Can you use a simulacrum to bypass the 33% chance of not being able to cast wish again?

Question: Inspired by this question and this one, I want to know if you can cast Simulacrum and have that simulacrum cast Wish for you so that you yourself never have to take that 33% risk of not being able to cast it again. This question seems to support that a simulacrum is capable of casting Wish and it is a copy of the caster but at it a separate and distinct entity from the caster. So RAW can you use Simulacrum to get essentially infinite risk free wishes?
Answer: RAW rules would consider the simulacrum as a separate entity, so I'd say it would work.
Adventurers League says in this FAQ (3/24/17):

If a simulacrum you have created casts wish, both you and your
  simulacrum suffer the stress associated with casting the
  spell—including the risk of being forever unable to cast wish again.
  The inability to cast wish extends to any simulacrum you create in the
  future.

Personally I'd houserule it to be similar to AL ruling, to prevent abuses. But if a DM is fine with this "trick" being pulled off, he might let it happen.
Comment: Can you link to the FAQ you're citing? (As far as I know, the FAQ hasn't yet been released for season 9, but [the latest one for season 8 is here](https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/FAQv82.pdf#page=8), including an expanded version of that quote.)
Comment: Sure thing. Page 8: https://media.wizards.com/2017/dnd/downloads/DDAL_FAQv6-1.pdf
Answer: Implementing the rule that the sim's wish counts as your wish
We used the rule in Matt DM's answer in our game.
In our last campaign, I played a wizard capable of simulacrum, who thereafter always had a sim.  We came up with some house rules to manage the spell.  For interactions with wish, it was essentially the same as in Matt DM's answer; however, we stated it much less formally:

You can't use simulacrum to circumvent the restrictions of wish; your sim's wish counts as your wish.

It was, in fact, formulated after reading this question and answer.
We were both happy with this, initially.  The DM was happy I wasn't thinking I was getting permission to spam wish, and I was happy the DM was happy.
But can someone use your sim to steal your wish?
However, as we gained levels from 13th toward 17th, I developed a concern.  Although more than once the sim was used as a battle tool, it was not routine; too disruptive for game flow.  Typically, the sim stayed and managed affairs at the castle while the party was adventuring1.
The concern
"So, wait. Eventually I'll have a sim with a 9th level spell slot.  What if while we're away, someone breaks through our defenses and somehow mind controls the sim?  Can they then cast wish, so that they get the benefits, but I'm the one that takes the penalty?"
It was not an idle concern.  The world was not static while we were off adventuring, such a thing could not be completely discounted.  More than once we came back to some sort of foolishness going on in the town, or outside the castle walls.
The DM's ruling
The DM thought about it, and then said, well, edge cases will be adjudicated as necessary, but I'll say this:

You can't fool wish.  Wish knows who's actually casting it, and assigns responsibility appropriately.  Wish ignores shenanigans.

I was happy with that.
Conclusion
The sim was extremely useful, and was fun to play, and we came up with a set of rules that made it work, including the two listed here.
We didn't actually ever put these specific rules directly to the test; I was never interested in wish spamming anyway (no matter what, it wouldn't work, it wasn't that sort of game), and no one ever tried to take control of the sim.2.  However, these two rules helped to give us a common understanding of how things should work, and that helped make the game much more fun, so in that sense they were very successful.

1 - This turned out to be more useful than we initially thought.  We had some NPCs in residence, but the DM wouldn't allow them to be decision makers.  The castle was also home to retired PCs, but again, the DM wouldn't allow them to be active participants.  We had a collection of monsters that came to live with us (which did not help our reputation with the locals), and also some bound elemental spirits, but again, not decision makers.  We did have an NPC in residence who could cast sending, so we had communications.  The sim managed things and never ever used a spell slot, except in a "break glass" kind of situation, which it did, once.
2 - Not that we didn't have issues.  The locals occasionally got up the courage to complain about our pet monsters.  Several times we had large numbers of undead outside the walls, so tedious to clean up (although that did help our standing with the locals, the ones that were left).  Extra-planar entities dropped by unannounced so often it got almost routine.  But no one tried to take control of the sim.


What is the difference between a website Style Guide and a Pattern Library?

Question: As per the question, I am currently trying to identify a clear difference between a Style Guide and a Pattern Library within the context of Web Design and Development.
Logically, I feel I have an understanding.  I have spent a lot of time, on the internet, trying to understand the difference, but it has just clouded my understanding.  It appears that many of the aspects of both a Style Guide and Pattern Library are interchangeable.  Maybe there are variations of terminology and interpretation, based on factors such as Geography and Industry.
The way I currently understand, a Website Style Guide would consist of factors such as:

Typography
Tone of written content
Logo Usage
Colour Schemes
Of course, other aspects too

Whilst a Pattern Library would consist of actual features on the website, together with their relevant HTML/CSS Markup, for features such as:

Text Boxes
Menus/Navigation
Layout
Bullet Points
Plus more ...

In other words, a Style Guide would be created first and become the 'Rule Book', providing all the relevant context on how the website should be approached.  Whereas a Pattern Library is a breakdown of the Visual Elements of the website, providing the details of the Markup, where no context is included?
My understanding above, is mainly drawn from my logical interpretation of my preexisting understanding.  Any further clarification, would be greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Answer: You've more or less got it right there. And there is definitely a need for overlap between the two.
In general:

a style guide (as its name suggests) helps you work out how to style things in a way that is right for the site, app, or business. It makes it easier to maintain visual consistency.
a pattern library helps you work out how to solve problems and present information in a way that is right for the site, app or business. It makes it easier to maintain usability, UX, and structural consistency.

A worked example: a pattern in the pattern library for a product post might detail that you show a title, a price, and a photo, and it might show how to lay those out (it may show several ways based on context). The formatting of the title, etc will be informed by the style guide.
As to which comes first: they both need to feed into each other. In theory you could have a style-agnostic pattern library - one that works with any stile guide - in practice though the two will be somewhat intertwined.
The good news is that you can certainly start both independently. You can start looking at typography, colour, space, etc without defining patterns, and you can start wireframing patterns without knowing what font you'll be using.
Comment: Because nothing is ever 'finished'. I've found that new patterns and components can create the need for new styles that can then, themselves be applied and explored more widely. (Strictly, you're quite right though - ideally style and presentation/structure should be separated.)
Comment: Not sure why a pattern library would ever influence a style guide
Answer: I guess the website style is about the layout and the appearance of the page, and the pattern concerns the format of the script and text in general!
I hope this help, and that an expert will give a better answer for all of us.


Getting library name in reusable workflow on library

Question: I have a reusable workflow on library to fill the values in a list. I also want to get library name value to be filled in list' one column.
Probably using stringbuilder and using some string manipulation on the url of current library
Any idea?
Comment: I think a calculated column can solve you problem.
Comment: thanks Amal, I am able to get whole url in string builder like http://mysitecollection/sites/sitename/library/item.jpg... but I want library out of this url. Can you let me know the formula to het this out in calculated column
Comment: You can add a new Calculated column to library and set formula =LibraryName. Also you can concatenate additional data along with it.
Comment: I cant add column in library because columns are coming from content type and adding a column will not shows it in workflow, instead I have to get whole url in list column and then manipulate that there
Answer: While you cannot get the list TITLE this way, you should at least be able to get the list URL through a somewhat round-a-bout way. It will require two new columns on your content type and a new step in the workflow:

Create a new site column (single line of text) and call it "Path"
Add the new "Path" column to your content type
In your reusable workflow, add a new step that sets the field "Path" in the current item to the relative URL of the current item, minus whatever you can strip off like web app URL and/or document name. Note: There are third-party workflow extensions that can make extracting a substring easier.
Add a new site column (calculated column) to your content type and call it "LibraryPath"
In your calculated column formula, use a combination of FIND and LEFT/RIGHT to strip off any remaining parts from the item's absolute URL. In the end, you should have only the list URL left (ex - "SharedDocuments"). When stripping out URL parts, you can usually use "/" as your waypoint.

For a full list of the text functions available in a calculated column, click here. Unfortunately, you will need to figure this part out yourself since every URL is different. Basically, you want to count the number of characters until a slash, then strip out that number of characters (+1 to remove the slash as well).
UPDATE: Here is a blog post showing how you can use Excel to test your formulas before putting them into a calculated column.
Also, please note that if you're accessing the full range of columns behind a library - such as with XSLT - there is a column called @FileDirRef which returns only the site-collection-relative URL of the library. Unfortunately, this column isn't available to either a calculated column or a SharePoint Designer workflow.
UPDATE 2: Also, keep in mind that a third-party workflow system, such as Nintex Workflows, may allow you to simply extract the current library name right off the bat. You can also do this via the SharePoint API if coding your own workflow in Visual Studio. Vanilla SharePoint does not offer this functionality, however.
UPDATE 3: Last one, I promise. If your workflow is 2013 compatible, you may be able to get the current list/library name through a web service call in your workflow. I've never tried getting this value specifically, so I'm not sure. Here is a reference to using the functionality.
Related Question: Get string out of url in calculated column
Answer: If you're developing the workflow in Visual Studio, you can use the following code to access the Title property of the Item's Parent List.
// Get the item the workflow is running on.
SPListItem item = workflowProperties.Item;
// Get it's parent list/library title.
string libraryTitle = item.ParentList.Title.ToString();
// Set the column value.
item["Library Title"] = libraryTitle;
// Commit the changes.
item.Update();

If you don't want to update modified/modified by or create a version use the following instead of item.Update();
item.SystemUpdate(false);

Answer: yes, it is possible to get the name of the list/library in Reusuable workflow:
1) create a association parameter (LibraryName) from 'Initiation Form parameters' option.
2) Then associate your workflow with the list/library it will ask for the parameter (LibraryName), enter the name and click on ok.
3) log/use the variable(LibraryName) in the workflow.


Where is it said that Pandora opened the box out of curiosity?

Question: The earliest mention of Pandora seems to be Hesiod's Works and Days:

Zeus in the anger of his heart hid it, because Prometheus the crafty deceived him; therefore he planned sorrow and mischief against men. He hid fire; but that the noble son of Iapetos stole again for men from Zeus the counsellor in a hollow fennel-stalk, so that Zeus who delights in thunder did not see it. But afterwards Zeus who gathers the clouds said to him in anger : 'Son of Iapetos, surpassing all in cunning, you are glad that you have outwitted me and stolen fire--a great plague to you yourself and to men that shall be. But I will give men as the price for fire an evil thing in which they may all be glad of heart while they embrace their own destruction.'
So said the father of men and gods, and laughed aloud. And he bade famous Hephaistos (Hephaestus) make haste and mix earth with water and to put in it the voice and strength of human kind, and fashion a sweet, lovely maiden-shape, like to the immortal goddesses in face; and Athene (Athena) to teach her needlework and the weaving of the varied web; and golden Aphrodite to shed grace upon her head and cruel longing and cares that weary the limbs. And he charged Hermes the guide, the Slayer of Argos, to put in her a shameless mind and a deceitful nature. So he ordered. And they obeyed the lord Zeus the son of Kronos (Cronus). Forthwith [Hephaistos] the famous Lame God moulded clay in the likeness of a modest maid, as the son of Kronos purposed. And the goddess bright-eyed Athene girded and clothed her, and the divine Kharites (Charites, Graces) and queenly Peitho (Persuasion) put necklaces of gold upon her, and the rich-haired Horai (Horae, Seasons) crowned her head with spring flowers. And Pallas Athene bedecked her form with all manners of finery. Also [Hermes] the Guide, the Slayer of Argos, contrived within her lies and crafty words and a deceitful nature at the will of loud thundering Zeus, and the Herald of the gods put speech in her. And he called this woman Pandora (All-Gifts), because all they who dwelt on Olympos gave each a gift, a plague to men who eat bread.
But when he had finished the sheer, hopeless snare, the Father sent glorious Argus-Slayer [Hermes], the swift messenger of the gods, to take it to Epimetheus as a gift. And Epimetheus did not think on what Prometheus had said to him, bidding him never take a gift of Olympian Zeus, but to send it back for fear it might prove to be something harmful to men. But he took the gift, and afterwards, when the evil thing was already his, he understood. For ere this the tribes of men lived on earth remote and free from ills (kakoi) and hard toil (ponoi) and heavy sickness (nosoi) which bring the Keres (Fates) upon men; for in misery men grow old quickly. But the woman took off the great lid of the jar (pithos) with her hands and scattered all these and her thought caused sorrow and mischief to men. Only Elpis (Hope) remained there in an unbreakable home within under the rim of the great jar, and did not fly out at the door; for ere that, the lid of the jar stopped her, by the will of Aigis-holding Zeus who gathers the clouds. But the rest, countless plagues (lugra), wander amongst men; for earth is full of evils and the sea is full. Of themselves diseases (nosoi) come upon men continually by day and by night, bringing mischief to mortals silently; for wise Zeus took away speech from them. So is there no way to escape the will of Zeus."

Not only does this version mention a jar instead of a box, it doesn't mention why Pandora opened the box.  The popular version of this myth usually says that Pandora opened it out of curiosity, wanting to know what was inside, but Hesiod says nothing about that, and indeed considering the way Pandora is described by him, as cunning and deceitful, rather than curious or naive, it wouldn't surprise me that she opened the jar on purpose, knowing what was inside.
The closest ancient source to the modern version of Pandora, which I found while researching, would be one of Aesop's fables:

Zeus gathered all the useful things together in a jar and put a lid on it. He then left the jar in human hands. But man had no self-control and he wanted to know what was in that jar, so he pushed the lid aside, letting those things go back to the abode of the gods. So all the good things flew away, soaring high above the earth, and Elpis (Hope) was the only thing left. When the lid was put back on the jar, Elpis (Hope) was kept inside. That is why Elpis (Hope) alone is still found among the people, promising that she will bestow on each of us the good things that have gone away.

This fable seems to resemble the modern version that we have of Pandora, where she opens the jar out of curiosity and impulse, seeking to know what's inside, and hope is the last thing that remains.  Despite that, it still has important differences, instead of evils, the jar contains good things, which goes away when the jar is opened, and Pandora is not mentioned, and it seems to be a man who opens the jar.
Could it be that over the years the myth of Pandora has been mixed with this fable?
Are there any ancient sources that mention why Pandora opened the box, or if she even knew what was inside?
Answer: From what I can gather, we assume Pandora opened the box out of curiosity because when it's told as a cautionary tale, we twist it to make it seem like she opened it because of her humanity, hence implying curiosity.
It's equally possible the Pandora simply wanted to open the box. Especially considering how she's described in this context.
I haven't found anything original saying that it was out of curiosity.
As for the jar vs box thing, from what I can tell, we just call it "Pandora's Box" because it sounds better than "Pandora's Jar".
Comment: Dora and Erwin Panofsky wrote a book on the myth, *Pandora's Box* (New York: Pantheon, 1956), in which as I recall they traced the substitution of "box" for "jar" to a piece of mistranslation by the Renaissance humanist Erasmus.  Hesiod's term is *pithos,* meaning a clay jar of large size, like the one that Ali Baba hid inside.


"Voyage, voyage"

Question: I was listening this song  with my friends during our trip to Tbilisi (Georgia, USSR) in 1982 (March). (I had a floppy disk brought by a relative from France or Belgium.) I remember this fact exactly but no one believes me.  They say that the song was appeared in 1986. The same one can find in Wikipedia. I don't know how to resolve this contradiction.
Comment: Constructive facts would be helpful, as e. g. the language of the song, man/woman/both/chorus singing. France / Belgium makes French quite likely which would endorse PiedPiper's answer.
Comment: @guidot The Desireless song is the only one of that name released in 1986 and having a Wikipedia page. So we can safely assume that's the one OP is referring to.
Answer: Assuming you are asking about the son "Voyage, Voyage" by Desireless.
The song was sung by Claudie Fritsch-Mentrop under her stage name "Desireless" and composed and produced by Jean-Michel Rivat and Dominique Dubois. She didn't even start working with the composers/producers of the song until 1984. From her web site:

En 1984, j'entame ma collaboration avec Jean-Michel Rivat et Dominique Dubois.
  En 1986, mon baptême Desireless avec la sortie du single : Voyage, Voyage.

The song was originally intended for the singer Michel Delpech, but he refused to sing it:

Lorsque son parolier attitré et ami Jean-Michel Rivat lui propose la chanson « Voyage, voyage », il ne se présente pas au studio, ayant préféré passer le week-end à Rome. Desireless l'enregistre et cela deviendra le classique que l'on connaît.

It looks like your memory is deceiving you. Here's a good article on false memories and how they happen.
Comment: Thank you for a (standard) answer. (It seems that Mister Sherlock Holmes would not be satisfied with it.) But first I will try to find my friends  who were with me in that trip and ask them. Also I will try to ask some my colleagues (of my age) in France .

"Voyage, voyage"


BPM and key detection for Android

Question: I am looking for an Android application that can:

perform BPM and key detection
support MP3s

If possible, free.
Answer: You can use rekordbox for Android:

free
by Pioneer
support MP3s and the most common music format
BPM (1 decimal)
key detection
Answer: Anytune works well for me

Slow down music, choose the perfect pitch, and learn to play by ear!
ANYTUNE™, the ultimate music practice app for musicians of all kinds,
has been recreated for Android. Learn a song by slowing it down
without changing the pitch. Pick out every note to learn a piece, or
play along with your favorite tracks by starting slow and gradually
increasing the tempo. Add marks to break down a song, color sections,
and find your place quick. Create loops so you can practice parts over
and over. Transpose a song to play or transcribe in a different key.
Fine tune the song by cents for alternate and non-standard tunings.

BPM and key detection for Android


How to Use AMP in Asp.net MVC

Question: I want to use Accelerated Mobile Page in MVC project
I am working in asp.net MVC project in that I have two file one for mobile and one for desktop  . so can I  use AMP for mobile?
anything problem arise if I can use combine?
or I have to create new project for mobile?
Answer: This is the easiest way to use Amp in your Asp.net Mvc application.
Step #1 Controller
Create a controller name it AMP like
<code> public class AmpController : Controller
{

 public ActionResult Index()
    {
      //Return page which contain Amp
     return View();

    }
}
</code>
Add this line before returning view to your existing Home or default controller which will redirect mobile traffic to Amp
<code>  public class HomeController : Controller
  {
     public ActionResult Index()
     {
        if (Request.Browser.IsMobileDevice)
          {
           Response.Redirect("~/Amp/Index");
          }
         //This is not Amp View
            return View();
      }
  }
</code>
Step #2
Index View
The view of Amp controller's index file must be Amp validated ,you can check whether the page html render is Amp or not by starting your asp.net mvc project and browse localhost:0000/Amp/Index here replace with your own localhost ,
then when page is shown right click view source copy it then past to Amp validator to check if it is valid.
Here is valid Amp html which you can past inside Index of Amp controller view
go to Amp site
In this way you can create Amp pages in Asp.net mvc.
Addition
Do not forget to replace these Razor attribute when using Amp

Form action attribute replace with action-xhr
see Here
Css can be use only inside Here see Here
Javascript can be written using amp-iframe first you need to write this line to use amp-iframe inside head

Then you can use javascript like this inside body
<code><amp-iframe width="0" height="0"
              sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin"
              layout="responsive"
              frameborder="0"
              src="~/Scripts/yourscriptname.js">
  </amp-iframe>
</code>
4.White Spaces Matters when using Amp ,if you leave spaces or anything when writing Amp html you may face validation errors so you need to format your code using [Vs Format code] or css compressor7,idea behind this is your page consume more bytes when it has more white space.When you copy and paste Amp code from their site on notepad or any editor it will add some extra spaces in code so that that page will not be validate as amp.
5.Available on Git
Here is my Amp project on Mvc,but you can modify it according to your business needs if you are working with SEO.
Comment: Point 4 isn't correct. Whitespace isn't a problem in a valid AMP page - the AMP content we output is formatted and we have had no problems. I'd also question why you need JS and AMP is supposed to be lightweight. If the JS is for visual purposes I'd have a look at the changes to the spec as functionality is being added all the time. However if you must include JS the caveat is that it should be placed in an iframe (as pointed out above) at least 600px from the top of the page.
Comment: no I mean to say when you copy and paste Amp code from their site on notepad or any editor it will add some extra spaces in code so that that page will  not be validate as amp I have tried this ,you too can check).
Answer: It might be a good idea to read the AMP Project website. However we have ASP.NET WebForms and we have dynamically created AMP versions of our content by stripping out the HTML and converting the content to support AMP tags. In other words we have two versions of the code, one AMP one non AMP.
In your particular case you'll have to write code which takes your existing code base and outputs an AMP version.
My advice - Google, read, and repeat.
Comment: Your solution has the overhead to reprocess the html as a drawback and also you have a little control over the generated AMP code.
Comment: For the solution we have I'm taking the content from the database and manipulating it on the fly when rendering the AMP page. This was needed because the content we have is dated and has only unsupported HTML tags. I'm not lucky enough to have clean perfect W3C compliant code.
Answer: I don't think you have to create a new project since the main difference between AMP and non-AMP versions is just your views and you probably should not have to touch on your controllers or models.
There is an interesting article that has a clean solution by registering a custom display mode that dynamically decides if the asp.net mvc have to serve the AMP or non-AMP version.
Comment: I don't think that's the best solution. As you'll note the author points out simply adding a few things to make an AMP version of the content didn't work and resulted in errors. Might be better to read his follow up [post](https://www.danylkoweb.com/Blog/google-amp-aftermath-replacing-images-using-actionfilters-EI).

To create an AMP version of the page you will essentially have to manipulate the content before outputting it to the browser.
Comment: I did it in two projects and I'm sure that it works perfecly and I it gives me much more control over the AMP-Html than if I was using an action filter to intecerpt the generated html (overhead). I sincerely hope you didn't downvote my answer just based on your preference by your own solution (overhead is something that I do not like but I won't downvote your answer just because I disagree with your point of view)
Comment: The downvote was given because the link isn't useful. The update in the article might have been but no the answer isn't helpful. Nothing personal.

How to Use AMP in Asp.net MVC


One column with multiple foreign keys situation

Question: Here's the deal : this is my first ever database project and I am afraid my solution to this problem isn't quite the best. The database keeps track of different "types" of cooperators. Those types are companies, organisations, employed workers, other "persons" ...
All of those have totally different sets of information, but they all have one in common - contact information. I decided to let user enter what kind of contact information he wants to add to any of the cooperator, whether its e-mail, phone, URL, Fax and so on ...
So I created "Contacts" table in which all the contact data for all the cooperators will be put, regardless of what type the cooperator is it.
The TablesList is the table that contains the list of cooperator types (Companies, Organisations, Workers)
Each row in the Contacts table must contain "TableID" number which identifies what type of the cooperator is it (Company/Worker/Organisation...), and must contain "RowID" which identifies what exact company/worker/organisation the contact is about.
The problem that exists it that Contacts table contains foreign keys from 3 other tables in 1 column, which cannot be good. I could remove the relationships and just fill the column with thos ID's without the DBMS knowing about the constrains, but that just doesnt look like a good solution to me, so now I doubt this idea is any good.
What do you suggest ?
Keep in mind that in future there may be some more types of cooperators added if needed (like temp/contract workers, agencies) and Contacts table should be designed to support them too
Thanks in advance !
Btw im using SQL CE and C#
here is the sketch of whats going on :

EDIT
Although it doesnt feel right, I just removed the relationships and it works just fine with my application so far
Answer: I suspect your design is over-normalized. You can simplify it by consolidating data into three tables: Companies, Workers and Organisations. It's not going to be normalized but it is much simpler to work with.
Check out http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2008/07/maybe-normalizing-isnt-normal.html


expired? can this be resubmitted differently and get a new patent?

Question: In reference to the patent: US4244057
Answer: US4244057A probably expired about Jan 13, 1998 so the invention described in it is available for anyone to be used. Of course, it cannot be resubmitted for a new patent since an invention needs to be novel in order for a patent to be granted. In other words, the expired patent would be prior art against a new patent application on the same idea. And, importantly you can only patent what you actually invent.
If you can think of a new improvement to the invention in the expired patent, then that improvement could potentially be patented, but it would also have to novel and non-obviousness in light of other patents that might exist.


What does "Ich bin ein Ausländer' mean?

Question: I saw this song. It was written in the 90's in response to the rise of the far right in Europe. I was wondering what the term was referencing. I suspect it has something to do with German fascisms, but I'm not really sure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76wSk1j02_4
Comment: Hi Neil! Welcome to the community! Could you clarify how looking up the term in a dictionary didn't resolve your problem? That makes it easier for us to help you.
Comment: I was wondering what ir meant beyond just a literal translation. If it had some special significance during WW2 maybe.
Answer: "Das Ausland" is a term meaning "the abroad", basically everything that isn't the country the speaker is in. "Ein Ausländer" is an alien (in the legal sense). This is (or was ?) basically a neutral term - the immigration office in Germany is called "Ausländerbehörde" for example -, but it has been stained by connotations over time, especially due to its use by xenophobic political right-wingers.
In the 90's, the far right was on the rise in Germany, especially, but not only, in the "neue Bundesländer" that had formed the GDR before 1990. Far-right parties were entering the parlaments of the Bundesländer and of the Bund, and xenophobic crime numbers were as high as they had never been after the Nazi era.
One of the slurs/slogans of the new neo nazi movement of that time was

"Deutschland den Deutschen, Ausländer raus!" (Germany to the Germans, Aliens out!)

Neo nazis marched through the streets chanting that. In some villages and cities, foreign looking people were assaulted, even killed by neo-nazi gangs.
The German word for xenophobia is "Ausländerfeindlichkeit" (literally: hostility towards aliens), and it was and is prevalent in German society, like it is in most western societies nowadays. The term doesn't have a direct link to the fascism of the 1920 to 1940s that was more about "races" and jews, but it came into broader use in the 1960s when the first foreign workers from southern Europe ("Gastarbeiter") came to Germany to work in German factories.
So that is the context of the song "Ich bin ein Ausländer." The band solidarise with the many victims of xenophobia, hatred and assaults of the 1990s.
Comment: The top comment in the video is "Weird how this song gets more and more relevant every year." Funny, yet sadly true. Currently it seems more relevant for the US than Germany, though there are countries all over the world where xenophobia and fascist ideology are on the rise.
Comment: This is certainly a song against racism and xenophobia. But why did the band use the German "Ich bin ein Ausländer"? I guess the song was primarily addressed to a British audience. I cannot judge whether people will recognize the phrase as German, let alone understand its meaning. Perhaps the assocation is "racism - fascism - Nazism" and this line of thought is emphasised by a German phrase.
Comment: PS. The line may also be referencing JFK's famous line *Ich bin ein Berliner*. As with the song, JFK was expressing solidarity with the people of Berlin, which was divided by the Berlin Wall at the time.
Comment: https://genius.com/Pop-will-eat-itself-ich-bin-ein-auslander-lyrics
Comment: @RDBury Seeing how Mansell's lyrics mirror left radical positions of the time, I find it highly unlikely he would quote the cold war sentiment of an american president. I was more reminded of the campaign **Alle Menschen sind Ausländer - Fast überall** that had a widespread presence during the nineties and could well have been known by british activists. (I was suprised to learn it actually dates back al least to [1988](https://www.booklooker.de/B%C3%BCcher/Manfred-Budzinski+Alle-Menschen-sind-Ausl%C3%A4nder-Fast-%C3%BCberall/id/A02a9BNq01ZZ4?zid=f8nab13r0c18fn8ikdmeniv3ml))
Answer: After a bit of extra research I have a few things to add. The song is full of historical references to fascist ideologies.
The "It can't happen here." Lyric was in reference to Sinclair Lewis's novel that warned Americans that fascism is not a problem unique to Europe.
The "when they come to etchnically cleanse me." Is in reference to Martin Niemoller's famous 1946 speech where he criticised the anti-nazi intellectuals for not doing enough to stand up against fascism. A stylised version of this speech can still be found in many memorials.
The use of the word 'ethnically cleansed' is incredibly provocative as this was the deplorable language the Serbs used to defend the attempted genocide of the Bosnians.
"Politics of Hate" is in reference to the 1968 editorial in the Times which called for the expulsion of Enoch Powell from the torie party for his "Rivers of blood" speech.
The "freedom of speech does not make it ok" is in reference to the case in the 90s where a BNP politician was asked to not use terms like 'paki' and 'darkie' on air by the BBC. When he refused the BBC refused to air the racist rant. Which in turned made the BNP a martyr for the cause of freedom of expression.

What does "Ich bin ein Ausländer' mean?


How to pronounce "beach" and "bitch"? What's the difference?

Question: I often talk with friends using the phone and I'm not sure how to correctly pronounce the word "beach". Some people hear it as a "bitch". It really makes me upset! How do I pronounce these words correctly? What is the difference in pronunciation?
Comment: I happened across a village in County Durham the other day called North Bitchburn, but the nearby hamlet which presumably forms the 'Southern' part is called Beechburn, standing on Beechburn Beck. This suggests to me that the distinction wasn't always as clear-cut as it is now.
Comment: I had a roommate in college from Greece.  For him these words were all the same:  *seep* *sip* *sheep* *ship*.
Answer: My slavic language speaking colleagues all have this problem, because these languages do not make a distinction between tense vowels and lax vowels.  The sound in beach is a tense [i], and the sound in bitch is a lax [ɪ].  These sounds differ in two major ways.
First, the sounds are made in slightly different places in the mouth.  The sound in [ɪ] is very close to [i], but is a little bit towards [e] (like the sound in "day").  So if you say [i] and hold it and then move your mouth to make [e], then somewhere along that path is something close to the sound [ɪ].
Second, the sounds differ in length.  All tense vowels are slightly longer, and lax vowels are slightly shorter.  If you have trouble figuring out the right way to articulate the sound, then the vowel length can be very helpful to at least help distinguish these sounds — even if it is not perfectly native sounding.
Comment: French people have the same problem. With *sheet* for example...
Comment: Part of the difficulty may be that you are pronouncing other short i sounds as ee, so your friends grow accustomed to that as your pronunciation.  Then in their ears, your ee sound in beach gets translated to a short i even though in this case you pronounced it correctly.
Answer: If you are like me, you need to listen to the two words to understand the difference.
This video explains how to pronounce "beach" and "bitch":
Real ESL Video #22 - Bitch or Beach? Pronouncing i and e!
Do you know how to pronounce "reach" and "rich"? It's the same thing.
Comment: That link is perfect. I think when it comes to pronunciation, audio links work far better than a bunch of words on a page explaining the difference.
Comment: I don't think it's a case of having to be like you. I'd say it's impossible to correctly pronounce a distinction you can't hear.
Comment: @Benjol - the alternative to listen the pronunciation is to read the phonetic symbols if you understand them well (which I don't)
Answer: Beach contains a long i vowel and bitch contains a short i vowel. These two are an example of a minimal pair, a pair of words which is almost the same except for one sound (in this case the long/short i sound). There is a huge list of computer-generated minimal pairs at John Higgins's website.
Comment: Really? I'm not nearly as good with phonemes as a lot of you folks here, but I would have thought the vowel sound in beach was closer to a long e. Miriam Webster shows it as \ˈbēch\
Comment: @Mitch: that depends on what dialect you're speaking. For many Americans, it's a simple vowel.
Comment: Also, the vowel in 'beach' is a diphthong, the 'i' followed by 'y'.


how to load a application bundle in iPhone OS?

Question: I want to load an application bundle file in iPhone OS?what is the procedure to do it?
Answer: You can't, using public APIs that are acceptable on the App Store. You can reference other applications that support URIs though. For more information, read Apple Approved iPhone Inter-process Communication at Mobile Orchard.


missing default route from dhcp while installing linux in a subnet

Question: I tried to install Debian on a PC but I don't get a default route and can't access to internet.
It says:

The network autoconfiguration was successful. However, no default
  route was set: the system does not know how to communicate with hosts
  on the Internet.

ip route show
192.168.147.0/24 dev esp4n0 src 192.168.147.50

Not sure what went wrong because my other systems running flawless in my subnet. All systems have a default route. I tried to set up a default route by my self, but this didn't work neither.
ip route add default via 192.168.147.1
ip route show
default via 192.168.147.1 dev enp4s0 src 192.168.147.50
192.168.147.0/24 dev enp4s0 src 192.168.147.50

I have a Fritz.Box (192.168.178.1) as server (dhcp, dns, ...) for internet connection. The Fritz.Box sends a static IP to my server system on eth1 (192.168.178.20). I run a subnet on eth0 via isc-dhcp-server (192.168.147.0/24). The Fritz.Box gets disconnected often and this way I don't have to worry about network lost all the time.
Here are the configurations of my server ...
/etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
#
# Sample configuration file for ISC dhcpd for Debian
# /etc/dhcp/dhcpd.conf
#

option domain-name "heimat.lokal";
option domain-name-servers 192.168.178.1;
option routers 192.168.147.1, 192.168.178.1;

# The ddns-updates-style parameter controls whether or not the server will
# attempt to do a DNS update when a lease is confirmed. We default to the
# behavior of the version 2 packages ('none', since DHCP v2 didn't
# have support for DDNS.)
ddns-update-style none;

# DHCP-Server sollten das folgende Statement im globalen Bereich ihrer Konfiguration aufweisen, wenn der Administrator keine falsch konfigurierten "Rogue"-DHCP-Server im eigenen Netzwerk dulden will (also eigentlich immer):
authoritative;

default-lease-time 600;
max-lease-time 7200;

# Use this to send dhcp log messages to a different log file (you also
# have to hack syslog.conf to complete the redirection).
log-facility local7;

subnet 192.168.147.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
    #interface eth0;
    range 192.168.147.50 192.168.147.60;
    #option routers 192.168.178.1, 192.168.147.1;
}

/etc/default/isc-dhcp-server
# On what interfaces should the DHCP server (dhcpd) serve DHCP requests?
#   Separate multiple interfaces with spaces, e.g. "eth0 eth1".
INTERFACES="eth0"

/etc/network/interfaces.d/gigabyte_mb_dual_gigabit_lan
auto    eth0=lan0
auto    eth1=lan1

# 01:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
iface   eth0    inet    manual
    pre-up ifconfig $IFACE up
    post-down ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 down

# 02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller [10ec:8168] (rev 0c)
iface   eth1    inet    manual
    pre-up ifconfig $IFACE up
    post-down ifconfig $IFACE 0.0.0.0 down

iface   lan1    inet    dhcp

iface   lan0    inet    static
    address 192.168.147.1
    dns-nameservers 192.168.178.1

/etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf
net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

To be clear: I have multiple systems running in my subnet and they work flawless via my isc-dhcp-server/gateway combo. There is no blocking firewall neither. I just can't install a new system on this subnet via debian net-install image.
Answer: I found a solution. Instead of using ip route add default via 192.168.147.1 I had to tip in route add default gw 192.168.147.1. Now I can install the system.


How to determine a sufficient number of training examples for a linear regression classifier?

Question: How do we determine a sufficient number of training examples for a linear regression classifier?
What kind of behaviors might we expect if we use too few training examples?
Answer: For every 15-25 samples, you can have 1 additional feature. In rarest cases it might be low as 10 samples for each feature, however, it is not recommended unless you have good knowledge of your data and can safely be sure or test that your model is not showing spurious results. For more, please read the source.
Using a few samples or breaking above mentioned rule of using too many features for a few samples (e.g. 80 samples 15 features) may cause overfitting. In this case, it will not be able to generalize your data instead will learn your input data in detail. However, those details will probably be redundant information or randomness of your data so, your model will be useless in production. Another possibility is that it may give a rise to spurious results. In other words, since your samples are few, your model can somehow find a way to imitate your target variable with no logical relationship but by chance.
Those, if you have few samples try to preserve the above-mentioned rule. If you have many features do a bivariate analysis to find how good are these features to explain your target variable alone. One other way is to use algorithms that are more robust against the overfitting and can handle many features of a few samples. For example, SVM is accepted as better than Linear Regression in such cases.


Which character was "The Contaminated Man" in "Day the World Ended"?

Question: The movie credits list Paul Dubov as Radek, who if you watch the movie is the early-stage mutant they allow they stay in the house, despite strong sentiment that he should be killed. There is also a character played by Jonathan Haze (I believe the last surviving actor from this 65-year-old film who was also in Corman's Little Shop of Horrors) called "The Contaminated Man", but there don't seem to be enough roles to go around -- the only idea I have is that two different actors played the same role at different stages, or The Contaminated Man was cut from the movie. Certainly Radek was contaminated by radiation, and Haze seems to resemble Radek more than the picture of Dubov does.
Comment: Your edit is not appropriate for being in the question itself but would make some sense as a comment on the answer. I've commented to you this before but this is not a discussion forum so please stop editing your questions like this and treating the site as one.
Comment: I disagree -- this is an explanation as to why the confusion occurred. You make me want to discontinue contributing by this edit.
Comment: Of course it's an explanation for why the confusion occurred but if you knew why you wouldn't be asking the question so it doesn't make sense as an edit to the question. Posting it as a comment on the answer is perfectly fine though so I suggest you do that. I don't mean to put you off from posting but you still need to fit with the format and rules of the site.
Answer: According to this article, Jonathan Haze played this character.

For reference, here's another picture of Haze from his Wikipedia entry.

He appears in only one scene in the film (which is up on YouTube), about halfway through the runtime, weakly speaks a few lines of dialogue, and then dies. He was never referred to by name, which I imagine is why the credits merely list him as "The Contaminated Man".
Radek is clearly a separate character in the film, who is referred to by name, and is still alive after the scene in question.
Comment: Thanks very much, my Vulcan friend. I have seen the movie many times but somehow missed the guy who dies. Radek is the mutant who chats about radiation-related stuff. It seems to me that Haze in the scene from Little Shop resembles Radek quite a bit but they are different people.


Photo stream or camera roll

Question: I would like to delete either camera roll or photo stream, but, am afraid of losing pics altogether. Camera roll being original and stream copies if I understand correctly. Therefore would seem deleting stream would be the route. But would that also take my originals?
I cannot delete or rename albums. What is the solution.
Have iOS 9.1
Answer: Photo stream is your cloud backup, whereas Camera Roll is directly on your device. So, in short, delete the photo stream. You can completely disable the cloud backup in your settings so it won't keep reappearing.

Photo stream or camera roll


Best app to read rss feed in real time

Question: Could someone help to find best free / paid Mac OS or iOS (or both) app for reading rss feed in real time? I want the recent posts to appear at the top of screen with time, date and source. Also it should be minimalistic and functional design, ability to search and filter with key words. Any suggestions?
Answer: I've been using Reeder for some time now, it's pretty easy to use. There is a version for iOS and OS X. You can find all you're looking for in the settings section.
Image :

Comment: Does new posts appear at the top of table in real time? I see only refresh option, which is not as I'm looking for. Does it have some searching, filtering functions?
Comment: it have a search option, refreshing is minimum 5 min

Best app to read rss feed in real time


How much does a degree tilt impact the height of the centerline?

Question: This might be an engineering or mathematics question, nevertheless giving this a shot here first. There seems to be a clear way, or at least in regards to distance a few, quantifiable explain where to ideally placing a flat mounted tv on the wall. However the title is the question, how much higher may the tv be placed to sit just as even, so the tv lines up similarly to the couch with on varying degree of tilt?
Comment: Not sure I understand. TVs are properly positioned at eye height while sitting on a couch and no higher than that. Are you saying you are not able to do that and are forced to place it higher on a wall? I just looked at your links. Ignore the "Techs" one. Study the THX info and use that.
Answer: The centerline of the television will change by the sine of the angle of change times the distance from the television.
In simpler terms, for every 12 inches from the television, a one degree change of angle will drop (or raise) the line by 0.209 inches. Realistically, say a 12 foot viewing distance and a ten degree change of the screen, you get a 24 inch drop of the angle of the line.
Most televisions will have a reasonably wide viewing angle both horizontally and vertically, and allow for leeway in the angling of the screen.


Quarter-circle and circle inscribed in square

Question: A circle is inscribed in square ABCD, and a quarter-circle with A as its centre is inscribed in the square. What is the area of the crescent like shape inside the full circle and created by the quarter circle. I'm terrible at explaining so here is a diagram. Is there any way to find the area of the crescent-like shape in relation to the smaller circle without using integration?
Comment: This problem is kind of duplicated:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/892696/how-to-find-the-area-of-intersection-of-two-circles-using-axiomatic-geometry
Answer: Recall for any circular arc with radius $r$, if the half-angle subtended by the arc is $\theta$, then the area of corresponding circular segment (the region bounded by the arc and chord with same endpoints ) is given by the formula
$$\verb/Area/ = r^2(\theta - \sin\theta\cos\theta)
= r^2\sin^{-1}\frac{\ell}{r} - \ell\sqrt{r^2-\ell^2}
$$
where $\ell = r\sin\theta$ is half of the length of the chord.
For the problem at hand, label vertices/lengths/angles according to the figure below:
$\hspace 1in$
When the side of the square $ABCD$ is $1$, then the crescent shape (the orange area) is the difference of two circular segments. Both circular segments have $FH$ as the supporting chord. One has radius $r_1 = \frac12$ and half-angle $\theta_1 = \angle HED$. The other one has radius $r_2 = 1$ and half-angle $\theta_2 = \angle HBD$. By cosine rule, we have
$$\cos\theta_1 = -\cos(\angle BEH) = \frac{BH^2 - BE^2 - HE^2}{2(BE)(HE)} = \frac{1 - \frac12 - \frac14}{2(\frac12)(\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}})} = \frac{\sqrt{2}}{4}$$
This implies
$$\sin\theta_1 = \frac{\sqrt{14}}{4}
\quad\implies\quad \ell = \frac12 FH = r_1\sin\theta_1 = \frac{\sqrt{14}}{8}$$
The area of the crescent shape is
$$\begin{align} &
 \left( r_1^2 \sin^{-1}\frac{\ell}{r_1} - \ell\sqrt{r_1^2 - \ell^2}\right)
-\left( r_2^2 \sin^{-1}\frac{\ell}{r_2} - \ell\sqrt{r_2^2 - \ell^2}\right)\\
=  &\; \frac14\sin^{-1}\frac{\sqrt{14}}{4}- \sin^{-1}\frac{\sqrt{14}}{8} + \frac{\sqrt{7}}{8}\\
\approx &\; 0.1463812595303479
\end{align}
$$
Answer: The intersections of the two circles can be found by plugging the parametric equation of the small one into the implicit of the second.
$$(\cos\alpha+1)^2+(\sin\theta+1)^2=4,$$
giving
$$\alpha=\frac\pi4\pm\arccos\frac1{\sqrt8}.$$
As the amplitude of the arc of the small circle is $\theta=2\arccos\dfrac1{\sqrt8}$, the chord length is $c=\sqrt{\dfrac72}$.
The requested area is the difference between two circular segments, which can be computed by
$$a=\frac{r^2}2(\theta-\sin\theta).$$
For the large circle, the amplitude is obtained from the chord by
$$\theta=2\arcsin\frac c{2r}.$$


What is difference between Oracle Apps and Oracle Application Server?

Question: I am very new to oracle, could anybody tell me what Oracle Apps and Oracle Application Server are.
Answer: Oracle Applications means software that helps you runs your enterprise businesses such as Accounting, Humans Resource, or Financials. But the Oracle Applications Server is the technology that, mostly installs on the server, integrates others software to work together. It can be called Middleware.
The first example is like Peoplesoft or SAP ERP. The latter is like Apache HTTP Server, Tomcat, Glassfish.
Answer: Assuming that you are referring to products sold by Oracle Corporation, or to Job Adverts for people to work with them.

Oracle Apps = Oracle E-Business Suite, formerly known as Oracle Applications.
Oracle Application Server = replaced by Oracle Weblogic Server, a j2ee application server for hosting j2ee applications (including but not limited to E-Business Suite).
Answer: Oracle Application server = it is a platform to build any application(web based)
oracle applications = it is used to run the application
Answer: Oracle apps is the application using which we can develop the application and oracle application server is an application server named weblogic through we can access Oracle E-bussiness Suit or oracle apps.


Is balanced data assumption necessary for linear mixed effect model for repeated measurement?

Question: I am working on using linear mixed effect model to analysis the repeated measurement for different subjects in a longitudinal study. After I read some article and paper, I did not find any place discuss that can some measurement is missing for some subjects? In the lmer() function, it can use all the observations, even some subjects have missing measurement. But someone told me that if some measurement is missing from one subject, that subject should be removed from analysis. Is this true?(When I look the formula for linear mixed effect model, I did not find a reason that we should remove subject has missing measurement). If I can use all the subjects have missing measurement, is the fitted model have any disadvantage from a fully balanced study,i.e., every subject have same measurement times?
Comment: lmer can handle unbalanced panels
Comment: @fcop, thank you for telling me this. Can I as what it difference of handling mechanism between balanced and unbalanced data? Is that true we should remove subjects with missing measurement? If yes, why?
Comment: You should not delete them, what you can do depends on the missingness mechanism, but @Björn explains all very well in his answer (+1). A good reference on the topic is 'applied longitudinal analysis' of Fitzmaurice, Laird, Ware
Answer: There are two separate topics here: Firstly, what should one do about missing longitudinal data. Secondly, what does the particular model do and what are the assumptions behind that.
Let's start with the second one. Random effects models (whether done using lmer or PROC MIXED in SAS or some other software) can automatically handle missing data for you when there is a random subject effect, because that random subject effect together with any fixed model effects allows you to predict the missing values. This is something the model implicitly does and take into account. This happens under the assumption that the missing data are missing at random (MAR). This means that there are no unobserved data that explain the missingness (e.g. it would be fine, if subjects decide to quit the study based on the data you have observed, but not if they do it due to the value you would have observed, but did not). What a standard random effects model for repeated measures does also assumes that the future values would occur under the same conditions (e.g. if subjects were taking some treatment, then for the missing values that get implicitly imputed it is assumed that they continue on this treatment).
Regarding the first topic:

Deleting all subjects with some missing data ("listwise deletion") is only valid under an assumption of missing completely at random (MCAR), which is an incredibly strong assumptions that is hardly ever applicable (usually only when data are missing, because some data got lost, not when it is due to something that happened to the subject under observation). In short, it is hardly ever the right thing to do.
Doing something that is valid under MAR (e.g. mixed models for repeated measures, multiple imputation of some form etc.): It is more often plausible that the missing data mechanism results in data being MAR, but as explained above, you may or may not be interested in the question that will be answered (the estimand). One major difficulty is that while you can check from the data whether MCAR may apply or not, you cannot really tell whether when MCAR does not apply you can assume MAR or not. Any analysis approach that is valid under MAR is also valid under MCAR, but analyses that are valid for MCAR (such as listwise deletion) are not typically valid under MAR.
Making some missing not at random (MNAR) assumptions: There is a huge number of missing data mechanisms that full into this category (everything that is not MAR or MCAR).

Whether you assume MAR or MNAR also partially depends on what question you try to answer, something that is for example currently being discussed in great detail for drug trials with a planned addendum to the guideline on statistical principles for clinical trials and with lots of journal discussions e.g. here, here and here. One useful webpage is http://www.missingdata.org.uk/.
Comment: thank you very much for your detailed answer. I have two questions about your second topic. Q1: Is that possible to fit the model included some subjects with missing measurement and get estimation without any manipulation? If yes, what is the effect? Does this break the assumption of the linear mixed effect model or does it get biased estimation?  Because when I see the formula for linear mixed effect model. I did not see the necessary that every subjects has same number of measurement. So can we just remove observation with missing measurement instead of use method to handle missing?
Comment: Q2. You mentioned "random subject effect together with any fixed model effects allows you to predict the missing values." I assume this is in the prediction step, not the estimation step, is this right? So the prediction here will not affect the estimation process, right?
Comment: What do you mean by "without any manipulation"? Every model will estimate something and what you want to estimate determines the appropriate way to handle missing values. A mixed effects model will simply estimate, as if you had done multiple imputation under the same model. I.e. with a mixed effects model there is always an implicit imputation when not all subjects have the same number of observation, but this is not done explicitly but rather implicitly during the estimation. I suppose perhaps there is some other way of interpreting what happens.
Comment: Regarding whether one can just completely remove subject with some missing measurements, then the answer is in theory under missing completely at random and that in practice you should never do it (MCAR hardly ever holds and even if yes, listwise deletion is inefficient, i.e. lowers your power/makes standard errors larger).Note that when you have multiple records per subject, then leaving in or leaving out those records for a subject with missing data will in some software not make the slightest difference and in some software allow you to account for changed covariates for these records.
Comment: thank you for your reply. The "imputation method" is what I am confused here. So why estimation of linear mixed effect need to fill the gap caused by the missing? Can it just removed observation with missing value and estimate the unknown parameter with whatever left, even if it is unbalanced?Here, I did not completed remove the subjects with missing value, I just remove the observations with missing value.


Confused about Electorate badge criteria

Question: How can I vote on 600 questions but only 25% of them are on questions?  Did it originally mean "600 posts"?
Comment: It's 25% of "total votes", not of votes on questions.
Answer: The description is accurate:

"Vote on 600 questions" -- This means you have to have voted on 600 or more questions.
"25% or more of total votes are on questions" -- This means that 25% or more of your total votes are on questions.

These two things are not mutually exclusive. Note "total votes" is total votes, which is the total of all your votes, not just questions.
If you cast 3000 votes and 600 of those were on questions, you would not qualify, as only 20% of your total votes are on questions. On the other hand if you cast 700 votes and 600 of those were on questions, you would qualify.
You are not the first to be confused by this, however. Related reading:

Clarify Electorate badge wording - This is where the even more confusing older wording was changed to its current form.
On exactly what criteria is the Electorate badge awarded? - Clarification of criteria.
Suggested minor modification to the Electorate Badge description - Suggestions for improvement to current wording.
Lots of other info here if you search, and similar reports if you look at the related questions list.
Comment: Not to hijack your answer, but maybe you want to extend it a bit further with what happens if (eg) thoe 700 votes go up to (eg) 1200, by voting 500 times and NONE of these 500 ... are on questions. In that case: do you loose the badge again or not? Or do you think that's an interesting question I should post as a followup question to your answer here?
Comment: @Pierre.Vriens I want to expand on nothing. Also whether you lose it or not is not an interesting question: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/17853/how-do-badges-work
Answer:
Vote on 600 questions and 25% or more of total votes are on questions

Literally! At least 25 percent of your total votes were cast on questions. I think you read past the "total votes" part hence the confusion. 25 percent of votes on posts, not just the posts. This is of course a two-piece condition:

Vote on 600 questions
25 percent of all your votes were cast on questions

Twp different conditions, under the same badge. You should consider that in your first question:

How can I vote on 600 questions but only 25% of them are on questions?

"[T]hem" would represent the votes you casted.


synchronous rectifier control chips for half-bridge

Question: I'm looking for synchronous rectifier control chips for use in a boost converter, but all the chips I've seen so far sit behind transformers in the application circuits (for example, as shown here: TEA1795T datasheet). Are there synchronous rectifier control chips that can be used without isolation?
Answer: For a traditional boost switcher, there is a MOSFET that grounds the inductor (this of course is synchronous by design) and there is a diode that "catches" the back emf from the inductor and charges a capacitor. The diode isn't synchronous but for many applications the forward volt-drop (hence power loss) of the diode is less of a problem compared to a buck (step-down) regulator.
This is simply because, for a boost circuit, the load current is significantly smaller (for the same load power) than the load current in a buck circuit. Also, the forward diode volt-drop, as a proportion of the output voltage, is usually very much smaller in boost converters.
BUT, there are synchronous controller devices for flyback applications? Answer - there always will be because the rectifier MOSFETs aren't part of the primary circuit - they are on the secondary circuit and need a chip that controls them. For a regular boost converter, it's so simple to incorporate that one extra pin for driving the gate of the MOSFET that replaces the diode. OK you probably need an extra pin to create a boost voltage level but a lot of step-down buck regulators have those anyway.
If you do a few patent searches, there are novel ideas that are more along the lines of retrofitting a FET across the boost diode and some of these use a coupled winding to the main inductor to catch the initial back-emf when the regular grounding FET goes open circuit.
The best way is having the boost converter chip have the extra pin for driving the top MOSFET's gate just like as seen in one of the other answers that shows the LTC3786.
Answer: There are boost controllers, which have an output for the pass transistor and a separate output for sync rectification.  The web search for boost controller with synchronous rectification finds them.  LTC3786, for an example.

Of course, a lot depends on your input voltage, output voltage and current.  (?)
P.S. The diagrams in fig.3 and fig.8 of the TEA1795T datasheet (which was mentioned in the O.P.) show power converters with LLC half-bridge topology.  These types of converters usually have with output power 200W to 500W (or even up to 1kW).


How do the strong and weak forces relate to nuclear fission and fusion?

Question: Fission and fusion are due to the strong and weak forces, but it is unclear to me which is responsible for which.
Answer: The strong force is responsible for both fusion and fission.
Nucleons (protons and neutrons) are composed of quarks held together by the strong force. The nuclear force, also known as the residual strong force, binds nucleons to each other. So it's involved in both fusion and fission. The electromagnetic force is also important because protons repel one another, whereas the nuclear force affects protons and neutrons equally.
The weak force is involved in interactions which change the nucleon flavor, when a neutron turns into a proton, or vice versa. It's important for the stability of the nucleus. Roughly speaking, a nucleus is most stable with equal numbers of protons and neutrons (a higher neutron:proton ratio is necessary in heavier nuclei). The weak force maintains that balance. For more details, please see What exactly does the weak force do?
The weak force isn't involved in the fission of uranium or plutonium, or in their non-fission decay, which involves the emission of an alpha particle. But it is involved in decays that emit a beta particle, as explained on the page I linked above.
Fusion of hydrogen into helium in a star does involve the weak force because some protons have to change into neutrons. The main series of fusion reactions in the Sun is known as the proton-proton chain. There's also the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle which dominates at higher temperatures.
Comment: FWIW, there's some info on the very low rate of p-p chain proton to neutron conversion in my answer here: https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/540199/123208
Answer: Fusion and fission are categories of nuclear reactions which cover a broad range of reactions.
The strong force is responsible for attracting nucleons together, and sets how stable a nucleus is. It makes Helium more stable than Hydrogen, but Uranium less stable than Thorium. Thus, it is involved in both fusion and fission, which release energy when the output is more bound than the input (or when the output is less massive). The strong force creates this binding.
The weak force is responsible for flavor changes. This includes protons turning into neutrons and vice versa (with electrons/positrons/neutrinos thrown in or out for balance). It is also involved in both fusion and fission, whenever flavor changes are needed (for example, beta decay or inverse beta decay.
An example of the weak force is easily provided in nuclear fusion in stars. Four hydrogen come together, which are four protons, and must become a helium nucleus with two protons and two neutrons. The weak force allows two protons to become two neutrons.
Comment: this answer could be improved if someone can find a good example of the weak force being used in nuclear fission.
Answer: It is a bit more complicated then which is responsible for which.  Fusion is the process that joins two or more lighter atoms into a larger one.  The strong nuclear force is responsible for binding together the nuclear components of the larger atom.  However, it is possible that this process is followed by radioactive beta decay within the nucleus and this is governed by the weak nuclear force.  So, it is possible that both the strong and weak nuclear forces play a role in fusion.
Fission splits a larger atom into two or more smaller ones. However, there is also a natural process of radioactive decay that can, under certain conditions, be viewed as as the process of fission.  This is governed by the weak nuclear force, but is much different than what is typically thought of as fission as a potential large scale energy source.
Comment: @PM 2Ring. Spontaneous fission would be an example.


What are the mobility advantages to biped humanoid mecha relative to earth terrain?

Question: As the majority or popular depiction of mecha, biped and some degree humanoid mecha is the most prominent one. Will they serve an actual mobility advantage relative to various terrain in earth when they are in combat? If so what kind of terrain that serves as the best or the worst potential for biped mecha mobility?
Comment: Have you checked the other questions about mecha? There's a lot, and some of the answers will probably answer your question.
Answer: I think that multi-legged mecha or armless mecha are quite popular these days, so I'd question your question.
A biped with arms would be interesting for combat engineering units, but not for hand-to-hand combat.


What is the motivation that makes you to stick with current job?

Question: There are lot of people who are still working in the same company for more than 10 years. What is the motivation that makes you to stick with current job ?
Comment: @Pierre - You should convert your comment into an answer and cite the studies.  I think that would be a valuable resource.
Comment: Studies show the top positive reason is **colleagues** and the top negative one is **fear** (of being broke). I can't answer that question, as a consultant, I never lasted more than 1 year at the same place.
Comment: @Pierre 303: +1 for mentioning colleagues. Could you share the links that delve into this?
Comment: @Walter | @Fanatic23: I have to look for the studies first.
Comment: Colleagues *and* boss. A good manager goes a long way.
Answer: I've been with the same company for eight of the past ten years.  My reasons for staying are (in no particular order)

Location - The office is only a couple miles away from my home.  This makes the commute time relatively short.  When the weather is good, I can bike there in a short amount of time.
Pay - The pay is decent.
Variety - I get to work on, debug, develop for a variety of areas in the flagship product.  As such, I get to learn something new.
Telecommuting - Though the office is not far away, my team and manager are.  I can work (quite effectively) from home without going in to the office.  This helps me spend more time with my family.
Specialization - I've invested around ten years specializing in my field.  There are not that many local players in it.
Passion - I love my job and working in my field.
Co-workers - My co-workers are great!  Knowledgable, friendly, able and fun.  My manager is thrilled with my work, and lets me know.  Recognition goes a long way.
Hours - Flex time.
Risk averseness - I would be dishonest if I did not include this.  All family responsibilities have been on my shoulders alone for years now--income, kids, caring for the sick, ....  These demand vast amounts of my time and resources.  To continue to provide for my family without uninterruption requires a job with the right amount of flexibility (which my present one does).  Incidentally, being awesome at my job helps create the conditions that allows that flexibility.
Comment: Great point in the very last sentence Sparky. I think people should be aware that once you have your foot in the door of a company, you have a lot of control to gain flexibility once trust has been established with management and co-workers. Companies in my experience are usually more than happy to give you flexibility if you are an all round good employee.
Comment: +1 because this is *almost* the exact answer I would give, point by point.
Comment: +1 for comprehensive answer with supporting case for each item.
Answer: Competency and complacency.
I work for a mid-size company.  We also acquire companies, so I've seen this pattern a few times.
The senior developers are there through a form of selection.  If they aren't competent, they leave in a layoff (always ups and downs in an industry, especially when looking at a 10, 15 or 20 time frame).
Complacency is probably more along the lines of what you're asking.  And, there are lots of reasons.  Here's a few.  Usually I see many of these in the same person (including myself)

Has a life.  Once you've been somewhere for 10+ years you've probably gotten past the "developing software is my life" phase.  You have kids and other activities outside of work that are far more important.
Confidence.  Leaving a company is hard and opens you up for judgement (to get the job and to be in the job).
Reinforcement.  If the person has been there a long time, I'd bet at different periods of their career there were significant accolades heaped on them.  Those successes and positive reinforcement can do a lot to build a sense of home and loyalty.
Comfort/not a thrill seeker.  You know the job.  Your good at it.  Everything else is an uphill battle.
Salary/benefits.  I have this one last.  In short, its enough because most people, with some work can do better.  In software development, salaries tend to peak in your early 40s if you aren't growing.  What actually happens is they have enough to be comfortable.  In other words, for their own personalities they've probably reached the upper part of the needs hierarchy.

Quick edit/addition: Don't assume that these people don't periodically look for other jobs.  Either the individuals or the jobs just aren't sufficient to change the status quo.
Comment: I've been in the same job for 15 years now and this response is a very accurate portrayal of many of my reasons for staying so long.
Answer: I've been at my current job for 4 years, and I was at my last job for 12.
What I like best about my current job is my co-workers. They have very positive attitudes and are oriented toward problem-solving as opposed to complaining.
Another factor is that management is supportive of best practices, including change management and project planning. There's a conscious effort where I work to get away from "cowboy coding" and putting out fires.
Comment: Good answer. Frankly I think the reason people are so surprised when you say you've worked somewhere for a decade is that their own experience may be a series of crappy jobs. Perhaps the difference between an inveterate job hopper and a job camper is the right environment/job that continually presents new challenges and a company that values its employees.
Answer: I can't speak for everyone of course, but as someone who has held his current job for 15 years here are some of the core reasons I have stayed so long.
Tenure Perks: I am fully vested in my 401K and based on my tenure I am now eligible for almost 40 days/year of vacation. Every time I look at other jobs, I think about giving up all that extra time off and it is a very compelling reason not to go.
Salary Perks I have a ton of experience within the company and am very aware that a large part of my compensation is based on knowing the company inside-out and having valuable well-established working relationships with almost everyone. I feel like at a new organization I wouldn't be able to command the premium price. Granted, I could go to a competitor, but our industry is fairly niche and a lot of the other companies are very unstable and prone to big layoffs.
Relationships Over all these years I have developed dozens of very close multi-year work-friendships and intrinsically know that no matter how much you try, those friendships tend to fade after you are working somewhere else. I like hanging out with dozens of my friends all day at work.
Comfort: Not the main factor, but it is a factor. I still keep in touch with lots of people who have left the company and the grass really isn't greener. Also, as the second most veteran employee in my company with tons of industry/company experience and a solid relationship with upper management there is a lot of job security that is hard to give up.
I'm sure complacency has some role in it, but not as major as people are making it out to be. Working at the same company != working at the same job. If you are stuck in the same job the whole time I might agree with the complacency thing more. Even then, most companies undergo massive change over time. So the same job isn't necessarily the same job. With regard to technology, that changes every 2-3 years regardless of your business address. So it isn't like you are finding a career cave and hiding there to avoid keeping up with the world.
As Jim Rush mentioned, I've investigated other opportunities dozens of times in my career all the way up to interviewing with other companies. Once I accepted a counter-offer to stay, another time management addressed my concerns and talked me out of leaving.
Answer: Comfort. When you're comfortable enough, then you are likely to stay where you are. At my last job, there were several developers who had been there over 15 years. If things aren't changing frequently enough, I start to get bored and when my boredom affects my performance enough that I notice it, then I start looking for a new job.
Answer:
I love what I do.
I do most of it from home.
Answer: Here is an interactive way to answer your question.

That interactive analysis application is based on real employee's comments.
I can't share my experience about that since I never lasted more than 1 year at the same company. As a freelance consultant, I was like a mercenary.
Answer: Final salary pension scheme in a solvent country in the private sector...
But otherwise

job is interesting with variety
shouldn't complain about salary
pleasant colleagues and environment

More positives than negatives
Answer:
There are lot of people who are still working in the same company for more than 10 years

I somehow feel that category of people would never subscribe to Programmers.SE. Or ever hear of it.

What is the motivation that makes you to stick with current job?

Age, fear of change and failure, unwillingness to take risk, decreased employability, other priorities like family life or the need to page mortgage.
Or they are the CEO of a successful company and there is no reason to give up.
Comment: Ever consider the possibility of someone landing in a good job and finding it fulfilling enough to stay for a long time? Also, As you can see by the responses to this post, people with 10+ years in a job definitely frequent this site.
Comment: Can you further explain 'that category of people'?  This seems like a dangerous stereotype.
Comment: Hey I stay a long time in companies and are here on programmers.se
Answer: I've not been in the software industry for long and I've had 3-4 companies worth of experience. One of my largest concerns is the opportunity to make a difference and have the kind of people who are willing to learn and better situations. The most exciting experience was when a company that didn't have much focus in unit testing, allowed me to spend a couple of months presenting my findings of SOLID and TDD to the team. A few members of the team were then so inspired and become highly motivated at how we can move forward and better our development.
That kind of attitude, in management and employees, is something I am now always looking out for.
Answer: Fear. If I don't keep my job, my GF will kill me.
That... and I love what I do (Data analyst. Some programming. Some Web building.)


WAV compression help

Question: How do you programmatically compress a WAV file to another format (PCM, 11,025 KHz sampling rate, etc.)?
Comment: Is this on a particular operating system?
Answer: I'd look into audacity... I'm pretty sure they don't have a command line utility that can do it, but they may have a library...
Update:
It looks like they use libsndfile, which is released under the LGPL.  I for one, would probably just try using that.
Comment: I'm not planning to use Audacity. I've been doing some research. What can you say about Windows Audio Compression Manager?
Answer: Use sox (Sound eXchange : universal sound sample translator) in Linux:
       SoX  is a command line program that can convert most popular audio files to most other popular audio file formats.  It can optionally
       change the audio sample data type and apply one or more sound effects to the file during this translation.
Answer: If you mean how do you compress the PCM data to a different audio format then there are a variety of libraries you can use to do this, depending on the platform(s) that you want to support. If you just want to change the sample rate of the PCM data then you need a sample rate conversion algorithm instead, which is a completely different problem. Can you be more specific in your requirements?
Comment: i have to convert a WAV file into:
ID: RIFF
Format: WAVE
Sub ID1: fmt
Size 1: 16
Audio Format: 1
Number of Channels: 1
Sample Rate:11025
Byte Rate: 11025
Block Align: 1
Bits Per Sample: 8
Sub ID2: data
Comment: That is a wav file. Are you saying you want to change an existing wav file to a wav file with different properties?
Answer: You're asking about resampling, and more specifically downsampling, not compression.  While both processes are lossy (meaning that you will suffer loss of information), downsampling works on raw samples instead of in the frequency domain.
If you are interested in doing compression, then you should look into lame or OGG vorbis libraries; you are no doubt familiar with MP3 and OGG technology, though I have a feeling from your question that you are interested in getting back a PCM file with a lower sampling rate.
In that case, you need a resampling library, of which there are a few possibilites.  The most widely known is libsamplerate, which I honestly would not recommend due to quality issues not only within the generated audio files, but also of the stability of the code used in the library itself.  The other non-commercial possibility is sox, as a few others have mentioned.  Depending on the nature of your program, you can either exec sox as a separate process, or you can call it from your own code by using it as a library.  I personally have not tried this approach, but I'm working on a product now where we use sox (for upsampling, actually), and we're quite happy with the results.
The other option is to write your own sample rate conversion library, which can be a significant undertaking, but, if you only are interested in converting with an integer factor (ie, from 44.1kHz to 22kHz, or from 44.1kHz to 11kHz), then it is actually very easy, since you only need to strip out every Nth sample.
Comment: I am the author of libsamplerate. Please explain what you main by "due to quality issues not only within the generated audio files, but also of the stability of the code used in the library itself".
Answer: In Windows, you can make use of the Audio Compression Manager to convert between files (the acm... functions). You will also need a working knowledge of the WAVEFORMAT structure, and WAV file formats. Unfortunately, to write all this yourself will take some time, which is why it may be a good idea to investigate some of the open source options suggested by others.
I have written a my own open source .NET audio library called NAudio that can convert WAV files from one format to another, making use of the ACM codecs that are installed on your machine. I know you have tagged this question with C++, but if .NET is acceptable then this may save you some time. Have a look at the NAudioDemo project for an example of converting files.

WAV compression help


Programming ESP32 Microcontroller with FTDI's FT231XS USB Chip

Question: Purchased FTDI's FT231XS from DigiKey I can see data from the ESP32 microcontroller but when I try to write to it, esptool just says connecting and nothing happens. I can use a usb to serial cable to write so I know the microcontroller is entering programming mode. I have verified continuity on ESP_EN and PROG pins. Not sure if this is a DTS/RTS issue or something else. Any help would be appreciated, I have attached schematic and layout.
Comment: can you show the complete schematic? because right now it looks like your board is missing the ESP_EN pull up part. Which is your reference design? Something like this comparing your schematic with https://dl.espressif.com/dl/schematics/ESP32-Core-Board-V2_sch.pdf  ?
Comment: Schematic is in several sheets on kicad, so there isn't one big sheet. I have pullups on ESP_EN and PROG. I'm able to program by using external usb-uart cable and bypassing ftdi chip. So I know I'm entering program mode and pullups are okay.
Comment: The schematic you linked to has a 470 ohm resistor (R3) between TX on the USB chip and RX on the ESP32, wonder if that's it? Also, the schematic shows an NPN transistor (Q1) and PNP transistor (Q2) however the part numbers are for the same NPN transistor (S8050) so should I be using an NPN transistor for both on mine too?
Comment: Well the reason for the 470 Ohm is mostlikely the same why they put this fishy voltage devider into the VBUS supply of the CP2104 on this schematic: https://dl.espressif.com/dl/schematics/esp32_devkitc_v4-sch-20180607a.pdf - to make sure that not a 5V signal from the TX fries the 3.3V RX input of the ESP32. Looking at the true table given in the schematics I would say: yes both have to be NPNs. If you have a scope you could check if the truth table of your circuit matches the expected values given in their schematics.
Comment: @physiii Please ask a specific question.
Answer: Are "ESP_EN" and "EN" connected? That aspect is needed for the truth table functionality of the two transistors to work.


How to clean dryer ducts . Home is built on a slab

Question: My home sits on a slab, I can only assume that the dry duct runs from the wall and under the house ( no crawl space.). there is a large pipe that exits the house on the outside where the cap is located.. How on earth do I clean that duct out..It doesn't look like there are any curves.. but who know.. My dryer is taking much longer on high setting to dry clothes..
Comment: Can you see into the duct to see where it goes?  Maybe you can borrow an [inspection camera](http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-inspection-camera-61839.html)?
Answer: It's very important to clean your dryer air duct at least annually.  Accumulated dust in them is a common source of house fires.  Usually they come apart in sections.  Typically what you do is remove the sections and vacuum or brush out the dust.  They also make telescoping dusters that have a round duct-sized brush on a flexible wire that you can use to push the dust through.
Answer: Rovac Systems makes a dryer duct cleaning system. A basic kit consists of:

a vacuum with 12 foot section of 3" ID hose (P/N 8581 or 8501)
a Wye pipe (P/N 8521)
a 25-feet "residential rod kit" (P/N 5185) which consists of:

a RodCaddy
8 3-feet residential FlexRods
a starter rod w/ 4" brush
a drill adapter

You will also need a hand-held drill or impact gun that has a 1/4" square drive.
Directions
Attach one end of the hose to the inlet of the vacuum, and attach the other end of the hose to the bottom of port of the Wye pipe. Attach the drill adapter to the drill chuck or the 1/4" square drive of the impact gun. Attach the starter rod (w/ attached 4" brush) to the drill adapter. Turn on vacuum. Insert the started rod into the top port of the Wye pipe. Operate the drill in forward (clockwise) direction which will spin the starter rod and attached 4" brush. Push the brush/rod progressively further into the Wye port until almost the entire rod is inside the Wye pipe. Then, maintaing the same clockwise direction of the drill, progressively remove the brush/rod from the Wye pipe. Stop the drill; completely remove the brush/rod from the Wye pipe. Attach another FlexRod to the started rod/brush. Re-insert the brush/rod into Wye pipe and repeat the process. Once complete, remove rod/brush, add another FlexRod, and repeat until you have used all FlexRods or you have encountered the end of your dryer duct system.
Conclusion
For the residential rod kit (P/N 5185), expect to pay about $600. You will also need to buy a vacuum, which could be another $150-$300 dollars depending on the quality. You can buy the one Rovac sells, or you can buy a Ridgid vacuum (they are sold at Home Depot and various online resellers). In any case, it's not a cheap investment. However, it needs to be done, or your dryer will take an excessively long time to dry clothes. Your energy bill will increase. Finally, there is a chance that the lint in your dryer duct can catch on fire.
Here are a couple YouTube videos demonstrating the Rovac system:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsrPAz3gQpg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQAXcPIpuiQ

You can also use the same system to clean your A/C ducts, but you would need a larger diameter brush, e.g. 14" (P/N 4714).
Comment: By the way, Rovac does not sell directly to the public, and many of its dealers do not sell to private individuals (only to companies). However, I was able to find a great company that does sell to the public: [www.efireplacestore.com](http://www.efireplacestore.com/).


How to make my program add a cron job automatically with GAE?

Question: I need to make a bot who can automatically add a cron job for itself,but I don't think I could access the cron.yaml file on GAE server.What can I do with this?
Answer: You could tell the bot to add the new schedule in your datastore instead.
Then create a single "master" cron job with 1 minute schedule that checks the schedules that you had set in the datastore. The cron job would then determine whether on the current time the handler for an associated schedule need to be invoked or not.
If it does, the master cron job would then invoke the stored job using the TaskQueue API.
Answer: It's true that a lot of dev environments don't give you access to the cron.yaml files, however, you can run a Python script locally that communicates with your deployed program, edits your local copy of cron.yaml and pushes up the changes.


Is there a name for the large holes on some gothic cathedrals?

Question:
Do you just call them arched holes? I doubt that's the word we use, but I have no idea what we call them. I am referring to the 4 large elongated holes in front of the cathedral on the upper part.
Comment: Are they windows?
Comment: I don't think they're windows, but I might be wrong. I assumed the black part wasn't made of glass.
Comment: They are pointed arches. These are the most fundamental element of the Gothic style of architecture.
Answer: I would call them apertures in the shape of pointed arches. The picture is of the North and South bell towers of the Notre Dame de Paris. The pointed arch is the most fundamental feature of the Gothic style of architecture. These apertures did not contain glass windows, but had slate louvres allowing the sound of the bells to emerge and be heard across Paris.
Comment: My point is that these apertures are not 'windows' (holes to let light in) but rather holes to let sound out.
Comment: Sound waves can travel through a variety of mediums, but the most common one we humans use on Earth is air, which outside is often moving as wind, what belfry tower builders relied on and so didn't impede with sound insulating glass. It's pure sophistry to try to split the hair of "wind" and "air" in regard to centuries old nomenclature of an outside belfry from a time when "wind" and "air" were even more synonymous than they are now, especially since the links I provided to your comments on my answer show that they are called "windows," specifically "belfry windows" or "bell tower windows."
Answer: Churches and cathedrals have many distinctive architectural features, and distinctive names for those features. The Simple English Wikipedia has a list of those terms, which says that the windows you describe are called lancet windows.
For more detailed information see the Wikipedia article on church architecture.
Answer: gothic arch belfry window
What's pictured there are the windows on the belfry of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. The arch itself is called a "gothic arch," which is characterized by its point (also called a pointed arch or ogival arch), as opposed to a Roman arch, which is a round semicircle without a point; a Moorish arch (also called a horseshoe arch or keyhole arch), which is characterized by it being greater than a semicircle and so constricting at the base above the supporting columns; or an Arabic arch, which is like a Moorish arch, except that it comes to a point at the top.
The Arabic arch, with its point, was the inspiration for the gothic arch, with its point, architects in Roman Catholic Christendom previously believing that any shape other than the Roman arch's semicircle would be too inherently weak to bear the tremendous weight of the stone structure above and channel it into the columns on either side. Arabic architecture seen in Spain and in the Crusades in the Holy Land proved that wasn't the case, thus the influence of Arabic architecture began a paradigm shift in Roman Catholic Christian architecture, its new pointed arch's popularity surpassing the semicircle Roman arch in Roman Catholic Christian architecture being what marks the transition from the Romanesque period to the gothic period.
Comment: @MichaelHarvey - I never said they were. "Window" derives from "wind," not "light," i.e., an opening to let wind through. Since sound travels through air, i.e., on the wind, the purpose of belfry windows is to let bell sound travel on the wind, so they're open-air. Often, belfry windows have louvers to protect the bell, called belfry louver windows. Without louvers, they're simply called belfry windows or bell tower windows (https://www.bodet-campanaire.com/bell-tower-equipment/louvres.html) (http://taylorbells.co.uk/what-we-do/building-electrical-services/weatherproofing-netting-louvres/ ).


How can I free some disk space without deleting my apps?

Question: I dont have that many apps. But I had to delete old ones to get new ones because my phone keeps saying I have low storage.
How can I free some disk space without deleting my apps?
Comment: What device and Android version do you have?
Comment: i have a mytouch slide and i think its 3G
Answer: The only way that I am aware of is if you don't want to remove apps from your device, you could remove the app data associated with them. Certain apps take up quite a large amount of space, Google Maps is an example of this if you use it regularly.
To delete the app data go to settings > Applications > Manage Applications and click on a app name and then click on the All Tab. You may want to click on Menu > Sort by size so it will show you what apps are using the most space from the top of the screen.
To clear the app data click on the app name and then click on the clear data button.
Do this for a couple of apps and the low storage space warning should eventually disappear, you may have to go through quite a few apps though. This is what I have to do on quite a regular basis unfortunately.
Another tip, the browser tends to store a lot of data, but if you click on clear data for the browser you will lose everything including bookmarks. Instead from the browser press menu > more > settings  and then clear things like history and cookies etc.
Hope this helps
Comment: Clearing Data removes all application settings.  Those usually don't take as much space as Cache.  Try deleting app Cache first instead, by tapping the "Clear Cache" button on that same screen.
Answer: If your phone is rooted, you can CacheMate to automatically clear your applications' caches for you on set intervals.
Answer: Some apps that I know of like Instagram, Facebook, Maps tends to accumulate a lot of internal space to store their cache, it is not unusual to find cache by Facebook and Instagram reaching up to hundreds of MBs mainly due to video cache and images in my phone, you might want to check them first.
Also if you have apps with very large apk files try to move them to sdcard. In some rare cases I found that dalvik cache also contains some dexes of previously uninstalled apps....you can try to clear dalvik cache too in recovery or manually if you have a rooted phone.
Check some other apps if any that use streaming or internet connectivity especially social media apps, they tend to store a lot of cache.
If your phone is rooted you can try to remove bloatware that came pre-installed in your phone


Predicting time to event / duration data

Question: I've built a parametric survival model (survreg in R) to predict injury recovery duration using features such as age and treatments. I'm looking at trying model-based boosting using mboost with Weibull, loglog, or lognormal distribution (as described here). Can anyone recommend other alternatives? Has anyone tried neural network methods to predict time to event / duration data?
Answer: Yes, neural-network modeling of survival data dates back about 3 decades at least. You might want to consult this PubMed entry and its links.
Such survival analysis suffers from the difficulty, inherent in neural-network modeling, of understanding how particular predictors contribute to the differences in outcomes.
Boosting can be useful, as you can let the data help take into account interactions among predictors that you might not have considered. You at least get some estimate of which predictors are important. You don't, however, know the specific forms of their associations with outcome.
Semi- or fully parametric survival regression models typically provide much better interpretability, and with them you can use your understanding of the subject matter to address specific hypotheses of interest.
Comment: Thanks EdM. I've just tried mboost with gaussian and weibull distributions as well as a regression tree (rpart with anova). Surprisingly (or perhaps not) the baseline parametric weibull survival model outperformed them all on both RMSE and median error. Some hyper-parameter tuning may be necessary.