Product of complex Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices with trace zero

Question: Let $A$ and $B$ are both $n\times n$ complex Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices, then whether $\mathrm{trace}(AB)=0$ implies $AB=0$? When $A$ and $B$ are real  Hermitian positive semidefinite matrices, this is indeed true, is it true for the complex case?
Comment: I suppose the question is for a positive definite diagonal matrix, could you have say $\pm i$ in two different entries?
Answer: By assumption, there exist two matrices $C,D$ sucht that
$$
A=C^*C\quad\mbox{and}\quad B=DD^*.
$$
Now, using the commutativity of the trace,
$$
\mbox{Tr}(AB)=\mbox{Tr}(C^*CDD^*)=\mbox{Tr}(D^*C^*CD)=\mbox{Tr}((CD)^*CD)
$$
appears to be the sum of of all $|(CD)_{i,j}|^2$.
So
$$
\mbox{Tr}(AB)=0\quad\Rightarrow \quad
CD=0\quad \Rightarrow\quad AB=C^*CDD^*=0.
$$
Note: this proof works in the complex case, like in the real case.
Comment: Is there any standard text that can be referenced for this?
Answer: Yes, it's true in the complex case. Since every Hermitian matrix is unitarily diagonalizable, WLOG we may assume that $A=D\oplus 0$, where $D$ is a positive diagonal matrix. Let $B=\begin{pmatrix}U&W^\ast \\W&V\end{pmatrix}$. Since $B$ is positive semidefinite, so are $U,V$ and hence the diagonal of $U$ is nonnegative. Thus $\operatorname{trace}(AB)=0$ implies that $U$ has a zero diagonal, $\operatorname{trace}(U)=0$ and in turn all eigenvalues of $U$ are zero. Thus $U=0$. But then $W$ must be zero, otherwise $B$ cannot be positive semidefinite. Hence $B=0\oplus V$ and $AB=0$.


Are continent wide forest fires possible?

Question: The setting I have in mind is an Earth-similar planet which has most of its landmass covered in forests. A civil conflict on this planet ingnites forests fires, which then spread. I was wondering if this fire would be able to spread throughout an entire continent if said forest was mostly continuous and there was no fire stopping service available. Is such a continent wide forest even possible?
Comment: In some places, in some seasons, widespread fire is possible. But once the season changes, or the fire reaches a new climatic zone, it's over. Example: The dry-and-windy Fire Season in the American West matches the widespread-thunderstorms-with-heavy-rain season in the American East.
Answer: Continent wide forests are fine, it's just that we've cut them all down apart from the Taiga.
The catch is that ours were temperate or tropical rain forests. In both cases unlikely to have continent wide fires due to being too damp. The Taiga is a snow forest and equally not particularly flammable.
What you need to look out for are two factors. Pyrophytes and climate.
Passive pyrophytes sometimes use fire to germinate their seeds, meaning that if there isn't a fire they can't reproduce. They'll evolve in environments with regular small fires that clear the undergrowth and leave space for new trees to grow. It's these regular small fires that keep the fuel down and stop the fires from spreading too far when a big one does come up.
Active pyrophytes are the more interesting one for your purposes. Australia has the best known of these with the eucalyptus. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable and is contained in the air around the tree, any spark can cause raging fires.
A continent wide eucalyptus forest, with the right winds and climate, could quite happily rapidly spread a fire from one side to the other.
Comment: Not only that. But I'd say that Australia is the closest thing to having fire over a whole continent. It's often forgotten that the inner deserts also have massive wild fires seen on satellite. There is vegetation and burnable stuff in the deserts, as counter intuitive as that seems. For instance there was an ultra marathon through the Australian desert about 10 years ago and a woman got badly burned by a wild fire.
Comment: @Snack_Food_Termite grass fires are very different than forest fires.
Answer: Under the conditions you propose, of continent-wide forests and a lack of fire-fighting services, then continent-wide forest fires are not only possible, but they are likely to occur regularly.
Suitable weather patterns like prevailing winds across the continent will greatly facilitate any forest fires. With an extensive enough forest any forest fire will probably transform into a firestorm. Once that happens, there will be no stopping it.
In conclusion, continent-wide forest fires are possible.
Answer: Unlikely but possible
Forest fires don't spread indefinitely, wind patterns, terrain, and rainfall tend to limit them. Humans fire-fighters often make it worse by stopping fires, creating an unnatural much larger build ups of fuel. naturally fires burn up this fuel periodically, it tends to be self regulating large build ups of fuel are easier to ignite so fire becomes more and more common meaning naturally getting to the m massive amounts of fuel necessary is aloo but impossible.
Of course something like the chicxulub impact triggered continent wide fires just by spraying molten rock particles and burning ash over a huge areas, IE most of North America.
the size of the forest is your real problem, having a continent wide forest is only possible if you have a small continent at the right latitude. there are many biomes that cannot support trees.
Answer: This is pretty unlikely, for a few reasons:
a) If trees were adaptable to that many terrain types, we'd have fully forested continents in real life
b) If your forest was that flammable, it'd already have gone up in a lightning strike
and
c) Eventually a mountain range or very wide river will interrupt the fire.


Updating a MacPro from Snow Leopard to Mavericks

Question: I have Snow Leopard installed on an old MacPro. I want to upgrade to Mavericks.  When I go to AppStore-->Mavericks and click on the download button nothing happens.  Do I need to install the intermediate releases (Lion and Mountain Lion - I think).  If so, what is the process?
Comment: As long as Snow Leopard is up to date you should be able to upgrade to Mavericks, did you look in launchpad to see if its downloading, its 5 gigs, it might take a while.
Comment: You can upgrade from Snow Leopard directly to Mavericks. Perhaps try logging out of the app store and then logging back in.
Answer: If the Mac Pro is old enough, then it cannot be upgraded beyond Lion.  Check the listed requirements... My old Mac Pro 1,1 was in this category.
See the chart at the bottom, "latest supported OS" HERE
Comment: My machine is good for Mavericks. I checked that before I started the process.
Answer: Just to check your doing everything right:
The download link should say Free and then Download once clicked on once, after that, press it again.
From there it should ask you for your Apple ID username and password.
Then it should start to download, as said above, Launchpad should have a progress bar on it's icon indicating something is downloading. Check the App Store for it too.
As stupid as this sounds, have you tried to restart your internet by unplugging its power for 10 seconds and reconnecting or even just checking your connection to see if anything is faulty?
It's a big update as shown above so unless you have enough bandwidth to download it your stuck.
Also another update for it came out Yesterday so it may be a good idea to try again.


add_theme_support( 'custom-header' ) does not add option menu in dashboard

Question: I'm writing a new theme from scratch, based off the Toolbox theme. My installation of WP is straight out of the box. I added add_theme_support('custom-header'); to my functions.php file, but the "header" options screen does not appear in the dashboard. I can see it if I visit the site, in the toolbar at the top, but not in the dashboard. Am I missing something?
Answer: From Codex:

If attached to a hook, it must be after_setup_theme. The init hook may
  be too late for some features.

Try this
if ( ! function_exists( 'mytheme_setup' ) ):
    function mytheme_setup() {
    add_theme_support( 'custom-header' );
    }
endif;
add_action( 'after_setup_theme', 'mytheme_setup' );

If you use Toolbox Theme, find in functions.php
function toolbox_setup() {

and add inside this function
add_theme_support('custom-header');

Links - Add Theme Support, Custom Headers
Answer: I was told that add_theme_support('custom-header'); is not supposed to work as I expected yet. See the full answer I received here.


TPM nvLocked flag

Question: What does nvLocked control in a TPM? I've read it makes makes NVRAM access permissions be enforced, but I'd like examples. It is also referred to as permanent, but the documentation is ambiguous. Locked "permanently" until the TPM owner is reset or locked permanently like a programmable fuse?
Answer: According to section 28.2 of Part 1 of the TPM 1.2 specs (found here), nvLocked is the state that the TPM manufacturer can place the TPM in after defining each NV index that will be permanently held in the TPM. A non-permanent index can be defined after nvLocked has been set to true, but it cannot be set as permanent with the D bit set.
This usually comes in to play when the TPM manufacturer stores the endorsement key (EK) cert in NV. They set the D bit of the index, making the EK cert index 0x1000f000, instead of 0x0000f000. This also permanently places the EK cert in the TPM's NV store. Once the TPM is nvLocked, no more NV index can be defined using the D bit. If a platform manufacturer wants to store a platform cert, they will have to do so at index 0x0000f002, instead of being able to permanently define the index at 0x1000f002. The practical effect is that the index can be released, and that same index can be redefined and a new cert can be written.
"Permanent" here means having the same life of the EK. The TPM 1.2 spec optionally allows for the EK to be revokable, but to my knowledge, no TPM manufacturer has ever chosen to implement that option.
Comment: Is that anything like `WRITEDEFINE`?
Comment: WRITEDEFINE and nvLocked can both protect data written at an NV index, but in different ways. Once nvLocked is set to true, any index defined with the D bit, and data written at that index, is locked for the lifetime of the TPM. (Really, the life of the EK, which is the life of the TPM for every TPM I'm aware of.) WRITEDEFINE is an NV permission, set when an index is defined. Data written at that index is safe, until the index is cleared and redefined... which can be at any time if that index does not have the D bit set.
Comment: And in the case of `WRITEDEFINE`, what does it mean to "clear" it? Resetting the TPM such that the SRK and everything else is wiped?
Comment: You that "permanent" means the lifespan of the EK. So does that mean a TPM can be informed that the EK is revoked and unlock itself accordingly? Is the D bit settable with `tpm_nvdefine`?

TPM nvLocked flag


History of 'smile one's thanks'

Question: I'm interested to know when the actual phrase smile one's thanks was first registered in the English language, as well as smile agreement and nod agreement.
Answer: In 'An historical syntax of the English language' [Vol 1 part 3] by F T Visser, a section dealing with these 'pseudo-report' verbs (and novel quotative verbs) is found:
Transitivisation may also have been furthered by the fashion which set in in later modern English – especially in novels – of treating verbs expressing human and animal sounds (such as bellow, coo and groan) as well as verbs such as smirk, smile and persist as if they were synonyms of say by giving them the quoted words as object [ie using novel quotative verbs].
From

She smiled "I don't believe you"

and

He grunted "I thank you"

to

She smiled disbelief

and

He grunted his gratitude

[so novel quasi-report structures] was only a step.  [tidied]
Comment: Very useful information! Thank you! If I could, I would smile my thanks)))
Answer: OED gives three citations from Shakespeare for smile as a transitive verb...

1598   Love's Labour's Lost v. ii.
   Some Dick That smyles, his cheeke in yeeres.
1609   Pericles xxi. 127
   Thou doest looke like patience..smiling extremitie out of act.
1616 Twelfth Night (1623) iii. ii.
   He does smile his face into more lynes, then is in the new Mappe.

OED's first citation for transitive nod is a 1522 translation of Virgil's Æneid, but it's not until over a century later that we see it used with anything other than head[s] as the object (1667, in Dryden's Annus Mirabilis - "He..nods at every house his threatning fire.").

OP's specific pairings smile thanks and nod agreement are trivial variants once the possibility of transitive usage is established within the language.
Comment: Very useful information! Smiling my thanks)) And how do you access OED - free or for a charge?
Comment: @Natalya: I get free access to OED through my public library card, but it's an eye-watering $295 pa if you have to take out a personal subscription.
Comment: Oh, I see... Nevertheless, a million thanks for your commentary)))

History of ‘smile one's thanks’


Can I fix my Quick bread?

Question: I added 3/4 cup of oil instead of water to a quick bread mix. Can it be saved?
Comment: Can you please post the full recipe?
Answer: Oil/fat would be a common ingredient in quickbread (and varying its amount will usually just change but not ruin texture), it would be advisable to still add the water though because while doughs with hardly any water will work, they tend to get very firm and crisp (pie crusts,shortbreads and cookies are made that way). If the consistency with the oil incorporated is hard to work with, add flour until workable, but remember that you might have to also add extra leavening if a significant amount of flour is added.

Can I fix my Quick bread?


Search within man pages of POSIX Programmer's Manual

Question: I would like to search for POSIX functions matching the restrict keyword and my idea (open to other ideas) is to search the SYNOPSIS sections of the POSIX Programmer's Manual for \<restrict\> and to output matching lines. I know I can match sections with -S and search man pages with -K. How would I restrict searches to the POSIX Programmer's Manual? Is there a way to filter by "manual", i.e. by the centered text at the top of a man page?
Comment: Please, note that the `-S` switch lets you limit your search to a list of sections _of the manual_. [Part of the POSIX standard](https://lwn.net/Articles/581858/) is distributed as a _section_ of the manual and [Haxiel's answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/492830/315749) explains how to target it. On the other hand, `SYNOPSIS` is usually a section of a man _page_ (and I'm aware of no switches to limit your search to its content).
Answer: The POSIX Programmer's Manual has its own dedicated sections in man, namely 0p (header files), 1p (commands) and 3p (functions). You can restrict your search to those sections:
[haxiel@testvm1 ~]$ man -k -s 0p,1p,3p mmap
mmap (3p)            - map pages of memory

If you want to search the full text, replace the -k option (apropos) with the -K option (global apropos). By default, this will give you an interactive collection of all the man pages containing the search term (note that the first result opens up automatically, and is not in the list shown below).
[haxiel@testvm1 ~]$ man -K -s 0p,1p,3p 'restrict'
--Man-- next: cpio.h(0p) [ view (return) | skip (Ctrl-D) | quit (Ctrl-C) ]
--Man-- next: dirent.h(0p) [ view (return) | skip (Ctrl-D) | quit (Ctrl-C) ]
--Man-- next: dlfcn.h(0p) [ view (return) | skip (Ctrl-D) | quit (Ctrl-C) ]
--Man-- next: glob.h(0p) [ view (return) | skip (Ctrl-D) | quit (Ctrl-C) ]
--Man-- next: iconv.h(0p) [ view (return) | skip (Ctrl-D) | quit (Ctrl-C) ]

If you want only a list of matching pages, use the -w (where) option instead.
[haxiel@testvm1 ~]$ man -K -w -s 0p,1p,3p 'restrict'
/usr/share/man/man0p/aio.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/cpio.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/dirent.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/dlfcn.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/glob.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/iconv.h.0p.gz
/usr/share/man/man0p/in.h.0p.gz

If you then decide to examine the iconv.h.0p.gz man page from the results, you can do that by running man 0p iconv.h.

The restrict keyword appears in the POSIX Programmer's Manual in three different forms: const char *restrict, char **restrict, and char *const [restrict]. We can update the man command to search for these patterns using a regex:
man -K -w -s 0p,1p,3p --regex '(\*+|\[)restrict'

This will search for and return the man pages containing any of the above three forms.
Comment: @rubystallion I've attempted to tighten up the search using a regex. Can you take a look at my edit and see if it works better now?
Comment: There's a few false positives, for example cpio.h in your output, but still good enough for what I need :)
Comment: Sorry for the late response, works good now, thanks!


Can I include my ArXiv pre-print as a part of the Thesis?

Question: I have posted a paper on ArXiv and submitted it to a journal which is under review. Can I include a part of it or the whole article (pre-print) as a chapter in the thesis? Will it be counted as self-plagiarism? Do I need to paraphrase everything on the paper? If I include it in the thesis and the paper gets accepted by the journal (before or after the defense), can I still go ahead with the publishing process?
Answer: What you can include in a thesis is up to your university. Standards vary widely. If you cite the paper it isn't plagiarism. But the journal you submitted it to may want copyright and both the preprint and including it in a thesis might interfere with that, though this depends on a lot of other things.
Citing prevents self-plagiarism charges but doesn't help with copyright issues that you have to talk to the journal about. Likewise you need to discuss this issue with your university, probably through your advisor.
Many journals permit preprints. Many give a license back to authors for things like inclusion in a thesis, but you have to check.


Storage level Origin

Question: We have a DAO factory, and the whole idea is to create councils dynamically on the pallet level.
The best would be using the native approach of the council origin but having the possibility to change the council through extrinsic calls instead of having instances of the pallet_collective at the runtime level.
I think it's currently not possible, but still, I wonder what's the best approach here.
Answer: It sounds like you are trying to do things which aren't really supported in the Rust type system.
Instead you should probably re-create some kind of access control layer into your pallet which can be dynamically created and managed. For example some kind of simple multisig structure.
In this case, the Rust type system is not going to be friendly to spinning up multiple origins which can be manipulated by storage.

Storage level Origin


Radar Receiver How to detect 1 nsec pulse

Question: I need to design a very short range pulsed radar for classroom/lab use.
For this purpose the pulse width needs to be very short 1-5 ns to avoid the radar blind range. My preference is to digitize the received pulse and do all the processing inside a general purpose processor. But for such a short pulse width radar, I need a very high sampling rate i.e., at least 2 G samples/sec. Digitizers of this rate are very expensive and cannot be afforded in the budget. Can you guys suggest any tips/tricks to detect such a short pulse width at low cost?
Comment: @MarcusMüller, then I re-direct the question to you: how do you envision to capture the pulse to "some device-internal RAM" at multi-GHz rate without specialized high-speed HARDWARE? (which costs thousands in development, requires deep engineering expertise in ultra-high-speed  electronics, and is clearly way above the "classroom/lab" student level). That was my whole point, about the staggering disconnect between Arduino/Raspberry level and the reality of radars.
Comment: And how exactly do you envision the general purpose processing at 2 Gs/s rate? Even if you have the digitizer?
Comment: Thats a good question. I was assuming we could somehow do threshold triggering where we get data from only valid pulses. this will reduce the processing requirements
Comment: @AliChen pulse radars don't have to sustain that rate - you capture to some device-internal RAM, then stream at whatever the (USB/Ethernet/PCIe…) link allows to the host computer, then effectively process offline
Comment: Definitely agreeing with you here. If you really need to do the whole signal proc in digital domain, you'll start with a 10 k$ FPGA dev board and something slightly cheaper in ADC hardware.
Comment: Maybe do an FM homodyne radar instead.
Comment: When you say pulsed, you mean you will transmit a pulse of some frequency, right? So you will TX, say, 12 GHz for a few ns, then capture the reflection with a reciever that incorporates an I/Q mixer? Or if not, what do you mean?
Comment: @MarcusMüller FPGAs are significantly cheaper than that nowadays.  most of the dev boards for Xilinx's top-of-the-line FPGAs are around ~5k, and reasonable (Kintex 7) FPGAs can be obtained at a reasonable price. (generally <$200)
Comment: Also, along the lines of @mkeith's comment, what do you currently have designed in the scope of this design?  Are you looking for help with a whole radar system, or just the digitizer?
Comment: @mkeith yes tx  pulse of some freq, capture the reflection with a receiver with an I/Q mixer is exactly what I am thinking.
Comment: @Tustique I am just toying with the basic idea to figure out if this is possible in a low budget. Any help/suggestion regarding whole radar design is welcome. Basically the radar will be used in laboratory to teach students the basics of radar processing.
Comment: Unless there is Doppler, it mixes to DC. Both I and Q will be DC. Timing is important, and analog bandwidth is important, but you don't need to sample fast.
Comment: @mkeith Any guidelines to calculate analog bandwidth requirements?
Comment: I'm not really a radar designer. But theoretically, after your mixer you have a low-pass filter. The output of the lowpass filter is DC, but since the pulse is only 1ns, or maybe a few ns, it is not really DC. If you assume a 1ns rise time, there is a rule of thumb that you need 350 MHz of BW. So the ADC needs an analog bandwidth of several hundred MHz. But the sample rate does not need to be that fast necessarily. You just need to make sure you take your samples at the right time.
Answer: I'm not sure if your goal is to do the design your self or to just arrive at the functional unit within budget. Regardless here is a link to a pulse radar MMIC sensor that operates at 39 G samples/s. They offer multiple dev kits with some coming in under $300. You can choose to provide the software/MCU yourself or choose a kit where that is already done as well.
Xethru Radar Link
Answer: What signal level to expect. With 10GigaHertz bandwidth at Rnoise of 62 ohms, the noise floor will be 1 nanoVolt *sqrt(10^10 Hz) = 1nV *100,000 = 100uVolts.
For 20dB SNR, you need 1milliVolt from the antenna, or (-)56dBm.
Assuming you know the carrier frequency, mix that with what comes from the antenna. Amplify the mixer output (which should be baseband, having been homodyned) by 56dB; thus your signal level will be at least 1 volt.
Feed this signal into a number of coaxial delay lines, all but one into a diode-bridge sampler. The one non-sampled channel feeds an analog comparator, which trips all the diode-bridge samples concurrently.
You will need to trim the delay-line lengths.
Your major cost may be the coax cables. Enjoy.
Answer: Rather than trying to capture a single pulse, what you want to do is send out many pulses at a fixed rate. Let's call this the pulse repetition rate, or PRF. The PRF could be something like 10 kHz.
Since the TX pulses are the same and the target is not changing, the receive waveform, whatever it is, will not change from one pulse to the next. So you can sample at a frequency just a tiny bit slower than the PRF. If the period of the PRF is 100us, you can set your sample period precisely to 100.001us. So each subsequent sample will come from a slightly later point on the receive waveform. This has the same effect as sampling a single receive pulse at 1GHz. As long as the TX waveforms are identical, and the target doesn't move much from pulse to pulse, this technique is valid.
It requires precise clocks and frequencies and whatnot. But I believe that can be achieved using DDS IC's running off of high-quality frequency sources. If you need to sample at an effective 2GHz rate, that means you want the PRF period to be 100us, and the sample period to be 100.0005us. Hopefully you get my drift. As long as the sample frequency is just a tiny bit slower than the PRF, the difference between the pulse repetition period and the actual sample period becomes the EFFECTIVE sample period.
Comment: May still require a very special ADC, because the ADC analog bandwidth still needs to be high enough for the raw RX waveform.


Images in the Admin But All are Selected as "No Image"

Question: We are coming across a weird issue with one of our websites. We have all of the images uploaded into the admin and we see them when we are in manage products, on the images tab. BUT all of the images are selected as "No Image" instead of "Base Image" "Thumbnail" "Small Image". How can I fix this? Can I do this in an import? If so could you please show an example import sheet.
Answer: Export
System >Import/Export > Dataflow Profiles > Export All Products
Set Export Filters and Run Profile > Run Profile in Popup.
File can be located via ftp in var/export
Edit csv - need to find and copy _media_image for each product to all the following columns image, small_image  and thumbnail
May need a bit of csv "magic" as the exported file may drop the _media_image data to separate rows. To make the csv easier to edit you can delete all columns apart from
store, websites, type, category_ids, sku, image, small_image, thumbnail & _media_image_image and the re-import should work OK.
Re-import
System >Import/Export > Dataflow Profiles > Import All Products
Upload File
Save & Continue Edit
Run Profile > Select File > Run Profile in Popup


Changing slides at specified hours/minutes

Question: I'm working on a project where the target is to present information at a big screen on a festival. The main concern is to get the proper content showing at the proper time, i.e. the next band playing and so on. There's also going to be different information depending on the time of day.
I'm eager to create something I can alter remotely, i.e. if there's any changes to the program. When the concerts are going on, video from live cameras will be projected on the screen, so I have a lot of opportunities to alter the content and refreshing the page without anyone noticing.
jQuery Cycle and other slideshow scripts is doing a lot of the job, but I haven't mananged to find any solutions that offer other settings then certain intervals. Which would not work in this case, since a simple refresh then would break the whole thing...
To sum it up, what I'm looking for is a solution that can make this happen:

Aug 2nd 6:03:30: Show slide 1
Aug 2nd 6:05:00: Show slide 2
Aug 2nd 6:10:00: Show slide 3

...and so on
Answer: Something like this perhaps?  http://jsfiddle.net/pMXNQ/


Using さ with 形容動詞

Question: In 上を向いて歩こう Kyu Sakamoto says しあわせは, why doesn't he says しあわせさは? How do you know which 形容動詞 can be written as nouns without さ?
Comment: Off-topic but the singer's name is Kyu, not Ryu.
Comment: @TokyoNagoya Noooooo I'll change it. Darn it I feel bad now.
Answer: Although the suffix -さ does turn adjectives into nouns, it also changes the meaning:
<code>  幸せ    happiness
  幸せさ   the degree of happiness
</code>
Since the suffix changes the meaning, 幸せさ isn't interchangeable with 幸せ.  Presumably, the songwriter wrote しあわせ rather than しあわせさ because it had the meaning they wanted to express.

But meaning aside, how can you tell whether a 形容動詞 can also be a noun?
Generally speaking, if a 形容動詞【けいようどうし】 can also be used as a 名詞【めいし】, dictionaries will list them as both.  Look for the abbreviations 名 (for 名詞) and 形動 (for 形容動詞), which are used by most monolingual dictionaries.  If you're using a dictionary that marks them another way, it should say so somewhere--for example, EDICT uses the abbreviations "adj-na" and "n".
The entry for 幸せ in 大辞林【だいじりん】 says:

(名・形動)

That means 幸せ can also be a 名詞.
You can also look at actual usage, for example by searching a corpus such as the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ).  When I search for 幸せ, I find 5384 results, some of which appear to be using it as a noun.  You can use this tool yourself to try to answer this question, if you're still uncertain after consulting a dictionary.
Comment: 幸せさ is indeed said commonly to mean "the degree of happiness" though it is not interchangeable with 幸せ.
Comment: @TokyoNagoya Thank you for the comment!  I've tried to fix my answer.  Do you still see any problems that need to be addressed?
Comment: Looks all good now.
Comment: Could you list some examples of 幸せさ which cannot be replaced by 幸せ? Almost all examples I can find on Google seem to be replaceable.
Comment: @dainichi 「Bさんの手紙からは幸せさが伝わってきた。」、「『幸福度』とは『幸せさ』のことである。」、「今回のボランティア活動では辛さと幸せさの両方を感じることができた。」、「預金額とその人の幸せさは正比例する。」、「結婚して欲しいと言われたら、幸せさのあまり心臓が止まるかもしれない。」, etc. Same thing for the lyrics for the song in question.  One CANNOT say 「幸せさは雲の上に」; It needs to be 幸せは雲の上に. "Replaceable" does not mean "interchangeable".
Comment: Among my examples above, you could "replace" the 幸せさ with 幸せ in the first and last ones but it will change the nuance too much to call it interchangeable.

Using さ with 形容動詞


iMessage blocked by VPN's proxy

Question: When I'm connected to a certain VPN I have to use a proxy configuration file to access the internet.  I think that iMessage uses a port that is blocked by the proxy (5223).  Is there a way to direct iMessage around the VPN so that the port is accessible?
Comment: Doubtful;  You will have to see about getting that port unblocked.
Comment: You're telling me there's literally no way to redirect traffic around a VPN for a specific application so that it just accesses the internet on my wifi through my router rather than through the VPN and its proxy?
Comment: That is not a standard service (ie. HTTP based or that supports socks proxy) that you could just redirect through a "standard" proxy. There doesn't seem to be any way to do it indeed.
Comment: Since you have to use a proxy and thats whats blocking the port there isn't much you can do about it.  Without the proxy the VPN doesn't have access to the interent only intranet.
Answer: I believe you would want to look into making an SSH Tunnel and forwarding all your traffic through the ssh tunnel.  Its not a simple thing to do however.  Also you will run into issues if you are looking at UDP vs TCP traffic as you will have to wrap it up somehow.
Furthermore you are missing some ports used by iMessage (http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202078)  In addition to 5223 it also uses 80 (http) and 443 (ssl).
Your VPN could be blocking port 5223 - or perhaps they could be blocking any hosts run by apple.  I believe this is what my office does.
In theory you could setup SSH port forwarding for TCP port 80,443,5223 and this "might" open up iMessage for you.  Its more complex than I can explain right now as my wife is telling me to come to bed right now.

iMessage blocked by VPN's proxy


How to access the crm files

Question: We would like to change the minor changes in the content page and webform design, dont know how to access the file. How to get the FTP files from my site need to add custom css file. Any help please.
Comment: it would help if you gave specific examples of what you want to customise and what sort of a change you need to make - then you will get much clearer answers
Answer: I would recomment reading up on how to customize CiviCRM here: https://docs.civicrm.org/dev/en/latest/ and here: https://docs.civicrm.org/sysadmin/en/latest/customize/extensions/
That should answer your question and also allow you to do the customizations in a recommended and structured way.
If you would like a more specific answer it will help us all ot help you if you tell us a little more about what you want to change for what reason, what version of CiviCRM you are using and what CMS.
Comment: Thanks for your help. i am drupal site would like to customize the menu link navset style, tried with custom css url it reflects only for civi component webform.
Comment: i went through the document in that Directories-> Custom PHP Directory is to put the customized page, like that i want to customize style sheet also would like to know how to access the file which means download or upload existing files in cyberduck etc.
Comment: Navigation menu in the home page

How to access the crm files


What is a typical finders fee to give to a client that gets a client?

Question: I currently am a part owner of a website design company and we are trying to figure out what a good finders fee to give is? And is percentage better, or flat fee?
Answer: I would err on the side of being generous, while maintaining your necessary margins.  You will get more business that way.
Comment: I'd tend to go with that as well. Though it depends on how much you really need referrals. If you're just starting out and need to develop a client base, business reputation, and get your name out there, then it's probably good to pay out higher commissions. But if you're not highly dependent on referrals, then you don't need to pay out as much.
Answer: For our SAS products, we give a 25% recurring comission to our affiliates.  I would assume if you are doing custom design work then it would depend on each finder.  You may have a finder that brings you a client that is ready to buy your goods.  I would reward a finder that can bring you such high calibur prospects well.  You may have another one that brings you a MOOCH that takes up your time, grinds on price, and at end you break even on your time.  Pay those finders less.
Perhaps consider a sliding scale.  Where you have a set hourly rate $50 per hour.  If someone refers you a client you share 50% of what you charge over the set rate.  So if you charge $80 per hour, then you would give the finder 1/2 of the project overage.  $15 x 80 hours, as an example.  This model encourages holding value, bigger projects, and gives you higher returns than your minimum that you can re-invest in marketing or getting new affiliates.
Comment: What do you mean by SAS?
Comment: SAAS, Software as a Service, these days people call it software in the cloud.  Sorry about the typo.
Comment: Ah, I thought maybe that's what you meant. Thanks for the clarification.
Comment: That's extraordinarily high, especially considering that it's recurring. It's brutal to think that 1 in 4 of the clients dollars are going towards what amounts to a hand shake. In my experience a finders fee is between 10 and 15% and only applies to the initial contract and not support.
Comment: SAS = British Special Forces, are they looking for a new website?
Answer: If "Customer A" refers a client, and that client purchases one of my smaller packages, I would give Customer A "X" amount of dollars.
But if "Customer A" refers a client, and that client purchases one of my larger packages, I would give Customer A "X + Y" amount of dollars.
Because my business is advertised by word-of-mouth. My existing customers are my best advertisers.

Another idea that I thought of would be to provide the FINDER an additional service, instead of money.
I don't want to give my hard earned money away. Neither do you.
But if Customer A just earned you another job, then print them some new business cards with that new logo. Or update that gallery script some new CSS3 version. Or optimize some of their keywords.
You get the idea.
A finders fee needn't be a finders fee.
Maybe a valuable service would be a better fee.
:D
just my dos centavos amigo!


Starting with Datatables Filters

Question: I have added lot of checkbox filters grouped on top of my datatable. For example group cities depends on cities table from db, streets depends on street and so ... The table is populated via ajax.
For example the cities group code:

        <button type="button" class="btn btn-default btn-sm btn-block dropdown-toggle" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false">
            Streets
        </button>

            @foreach($streets as $street)

                    <input type="checkbox" class="minimal" id="area-{{ $street->slug }}">
                    slug }}">{{ $street->name }}

            @endforeach

And the result:

So is there any way to send this extra filters to server and then based on them to return relevant data?
I want to mention that not all filters are columns from table. (because the table would be too large).
I am using datatable with Laravel and Laravel-Datatable package.
Answer: Yes You can. It's a little bit tricky but I am going to show You what to do:
First of all, make sure your datatables js initializing script have "serverSide": true option.
Then write a script that catches your filter changes, I give You example for select box:
$('#some-field').change(function () {
    var search = $(this).val();
    table.columns(2).search(search).draw();
});

It will search in column number 2, text - search.
Select boxes actually are the easiest one to do, but as I can see, your table have filters with checkboxes, so You will have to find yourself what to send to backend to get right results.
If You are using collections You will have some hard times, because collection engine search is pretty silly return strpos($value, $keyword) !== false;, it does not support regex. https://github.com/yajra/laravel-datatables/blob/6.0/src/Engines/CollectionEngine.php#L173 meanwhile query builder is much better https://github.com/yajra/laravel-datatables/blob/6.0/src/Engines/QueryBuilderEngine.php#L395
Comment: I use eloquent for database, is this ok? I will try your approach and come back with feedback.

Starting with Datatables Filters


What is meant by the response time of a temperature transducer?

Question: Regarding a temperature transducer, what is meant by response time in this context? It says it can be set to < 30 ms or < 300 ms. Is there any trade off between choosing low or high response time?
Comment: Are you designing the control loop, or is someone else?  The control loop designer should know. If the thermocouple is attached to a large thermal mass then you may want to go with the longer response time.
Answer: Response time of a temperature sensor is the time it takes the measured value to get to a certain percentage (in general 95%) of the real temperature when you expose the sensor to a temperature step (for instance you have the sensor at ambient temperature and introduce it in an bucket full of ice).
Your temperature instrument behaves as a first order system. If you review a bit of the theory of these systems and look at the differential equation you'll find out the trade-off for a fast response comes in the form of static sensitivity. For more details you can take a look at the example at the end of this presentation: Sensors and Actuators TU Delft.
There are also quite a number of nuances that you should look at carefully. See, for instance, the thermocouple in a coffee cup example presented here: Dynamic Analysis and Time Response
Now, from a practical (industry) point of view, you should not worry about this particular problem that much, unless you want to measure a fast changing temperature (yeah, I know, how fast is fast?). This choice you have on your device (30ms vs. 300ms, which by the way are not realistic values, in the sense that you would not be able to measure temperature changing at 1/30ms=33Hz) are mostly to help you tune and or stabilize the response of a control system (in case your temperature sensor forms the feedback loop of a control system). I think the difference in between these two time responses is just the corner frequency of a filter at the end of the signal processing stage (this is just my guess, you would have to check with the manufacturer).
If you do need to measure temperature changes at fast rates, then you should start by looking at experimentally obtaining the real response of your whole measuring chain and maybe later looking at ways to compensate it (there is a whole lot of research literature on that topic).
Answer: In either case, you get min. 60 dB SNR with 18-bit resolution so it depends on how fast you sample and the temperature rate of change you expect for  ΔT/Δt differences in sample delay.
Comment: Is 300ms output is more averaged than the 30ms output?
Comment: @cm64 If the specs are the same for both output update rates, then you don't know if it is averaged or not. Usually, you get different specs because of what you say -- averaging performed for the longer option. If EE75 is right (I can't confirm because I didn't check) about the specs, and if you want to know for sure then I think you should write or call the manufacturer and just ask about the differences, if any.
Comment: If you need more SNR than 60dB with 18bit = 108 dB dynamic range then I suspect it averages to increase SNR by up to 10dB or sqrt (10)


Can a new chemical substance without known application be patented?

Question: Imagine I synthesize and characterize a molecule for the first time, but for which I also do not know if it has any application. Is this, under EPC, patentable?
Answer: There is indeed a requirement in the EPC that the invention be susceptible of industrial application, see Article 57:

An invention shall be considered as susceptible of industrial application if it can be made or used in any kind of industry, including agriculture.

Note that this provision is quite broad (made or used in any kind of industry, including agriculture). However, in some cases, it might be necessary to elaborate why this requirement is met, see e.g. the Guidelines, F-II, 4.9:

The description should indicate explicitly the way in which the invention is capable of exploitation in industry, if this is not obvious from the description or from the nature of the invention. The expression "capable of exploitation in industry" means the same as "susceptible of industrial application", and indeed identical expressions are used in the French and German texts of the EPC. In view of the broad meaning given to the latter expression by Art. 57 (see G‑III, 1), it is to be expected that, in most cases, the way in which the invention can be exploited in industry will be self-evident, so that no more explicit description on this point will be required; but there may be a few instances, e.g. in relation to methods of testing, where the manner of industrial exploitation is not apparent and must therefore be explicitly indicated.

Also, in relation to certain biotechnological inventions, i.e. sequences and partial sequences of genes, the industrial application is not self-evident. The industrial application of such sequences must be disclosed in the patent application (see G‑III, 4).

So, yes, in your hypothetical situation, it would be prudent to add a few sentences in your description to clearly state how the compound is industrially applicable. However, as @George White♦ said, you might just say that the compound can be used as a herbicide!
In real life, however, usually someone will have bothered to synthesize a new compound with at least some ideas about its intended use...
Answer: EDIT: In hindsight, I fear I might have answered the wrong question.  Too late to retract now I suppose.
An approach I have seen people use is to analyze the chemical properties and guess at what it might be used for.  Is it aryl?  Improved perfume synthesis! Does it have nitrogen next to benzene?  A new way to synthesis drugs.
Brainstorming in this way can often lead you to both casting a wide net and find applications.  All you need is one use case and then they explode by being inter-related.
The new process of synthesizing the chemical is patentable.  You still need the useful angle, but I am sure you had that in mind when you started?  (Why would you just randomly invent something that costs $100k of dollars without a purpose?)
Polymer patents also are very much based on "I set out to make a chemical with variable properties X Y and Z on range of blah blah blah by varying A B C from here to there, and this is how I make it."  Suddenly you have locked out a large application area, an industrial process, and set ridiculously broad ranges that are unreasonable and block anyone else from entering.  (This would theoretically apply to your process patent as well.)
As far as the scientific scrutiny part goes, the art of BS'ing and telling a good story goes a lot further than the data.  The data part comes 2 years later after the initial filing.  Plenty of time to, uh, tweak the results.
Now I am no lawyer, but I can tell you this is how the big companies do it.
Answer: Not in the US due the "useful" requirement. In the rest of the world they have a requirement for "industrial applicability" so I imagine the answer in the EPC is also no. I heard a patent attorney teaching a class say "pour it on the grass, it might be a herbicide or a plant growth enhancer. Or maybe it peels paint."


Drop-Down Menu select multiple options

Question: How can I select multiple entries from drop down menus in SharePoint list?
at the moment I can only select one options. I don't want to change to Checkboxes or radio buttons.
Regards
Comment: Are you using SharePoint Online or On-Premise?
Answer: "I don't want to change to Checkboxes or radio button." You may not have the luxury to be granted that decision.
First, you need to make sure that the column is configured to allow multiple selections. If you use a dropdown based on a Choice column or a Lookup column, that is an easy fix. Just tick the box in the column definition.
The user interface for multiple selections depends on your version of SharePoint. SharePoint Online with the modern interface allows multiple selections in a dropdown interface. But in older versions of SharePoint, the check boxes will be your only option to use a multi-selection field.
Radio buttons are by definition used for single choice only. Always.
Answer: Mostly like teylyn said, it is a by-design feature to display the multi value choice column as a check box or dropdown menu. We cannot customize it. In SharePoint Online modern experience, it will be and can only be like below.

If you do not like it, you can customize the list form in Power Apps with some development work.

Drop-Down Menu select multiple options


Is it possible to restrict values for a column in informatica

Question: is it possible to restrict what values are allowed for a column in informatica. For eg, there is a column called Item_number, for which I want values to be in range of 1 to 10, is it possible to implement that, if so which transformation I can use for that?
Comment: Please, provide some code with things you tried.
Answer: You need to use FILTER transformation. In properties you can mention -
Item_number >=1 AND Item_number <=10

Comment: thank you. Will use this
Answer: You can try using a lookup transformation in your mapping and that lookup can be a flat file or table depending on your requirement.
Keep the valid values in that lookup file/table and verify the input data for that column.
If lookup returns a value, the data is valid; else incorrect data in case null is returned.
Answer: If you want to restrict the data in your column without removing any rows, use a simple function combination:
IIF(in_val>10, 10, IIF(in_val<1, 1, in_val))

Check if that works fine with your scenario - come back if you need further help.


Mutt | SMTP session failed: 553 5.7.1

Question: I'm trying to set-up my aol mail to work with mutt. I can read my messeges but can't send/reply. All I get is this message:

SMTP session failed: 553 5.7.1 : Sender
  address rejected: not owned by user sebastiansalamanca Could not send
  the message.

I've set-up the smtp with the right port, user and password . I don't get what's going on.
thanks in advance
my .muttrc file
set ssl_starttls=yes
set ssl_force_tls=yes

set imap_user = "email@example.com"
set imap_pass = "xxxxxx"

set smtp_url = "smtp://firstname.lastname@example.com:587/"
set smtp_pass = "xxxxxx"

set folder = "imaps://imap.aol.com:993"
set spoolfile = "+INBOX"
set use_from=yes

set from = "firstname.lastname@example.com"
set realname = "Sebastian Salamanca"

set header_cache = ~/.mutt/cache/headers
set message_cachedir = ~/.mutt/cache/bodies
set certificate_file = ~/.mutt/certificates

set move = no

set certificate_file =~/.mutt/certificates

set smtp_authenticators = 'gssapi:login'

set sort = "reverse-date-received"
set editor='vim "+normal \\ec" +/^$/'

Answer: Solved.
I had to change the smtp_url, I had to put the full mail address not just the username. So it'd be:
set smtp_url = "smtp://email@example.com@smtp.aol.com:587"

Mutt | SMTP session failed: 553 5.7.1


(python+opencv) haar cascade training using cloud computing

Question: I will train my own  cascade, using python and opencv. I want it to be as precise as possible, so as I read it is common that training takes one or two weeks to compile. I want to use cloud computing to not wait that long. I research but cannot find a single guide that explains what to do. I have pozitive and negative images, and a python code. How I can compile my code on cloud with least additional efford? (till now I just use my desktop, just wrote and compile scripts. I have no experience on cloud computing.) I found zero answers when searching opencv,python,cloud computing together. topics like this are for permanent web applications, I guess. I just want to run the code and get results, basically.
Comment: PS: Somehow I get no response when I ask questions on this site. Just look at my history. So, if I'm doing something wrong, please tell me so I'll correct it. I really need an answer, thanks
Comment: I dont think its as simple as you think. Cloud computing doesnt magically make things go faster. It still might take two weeks on the cloud
Comment: Even so, I would get stable platform that run foe two weeks without worrying about crush on my laptop. If you guide me to move my code to cloud computing I really appreciate it. Thanks for reply
Answer: I created a google cloud platform compute engine. It gives you the option to choose the number of CPUs and ram size to choose from. So I experimented with a couple of combinations.

4 CPU 26gb ram - after starting the training I realised it used only ~7 GB of ram with all 4 CPUs running at 100%
8 CPU ~25gb ram - used around 9gb ram
24 CPU ~35gb ram. - used around 9gb ram.

All three instances ran at 100% CPU usage. With the increase in the CPU count, the faster the output files were generated.


How to change xampp localhost to another folder ( outside xampp folder)?

Question: How can I change my default xampp localhost c:xampp/htdoc to another folder i.e. c:/alan?  When I use the IP address I should be able to view my website file in C:/alan.
Thanks for helping me.
Answer: Edit the httpd.conf file and replace the line  DocumentRoot "/home/user/www" to your liked one.
The default DocumentRoot path will be different for windows [the above is for linux].
Comment: try restarting the apache server
Comment: thanks for your quick respond and answer my question. can you tell me which line i suppose to change it?because i have change it..but it doesn't work for me.
Comment: You better make backup configuration file with other name, for can restore configuration in case wrong settings
Comment: sidenote: if you want to completely move xampp, this will not be enaugh, altough it is 100% more easy to just (temporarily) put your xampp in the default path while you are working on desired project.
Comment: Do you have to restart your browser as well?
Comment: There's a hidden notice in the answer: You **must not** save the path as a relative one using a tilde symbol (`~`), even by adding a username (e.g. `~username`). If so, starting/stopping Apache in XAMPP will fail.
Answer: Please follow @Sourav's advice.
If after restarting the server you get errors, you may need to set your directory options as well. This is done in the <Directory> tag in httpd.conf. Make sure the final config looks like this:
DocumentRoot "C:\alan"
<Directory "C:\alan">
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Order allow,deny
    Allow from all
</Directory>

Comment: thanks for your quick replay..im appreciated it..can you tell me which line i need to change it.?
Comment: Sorry, can't help you there. Just search for "DocumentRoot" in your php.ini. The `` part should be somewhere after it, but as I use a different server and on a different platform, I don't really have the means to check for sure.
Answer: steps :

run your xampp control panel
click the button saying config
select apache( httpd.conf )
find document root

replace
DocumentRoot "C:/xampp/htdocs"
<Directory "C:/xampp/htdocs">

Those 2 lines
| C:/xampp/htdocs == current location for root    |
|change C:/xampp/htdocs with any location you want|

save it

DONE:
start apache and go to the localhost see in action [ watch video click here ]
Comment: Thnaks. this video link is very clear for understanding this solution.
Answer: It can be done in two steps for Ubuntu 14.04 with Xampp 1.8.3-5
Step 1:- Change DocumentRoot and Directory path in /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf
from
DocumentRoot "/opt/lampp/htdocs" and Directory "/opt/lampp/htdocs"
to
DocumentRoot "/home/user/Desktop/js" and Directory "/home/user/Desktop/js"
Step 2:- Change the rights of folder (in path and its parent folders to 777)
eg via
sudo chmod -R 777 /home/user/Desktop/js
Answer: just in case someone looks for this, the path to the file on Sourav answer (httpd.conf) in linux is /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf
Answer: On Linux Mint (Debian Based) go to /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf
Find YOUR_OWN_FILES_LOCATION to, of course, your files location.
DocumentRoot "YOUR_OWN_FILES_LOCATION"
<Directory "YOUR_OWN_FILES_LOCATION">
    #
    # Possible values for the Options directive are "None", "All",
    # or any combination of:
    #   Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks SymLinksifOwnerMatch ExecCGI MultiViews
    #
    # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
    # doesn't give it to you.
    #
    # The Options directive is both complicated and important.  Please see
    # http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/mod/core.html#options
    # for more information.
    #
    #Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
    # XAMPP
    Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI Includes

    #
    # AllowOverride controls what directives may be placed in .htaccess files.
    # It can be "All", "None", or any combination of the keywords:
    #   Options FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
    #
    #AllowOverride None
    # since XAMPP 1.4:
    AllowOverride All

    #
    # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
    #
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Answer: For me it was on line 183, but it only works after you reboot your computer. I wish there was a way to quickly change it without having to reboot each time, but for now that's the only way I know how.
Comment: For the changes to have effect you need to restart the apache service.
Answer: @Hooman: actually with the latest versions of Xampp you don't need to know where the configuration or log files are; in the Control panel you have log and config buttons for each tool (php, mysql, tomcat...) and clicking them offers to open all the relevant file (you can even change the default editing application with the general Config button at the top right). Well done for whoever designed it!
Answer: I had to change both the httpd.conf and httpd-ssl.conf files DocumentRoot properties to get things like relative links (i.e. href="/index.html") and the favicon.ico link to work properly.
The latest Xampp control Panel makes this pretty easy.
From the control panel, there should be Apache in the first row. If it's started, stop it. Then click config and open the httpd.conf file and search for htdocs or documentRoot. Change the path to what you like. Do the same for httpd-ssl.conf. These should be the top 2 files in the list under Config's dropdown.
Then start the server again.
Hope this helps someone. Cheers.


Can AppleScript display when a script was last run?

Question: Is there a way for an AppleScript command to display the last time it was run? I have a few scripts where it would be useful to have a timestamp of the last time it was run for logging purposes. I am very green to scripting, any ideas are welcome.
Comment: All the answers below are actually great ideas. I am going to use a little bit of each of them but marked the one with the system pop up as the answer because it's the closest to what I was hoping was possible. Thanks for all the help.
Comment: You could write to a log file - https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=24745
Comment: @Tetsujin That is an excellent idea. I was hoping for some kind of pop up but I will start adding that in right away.
Answer: You can retrieve the time that any file was last accessed using the command-line tool stat with the following arguments:
    stat -f "%Sa" -t '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' /path/to/file

-f "%Sa": This requests only the file access data, as stat can provide other data as well, such as modification times, creation times, device information, ownership and permission data, etc.  See man stat if you want to know more about the other capabilities of stat.
-t "%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S": This tells stat what format to output the date and time in.  You can change this to suit your needs, but for the purposes of this answer, I chose a standardised format that output this for one of my AppleScripts: 2018-03-31 16:55:42.

Bear in mind that the access time for an AppleScript file will be updated, not just if it is run, but also if it gets read or copied or moved.
To use this within an AppleScript, you can wrap it within a do shell script:
    do shell script "stat -f '%Sa' -t '%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S' " & ¬
        quoted form of POSIX path of theFileAlias

Comment: That is perfect! One question: I got the command to run in terminal by first cd'ing to the directory but I can't run with a direct path because one folder has a space in it. I tried putting a \ before the space in the path but that doesn't seem to work. What is the POSIX way to handle a space?
Comment: That's what `quoted form of` handles: it surrounds the path in quotes, but you have to use the full path (i.e. `/Users/%you%/path/to/file` and not `~/path/to/file`).  But if you've retrieved the `POSIX path of` property, that ought to be fine.
Answer: Make sure if you change the value of set theFile to "/tmp/script_run_log.txt" -- value can be changed , then you must change the value of set theLogFile to "Macintosh HD:private:tmp:script_run_log.txt"  in the second script also
-- PLACE THIS FOLLOWING CODE ANYWHERE IN A SCRIPT FILE
-- FOR NEATNESS, CONSIDER PLACING AT SCRIPT BOTTOM
-- THIS CODE WRITES TIME AND DATE OF LAST RUN OF THE SCRIPT OR APP
-- TO A SEPARATE FILE

writeToFile()
on writeToFile()
    set currentDate to (current date) as string
    set theFile to "/tmp/script_run_log.txt" -- value can be changed
    set myName to name of (info for (path to me))
    set theText to myName & " was last run on " & currentDate
    try
        set writeToFile to open for access theFile with write permission
        write theText & linefeed to writeToFile as text starting at eof
        close access theFile
    on error errMsg number errNum
        close access theFile
        set writeToFile to open for access theFile with write permission
        write theText & linefeed to writeToFile starting at eof
        close access theFile
    end try
end writeToFile

Save the following code as an application,.  Any time you would like to check the log file for the last time a specific script was run, just launch this app
set theLogFile to "Macintosh HD:private:tmp:script_run_log.txt"
set lastParagraph to paragraphs of (read alias theLogFile) as list

display alert ¬
    theLogFile message item -2 of lastParagraph ¬
    buttons ¬
    "OK" default button ¬
    "OK" giving up after 15

Answer: Aside from saving info to a separate disk file, or shelling out to use a command line utility, it can also be saved as a value of a property within the script, preferably saved as an application. IMO Saving the value of a property within the script is the easiest from a coding aspect, however because the value is reset if the code is later modified or recompiled, this may present a drawback from using this method. It just depends on your real needs. That said, and to give you another option to choose from:
Example AppleScript code:
property lastRunTime : missing value
set lastRunTime to (current date) as string
display notification lastRunTime subtitle "This application was last run:"

I saved the three lines of code as an application named Last Run Time and upon running it, it showed the notification as:

You can also use the display dialog or display alert command if you don't want to use the display notification command.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not employ any error handling and is meant only to show one of many ways to accomplish a task. The onus is always upon the User to add/use appropriate error handling as needed/wanted.
Comment: I have to admit, I *like* this solution and I'm annoyed I didn't think of it.  +1
Comment: I actually did consider this as a solution.  However I chose my solution because it covers all bases... Displaying the last time run... whether it was launched as stand alone application or from within script editor (even after recompiling). Also, with your solution, the script itself needs to run just to get the value of the last time run.  What if someone else ran the script on a shared computer, and the intention is to find out when the script was actually run the last time? With your approach, one needs to open the script file in script editor to try and retrieve that value (if it can be)
Comment: @user3439894 If you make the "display notification" line of your script as the third line rather than the second line, it fixes the problem of "as the first time it displays msng for missing value"
Comment: @wch1zpink, You said. "However I chose my solution because it covers all bases... Displaying the last time run... whether it was launched as stand alone application or from within script editor (even after recompiling).", and this is exactly why I stated **It just depends on your real needs.** (emphasis added) as we really do not know what the OP's true or real needs are in this particular case. All the methods mentioned thus far have their practical applications and uses and under any particular given circumstance may or may not be an acceptable solution. It just depends on one's real needs.
Comment: @wch1zpink, Before I posted, and just writing in Script Editor, I did have it the way I've edited now. I can remember why I decided to switch the last two lines of code when first posted, but it's a moot point now as it's been edited.


Editing Finder Favorites

Question: I am trying to edit one of the names of a Favorite in the Favorites List in Finder. In most parts of OSX, one can simply position the cursor to the name and and editing box opens up, but not here. Any suggestions?
Answer: You'll want to right click on the favorite and "get info". The name shows up under "Name and Extension". You'll not, I think, be able to rename everything. If it's greyed out, for example, you won't be able to rename it.

Editing Finder Favorites


how to use magmi for importing in magento?

Question: I want to import simple products by magmi, installed already and the csv created with one sample product, magmi can read it but not inserting it, the csv is the default but with media_gallery column i don't know what to check for plugins and what configuration should i use, the categories not created so i checked (On the fly category creator/importer v0.2.3) and (Image attributes processor v1.0.25), is there any way i can know more details about the reason the importing not working like a error log ? and  simply how i can import via magmi ?
Comment: i think it is related to mapping, as i am using categories column but i can't find the csv at magmi/plugins/itemprocessors/genericmapper/mappings , no itemprocessors directory
Answer: First of all, you can get most of the information on their website.
After that you can run magmi with the command from your magento root directory:
<code>$ php magmi/magmi.cli.php -mode=xcreate -SKUF:matchfield=sku
</code>
All the configuration should be in /magmi/config. The logs you're gonna find in /magmi/state
That is the basic information you need to get started.
Comment: Thanks Madina it was reconfiguration by me and now it is working just perfect except of the image,small_image and thumbnail are get execute even after adding the + before i have to uncheck manyally .. trying to fix it
Answer: Magmi v0.7.15b installation with magento 126.96.36.199 and ubuntu package 14.04

Copy magmi to your root directory and unzip it as(http://website.com/magmi)
Give permission 705 or 777 to this directory (sudo chmod 705 -R /var/www/html/magmi)
Browse to http://website.com/magmi/web/magmi.php
configure Global parameters as

host localhost
port 3306
version of magento 1.9.x
DB name yourDB name
Username Yourusername & password
Current profile Default

Data sources

CSV Datasource v1.3.1
CSV import mode local
CSV base directory var/import
CSV header at line Array
and enter all option as per requirement and save profile

Restart apache2 sudo service apache2 restart
Refresh your magento admin panel
Comment: How can i import images for my multi store products, can i get csv header columns


Fringe Timelines and Universes

Question: In the show Fringe, how many different timelines and universes are involved in the storyline of the series?
Answer: There are 2 universes, this has been consistent throughout the entire series (so far). There are three universes, but one of them was only seen for a couple of scenes in 1x19, The Road Not Taken.  Olivia witnesses the activation of the spontaneous-combustion twins in another universe, but not the one commonly referred to as "Over There" - in this one, the twins got activated at the same time, meaning they were indeed also treated with Cortexiphan.  This universe was never revisited.
As for timelines:

Seasons 1-3 are one timeline.
In 3x22, The Day We Died, we get a glimpse at a second timeline - this is actually the "original" timeline, and shows how the machine got buried in the past of the Seasons 1-3 timeline.
Season 4 (and so far in 5), is a third timeline.
The Observers come from the future of a timeline that, seemingly, no longer exists.  In 4x14, The End Of All Things, September mentions what should have happened (from their perspective of the past), and how he accidentally made it deviate.  He also mentions at that time that the Observers have technology that allows them to exist outside of time, and that from our perspective, they are only one possible future.

So, 3 universes (so far, and one was only seen for a few moments in Season 1) and 3, maybe 4, timelines (so far).
Comment: is the timeline in 3x22 actually a separate timeline? In the *original* original timeline where September didn't distract Walternate, the machine wouldn't have been needed because Walter wouldn't have crossed over to save Peter and my head wouldn't have exploded...
Comment: @MichaelEdenfield Remember what one of future-Walter's last lines was, about having to make past-Peter relive what was happening then so he'd know to make a different choice?  Well, he was describing exactly what happened in the last scene of the previous episode.  So what was saw was definitely a previous iteration, even if it wasn't the _original_ original.  (I put "original" in quotes because I wasn't certain how to describe it)
Comment: that's true, I remember that now. However, that's the only way that the S1-3 timeline ever ended. As soon as Peter made his different choice it erased the entire S1-3 timeline and moved into the S4-5 timeline. Mostly nitpicking, though the show never explains where the machine in S4 came from if Peter never existed to bury it :)
Comment: @MichaelEdenfield Go ahead and post it, I belieeeeve I have an answer ;)
Comment: +1 For mentioning the universe from "The Road Not Taken". This was actually nagging me and I was about to ask the question: why doesn't Fringe Division in this universe resemble Fringe Division from the red universe AT ALL? The uniforms, the office, the tech.. nothing is the same. It makes me wonder what crisis was alt-Charlie referring to (the thing "going on" in Boston, IIRC). I do think this was meant to be an early glimpse at the Red Universe, but the writers later changed their minds and forgot about this universe.
Answer: There have only been two universes throughout Fringe, and four timelines; minor S3/S4 spoilers ahead:
The primary story line takes place in the "prime" universe, which is effectively our universe at around the time the episode aired.
There is a single primary "parallel" world, called the "alternate universe". This universe becomes relevant mostly starting with the season two finale, and significant parts of seasons 3 and 4 take place there. The history of that universe is slightly different from ours. Walter uses the popular multiverse theory to explain it's existence, which implies that at some point in the past the two universes were one, though it's never clearly established when they deviated.

 It was sealed off permanently at the end of season 4, and the producers have confirmed that we won't be seeing any of it in season 5.

There are other universes we see very briefly in one episode, as Walter tries to find another universe where Peter's disease was cured, but we never visit or hear about them again.
There have been several different timelines; the implication is that we have seen four (one mostly through exposition). One crucial difference among the timelines is what happens to Peter and Olivia and their child, as described by September. So far, we have seen or heard about:

The original timeline, where Peter died in our universe and was saved in the Prime one. This one was never seen on-screen, only described or referenced by various Observers over the course of Seasons 3 and 4.

 This is the one that happened off-screen, presumably in September's original past, what he wanted to go back and observe. Here, Peter presumably grew up in his own world and had a son with Fauxlivia that did something important in the future.

The revised timeline, where Walter brought Peter over to the main universe and he survived.

 This is the timeline that September created by distracting Walternate, causing Walter to cross over; the other Observers then spent the next few decades trying to "undo" that screw-up.  In this timeline, Peter and Fauxlivia had a son that grew up and did something horrible in the future.

The rebooted timeline, where Walter brought Peter over but he died at the lake.

 This is the timeline that the Machine put in place at the end of Season 3, though what this means for the no-longer-existing child of Peter and Olivia is unclear.

The current timeline; this is basically the rebooted timeline, except that Peter has been returned.

 Peter and Olivia remember events as they happened in the "revised" timeline of Seasons 1-3, while the rest of both universes remember the events as they happened in the "rebooted" timeline of early Season 4.

September tells Peter that his team are able to operate "outside of time" and that there are a multitude of possible timelines, though unlike the parallel worlds, there does appear to be only one at a time, and there is one that the Observers consider "correct" and are trying to maintain.
Comment: That's not true. There are historical differences between the universes dating back centuries. Two major examples: Andrew Jackson was never president, and JFK is still alive.
Comment: I think you got the "original timeline" a bit mangled; you're describing the revised timeline under the spoiler.
Comment: yep, sorry, bad editing :)
Comment: The two universes were the same and became different when Walter took peter out of the house while he was sick in one of the universe but did not do so in the other universe.

Fringe Timelines and Universes


is Waste picker value added count in GDP?

Question: Is the value added by waste pickers included in GDP calculations? For example, if an old washing machine that has been discarded by an individual is sold by waste pickers, does the entire sale price of that old washing machine get added to GDP?
Or, for example, which portion of the value created is accounted for in GDP when scrapping an old car?
Answer: Only the value added is counted. So for example from spending approach the value of scrap metal if bought by final consumer and not another firm, or from income approach profits and wages from this activity.


Is there any way to simulate a program run before burning it onto the board?

Question: Programs may, at times, have runtime errors. These are sometimes hard to find and can easily be missed. Is there any way to test the program before actually burning it onto the board ?
Comment: Might be related to http://arduino.stackexchange.com/q/84/25
Comment: Also maybe related to http://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/20/can-i-develop-with-the-arduino-using-an-ide-with-more-features?rq=1
Comment: You may have the issue the error only occurs on a physical Arduino (I couldn't give an example, though).
Comment: @Polar In terms of program logic, I cant imagine how. Could you, maybe, post *any* example ?
Answer: There are a few Arduino Simulator projects out there.
Perhaps one of the more mature ones is the Virtronics Simulator for Arduino, YouTube video here.

The Virtronics page linked above also lists a few other Arduino simulators, both free and paid.
Given the interest the Arduino evokes, there are likely to be many more such simulators out there, so no point trying to list them all in an answer here.
What is worth noting is that there is also an Arduino Simulator iPhone app: This is not a recommendation, not having seen it in operation yet.

On a side note:
The Arduino is in itself a prototyping / experimentation board. It is ideal for programming experimental code, debugging it, modifying and then re-flashing fresh code, pretty much as many times as one likes. If the code hangs, reset and reflash with any changes.
Therefore, the merit of using a simulator, which can never perfectly emulate the various real-world timing or other issues an application might face, is questionable.
If the cost of the Arduino is the concern, there are a couple of options open:

Inexpensive Arduino Nano clones off eBay - I have several Meduino Nano Enhancement boards, they work excellently, and are priced at under $10 including world-wide shipping:

Make your own Arduino - The Arduino site walks you through making one on a breadboard, which does not even need you to solder anything!
Comment: Thanks for sharing the link to the Virtronics Simulator!
Comment: Yes, it is much easier to debug and reflash. ATMega328 flash is rated at 10000 rewrite cycles, so even if you rewrite it 10 times every single day you have more than two years of fun before you :-) Quite a lot of fun for an hobbyist. If you're just a bit more into it, you can use newer boards to do the debugging and when they start to wear out (say after 5000 cycles?) you can use them for stable applications an buy a new one for debugging.
Answer: You can find runtime errors if you can manually step through your program with the Arduino connected and debug (after downloading code to the Arduino).  This is available in Visual Micro although it requires Visual Studio.  You can set breakpoints, evaluate variables, and change variable values.  You can also get visualization of of memory over time:
Comment: I haven't used it for profiling, and I've only used it briefly, but it integrates pretty well and runs fine for me.  I really appreciate the ability to debug without resorting to Serial.print
Comment: Very neat. How mature is this project -- or, rather, has this IDE run smoothly in your experience?
Answer: One way to do this would be to create a wrapper program for the actual code which simulates all the inputs and accepts outputs (thereby creating a feedback loop) as per the real environment. This would take variable amount of effort depending on the type of program, degree of testing and number of inputs.
Keep in mind that while writing the wrapper program, you should follow a black-box  approach.

Otherwise, your outer code may not test the program as well as possible as keeping in mind the actual code while creating the test code may bias you to ignore boundary cases or problem areas (This has been observed to happen while doing White-Box Testing which is the alternative).
Comment: Do you know of any examples? Most Arduino code I have seen lacks proper unit tests even for the parts that do not require input/output.
Comment: @Jakob I usually write my own code for the testing. It is practical for small projects.


How can I open a door with the knob removed?

Question: My door automatically locks when you close the door. I of course forgot about it and closed my door as I left now we can't get it open. Please help I'm not sure what to do.
Comment: If you've removed all the hardware. just stick a blade in there and rotate the locking ring.  But what sort of knobset is *always* locked?   Typically you can  twist a button or ring so it doesn't lock automatically.
Comment: Carl I agree normally a screwdriver will retract the bolt+ although I don't see the mechanism in the hole or half moon most quickset locks have.
Comment: Yes, you've done 95% of the work.  Now you just need to grab onto the latch in the same way the doorknob does, and pull it to the right.  The methods vary somewhat but the principle is the same.
Comment: As a side note, if you were able to unscrew the door handle from the outside to get to this point, a burglar will be able to do the same. Some might consider this a security issue. ;) If, on the other hand, you destroyed the handle to get to this stage, then you know that's what someone else would have to do to break in.
Comment: looks like you can just grab the plunger on the right side and pull right.
Answer: I would just put a screwdriver in the left hole and pull to the right against the spring to withdraw the latch.


Reservior keeps blowing the cap and coolant

Question: I have a 98 Volvo S70 T5 2.3L Turbo. I've replaced my thermostat, I know may head gasket is good because I've done the checks to see if its bad and the oil isn't Milkey, the cylinders when I replaced my spark plugs had no coolant in them. There's no leaks from the exhaust manifold, but yes I already bought a new to do this weekend just incase, and I know my water pump is good because I have to do a quick start a couple times when I filll my radiator because it's a closed system and I have to fill it through my reservoir. And also my engine is never super hot to the touch when this happens and it temp gauge never goes past normal range.  And yes my electrical fan works. Great I might add. Always blowing hot air out the front of everything. Any clues im lost.
Comment: Have you checked the radiator? flow test...
Comment: Its a brand new radiator. Not even a month old
Comment: Interesting question. Never heard of a reservoir cap blowing off.Honestly I wouldn't think there would be enough pressure (if any at all) to do it. Only thing I can think of is there's air in the system. If that's the case, then it's only a matter of time before your rad cap bursts off and destroys the plastic rad spout. Take the rad cap off and run the vehicle for 10-15 minutes. Watch for air bubbles in the rad. When they stop you're good.
Answer: It could still be a bad head gasket that's failed between the cylinder and the cooling jacket and it's blowing compression gasses into the radiator. But an exhaust gas kit and test coolant for presence of exhaust gases. That will confirm or deny a head gasket leak.
Answer: I haven't looked to see if your caps are different on your reservoir vs rad. I recently had a similar issue and it turned out the caps were on the wrong items. very silly thing, but caused me some confusion.
Comment: The radiator cap should hold pressure . if it doesn't ,pressure will blow out the reservoir cap ( which does not hold pressure).


How long should I leave a green yew stick clamped to a bench for straightening?

Question: I have already gotten a lot of great info from some previous questions on here, but honestly speaking, I am trying to find a reliable answer for my ten year-old, son who (probably rightly) doubts my woodworking knowledge.
I cut a green branch from a very old yew in our yard. Not knowing what I was doing (but thinking perhaps I did), I immediately stripped off the bark and threw the stick in the creek. I had stripped it past the softwood, until it was about 1.5 inch thick and 6 feet long. After it sat on the bottom of the creek for a few days, I brought it to the workshop and clamped it to the bench, where it has now sat for merely one week.
When my son asked if we could unclamp it, I said no, it needs to sit so it will dry more straight. When he asked how long, I said, I don't know, but probably a long time.
So after all that rambling, here is my question: Is a long time 2 weeks, or is it more like a year?
Comment: I could be wrong, but I'm not sure if you can ever expect it to stay straight.
Comment: Thanks for the help. I guess with some hard work, maybe I'll have a very pretty, but slightly bent, walking stick.
Comment: For your consideration: Natural bends and kinks in a walking stick make it "unique", not "flawed".
Answer:
How long should I leave a green yew stick clamped to a bench for straightening?

Don't. That's not how to dry wood.
Makers of walking sticks and hiking poles, who harvest saplings and branches from the wild as raw material, may aim to harvest fairly straight stock but they don't sweat it if anything suitable is found that has a bend.
They'll take it anyway because they know they can bend the wood straighter (dead straight if that is the requirement) after drying. Heat-bending is how some of the very pronounced crooks at the head of some sticks are formed, and natural bends are taken out by the same methods.
So that is how you should approach this — and anyway you don't want to tie up your bench and the clamps for the entire drying time, which could be lengthy!
How lengthy? The drying schedules you'll find online or in books may tend to err on the side of caution, but stick material is regularly slimmer (much slimmer) than 1.5" in diameter so it may balance out. In which case, as a rough guide, you do probably want to wait a full year if you want the best outcome for your project.
Note: unless you've sealed the end grain well (at both ends of the stick) you can expect to lose inches of material to drying cracks. Again, how much is down to the wood and the drying conditions. You could be lucky and it's under 2", but in worst cases one or two fine cracks can extend 4-6" even with slow drying in humid conditions.
Comment: Wow. Thanks for all the great info. I had no idea it was such a long, expensive process. I don't guess I'll be doing any heat-bending any time soon. I guess I'll have a crooked stick. But, at least maybe I won't fall this winter!
Comment: Welcome. There can be very little expense involved in small-scale heat bending as you can successfully do localised heating using nothing more than a damp rag and a heat gun, although TBH this would work far better with a stick of smaller diameter.


Using text styles that are not included in DLS

Question: We have 15 text styles in our Design Language System and sometimes I face some situations that I have to use some other text styles instead of the existing ones. Is it weird to use some typography styles that they were not in our DLS as a defined text style?
Answer: Most style guides simply can't account for all use cases.
The decision of how and when to diverge from a style guide ultimately comes down to who is in charge and often how severe the divergence. If you are in charge, then it's your call.
I find as long as I'm sticking with defined fonts and colors, then things should be okay. It's not uncommon to break for sizing or spacing due to a specific instance. However, introducing new fonts, colors, faces, etc. may not be appropriate
Comment: Thank you @Scott
Comment: @MasoodFarsaei If you feel that an answer posted has answered your question you can click the check mark next to the answer to mark it as "correct".


Difference between wine and sparkling wine in cooking?

Question: Would there be any point to using sparkling wine over ordinary white wine, when the gas will escape in cooking? I suppose bubbly might have some variant flavor profiles, but Serious Eats says that beyond sweetness and tartness, picking different (flat) wines will impact the final dish but subtly or negligibly most times. Has sparkling wine got anything that straight wine couldn't offer, or might it give any trouble? Googling suggests it doesn't, but I want word to trust.
Comment: Just to be explicit. the 'wine you'd drink' meme is not pertinent.
Comment: Well, it's become a stock phrase, to the extent that your oblique reference was possible. And I've sometimes seen it thrown off in lieu of going into things. Whether any Funny Videos are based on it I wouldn't know...
Comment: No. I'm not asking which wine is better but whether (degassed) *bubbly* differs in properties from *wine*. The Eats article doesn't mention sparkling wine. That's why I said the matter of quality/price wasn't pertinent.
Answer: Sparkling wines are more acidic than most still wines, and the acidity will be noticeable in your food even after cooking.  They are not more acidic than some acidic wines like Vinho Verde, though, so if you'd normally use an acidic white in the dish, a sparkling will work.  Or you can cut back other acids in the recipe.
The only place I can imagine the carbonation making a difference would be in batters, where it might supply some additional rise.  However, there are very few batter dishes that use wine as an ingredient.
There are some dishes which expect, and need, sparkling wine.  Zabaione, for example, or Champagne mousse.  What these recipes share in common is that the sparkling wine is not cooked, since (as you guessed) doing so will cook off most of the carbonation.  There are baking recipes that claim that using sparkling wine makes a difference, but I haven't found any from sources I trust.
Comment: There are a number of batter dishes that use beer as an ingredient that could have the sparkling wine swapped in as a substitute, and you could probably use it in a bread or cake as a leavening agent.
Comment: It turns out that @Sneftel is right and I'm wrong on this.  While sparking wines taste sweeter, they aren't *actually* sweeter, it's a result of the carbonation and other differences in composition:  https://vinifero.ch/blogs/discover/the-sweetness-levels-of-sparkling-wines  ... so updating my answer accordingly.
Comment: @nick012000 Batter, probably yes. Bread and cake - not if you are counting on yeasts, and the carbonation is probably too weak to be effective in quick bread or most cakes.
Comment: Cool. How is it that you say sparkling wine tends to be sweeter but Sneftel says "wine used for" sparkling tend to be dry?
Answer: Well, just to get it out of the way, carbon dioxide dissolved into water partially transforms into carbonic acid, which gives it a bit of a tang.
But that's going to be entirely drowned out by the qualities of the wine itself. The wine which is used for sparkling wine tends to be quite dry and mineral, with no oak character.
Those are the only relevant differences for cooking with wine, other than in something like a gelatine where the gas would not be allowed to escape.


Blender collada import export, sketchup comparison

Question: I have building models (with no textures) in Sketchup (15 and 17, free and Pro) that I close into solids and export to Collada. However they appear to sometimes break and sometimes wont reimport into sketchup. Blender however will open the files and re-export them to dae again. The new dae files are typically larger but can be opened in sketchup and other applications. Both have triangulated faces. This tells me that Blender has a better collada import and export tool. Well done. Can anybody tell me the technicalities of why it is better? The sketchup community seems quite quiet on the matter. If there are any converts online who are at that level...
Answer: I don't know Sketchup for it's not open-source neither do I use it much but let me explain Blender's collada exporter.
First why is Collada so unique other than it being libre(open),

COLLADA is designed to be highly flexible. It can store
  application-specific data using its  mechanism at various
  places in the document. You can insert this data in your DCC tool
  using the user properties mechanism; the COLLADA import/export will
  then carry this information for you, so there is no need to change the
  exporter source code to carry your application/game-specific data into
  the COLLADA format.

This means that sketchup's implementation of it has flaws of implementation for it's a relatively simple to use format, and it just records data and passes it on. So the data recorded might be written improperly by the software.
Blender currently uses the opencollada library to provide support for collada import and export. And as it's open, it's more mature than the rest of the libraries used by other tools that the power of being open.
I believe but there are repos like https://github.com/godotengine/collada-exporter.
That improve the implementation for game engine Godot.
That's probably all there is to the implementation.


My kitchen faucet is barely running

Question: my faucet when i woke this morning barely has water running out of it in the kitchen. What would cause this all  of a sudden. It was fine last night
Comment: Does the faucet valve still work, or is this slow drip when the valve is open?
Answer: If the faucets throughout the rest of the home are fine, then just unscrew the cap at the end of the faucet. Within it is an aerator - basically a metal and plastic filter that also slows the water down. You've probably gotten a bit of something from within the pipes stuck in it. Typically they just pop open and can be cleaned out with a toothpick or such, but you can also soak it in vinegar for an hour to eat away the junk from within it.
Once it's clean, screw it back in and you should be fine. (If this was the cause)
Comment: Once you have the aerator off turn on the water. It should come out full blast. If cleaning doesn't improve the flow to your satisfaction you can buy a new aerator at the hardware store.
Answer: Sounds like the faucet needs a re-build. It may be just an $8 kit to replace some springs & washers. Or, you may need to replace both cartridges at $8 each or a single cartridge at $40. But, whichever yours needs the faucet will be returned to like new operation with the same longevity. Though it wasn't used, the water's pressure was still working on it throughout the night.

My kitchen faucet is barely running


speedup or mute audio playback in a windows process via hooking calls

Question: I have an application which I do not have source code for that plays back audio but lacks the facility to speed up or temporarily mute audio playback.  I am trying to add these two functionalities by injecting a dll and hooking waveOutOpen, waveOutWrite (and either preventing playback or trying to waveOutSetPlaybackRate for mute and speedup respectively).  I have a couple of problems however.
Lets first talk about the "mute" button since that was my first order of business:
I will refer to the hooked versions of functions as MyWaveOut...
1)
I am able to hook the functions no problem and I see them being called in dbgView log statements.  My first attempt was to just intercept waveOutWrite function calls and if my "mute" button is pressed to just return MMSYSERR_NOERROR in MyWaveOutWrite function and not call the real waveOutWrite.  This correctly prevents the audio from playing however I encounter a problem when I turn off the "mute" .  The audio does not play again when I disable the mute, in fact the hooked function (nor the real one) is ever called again by the hooked process.
My first suspicion was that I was not calling the callback waveOutProc that is registered by the application when it calls WaveOutOpen.  I therefore also hooked the waveOutOpen and kept and switched the address of the waveOutProc to MyWaveOutProc and added logic to call the real waveOutProc before returning the same MMSYSERR_NOERROR in MyWaveOutWrite.  This had weird results causing the playback visual to skip forward very fast but then I had the same problem with the audio not returning (MyWaveOutWrite function never called again).
2)
As for the audio speedup portion I tried using waveOutSetPlaybackRate but this simply returned MSYSERR_NOTSUPPORTED so I arrived at a dead end with that.  Hooking GetTickCount and QueryPerformanceCounter had no affect on the audio playback at all, the visual playback indicator would skip forward ahead fast if the audio is disabled, but when the audio device is enabled the visual seems even to be bound to the rate of the audio playback.
Any help with with those experienced with either of these problems would be appreciated.  I do not usually work with windows audio so it is a bit of a learning experience for me.
Thanks
Answer: A suggestion for a different approach.
This assumes the OS is from Vista Kernnel or higher.
In these operation systems there is a pr application volume control, it might be simpler to mute it here then with any hooks.


Why does my refrigerator door resist opening?

Question: After closing my refrigerator's door I noticed that it's much harder to reopen it immediately, as if there's an underpressure. Only after a minute or so it opens normally. How can this be explained?
Comment: Google for "horror vacui"
Answer: When you open the door the cold air flows out and is replaced by air at room temperature. When you close the door this air gets cooled through contact with the stuff inside the fridge and therefore the pressure decreases, according to ideal gas laws by some 10%. That's not very much, but the surface of the door translates this small pressure difference to a larger force.
Note that the effect is even stronger with deep freezers, where the difference in temperature (and hence pressure) is even bigger.
edit
Like Anna says there must be air leaking in if the door opens normally after some time. This air will be cooled as well, but the pressure will increase with more air being sucked in, until an equilibrium is reached: cold air at atmospheric pressure.
Comment: I had this problem at home with a one-year-old Siemens fridge and at work also. The explanation above is 100% right, but as this problem only started after a year of use, I thought there must be an reason as to why that suddenly started.
I found out that the little hole in the lower back of the fridge (inside the fridge, not behind it) which is responsible for draining water, was blocked by som black crap generated over time.
I cleaned this hole and the problem disappeared and of course stopped having water piling in the bottom. Try it as it will solve the problem.
Comment: @downvoter - Please tell why you do when you downvote an answer.
Comment: I can confirm @Ambran observation - my fridge doors started to get stuck, cleaning the draining hole solved the problem
Comment: If the pressure decreases by 10% then the pressure difference between the inside and outside is 0.1 atm. If the area of the fridge door is 1 m$^2$, then the amount of force you'd need to open it is $0.1\,\mathrm{atm} \times 1\,\mathrm{m}^2 \approx 10^4\,\mathrm{N}$. That's equivalent to the force needed to lift a 1000 kg weight. So I'd say there's gotta be some mechanism for equalizing the pressure inside and outside the fridge...
Answer: What @stevenh said.
I always look for that resistance to make sure that the door has really closed when I overfill the refrigerator. If yours equalizes after a while air must be leaking in, look at the seals around the door if they have deteriorated. Mine is fairly resistant once closed well, both the freezer compartment and the normal one.
Answer: many modern refrigerators have a mechanism that pumps out air from the fridge after you close the door, to save money on cooling the region.  This creates an immediate pressure drop.  Of course it can't be maintained forever, but it still improves the energy efficiency.
Comment: Are you sure about this? I have never seen any refrigerator, old or new that has a vacuum pump or something similar.
Comment: The manual that came with the fridge said so.
Comment: @KalleMP: As someone else asked 3 years ago, have you ever seen such a pump in the refrigerator? Reading about it from online forums doesn't count. Also, for my own refrigerator the resistance is strongest the first time; opening and closing a second time results in much less resistance. This can be easily explained because the insides warm up after the first opening, and so on the second time the air gets cooled less.
Comment: If it were true, then the opposite effect would be observed, because immediately after closing it would be less of a vacuum than before opening it.
Comment: @user21820 I think the pump down is done to make a firm seal and then the pump is turned off.  I have read about these pumps as well but never met one though I know of lots of freezers with good enough seal that will cause a vacuum strong enough to resist re-opening for a couple of minutes due to cooling of the room air that was exchanged.
Answer: There are magnets in most fridge seals.
Comment: That doesn't explain why the door opens more easily after a minute or so.
Answer: the door has magnetic lock inside the seal to close.check out by placing a piece of iron on the seal.but remove it while closing.when the door is closed, the seal around it compresses and closes all gaps from air entering or loosing.when we try to open it, actually the seal expands to original shape and creates no gap until an inch or so thereby a under pressure is generated which required more force to open.