fall upon the moderators only?  Also some direction on making hyperlinks without the messier URL copy & paste i employ would be welcome. I confess to not taking time to dissect the SE help link for these answers so feel free to direct me to that area.
Comment: @Jeff You get a paragraph break by leaving a blank line -- that should work on any platform. You can get a hyperlink by typing `[text](url)` but, ultimately, I think you're still going to have to copy-paste the URL itself.  Full formatting help is indeed [in the help centre](https://bicycles.stackexchange.com/editing-help).
Comment: @DarianRusso One of the features of Stack Exchange is that we encourage question askers to "accept" the answer that was most helpful to them. That gains you and the answerer some reputation points and also helps future users of the site by giving a strong indication that the answer is correct. I'd encourage you to accept this answer by clicking the green tick mark next to it. You can always change your mind, in the unlikely event that it turns out to be wrong, or somebody else posts an even better, even more helpful answer.
Answer: I believe its an M600, looks just like mine, the frame anyways.

Mountain bike ID help


How can I detect if there is no more paper in the printer with Java?

Question: How can I detect if there is no more paper in the printer, "paper out" with Java? I don't know if it is possible to do in Java, but I would like to use it if possible.
I am using Java on Windows.
Answer: I'm not java expert but I'd be very surprised if there was a java standard way of doing this. It's clearly depending on your specific printer and its driver.
Check if there is an SDK for your printer. In that case it is very likely to provide you an API to achive that.
It will most probably be a windows dll, you can interface with it through JNI.
Answer: If you use the Java Print Service API you can use the Attribute "PrinterIsAcceptingJobs" to test if the printer is ready.
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17409_01/javase/6/docs/api/javax/print/attribute/standard/PrinterIsAcceptingJobs.html
The print service api takes a while to learn but it's worth it IMHO.


How did natural processes as we know them develop around effects of winter?

Question: Everything on earth evolved around changing seasons and the different versions of resources they bring with them, so I'm curious, how did natural processes take advantage of winter qualities to shape earth as we know it? It seems like the advantages captured from other seasons are more obvious, specifically to plant life (spring- showers, summer- direct sunlight) so what's the unique aspect of winter that helps continue the process?
Comment: Premises are too broad, oversimplified, and not necessarily true.  Voting to close.
Comment: Does it have something to do with the 'death' process (regarding plant life?)  Is it necessary to 'kill' the old to grow the new?
Answer: I don't know if one answer can list all the positives, but one I can think of is this: In many (not all) places of the world winter produces the most violent storms. Because deciduous trees lose their leaves during winter, they thus have less wind resistance, which in turn lessens--but does not eliminate--their vulnerability to being toppled over by severe winds.And of course, hibernating species take advantage of winter by sleeping through it and pretty much staying awake for the rest of the year. (I sometimes wish we humans could do the same.)
Comment: Of course, life here is reactive to all seasons as earth was the environment it came to fruition in- another idea / thought process to add is that both summer and winter, since they are the most extreme variations of environment, can be harmful to life- spring and fall, the more moderate and average environmental conditions, are what (most) life has evolved to thrive (survive more) in because it is the average environment. Also tips a hat to why dramatic shifts in environments (like those produced by climate change) are dangerous to that very survival.
Answer: There is nothing "necessary" in winter, as much as nothing is "necessary" in any other seasons or natural phenomena. It's not like there's an all powerful being (God) that decided we needed a winter. Winter is a fact of life that occurs because of Earth's rotation tilt. It's there whether we want it or not and whether we're even here to contemplate it's "necessity".
That said, things have evolved around the existence of winter, and the occurrence of winter has become necessary for their life. For example, some cherry cultivars taste better when exposed to cold. Winter causes fish, mammals, insects, birds, etc to migrate and subsequently breed. Ski resorts are open in winter and without it people who work there will be unemployed.
Comment: I understand everything on earth is completely reactive to the environment it evolved in, my question stemmed from thinking about how some factors (I.E. sunlight, rain, temperature, etc.) are so core to earth that everything has evolved to require them. Since other seasons (spring, summer, fall) seem to provide those different, 'necessary' resources (as everything evolved using them), I'm currently only seeing winter takes resources away. Does winter 'provide' a 'necessary' resource, does it only take 'necessary' resources away, or has the yearly displacement become fundamental to life?
Comment: @Taytee I'm pretty sure you can find something that is "provided" by the existence of winter. But that thing evolved because winter is a fundamental thing of life. Think about equatorial regions that don't really have seasons. Life goes on, regardless of the lack of winter. Or summer. Or any other season. Seasons are a cause, not a result.
Comment: True- all seasons further north and south are all just more and more extreme versions of what those equatorial regions experience, correct? All seasons, therefore, just represent yearly variations in one central environment.
Answer: Seems to me the creation of soil may be largely due to the effects of winter.  If not for the seasonal death and decay of part of plants exposed to winter conditions, soils would be less rich.  Look at the soils in the tropical rain forest areas, which area relatively poor in nutrients, in comparisons to the rich dark soils of the great plains, where winter temperatures kill the surface plants, but reintroduce that vegetation into the soil to aid the growth of the soil for the next seasons growth.
Another important aspect for winter is the snow, which, besides providing skiers with entertainment, provides moisture which, being retained in the snowpack late into the spring and summer, and allows life to flourish into regions which would otherwise receive little or no precipitation in the summer months.
Comment: This perspective adds an interesting topic to the mix- what fundamental aspects of average life here on earth would not exist without that shift to winter? In winter, 'death' in plant life seems to be prevalent- is this environmental shift fundamental to 'killing off the old' and 'bringing in the new'?


How do I optimize a turbofan engine to fly lower and slower instead of higher and faster?

Question: I was reading something about someone who was doing this and I'm intrigued, but I have no idea what you actually do to optimize the engine to be better at lower altitudes and lower speeds?
Comment: Why do you want to do that? That is, what do you want to achieve? Or in other words, what is not satisfactory in the existing solution - a turboprop?
Comment: He must know a good mechanic.  Those Cyclone radials were pretty good on gas.
Comment: Welcome to the site @JustinHolderman, I think the answer may be "you don't".
Answer: As a summary, the engine generates thrust by changing the impulse (momentum) of the air. Please refer to this: NASA Genera Thrust Equation
So to optimize aircraft performance, the main options you can play with are that depend on your aircraft operation:
V0: flight speed
p0, r0: inlet pressure and density (function of altitude)
And the variables that depend on your engine design:
Ve, pe, re: exhaust velocity pressure and density (depend on the thermal cycle and actual operating condition of the engine)
A0, Ae: Inlet and nozzle areas (engine geometry, sizes derived from the design point)
Now what you need to see is that there is no single best option, aircraft design is an optimization problem, eg finding compromises. Flying lower and slower is actually an attractive option for greener aircraft, as it enables technologies that reduce drag, such as ultra high aspect ratio wings, laminar airfoils, boundary layer ingestion, electric propulsion and a few more.
Whether optimizing a turbofan for lower altitudes make sense can only be seen by comparing the wins against the losses, and it is hard to say absolute truths as it depends on many variables.
Now about the actual "how-to" optimize a gas turbine, essentially the key variable of the engine is the pressure ratio, PR, so how much it compresses the inlet air. For a given flight condition (thrust, speed and altitude) , there is an optimal pressure ratio. From that the number of compressor and turbine stages can be calculated (also if you need a multi-spool engine, do you use an intercooler, etc.), and also the geometrical dimensions of the engine. And this goes back to the comment I've made that it is a compromise. Building a very heavy, expensive, hard to maintain engine will not be a good choice as what you win by increased engine efficiency you will lose on the flight efficiency.
But suppose as an academic exercise you just want to alter an existing engine design to move its design point to a lower speed and altitude, then you need to change the design pressure ratio, and follow up with any internal changes (add/remove stages, change inlet, nozzle, etc.)


Is there a keyboard shortcut for discarding reply drafts in Gmail?

Question: Is there a keyboard shortcut to delete a reply draft in a conversation thread? This is not about deleting conversations. The shortcut for that is # (Shift+3). This is about deleting an editable reply/reply-all/forward in a conversation thread.
Comment: That's true, but it requires 9 taps to get there! Looking for a more efficient solution than that...
Comment: You can use tab to get from the edit field down into the buttons below the message. A few taps and you'll be on "Discard Draft". Then just hit Enter.
Comment: That's as close as I've found (and why I didn't offer it as an answer). Unfortunately, the majority of keyboard shortcuts don't work when the editing field is active.
Answer: Late update, but if anyone stumbles upon this thread: google has added a shortcut to "discard draft" since this question was asked/answered:

windows: <Ctrl> + <Shift> + d
macos: <⌘> + <Shift> + d (Cmd + Shift + d, Command + Shift + d )

Note: This can be especially infuriating when drafting a lengthy message on a mac as <⌘> + <Ctrl> + d (macos shortcut to display the definition of a highlighted word) can easily be fat fingered as <⌘> + <Shift> + d and wipe out everything you've been working on with no way to get it back.  Anyone encountering this will wonder why google does not at least make discarded draft items go into the trash to provide a chance for recovery.

As Ruben mentioned, you can hit ? from within gmail to display your keyboard shortcut options.
Comment: Even worse - command+shift+D is the Mail.app shortcut to *send* a mail, which is firmly implanted in my muscle memory. And there's no confirmation dialog in gmail when discarding. And there doesn't seem to be a way to disable it - you can't reassign the shortcut in gmail, and if I reassign it in Chrome, gmail somehow manages to override it when composing a mail. Unbelievable! I've definitely lost mails this way, without realizing it at the time, and now I have no idea how many or which.
Answer: I was about to write a Chrome extension for this purpose. Then I stumbled upon Shortkeys. It's a neat little extension allowing us to bind key combinations to various actions, including running JavaScript code.
You could create a new rule, and add a script as such:
console.log("magic in progress");
var e = document.querySelectorAll("div[aria-label='Discard draft']")
for(var i=0;i<e.length;i++){
   e[i].click();
}

Answer: At this time, there isn't. To display the list of shortcuts, straight from the Gmail screen, on any Gmail page, press ?.
The shortcuts related to drafts, are the following:

Key shortcut: g then d
  Definition: Go to 'Drafts'
  Action: Takes you to all drafts you have saved.
Key shortcuts:
  - Ctrl + s
  - Mac: ⌘ + s
  Definition: Save draft
  Action:
  Saves the current text as a draft when composing a message. Hold the
  Ctrl/⌘ key while pressing s and make sure your cursor is in one of the
  text fields -- either the composition pane, or any of the To, CC, BCC,
  or Subject fields -- when using this shortcut.

References
Keyboards shortcuts for Gmail - Gmail Help


Issue with qtvirtualkeyboard while upgrading from Qt 5.9 to 5.12

Question: I am working on upgrading an embedded target from Qt 5.9.3 to 5.12.10. Most packages work OK, however the qtvirtualkeyboard package is causing issues. The build process (using Yocto/bitbake) creates an upgrade package, which contains all the generated RPMs for all packages and on the target we use the Smart Package Manager to install these.
This works OK for almost all packages, only the qtvirtualkeyboard package has a different name in the new build: the RPMs changed from qtvirtualkeyboard (in Qt 5.9.3) to libqt5virtualkeyboard (in Qt 5.12.10). It looks like this confuses the package manager and it exits with an error indicating that certain files cannot be overwritten, as they are part of an already installed package. This is one of the messages, the others follow the same pattern, all about qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins:

error: file /usr/lib/qt5/qml/QtQuick/VirtualKeyboard/plugins.qmltypes
from install of
libqt5virtualkeyboard-qmlplugins-18.104.22.168+git0+1582869a39-r0.cortexa9hf_vfp_neon
conflicts with file from package
qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins-5.9.3+git3+81f9e4b142-r3.0.cortexa9hf_vfp_neon

There are a number of other packages that are generated as libqt5name package instead of a qtname package, but these already had this name in 5.9.3, so they are not causing an issue.
In the ..../pkgdata/runtime/qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins there is a line:

PKG_qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins: libqt5virtualkeyboard-qmlplugins

Which was (in Qt 5.9.3):

PKG_qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins: qtvirtualkeyboard-qmlplugins

To me it looks like the package is receiving a new name.
I tried adding an RREPLACES_${PN} and RCONFLICTS_${PN} with "qtvirtualkeyboard (< 5.12.10)" to a qtvirtualkeyboard_git.bbappend file, but that did not help. There is an Obsoletes line added in the SPECS file (reading back from the generated RPM using rpmrebuild), but that also referenced the new name, libqt5virtualkeyboard.
Is it possible to revert this change of the name (for my local build) or can I add a rule somewhere that makes sure the package manager removes the original package before installing the new package?
I am using meta-qt5  (hash 8da88b09, which is the last 5.12.10 version) and the official Qt GIT repo for 5.12.10.
Answer: After diving into the buildroot/poky code I found out that the rename is done when an RPM only contains libraries. The original RPM did contain only some support files (so it was not renamed), but the new RPM contains only libs.
I solved this by adding the following line to my qtvirtualkeyboard.bbappend:
<code>AUTO_LIBNAME_PKGS = ""
</code>
Now the name is not changed anymore and the upgrade is working as expected.


How do I get past the eye in the first temple?

Question: I've been trying to get past it for possibly 20 minutes. I can't hit it with a skyward strike or my slingshot. Fi says that it looks at pointy objects, but the only things that I can get it to look at are me and my sword. What am I supposed to do?
Comment: Honestly, I'm not sure how you were expected to figure this one out without experimentation or having played one of the earlier 3D games with the rotating eyes that would explode if you ran around them quickly enough.
Comment: What's wrong with experimentation? ;) I watched my housemate work this out for himself in about 15 minutes, trying pretty much every other item first
Answer: You're supposed to make it dizzy by rotating your sword in a circle (not a spin attack).  Do it quickly, but not too quickly—if you go too fast, you'll start doing random swings, which won't work.
For the eyes that appear later in the temple, you need to have all of the eyes in a given room look at you at the same time in order to get past them.  If not all of the eyes are open, they won't get dizzy and die no matter how fast you rotate your sword.
Comment: I guess none of you have played Super Mario 64... Also, I remember the sword circling trick to be in one of the early gameplay footage videos well before the game's release. A good memory will help you with many things :3
Answer: I'll start off with a hint, with the the solution posted in spoiler tags directly below it.
HINT : Make it dizzy.

 You need to move your Sword around in a circular pattern until the eye turns red and falls off, in other words you're making it "Dizzy".
 If there is more than one eye, you need to do this to all of them at the same time, you cannot take them out one-by-one. Therefore if one of the eyes are closed, then no matter how long you stand there any eyes following your sword won't become dizzy and fall off. The best way to do this is to stand in the centre of all the eyes.

Here's a video showing the solution:

Answer: Unlike in past games, you don't have to hit the eye. You have to sort of hypnotize it. As Fi says, eyes look at pointy objects, so they will stare at the point of your sword. Get your sword out and make a continuous circular motion for a couple of seconds while the eye is looking at it, until it "dies".
Answer: Break the box that is hanging down in the air, then push that off the ledge and put it in front of the eyes.  Then swing your sword once the eyes are all open.


Problem after installing wxruby, no suitable image found, on Mac OS 10.6 & 10.7 & Red-Hat

Question: I am trying to install wxruby. I've tried gem install wxruby, gem install wxruby-19-2.0.0 downloading the wxruby-2.0.1-universal-darwin-9.gem. I tried the arch -i386 ruby change and got an error on arch of unsupported architecture (on Snow Leopard and Lion).
I've tried it on Mac OS X Lion and Snow Leopard. Under ruby 1.8.7 and 1.9.2. And also tried on Linux (RED-HAT). All gave the same error. When I tried to compile it I got a swig version error which I fixed and then ton's of errors in the code of not finding size_t and other items. I tried a new install of wxwidgets (on Snow Leopard) and that did not help.
It always installs fine but when I run some test code I get:
/Users/jwright/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:in require': dlopen(/Users/jwright/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/wxruby-2.0.1-universal-darwin-9/lib/wxruby2.bundle, 9): no suitable image found.  Did find: (LoadError)
    /Users/jwright/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/wxruby-2.0.1-universal-darwin-9/lib/wxruby2.bundle: no matching architecture in universal wrapper - /Users/jwright/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/wxruby-2.0.1-universal-darwin-9/lib/wxruby2.bundle
    from /Users/jwright/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:36:inrequire'
    from /Users/jwright/.rvm/gems/ruby-1.9.2-p290/gems/wxruby-2.0.1-universal-darwin-9/lib/wx.rb:12:in <top (required)>'
    from /Users/jwright/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:59:inrequire'
    from /Users/jwright/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:59:in rescue in require'
    from /Users/jwright/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p290/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.9.1/rubygems/custom_require.rb:35:inrequire'
    from ./test_wxruby.rb:3:in `'
It does the same thing when I use irb
require 'rubygems'
require 'wx'
Please help. I really want to use this.  My other cross-platform option is JRuby.
Answer: It's a known issue. Starting with Snow Laopard, OSX ships with 64-bit ruby set as default. And installed gem is 32-bit. In order to fix this, add following shebang to your ruby script (it will force script to be executed under 32-bit ruby):
#!/usr/bin/env arch -i386 ruby

require 'rubygems'
# This will work thanks to arch -i386
require 'wx'

Comment: @iktorn I don't have a clean lion install right now to test. Why it is not working? `arch` not starting correct ruby interpreter, weWidgets can't compile or something else?


How often does GWT re-generate Mobile Usability test report?

Question: I know I can use Mobile-Friendly Test and PageSpeed Insights to test usability but is there a way to manually run Mobile Usability test direct from GWT? If I have to wait until GWT runs this test, how often does GWT re-generate Mobile Usability test report?
Comment: The datapoints that I have on my sites are updated between 3 and 7 days. I don't think there's any way to manually run the report on the whole site unfortunately. You'll likely just need to wait, or test individual pages.
Answer: I would give Google at least 24 to 48 hours to update all results (including mobile usability) in your GWT account. If you can't wait that long then you should try using Google PageSpeed Insights to test your pages on demand and you will be notified right away if it believes the page is not mobile friendly.
Use this URL:

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/
Answer: My report is 9 days old at this point.   It is March 8th today and it was last updated on Feb 28th.

Like you, I am anxious to see this report updated.   I fixed most of the issues on this site on March 2nd.
Google has just said that the mobile friendly algorithm will run in real time.   That is, as they crawl pages, they will immediately asses whether or not they are mobile friendly.
I expect that the report will regenerate any day now.   Nine days is a long period not have have updates in Google Webmaster Tools.  Data usually lags by a day or two.  Occasionally it lags longer.   This is one of the longest lags that I have seen.
Here is what Google has to say about out of data data in GWT:

We're always working to increase the update frequency for your verified sites' data, such as crawl, index, and search query stats. Much of this data depends on the content of your site, and is a close approximation of the status of your site. Our internal systems are always changing, and the web itself is an ever-shifting ecosystem. In addition, there may be a lag between when the numbers are calculated and when they are visible to webmasters - although data gets published in intervals, we are continually collecting it. If your content doesn't change very often, or if you're not getting new links to your site, you may not see updates to your data every time you sign in to Webmaster Tools.

So even when they are not showing you the updates, they are collecting the data.   A batch update will show that data in GWT shortly.


Should a table with only one column have a primary key?

Question: For example, I have a table called programs and another called format. The format tables contains a single column called format, which has three possible values: zip, rar and exe. Should the format table have a primary key?
Comment: with another table called applications, with a foreign key to format.
Comment: This is called premature optimization. For 3 values it doesn't matter. Overall the usage of one column tables with primary key is justified in many situations. Not necessarily best practice, but in this case it is irrelevant.
Answer: Think what happens if your table would contain:
zip
rar
exe
exe

If you see no problem then your table does not need a PK.
Comment: but do you see a value in having two exe?
Comment: i dont see a problem with two exe
Answer: If the values are unique, then perhaps not. However, if you do not have a unique index on the values, you could have duplicates, and that would make it difficult to identify single rows. Also, using a PK with a known, fixed length (such as an integer ID) will help with performance and keep index fragmentation down. Plus, if you need to join to this table, you're better off referencing the ID of a format rather than the value, by using a foreign key (which in some RDBMS requires a PK).
Answer: If you have a table called Programs and a table called Format with a bunch of values, why not just have a FormatId column in the Program table and use one of the (currently three) foreign key values in the Format table?
See these notes about Normalisation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_normalization (I'm sure you know this, but maybe somebody else reading the question might not).
Answer: The table with only one column would have unique values in most of the cases, as repeating value and that too in a single column does not make sense.
So, in your cases, the format would not be repeating (thats what I think), so there is no harm in making primary key but
1) It imposes an indexing on that field (do you want that?)
2) In future, if you are planning to link this to another table, then make sure you use this as a primary key and not introducing anything like format_id for the primary key. If you do so, then please dont make this as a primary key right now.
Comment: should i just make it unique then? i will be foreign keying it to another table


Which Geodatabase version is holding how manyUNPOSTED outstanding Edits?

Question: I have this generic versioned geodatabase question i.e.Which Geodatabase version is holding how many UNPOSTED outstanding Edits ?, which may be crucial to identify the query performance bottleneck in any versioned enterprise geodatabase having large number of editors.
I have posted this query multiple times  including Esri support however could not get satisfactory resolution.
Version for ArcSDE10.2.2 to 10.4
Comment: You probably need to review how versioning works. A "version" is only a named state in the state tree, but there could be many orphaned states which don't have any associated version. You'd have to provide a great more detail about your state tree before anyone here could help you.
Comment: On a database level perhaps... what DB are you using? This kind of poking around in the 'back end' I would **strongly discourage** unless you *really* know what you're doing (or are prepared to rebuild your database from scratch). Have you tried to compress the database to reconcile outstanding edits to DEFAULT (or are all your edits in states other than DEFAULT?).
Comment: We have all versions created from DEFAULT as Parent only.Yes I agree there may be many orphaned states, Is there any way to compare version state with Default state irrespective of orphaned state in between?
Answer: Have you tried using the Version Differences tool in ArcMap, see http://desktop.arcgis.com/en/arcmap/latest/extensions/data-reviewer/comparing-geodatabase-versions.htm.  This gives you information on the outstanding Adds, Deletes, and Modifies between versions.
Granted, you would need to do this on a version by version basis, but this may give you the answer you are looking for.
You could also use ArcObjects to create a tool that goes through all versions and gets a count of the differences using the IVersionedWorkspace, IVersionedTable, and IDifferenceCursor interfaces.  See How to identify Unposted/Outstanding (A&D) edits of a version in Enterprise SDE Database using SQL interface? for more details.


pymssql on mac os x mountain lion 10.9.2

Question: Recently discovered pymssql and got it working on a windows machine (python 3.4).  However when I try to run the script on my mac (10.9.2), I get an error when I 'import pymssql'.  Note both on the windows box and on the mac, I installed via 'pip3.4 install pymssql'.  Installation concluded with no errors in both cases.
This is what I get when I try to import pymssql on the mac :
Python 3.4.0 (v3.4.0:04f714765c13, Mar 15 2014, 23:02:41)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.

import pymssql
      Traceback (most recent call last):
        File "", line 1, in
      ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/pymssql.so, 2): Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libsybdb.5.dylib
        Referenced from: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.4/lib/python3.4/site-packages/pymssql.so
        Reason: image not found

Note pip3.4 search pymssql results in :
pymssql                   - DB-API interface to Microsoft SQL Server for
                            Python. (new Cython-based version)
  INSTALLED: 2.1.0 (latest)
Note further that /usr/local/lib/libsybdb.5.dylib does NOT exist, but then again, I couldn't find in on the windows box either (searched the C drive for libsybdb)
How do I get around this?
Answer: You need to install freetds library to talk to Microsoft SQL Server
<code>brew install freetds
</code>


Exclude hidden files when searching with Unix/Linux find?

Question: What options do I need to use with find to exclude hidden files?
Comment: **Aside:** the reason there isn't some special support for this task is that the *only* thing special about files named with a leading '.' is that there are not listed by `ls` unless specifically requested: they are completely ordinary files in every respect, its just that `ls` lets you ignore them by default.
Comment: Question: do you want to hide something like `.hidden/visible.txt`?
Answer: It seems negation glob pattern is not well known. So you can use:
find . -name "[!.]*"

Comment: note that this will still find non-hidden files in hidden directories, which may or may not be what you want.
Answer: I found this here:
find . \( ! -regex '.*/\..*' \) -type f -name "whatever"

Comment: No, it wouldn't :/ But `\( ! -path '*/.*' \)` would.
Comment: Why not just `\( ! -name '.*' \)`?
Comment: @grawity I just found that, I don't know entirely how it works.  Would yours not only hide hidden files, but hidden directories and all their sub-content and hidden files in subfolders?
Comment: @grawity Ya, I guess I made an assumption about what the OP wanted... Your -name solution is probably the closest to what they were asking for.
Comment: @grawity&Dan: Isn't it \( !-path '^.*' \) ?? your solutions will ignore any file that has a '.' anywhere in the file name like a.exe, b.out etc....
Comment: @AnandJeyahar Nope, those are file "globs", not regular expressions; they always have to match from the start to the end of the filename / path
Comment: Could anyone explain the regex-syntax, please? (especially after the first asterisk)
Comment: The regex `'.*/\..*'` means: match anything (`.*`) until {one slash (`/`) and one dot (`\.`) after} and then anything (`.*`). Or, shorter: anything that has a sequence of one slash and a dot (`/\.`) inside. The pattern (not a regex) used in path (`'*/.*'`) is the same: match anything that contains a (`/.`), and here the dot is literal as this is a pattern, not a regex.
Answer: This doesn't answer your question, but for the task of finding non-hidden files I like to let find find all the files then filter with grep.
find . -type f | grep -v '/\.'

Similar to your approach but perhaps a bit simpler.
Comment: This was the only one of the one liners that worked for me.
Answer: Try the following find usage:
find . -type f -not -path '*/\.*'

Which would ignore all the hidden files (files and directories starting with a dot).
Answer: fd
Use fd, a simple, much faster and user-friendly alternative to find. By default, it:

Ignores hidden directories and files, by default.
Ignores patterns from your .gitignore, by default.

Check the Benchmark analysis.
Answer: If you aims is to find and grep, ripgrep does exclude hidden files by default, e.g.
rg --files

--files Print each file that would be searched without actually performing the search.
Answer: To find hidden files:
find -name '[.]*'

To find visible files:
find -name '[!.]*'

It is that simple.
Answer: I wrote a script called findnh which I believe handles certain edge cases better than the answers to this question that I've been able to find on the web.
#!/bin/bash

declare -a paths

while [ $# -ne 0 ]; do
  case "$1" in -*) break ;; esac
  paths+=("$1")
  shift
done

find "${paths[@]}" \( -name . -o -name .. -o \! \( -name '.*' -prune \) \) "$@"

For example, you can find non-hidden files and directories inside of an explicitly-specified hidden directory with a command like findnh ~/.hiddendir/, which will show ~/.hiddendir/file but not ~/.hiddendir/.superhiddenfile.
Comment: Nice bit of coding. Except, when I try `findnh ~/.hiddendir/`, I get nothing. Other than that, how is this different from `! -path '*/.*'` and `find … | grep -v '/\.'`?


Where'd Summer go?

Question: So I live in Texas, and it get awfully hot in the summer- like 37°C hot- and yet, when winter rolls around, it can get down to 4° or 5° pretty easily. So, my limited understanding or weather and stuff doesn't understand one thing. Where'd all that heat go? It was so hot in summer but it'll disappear in a week. I know cold is just the absence of heat, so the heat must've gone somewhere, right?
Comment: Your question might get closed for being too philosophical, but the answer is: summer goes south for the winter. More specifically, the seasons are opposite in the southern hemisphere. It's autumn here now, but spring in Australia (for example). On December 21st, winter starts here officially, and summer starts there officially.
Comment: Heat has to be continually replaced, or it radiates away into space.  Notice that it cools off at night?  (Perhaps less noticably in the humid parts of Texas, because the water vapor holds heat.)  In winter, the days are shorter and the sun is lower in the sky, so less heat comes from the sun.
Comment: @BarryCarter okay, you can it that way but I meant literal. Where does the heat energy go?
Answer: User 32214, I suggest you draw back from Texas, disregard local weather anomalies (which don't count for much), and look at the bigger picture. Major seasonal changes in the heat distribution occur by three main processes. By far the most important is day length / relative accumulation of solar energy caused by the way the Earth's spin is inclined to the plane of orbit of the planet. This yields the normal seasonal variation. In addition, Hadley cells redistribute tropical heat polewards, whilst continental-scale (and larger) loops in the various jet streams bring thermal anomalies on a scale of weeks or even months. These processes bring inter-annual variations in the climate at any given location. Jet stream meteorology is rather complex, but a good summary is found in the clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aLk6b0vNUc
The effect of climate change is to push extra heat polewards. This reduces the thermal gradient between either side of the polar jet stream, thus making the jet more sluggish in its migration around the world. This sluggishness causes the jet to slow, and create north-south loops, yielding extra cold anomalies on the cold side, and extra hot anomalies on the equatorial side. These account for record breaking hot and cold anomalies in North India, Moscow, Western Europe, and maybe Texas (though I am not familiar with Texan weather systems). So the short answer to your question is in two parts. Firstly, there is the major annual shift in climate due to the Earth's spin angle relative to the sun. Second, less important, but more interesting is the that climate change is very slightly beginning to alter the heat distribution of the planet. Or, you can adopt Donald Trump's 'science-free' head in the sand policy, in which case any climatic trend is a total mystery!
Recently we have seen a rather odd scenario developing, in which the polar and subtropical jet streams have been merging. These are normally very different and distinct. Maybe this is a one-off anomaly, or maybe we are entering uncharted territory, where it will be harder to predict hot and cold spells - at least until we get a better handle upon how climate change will influence future jet streams.
PS another factor is the annual oscillation of the inter-tropical convergence zone, but I suspect Texas is too far north to be involved in that process.
Answer: The heat goes away in two main ways. The first is radiation as mentioned in a comment. Heat radiates away into space or it may warm the air before it gets to space. That leads to the second reason heat goes away - convection. Weather systems move air from one place to another. The hot air literally blows away or rises and is replaced by cooler air that blows in. Where there is mixing, the warm air warms up the cooler air so the mixed air approaches the same temperature.
There are a couple of other ways that heat is lost. First, water in lakes and rivers evaporates so you get evaporative cooling like a swamp cooler. That is most noticeable in summer but happens at a slower rate as air temperature decreases and as the sun stays up for fewer hours in the autumn and stays lower in the sky. Plants transpire water vapor from their leaves and that has the same effect as evaporation. The other way is by melting snow or ice. When snow falls on warm ground early in the winter, the ground has retained enough heat to melt the snow. This cools the ground to the point where the snow will stick.
Comment: I suspect evaporative cooling from lakes is not a significant effect in Texas.
Comment: To finish the idea... the that energy that goes into evaporative/melting... it is then eventually lost into higher levels of the atmosphere during cloud/storm formation.  So the energy is dispersed upwards into the atmosphere, keeping the upper troposphere somewhat warmer than it otherwise would be... and the low levels of the air somewhat cool than it would otherwise be.
Comment: And to expand upon your convective answer... a more encompassing answer is that it is advected away. Summer is sent south in batches as winds become more northerly and send the pooled warm air south. That's why summer doesn't "disappear" slowly, but usually in more quick changes (and why, when there are abnormal wind patterns, you might get sheltered into a pattern with extra "summerish" warmth). Wind changes take summer away... and then the radiation losses (and diminished replacement from the sun due to solar angle) help winter settle in more and more as we get deeper in.
Comment: Good comments. Advection is a better description.

Where'd Summer go?


Is Vishnu avatar of Krishna or krishna avatar of vishnu?

Question: You know in general perspective it was always vishnu taking avatar as Krishna
but if you go in depth and listen to the devotees of iskon they seem to say the reverse infact they even go a step ahead and say usualy vishnu takes avatar as krishna but this time the god version came himself through vishnu.
Comment: Can you link such a statement so that we can see what exactly they are saying and what their 'logic' is?
Answer: In most texts, Krishna is avatar of Vishnu. Only in Brahmavaivarta Purana, garga Samhita etc is Krishna superior to Vishnu.
Garga Samhita says -

"Śrī Nārada said: As everyone looked on, Lord Hari, the eight-armed
master of Vaikuṇṭha, appeared and merged in the the body of Lord
Kṛṣṇa. The perfect, ferocious, and powerful Lord Nrsiṃha, who was
effulgent as millions of suns, merged in Lord Kṛṣṇa's effulgence. Then
the master of Śvetadvīpa, who was decorated with a thousand arms, came
in a splendid chariot drawn by a hundred thousand horses. Opulent with
many weapons, accompanied by the goddess of fortune, and served by
many associates, He suddenly merged in the body of Śrī Kṛṣṇa. Then,
holding a bow and arrows, glorious with Sītā, and accompanied by His
brothers, lotus-eyed Lord Rāmacandra came in a golden chariot that was
effulgent as a hundred million suns, (decorated) with swaying cāmaras,
opulent with countless monkey-kings, rumbling with ten thousand
wheels, (decorated with) ten thousand flags, and (pulled by) ten
thousand horses, and merged in the body of Lord Kṛṣṇa. Then Lord
Yajña, who is known as Nārāyaṇa and Hari, who is glorious like a flame
in the fire of cosmic devastation, who is the master of the demigods,
and who is glorious with His consort Dakṣiṇa, came in a splendid and
beautiful chariot and suiddenly merged in the dark form of Lord Kṛṣṇa.
Then Lord Nara-Nārāyaṇa, whose eyes were large, who had four arms, who
was dressed as a sage, who was splendid like a dark cloud, whose
matted hair was a lightning flash, who observed an unbroken vow (of
celibacy), and who was surrounded by splendid multitudes of the kings
of sages, suddenly merged in the handsome dark form of Lord Kṛṣṇa as
everyone looked on, their hearts filled with wonder. Filled with
wonder, and now understanding that Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the original Supreme
Personality of Godhead, the demigods offered many prayers."

Here, Garga Samhita portrays Krishna as the source of everything. Vishnu, Nara-narayana, Rama, Narasimha etc all merge into Krishna's body.
Answer: According to Shiva Purana, it's Lord Vishnu only who takes the form of Krishna in Goloka. Again, this Krishna of Goloka takes all the incarnations.
Sri Shiva Purana 2.2:2:25.:

Rāma said:—
1-2. O Goddess, formerly once, Śiva, the creator supreme, called Viśvakarman to His highest region. He made him erect a large hall of great beauty in His cowshed, and an exquisite throne there.

Śiva, caused Viśvakarman to make an excellent, divine, wonderful umbrella for warding off obstacles.

.

With a delightful mind He called Viṣṇu from Vaikuṇṭha. O Goddess, Śiva rejoiced at the perfect devotion of Viṣṇu.

In an auspicious hour, the great lord made Viṣṇu sit on the exquisite throne and delightedly decorated him in every way.

A beautiful coronet was fixed on Viṣṇu and the auspicious holy thread was tied to his waist. He was then coronated by lord Śiva in the Cosmic Hall.

What was His own and even non-transferable, Śiva the independent and favourably disposed to His devotees, conferred on Viṣṇu and eulogised him.

The lord who is favourably disposed to His devotees, revealing Himself independent but subservient to the boons granted by Him, spoke these words to Brahmā the creator of all worlds.

Lord Śiva said:—
15-16. Lord, may you all hear. From now onwards, at my bidding, this Viṣṇu has become worthy of my respect and that of all devas. Dear one, you too bow to him. May all the Vedas extol him at my bidding as they extol me.
.
Lord Śiva said:—

At my bidding you are now the creator, sustainer and destroyer of all the worlds. You are the bestower of virtue, wealth and love and the chastiser of people of evil predilection.

You are the lord of the universe. You are worthy of the worship of the universe. You will be invincible in battle anywhere even against me (Same boon given to Sage Narayana). You will be endowed with great strength and valour.

You take three Śaktis—will etc. conferred by me. You can have the power of exhibiting diverse sports and independence in the three worlds.

O Viṣṇu, persons who hate you shall indeed be chastised and curbed by me with strenuous efforts. Salvation shall be given by me, O Viṣṇu, to your devotees.

Accept this Māyā too which cannot be withstood by devas and others and by which the entire universe will be deluded and made insentient as it were.

.

While stationed here you protect the entire universe taking different incarnations and diverse ways of protection.

This place of great prosperity and glory in my own world shall be famous as Goloka. It will be very brilliant.

O Viṣṇu, I shall certainly see the various incarnations of yours on the earth and shall be delighted by your devotion to me.

Rāma said:—

After conferring thus unlimited prosperity on Viṣṇu, Śiva, the consort of Śivā, freely sported about at Kailāsa along with His attendants.

Thenceforth lord of Lakṣmī assumed the guise of a cowherd. The lord of cowherds (Krishna), cowherdesses and the cows wandered there with pleasure.

The delightful Viṣṇu protected the universe taking up various incarnations and sustaining it at the bidding of Siva.

Now He has taken a fourfold incarnation at the bidding of Śiva. I who am Rāma, and my brothers Bharata, Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna are His incarnations.

Again,
Sri Shiva Maha Purana 2.5:5:31.:

Śiva said:—

At my bidding Viṣṇu has assumed the form of Kṛṣṇa and is stationed in the cowshed in the beautiful Goloka presided over by me.

I hope this clarifies all your queries. Prd..


Carriage returns appear for no apparent reason in Sharepoint's task description field

Question: I use Sharepoint's task description field as a log for my team's project status updates. I'll enter in a line by sometimes typing it and sometimes copy pasting something from an email.  Later, when I go back to edit or add something else, a bunch of carriage returns have appeared in the description field adding a ton of annoying blank space to the description field.  What causes this?
Answer: Description field on the Task list is of type multi line of text and by default it is set to allow Enhanced rich text (Rich text with pictures, tables, and hyperlinks) which is why you are getting Carriage returns in your text.
Option 1:
you can change it to plain text if you don't need Rich text
Option 2:
When you enter text that has these characters, you can manually remove them, by clicking on Format Text (from the Ribbon) and click on Edit Source and remove the extra characters you don't like!


How long do you have to let your Dwellers Explore the Wasteland before they start to find good gear?

Question: The longest I've allowed a Dweller to explore the Wasteland is 12 hours and they're still only finding BB Guns and other useless junk. So, how do you usually equip your explorers, how many do you send out at once, how long do you let them roam the Wastes, and what are their stats?
Comment: http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/224161/which-stats-gear-can-get-the-best-our-of-wasteland-exploration?rq=1 The answer to this question is pretty much the same as this question.
Comment: @two bugs I don't think that's true at all
Answer: As pointed at in this question here, the luck of your wanderers has an impact on what they will find. Honestly from observations luck has More of an impact than time to get nice gear but time is still a factor to get Great gear.
My longest runs so far are around 36 hours of exploration and 18 hours return trip.
The low level luck people I used to send out would still bring back rusty whatever guns and BB guns even towards the end of their trips. They did some times come back with a nice rifle or the like but that was rare.
The high level luck people I have started using are amazing. They still find rusty guns and BB guns but they are also finding rail guns and power armor. This is making me definitely focus more on luck for pretty much everyone in the game.
To answer the general questions that followed, I send between 1 and 6 people out at once, I try to make their trips last as long as I can by loading them down with Stimpacks and RadAways. For stats I focus on Strength, Perception, Endurance and Luck. These stats appear to help them last longer and fear encounters less as well give an upturn as to what items they are bringing back with them.
NOTE: The -huge- majority of my guys WILL die before I bring them back as I can not check in on them as often as I should. Every time the amount of caps and gear on them greatly out-weights the cost of the revival (as its over 1000 now for them).
Comment: Maybe the stage of the game you are at also affects this. I just sent someone with luck over 10 out for about 15 hours and and someone with luck about 8 out for over 20 and they didn't find anything different from the things I usually find. I did notice that the monsters they fought got considerably more difficult, with rate of stimpack usage increasing markedly. I've got 34 Dwellers.
Comment: I tend to not focus on endurance as much as the other 3 since there's armors giving a lot of endurance (+5) compared to the other stats. Luck is the hardest to get higher with a armor that will make your explorer last longer.
Comment: What do you consider high luck? The ability to train luck  comes pretty late in the game. Is high luck anything over 3? 2?
Comment: @intuited 6+. While the new update makes survival a bit harder in an old vault I have so many 10 luckers now its not even funny. There are only so many rooms and so many people
Answer: I do not know the chance of the rare items, but I can recommend you to open equip your wanderers with lots of cool gear and then leave them overnight. Most likely they can defend themselves and so they can get cool stuff like Lockboxes. I don't know if it will work for you, but it worked for me.


bipolar LED across a switch to indicate off/on

Question: I'm working with this drawing to indicate the switch on a distribution panel on my boat.  Green/OFF & Red/ON.  12vdc One trouble is that the total ma is quite high when you add up 8 switches.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-RedGreen-LED-Guide/step2/null/
I'm thinking it would be more efficient using transistor gates as in this 2nd drawing down on this page, but that's a single led and I want to use green/red bipolar for switch OFF/ON.
Understanding Transistors
Thanks for all your help.
Comment: Speaking as a boater, having an LED On to indicate that a switch or circuit is off just wastes valuable battery power.  I would just use a single green LED to indicate the circuit is on, and use as high a value resistor in series with the LED as possible, while still producing adequate light from the LED.
Comment: Traditionally (as in military vessels) an OFF indicator avoids the situation where the circuit is ON but the indicator is faulty. More of a problem in the days of incandescent indicator bulbs, but the philosophy is not entirely without merit.
Comment: Oooarrgh boat ! As a boater I  have a battery isolation switch .In some countries on some boats its needed by law .If you have a battery isolation switch the off leds would be good.
Answer: The trouble with using power (lamp or LED),  well,  no matter how you do it, it's still power.
Green LED is ON for when switch is OFF. Red LED is ON for when switch is ON.
No matter how you switch the LED's (switch or transistors), those darn LED's still consume the same amount of power.
Using transistors to switch the LED's on and off actually consumes a tiny bit more power.
Answer: Yeah, I know this topic is old but so is this idea.
No muss, no fuss, no power other than the LED.
It's a simple SPDT switch. Power goes in the switch common.  Out one side to the load and the the RED LED, out other side to GREEN LED. LED's can share same dropping resistor since only one at a time is on. If your craft has a MASTER switch this will remove all power so there's no drain from the LED's.
One warning...
If you switch inductive loads the CEMF may damage the led, so use a diode ACCROSS THE led to suppress it, or, use a DPDT switch with one pole for the LED's and the other pole for the load.
Answer: If you want to use a "bipolar LED" (I'd call them anti-parallel) like that, then you need to pick a resister that works for the voltage you have with both LEDs. Then you need an H-Bridge. Schematic example below:

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab


What happens if I shut off my Switch while visiting another island?

Question: There are so many cut/loading screens when visiting another island (with people coming and going), it seems more efficient to just turn off the Switch, but what does that do to the visited town and my own save state? Does the owner of the other island just see me leave normally? Do I keep everything from my last save, or does it revert to a state before I visited the island?
Answer: Your state isn't saved. You lose everything you got in that island. The owner doesn't see you leave normally, you just dissapear.
Comment: @Wolf the game saves your state when travelling, but not anymore when you're already in your destination. It saves again when you're travelling back home properly.
Comment: re: "lose everything," whenever I've been in someone's town, a full-screen "now saving" accompanied anyone coming in and out. Is that "now saving" just for the host then, not me? And the game doesn't save at all when I'm fishing, selling, or entering/exiting buildings?
Answer: You definitely keep items that are recorded as part of your "player save", and you lose anything kept in the "world save". The inverse occurs when the island owner is who disconnects.
 You have just come across the method many players use for item duplication.
After 60 seconds, it will also make an announcement to everybody else on that island:

PLAYERNAME has quietly left...

This is the same thing happens if a player's internet drops out while they are visiting a friend.


How do I keep the "detected" state ON in a PIR detector until a human has left the detection area

Question: A PIR detector stops alarming after a while, if a human in the detection area doesn't move. How do I keep the alarming state ON as long as there's a human in the detection area even if he doesn't move?
Comment: I developed a system that is used to shut off a 40A 240VAC kitchen stove/oven system if the kitchen isn't occupied continually. It ensures that there is someone present in the room with the stove/oven and only allows very short periods of departure (settable.) The system involves the use of multiple ultrasonic sensors and a radar unit to achieve it. PIR wasn't that useful so it's not part of the system.
Comment: I made an edit. Please revert, if you thought something else or confirm, if the edit is OK.
Comment: @jonk Did you use a doppler radar or an FMCW/chirp radar?
Comment: @HenryCrun No chirp, though if I revisit this I will probably look at that possibility (depends on cost, size, distances, etc.) I used doppler radar. If you need reference papers on using these for room occupancy, I can provide a few.
Answer: PIR sensors do not actually sense the presence of a person, they sense the motion of some large thing that has a significantly different temperature than the surroundings. If a person stops moving then a PIR sensor will not detect the presence of the person; that's just a fundamental characteristic of the sensor.
Comment: +1. The OP might require an "active" infra-red system that can spot something in the human body temperature range and block out background, low temperature and very high temperatures such as lamps. The problem will be that other devices such as TV / electronics will give off signatures close to that of body temperature and of similar size.
Comment: specifcally they sense angular motion across the plane of the sensor. They are insensitive to radial movement. Microwave doppler is the opposite, sensing radial, and insensitive to angular.
Answer: Assuming there's no large temperature differences in the room you can try to rotate slowly the detector forth and back few degrees with a motor mechanism. I bet the intruder cannot follow it accurately enough.
Other possiblities:

after a detection start to monitor possible ways off. As long as nobody hasn't gone assume there's still someone (not good if there's enough room for 2 or more and they know the logic)
use another detection principle - a static one which doesn't need motion.  There are many of them. For ex. weight on the floor, changed normal camera image,  changed IR camera image, changed ultrasonic standing wave pattern, incrased losses in a big induction coil, reduced capacitance between the walls, detected breathing sound, increased CO2 or other gases in the air etc...
persuade the human to want to move. Have for example a massive tesla coil discharge to increase the restlessness
Comment: Your 'other possibilities' are so creative, but if I may, maybe not very practical? The last one made me laugh though, thanks! I wonder though (seriously): Wouldn't a PIR sensor moved back and forth by a motor go off when someone turns on something hot, like an oven or a lightbulb?
Comment: @MartinF I assumed there's no remarkable temperature differences in the detection area. Moving the sensor of course is useless, if the assumption was false.
Comment: @user287001 `"persuade the human to want to move"` A friend made security systems for warehouses, and they had a real problem with being too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Thieves had learnt to move slowly, as the sensors had to be turned down to prevent falsing. His solution was to have two thresholds. At the very sensitive (falsing) one, it gave a short blast of the siren and strobe lights. If it was a sneaky human, they would jump or run, and then trigger the higher threshold, sending an alarm call.
Answer: A possible solution considering that the human has already been detected by the PIR sensor and your notes: "... stops alarming after a while ... How do I keep the alarming state ON ...?": A relay (K1) with two contacts (K1_1 and K1_2) can work such as a flip-flop (interlocking in true) storing the ON state. The additional switch shown (or transistor) could to RESET the system.
Comment: But how will this reset when the person leaves? You are really only providing a latching motion sensor whereas the OP is looking for a presence sensor.
Comment: I believe the OP was looking for a simple solution - without the need for more advanced technologies. I tried to answer the question providing a simple and low cost one, considering certain requirements present on the short text provided by  OP (I made that very clear in my answer). Regarding the reset: Someone could to open (personally or remotely) the "normally closed contact" (Reset switch or transistor on figure) after being advised of the intrusion, for example.
Comment: I believe he has a practical reason. An intruder has come in, triggered a sensor, but the sensor is not under monitoring because it's still not the time to close the doors. The questioner wants that a person who is in the detection area at the closure time would be detected, no matter if he moves or not. The relay system you presented is included to normal alarm central logik.
Comment: @user287001: OK. You may be right. So, I would like the OP provide his opinion on this.


Use Microsoft OneNote sharing link without a Microsoft account

Question: I would like to share a OneNote 2013 notebook with a user who does not have (and does not want!) a Microsoft account.  I can create a "Sharing Link" in the notebook's "Share Notebook" options, and this link allows the user to open/edit the notebook on https://onedrive.live.com.  This works ok, but I would really like to find a way for the user to use his native desktop OneNote 2013 app with this shared notebook.  Is there any way to do this?
Comment: did you find the solution? It's 2022 now and MS still requires sign in when opening share link
Answer: Just use a file synchronization software, like Dropbox, Google Drive, Bittorrent Sync, etc., and create the Notebook in a directory shared by both of you.
Example with Dropbox:
User1 creates the Notebook in the shared folder:
OneNote -> File -> New -> Computer -> Create in different folder ->
User2, wait for the files to sync, and just open the notebook:
OneNote -> File -> Open -> Computer -> Browse -> c:\users\user2\dropbox\sharednotes\ -> select Open Notebook.onetoc2
Of course, if you are going to share a sensitive data you can always use another layer of security on top of the file sync software, like CryptSync.
Comment: This might be a workaround.  But I worry about just copying the whole file.  What about update conflicts?  Doesn't the native "sharing" capability in OneNote handle concurrency issues better than "just copy the whole file"?
Answer: There is not a way to do this without signing in (although I don't know why this is).
Not sure if this is the case, but the user might be under the assumption that creating a Microsoft account means they will need sign up for a live.com or outlook.com email account.  This is no longer the case, Microsoft now allows the use of any existing email address as a Microsoft account.  So it's really just signing up with an existing email and remembering one more password.
Answer: User can create and share this like mentioned earlier only through OneDrive link which is generated by Microsoft one note if connected to OneDrive service and without login into the OneDrive/outlook account by either of the parties shared the file or received that particular file cannot open that oneNote in different PC local. This procedure is to secure the file, and that's how I conclude the answer. Thanks
As far as a Microsoft OneDrive user there's no way to do that any other way to bypass login. Even if someone found a way by third party malware I suggest it is not secure and I'm afraid there might be a chance of sensitivite data loss.


Pork safe to eat?

Question: I put an 8pound Boston butt in the crock pot last night to cook. Crock pot got hot I went to bed. Sometime during the night the crock pot turned off. Everything was cold. Is it safe to cook and eat?
Answer: No, it is not safe to eat.  Roasts, chops, or steaks should be cooked to a minimum of 145(F)degrees to insure food safety.  Of course, people regularly eat steaks that are still bloody with no ill effects.  But, if pathogens have been allowed to accumulate due to time/temperature abuse or cross-contamination, one may become seriously ill by eating undercooked meats.  Note that these negative conditions do not have to have occurred in your home.  The roast may have been dropped onto the butchering floor and kicked around a few times before being sent on to your local meat seller.  Then, allow a good long time in a bacterial spa environment, such as a crock pot that was temporarily heated up, then switched off, and you have a very good recipe for serious gastro-intestinal fireworks.  Additionally, cooking to the correct temperature afterwards is still no guarantee against ill effects.  Besides the normal infection-type illnesses from allowing bacteria to multiply, there are toxicity illnesses from toxins produced by the bacteria.  And, the bad news is, toxins aren't ameliorated by cooking. Rat poison would not be safe to drink, no matter how well you cooked it. Worse news is that the elderly, infants, and people with weakened immune systems may even die from this.  So, despite the high cost of meat, throwing it out is a bargain compared with doctor visits or missed work, due to eating unsafe food.

Pork safe to eat?


Linear Mixed model, number of observations per group

Question: I am trying to fit a mixed model with about 45 groups, about 10 of the groups have just one observation and about 10 groups have more than 5 observations. The total number of observations is around 170. Should I be concerned about the estimates? Is there merit in just removing the groups with one observations or somehow merging them with the other ones? Are there techniques for that?
Answer: This sample size is rather small for Linear Mixed Model. Hox (2002) quotes Kreft's (1996) rules of thumb for minimal sample size:

30/30 - minimum 30 groups with 30 observations per group
50/20 - minimum 50 groups with 20 observations per group
100/10 - minimum 100 groups with 10 observations per group

Ten observations per group is minimal sample size that is often mentioned. The general problem is that 1 or even 5 is a very small sample for a group. Also your general sample size of 170 is rather small for estimating as complicated model as multilevel model. The smaller the sample, the more biased your results can get.
As an alternative, you can use Bayesian estimation, since it often works well even with small sample sizes. However, with this approach you could end up with estimates being drawn purely from prior distribution.
You can find more information on preferable sample sizes and power analysis for multilevel modeling in those two books:

Snijders, T.A.B. & Bosker, R.J. (2012). Multilevel Analysis: An Introduction to Basic and Advanced Multilevel Modeling. London: Sage Publishers.
Hox, J. (2010). Multilevel Analysis: Techniques and Applications. New York: Routledge.
Comment: Thanks Tim, what would be a good way to combine data and decrease the number of groups?
Comment: That really depends on your data. Generally, you use multilevel modelling when there is some *natural* hierarchy in the data while combining groups would create an arbitrary grouping. Maybe you could open a different question describing your data in detail and asking what type of analysis would be appropriate for this kind of data?


How can I change the metadata of my songs all at once?

Question: I have a bunch of songs for which I'd like to change the metadata (really just want to change capitalization for all of them). I'm not changing a field in all songs to one value, so selecting them all in iTunes won't work. They are AAC files. Is there an easy way to do this? Not having to download a third-party app would be nice, but I doubt it'll be that easy (maybe someone can prove me wrong :)).
Answer: You could also run a script like this in AppleScript Editor:
tell application "iTunes"
    repeat with t in selection
        tell t
            set name to my titlecase(name)
            set artist to my titlecase(artist)
            set album to my titlecase(album)
        end tell
    end repeat
end tell

on titlecase(x)
    do shell script "ruby -rubygems -KUe 'require \"titlecase\"
    print ARGV[0].titlecase' -- " & quoted form of x
end titlecase

The titlecase gem can be installed with sudo gem install titlecase.
Answer: So I've tried 3 ways to do this…

Writing my own little terminal script that goes through all the folders of the artists/albums/etc and auto capitalizes it (too complicated)
This handy little Automator trick I found online (I'm just gonna add the image tutorial here…

This totally awesome (and the easiest of the three methods) I found online. Goto the following link ::
http://dougscripts.com/itunes/scripts/ss.php?sp=titlecaps
Comment: +1 for Doug's script; I use it often when I rip CDs and the tags have bad capitalization.
Answer: Capitalising each song title is not possible, but changing the common metadata among all of them works. For example, you can change the Album name and Album art for a number of songs.
There's an apple script that does specifically this (capitalise song name), but I haven't tried it yet: iTunes Capitalizer.


The word for "?!" or "!?"

Question: Is there a word for the punctuation "?!" or "!?"? A friend of mine steeped in such idiosyncrasies of eccentric English lore said there was but could not recall the name. I guess for reasons known only to the search-gods it seems rather ineffective to Google.
Answer: Apparently it's an interrobang.
Comment: @DKrueger:  The Unicode codepoint set is pretty comprehensive, so it's not surprising that it contains a character that is only rarely used.  I've never seen the symbol in use, other than on the aforementioned article.
Comment: Unicode is intentionally almost absurdly comprehensive. It also has the irony mark. Isn't *that* just the most useful thing⸮
Comment: +1.  Interrobang usually refers to an amalgamation of the two marks, but it indeed describes this phenomenon.  The actual interrobang mark is extremely rare, and may be completely absent from regular usage.
Comment: @Brendon If so, why was it given a Unicode codepoint‽
Comment: By my reading of the Unicode Consortium's rules, a **huge** chunk of Unicode code points are explicitly not supposed to be there (i.e. their presence clashes with the stated purpose of Unicode), but they are :/
Comment: @KarlKnechtel That emoticon should be:

The word for "?!" or "!?"


Non Domain external user getting error while accessing document

Question: In SharePoint 2010 site I have a document library and have given non domain users permission to access the library one of the group is given no delete permission and a non domain user from that group is getting an error "we cannot do that for you because the file was deleted or checked out " . What could be the issue when he is trying to access this document in IE. Can anyone help me on this. Thanks
Answer: Troubleshooted the issue and finally resolved.
Ianted to post here so that it helps others after going through different trials and reading the user deleting them and again adding them to group, asking them to upload document and try to check out and edit on them did not helped much.
I have gone through these steps and helped me in resolving in the issue.
SharePoint Workspace was running in the system tray which had the "Shared Documents" library synced, because of this there were some temp files out there in the following location
<code>c:\Users\login_user_name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\15.0\OfficeFileCache
</code>
After terminating the Sharepoint workspace and clearing those temp files, I was able to open documents in Office client.
And other thing is mentioned as in Microsoft
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/899709
Answer: Is this happening when the users accesses the document library and then selects the document or are they using a direct link to the document?
If they are using a direct link give them a document library link and ask them to open it.
Comment: hi brian no when the users are trying to access the document libray and select the document it is getting opened with check out being asked and once the user clicks on check out the above error pops up. The user is in a group which has permission level no delete. let me know how to resolve this.


Rejsekort or advance booking for inter-city travel in Denmark

Question: I'm traveling soon between two cities in mainland Denmark. According to the local route planner (https://www.rejseplanen.dk/), the best route is by bus with 3-4 transfers. Do I have to buy ticket beforehand or can I buy an anonymous rejsekort (https://www.rejsekort.dk/Bestil/Rejsekort-anonymt) and pay as I go. I'd prefer to have my route planned and paid before going to Denmark.
Answer: For most buses known by rejseplanen you can't buy a ticket beforehand.
Personally I don't like long journeys by bus, so I might not have noticed it if rejseplanen suggested a stretch with a bus for which it was possible to buy a ticket beforehand. I also don't know if those buses even accept rejsekort. So you might not have the choice you present, but if you share more about your journey, someone might say something more specific.
Living in Denmark I have a personal (non-anonymous) rejsekort, but I have read that not many places sell the anonymous version, so remember to have a plan for where to buy one, but it probably is the wise choice (if rejsekort is even an option).
Comment: All "public" busses will support rejsekortet. The exception might be things like KombardoExpressen etc (which require pre-purchased tickets) - However I am quite sure that these won't be displayed on Rejseplanen.

If one is on a longer stay, i would definitely just get the Rejsekort.

Source: I am a Dane without a car so I take public transport quite a lot.
Comment: Depending on the route, an anonymous rejsekort might need to be "upgraded" to be valid for trips over some specified borders. If so, 600 DKK is needed on the card to start any trip.
Answer:
I'd prefer to have my route planned and paid before going to Denmark.

If your route is solely with Midttrafik, they sell tickets online, both one day and zone tickets: https://webshop.midttrafik.dk/

For some routes it is possible to add a short train trip (that you just don't use) in the start or end of your trip so it becomes possible to buy from DSB: https://www.dsb.dk/en/


After upgrading from 17.10 Ubuntu 18.04 won't sleep/suspend

Question: Today I upgraded Ubuntu from 17.10 to 18.04 and can't figure out what's going on. When I click suspend button display becomes black but laptop is still running. I already tried many things like editing logind.conf and acpi-support files but nothing same old same old. Help me
Comment: Sometimes you can suspend via menu, when it doesn't work by closing lid. You can look for messages using `journalctl -b | grep sleep` and `journalctl -b | grep suspend`. Linux is infamous for suspend/resume problems and with laptops in general. Still for all it's warts it beats Windows amongst enthusiasts albiet not for business and finance.
Answer: I've been experiencing what appears to be this very same issue with an HP Pavilion 11 x360.
I have installed Ubuntu and Kubuntu 18.04 a couple of times on my friend's and my own laptops without any suspend issues, but this one 'problem child' has been very much misbehaving.
The Pavilion goes to a black screen but the power LED stays on and the fan continues to spin (if it had been doing so already). The laptop remains unresponsive to anything until I shut it down.
It has done this with both Ubuntu and Kubuntu 18.04 but worked fine with Ubuntu and Kubuntu 17.10.

Edit - There are a few issues that look similar - an nVidia graphics driver problem, the machine going into s2idle instead of suspend and this specific issue that seems to only be affecting a small number of people. Take a look at the steps here to help identify your issue: Ubuntu 18.04 - Dell XPS13 9370 no longer suspends on lid close

It doesn't seem to be affecting everyone (otherwise I assume it'd be all over the forums by now) but after trying things like pm-utils and adjusting grub configurations to no avail, I found this answer from matalak's question:
Ubuntu 18.04 crashes on resuming from suspend
Following the suggestion, I used UKUU to install an older kernel (4.14.47 - the most up to date 4.14 kernel) and suspend worked again as it should.

Edit - If you have nVidia graphics, there seems to be a fix that is working for a number of people, helpfully provided by cascagrossa in the answer to the question linked above.
A bug report has been opened https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1774950 and there is a patch that resolves the issue, so the suspend problem should be fixed in an update in the near future.

Using an older kernel is only a temporary solution and I'd quite like to be using 4.15 and onwards (4.16 and 4.17 and had the same suspend problems when i tried them out)..
Could you also add what machine you are using to your question?
Can you let us know if trying the 4.14 kernel lets suspend work as normal for you too?


Dark Image at longer focal (aviation photography)

Question: I am trying to practice aviation photography, I have a Nikon D3100 and AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED. When I take a shot at a longer focal length the subject (aircraft) is dark and I have to improve it by changing levels in editors like PS. I use A mode and camera set shutter speed and I set the aperture to f/9.
Example:
Comment: I'm not a professional but to me the image seems well exposed. I see (almost) black in the engines and the tires and (almost) white in the highlights of the nose and the engine rims, so the dynamic range has been used. True: the histogram shows that most of the image is in the middle range of brightness, but that's not too surprising on a grey day and an airplane belly which reflects the ground. If you would like to have more contrast in the middle section of the histogram you can of course modify the brightness curve, effectively spreading the middle and compressing the extremes.
Comment: Oh, and I'm not sure it has anything to do with focal length as such; it's the image composition. (It is true though that you don't get a shot from the underside of an airplane plus some sky without long focal length, because the plane must be in the air for that, so this affect -- object in front of the sky -- tends to coincide with long focal lengths. But that's a red herring; any motif with a similar brightness distribution will have a similar result, even with a fisheye.)
Answer: Use manual exposure mode. The aircraft is a very small part of the total frame that is mostly filled with a much brighter sky. Your camera's automatic exposure modes don't know that you want to expose for that one small dark object instead of the majority of the frame. It also doesn't know if that sky is supposed to be bright white or dark black, so it will try to make it as bright as a medium gray, just like it tries to make everything else.
One good way to set exposure is to meter on similar aircraft that are sitting on the tarmac and receiving the same amount of light, assuming a view of such aircraft is available.
Some folks might suggest using spot metering, but it's difficult to keep the exact center of the frame right on a fast moving aircraft.
Edit: Now that you've included examples the issue is clearer. The plane is larger in the frame than your question may have originally implied, but the answer is essentially the same: you need to control exposure instead of allowing your camera to control exposure.
The camera will try to make everything medium gray. It does this because it doesn't know if your camera is pointed at pure white snow or a black cat in a coal mine. It just measures light and calculates a value that will result in the frame averaging out to medium gray. Some cameras are getting pretty good at guessing better, especially those with RGB+IR light meters which use all three primary colors plus near-infrared to meter the scene and compare it to a library in the firmware that will probably be able to tell the difference between a bright blue sky in the top of the frame and dark green forest in the lower part of the frame. The light meters in older and many entry level cameras are monochrome and can't meter in color, so they have to guess even more and often get tricky situations completely wrong.
Your D3100 actually has an RGB (but no infrared) light meter. But with a bright sky and a bright white object even the best of metering systems have less to compare against.
In the case of a white airplane, exposing for it to be medium grey is about 1 to 1 1/2 stops to 2 stops underexposed. Either add some positive exposure compensation while watching your histogram to guard against a setting that blows out the highlights or, better yet, use manual exposure. After all, the sky isn't going to change how bright it is very much over a short period of time unless a storm moves in, in which case the plane may or may not be visible through the weather, or it is dawn or dusk when the light changes color and brightness rapidly.


A/C is not blowing thru front vents

Question: Recently had battery changed....I recalibrated the HVAC but that did not work.  There is a possibility that I pushed an A/C button before the calibration was complete.  Could this cause the front vents to stop working?
Comment: I would think the first thing to do is recalibrate it again if you think you may have interupted it the first time.
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! What is the vehicle in question (year/model) and what procedure did you use to recalibrate the HVAC?
Answer: GM products are known for this issue. It can sometimes be prevented by making sure all the HVAC controls are in the off positions. If you wait patiently for 10 minutes in the vehicle after turning it off you can hear the doors return to the home position. Of course this only works if disconnecting the battery was planned. If the vehicle has some age (5 years plus) the doors may not re-home. The gears attached to the motor strip or break in half.The good news is that this happens so often now the motors are inexpensive. The bad news is that some require removing half the dash to gain access. Is this the procedure you used?
Remove the HVAC / ECAS-10A fuse for a minute. Replace it, and then turn on the ignition, run the truck for 1-2 minutes, then turn the truck off. Wait for between 10 and 30 seconds, and then turn the truck back on. Important to note that You shouldn't touch the controls through this entire process.

A/C is not blowing thru front vents


Creating a webpage with user accounts, what do I need to keep in mind?

Question: I am trying to write a website that has user accounts. There isn't much sensitive information other than the password and email address. But I don't really understand what I'm doing; I'm kind of hacking it along as I go. Is there anything I should be keeping in mind with respect to security or any other important details?
Answer: You should:

encrypt sensitive data
avoid:

avoid sql injection
Session hijacking
Session fixation

Recommended Reading:
PHP Security Guide
Answer: Sarfraz Ahmed brought up some good resources for reading. You could also use a PHP class for user authentication, there are plenty. I my self have put up a project called userFlex on sourceForge http://uflex.sourceforge.net
userFlex has a decent documentation and it does more than just login users; it does  registration and field validations, password resets, confirmation codes for registrations, handles sessions and more like autologin.
Again im just putting up userFlex as an example, you could also look into http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/file/5269.html or many other good Classes in PHPclasses.org.
Answer: Use JanRain Engage (formerly rpxnow.com) for authentication. Their solution lets people use their existing credentials from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and others to log into your site. Many of these providers will give a valid OpenID and often a valid email address as a part of the authentication process.
If you use JanRain, you then only have to store the email address or the OpenID for a user, and you don't have to store passwords or password hashes. Furthermore, you don't have to implement any password reset functionality, or "forgot my password". Also your user registration functionality can be much smaller because you start it with a valid email address or OpenID provided by its owner.
The communication between your application and JanRain is authenticated and encrypted, so it is all nice & secure.
Comment: True but also remember that OpenID can have also disadvantages. See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/410085/what-reasons-are-there-not-to-use-openid for an interesting conversation at that regard.
Comment: When I say OpenID, I mean JanRain Engage's version of it. They use OpenID under the covers, and the user never has to see it. The user only sees userid & passwords that they know from Goog/Yahoo/MS/FB et al. And you never have to type your userid and password into any page except the login page of the identity provider.
Comment: This might actually be what I will end up using. Thank you for showing me this.
Answer: You MUST use the MD5 php function for passwords. Simple way of securing it. Also make sure you use strip_tags in php so that someone cant execute commands in your input boxes. Since there isn't any sensetive data i dont think you need to encrypt anything. Just make sure the login system is perfect and the user has no other way of accessing data without logging in..
Shud suffice for a basic login script..
Comment: "You MUST use the MD5 php function" => while it's advisable to hash a password, md5() is hardly the only way...
Comment: in fact, you MUST NOT use MD5 for password hashing, but rather something slower and designed for passwords, like BCRYPT or even SCRYPT.


Plane of corpses in "A Scandal in Belgravia"

Question: What was the plan of the British and American governments with the plane of corpses in the Sherlock episode "A Scandal in Belgravia"? And why did Jim Moriarty want to know about this plan?
Answer: From the Baker Street wiki:

En route there, Sherlock remembers Mycroft mentioning Coventry on the phone and reminisces about the allegations that the British government allowed the Coventry Blitz to happen, so as not to alert the Germans that their military codes had been cracked. There, his suspicions that a similar situation is occurring are confirmed by Mycroft on board the airplane, which has been filled with corpses. The government had decided to fly a 'dummy plane', so as not to alert the saboteurs yet still avoid genuine casualties, which also explains the involvement of US agents. However, as Sherlock has unwittingly helped Irene, and, by extension, Moriarty, crack the code, the scheme is foiled.

WRT Mycroft:

Mycroft claims to merely "occupy a minor position in the government". However, according to Sherlock, he occasionally is the British Government, functioning as the control centre or "clearing house" for all government actions and decisions.


change solc version

Question: for some reason I am having trouble upgrading the truffle solidity compiler version.  truffle version --> Truffle v5.2.2
Solidity v0.5.16
When I uninstall and re-install truffle (npm uninstall -g truffle and npm install -g truffle) it is the same version.  How do I use a more recent version of Solidity with Truffle?  On windows 10.
Answer: I did find the correct method I believe is to modify the truffle-config.js.  This works for me.
<code>    }, //make sure you have the comma here
    compilers: {
        solc: {
            version: "0.4.22", // ex:  "0.4.20". (Default: Truffle's installed solc)
        },
    },
</code>

change solc version