Should there be a distinction between civil-war and war or should they be all one tag?

Question: I recently edited the tags for civil-war and war and one of the comments was that the user believed the distinction between civil-war and war should not be made, as they believed the dividing line between the two to be too fluid. If this is the case, why do we have two tags and could they be merged? If we are to keep two tags, surely we need to maintain a distinction between them somehow?
Answer: I don't mind distinguishing civil-war from war, but I'm not convinced that war needs to be distinguished from civil-war.  Both cases of questions using both tags involve a country interfering with a civil war in another country.  As such, both tags make sense on those questions.  Is there a problem of people marking regular wars as civil wars?
The bigger problem that I have with civil-war is that two of the six questions are just mentions of the USA Civil War.  In particular, Why have the Democratic Party and Republican Party switched positions on civil rights since the Civil War? seems to have nothing to do with civil-war as a topic.  A tag like identity-politics would make more sense there.
To me, the USA Civil War is history not politics.  It's generally mentioned in a historical context and is background for a discussion of some other point in politics.  I suppose that it would be possible to ask a politics question about the USA Civil War, but no one has done so yet.
Answer: I am the person who was critical of the distinction within the tags only, primarily because it isn't always obvious what is a civil war and what isn't. In cases where it is clear, then by all means people should use one or the other, but in other cases, it can be unhelpful to draw a line.
A few examples bear noting:

The Chinese Civil War was fought from basically 1927 to 1950. During that time, essentially all great powers sent troops to Chinese territory, fought each other and fought the Chinese. We also call it WWII.
While it is clear that there is a war in Syria, it isn't clear that what is happening is meaningfully a civil war only, or should be considered an international war. There are so many actors, and the conflict crosses traditional and legal state boundaries.
Ukraine, and especially the "cession" of Crimea would be almost impossible to designate as either a war or a civil war, if we enforced one topic over the other. In fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if the "Putin trolls" didn't start swarming over the site, if we tried to categorize it one way or the other, with meaningful, enforced distinctions.
The U.S. and English civil wars actually make it hard for many anglophone writers to understand that there is not always a clear distinction, because in the two cases most Anglophones are familiar with, not only were the lines between sides much clearer than they usually are in civil war, but the geography of the wars greatly reduced the level of external interference. Those are not typical of civil wars.

This is a common problem that Political Science is struggling with today. Perhaps someday there will be an accepted non-controversial decision, but until that time it seems wise to maintain both tags, an leave some mushiness in the definitions.


What emotions can/can't be influenced in Harry Potter?

Question: In Harry Potter many emotions can be created by spells or potions. For example Ron is given a love potion which causes him to become infatuated with one of the girls in his year. Given that love (one of the most complex emotions) can be faked although not fully created by potions are there any examples of other emotions being influenced by magic or any canon examples of emotions that can't be influenced by magic. I would prefer quotes from the books but will accept Pottermore if there is nothing else.
Comment: Cheering Charm. 2nd or 3rd year.
Comment: Can't create love. The effect of a "love" potion is just infatuation, it's not real love.
Comment: @AnthonyGrist That's what the question says.
Comment: @JanusBahsJacquet It says love can be faked, which may or may not mean the same thing depending on how you read it. I wanted to make the point explicit: a love potion doesn't create anything remotely close to love.
Comment: I think love is the only emotion that canonically can NOT be created using magic. Like everyone said, it can only be imitated.
Comment: @AnthonyGrist This is what I meant just couldn't think of a way to write it.
Answer: There are many ways that magic can alter someone's emotional state in Harry Potter.
Cheering Charms
These put the target in a good humor. As indicated in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban:

But Hermione didn't turn up all lesson.
"She could've done with a Cheering Charm on her too," said Ron as the
class left for lunch, all grinning broadly -- the Cheering Charms had
left them with a feeling of great contentment.
Hermione wasn't at lunch either. By the time they had finished their
apple pie, the after-effects of the Cheering Charms were wearing off,
and Harry and Ron had started to get slightly worried.
—Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Specifically, the Cheering Charm appears to make one content.
Love Potions
These potions do not produce love, but produce severe emotional alterations by inducing a strong obsession with the one who employs the potion.
Amortentia is the strongest love potion known to the magical community, and even it only produces an imitation. According to Slughorn in Half-Blood Prince:

"Amortentia doesn't really create love, of course. It is impossible to
manufacture or imitate love. No, this will simply cause a powerful
infatuation or obsession.
—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

However, when Ron Weasley accidentally ingested a Love Potion created by Romilda Vane, he certainly exhibited a highly altered emotional state:

"I can't stop thinking about her!" said Ron hoarsely. Harry gaped at
him. He had not expected this and was not sure he wanted to hear it.
Friends they might be, but if Ron started calling Lavender "Lav-Lav,"
he would have to put his foot down.
"Why does that stop you having
breakfast?" Harry asked, trying to inject a note of common sense into
the proceedings.
"I don't think she knows I exist," said Ron with a
desperate gesture.
"She definitely knows you exist," said Harry,
bewildered. "She keeps snogging you, doesn't she?"
Ron blinked. "Who
are you talking about?"
"Who are you talking about?" said Harry, with
an increasing sense that all reason had dropped out of the
conversation.
"Romilda Vane," said Ron softly, and his whole face
seemed to illuminate as he said it, as though hit by a ray of purest
sunlight.
—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Pogrebin
The Pogrebin appears to be able to induce feelings of extreme sadness in its victims, in order to subdue and consume them.

The Pogrebin is attracted to Humans, and enjoys trailing them. When
the Human turns around, the Pogrebin crouches down, and, because of
its large head, resembles a rock. If the creature manages to tail a
Human for a few hours, a sense of despair and futility will wash over
the Human. When the victim sits or sinks to its knees to weep, the
Pogrebin attacks and attempts to devour them.
—Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Dementors
Dementors can cause feelings of despair or hopelessness in humans.

"I felt weird," said Ron, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. "Like
I'd never be cheerful again...."
—Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Or even fear:

Where there should have been eyes, there was only thin, gray scabbed
skin, stretched blankly over empty sockets. But there was a mouth... a
gaping, shapeless hole, sucking the air with the sound of a death
rattle.
A paralyzing terror filled Harry so that he couldn't move or
speak. His Patronus flickered and died.
—Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Harry's link with Voldemort
This can transmit whatever emotion Voldemort is feeling to Harry. For example, happiness:

Maniacal laughter was ringing in his ears... he was happier than he
had been in a very long time... jubilant, ecstatic, triumphant... a
wonderful, wonderful thing had happened...
—Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Or hatred:

At once, Harry's scar burned white-hot, as though the old wound had
burst open  again - and unbidden, unwanted, but terrifyingly strong,
there rose within Harry  a hatred so powerful he felt, for that
instant, he would like nothing better than to  strike - to bite - to
sink his fangs into the man before him —
—Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Phoenix song

Phoenix song is magical; it is reputed to increase the courage of the
pure of heart and to strike fear into the hearts of the impure.
—Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

Indeed, it does have this effect:

Music was coming from somewhere. Riddle whirled around to stare down
the empty Chamber. The music was growing louder. It was eerie,
spine-tingling, unearthly; it lifted the hair on Harry's scalp and
made his heart feel as though it was swelling to twice its normal
size. Then, as the music reached such a pitch that Harry felt it
vibrating inside his own ribs, flames erupted at the top of the
nearest pillar.
—Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

These are a variety of mechanisms, but they seem to illustrate that there aren't many emotions that magic can't affect.
Comment: Imperius Curse will make the target calm and relaxed per Moody's class in GoF.
Comment: I think we do see some other mood - related potions made in class don't we?
Comment: Calmig Draught, Potion of Dreamless Sleep
Answer: At least one plausible answer is love if you allow that love is an emotion.
Keeping in mind a couple of choice quotes from Dumbledore and Voldemort:
"You are protected, in short, by your ability to love! The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort's! In spite of  all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, as pure as you were five years ago, when you looked into a mirror that reflected your heart's desire.
—Dumbledore
"The Boy Who Lived. How lies have fed your legend Harry. Shall I reveal what really happened that night thirteen years ago? Shall I divulge how I truly lost my powers? Yes, shall I? It was love. You see, when dear sweet Lily Potter gave her life for her only son... she provided the ultimate protection. I could not touch him. It was old magic. Something I should have foreseen.
—Voldemort
Both of these indicate that Love is many leagues more powerful than even the strongest spells known, up to and including the forbidden curses. Chances are good you can't get away with influencing it with spells or potions. And, as Jonah pointed out, love potions don't actually force love onto somebody, just infatuation. The love that Dumbledore and Voldemort are talking about is beyond what the so-called love potion can influence.


Why does a resistor reduce voltage if V=IR?

Question: I'm sure this is a very simple question, but I have been confused about this topic for a while now. According to Ohm's law, resistance varies directly with voltage. This means that if resistance increases voltage increases... But obviously that's not how it really works. If I add in a resistor to a circuit, the voltage decreases. I've heard that its because a resistor reduces current which in effect reduces voltage, however I don't understand how this lines up mathematically with what I said earlier.
Comment: +1 for asking a useful question that I can't believe was closed as a duplicate of that question. "V = IR but voltage drops and current is constant. Why?" is a very reasonable question.
Answer:
According to Ohm's law, resistance varies directly with voltage

You should read this the other way. Voltage varies directly with current. "R" is the constant of proportionality telling how much it varies.

If I add in a resistor to a circuit, the voltage decreases.

If you have a resistor in a circuit, with a current flowing through it, there will be a voltage dropped across the resistor (as given by Ohm's law). If the resistor is in series with some other element, and they together are powered by a constant voltage source, then the voltage dropped across the resistor means there's less voltage available for the other circuit element. It doesn't mean that the voltage of the source decreased.
Comment: That kind of makes sense... So are you saying R is a constant and not a variable?
Comment: Yes, the simplest situation is when R is constant and I and V are the variables. Of course you could also consider a potentiometer driven by a constant voltage or current source, or a LDR, or a thermistor if you want to think about situations with variable resistors --- but those all vary in response to an external stimulus, not to the applied voltage. You can also have resistor that varies in response to applied voltage (a diode's DC behavior is like this), but then you are talking about nonlinear circuits and Ohm's law no longer applies.
Comment: The definition of a good "resistor" is that it has a fixed resistance. Other devices may change 'resistance' but they are generally not considered resistors.
Comment: @Daniel, a thermistor or an NTC inrush current limiter certainly is considered a type of resistor. And in the realm of circuit theory, anything with a memoryless I-V is considered a (nonlinear) resistor.
Comment: @ThePhoton Consider the audience, someone who doesn't understand what a resistor is. For the sake of this discussion, a good resistor doesn't change resistance with temperature or voltage or current or magnetic field, or whatever.
Answer: That's not Ohm's law.
Ohm's law is R = V/I -- or the ratio of voltage to current is a constant.
Answer: If you have a constant current source passing through a resistor, then, yes, increasing the value of the resistor will increase the voltage drop across it.
Ohm's Law gives the resistance as the ratio of the voltage and current, as R = V/I.
None of these are necessarily constant, all three are variables. In certain circumstances, you may be able to treat one or two of them as constant, or nearly so. But Ohm's Law always gives the ratio.
Bear in mind you can measure the voltage at a resistor's terminals with a meter. You can measure the current flowing through a resistor with a meter. But the resistance, the inherent stuff going on inside the component that gives rise to the ratio, cannot be measured independently. The resistance is defined as the ratio of terminal voltage to through current, you have to make both measurements and do a sum. That is what a multimeter does when measuring resistance.
Answer: I will emphasis on these points based on your question
"According to Ohm's law, resistance varies directly with voltage. This means that if resistance increases voltage increases"
Yes it is true ,i.e Voltage drop across a resistor increases,say if you connect a 1k and 10k resistor in series Voltage drop across 10k will be more when compared to 1k resistor.
Refer:http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-5/simple-series-circuits/
" If I add in a resistor to a circuit, the voltage decreases."
Absolutely No,adding resistor in a circuit drops the voltage across itself but now across whole circuit i.e you may get less voltage at particular NODE but it but if you measure effective voltage it will be equal to the source(IDEAL condition)
Refer:http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/direct-current/chpt-6/voltage-divider-circuits/
Last but not the least
"I've heard that its because a resistor reduces current which in effect reduces voltage"
What you've heard is wrong , resistor never reduces current it just limits current i.e it slows the speed of electrons flowing in the circuit,
and electric current as per wiki is An electric current is a flow of electric charge,so if you are slowing the electrons it doesn't mean you are reducing the current it simply means you are allowing limited no of electrons per second through resistor while remaining electrons are dissipated heat .
Hope this helps,
Answer: It's simply but it is not Ohm's law. Please see the context "Kirchhoff's circuit laws". This law is also called Kirchhoff's second law, Kirchhoff's loop (or mesh) rule, and Kirchhoff's second rule.


How to scale up pudding recipe 10x?

Question: I am trying to make a 10X recipe of a cooked pudding.  It uses flour and corn starch as a thickener.  I scaled up the ingredients proportionally, but it is not as thick.  Any recommendations on how better to scale the ingredients?  Is the sugar interfering with the gel?  Do I need to change the ratio of the thickeners? Should the proportions be different?  Any thoughts?
Comment: How did you scale up the size of your pan and/or the heat going into the pan?
Comment: ... or cook it in a few batches.
Comment: Original recipe was in a 3 qt sauce pan over 1 burner.  For the 10x I use a professional 20 x 22" roasting pan over 4 burners.  The larger pan let's me get more surface area for the increased volume.
Comment: I currently am cooking multiple batches, but since I need to make it often, at some point I really need something that is scaled up.
Comment: You could run 4 pots with doubled recipes to get 8x at one time. Try the recipe doubled and tripled and see how it comes out.
Answer: Scaling out a recipe is often more difficult than just "multiplying" the ingredients. In the Book Ratio they have a chapter on Custard:

The standard ratio is bedrock, 2 to 1; 16 ounces milk blended with 8
  ounces (4 large) eggs will result in 24 ounces of an excellent
  custard. Large eggs are about 2 ounces each, which makes custards easy
  to manage without a recipe: a cup of milk and 2 eggs, or ½ cup of milk
  and 1 egg. But 1 large egg will set three-quarters of a cup of milk
  into a perfect custard. So, as with all ratios, and recipes, it can
  vary. If you intend to turn the custard out and it needs to hold its
  shape, stick with the basic ratio. Extra yolks are often added for
  texture and richness. The quantity of sugar and the quantity of fat
  also affect the final outcome. If you're using a lot of sugar, you may
  need to add a little more protein for structure. If you're using only
  heavy cream, you may need less.
Ruhlman, Michael. Ratio (Kindle Locations 3475-3481). Simon &
  Schuster, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

Simply doubling a recipe is usually pretty straight forward...the more you scale upwards the more 'out of alignment' your ratios become (particularly where eggs are involved).
Without your base recipe I have to warn 'your mileage' may vary' So be prepared to tweak it to your taste.
Comment: Yes, this is my concern exactly.  Thanks for the reference and insight.  This is an eggless recipe.  It roughly has a 1:1 wt. ratio milk:sugar.  It has a flour/cornstarch mixture to thicken.  The combo is about 20% of the amount of sugar (about 12.5% flour, 8% corn starch).  So to your note about protein, maybe I need to increase the amount of thickener.  Any idea or guess as to how much before one can taste the thickener? The scale of liquid is a gallon of milk. I've also considered reducing the sugar thinking that maybe it is interfering with thickening.  Any thoughts to either direction?

How to scale up pudding recipe 10x?


What is Dark Energy, and how was it discovered?

Question: I've heard a lot about Dark Energy, and how it's supposed to be one of the most powerful forces in the universe. What is it, and how was it discovered?
Answer: Dark Energy was discovered in 1998 when two separate teams of astronomers (see here and here) studied Type Ia supernovae.  The use of Type Ia supernovae is particularly important because they have a very specific luminosity as a result of how they occur.  Both groups independently found that the distances to the galaxies which hosted the supernovae they were observing were farther than had been found using other methods and than would be consistent with a universe expanding at constant velocity.
Dark Energy is the name given to the acceleration of the expansion of the universe.  While it is a powerful force on the scale of the entire universe, it should be noted that it is not a very powerful force on scales smaller than the distances between galaxies.  In fact, even the gravitational force between the Milky Way and Andromeda appears to be stronger than the 'push' from dark energy at that scale.
There have been several theoretical constructs that have attempted to explain Dark Energy, but none of them adequately describe its effects.  In fact, most are incorrect by many orders of magnitude.  For a review of some of these constructs, see this paper.
Comment: In addition to SNe Ia, observations of large scale structure, galaxy clusters, and the cosmic microwave background all strongly suggest the presence of dark energy.
Comment: Note that while the name 'dark energy' sounds mysterious, it's really nothing more than a placeholder. We don't know what the energy fuelling the expansion _is_, but we do know it exists. So, until we come up with an explanation for it, it's known as dark energy. When it's discovered what dark energy is, the name will (probably) be discarded in favour of something more descriptive.
Comment: @Jeremy:  True.  I have focused my answer on the most well known pair of experiments that led to the discovery of Dark Energy, but many other observations indicate a confirmation of the phenomenon.
Comment: @acmshar You can thank team member aarthi for relinking your account.
Answer: In the late 1990's, astronomers were measuring the speed and distance of distant galaxies away from us, and trying to see how fast the universe was decelerating. A surprising find was made, that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, seeming to defy the laws of gravity. Study after study has been made to confirm this, and everything points to it definitely being there.
There are a few theories as to what is causing it. The most popular is that it is Einstein's Cosmological constant, except that Einstein predicted that it would make the universe stand still, not accelerate. Other theories include negative pressure, and Quitessence. For more information, see the Wikipedia article.
Comment: When astronomers say they are studying dark energy, they typically mean that they are exploring this anomaly. This acceleration of the expansion seems to imply an unknown energy density (hence the name dark energy), but not many astronomers are committed to specific explanations at this point.
Comment: Your answer seems to actually lack a portion containing a reference to dark energy, except the Wikipedia link.
Answer: Dark Energy is supposed to substantiate the theory of cosmic inflation; the substance itself is a hypothetical one. There is also a little controversy, though: Albert Einstein provided the idea with his cosmological constant but without evidence it fell by the wayside - the result being its exclusion from certain fields of physics, while still being useful to others, bringing about a division (for lack of a better word.)
From memory, I think Einstein's 'discovery' was the consequence of trying to fix something that wasn't broken, to make his theory account for a static universe - when he witnessed evidence of redshift he rescinded (I recall he noted later, something along the lines of his reasoning for the constant being the biggest mistake of his life, but I'll need to look up a reference to quote anything.)
According to the Wikipedia link I provided it seems there has since been evidence for this dark energy since. Differing definitions keep cropping up, and few will still be being considered as candidates but the problem still goes unsolved, for the most part. There is also another form, and hence doubtlessly a discovery story, but of which I know nothing.


Meaning of simultaneity in special relativity

Question: In Special Relativity, time is no longer a parameter, but a variable. As in, two events simultaneous in one frame of reference need not be simultaneous in another frame of reference that is inertial with respect to the first. So, does that mean that if one observer sees two rocket ships collide and explode at one instant (the two rockets are simultaneously in the same location), we can find an inertial frame of reference where this doesn't happen? In that case, how does one explain the debris of the exploded spaceships in the frame where the two rockets didn't collide?
Comment: The collision would be a single event.
Answer: The relativity of simultaneity refers to a pair of spatially-separated events.
The collision event of two objects meeting is not spatially-separated.
All frames of reference will mark that collision with a single event.

UPDATE (to address the comment by the OP):
A spacetime diagram is useful to clarify the ideas.
Furthermore, with my diagram, you can see that [from a geometric point of view],
"absolute simultaneity" (that if Alice says $t_P=t_Q$, then all observers say $t'_P=t'_Q$) is really an exceptional case (rather then the rule).
Using my "spacetime diagrammer" https://www.desmos.com/calculator/dha8izuxz1 ,
with event $P(x,t)=(0.5,1)$,

Alice (in RED) says that distant event P is simultaneous with tick-1 on her clock... (because Alice assigned the same t-coordinate to those events),
however, Bob (in GREEN) says that distant event P happened before "tick-1 on Alice's clock"....
(because Bob assigned a smaller t-coordinate to P than to tick-1-on-Alice's-clock).

The "lines of simultaneity (i.e, equal-assignments-of-t)" are determined by the tangents to the "circles" [in the respective geometries], which is a hyperbola in Special Relativity (arising from the invariance of the speed of light).
The "circle" is determined by the set of all observer "tick-1"s.
The "circle" defines perpendicularity: the tangent is perpendicular to the radius...
"the Space[line] is Perpendicular to the Time[line] (worldline)", as Minkowski described in his "Space and Time".

For the Galilean case, open the "Metric" folder and slide E to 0. Note how "absolute simultaneity" is obtained since the tangent lines through Alice's-tick-1 and Bob's-tick-1 coincide.
Proceed further to E= -1 to obtain Euclidean geometry. Note how the tangent lines do not coincide, as in Minkowskian geometry (special relativity).
Thus, the Galilean case is the exception. But since this is our "everyday intuition" (since we don't rely on super-accurate-clocks [except for GPS]
or regularly interact with particles at high-relative-speeds), it's a layer of common sense we have to let go in order to understand relativity.
Comment: @Manimatics There is a maximum time difference between the events which depends on the spatial distance between the two. When the distance (as observed) shrinks, so does that (observed) difference. I not sure the distance is something all observers agree (my gut-feeeling says probably not) but they all agree it gets smaller. Imagine two spaceships going in a straight line towards each other from some space station. They shine a light such that an observer in the middle sees that event as simultaneous. People on station A see the light from ship A first, B from B...
Comment: @Manimatics But you know what is different in SR about simultaneity. It's that two events can be simultaneous in one frame but not in another frame, which is completely counterintuitive for anyone who hasn't seen it before. In the world of Galilean transformations this makes no sense.
Comment: @Manimatics ... but both agree the difference shrinks as the two approach. (I think) There is no observer that observes the difference greater than the people on the stations.
Comment: I think I see your point. Are you suggesting that the collision itself will be a single event? If that is the case, right upto the moment of collision, the two objects would be spatially separated, right? And if the observers perceive them differently, how do they all manage to concur on the collision? Is it just that the velocities are different? Then in that case, what is so profound about simultaneity in SR?
Comment: @Manimatics What do you mean by it being profound?
Comment: @BioPhysicist Well that was for want of a better word. Maybe 'different' instead of 'profound'.
Answer: The answer by robphy is complete, but I thought that I would anyway add some illustrations (Minkowski spacetime diagrams) that, at least in my opinion, possibly show better the relativity of simultaneity.

(Source)
I assume that you are somewhat familiar with special relativity and/or spacetime diagrams. If not, for the latter you might be interested in my post here.
The coordinate grids represent simulaneity on the $x$ and $x'$ axis and the same location on the $y$ or rather $ct$ and $ct'$ axes (not only the axes, but all grid lines).
It can easily be seen that if two events happen at the same point at the same time in $K$ (which is the green, "stationary" frame), they are also simultaneous and at the same position in $K'$ (the red frame). This is because such two events are rather one event that we can represent by a point in our diagram.
Answer:
Events that happen at the same time but at different locations for one observer might happen at different times for another observer.
Events that happen at the same time and at the same place are simultaneous for all observers.

we can find an inertial frame of reference where this doesn't happen?

No. If the two spaceships are at the same point at the same time for one observer (they collide), all observers will see them collide.
Comment: Additionally, events can also happen at different locations for other observers
Comment: Also, since almost any two macroscopic events happening at the same time and place are effectively identical for practical purposes (i.e. two massive macroscopic objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time), one could say that there are basically no two events that are simultaneous for all observers.
Comment: @Obie2.0 This is true, but saying it that way might lead to exactly the misunderstanding evidenced in the original question.


Flex + PHP: Flash Builder 4 vs. Eclipse

Question: I'm getting started with Flex and initially installed the Adobe environment (Flex Builder 3) and later found out that they're starting to call it Flash Builder 4.
Anyway since I'm very new to this technology and I have to leave Flex Builder 3 anyway, I'm trying to find out if there are any advantages to developing with Adobe's Flash Builder 4 (adobe's commercial IDE) vs. Eclipse (which Adobe seems to also heavily support, they make and support a special plugin for it).
My main language is PHP so my end goal is to integrate Flex with PHP. It sounds like Adobe did a decent job with integration in the Flash Builder 4 release (you can choose a language and choose data services options, etc. which should make that integration smoother), but is that integration only available through their commercial Flash Builder 4 or is it also available through the plugin they release for Eclipse? I'm trying to get some advice from those who used the technology so I can make up my mind whether there's a lot of advantage using Adobe's commercial IDE vs. the very robust open source Eclipse IDE. Other aspects I may not have considered are also welcome.
Note: I use php without a framework, and I keep also hearing Zend from Adobe themselves, which is kind of confusing too. I guess they're using part of the zend for remoting. Does anyone know how zend will affect my flex development environment?
Answer: Flex Builder and Flash Builder both function as Plug-ins to Eclipse, though each also comes in a "stand-alone" flavor - which is still eclipse, but with a lot of the Eclipse functionality torn out for a smaller footprint.
What you want to do is pretty simple - get eclipse set up, install PDT or whatever your favorite PHP plug-in is and then install Flash/Flex Builder into that same instance of Eclipse. Make sure when you download FB you choose to download the "Plug-in" version instead of the stand-alone version. When you go to install it, it'll ask you where you want to install it - pick a location, and hit next. It will then ask you if you want to plug-in to an existing instance of Eclipse or use the bundled Eclipse (at least Flash Builder comes with a Bundled eclipse). Opt to select an eclipse version and point it toward the Eclipse install that has your PHP coder plugged into it.
If all goes well, once it' done you can open Eclipse and then switch views between Flash Builder and PDT all within one instance of Eclipse. I do this with Aptana, it's very handy to be able to do your HTML, PHP and AS3 all in one editor.
Good luck!
Also [edit]:
Adobe promotes Zend because of a Zend plug-in called ZendAMF. ZendAMF is the spiritual successor to AMFPHP - basically, with a little bit of setup you can create a dev environment where you are able to call PHP functions right from your AS3 code. You can set up a ZendAMF Class, for instance, called getUsers() which then queries your DB and pulls out a list of Users. You can use that to populate PHP ValueObjects, and then it will pass those VO's back to Flex in binary (much, much faster than XML) and if you have it set up correctly they will be data-typed as AS3 Value Objects of the same type.
This is very useful because it's all very transparent - you can then write an AS3 function called getUsers() which returns an Array of value objects, set it up to quietly call your PHP which calls the database, and have it return a value as though it were just all AS3 from start to finish. A bit tricky to set up, but once you're rolling there's really no going back! :)
Comment: Thanks, recommended answer to all beginners in Flex :)
Answer: I'm pretty sure they're actually the same thing - this was certainly the case with Flex Builder 3, and I'm assuming is the case with Flash Builder 4 as well.
The plugin is there for if you have an existing installation of eclipse and want to just add in Flash Builder to that. But if you don't already have it, the Flash Builder stand-alone installation includes eclipse, pre-built with the plugin.
As for Zend - Adobe is currently collaborating over aspects of the Zend Framework to improve integration with your Flex Apps. Zend have there own eclipse plugin called Zend Studio for building Zend Framework apps, which does integrate with the Flash Builder plugin. I've not used it myself, but from what I hear it's not that brilliant. You can still use Flex without any Zend stuff if that's the way you work.
Hope this helps.
Answer: You should also check IntelliJ which has support for Flex and PHP. Apparently it's way better than FlexBuilder/Eclipse. We're using Eclipse with the FlexBuilder plugin but are looking to switch over.
Comment: Can you clarify why you're unhappy with Eclipse? and how IntelliJ solves that problem?
Comment: Well, unhappy not, if your project is small you won't have problems. Eclipse consumes a lot of memory, sometimes over 1gb. Apparently IntelliJ has a far better code editor than Eclipse. I'll certainly look into it. It's Christophe Herreman (spring.actionscript) who told me to look at IntelliJ.
Answer: You can download and use the Flash Builder Standard program for free if you're a student or unemployed, so I would grab that.  The premium version does have some nice to haves like Network Monitoring and better code generation tools.
The standard package will install the Zend PHP engine for remote calls if you use PHP, which is a framework that allows you to write your services in PHP, then make calls in Flash through the Zend engine to PHP.  It's pretty useful, and they will easily pull properly formatted PHP services into the data view (a window showing your available service calls).
You can also use other frameworks like AMFPHP.
Overall, the only real differences between the Adobe Flash Builder and Eclipse plugin is if you upgrade to the Premium version or you prefer a concentrated lightweight version of eclipse tailored specifically to Flash (the Builder).

Flex + PHP: Flash Builder 4 vs. Eclipse


User with FULL CONTROL Unable to Access List Settings

Question: I'm trying to be able to access the settings for a sharepoint list. I believe I literally have all the permissions I could possibly get (full control at the top most level of the site), but the list permissions is still disabled. When I request access to the list settings, the request is just for the generic multi site, not for the list itself. I'm not sure what else I can do. Any thoughts?
Comment: Do you have site collection administrator permissions? Try opening list settings using administrator permissions & then you can check who all are having permissions on list (if inheritance is broken).
Answer: Based on your description, I understand that you have full control for the site collection, but you cannot go to list settings for a particular list.
It may be caused by the list has unique permission. Try to grant list permission for yourself by using PowerShell.
<code>#Config Variables
$SiteURL = "https://crescenttech.sharepoint.com/sites/Marketing"
$ListName ="Projects"
$UserID="firstname.lastname@example.com"

#Connect to PnP Online
Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Credentials (Get-Credential)

#Break Permission Inheritance of the List
Set-PnPList -Identity $ListName -BreakRoleInheritance -CopyRoleAssignments

#Grant permission on List to User
Set-PnPListPermission -Identity $ListName -AddRole "Full Control" -User $UserID
</code>


javascript to save history

Question: I have a html form which are paginated.I need javascipt that can save the history of value of input, user click next pages and when return to previous page can see what was wrote.
Answer: You have several options. You can for example use local storage.
But since that is not supported in older browsers, you can fall back to a cookie mechanism for example. Check out jstorage.info for a library that handles this fallback behaviour for you.
Answer: Use Cookies method in javascript to store text box value.
Keep a JavaScript variables value after a page refresh? this page gives more information about cookies.

javascript to save history


Wrap on Character is greyed out QGIS 2.12

Question: In QGIS 2.12, my "Wrap on Character" option is greyed out. How do I make that active?
With it unavailable, I cannot get multi line labels.
Comment: Do you have curve labels on?
Comment: Yep won't work for curved labels.
Answer: Wrap on Character does not work if you have curved labels. In my case I am trying to label a road network and I have my labels curved and on the line so that the labels follow the path of the road.
Wrap on Character will only work if the labels are parallel to the line.
Answer: An old question and a simple answer, but the problem can be avoided by changing the labels parallel and choosing the "wrap on character" option. After confirming it, change the labels back to curved, and the changes remain. Works at least in QGIS 2.16.


Why airplane wheels emit smoke on landing?

Question: I've seen this phenomenon a lot of times but I can't give it a physically explanation. Someone has an idea?
Comment: Might better better answers on [Aviation SE](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/)
Answer: The wheels are not spinning while the plane is in the air.  At the moment that they first make contact with the ground, they skid a bit before they start rolling at a rotational rate consistent with the ground-speed of the plane.  That skid generates heat and burns off a little rubber. (This also accounts for the black smears on the runway at the point where planes typically first touch down.)
Comment: The wheels have inertia and cannot start spinning instantly, even in theory.  Their ability to rotate "instantly" is probably further limited by a variety of practical factors, for example that the initial contact may be "light" while majority of the weight of the aircraft is still held by the wings and that may not create enough torque to get them rolling right away.
Comment: But the wheels skid because the pilot uses the brake at the start of the landing? I mean they should start rolling from the first instant...
Comment: Sorry but I'm not totally convinced about your argomentation. If I do a jump with by bike, for example, when the front wheel touches the ground it starts spinning instantly and doesn't skid on the ground. You can see on Youtube a lot of people who jump on bike on slow motion and you will notice that the wheel starts spinning from the first instant. Obviusly this happens only if the ground is rough enough.
Comment: The masses and speeds between your bike example and the aircraft are vastly different. I don't think you can draw intuition between them. Also the bike comes down with its full force immediately, so its tires get maximum torque almost immediately. The aircraft glides down, supporting part of its weight on its wings, but may hit "hard" or graze for a moment causing different dynamics on the tires and different torques. Finally, in a bike jump, the wheels are spinning while the bike is in the air because they where spinning before the jump and their angular momentum tends to keep them spinning.
Comment: My previous comment is not meant to endorse the idea that the bike wheel does spin instantly - it also has inertia - but it might seem so to you because its inertial is less. (Also, if it was already spinning some because the wheel was in contact with the ground right before the jump, the inertia will tend to keep it spinning and therefore there would be less skid.)


When is it safe to sell books and contracts?

Question: I'm sure most people have answered this for themselves (because this inventory UI is so limited), but now that I have dozens of books and contracts in my inventory, am I safe to vendor trash all of them once I read them? Is there any risk to shedding one that I'll need later?
Comment: This isn't worth it's own answer, but as a general rule, anything you CAN sell is safe to sell.
Answer: I did trash many books and notes on my first playthrough, and I didn't notice any case where I needed something later. As you said, you should read them all beforehand as they might trigger quest advances or give you bestiary entries.
One item I'd be careful is the pass to get across the Pontar, it looks similar to other notes and you might want to keep it.
You could also restrict selling books and notes to one particular merchant, that way it is easier to buy something back if you actually need to.
Comment: It would be nice to have something like in the game Skyrim: A little house with as many bookshelfs you need for all your collected books. Looks great and you never have to ask you: Where is my book XY.
Comment: Actually there is one quest in Skellige where you have to bring certain books to an NPC.  I'm not sure if the relevant titles are flagged as quest items before/after you purchase them (especially if you happen to come across any of the books before picking up the quest).
Answer: It's safe to sell Sell books.
1.They are heavy.
2.Once read, they stay read, even if you find another of the same title later in the game.
3.Any books or letters needed for quests will be under the quest tool tab, not books.
4.Glossary/Codex (just like Dragon Age)


Should I track time for an hourly project during time taking operations?

Question: I am a freelance programmer and use time-tracker software to bill my hours. Sometimes when I am running some time-taking operation such as building a Docker image, running a CI pipeline and waiting for it to finish. Should I keep the time tracker running while I am waiting and using apps like YouTube, Discord in the meantime?
Comment: Those are issues that should be addressed with your client, not us. Better yet, they should be spelled out in your contract.
Answer: Well, here I can suggest two approaches:-

Use another machine during such hours to watch youtube, etc.
These types of tasks require monitoring in between, so in a way, you should still clock hours. However, these should be cleared beforehand in your contract with the employer.


What should be assumed regarding the upper frequency of sma connectors

Question: There are infinitely many sellers of sma connectors of various kind in ebay or other stores. This one is an example.
But they very seldom specify what is the maximum frequency at which the device can be used. Is there something generally assumed here? perhaps some rule of thumb (in particular if it is said that the connector is made of brass and gold plated)?
Comment: Depends on the VSWR you can accept.
Comment: Do you have some rules of thumb ?
Answer: Nothing aside from what is in the datasheet.
When you pay for a connector from a reputable manufacturer/vendor, in costs more than from ebay, but these costs comes from quality control, base material, factory tests, etc. You get what you pay for.
Comment: Seconded, very cheap RF connectors are generally a mistake, especially SMA where the geometry actually matters and can cause damage to the mating connector if it is wrong (A too long male pin can for example damage the female mating sleeve). There is a reason connector gauges are a thing in my RF lab.
Comment: What should the exact length of a male pin be ?
Comment: The gory details are in MIL-STD-348B rev 3 which is a free download, but the takeaway is that the pin shoulder **must** not extend past the connector reference plane.
Comment: Buy your components from legit resellers who have datasheets for the parts they sell, like Digikey.com and Mouser.com. Then you can tell what you are getting.


Why ever use an array instead of a hash?

Question: I have read that it is much faster to iterate through a hash than through an array. Retrieving values from a hash is also much faster.
Instead of using an array, why not just use a hash and give each key a value corresponding to an index? If the items ever need to be in order, they can be sorted.
Comment: What if they need to be in the order they were inserted?
Comment: @RobEarl .. your rhetorical comment is actually an answer - well i would vote it up as such if it had a few more details :)
Comment: Have you tried [benchmarking](http://perldoc.perl.org/Benchmark.html) it yourself? If you did, you would find that iterating through an array is actually much faster than iterating through a hash.
Answer: Retrieving from hash is faster in a sense that you can fetch value directly by key instead of iterating over whole hash (or array when you're searching for particular string). Having that said, $hash{key} isn't faster than $array[0] as no iteration is taking place.
Arrays can't be replaced by hashes, as they have different features,
                       arrays hashes
------------------------------------
ordered keys            x       -
push/pop                x       -
suitable for looping    x       -
named keys              -       x

Comment: No idea what "suitable for looping" means. You can loop over the elements of a hash just as easily as you can loop over the elements of an array.
Comment: `$hash{key}` is slower than `$array[0]`, but they scale the same.
Comment: `for @r` or `for 0..$#r` are not generating lists, unlike `keys %h`, and `each` requires hash reset.
Comment: I didn't think of push/pop
Answer: I don't know where you read that hashes are faster than arrays. According to some Perl reference works (Mastering Algorithms with Perl), arrays are faster than hashes (follow this link for some more info).
If speed is your only criterae, you should benchmark to see which technique is going to be faster. It depends on what operations you will be doing onto the array/hash.
Here is an SO link with some further information: Advantage of 'one dimensional' hash over array in Perl
Answer: I think this is a good question: it's not so much a high level "language design" query so much as it is an implementation question. It could be worded in a way that emphasizes that - say using hashes versus arrays for a particular technique or use case.
Hashes are nice but you need lists/arrays (c.f. @RobEarl).  You can use tie (or modules like Tie::IxHash or Tie::Hash::Indexed ) to "preserve" the order of a hash, but I believe these would have to be slower than a regular hash and in some cases you can't pass them around or copy them in quite the same way.
Answer: This code is more or less how a hash works.  It should explain well enough why you would want to use an array instead of a hash.
package DIYHash;
use Digest::MD5;

sub new {
     my ($class, $buckets) = @_;

     my $self = bless [], $class;
     $#$self = $buckets || 32;

     return $self;
}

sub fetch {
    my ( $self, $key ) = @_;

    my $i  = $self->_get_bucket_index( $key );
    my $bo = $self->_find_key_in_bucket($key);

    return $self->[$i][$bo][1];
}

sub store {
    my ( $self, $key, $value ) = @_;

    my $i  = $self->_get_bucket_index( $key );
    my $bo = $self->_find_key_in_bucket($key);
    $self->[$i][$bo] = [$key, $value];

    return $value;
}

sub _find_key_in_bucket {
    my ($self, $key, $index) = @_;

    my $bucket = $self->[$index];

    my $i = undef;
    for ( 0..$#$bucket ) {
         next unless $bucket->[$_][0] eq $key;
         $i = $_;
    }
    $i = @$bucket unless defined $i;

    return $i;
}

# This function needs to always return the same index for a given key.
# It can do anything as long as it always does that.
# I use the md5 hashing algorithm here.
sub _get_bucket_index {
    my ( $self, $key ) = @_;

    # Get a number from 0 to 1 - bucket count.
    my $index = unpack( "I", md5($key) ) % @$self;

    return $index;
}

1;

To use this amazing cluster of code:
my $hash = DIYHash->new(4);  #This hash has 4 buckets.
$hash->store(mouse => "I like cheese");
$hash->store(cat => "I like mouse");

say $hash->fetch('mouse');

Hashes look like they are constant time, rather than order N because for a given data set, you select a number of buckets that keeps the number of items in any bucket very small.
A proper hashing system would be able to resize as appropriate when the number of collisions gets too high.  You don't want to do this often, because it is an order N operation.


I have question about my Bmw 325I 1995

Question: Could you use parts from a bmw 325i 1995 on a bmw 318ti 1995
Comment: Welcome to the site. It really depends on which parts you are talking about. Some parts will interchange without issue since these are both 300 series Bimmers from the same year. Other parts, like for the engines, probably won't. It really depends on what you're trying to do here.
Answer: This answer depends on the specific part. I used to have a '94 318is and from what I remember a lot of the parts were identical across the whole 3-series line. Your best bet is looking up the part number that you want to replace, and see if they match for both models.  I regularly purchased parts from Bavauto.com. You can look up parts by model on their site. Look it up for both models and see if the part numbers match.

I have question about my Bmw 325I 1995


Are Goodberries affected by the Life domain class features?

Question: How are Goodberries affected by the cleric class features from the Life domain, if at all? I read somewhere that the Life domain's healing bonuses apply to each berry created by the spell — do they? Are there any official answers to this question?
Comment: +1 beautiful question... the answer of which has saved our party many many times. :)
Answer: Yes, a Life Domain cleric's Goodberrys are great.

The Disciple of Life feature would make each berry restore
4 hit points, instead of 1, assuming you cast goodberry with a 1st-level slot. (Sage Advice Compendium for fifth edition.)

For any who aren't aware, "Sage Advice" is the long-standing name given to TSR's, then WotC's, official clarifications to rules. Each month questions worth clarifying are answered by Jeremy Crawford, "rules manager" for 5e, and are concatenated into a Sage Advice compendium.
There is a commonly-referenced website called "Sage Advice" which should not be confused with the articles--this site compiles tweets about D&D rules from various sources, and is not authoritative. But it is informative, as some of those tweets come from the designers of D&D5e, including Jeremy Crawford.
Comment: Hehe... "Greatberry"
Answer: Yes
Disciple of Life activates when a spell of first level or higher is "used" to restore hit points:

Whenever you use a spell of 1st level or higher to restore hit points to a creature, the creature regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell's level.

Goodberry is level 1, and it certainly is used to restore hit points:

Eating a berry restores 1 hit point

This also applies to other spells which are used to restore hit points directly, as well as indirectly; such as Healing Spirit, Aura of Life, or even Wish.
Comment: Why the downvote? Even if this answer doesn't address the OP asking for an official answer for this situation, it still answers pretty well the first question. Please remember to leave a comment when you downvote an answer to help improve it.


Will larger balls make a Newton's cradle swing more stable?

Question: I got a rather small Netwon's cradle and when I start it, the effect is not very good since all the balls start to swing where the effect we want is obvious. The balls are small and I wonder if larger balls would make the swing more ideal, like only the outer balls appear to move and the 3 inner balls should be still? I know product recommendations are off-topic, but I'm leaning towards buying a cradle with larger balls and perhaps you can advice which alternative to get that best replicates the original ideal cradle where only the outer balls move and the inner balls appear still?
Answer: Here are some possible reasons the cradle may not work as expected.
1) Excessive friction at the support points where the strings mount to the frame, causing torsion to be passed thru the frame to other strings&balls. Similarly, the frame may be not sufficiently rigid.
2) The balls are not of uniform mass.
3) The balls' masses are not sufficiently greater than the mass of the strings, so the strings' masses can't be ignored in the momentum conservation equations.
4) less likely-- the balls are inelastic, leading to loss of kinetic energy.
5) less likely -- the balls are not aligned, causing the momentum vectors to wander off in 2 or three dimensions.
Answer: Newton's cradle fights air resistance and restitution (efficiency of rebound).  You then want the highest density, hardest balls with the highest restitution.  Cobalt-sintered tungsten carbide is magnetic.  Polished hardened tool steel ball bearings are a good start.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/what-went-wrong-with-the-mythbusters-newton-cradle/
Platinum plus gallium and indium alloys heat treat to a very hard and springy state, density around 19 g/cm^3 versus less than 8 g/cm^3 for tool steel (Steve Kretchmer, Niessing Co., Eastern Smelting; platinum SK(tm) alloys).  For more shallow wallets, tungsten steel, thoriated tungsten.
95.5% Pt, 3.0% Ga, 1.5% In; 95.2% Platinum, 4.8% Ga, In, Cu; 1550-1650 C melt.  700 C for 30 minutes and slow cool to harden (not reducing atmospheres). Vickers Hardness 318/Rockwell A 76/Rockwell C 32. 125,000 psi tensile, 104,000 psi yield.


Normality test on logarithmic data

Question: I had to take the log of my data, and now I want to test for normality of my data.  Can I use the standard normality tests or do I have to use some special test?  I used the swilk command in Stata to test for normality.
Comment: I have removed the `logarithmic-series` tag (substituting a couple of others that apply). The logarithmic-series tag refers to [this discrete distribution](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithmic_distribution) which I don't think comes in here.
Comment: No worries -- it didn't have the tag-summary that would have told you what it was for, so you had no easy basis on which to know it was for something else. I have now fixed it, putting a tag wiki and tag wiki extract (which explains when to use it) on that tag. (However, I wonder if there's much need for the tag, since it has only been used twice in 5 months). I'll probably delete these comments soon.
Answer: You don't need a special test to test normality after taking logs; Shapiro Wilk works fine for that purpose.
However, it's quite rare that an explicit test of normality is really a particularly useful thing to do (it's a pity, I'm quite fond of goodness of fit tests and have read a lot of papers about the topic -- hundreds of them -- but they're of practical use in only a few situations).
People often do it (test normality) when they want to check assumptions for some form of inference that relies on a normality assumption, but it's almost no use for that for a fairly long list of reasons.
Here's a couple of them

such tests tend to reject with large sample sizes, and that's when normality usually matters least. On the other hand, when it matters most (at small sample sizes) they have little power. So by using one to figure out whether you can use your normal theory procedure you'll tend to avoid using it when there's no problem at all and feel happy about going ahead when you shouldn't -- it will often lead you to take exactly the wrong action.
the hypothesis test simply answers the wrong question in any case. You already know you won't have exact normality (what are the chances that it's actually true?), so it's pointless to test something you already know the answer to, and knowing the answer is no use. What matters is the impact of the kind of non-normality you have on your inference and the test tells you nothing about that.
by predicating your inference on the outcome of the test ("if I reject normality I will do this and if I don't I will do that), you alter the properties of the subsequent inference -- standard errors and p-values and confidence intervals don't have the properties you expect when you do that (in both arms -- whether you do "this" or "that", you won't get what you expect). Better to understand how your procedure responds to various forms of and amounts of non-normality (e.g. via using simulation) and either rely on what's understood about your data-process to decide you won't be badly impacted if you assume normality or to simply go to something that doesn't require a normality assumption at all. (Another option would be to take a hold-out sample to check viability of model assumptions on if you have the data to do that with, but even then I wouldn't test the assumptions, I'd be looking at something nearer to an effect size.)
Comment: Thank you so much.  You went above and beyond and I appreciate it so much!

Normality test on logarithmic data


How is Nibbana unconditioned?

Question: It is often said that Nibbana is unconditioned. But isn't Nibbana to be attained through practice of the Noble Eightfold Path (abandoning desire, meditation, realizing paticcasamuppada etc)? Aren't those practices conditions for Nibbana? What am I missing here :) ?
Comment: Nibbanna is not conditioned because you don't attain it,what your ""actually"" attaining is the ability to see it or experience it. Nibbanna is there regardless.
Answer: The practice of the eightfold noble path leads to the experience of nibbāna, just like the act of adverting the mind to the eye door leads to seeing light. Light, the object of seeing, is saṅkhata (conditioned), but nibbāna, the object of supermundane consciousness, is asaṅkhata (unconditioned). So nibbāna isn't the result of the eightfold noble path, the experience of it is.
Comment: Thanks. Would it be correct to liken Nibbana to going to a place? The place exists, whether or not I make the effort to reach there. The effort to reach there is not the cause that the place exists.
Comment: @fxam yes, that seems apt.
Comment: If you can arrive at a place, you can certainly leave a place, that would imply that the experience of cessation/ Nirvana is conditional and impermanent.
Answer: In the material world alls phenomena arises and passes based on conditionality (as opposed to totally random). In Nibbana there is no arising and passing away of phenomena.
It is true that realising Nibbana is the result of practising the path to realise it, hence if you have realised Nibbana then this is because you practice the path.
Comment: "Realising" nibbana is different than 'causing' nibbana. It is already there. The practitioner just needs to realize it directly.
Comment: @JeffWright Thanks, I think I realize something now :)
Comment: Thanks, but you said "...hence if you have realised Nibbana then this is because you practice the path". Doesn't this sentence mean Nibbana is conditioned (caused) by the practices?
Answer: When it says that "Anicca vata sankhara" ( Impermanent are all conditioned things). "Uppadavaya dhammino" ( Of the nature to rise and fall).
It is saying that things arise dependent on conditions, things "exist" because of the conditions that support them. So we are talking about characteristic nature of things or its attribute.
The attributes of nibbana as pointed out above is permanent, does not arise depending on conditions.
Comment: First is is declared by the Buddha in Udāna 8: Pāṭaligāmiyavaggo: "There is, monks, an unborn, unbecome, unmade, unconditioned.
If, monks there were not that unborn, unbecome,
unmade, unconditioned, you could not know an escape here
from the born, become, made, and conditioned.

But because there is an unborn, unbecome,
unmade, unconditioned, therefore you do know an escape
from the born, become, made, and conditioned."
Comment: So it's called unconditioned because that is how the Buddha described it.
Comment: Is this answer just repeating the claim, that "nibbana is unconditioned", without explaining why or how? Alternatively what's mistaken about the understanding in the OP, that Nibbana depends on (i.e. that it is conditioned by) practice?
Comment: He found it first and declared it and others who have subsequently discovered it may or may not agree with him but I take his authority on it.
Answer: In Theravada Buddhism, when we talk about conditions and conditioning there are 24 conditions found in the Patthana
The Patthana Dhamma are packed into 24 Paccaya or 24 conditions.
They are:
1.Root condition                  ( Hetu Paccayo )
2.Object condition    ( Arammana Paccayo )
3.Predominance condition  ( Adhipati Paccayo )
4.Proximity condition          ( Anantara Paccayo )... etc...
Comment: Interesting, can you elaborate on how is Nibbana unconditioned according to Patthana?
Answer: I see two ambiguities here which might be the responsible for the confusion.

with the six sense bases as condition, contact;
-- SN 12:1

The above is one link of conditioned arising chain, which explain how many things are conditioned. Would it be correct to, according to the above, conclude that the six senses cause (or produce) contact? That would be awkward.
This quote means that if a "contact experience" is present, then the corresponding sense is present. A more verbose reading of the above would be "six sense bases are a supporting condition for contact".
As another (unrelated to buddhism, and perhaps poorly chosen) example, if you study, you become more knowledgeable. But your knowledge, at any given point, is not  constituted by "studies". There is an ambiguity in how we can interpret "conditioned". Conditioned ≠ caused by.
The matter in question is that it is more a statement about a "necessary condition" than a statement about a particular cause.
There is also another ambiguity in play here. Nibbāna is unconditioned in the sense that it has no supporting condition. Echoing yuttadhammo's answer
, nibbāna is "one thing" and the experience of attaining nibbāna (which requires all the proverbial effort) is "something else".
Comment: You might as well call it cause. But the risk of saying that the six sense bases "cause" contact, is to bring back the confusion: eg. to understand that the presence of a sense implies the presence of contact -- "if the sense is a cause, it's an agent causing something". And that is not true: it is possible to have no contact even though sense bases are present.
Comment: The 3 must come together i.e 1) eye object (no object or in the dark is no good) 2) eye base (being blind is no good) 3) eye consciousness ( being dead is no good). When these 3 come together there is contact.
Comment: Because of the coming together of eye object, eye consciousness and eye base there is contact. Also for the rest of the other senses.. depending on contact feeling arises...
Comment: Thanks. But when six sense bases ceases, contact ceases. The contact depends on the six sense bases. Doesn't that mean the six sense bases cause the contact (or contact experience)?
Answer: Nibbana as stated in the Patthana with my summary below:

[] square brackets indicate my extra notes
* asterisk indicates I've changed to the English rendering according to Nyanamoli as it appeals to me to be a closer rendering, otherwise it is straight from the Patthana.

Nibbana the term derives from nivana or nirvana. Ni means nikkhanta or liberated from vana or binding. Vana is the dhamma that bind various different lives in the samsara. So nibbana means liberated from binding in the samsara. This binding is tanha. [Thanissaro Bhikkhu uses unbinding in most of his translation instead of using nibbana]
From view point of contemplation [at the time of release], there are three kinds of nibbana.
They are sunnata nibbana [*emptiness - attained thru seeing anatta],
animitta nibbana [*signless - attained thru seeing anicca],
and appanihita nibbana [*desireless - attained thru seeing dukkha]

All 3 are just one same nibbana perceived through different modes of release.
Nibbana is not in one of the 5 aggregates, [it is there all the time but we don't have the mental capacity to see it]. It can be an object of the mind (arammana).
Who can see nibbana? Arahants, and Anagamis only when he enters (*the state of ceasation of consciousness) nirodha samapatti.
[Sotapanas, Sakadagamis and Anagamis only have a glimps of nibbana]

Sankhata dhatu [*conditioned elements] are those whose arising and existence are influenced by one of four causes namely kamma [*action], citta [*consciousness], utu [*climate], and ahara [*nutriment]. Nibbana cannot be influenced by these four causes. Nibbana is asankhata dhatu [*unconditioned element].
Comment: I hope you don't mind: I added some extra formatting to your answer. [This help page](http://buddhism.stackexchange.com/editing-help) describes how it's possible to format text. I find that especially `>` is useful: it's used to show/format a direct block-quote, so that people can see, in an answer, which parts of the text are quoted from the reference you cited, and which paragraphs are your own. Many of the best answers contain a mix of quote, plus your own explanation or introduction to the quote. Thank you and welcome again to the site.
Comment: Thanks for the formatting. I shall endeavour to use it when I can.
Answer: No, the practices are causes of the unconditional result of Nibbana. Things in the past or future do not even exist to ultimate reality. We can't understand this without practicing virtue and  witnessing what really is in the present moment(mindfulness or Vipassana) moment by moment
Answer: I do not have sufficent knowledge to answer the question in a satisfactory way.
So i will instead point you to some great ressources regarding your question.
The first one is a book called "On the Nature of Nibbana" by Ven. Mahasi Sayadaw.
In this book Nibbana is being discussed e.g. "What is Nibbana and what is the meaning of it?, Mental Formation and Nibbana, The Nature and Attributes of Nibbana and many more things regarding Nibbana".
The second source is a great audio dhamma talk called "Nibbana" by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi.
Here is also some text material on Nibbana by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi. A short quote from the section "Nibbana is an existing reality":

"Regarding the nature of Nibbana, the question is often asked: Does Nibbana signify only extinction of the defilements and liberation from samsara or does it signify some reality existing in itself? Nibbana is not only the destruction of defilements and the end of samsara but a reality transcendent to the entire world of mundane experience, a reality transcendent to all the realms of phenomenal existence.
The Buddha refers to Nibbana as a 'dhamma'. For example, he says "of all dhammas, conditioned or unconditioned, the most excellent dhamma, the supreme dhamma is, Nibbana". 'Dhamma' signifies actual realities, the existing realities as opposed to conceptual things. Dhammas are of two types, conditioned and unconditioned. A conditioned dhamma is an actuality which has come into being through causes or conditions, something which arises through the workings of various conditions. The conditioned dhammas are the five aggregates: material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness. The conditioned dhammas, do not remain static. They go through a ceaseless process of becoming. They arise, undergo transformation and fall away due to its conditionality.
However, the unconditioned dhamma is not produced by causes and conditions. It has the opposite characteristics from the conditioned: it has no arising, no falling away and it undergoes no transformation. Nevertheless, it is an actuality, and the Buddha refers to Nibbana as an unconditioned Dhamma."

May this be of some help to you.
Lanka
Comment: Thanks for the recommendations and the quote. I understand more of Nibbana now.

How is Nibbana unconditioned?


Boot disk on USB not found (dual boot Elementary OS + OS X)

Question: I'm trying to dual boot OS X and Elementary OS Freya on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro.  I made a boot drive and followed these instructions (especially step 10) to boot but when I restart my computer and select my boot disk (I used a USB stick) I got the unhappy "No bootable device - insert boot drive and press any key" message.  My machine then proceeds to not respond forcing me to use the hard shutdown.  How can I make sure my machine recognizes the OS on my USB?
Answer: This sounds very much like the modifications you have done have wiped your boot block. Dual booting a Mac is never a good idea it is far better if possible to make use of the virtual drive software available this will give you a far better integration with your computer.
If a dual boot is necessary then check the Dual Boot Camp assistant to make sure of compatibility. Often people forget that older Mac machines will run dual boot, but the inside guts of the machine has been changed greatly to bring it all up to date for Mac OSX.
I would try and rescue your boot block if possible and your original layout on your drives partition should have been backed up prior to making these mods. I see it quite a lot in my business with Mac OSX and Windows as well. Making a backup of the partition on an external drive should be the first thing you do as a matter of course. Rescue may prove impossible depending on how deep the second OS has gone into the drive it may have wiped the original installation.
This advice and should be taken as such.
Comment: I backed up all my data so no worries. I've actually successfully dual-booted Ubuntu and OS X on the same machine a couple years ago (the whole thing has since been wiped and reset by Apple) and even now it boots OS X by default just fine.  The only problem is when I select my USB stick it doesn't recognize any OS there.  Is that because of errors on my computer or errors on the USB?


How to execute a builtin shell command using find?

Question: I'm constrained to doing this in tcsh on CentOS due to the environment at work. When executing find . -type f -executable -exec source '{}' \; the only result is find: 'source': No such file or directory for each appropriate file.  Not sure why this isn't working in tcsh as it's pretty straightforward. What am I doing wrong? Any help greatly appreciated.
Answer: source is a shell builtin. find executes commands. It cannot execute a shell builtin.
If you want to execute external programs, just specify the program name:
find . -type f -executable -exec '{}' \;

If these are all csh scripts lacking a shebang like (#!/bin/env csh as the first line), add a shebang line. If you really can't add a shebang line, call csh explicitly:
find . -type f -executable -exec tcsh '{}' \;

If these are all csh script fragments that you want to execute inside the current shell, you can't do it this way. You'll need to collect the names with find and then source them.
foreach fragment ("`find . -type f -executable -print`")
  source "$fragment"
end

There's something fishy about this requirement in the first place. Shell fragments meant to be sourced should not be executable.
Comment: didn't realize that about find -exec and shell builtins. Thanks for the insight.
Answer: See this:
127:2:1389633116:user@host:~$ tcsh source foo
source: No such file or directory.
1:3:1389633119:user@host:~$ tcsh
host:~> source foo
foo: No such file or directory.
host:~> exit
0:4:1389633582:user@host:~$ tcsh -c 'source foo'
foo: No such file or directory.

Try those yourself, and others. Maybe inspecting strace traces. Finally try to take advantage and build a workaround.
Comment: I have no idea where you're getting at with this answer.
Comment: I'm telling the questioner to do `$ find . -type f -executable -exec tcsh -c 'source {}' \;`
Comment: The comment answer above is exactly what I was after, combined with the insight about shell builtins and exec from the first answer completely answers my question. Thanks so much.
Comment: You are welcome, wherever you are!


How to export the images that inside adobe illustrator file

Question:
Right now I have a AI file, and there are some images used in it , the problem is , how to export all of them? Thanks a lot for helping.
Answer: You appear to be using a legacy version of Illustrator.
In Illustrator CC you can highlight embedded images in the Links Panel and choose Unembed... from the Links Panel Menu which will bring up the Save As dialog window allowing you to save the image separately.

If the image is indeed a link, you would highlight it in the Links Panel and choose Edit original... to open the original image in the appropriate application.

This is why I say you are working with an older version if Illustrator. Your Links Panel shows the images as embedded. However, you do not have the options possible in Illustrator CC.

If none of the above is possible, then simply drag the .ai file to Photoshop to open it in Photoshop. This will rasterize everything. However since you want the raster images, it won't make a difference. After its opened, simply crop and save the images you need.
Answer: Tested with CC 2020;
One other way to export all resources as files is to export document as SVG. This is not keeping the original file names of course but exports all images as PNGs. Also note that exporting PNGs can take long depending on the image dimensions.
File > Scripts > SaveDocsAsSVG


Mentor and Mentoring

Question: Would someone who is not a professional but knows a subject (such as automotive repair) in depth and offers advice and hands-on assistance with repair procedures be considered a mentor? Is the act of giving advice in this context mentoring?
Comment: @speedyGonzales On what basis do you suggest 'mentoring' is always professional? To me, mentoring could well be done by a friend or acquaintance, and be informal and free of charge. 'Consulting' sounds more professional to me, and also more likely to be paid for, especially as 'Consultant' normally refers to a paid professional.
Comment: I would say consulting. I always think of professional when I hear mentoring.
Comment: Why would you think not? Mentor: adviser - preceptor - monitor - counselor - tutor. What has a professional to do with *that*?
Answer: Mentoring refers to the passing on of knowledge and expertise over a long period.
The mentor might be a professional, but they also might not. Likewise the relationship between the mentor and the protégé might be within a professional context, but again it might not.
The skill the training is in might not even be one that is ever professional; people often mentor in hobbies, sports and other avocations that don't have a professional structure.
Comment: True. However, this is GR!
Comment: OK, so as I understand it now, for a person to call themselves a "mentor" or be "mentoring" someone, the person is doing more than giving advise on an occasion or two.  It's over a long period of time to the same person.  Using automotive repair, a person who instructs someone on a repair procedure or walks them through it on the phone or chat cannot be considered a mentor if it's not a recurring instruction or guidance?

Mentor and Mentoring


Adding columns to a Hibernate table with data

Question: I have a class in my application that is being serialized by Hibernate, and there are already several rows in the corresponding table in my database.  If I need to add fields to this class after the table is created, do I need to do anything special?  Drop the table and let Hibernate start over?  Or can I just add a properly annotated field and let Hibernate do the rest?
Comment: What should the value of the new fields be for the objects already saved?
Comment: Well that's one of my quandaries.  Will Hibernate just fill in a sensible default, like `null`?  There are few enough rows that I can fill in that column by hand, as long as Hibernate doesn't complain or crash.
Comment: You can put any legal value you want into the data cell.  Hibernate doesn't care what is there.  It is the database that will determine the limits as long as you haven't modified the table that was created.
Answer: Hibernate can update tables in place, if you configure:
<code><prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">update</prop>
</code>
See the documentation: http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/core/3.3/reference/en/html/session-configuration.html.  See Table 3.7 for details.
Answer: @Aaron is correct. The only issue might be if one of the new columns has a not null constraint. If so you can use a column definition attribute to give the field a default value.
See here https://forum.hibernate.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=982553&view=previous and here http://docs.jboss.org/hibernate/annotations/3.5/reference/en/html_single/ for more details.


Apigee API to check if platform is alive

Question: I know Apigee comes with several out of the box API to do deployments and query various pieces of information. Is there a lightweight out of the box API that we can give to our customers to verify if the APigee platform is still alive and running? This will prevent them from sending us API traffic when the system is unable to process it.
Answer: The following may be a good partial solution, but it really depends on how you intend to expose this information, where your monitoring server sits in the architecture, and what facilities you have to process/report status.  That said...
Depending on what you define as 'lightweight', there is an option for OPDK installations to CURL on the following:
http://{management-server-ip}:8080/v1/servers

To check status, there is a field called IsUp (Boolean).  To get more specific, you can use the query parameter type so you can get back specific components.  The valid values are:
http://{management-server-ip}:8080/v1/servers/?type=app-datastore
http://{management-server-ip}:8080/v1/servers/?type=kms-datastore
http://{management-server-ip}:8080/v1/servers/?type=message-processor
http://{management-server-ip}:8080/v1/servers/?type=router

I don't believe this is possible on Cloud due to the nature of component resourcing.
Answer: If you are trying to determine whether Apigee is able to serve your own APIs, it might make sense to create a ping API call manually. You might want a couple of different flavors -- one that immediately turns around and responds from within Apigee (testing connectivity to the Apigee layer), and one that pings your backend servers (testing end to end connectivity). Anything out of the box wouldn't be able to ping your backend.
Answer: What many customers do is create a "Health Check" API Proxy.
This can just be an Echo Server, which you can easily create by building an API Proxy with No Target.
In the New API Proxy tool, choose (o) No Target.  And that's it.
Then whatever data you pass to that proxy will be returned in the response.
For example:
$ curl http://{your-org}-{env}.apigee.net/v1/healthcheck -d "Hello"
Hello


Connecting different Ah lead acid batteries in series

Question: Is it OK to connect several lead acid cells with different Ah capacities in series?
I know it can be done in parallel as long as their nominal voltage is the same.
Comment: It's OK if you need to start an engine ONCE to fly a rebuilt wrecked aircraft out of a desert. Then you don't care the battery life is that of the smallest cell. Otherwise, your name isn't Jimmy Stewart, so just don't.
Answer: No, do not connect different capacity batteries in series, because after the lowest A-h capacity battery is discharged, it will be charged in reverse by the other batteries, quickly destroying that, and possibly outgassing dangerous hydrogen. You would also need to charge batteries individually, or the smaller batteries would be overcharged, again, releasing H2.
However, if the batteries are the same voltage and same construction, i.e., all wet plate, or all gel-cell, then put them in parallel and use a boost converter, such as this example. Of course, you need to choose a converter for your voltage and current needs, and remember that current drawn will also increase in proportion to voltage gain.
Comment: "Possible"? Sure. But not a good idea: under load, a larger battery could *reverse charge* a smaller battery, destroying it. Charging would also be problematic: you'd need to charge each battery **separately**, because fully charging the largest capacity one would overcharge a smaller one, again, destroying it, as well as releasing explosive hydrogen. If you only draw a *tiny* current, and never let the weakest battery get below perhaps 50%, and charge each separately, it might work... for a while.
Comment: If I change the discharge and charge voltages to match this, or if I monitor Ah of the pack this could be possible? The series string would have an total Ah rating of the lowest batterie?
Comment: after some thinking I get that this is a stupid idea from my side, since you can't guarantee the smaller battery is within its limits even when you set the voltages. And if you reduce the range of SoC than you loose the same or more - so would have more capacity if you didn't add the smaller ones in the first place


Crystal Report Logon Failed Problem

Question: I am using....
Framework 3.5 C# Visual Studio 2008 and web based application
I have created reports using Dataset i.e. my service gives me data set and I bind that dataset with report.
But sometimes CR viewer started popping up error "Logon Failed" with login box with dataset name filled in login information.
I am searching for its solution for quite some time but did not fine any suitable answer to this.
Answer: Are you passing along your creditials in your code:
ReportDocument rep = new ReportDocument();
rep.FileName = Server.MapPath("CrystalReport1.rpt");
set.SetDatabaseLogon("username", "password", "sql-server", "database"); // this line pass the login parameters required for login

Comment: I am binding my Report using dataset like this:-

`
DataSet ds = getReportData();
rpt.SetDataSource(ds);
CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = rpt;'
`

now what should I put in user name/password etc? as I don't think there is any password for dataset.
Comment: Where are you retrieving the data for your dataset (Database, CSV, Text File, etc)?
Answer: This error is unfortunately ambiguous because it is the generated error for dozens of unrelated problems.  In this case, the "Logon failed" is likely due to an occasional schema mismatch.
The DataSet object can contain hierarchical data.  If your service is returning a DataSet containing hierarchical data, and some of the children are missing, then its schema has effectively changed.
There are several ways to ensure that the DataSet has a matching schema.  If you are serializing objects into XML and then generating the DataSet from that XML, then a simple way to achieve a consistent schema is to change your code from:
reportData.ReadXml(new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reportXml)));

to
reportData.ReadXmlSchema(schemaPath);
reportData.ReadXml(
        new MemoryStream(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(reportXml)),
        XmlReadMode.IgnoreSchema
    );

where schemaPath points to an XSD file that was generated earlier in development with a call to
File.WriteAllText(
        @"C:\MyTempPath\MyReportName.xsd",
        reportData.GetXmlSchema(),
        Encoding.Unicode
    );

When generating the schema, you will also want that schema to be as complete of a representation of the data as possible, so you will want to use as complete of a hierarchy of data as possible.  This is also the XML that the report must be created off of so that its schema matches.  If the schema changes, then the report must be opened in the designer with the new data and you must "verify database" and then save the RPT file.
Answer: After long efforts i figured the main reason, there was a mistake in my stored procedure which was returning data.
SP returns data from table1 or table2 (they both have same structure), but when I was picking data from table2 i did not write all the column names which were required.
Seems quite weird , i should get something like column not found error instead of database logon failed.
Answer: Try this out. Also make sure you have right version of crystal report in all places
private ConnectionInfo crConnectionInfo = new ConnectionInfo();
        ReportDocument rpt = new ReportDocument();
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            CrystalReportViewer1.Width = 900;
            CrystalReportViewer1.ToolPanelView = ToolPanelViewType.None;
            BindReport();
        }

        private void BindReport()
        {

            rpt.Load(Server.MapPath("ProductList.rpt"));
            DataSet ds = getReportData();
            rpt.SetDataSource(ds.Tables[0]);
            CrystalReportViewer1.ReportSource = rpt;
        }

        private DataSet getReportData()
        {
            DataSet ds = new DataSet();
            string ConnectionString = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["myconn"].ConnectionString;
            SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(ConnectionString);
            SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand();
            cmd.CommandText = "GetProductList";
            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
            con.Open();
            cmd.Connection = con;
            SqlDataAdapter sda = new SqlDataAdapter(cmd);
            sda.Fill(ds, "ctable");
            con.Close();
            return ds;
        }

Comment: In my case report is working sometimes while giving me error some time. Also i figure out that it is happining for some particular records. Exception details did not give me any idea why it is occurring.
Comment: have u tried my code Are you getting the prompt on click on next page in a  report. Another thing are you using subreports. Are you making the dataset at design time
Answer: I was facing the same issue at the time, when I moved the application from the development machine to the real server. It was an IIS7 MVC application( CR 13.0) with trusted authentication to the SQL server.
The way I fixed it, was by creating a new application pool for the application. I give permission for the new application pool user IIS APPPOOL\applicationpoolname to the SQL server database that was used in the application.
Then the error went away.
My assumption is that, the userlogininfo applied through code is not always used by the CR runtime , instead it uses the IIS user login info.

Crystal Report Logon Failed Problem


best WDS alternative

Question: I'm looking for some way to capture an image of a PC after I run a sysprep - a lot like WDS but without networking on the PC. So instead of the network part it would be possible to (with an easy wizard like on WDS) create an image of the PC to a USB drive or something similar.
Answer: The Microsoft Deployment Toolkit is an officially supported method for doing what you want to do.  If hadn't created the image already, it would help you do that.  It will also help you put the image onto a CD/DVD, USB drive, or WDS server.
I should probably add that this isn't technically a WDS alternative.  It works with WDS if you choose.  WDS is just one option for deploying an image.  MDT is like a suite of tools that help create images and give you more options around how to deploy.
Answer: The tool you want is called ImageX and is part of the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK). You'll need to create bootable media (DVD, USB Flash Drive, etc) with a WinPE boot image on it - again all the resources to do this are in the WAIK. Sysprep your reference PC and have it shut down. Then boot from the WinPE media, run ImageX to image the hard drive. ImageX produces a Windows Image (.WIM) file.

ImageX is a command-line tool that enables original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and corporations to capture, modify, and apply file-based disk images for rapid deployment. ImageX works with Windows® image (.wim) files for copying to a network, or it can work with other technologies that use .wim images, such as Windows Setup, Windows Deployment Services (Windows DS), and the System Management Server (SMS) Operating System Feature Deployment Pack.

You can then use that WIM file with WDS, or create bootable media with it.
Answer: Clonezilla has always worked very well for me, check it out  Clonezilla.org
Comment: http://mdtguy.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/clonezilla-is-a-joke-and-a-bad-one-at-that/

best WDS alternative


Developing OpenGL Applications Everywhere

Question: I am studing OpenGL and I usually study in the laboratory in my university.
My problem is that the computers in the university don't have the necessary libraries installed for me to study the programs, and I have only user permissions in these computers, so I can't install anything that need administrator permissions.
Usually I develop in a linux environment, but the computers on the lab all got Windows XP or Windows 7 running. I use g++ to compile my programs, freeglut and opengl library. I also use the OpenGL extensions to be able to use vertex array objects for example, and other features to the newers versions of OpenGL.
I am thinking if that is a way to put everything I need in my pendrive and just execute this in every computer I go, without having to install nothing. Maybe something like put all the libraries with cygwin and a notepad++ portable in the pendrive and compile my programs using the cygwin on the pendrive.
But how can I achieve this, what modifications I need to do on my code?
Edit:
To solve my problem I did the following:
Installed MinGW with MSYS in my PC;
Create a batch file (.bat) named startMinGW with the following code inside MinGW folder:
@echo off
mode con:cols=130 lines=50
path=%path%;%CD%\bin
path=%path%;%CD%\lib
path=%path%;%CD%\msys\1.0\bin
title MinGW Compiler
echo Ready!
cmd.exe /K

Execute the batch file to compile the following;
Compile freeglut 2.8.0 with MinGW, going in the root folder of freeglut and executing:
sh configure
make

Compile glew 1.9.0 with MinGW, going in the root folder of freeglut and executing:
make

Copied the .h files localized in the include folders of freeglut and glew, to the include folder of MinGW
Copied the .a, .dll, .la, .lai (I don't know if it's necessary to copy the .la and .lai files) files localized in the lib folders of freeglut and glew, to the lib folder of MinGW
Copied the folder C:\MinGW to my pendrive.
Now to compile an OpenGL program I just need to execute startMinGW from the pendrive and execute
g++ file.cpp -lopeng32 -lglu32 -lglut -lglew

Answer: The glut (or freeglut) lib is cross-platform. Why wouldn't you compile it on Windows ?
Use a build generator (like CMake) to easily create your makefile on each platform and you're done.
Comment: But the computer don't have freeglut installed. I don't get it the CMake, why would help me?
Answer: Qt OpenGL API is probably the best fit in your case.


How to find the End device connected to a particular interface?

Question: I have a Cisco C3750V2 switch in which a particular interface is continuously flapping almost i could find 15,000 events from the device logs in last 24 hours. Is there a way to find the end device connected to this particular interface??
Comment: Did any answer help you? if so, you should accept the answer so that the question doesn't keep popping up forever, looking for an answer. Alternatively, you could provide and accept your own answer.
Answer: Use CDP.
Show cdp neighbors will show you the name of the device on the interface
Of course thats only if CDP is turned on on both devices.
Answer: First you need to check which is the interface that isn presenting the flapping event.
Then you can write:
sho mac address-table

To see de mac address table and find the mac address learned by the flapping interface in particular.
Next, you can visit here:
www.macvendorlookup.com/

or something else, to make a lookup for the vendor of that specific mac address.
Finally, you will find de device, i hope so
Answer: Remotely? That's hard to say. As Orlando suggests, the MAC could point you in that direction (nic manufacturer.) If the device and switch are setup for LLDP, that may give you a better picture. Setting up a SPAN to watch any traffic on that port may be enlightening.
Ultimately, you go to the end of the cable connected to that port and see what's there. However, that requires you to be on-site and the device causing the problems being there when you arrive.
Answer: Finding the switchport a device is connected to is very easy. You can do it using the following commands:
traceroute
show ip arp <ip_address>
show mac add <mac_address> | show mac-add add <mac_address>

The last command depends on what version of IOS you're using.
If you need additional information I have just published a blog post describing how to achieve what you're asking - http://www.oznetnerd.com/2015/10/30/finding-a-hosts-switchport/
By the way, what exactly does the event/log say? It should really give you all the information you need. e.g if it were a MAC flap, it should tell you the ports its flapping between. If it is a physical port flap, it should tell you the exact port number.


Find the area of a quadrilateral in a parallelogram.

Question:
Assume quadrilateral $ABCD$ is a parallelogram and its area is $S$. And satisfy the following conditions: $AE=BE$, $BF=FC$, $AQ // PC$. Find the area of quadrilateral $APCQ$
Comment: And what have you done?
Comment: @Yash Jain. Thank you for your suggestion. I have used analytic-geometry to calculate a special case: when $ABCD$ is a square.  I assume the side length of the square is $a$. then I can calculate the coordinate of points $E$, $P$, $Q$, $D$. then I find $PQ=\frac{1}{5}ED$. So $S_{APCQ} = \frac{1}{5}S_{AECD}$. then $S_{APCQ} = \frac{3}{4} \times S \times \frac{1}{5} = \frac{3S}{20}$
Answer: You have tried a special case and you can get some hint from it. To calculate the area of $APCQ$, we can divide it into two parts: $\triangle{APQ}$ and $\triangle{CPQ}$. Let the intersection point of line $(ED)$ and line$(BC)$ be $T$. By the Menelaus' theorem we have $\frac{AE}{EB} \cdot \frac{BT}{TF} \cdot \frac{FP}{PA}=1$, since $E,F$ are midpoints, we may get that $\frac{FP}{PA}=\frac{3}{2}$. Let the intersection point of the line $(CP)$ and line$(AB)$ be $S$. Apply the Menelaus' theorem again we can get $\frac{AS}{SB} \cdot \frac{BC}{CF} \cdot \frac{FP}{PA}=1$, which implies that $\frac{AS}{SB}=\frac{1}{3}$. Since E is the midpoint of segment $AB$, $S$ is the midpoint of $AE$. As $AQ \parallel CS$, $P$ is the midpoint of $EQ$. The rest is just simple calculation and you can try by yourself. The answer should be the same as what you get in the special case.
Comment: Yes. But you need to change a bunch of Ts to Ss starting halfway through.
Comment: thank you for your suggestions! I have corrected the typos
Answer: Assume the origin of the coordinate system is $B$. so coordinate of point $B$ is $(0,0)$. And the $x$-axes is $BC$.  Assume the coordinate of point $A$ is $(2a,2b)$. The coordinate of point $C$ is $(2c,0)$. Then we can calculate other points' coordinates. $E$ is $(a,b)$, $F$ is $(c,0)$ $D$ is $(2c+2a, 2b)$.
Then the equation of straight line $AF$ is $$y=\frac{-2b}{c-2a}(x-c)$$
the equation of straight line $ED$ is $$y-b=\frac{b}{2c+a}(x-a)$$
so the coordinate of point $P$ is $(\frac{2}{5}(3a+c),\frac{6}{5}b)$
then the equation of straight line $AQ$ is $$y-2b=\frac{3b}{3a-4c}(x-2a)$$
then the coordinate of point $Q$ is $(\frac{4c+7a}{5},\frac{7}{5}b)$
then $$|PQ|=\sqrt{\left(\frac{b}{5}\right)^2+\left(\frac{a}{5}+\frac{2c}{5}\right)^2}$$
and $$|ED|=\sqrt{b^2+(2c+a)^2}$$
then we know $|ED| = 5\times |PQ|$
then $S_{APCQ} = \frac{1}{5}S_{AECD}$ Assume the area of $ABCD$ is $S$. the area of $AECD$ is $\frac{3}{4}S$. So $S_{APCQ}= \frac{3}{4}S \times \frac{1}{5} = \frac{3}{20}S$


how can I know if PE file has appended data or not?

Question: while doing this, I dont know the whole file size (pe size + appended data size)
my PE file is embeded in othe pe file, so I dont know if it has appended data or not and also dont know its total size.
Comment: If the embedded PE file is in a resource, you can simply retrieve the size of the resource. Also, I think I remember that the Authenticode signatures are outside of the actual image, i.e. an overlay.
Answer: As far as I know, you can't.
While IMAGE_OPTIONAL_HEADER.SizeOfImage gives you the size of the whole PE file mapped to memory, it does not account for appended data.
Appended data is commonly called "overlay" and tools actually detect if overlay data is present by checking if the file contains more data than accounted for by the SizeOfImage field.
As far as I know it is even more problematic - the PE loader does not load overlay data to memory. If an application wants to access overlay data it will have to access the file on disk, and if you take a memory dump only it will definitely lack any overlay data the application might have had.