How can I find the circuit breaker that my outdoor outlet is on?

Question: I have one outdoor outlet where there is no power coming in and I am unable to determine which circuit breaker it is on so I can restore the power.
Answer: The first thing to check since this is an outdoor outlet is to see if there is a GFCI device built-in ("test" and "reset" buttons on the outlet). The GFCI may have cut power to the outlet. Sometimes several outlets are connected to a single GFCI so if there isn't one at that outlet look for others nearby. All outdoor outlets are required to have GFCI protection since the 1970s, although sometimes older homes haven't been updated.
If the GFCI is fine or you can't find one, next check the breaker panel. A breaker that is tripped should is identifiable because the switch is in the middle (neither ON nor OFF). However sometimes it can be difficult to tell, especially with older breakers that have a little bit of wiggle.
The easiest thing to do is to turn them all fully OFF and then ON, one by one. Alternately, some circuit breakers have the GFCI built into them, so try the "Reset" button if you see one.
Once you have identified the breaker, update the label next to it so that you don't have to guess next time.
If you can't find a breaker that restores power, check for a sub-panel somewhere and/or double-check for a GFCI (could be somewhere unusual).
(Bonus tip: if you are trying to identify the breaker for an outlet that works, plug something loud into it: a radio or a vacuum cleaner turned on. Then when you are at the panel you can hear the sound stop when you have flipped off the correct breaker.)
Answer: You could use a Wire Tracker to trace the wires back to the breaker. However, these devices only work on dead circuits.

If the circuit is live, you could use a Circuit Breaker Finder.

You plug the one part into the receptacle, then run the other part over the breakers. When you run over the correct breaker, the device blinks/lights up.
Your milage may vary
Answer: if your house had a basement or garage or crawlspace  look there for the gfci  they are not usually in the crawlspace but i have found them there at times. the bathroom or utility room is also a good place to look for one. if you cant find it in those locations check your main panel for a large breaker something that is around 75 to 100 amps that has  interlocked handles on it. if you have electric heat  there will be one or more 50 or 60 amp breakers with the same handles on them but  if you don't have electric heat and you find  something larger than 40 amps you likely have a sub panel someplace. it may have the offending breaker inside it also look for the switch on the wall that do sent seem to do anything in the house.
Comment: alot of outdoor outlets work off of a gfi outlet in one of the bathrooms or the kitchen. Any wet place with power requires a gfi protected outlet and to save money (I think) they tail off one of them to energize the outdoor outlet and to cover the protection requirement while not having to buy another gfi outlet.
Answer: First thing check breakers..at this point You would know if one of the breakers is tripped..meaning it will be in the off position
or middle position..most times it will be towards outward position or loose in the middle..it may not be connected to other outlets ..you'll know by checking other outlets near..it may be dedicated. .meaning it's on its own breaker..it mat be tripping itself. .check the wires to it with proper wire tester..check with local hardware store if you Don't have one or not sure what it is..it's for checking if wire is live..if wire is live change GFCI...If not you may need an electrician to trace and troubleshoot between it and breaker panel..if you trouble shoot use proper tools and testers and nearest outlets and breaker itself if identified
Answer: My house, built in 1991 in Davis, CA had the GFCI outlet/breaker in the 2nd floor bathroom. All the outdoor outlets, plus two bathrooms and an outlet in the garage were connected to it. Pressed the red button of the GFCI outlet to restore electricity in all those outlets.


How to sell stocks coming monthly to avoid wash sale

Question: I have stocks of a company that come every single month. How should I sell the stocks and avoid wash sale? Which lots should I sell?
Comment: Are these stocks received as income or are you buying them? What's the consequence of a wash sale that you';re trying to avoid?
Comment: Would it be possible to delay, and/or advance, some lot(s) to create a gap? (You would need to plan the timing.) For example I normally leave mutual funds on 'reinvest' distributions but if I want to sell when I have down or mixed lots I might switch to 'cash' for a few months and then switch back.
Answer: If you receive stocks as compensation every 30 days, then any sale at a loss would be within 30 days of an acquisition and would be considered a wash sale. Any sale that resulted in a gain would still be taxable in that year.
However, all that means is that the tax benefit of those losses is deferred until you ultimately close out your position. The loss is just shifted to the cost basis of the most recent purchase. The loss is not "gone" forever.
The purpose of the wash sale rule is to prevent tax loss harvesting by deferring tax losses until your position is closed, but that does not seem to be your intent. I would talk with a tax attorney that deals with wash sale rules and see if there are precedents that would indicate that regularly acquired lots that prevent any 30-day window would be exempt.
But in the end, all you're doing is deferring the loss; you'll be able to claim it eventually.
Comment: Any sale _at a loss_ would be within 30 days of an acquisition and thus a wash sale; if you have (enough) 'up' lots, you could sell (some of) them and avoid the wash sale rule -- but you would pay tax on the realized gains (unless offset by other non-wash losses, or long-term and within the 0% bracket)
Comment: "then any sale at a loss would be within 30 days of an acquisition and would be considered a wash sale." Not *any* sale. Any sale less than the acquisition ("less" referring to quantity, not price).
Answer: You should sell the stocks in the lot that will result in the least amount of taxes. To avoid a wash sale, you should sell the stocks in a different order each month.
Answer:
More or less stock bought than sold. If the number of shares of substantially identical stock or securities you buy within 30 days before or after the sale is either more or less than the number of shares you sold, you must determine the particular shares to which the wash sale rules apply. You do this by matching the shares bought with an unequal number of shares sold. Match the shares bought in the same order you bought them, beginning with the first shares bought. The shares or securities so matched are subject to the wash sale rules.

IRS publication 550 page 56
So suppose you get 100 shares each month. If you sell 300 shares, then what happens first is that the 100 oldest shares that you have will be considered to be sold, and the wash sale rule will apply to them. For the other 200 shares, the wash sale rule will not apply, and you can claim a loss on them.


How could a civilization with infinite resources be?

Question: For my worldbuilding project, my main alien race has been given powers by an unknown force, one thing they use their powers for is creating infinite resources, making things like money dissappear.
How could the economy of such a civilization be?
Comment: What do you exactly mean with "resources"? The raw materials or the end products?
Comment: Really, infinite resources? How do they make an infinite number of beach-front houses? An infinite number of prima ballerina roles? An infinite number of positions as concert pianist? An infinite number of Stradivarius violins? An infinite number of Oscar prizes? Infinitely wide roads on which infinitely many Bugatti Type 41 Royale cars can travel without ever encountering a traffic jam? Infinitely many butlers?
Comment: This opening reminds me of the socialist ideal of unlimited consumption for everyone, without the need for money because everyone can just take products according to demand. Human greed will always prevent that from becoming reality. This "unknown force" better be good, else you'll need some method (say, money) to fairly distribute  the goods. Also, as AlexP explained, some goods will always remain scarce. There's no way everyone can own an antique Greek golden coin.
Comment: @AlexP given the classic murder-mystery solution of "the butler did it", a finite population with infinite butlers (with presumably, infinite motives for murder) would very quickly converge to a population of zero!
Comment: It is not clear what you mean. Give some examples.
Comment: I think OP didn't mean physically infinite resources, I think this question is merely about [post-scarcity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity_economy). Still this is an open-ended question that would likely get closed.
Comment: You may want to read up on [Star Trek](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek) universe. Replicator technology did more or less the same thing there.
Comment: Your question is really unclear and prone to opinion-based discussions because of that. What do you mean by resource? Any resource? Materials which need to be treated first? What about living resources (plants, animals)? Can you remove infinitely created resources with this power, or do they pile up? How fast can you create these resources from thin air? How many people are there, and how well developped your society is? What was their culture before this power was given?
Comment: Technically there already are infinite resources in this universe, but most of that isn't currently accessible.
Comment: The classic idea of economics is in dealing with scarcity, the management of limited resources, supply and demand, etc. Your own question states that infinite resources are available, so scarcity is therefore not present in any significant fashion. There won't be an "economy" because you've basically removed any need for it. This question as it stands doesn't really make sense; with the lack of detail in your question, it amounts to asking us to invent this part of your world for you.
Answer: I don't think money will disappear in this scenario.
And the economy will not be much different than ours, I think.
Infinite resources do not turn itself into products or services, nor they get where they are needed by their users.
Whoever transform those resources and deliver them will want a compensation, and that compensation will be money.
You can have infinite wheat and yeast, but to make a pizza and have it delivered at your home will take other people. The whole economy will be based around production and services, lacking solely the raw materials production sector.
Comment: And dont forget the value of having the space to do stuff in. From production to providing services to living.
Answer: There Wouldn't Be An Economy. The World Would Undoubtedly Be Chaos
In a perfect world, everyone would use the power to make infinite resources reasonably and responsibly. They'd use it to make an endless supply of food, medicine, and houses, ending poverty, world hunger, and disease.
However, if your species is anything like humans, one of them is undoubtedly either an idiot, a monster, or a maniac. If any one of them got a hold of this power, the world would be over. Handing this power out to every single person of this species is a recipe for disaster.
Imagine for a second that everyone on Earth was handed the ability to make anything they want. Absolutely anything. What do you think people would do with that ability? Well, they'd use it to do all the things that they never could.
A person who always wanted to fly would make a plane, a person that always wanted a new house would make a house, and a maniac that wanted to destroy the world would make a couple of bombs and see how massive of an explosion they could make.
Are you starting to see my point? All it takes it one madman to turn such a power into a living nightmare, and the Earth has plenty of madmen who would be more than willing to end the world with such an ability.
Now, let's say that there's a limit to what the people can make. It can't be something "dangerous" like nuclear weapons. It can just be basic resources. Even that doesn't help since people can make an infinite amount of it.
If I can make an infinite amount of stone, I can create more rock than is contained in the entire planet of the Earth. I can make a stone more massive than the sun, and then gravity would collapse that stone into a supermassive black hole.
The black hole could then tear apart the planet. That's the problem with an infinite amount of anything. It's limitless. You can do anything you want, and no one can stop you even if you decide to flood the entire universe with an endless supply of fish. It'd be like breaking the mechanics of a game by saying you want 10^999 fish in the game. that would cause the whole thing to crash.
That's the real problem with making an infinite amount of resources. Forget about money. There won't even be a world to worry about in this scenario.
People would also undoubtedly use their new godlike powers to have a fight to the death.
Since they can essentially make anything that they desire, they've basically become gods, and what god wants competition? They'd probably fight to the death with the other members of their species until only one will reign and become the "Supreme God". They'd either wipe themselves all out in the ensuing war or the last survivor would go on to use their remaining lifespan to remake the universe in their image, whatever that would be.
There is no scenario I can imagine where giving people infinite power is even a good thing.
Answer: Your premise is similar to Iain M. Banks' "Culture" series. People still have to cooperate to accomplish things. People compete for social status. The Culture sometimes comes into conflict with other civilizations that seek hegemony or clash with its values. And, in "Look to Windward", people reinvent money to be able to trade for tickets to a particularly desirable live concert.
Comment: Interesting point: The concert is an example of a general class, namely contact to people, that cannot be replicated and thus is scarce.
Answer: A society with functionally infinity resources would have a post-scarcity economy. Different economists have different opinions on if such a society could exist, and what its economy would look like if it did. I tried to look into the economic papers on the topic, but they were beyond me. I did find some evidence for your idea that a post-scaricty economy would function without money. This thesis explored the topic and concludes that,

that it is possible for a post-scarcity economy to exist without a
monetary system on an individual level, however, it would require some
form of resource accounting done on a macro-level.
Answer: The economy is meaningless
All economics attempts to answer the questions: What to produce? How to produce it? Who will benefit?.
Only question #3 has any other plausible answer that isn't "press the button on the alien resource machine", and then only if the people philosophically reject "everyone should get whatever they want". Scarcity has been solved; economics is now redundant, or reduced to "what level of wealth makes people happiest/ is the most virtuous / pleases God the most?".
I assume resources = end products, or else money isn't going to disappear.
Comment: I really don't see how the alien resource machine can produce infinitely many places at tables in fashionable restaurants, or infinitely many apartments overlooking New York's Central Park, or infinitely many bottles of Garrafeira port, etc. When people speak of infinite resources, they usually think of bulk things such as iron or wheat; but they ignore things which are rare by their nature, and they ignore services. How does the alien machine produce infinitely many perfect nannies?
Comment: There are already answers that make that frame challenge. I chose to go with the most plausible implementation of the scenario I can imagine. Port is not a problem. Press the 'button', bottle of port. For a restaurant, press the 'button', get your perfectly sized parts along with some assembly droids. Nanny androids too. Get a different Central Park if the original is taken; you're right in that unique locations and so on may still be scarce, but I say the imitations will be amazing.
Comment: Note: time is still finite, so in theory some services are still scarce. But with infinite goods and energy, they won't be very scarce.
Answer: People in the industrialized West live already in a state of material excess that is not far from the state of plenty you describe. (They just don't realize it.) Trends we see in those societies of material excess can be extrapolated.
There are entire classes of things that will still be scarce, and for which people will compete, with money (-equivalents) or other means. These things are valuable either because they are unique, or because they are connected to people who stay scarce.

Real estate. Even if your cornucopia includes the ability tocreate new planets, you cannot simply add a planet to a star system: Its perturbations would wreck havoc on the carefully balanced existing orbits. Yes, you could create space habitats, but space on the home planet will always be a limited resource.
Access to people in various forms.

John Doty mentions live concerts in his answer. Concerts are only an example for live performances of any kind.
Political access is another: People pay already significant money for access to the President. In general, all people with power and influence will be sought after, just like always.
Access to celebrities.
Access to scientific or technical specialists. Because (and this would warrant a longer discussion and is something you need to think about) the premise "we can build what we want" is tricky. Steve Jobs showed us that sometimes we don't know what we want in the first place. Taking a closer look at the premise, it is also unclear whether you can simply say, e.g., "I want a telephone that reacts to my touch" without inventing capacitative touch sensing first. I think it is more realistic to imagine your cornucopia as a sophisticated 3D printer/replicator on the molecular level whose energy and matter comes from "elsewhere". In that case we'd still need to invent and design what we want to have.

Original artifacts.

Anything handcrafted of quality will be valuable. Already, the Amish sell their furniture for a multiple of the price of comparable industrial products.
Original artwork may become even more of an investment and secondary currency than it already is.
If we imagine a space-faring society as in Banks' Culture, historic artifacts from Earth (or you aliens' home planet) will be of immeasurable value. Even a wooden spoon from the 1800s will be a treasure 10,000 light years away.

In general, if we assume that we are dealing with a replicator-like device, there will be a strong desire to distinguish originals from copies. If the replicators are indeed faithful enough to not leave traces of reproduction, the authenticity will be certified by accompanying letters etc. It's a similar desire as with artificial diamonds: Looks like a diamond, barks like a diamond, but it's not the same thing. The same will be thought of an exact copy of the Mona Lisa. Only the real one was painted by Leonardo. It is unique. (I suppose Walter Benjamin's famous essay is mandatory reading for any author tackling a cornucopia.)
Another trend we can observe in cultures that have transcended material needs is fashion. People will essentially have nothing urgent to do; all their material needs are taken care of. This resembles the situation on feudalistic courts, e.g. France in the 1600s, or the liberal arts faculties of modern universities. As a consequence, non-material things become important. Who is in? Who is out? What are the newest sensibilities, trends? You need to wear the right clothes and use the right words, or you are not one of us. In a society of plenty there will be a swift development of specific lingos and fashion signifiers that serve to identify subgroups. With instant and unlimited material availability the swirl of fashions will accelerate and diversify and possibly become more extreme.
Answer: The big divide is whether your available infinite resources are limited to unprocessed materials or processes materials - so are we talking copper or pizza :)
If you only have infinite unprocessed materials, infrastructure will still need to be built, maintained and used to deliver processed goods - ergo there will still be a normal economy with the slight quirk that goods of any material composition will have the same worth (brick walls, cement walls, platinum walls encrusted with gems, ect). Moving objects over distances will still have time and effort attached to them so "worth" will still be a thing (and well crafted or hand crafted objects will still be worth more then lesser constructs). Also waste disposal will probably be at a premium with the infinite stuff you pouring in. Honestly, this situation will probably result in a world consisting of a mostly lower upper class - with prestige attached to individuals who bother to do jobs.
If however, you have access to infinite processed goods (star-trek replicators with infinite batteries) then all bets are off. Besides finding a place to dump outdated or unwanted material objects (and waste), I'm not sure how society could function under this circumstance - especially once you hit the point where robots can perform delivery and luxury jobs (like a machine giving a back massage). An old experiment comes to mind where rats were placed in a rat utopia filled with nesting, food housing ect. and they all got lazy, lethargic, overweight and didn't even bother to breed. We not rats, I could see a similar theme of outcome however.


When to use AR and when to use MA model?

Question: When to use an AR model and when to use an MA model to model time-series data. What aspects of data are modelled by the AR process which can't be done by MA and vice-versa?
Answer: TL;DR

You would choose an AR model if you believe that previous observations have a direct effect on the time series.
You would choose an MA model if you believe that the weighted sum of differences (errors) have a direct effect on the time series.

To see what I mean with this, suppose you have a time series of the form $\{S_t\}_{t=1}^T$. Let's say that $S_t$ is the price of a stock at time $t$. Since $S_t$ is a random variable, we assume that it is normally distributed (stock prices cannot take negative values, as it is assumed on a normal distribution, but for the sake of the example, let's assume that this is true) with constant variance $\sigma^2$. If we were to model an AR(P) process, then $S_t$ would be distributed as
$$
S_t \sim \mathcal{N}\left(\psi + \sum_{p=1}^P \phi_pS_{t-p}, \ \sigma^2\right).
$$
As you can see, under an AR(P) process, we assume that the price at time $t$ has a mean that is given by the weighted sum of past observations plus a constant. Of course, the higher $\phi_p$, the greater effect a previous time-step has on what we think will be the current value of $S_t$. You can think this one as the weighted cumulative sum of previous returns, up to $Q$ periods.
On the other hand, if we were to model an MA(Q) process, then $S_t$ would be distributed as
$$
S_t \sim \mathcal{N}\left(\psi + \sum_{q=1}^Q \phi_pr_{t-q}, \ \sigma^2\right).
$$
If we denote $r_t$ as the return of the stock at time $t$, i.,e, $r_t= S_t - S_{t-1}$, then we can see that the MA(Q) process assumes that the current price has a mean that is given by the weighted sum of past returns plus a constant.
Answer: Generally , if the pure AR model has p coefficients AND the pure MA model has q coefficients select/use the AR model if p = < q OTHERWISE use the MA model.


Would showing code in a book which was written with a student or personal license not be allowed?

Question: I was writing a book which I'm considering publishing in the future, but I realized that there was some code I wanted to include that might be an issue.  I wrote it with a student license, so would including it in a book technically be commercial use?  The defense I think of with this is that in that case, would you not be allowed to use or show anything from any program for which you don't have a commercial license for?
Answer: The question is impossible to answer completely without knowing the exact license of your software development tools.
However, it would be unusual that you are not the complete owner of the source code that you have written yourself. Just like the maker of a word processor has no rights to the text that you are writing with it. Exceptions might be code that has boilerplate code added to it by the tools that you are using.
But what you really need to do is read the license of your development tools carefully, and when in doubt consult a lawyer.
Answer: I assume the point is that you were using some text editor that you acquired under a student license, and you wrote part of the code as a student using that editor. So the issue might be that the editor cannot be "used for commercial purposes". You would have to look at the wording of the license, so for example the MS Word Student license says that "The software may not be used for commercial, non-profit, or revenue-generating activities". This does not preclude exploiting a non-revenue generating product made with Word, for example a piece of code that you created for educational purposes, it simply precludes using that version of Word to make a buck. On the other hand, if you set out to write a bunch of code for money, and were using the student version of Word, then you were using the product a commercial purpose. You can use a different editor with different licensing conditions (e.g. no such restrictions), rewrite the code or other text and be in conformity with the license. Regardless of the license terms, the intellectual property is your property.


Is Sentinel-2 measuring absorbance or reflectance?

Question: I have just started playing around with the Google Earth Engine and I was wondering whether the values recorded (shown in picture below), are supposed to represent the reflectance or absorbance of that specific band? Moreover, is the higher value in Band 4 saying that the pixel is more red or less red?
Answer: These are the two Sentinel-2 data sets on GEE with all the information that you require
https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/COPERNICUS_S2
https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/COPERNICUS_S2_SR
Both dataset represents reflectance values, the L1C product represents top of atmosphere reflectance and the L2A product represents atmospherically corrected surface reflectance values.
Therefore, if there is a higher value in Band 4, it means the pixel is more red yes.


What should I do if my email has been registered for an mega.nz account that I didn't create?

Question: So I was looking through some of my emails and I saw that I was being sent some emails from mega.nz about an account that was made with my email address that was locked and needed to be verified. However, I never made an account with mega.nz. So does anyone know how I should proceed with this situation without logging onto the account, cause I want the account to be deleted?
Answer: If you did not create the account, just flag it as spam and block it.  It may be just a trick.
It is very likely someone either mistakenly put your email in there or it may be spam. Don't sign in or give it any more of your time. We all get tricky spam like that too.


Deriving Length contraction without time dilation?

Question: I was wondering if there is a way to prove the length contraction without using the time dilation? because every time I see a derivation to length contraction it comes with the time dilation and start based on it.
Answer: It depends on your postulates: on what premisses are you going to build your theory. If you take the Lorentz transforms as your premisses then you don't really use time dilation to establish length contraction. But you still need to consider time in order to understand length contraction. In particular you need to realise that in a frame, S, in which a body is moving (in the +$x$ direction, you must make simultaneous measurements of the positions of $x_A$ and $x_B$ of A and B on the body in order to measure the distance ($x_B-x_A$) in your frame. In the S' frame, in which the body is stationary there is no need for simultaneous measurement of $x'_A$ and $x'_B$. Using the Lorentz transform for displacements parallel to the relative velocity between frames, and the simultaneity of measuring $x_A$ and $x_B$ we have:
$$x'_A = \gamma(x_A-vt)\ \ \ \ \text{and}\ \ \ \ x'_B = \gamma(x_B-vt)\ \ \ \ \text{so}\ \ \ \ x'_B-x'_A=\gamma(x_A-x_B) $$
Since $\gamma > 1$ we have $x_A-x_B<x'_B-x'_A.$
Comment: What are your premisses, your starting assumptions?
Comment: You have described a set-up. You need assumptions, for example about light, time and space on which to build an argument! I like to start with Einstein's postulates supplemented with the isotropy of space and proceed, for example as Rindler does (Introduction to Special Relativity, Second edition, 1990) to the Lorentz transforms. I sense that this is not the sort of answer that you are looking for. You may well get answers more to your taste; it's early days.
Comment: What I want to do is prove the $\gamma$ in the length contraction without using the time dilation. As if I didn't know about Lorentz transformation
Comment: The assumptions are:
Let there be a photon emitting from A (which has a mirror) to B (Also has a mirror) and both of them are in a parallel line with the velocity $v$ (which is all the system velocity), for the stationary observer the distance between A and B is $X$.
How can I prove that it will have a length contraction for the outside frame?


Why is a TTT diagram called isothermal transformation diagram?

Question: Why are TTT diagrams called isothermal temperature diagram?As far as I know the temperature variation is plotted with the variation of time in a TTT diagram. Then why do we call it "isothermal".What is so constant about the temperature?
Comment: "*Put up in a place / where it's easy to see / the cryptic admonishment / T.T.T. / When you feel how depressingly / slowly you climb, / it's well to remember that / Things Take Time.*" ([Piet Hein, T.T.T.](https://allpoetry.com/T.T.T.))
Comment: They are there to show you what happens while holding a sample at fixed temperature for different times. For non-isothermal conditions they are not particularly useful as normally presented.
Answer: They are two names for the same procedure.  A steel is heated to a temperature in the austenite range then quenched/quickly cooled to some specific temperature. Held at that constant ( isothermal) temperature ( T) for a specific time (T) then quenched to room temperature for examination of the transformation (T) products.  You may be thinking of CCT ; continuous cooling diagrams ; where a steel sample is austenitized  then continuously cooled at some specific rate.  Then examined for transformation products. The results can have similarities depending on alloy content , etc.


Choosing a networking protocol

Question: I need several mbeds to communicate with a host PC, which will issue commands to individual mbeds. What would be a suitable networking protocol to achieve this? Bear in mind, an internet connection is not required, if that makes a difference.
Comment: What's wrong with TCP? The code is already out there.
Comment: Which type of mbed? There are multiple.
Comment: The popular and small LPC1768 dev board. I'm thinking of using UDP because of its simplicity, relative to TCP. Would this be appropriate when considering motors will be controlled by the mbeds?
Comment: Depending on the use case TCP may have too much overhead. MQTT has gained popularity lately in home automation because of small packets, small memory requirements, and somewhat configurable levels of fault tolerance/correction. Might be worth checking out.
Answer: From your comment it seems you are considering UDP.
There is nothing wrong with that choice for a local Ethernet network. You can implement any reliability you need within your software.
How much of the stack you need will depend and you have given almost no information:

What Mbed OS version?
IpV4/6/6LowPan?
Ethernet switched environment or point-to-point passthrough?
DHCP or fixed IP addresses (IPv4 or 6)
Packet rate, packet size?

Choosing a networking protocol


What is the benefit of latent variables?

Question: I have a model $p(x)$. How can adding latent variables $z$ help me? What are the main benefits of modelling $p(x, z)=p(x|z) p(z) $ instead of $p(x) $ alone? What would be some examples where modelling the latter would make my model better?
Answer: There are some elements to answer your question in Section 16.5 of the Deep Learning book by Ian Goodfellow and al.:

A good generative model needs to accurately capture the distribution over the
  observed or "visible" variables $v$ . Often the different elements of $v$ are highly
  dependent on each other. In the context of deep learning, the approach most
  commonly used to model these dependencies is to introduce several latent or
  "hidden" variables, $h$. The model can then capture dependencies between any pair
  of variables $v_i$ and $v_j$ indirectly, via direct dependencies between $v_i$ and $h$, and direct dependencies between $h$ and $v_j$.

The section also opposes the approach of adding latent variable to that of trying to model $p(v)$ without any latent variable:

A good model of v which did not contain any latent variables would need to have very large numbers of parents per node in a Bayesian network or very large
  cliques in a Markov network. Just representing these higher order interactions is
  costly. [...]

As an approach to discover such relevant (and computationaly tractable) interactions between the visible variables, the concept of structure learning is introduced. In general, modeling a fixed structure with latent variables avoids the need of structure learning between the visible variables. The book seems to imply that the former is easier than the latter. Indeed, we find later on this sentence:

Using simple parameter
  learning techniques we can learn a model with a fixed structure that imputes the
  right structure on the marginal $p( v )$.

Edit (thanks to carlo's comment): Going further in the analysis of structures with latent variables, we come accross the notion of interpretability. Jumping to Section 16.7, we can read:

When latent variables are used in the context of traditional graphical models, they are often designed with some specific semantics in mind—the topic of a document, the intelligence of a student, the disease causing a patient's symptoms, etc. These models are often much more interpretable by human practitioners and often have more theoretical guarantees [...]
Comment: good answer. in generalized latent variables models, instead, the main benefit is improved interpretability of the association between observable variables
Comment: Yes indeed! I added a point about it.
Comment: This answer made the usefulness of latent variables clear. I accept. Thank you
Answer: In many cases the data we observe depends on some hidden variables, that were not observed, or could not be observed. Knowing those variables would simplify our model, and in many cases we can get away from not knowing their values by assuming a latent variable model, that can "recover" the unobserved variables from the data.

Among popular examples of such models are finite mixture models, which assume that the data is clustered, while the cluster assignment is unknown and to be learned from the data. Those models can be used to learning distribution of the data, or more complicate cases like regression. In each case, the model learns to distinguish among several groups in the data, that share common characteristics, and fits the sub-models per each group, no matter that the group assignment was not known a priori. In plain English, instead of needing to build a complicated one-size-fitts-all model, you are building a model that consists of several, problem-specific, simpler models.

Another popular example is principle components analysis (see e.g. chapter 12 from Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning book by Bishop, 2006), or basically any other dimensionality reduction model, that are used to "compress" the observed data to smaller number of dimensions without much loss of information. Here the latent variables are the unobserved "features" of the data, that almost fully explain it. We are aiming at finding those features.

You can find very different example in my recent question, where we observed an aggregated data, while wanting to learn about the individual-level variability. As pointed in the answer, this can be thought as latent variable model, where we treat the predictions for the individuals as latent variables, that get aggregated, so that we can predict the aggregated responses to train the model. So contrary to previous examples where we used latent variables to find some higher-level features, here we use them to make lower-level, de-aggregated predictions. Again, here the individual-level values were not observed, so we replaced them with latent variables placeholders and made the model to predict them from the data.

Those are just few examples that illustrate latent variable models. You can find some more in the books by Bishop (2006), or Machine Learning: A Probabilistic Perspective by Kevin P. Murphy, who give many more examples and detailed explanations.
As a sidenote, it is worth mentioning, that those models can be in many cases hard to identify and often need some problem-specific computational tweaks and algorithms, so "guessing" the data that was not observed comes at some cost.
Comment: Thank you for comprehensive examples :)
Answer: Take a simple case: the data $x$ is a mixture of Gaussians generated by picking a cluster index $z$ (from a categoric distribution $p(z)$) and then sampling from the Gaussian of that cluster $p(x|z)$. So $x$ is defined by nature as $p(x)=\sum_zp(x|z)p(z)$.

If you observe samples from $p(x)$ and want to model the distribution, the most accurate model will be one that reflects the true generative process (which may not be unique), i.e. that models the unobserved $z$ as a latent variable.
You could fit another model: like one big Gaussian, which would be a terrible fit; or a very flexible autoregressive model (e.g. a normalising flow [1]); but they are approximations and will not do better than fitting a latent variable model that reflects/respects the generative process. Also they do not reveal the "natural structure" of the data (see next point).

The latent variables may be of interest in themselves. For example, in the mixture of Gaussians case, inferring $z$ identifies the cluster of each data point, which may be semantically meaningful. This would be true for a more complex mixture distribution and may identify images of the same object, or words of the same sentiment. In physics, a latent variable might represent a certain property to be estimated.
[1] A Family of Nonparametric Density Estimation Algorithms; Tabak & Turner


How to install Epson Stylus SX435W printer on Ubuntu 14.04 32bit

Question: Just escaped from Windows XP and finding my way in Ubuntu 14.04 32bit. Please help me find and install drivers for Epson Stylus SX435 printer and get it working. In system settings printer shows as SX445 and despite changes always defaults to this. Have searched the net and found conflicting advice. IE use SX400 series driver and it will work perfectly or printer will only work in wireless mode. Some forum posts claim it will not work at all.
The dialogue screen on the printer just shows "unavailable" or "communication error".
I need some idiot proof advice please.
Answer: Install common printer drivers in Ubuntu :
sudo apt-get install cups-client cups-common cups-core-drivers cups-daemon cups-filters cups-ppdc cups-server-common debconf ghostscript libavahi-client3 libavahi-common3 libc-bin libc6 libcups2 libcupscgi1 libcupsimage2 libcupsmime1 libcupsppdc1 libgcc1 libstdc++6 libusb-1.0-0 lsb-base poppler-utils procps

Then use the printer with the application system-config-printer-gnome


Dynamically connecting oracle database through Ruby on Rails

Question: From my few days of learning Ruby on Rails i understood that the database configuration has to be made in database.yml file. But my requirment is i have to work with 2 different database.
I will be getting few user profile information and his/her oracle database connection information (SID, user name, password) from user. And i will be storing them in postgresql db. The stored information of user will be listing  on dashboard. when a user clicks on that listed records then the application should fetch the oracle connection details form postgresql database and connect to that particular oracle database and it should show me the tables available on the oracle database.
is it possible with ROR 4?
Answer: I don't have a whole lot of personal experience with this gem, but I've heard it recommended for this exact scenario it's called octopus, there's a link to the github repo


Special concerns for short-scale basses?

Question: Came into ownership of a Gibson EB-0 a while back, and learned to my surprise that the bass that had been on my want list for a while was actually the same scale as your average guitar.  Other than the issue of getting accustomed to the smaller frets, are there any special concerns to be aware of (gauge, string tension, intonation, etc.)?
Answer: None that I can think of.
The shorter scale means the strings are under less tension than a regular bass. That's good for the neck.
Enjoy it! Sounds nice.
Answer: It's true that EB-0 has a short scale length, but not as short as an "average guitar". For example, a Les Paul typically has 24.75"; or 25.5" for a Telecaster. EB-0 has a scale length of 30.5", while shorter than most basses (which are around 35"), is still much longer than most guitars.
With the same tuning and string gauges, shorter scale length means looser strings, which is easier to fret, brings warmer sound, but also more prone to fret buzz. To my personal experience, it also takes more effort to get shorter-scale guitar/basses in tune, but that won't be a great issue for well-made instruments.
Finally, you can always increase your effective scale length by using a set of thicker strings. After all, it's all about tension.
Comment: I would generally agree with this answer but you should consider gauge a little more closely.  If your strings are too loose, you won't get the same resonance for your tone or the same sustain.  I would definitely look into getting strings designed for your scale length.  I'm not sure what sort of music shop you may have available to you but I was able to go into mine to get a set of custom strings for an alternate tuning on my 6 string bass and it has helped with tone and sustain.
Comment: @Basstickler Yes it's always a good idea to equip a fitted custom set of strings if you want to stick with a certain tone. My point here is, for "well-made" instruments, of which EB-0 is definitely one of them, you don't need to worry about its scale length being shorter than average. Try to think it as a feature which brings special characteristics to it, rather than a problem.
I have a very short-scale Gibson B-25 3/4 parlor guitar (22.75"), I always appreciate its relative loose string and the tone brought by all its peculiarities (small body, short scale,  and a ladder bracing).
Comment: That's a very valid point.  I guess the idea is just that whoever is setting up the bass needs to know whether they're going for a more standard sound or looking to emphasize the differences that the shorter scale can offer.


Attachment too large for mailing - should there have been a warning?

Question: Recently had a user attach a .docx file that was 14 MB to a mailing.  (Probably a single picture in the document was to blame.)  As one would expect, the messages bounced rather than being delivered.  However, the mailing reports just showed a bounce type of Syntax.  As you can imagine, this is rather unhelpful.  Digging around, I finally turned to the system's logging for maillog where I found the report of the attachment too large.  Should I have found this information somewhere in CiviCRM itself?  Perhaps in the mailing report that I overlooked?
Comment: Did you send a test e-mail to yourself first? Always a good idea. 14MB is pretty huge for an attachment - I believe Outlook/Exchange will often not allow receiving attachments larger than 10MB, for example. Also the fact that it's a .docx and could contain malware, like a Word macro, would probably cause many receiving systems to block it.
Comment: Yep.  Again, you are correct.  Those are all real problems that users are really good at not knowing, not remembering, and ignoring.
Comment: OK then for now my suggested real world solution is to require a test e-mail be sent via permissions :) . And I agree that there should be a warning that an attachment is (probably) too large, added in core.
Answer: There's an administrative setting that controls that limit here:
Administer -> System Settings -> Misc (Undelete, PDFs, Limits, Logging, Captcha, etc.)
The "syntax error" you are seeing is likely what the Civi mailer is getting back from the smtp server. I've seen that as a kind of catchall error message from mailers (e.g. it's what sparkpost will report when not configured). I don't think that Civi can do anything other than pass it on - i.e. the reporting error is from the system that's trying/failing to send out the mail.
Personally, I think there should be a message in the CiviMail system strongly discouraging attachments and encouraging attachments to be uploaded and linked to instead. That will increase deliverability.
The only really good use-case for attachments is if the document is private.
So the answer to your question is: "no".
Comment: While I agree with the sentiments, it's not real world, no matter how hard I fight it.  Additionally, while helpful in the overall theme, this doesn't answer the question.  Sorry.
Comment: Perhaps you want to submit an extension or PR with a warning or message when using attachments in a CiviMail? To the effect that it's a bad idea and it might fail with a misleading error message from the mailer?
Comment: Great idea, if it doesn't already exist.  However, this still is not on the topic of CiviCRM's bounce processing throwing an error/message when something like this happens.
Comment: But you did see the update to my answer that is specific to your question, yes?


Lagrange's theorem

Question: I don't understand left coset and Lagrange's theorem... I'm working on some project so please write me anything what could help me understand it better
Comment: I wrote some course notes on cosets once, which are posted at http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/blurbs/grouptheory/coset.pdf. Maybe that will have something useful in it.
Comment: What is your background? Are you studying some introductory course on group theory?
Comment: yes yes :):):):):):):):):)
Answer: Suppose $G$ is a group, and $H$ is any subgroup of $G$. I would like to try to define something similar to "congruence modulo $n$" for integers, but for this arbitrary group $G$ and subgroup $H$.
In the integers, we say that $a\equiv b\pmod{m}$ if and only if $a-b$ is an element of the subgroup $m\mathbb{Z}$. So we are going to try something similar for $H$ and $G$, taking into account that $G$ need not be abelian.
I'm not going to assume the group is finite until I say so explicitly.
Definition. Let $G$ be a group and let $H$ be a subgroup. If $x,y\in G$, we say that $x$ and $y$ are congruent on the right modulo $H$ if and only if $xy^{-1}\in H$. We write this $x\equiv_H y$.
Proposition. $\equiv_H$ is an equivalence relation on $G$.
Proof. We need to show that the relation is reflexive, symmetric, and transitive. Let $x\in G$. Then $xx^{-1} = e\in H$ (since $H$ is a subgroup, hence contains $e$), so $x\equiv_H x$.
Now let $x,y\in G$, and suppose that $x\equiv_H y$; we want to show that $y\equiv_H x$ holds as well. Since $x\equiv_H y$, then $xy^{-1}\in H$. Since $H$ is a subgroup, it is closed under taking inverses, so $(xy^{-1})^{-1} = (y^{-1})^{-1}x^{-1} = yx^{-1}\in H$. By defintion, this means that $y\equiv_H x$, as desired.
Finally, suppose that $x,y,z\in G$ and that $x\equiv_H y$ and $y\equiv_Hz$. We want to show that $x\equiv_H z$. The first congruence implies $xy^{-1}\in H$; the second that $yz^{-1}\in H$. Since $H$ is a subgroup, it is closed under products, so $(xy^{-1})(yz^{-1})=xz^{-1}\in H$, hence $x\equiv_H z$, as desired. QED
Notice that the three basic properties of a subgroup are precisely needed for the three basic properties of an equivalence relation: $H$ contains the identity is used for reflexivity; $H$ is closed under inverses is used for symmetry; and $H$ is closed under products is used for transitivity.
Now, since $\equiv_H$ is an equivalence relation on $G$, by the Fundamental Theorem of Equivalence Relations, $\equiv_H$ induces a partition on $G$; that is, $G$ is broken up into disjoint parts, one for each equivalence class. Our next goal is to figure out if we have some description of the equivalence classes that is independent of the equivalence relation (this is very useful in general). Indeed, we do:
Theorem. Let $G$ be a group and let $H$ be a subgroup; let $x\in G$. The equivalence class of $x$ under the relation  $\equiv_H$ is equal to the set $Hx = \{hx\mid h\in H\}$. That is,
$$[x]_H = \{y\in G\mid x\equiv_Hy\} = \{hx\mid h\in H\} = Hx.$$
Proof. We need to show that each element in $Hx$ is in $[x]_H$, and that each element in $[x]_H$ is in $Hx$.
Let $z\in Hx$; that means that $z = hx$ for some $h\in H$. Then
$$xz^{-1} = x(hx)^{-1} = x(x^{-1}h^{-1}) = h^{-1}\in H,$$
so by definition we have that $x\equiv_H z$. Thus, if $z\in Hx$, then $z\in[x]_H$. So $Hx\subseteq[x]_H$.
Conversely, let $y\in [x]_H$. Then $x\equiv_H y$, so $xy^{-1}\in H$. Thus, there exists $h\in H$ such that $xy^{-1}=h$. Multiplying on the right by $y$ we get $x=hy$, and multiplying on the left by $h^{-1}$ we get $h^{-1}x = y$. Since $h^{-1}\in H$, we get $y = h^{-1}x \in Hx$. Thus, if $y\in[x]_H$ then $y\in Hx$, so $[x]_H\subseteq Hx$.
Putting the two inclusions together, we conclude that $[x]_H = Hx$ for each $x\in G$. QED
Corollary. Let $G$ be a group, $H$ a subgroup. Then:

$Hx$ is nonempty for each $x\in G$.
$\displaystyle G = \mathop{\cup}_{x\in G} Hx$.
For all $x,y\in G$, if $Hx\cap Hy\neq\emptyset$, then $Hx=Hy$.

Proof. This follows from the fact that since the sets of the form $Hx$ are exactly the equivalence classes of the equivalence relation $\equiv_H$, they form a partition of $G$. QED
Corollary. Let $G$ be a group, $H$ a subgroup. For all $x,y\in G$, $x\equiv_H y$ if and only if $Hx = Hy$.
We give the sets of the form $Hx$ a name:
Definition. Let $G$ be a group, $H$ a subgroup, and $x\in G$. The set
$$Hx = \{ hx\mid h\in H\}$$
is called the right coset of $x$ modulo $H$.
"Coset" is short for "congruence set", because the right coset is exactly the set of all things that are congruent on the right to $x$ modulo $H$.
In general, when you have an equivalence relation, the equivalence classes can have different sizes. But not so with these equivalence relation: because they are obtained by taking all possible products with elements of $H$, all equivalence classes are bijectable.
Theorem. Let $G$ be a group and $H$ a subgroup. Let $x,y\in G$ be any two elements. Then there is a bijection between the sets $Hx$ and $Hy$, given by
\begin{align*}
\psi\colon Hx &\to Hy\\
hx&\mapsto hy
\end{align*}
Proof. To show that $\psi$ is one-to-one, let $hx,h'x\in Hx$ be such that $\psi(hx)=\psi(h'x)$. Then $hy = h'y$. Multiplying on the right by $y^{-1}$, we get $h=h'$, so $hx=h'x$. Thus, $\psi$ is one-to-one.
To show $\psi$ is onto, let $hy\in H$. Then $hx\in Hx$, and $\psi(hx)=hy$. Thus, $\psi$ is one-to-one and onto, so it is a bijection. QED
Now, let's assume that $G$ is finite, and $H$ is a subgroup. Then the equivalence relation $\equiv_H$ partitions $G$ into equivalence classes; each equivalence class is of the form $Hx$ for some $x\in G$, and by the previous theorem, they are all bijectable with one another, so they all have the same size, $k$. If there are $m$ distinct equivalence classes, each of size $k$, and they partition $G$, then the size of $G$ is the sum of the sizes of the distinct equivalence classes; that is, $|G|=mk$.
But what is $k$? $k$ is the size of the equivalence classes; they are all the same size. In particular, the equivalence class $He$ has size $k$. But what is $He$? Well,
$$He = \{ he\mid h\in H\} = \{h\mid h\in H\} = H.$$
That is, $He = H$, so that $H$ itself has size $k$.
Since $|G|=mk = m|H|$, that means that $|H|$ divides $|G|$. That is:
Corollary [Lagrange's Theorem]. If $G$ is a finite group, and $H$ is a subgroup, then the size of $H$ divides the size of $G$.
You might ask if you can define a "congruence on the left"; yes, you can. We say $x$ and $y$ are congruent on the left modulo $H$ if $x^{-1}y\in H$, and we write $x{}_H\equiv y$. If we proceed as above, then we get that the equivalence class of $x$ modulo $H$ on the left is $xH$ (instead of $Hx$); the process is completely analogous; these are called left cosets of $H$. Turns out that there is a bijection between left and right cosets. One is tempted to define the bijection by sending the coset $xH$ to the coset $Hx$, but it turns out that this is not well defined (you can have $xH = yH$, but also have $Hx\neq Hy$). However, mapping $xH$ to the coset $Hx^{-1}$ works out (I'll leave it to you to work it out), so that the number of left cosets and the number of right cosets of $H$ in $G$ are the same, and the size of any left coset is the same as the size of any right coset of $H$. In general, the equivalence relation "congruent on the left modulo $H$" is not the same as the equivalence relation "congruent on the right modulo $H$"; the case when they are the same is interesting in its own right, and corresponds to the case when $H$ is a normal subgroup, which has a lot of important consequences all of its own that you will no doubt discover soon.
Comment: Arturo, where did you learn that etymology for coset?  I'd never heard any etymology for it at all, so this is quite interesting.
Comment: @KCd: I first learned all of this in Spanish, where cosets are "lateral classes" (left or right, as appropriate). I can't pinpoint in my memory when I learned this for English, seems like I've always known it. I'm at the JMM, so I can't look up to see if the etymology is in any of my basic references, but I will look it up tomorrow.
Comment: @KCd: I've been unable to find the etymology in any of my books; I hope I didn't make it up! I did however tracked down the apparent first use of the term: a paper by Miller, in the Quarterly Journal, published in 1910 (volume 41). I'm trying to see if I can track down a copy, though it is not available in my local library, to see if what he meant when he coined it.
Answer: I cannot yet write comments, so I'll write an answer.
Have you tried reading:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange%27s_theorem_(group_theory)
Maybe what you find confusing is that left cosets are not subgroups, just subsets of the group. You don't give many clues about your actual concerns...
Comment: Given a subgroup H and some a in G, we define the left coset aH = {ah : h in H}. Because a is invertible, the map φ : H → aH given by φ(h) = ah is a bijection. Furthermore, every element of G is contained in precisely one left coset of H; the left cosets are the equivalence classes corresponding to the equivalence relation a1 ~ a2 if and only if a1−1a2 is in H. The number of left cosets of H is called the index of H in G and is denoted by [G : H].
Comment: Lagrange's theorem states that for a finite group G and a subgroup H,

where |G| and |H| denote the orders of G and H, respectively. In particular, the order of every subgroup of G (and the order of every element of G) must be a divisor of |G|.
Comment: @Milica: $ah$ is just the group product of $a$ and $h$.

Lagrange's theorem


Should you filter GWAS hits with high standard error?

Question: I'm trying to figure out if I should be filtering out GWAS hits that have high standard error and I'm not quite sure what to do.  It seems like it might not matter, because the standard error is used to calculate the t-statistic, which is then used to calculate the p-value.  So in a way it's already built in.  But reporting SNPs that have very high standard error doesn't seem quite right.  What's the best way to handle this?
Answer: I am curious about the relationship between your p-value (or effect sizes) and standard error. I would expect the significant signals to have smaller stand error compared to the non-significant, background signals. If this is the case, there is no need to do filter.
Comment: I'm not doing the GWAS, I'm only looking at other people's results. It's not typical for people to report SNPs with large SE in their tables, because that means the p-value will be quite high (and most people concentrate on p-value above all else).
Comment: That hasn't been my observation in looking at the raw UK Biobank GWAS results. There may be some correlation between effect size and standard error, but it's not a universal rule. I have seen results with large standard error, and also large effect sizes.
Comment: I agree. But if you look at genome-wide significant SNPs, are their std really large? Do you have rigorous filtering criteria before GWAS? I am also wondering what is your purpose of doing the GWAS? If it is just a standard GWAS or genomic correlation or LDSC I think it is fine without filtering? I do not remember seeing any paper doing that.
Answer: I think the effect size is more of an issue than the standard error.
If the standard error suggests that the effect direction could change sign, then it might be a good idea to filter it out. Otherwise, if the effect size remains large (or at least positive) even after accounting for a large error, then [to me] that would attach more weight to the likelihood that the association is valid.
I did a very quick analysis of the results of one UK Biobank study on Twitter, where I used the statistic of "the least extreme value in a 95% confidence interval" in a Manhattan plot instead of the more commonly-used p-value:
https://twitter.com/gringene_bio/status/1207617723586371584


Feature detecting support for svg filters

Question: I need to feature detect whether a browser supports svg filters (feGaussianBlur, to be specific). How would I go about testing for this? Safari, which doesn't support the filter, silently ignores the filter.
Answer: You could probably also check the enums available on the interfaces, e.g:
var supportsfilter = typeof SVGFEColorMatrixElement !== undefined &&
                     SVGFEColorMatrixElement.SVG_FECOLORMATRIX_TYPE_SATURATE==2;

That way you won't have to construct new elements, as in https://stackoverflow.com/a/9767059/109374. I've not tested to see whether this works as expected in Safari.
Update:
Patch submitted to modernizr: https://github.com/Modernizr/Modernizr/pull/531
Comment: A bit of extra weirdness though - the properties don't show up in the DOM (aren't initialised?) until after an SVG is added to the page or `SVGFEColorMatrixElement` is called in the console. I've tested in safari and a reference error is thrown, as you might expect, so the test would need a try/catch block. +1
Comment: @ErikDahlström, i was trying to slove this problem using console.log(document.implementation.hasFeature("http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/feature#Filter", "1.1")) inside the svg document, but unfortunately returns false in both Firefox and safari. Please let me know how to do it.
Comment: I was initially looking for something like this in the DOM tree in firebug but couldn't find anything. What are these interfaces? - global variables that aren't added to the window object? *edit* I now see them - I had to set firebug to show non-enumerable properties
Comment: These are just constants that should be there always, if the browser implements the corresponding DOM interface. How about the variant that uses typeof?
Answer: I have created a fiddle http://jsfiddle.net/yxVSe/ which examines the existence of the properties of GaussianBlur.
Say GaussianBlur has a method setStdDeviation, we check for the existence of that method, when fails we come to a conclusion that the current browser dosent support that filter.
When this fiddle is check in safari texts would be in red, while in firefox it will be green.
Comment: The `if(filterTag.constructor.toString().indexOf('SVGFilterElement') != -1)` test is not correctly detecting Opera (which supports svg filters).
Comment: @Erik Dahlstrom - good spot, although playing around a bit it looks like that line of code was unnecessary anyway. I've whittled the test down to just 3 lines, which give the desired results across browsers `var blur = document.createElementNS("http://www.w3.org/2000/svg", "feGaussianBlur");
  blur.setAttribute("stdDeviation", "2");
  return (typeof blur.setStdDeviation !== 'undefined' );`
Comment: In fact, the second line of that isn't needed either, so a 2 line test will do fine.
Comment: in case anyone comes here after 10+ years: Safari is shit and doesn't implement this method - despite the standard svg spec - but you can still set it on the elements with .setAttribute('stdDeviation', '5')
Answer: I added a small modification for legacy Androids bug
var supportsfilter = window['SVGFEColorMatrixElement'] !== undefined && SVGFEColorMatrixElement.SVG_FECOLORMATRIX_TYPE_SATURATE == 2


Add userControl to listbox

Question: I am working on a little project for a contest in my city..and i just hit a brick wall.The thing is: i am creating a userControl in Blend(let's say a canvas,in wich i have a reactangle..a textblock and an image).My problem is that i can not add this to the listboxitem in WPF by code.Addin the userControl one by one in the designer seems to work..but the software is going to work with a variable number of items for the listbox.
    private void mainPane1_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
         MessageBox.Show("layout updated");
        questions cq;
        Button btn;

        for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
        {
            btn = new Button();
            btn.Content = "intreb" + i.ToString();
            cq = new questions();
            Canvas.SetZIndex(cq, 17);
            //cq.questionHolder.Text = "intrebare" + i.ToString();
            listaintrebari.Items.Add(cq);
            MessageBox.Show("intrebare" + i.ToString());
            listaintrebari.Items.Add(btn);
            //MessageBox.Show("layout updated");

        }

    }

questions is my UserControl and listaintrebari is the listbox.I tried to add some buttons and it works great...but it seems to hate my userControl.
I am waiting for your thoughts on how to resolve this issue, and if you have any sugestions on what other is best to use in my situation and how..it would be great.Thank you!
Comment: am I correct in thinking that your trying to create a listbox which has items with multiple properties to be displayed (image + textblock)? if so then you don't have to create a new usercontrol. you can do it by creating a datatemplate, and setting the listbox's itemTemplate to the dataTemplate. I have some code for this, if it is what your trying to do
Comment: Tags **do not** belong in the title.
Answer: The right way to handle this kind of situation is by having a data model with a collection of your questions. Then bind your ListBox.ItemsSource to the collection and provide a DataTemplate that uses your UserControl.
Answer: Ok, here's some actual code that might help you out.
I will be using several WPF concepts that you might want to study further : DataBinding, DataTemplates, ImageSources, ObservableCollections
First you need to create (if you don't have it yet) an underlying class for your Questions. The simplest you can get would be something like this :
 internal class Question
 {
     public ImageSource QuestionImage { get; set; }
     public string QuestionText { get; set; }
 }

Then in your screen's code behind (yes, we are not at MVVM yet), you should create an ObservableCollection of Question and pouplate them with your questions
I have smth like this:
public ObservableCollection<Question> Questions { get; private set; }
public MainWindow()
{
    InitializeComponent();
    this.DataContext = this;
    Questions = new ObservableCollection<Question>();

    for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
    {
        var newQ = new Question { QuestionText = "intrebarea " + i.ToString(), QuestionImage = _get your image as a ImageSource here_ };
        Questions.Add(newQ);
    }
}

The this.DataContext = this is very important, otherwise your Data Binding will not work.

In your design area, create a list and bind it to the Questions collection you created. The way the question is displayed in the list is driven by the "ItemTemlpate" as below.
<ListBox ItemsSource="{Binding Questions}">
  <ListBox.ItemTemplate>
    <StackPanel>
      <Image Source="{Binding QuestionImage}" Height="20" Width="20"/>
      <TextBlock Margin="5" Text="{Binding QuestionText}" />
    </StackPanel>
  </ListBox.ItemTemplate>
</ListBox>

You can replace the  I have there with your UserControl contents or event the UserControl itself, but make sure to preserve the Bindings to the objects in your Question class.

Like I said above, many things might not make sense at this point so make sure you read about them : What is a data Binding, What is a DataContext, What is an ObservableCollection. Also, try looking at MVVM when you get a chance...
Lastly, if you are unsure how to get an ImageSource when you have a jpg or png file in your project:
public ImageSource GetImagesource(string location)
{
  var res = new BitmapImage()
  res.BeginInit();
  res.UriSource = new Uri("pack://application:,,,/ApplicationName;component/" + location);
  res.EndInit();

  return res;
}

Answer: Use the ListBox's ItemTemplate to define what you want each instance of your object to look like, then bind the ListBox's ItemsSource to a collection of that type.
Answer: You need to create a collection (e.g. List) of your control and bind the collection to the ListBox.

Add userControl to listbox


Has anyone seen this kind of eggs in their kale and strawberry?

Question: I guess these are eggs of some pest which is infecting the kale and strawberry plants in our garden. Has anyone seen something similar to this? If yes, what did you do to get rid of them without any use of harmful pesticides?
Comment: The golden ones might have been parasitized by wasps so don't need disposing
Answer: I don't think those are eggs. I think they are aphids.
Put your gloves on and squish them. It will be easiest, and little is in fact lost, to just remove heavily infested tissue, such as the leaf you show; crush it as you discard it.
A jet from your garden hose will usually remedy problems before they become serious if you just make a habit of 'blasting' the foliage when you water (or doing it periodically if you are using an irrigation system instead of hand watering).
Aphids siphon off the sugars from photosynthesis, so you'll find them most prevalently on new growth and along leaf veins. If 'squish & blast' doesn't keep them at bay, it may be necessary to spray a pesticide such as NEEM to get back in control (comply with the label instructions!).
Answer: Those are aphids. Aphids come in many colors including gray, black, red, yellow, green, and brown. And I've seen them turn orange in the fall (after a frost I think) on a plant I had.

Spray with soapy water so they come off.
Or cut off the branch and burn it.
Or place the branch in a capped jar of alcohol for an hour. Then put branch in garbage, do not compost in case there are other pathogens on that branch.
Make a solution from tobacco, the cheapest you can find. Put a handful of tobacco in cheese cloth, tie with a string. Soak it in 2-3 cups water for 24 hours. Strain into mister bottle and spray. The nicotine kills many types of insects. If you are concerned, wait 1-2 hours after spraying and rinse with water to help out the pollinators.
Answer: Possibly caterpillar droppings. See this link. Aphids are usually underneath the leaf
https://www.eatortoss.com/yep-that-greenish-dirt-on-your-kale-is-caterpillar-droppings/
Comment: And I'm afraid that this is incorrect - those are indeed aphids.
Comment: Hi Sinead, welcome to Gardening. It is better if we don't have to click a link to ascertain that your answer is valid. It woukd be better if you could post more information as a quote or even an image


Unable to use Quicksand.js filter within limited container space

Question: can anyone help? I've been racking my brain a week or so now.
Basically I'm trying to add a gallery to a page that uses twitter-bootstrap and the quicksand.js plugin. I figured it would be easy to implement since I found this nice site template from DXThemes. Here is the demo. http://demo.dxthemes.com/html/tabulate if you click portfolio 4 col. That is what I'm after.
The gallery needs to have 4 columns. In the bootstrap.css and style.css there are multiple containers for different sizes and etc. for responsive design that I've been playing with and modifying.
I've tried getting it to work within the page I created but there doesn't seem to be enough space available for the container to actually do the filter effect. Nothing I've done seems to work. I've changed margins, widths and etc. for the containers and rows from the original css files to make the container smaller to fit within the space.
It worked just fine during my testing phase without putting it within the page it needs to go in. Here is the test page I'm trying to insert to.
http://www.hlipublishing.com/nmg/myscratch.html
If anyone can help me out with this would be much appreciated thanks.
Answer: I scrapped the modified styles and replaced with the originals, now it seems to be working. Not exactly sure what the problem was but it seems to have something to do with the width of the container. If it's not exact, it won't work. So I'll have to go back and re-style.
Working version


Do grades obtained after applying to a graduate school matter?

Question: Suppose one submits his/her application to a graduate school this November and grades for the ongoing semester are due after that. Do these grades, received after submitting the application, matter in the admission process?
Comment: Bear in mind that graduate admissions committees don't just look at your GPA, they look at whether you have taken challenging courses that will adequately prepare you for grad school.  If you've taken only easy courses, you'll probably be rejected no matter how good the grades are.
Comment: I have heard anecdotal evidence of students getting their acceptances revoked from medical school due to this. What are you planning to do, get Fs across the board?
Comment: No I need to know what if people take all their easy courses before submitting their application and leave the challenging courses for afterward.
Comment: Well, as long as you put in reasonable effort, I don't see any issue. It's not like people take classes hardest to easiest in college.
Comment: This really does not make any sense your GPA in application is GPA at time of submitting the application and you can have basket of easy classes and have 4.0. BTW I did not mean getting all F. I meant reduction to B+ or A- from A's because this is still reduction in GPA.
Comment: You're fretting too much if it's a B+ you're worried about.
Comment: _if people take all their easy courses before submitting their application_ — Those students don't get accepted.
Answer: Yes.  Many graduate departments may accept your application, but require a final undergraduate transcript before you actually start your first semester there.  If your grades have seriously dropped in your last semesters, they could rescind the offer of admission, and not let you in after all.
So in short: extra good grades in your last semesters can't help you, but bad grades can hurt you.


Is it possible to add or purchase fonts for Affinity Designer on Windows 7?

Question: With Adobe Illustrator it is enough to add a font to the fonts folder, for Affinity Designer I could not found a similar folder.
Comment: The  Fonts folder on Windows PCs is not a font folder only for Adobe products.
Answer: Affinity will automatically pick up on installed fonts without having to close the program first. Just install them as you normally would in your OS and Affinity should pick up on them.


Question on a concrete example of n points

Question: Can anyone give a concrete example of n points in the unit square (for instance, n runs from 3 through a large number) that can be generated by the algorithm here or any other algorithm or any construction such that the areas of the smallest triangles, multiplied by n^2, form a sequence that is non-decreasing for large n or tends to be unbounded?
Comment: Example of what? Your question provides no information about what you are asking!
Comment: If the comment above is meant to be a clarification of the question, please edit it into the question. People shouldn't have to wade through the comments to understand the question.
Comment: I'm sure that for any concrete set of $n$ points, there is an algorithm or construction that will generate that set of points, so I suppose you can take any $n$ points you like as an example.
Comment: @GerryMyerson the link points to an algorithm for finding sets that are counterexamples to a conjecture of Heilbronn. I agree, though, that in its current form the question should be closed.
Comment: The comment mentions the unit square. If that's an important part of the problem, that should be in the body of the question, too.
Answer: Unbounded might not be too hard if I understand the question correctly, although my argument is very much vaguer than I would like. For a set $S$ of points in the unit square let $n=|S|$ and $f(S)$ be $n^2$ times the smallest area of any of the $\binom{n}{3}$ triangles determined by three of the points. You link to an article which constructs for each $n \ge 3$ an explicit (in some sense) set $T_n$ with $f(T_n) \gt c\log(n)$ for some fixed $c$. Are you asking for a sequence of points so that the sequence $a_n=f(\lbrace p_1,p_2,\cdots,p_n\rbrace)$ is increasing or at least unbounded?
Here is a possible attack using only that information. Considering the actual construction in the linked article might give better results. It seems possible that the following could work, i.e. have $\limsup(a_n)=\infty$, although it could at the same time have $\liminf(a_n)=0$: First let me comment that we can assume that the points in the set $T_n$ have the form $(\frac{a}{n^k},\frac{b}{n^k})$ for $k=4$, I don't know that that helps but it makes things seem more controlled (proof at end).
Consider the sets $T_n$ above (about which I know nothing beyond what is stated). Perhaps one can always find a sequence of indices $n_1,n_2,\cdots$ so that $T_{n_i}$ is "almost a subset" of $T_{n_{i+1}}$ in the sense that we can perturb the points of the smaller one by a sufficiently small amount (perhaps none by more than $1/2^{n_i}$) such that they coincide with a subset $T'_{n_i}$ of the larger one having $f(T'_{n_i}) \gt \frac{c}{2}\log(n_i).$ Then (skipping some routine details) there would be a sequence so that $a_n \gt \frac{c}{2}\log(n)$ for $n=n_1,n_2,\cdots.$
The question of $a_n$ increasing or at least having a positive lower bound might be harder.
My argument that the points of $T_n$ can have coordinates of the form $\frac{\cdot}{n^k}$ for $k=4$ is that moving each point to make this happen will change the area of each little triangle by no more than $\frac{1}{n^k}$. I don't know if we really need $k$ as big as $4$.
In the mean time I glanced at the article which seems to use interesting hyper-graph methods. A close reading might help with the question.


Good resources for parsing excel files?

Question: I'm going to start taking an excel file for a bulk member upload in my ASP.Net C# Web application.
Does anyone know of any good free libraries for parsing excel sheets or where I can find good documentation for parsing excel files?
There's only going to be one sheet in the workbook... I'm just looking for something to get me started.
Answer: I like Excel Data Reader.
It's simple and easy to use. Supports Excel 97 through 2007.
Comment: I used this. You're right it is simple to use, thanks for the advice.
Answer: You can use the Access Database Engine redistributable, and parse Excel files via ADO.NET.
Even though it's for "Access", it allows parsing of .xls and .xlsx files, as well.  See the documentation on that page for connection string details.

Good resources for parsing excel files?


Does frequent committing prevent merge conflicts?

Question: Is there any situation, where git merge command uses frequent committing in one or both branches to prevent merge conflict (as opossed to one giant commit of week-long work followed by immidiate merge), or are those things independent?
Answer: Making several small commits rather than one big one will not magically prevent conflicts, but it usually makes them less frequent and easier to deal with.
If you commit and push lots of small changes to master, then it's harder for conflicts to arise in the first place, since less code is changing between commits and the other developers will see some of your changes before they start to make their own.
If you have a feature branch that's broken up into lots of small commits when you merge, then the merge is done one commit at a time, so if there are a lot of conflicts, you only have to resolve one commit's worth of conflicts at a time, which is usually a lot easier than resolving them all at once.
The git merge command itself does not perform any commits, except for a single "merge commit" if necessary. It will not retroactively split an existing commit into several smaller commits or anything like that (I don't believe there's an easy way to do that in git, or any other VCS).
Comment: Can you show documentation for the "fact" that merge is done "one commit at a time". I am familiar with this behavior for rebase, but not for merge. I could be missing something, though.
Comment: Note: The way to split the last commit into smaller ones in git would be: Reset the last commit, then `git add --interactive` (using "edit" where needed) to build logical units to commit individually. To make sure not to create invalid (= non-compilable) commits, do a `git stash`, `make`, `git stash pop` after each (partial) commit.
Answer: Frequent committing and merge conflicts are independent of each other. By committing often you reduce the probability of a merge conflict, you cannot eliminate it. If two people both clone a repository, change the same line in a file, commit, and push it then it will result in a merge conflict. It does not matter how quick they were.
Comment: "By committing often you reduce the probability of a merge conflict,": If you split one commit with one conflict into three commits with only one conflict in a single commit, the *relative* probability per commit will be less, but absolutely a merge conflict will be a merge conflict still.
Answer: Not a direct answer, just the practice that works best for me:

Have a central repository with a master branch in it.
Clone / pull the central repo's master branch before taking on a new task / ticket / feature.
As you go, do local commits often.
After each commit, or at least periodically, do a git pull --rebase. This will put your current work on top of master's most recent state. Since you do it often, automatic merges will usually suffice. When conflicts arise, they will arise on your branch and will be hopefully small.
When you are done and ready to push your feature, you have zero conflicts, by definition.

I usually don't work on the master branch locally but instead make a separate named branch (or several, try various approaches); this prevents me from an accidental push.
Even better is if you have a code review tool like Gerrit installed, and your master repo can't be directly pushed to (only via code review).
Comment: There are problems with this approach: "As you go, do local commits often.": Why?
Comment: "git pull --rebase": This may ruin the work you did, requiring you to change code more frequently that necessary. The only advantage I see is this: Your future work after the rebase may be free of further conflicts.
Comment: @U.Windl: The whole idea is to do it _frequently_, so any change required is small and hopefully obvious. It avoids a bigger problem when you need to merge and change a lot, and risk to end up with a square peg and a round hole. That can indeed ruin your work.
Answer: While frequent commits will not reduce the absolute occurrences of merge conflicts, but making them easier to resolve (at first sight), the truth is different: Commits don't come independently; usually they are a logical unit of work each. If the logical unit of work consists of several commits on a branch, the total merge conflicts will be the same when merging the branch, whether it's one big commit, or multiple smaller commits.


word meaning "agriculture encyclopedia"

Question: I am looking for a single word that means "agriculture encyclopedia"; a book about farming. Does such a word exist?
Answer: Not a single word, but along the lines suggested by @DianeEngelstad, how about agronomy handbook? From M-W:

agronomy: a branch of agriculture dealing with field-crop production and soil management

An example:

The Agronomy Handbook is a comprehensive resource that discusses soil properties, plant essential nutrients, soil test results, and recommendations. Agriculture-related analyses are indispensable in supplying accurate, current information for making management decisions regarding soil fertility and plant nutrients.
Answer: I don't think there is a single word for an encyclopedic book on farming. Are you thinking about the Farmer's Almanac? Or perhaps a "Farmer's Handbook" is closer to what you are looking for? There are lots of Encyclopedias on farming as well.

word meaning "agriculture encyclopedia"


What is the ideal MySQL transaction isolation mode for an e-commerce site?

Question: What is the best transaction isolation mode for an e-commerce site that has to do the typical run-down of database operations for subtracting inventory? Should I be using READ COMMITTED to protect against reading in-transaction data?
Answer: Do you want the data to be accurate or not ?  And exactly how accurate do you want it to be ?  And exactly how much guarantee do you expect from the system that your data will indeed be accurate ?
On a scale from zero to 100%, 100% means that you should use SERIALIZABLE, and zero means that you can afford (/your user can accept) READ UNCOMMITTED.
EDIT (following suggestion in comment)
But of course the stronger guarantees regarding data integrity come at a price.  At the very least, "stronger" isolation levels (SERIALIZABLE, REPEATABLE READ) will always leave less opportunity for update transactions to run concurrently.  They might also be responsible for less concurrency between updaters and readers.  No hard and fast universal rules, depends on the internal mechanisms that the engine uses.
Comment: Probably you should also explain the downsides of using `SERIALIZABLE`, as it is not obvious why you shouldn't always go with it.


Promax Headset Adapter 1", 1-1/8

Question: I have a broken Cannondale 2007 Bad Boy Ultra, will the Promax Headset Adapter 1", 1-1/8" give me the opportunity to replace it with a non-shock standard fork.
Answer: No, not at all. That is for converting a 1-1/8" frame to 1". In SHIS terms it reduces the headtube bore of an EC34 frame to EC30 (bore ID 33.8mm to 30mm). Headshok frames essentially use the EC49 bore top and bottom, other than the handful that take the bearing directly and don't use a cup (which I don't think this bike is). You need a headset reducer that's built to adapt to whatever type of steerer you're going to run, which unless you're doing something weird is either going to be tapered or 1-1/8".
Cannondale has used two different press bore depths over time and so you also need to get that part right.
If you know you want a non-suspension fork, you start this process on a Headshok conversion by figuring out what you want the new effective axle-to-crown to be. Headshoks have funny axle-to-crown numbers that typically can't be recreated directly. The typical scenario is the stock axle-to-crown is very long compared to the rigid forks available. You need to decide whether you would like the new fork to emulate the old one locked out vs at some point in the travel. Typically you'll need some amount of headtube/crown extension either way, and you want to get it using the smallest number of extra parts possible. In other words there are reducer headsets that have some amount of headtube extension built in, and normal ones that don't, and there are also standalone headtube/crown extenders. You want to end up with the least possible amount of "double-adapting," which you'll only be able to do after figuring out a target axle-to-crown.
This page has some more good info.

Promax Headset Adapter 1", 1-1/8


Can eclipse be configured to automatically fix missing Imports?

Question: Because they didn't make it easy enough already ;)
Answer: I think you are looking for Ctrl + Shift + O
You can also set up Eclipse to automatically organize imports on save:
Preferences > Java > Editor > Save Actions
Answer: Eclipse: Automatically fix missing imports
1. macOS
a) Organize all imports
Command + Shift + O
b) Add import for a specific line
Command + Shift + M
2. Windows
a) Organize all imports
Control (Ctrl) + Shift + O
b) Add import for a specific line
Control (Ctrl) + Shift + M
Answer: Ctrl + Shift + O (Cmd + Shift + O for mac) - Organize all imports
Ctrl + Shift + M (Cmd + Shift + M for mac) - Import one by one (you need cursor on the red marker)
Answer: From Eclipse Menu, Select Source-->Organize Imports. This will remove all unused imports from that Java file.
Answer: @Fabian's answer is correct if the class to be imported is already on the classpath for the java project or plugin.
I'm not aware of a way to get Require-Bundle headers added(in the case of eclipse plugins) or package imports(in the case of osgi bundles) added automatically by Eclipse.
What this means is that you can get what you want as long as you restrict the classes you add to those already on the classpath.  However, if you try to start using a class that isn't already on your path, the organize imports aren't going to be able to help you.
Answer: I found this site: http://eclipseone.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/navigate-and-fix-errors-amp-warnings-in-a-class-with-eclipse-keyboard-shortcuts/
It recommends using ctr/cmd + 1 to use the keyboard, this is much better than having to use the mouse, but I'm still looking for a "Just do the right thing most of the time" automatic solution.


What's a nicer way of phrasing 'Aggressive schedule'?

Question: The phrase 'Aggressive schedule' is often used to express a desire to achieve high performance and speed on a project, however has the negative connotation related to the word 'aggressive'. If I'm expressing such a desire, I could say something like 'I want us to have a focus on achieving delivery in the fastest possible time', however that's wordy and formal. What's a succinct and relaxed way of expressing this desire, without sounding like you're trying too hard?
Comment: You might use "accelerated schedule".
Comment: If you're looking for an alternative to *aggressive*, you can't get fewer words than 1, which @HotLicks' suggestion provides. If it's a phrase to replace "delivery in the fastest possible time", you can use something along the lines of "quickest delivery". But you'll need to say what your desired textual context is.
Comment: We will be Fast tracking this project.
Comment: ***aggressive*** is not negative. It is the positive way of saying, "I'm not sure you can do it."
Comment: Thanks @Hot Licks that's useful. "I'd like us to deliver the project as fast as possible" works, to avoid the need for further explanation, however I'm wondering if there's an even better, more succinct way.
Answer: Assuming your concern is the word aggressive, try
ambitious schedule
It can have a bit of a negative connotation, in the sense of "That's ambitious, we are not going to make it," but ambitious gives a positive "can do" call to action.
Answer: Here are some suggested alternatives to your phrase:

Efficient  is an apt word for the situation you describe: achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense. Possible examples: "I want us to work efficiently", "I need us to work as efficiently as possible", "This project demands/requires efficiency", "I need to see efficiency here".
"Concentrated Effort" is another option. From a purely intuitive experience of this phrase I would surmise that it carries a less formal tone than the word "efficient".
I'm personally partial to the phrase "Rigorous Schedule". However, although there is arguably less negative association with "rigorous" than "aggressive", it disregards your criterion of a less formal approach. Furthermore, it seems better suited to describing one's own schedule than communicating to a team the sort of work that is required from them.
Slam is a slang term which I have the impression of being fairly ubiquitous, and have personally encountered in culinary environments as well as amongst other menial/physically demanding jobs. I have heard it used most frequently to boast about how well someone handled a rush or a difficult task: "We slammed!" ("Killed it" is another slang phrase of the same meaning, though I do not think it is what you are looking for.) If you were to use "slam" it might sound like this: "I need you guys to slam", "I need you guys to slam for this one", or "Slam this out guys".
Ace and Nail are other options. Example: "I need you to ace/nail this one". These seem to emphasize quality of work over speed. But they certainly do not exclude the implication of speed, which would be conveyed (or not) depending on context.
Hustle: "I want to see you hustle/hustling". This certainly carries the connotation of working with speed.
Phrases that might do the trick (but strike me as very cliched) are: "We needed this yesterday", "We need this posthaste", "We need this on the double".
A phrase that strikes me as being well used, while remaining relatively free from status as a cliche, is: "I need you to give this one your all".
Or you could simply say: "I need you to work hard".

Ultimately, you will know better than anyone else which of these words or phrases (if any) would be positively received by the audience you are addressing.
Answer: Challenging would be an alternative to aggressive:
adjective

testing one's abilities; demanding.
"challenging and rewarding employment"
synonyms:  demanding, testing, taxing, exacting, exigent, searching; inviting competition; provocative.
"there was a challenging glint in his eyes"
synonyms:  dare, summon, invite, bid, throw down the gauntlet to, defy someone to do something
"he challenged one of my men to a duel"

From Oxford


How do I add rotational motors in BGE

Question: Unlike Cycles Render mode, BGE has no Rigid Body Constraints in the physics panel. I can add hinges/etc but no physical motor force to move them. I believe the logic blocks allow you to, however it only allows translational motor servo for location OR simple motion where it rotates buuut teleports instead of passing coordinates in between. (edit, no it doesn't teleport)
Answer: The simple way is to use the "angular velocity" field of the simple motion brick. But that doesn't give you any angular-speed ramp-up the way things in the normal world work.
Another way is to use torques, and to set the rotational damping in the physics really really high. This gives you the required ramp up, but also affects how the object responds to impacts.
The normal solution I use is to code it. This can either be done by directly applying torques to the object (ie the KX_GameObject.applyTorque() function), or it can be done by creating a constraint and setting the various parameters. As you are making a game, I highly suggest learning python - it really will make things significantly easier.
Comment: The "angular velocity" route lets gravity etc affect it while on...do you mean the speed applied is constant? That too is correct.....And any speed inputed is fed in as more velocity into the cube, we know it adds up too because gravity adds to the velocity...
Comment: The angular speed is set as a constant when using the angular velocity field. So you can't get it to start out slow and speed up (spinning). But it does not affect linear velocity.
Comment: If I place a heavy object over my test cube, and hold down a button that makes it rotate to the edge of the floor plane, it doesn't ratate too fast and slows rotation at certain points from the above cube, meaning its rotation and translation velocity can intake/lose inertia.........It would have to purposely subtract a calculated amount to make sure its own force doesn't add to the cube's velocity, who would do that to BGE??
Comment: Oh, the rotational speed cannot go any higher. I tried dropping a heavy box on a rectangle that I had slowly rotating off a plane by holding A down, and it didn't intake as much velocity as it does when not holding A down.
Comment: It did however intake some. Using Torque seems to intake as much as when not holding down A.

How do I add rotational motors in BGE


Firefox 6 - disable self-signed certificate alert

Question: I'm using few webapps that are using self signed SSL certificates. I remember from old FF, that when there was something wrong with certificate, page was displayed informing about how unsafe this is but it allowed to add an exception. But in firefox 6 I'm getting and alert window, where I can only click OK. I have to add exceptions by hand, which is very inconvenient. Is there any way to disable this alert and bring this warning page?
Answer: A workaround for this is to get an SSL certificate from a CA on browser's trusted list, instead of using self-signed certificates.
You can get free Class 1 SSL certificates from StartSSL.  It only takes a few minutes to receive them.
Answer: You cannot disable the certificate check entirely.
If the webapps are reachable from the Internet, you can try Perspectives or Convergence, which use different methods for verifying SSL certificates and can automatically add exceptions if the certificate seems to be valid.


Link (via url) to specific node in infovis (jit) treemap

Question: Any infovis toolkit users out there? Would surely appreciate your help.
I'm wondering if there's a way to link to a specific node via a standard href or some other method.
Specifically, I'd like to retain the current node that the user is viewing while switching to a different view (link to a different set of data for the same entities).
I've appended the current node to an HTML element (a div on the same page, easy enough) but can't find anything in the documentation about targeting a specific node via link.
Answer: I'm not entirely sure whatyou mean but for me it was easy enough to have links on nodes by using the label on the node.
E.g if I wanted to link to a specific page when I click on one node I would say
label.innerHTML = 'Click Me ';

Hope this helps !!
--EDIT--
Sorry I think I might understand you now, if you specifically want to target one particular node when you click a link (i.e. that when the link is clicked a selected node will be clicked)
Could you try something like having some javascript running that when the link is clicked so that it will find the requested node in the graph and then call
tm.enter(node);

Where tm is the tree map you are using
Apologies if this does not answer your question ,I am not entirely sure what your problem is.


List of names of ancestors of Prophet Muhammad(Peace be Upon him) upto ADAM(Peace be upon him)?

Question: Is there any tradition that mentions list of names of ancestors of Prophet Muhammad(Peace be Upon him) upto ADAM(Peace be upon him)?
Comment: There's no authentic source for this. Only a part of the lineage is agreed upon.
Answer: You may find the lineage of the Prophet ﷺ mentioned in books of Seerah of which there are several. See for example Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum. However its authenticity is not established.


Can I cap the monthly network transfer of a process?

Question: I'm looking for a way to monitor and/or cap the monthly network transfer of an Ubuntu Server 12.04 process. I'm running a Plex Media Server, and while my current ISP is very lax on my bandwidth usage, I'm afraid that may be changing soon and want to be prepared.
I've looked into both NTM (http://netramon.sourceforge.net/eng/index.html) and Trickle (http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man1/trickle.1.html) but NTM appears to need a GUI to run and doesn't monitor on a per process basis and Trickle doesn't appear to allow total transfer caps, only upload/download speed limitations. All of the posts I've seen on Ask Ubuntu are related to these two applications.
Is anyone aware of an application that will let me set a total monthly transfer limit, or any other way I could work this out?
Answer: The 'tc' command should do what you want.
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/man8/tc.8.html