My research work stolen and published as his own by the co-author without my consent

Question: My research paper was stolen by the co-author and published as his own. What do I do? All the  data the paper is based on is my own work. I got it accepted in another journal but now I cannot get it published according to the copyright terms and conditions.
Comment: Definitely talk to your department chair.  Find a new advisor, even if it means changing departments.  Your advisor will continue to abuse you until you walk out.
Comment: But you didn't answer my question.  **When you submitted this work to a journal, did you do it with or without your advisor's knowledge/approval?**  Is your advisor a co-author on the other paper?  If so, then the paper without your name is straight-up double submission, which neither journal editor will like.
Comment: Are you convinced that it was deliberate? Maybe there was a misunderstanding or something. Have you spoken to your professor?
Comment: I'm confused by the word "coauthor" here.  Was your paper accepted in another journal with or without the other person's involvement/knowledge/permission?  Are they your coauthor on this paper, on a different paper, or something else?
Comment: Is this high school, college, or phd work? It doesn't change what is wrong or right or how you feel, but has implications for the solution.
Comment: No permission no prior knowledge of him having submitted my paper to someother journal ...I cannot go against him he is my professor it might have dire consequence to my career
Comment: she is not picking my calls and deliberately yes i think she wants to take all the credit for my work . I slogged out day and night to make that. She could have at least mentioned my name
Comment: This has happened to me for the very first time and i am really tensed that she knows about me knowing. Its so hard to confront her now. She has lost all my respect
Comment: @JeffE yes i did take the coauthor's approval and he told me not to submit it anywhere else which is not allowed but he did it on his own
Comment: @JeffE Walking out is not an option now he is the head of the department where i ll be giving the final viva for this project and its my last few days in college
Comment: and getting it published is very important for my grades
Comment: its a college project
Comment: I mailed the journal where it got accepted that i am not economically stable to publish the paper right now and they agreed to consider it for the subsequent editions ..For the time being i am going to make changes in my paper and then send it back does it seem a good idea?
Comment: Out of scope: Why was it needed to steal? Is it her first time? She doesn't know the consequences?
Answer: Let me echo scaaahu's excellent advice: Calm down.  Obviously you're scared, and with good reason, but you need to approach the situation calmly and professionally.  Otherwise, even if you are in the right it will be difficult for other people to take your concerns seriously.
Your comments suggest (to me) that the situation is not as straightforward as your initial post describes.  Without considerably more detail about what  happened — which would be inappropriate for you to post here — it's difficult to make specific suggestions.
I think you need to discuss the situation with someone who understands both the politics in your department and the publication culture in your field.  Find another senior faculty member in your department (or in a different department, or in the dean's office) who you can trust to keep confidence.  (Yes, this can be difficult, but ask around.)  Write up a timeline of events in advance, and make copies of documentation for each event in the timeline.  Calmly and carefully describe the situation.  Just present the facts; don't panic, and don't accuse.  (One of the facts is "I'm scared"; that's okay.)  Ask your confidant how to proceed.  Listen to them.
In the best case, this is a simple misunderstanding, and talking to an informed but neutral third party is the best way to convince you to relax.  In the worst case, your department chair is being egregiously unethical, and in particular threatening your chances at graduation, in which case you absolutely need a senior faculty advocate to help you navigate the resulting political mine field.  (Your primary goal in this case should be to graduate and get out, not to optimize your grade or to punish your department chair.)  Most likely, the actual situation is somewhere in between those two extremes.
Good luck.
Comment: Thanks @JeffE i am trying my best not to panic but other teachers dun know about it and are forcing me to get this paper published
Comment: Do i submit it in the new journal that it got accepted in? i know it is with a risk but all my marks are dependent on it what do i do
Answer: The first thing would be to contact the editor of the journal that published your co-author's work, and to explain the problem to them. If the proofs that it is your own research are sufficient, they might consider the previously published paper as plagiarism, which should unblock your own publication. In this process, it might be worth contacting also the journal to which you submitted, so that they can confirm the date at which they received your submission.
Right now, I would say that the best move is to contact the two journals editors with the proofs, and see if they can sort things out. You can also consider in the mean time publishing your paper to an open repository (such as arXiv), if it does not interfere with the copyright policy of the journal you want to publish to.
Comment: @awesomeness: you *can* report the issue, even if the person involved is your professor. And I would say you cannot get out of this situation without reporting it, the only question is to who and how, but the answers up to know give good advice on this.
Comment: Also, if you and your coauthor work at the same institution, take your evidence to your advisor / department chair / dean.  Hopefully you have concrete evidence to back your claim: lab notebooks, dated paper drafts, submission time stamps, archived email conversations, etc.
Comment: It was my work mostly plus he is my professor i cannot report the issue i am stuck in the middle of a big issue
Comment: Plus i somehow feel my co author knows i have gotten to know about this she is avoiding me .. I have got all the proof thats not an issue
Comment: I feel all disgusted i did work really hard for this :/
Comment: the coauthor submitted his work to some journal who accepted it in 4 to 5 days where as mine took one month and i got excellent feedback
Comment: how do i submit it in arXiv?
Comment: @awesomeness I believe the FAQ http://arxiv.org/help/submit is quite self-explanatory.
Comment: http://www.jict.co.uk/aim-scope how do i find out if the journal link i have given allows me to submit in arxiv or not
Comment: I think you can find some answer there: http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/7/102 and http://academia.stackexchange.com/q/40/102.
Answer: My first advice is to calm down.
Your question and your comments sound emotional to me. The more emotional you are, the worse situation you would be in. Since the other party is your prof, the burden of proof is on your shoulder. You need to deal with it carefully.
I am not even sure you have a problem. From what you have said in the question and comments, your prof submitted a paper with only his name on the paper to a journal without your prior knowledge. Then he gave you his approval to submit another paper of probably the same contents to another journal with both your name and his name on it(you said he is the co-author).
The above is what I understood from your question and your comments. If all are true, the issue is his problem, not yours. Because he is the one who did the double submission, not you. All you have to do to clear up this issue is to present evidence which shows that you got his approval before you submitted the paper to the journal.
Comment: do i submit the paper to the journal where it got accepted?
Comment: @awesomeness, this is the question for the editors of the journal. Would you accept two papers of the same or similar contents if you were the editor?
Comment: i know i woudnt like that however what if i did not know it had already gotten published
Comment: what do i do then :/
Comment: @awesomeness: As I said in my answer, the key is the approval he gave you to submit the paper.
Comment: Yes i do need that
Comment: @awesomeness, JeffE wrote an excellent answer which said a lot things I didn't know how to say. Please pay attention to it. Good Luck.


Are there any benefits to checking in commented out code into version control?

Question: I've found, what I personally believe to be a bad habit that a lot of developers seem to have adopted. Code in various places in the applications I have seen are commented out (lots of it) and checked into the mainline. Now, I don't have a problem with people doing this with their own branches, but is it a good idea to comment out 60 or so lines of code and check it into trunk? A colleague of mines has unearthed a lot of this and had spend half a day removing the commented out code just to tidy things up. Is there any benefit in checking in commented out code and leaving it for another developer to have to tidy up after you? After all, version control does have a history, so you can easy pull back any code that's been removed.
Comment: We actually have a directive at my work that NO old code is to be removed, only commented out. If it gets untidy, then comment out the entire block and recontruct the code in a tidy manner underneath the commented block. Also, copious comments should be left to track who changed what, and when. It's not as if we don't have version control... about a year ago we started using Visual SourceSafe. Personally I hate this system. Bad company smells, perhaps?
Comment: @nakedfanatic - In my own opinion, it comes across as laziness. You comment a block of code while debugging as your sure your going to come back and uncomment it, but for some reason, you forget about it and don't bother removing it. Yesterday I was fixing a bug and saw something like 90 lines of code commented out in trunk and it was ugly as hell. With version control you can always peruse the previous revisions to see what code has been added/removed/modified. So your work's directive is a little strange as no old code is ever removed from version control; It can be restored at any point.
Comment: At the company I worked for, it was an old habit from before we started using SVN. So, some people were used to do it, and there was still a lot of old code that was not changed using SVN.
Answer: I see no benefit to this, especially in the main trunk.
Commented out code only provides a quick way for a developer to roll back.  The whole point of source control is to have every working version, so that you can keep track of what has changed.
Link - talks about commenting out large blocks and why they are ugly, and hard to maintain.
Comments do not get verified, and do not evolve with the code base around them.  In that way, the commented code will NEVER be valid in the future.... so why keep it at all when there is a perfectly good version that compiles just BEFORE it in the commit list of the main trunk?
Comment: +1 large blocks of commented out code is the work of the devil. Especially when it starts with a comment `Never use this`. I've even seen it when a program has been ported to a different language and the previous implementation has been left at the bottom.
Comment: Saying there is no benefit to it is a bit short sighted, don't you think?
Comment: The question is about commented out code, not comments as a whole.  Commented out code is NEVER executed, does not have any tests associated with it, and is thus never verified.  It has NO value in the future of any project.  A few lines of descriptive text that describe a change in code are a perfectly valid way to communicate some descriptive history of why large changes were made.
Comment: @Ben: Commented out code that starts with a comment `Never use this` can be a good thing, as long as it explains *why* you should never use it, and as long as it's not littering up your code base. I've used it before where an obvious and simple solution turns out to be the wrong solution, and I want to prevent future coders (including myself) from going back to "improve" it. That said, if such comments aren't rare, you're doing something quite wrong.
Answer: There is a good reason, but it probably doesn't often extend to large chunks (60 lines sounds excessive - a small note could have been used instead).
Sometimes you may have to remove some helpful code because the feature requirements change.  If you envision that code being useful in the future, commenting it out can be helpful to prevent a future developer from starting from scratch, not knowing that your code ever existed.
Version control gives you access to history, but it doesn't teach you about it..
Comment: I think this is an example of a more general case--things where a future developer wouldn't realize that examining the history would tell him something useful.
Comment: What would be most productive for the future (most probably junior) developer? starting from scratch or trying to figure out how to incorporate ancient commented out code in new codebase? Don't let history weight too much, even commented out.
Comment: If you have to remove code, but you *may* want it back in the future, just write a (short) comment to that effect. Like "Code to frobnicate the barf removed in rev.3953". That does not clutter the code, but tells other devs the code existed. If after a few months you find you don't need the code, you can remove the comment.
Answer: There are only two decent reasons for doing this that I can see:

the change is intended to be temporary, and a reminder is needed to put it back (ie. it is kept in as a placeholder)
the code was added for test purposes that for some reason had to be in situ, and may be needed again
Comment: 3. As documentation for what was tried in the past, and found to be lacking.  This shouldn't be large chunks of code, but small snippets. For instance, if the obvious way of doing something leads to performance problems.
Comment: @KeithB: Aye, and Renesis's point for 4.
Answer: The modifications can be tracked by version control systems such as SVN. It's easy to see what've done from one version to another. It is no necessary to comment out unused code if you wanna check in to SVN.
I think they comment out the code mainly because they may want to recover what've modified or they're not sure the new modification is correct.
Comments are just "comments", having version control system, we got to keep code clean and tidy.
Answer: With a good version control system (like git), one can quickly and easily create a branch to hold code that might otherwise be commented out and committed. Or, one could commit the commented-out code, then remove it and commit again.
Answer: commented out code also acts as a quick and simple version history. If you don't see the comments, you don't know what was there - regardless of the versioning. I tend to comment out blocks as I'm developing, and happily check them in. However, the caveat is that I will happily remove comment blocks for freshly-checked out code, the intention being that the next revision will always have the comment in there for the next dev to see when debuggging (assuming I make a mistake, they can instantly see what it used to be when it worked) but after that revision it becomes redundant and can be removed. Obviously you need to apply a little common-sense to this, sometimes the comment should be left in for a bit longer, and it doesn't apply to all commented out code.
Comment: The OP obviously has source control in place. What's wrong with "View history" or an equivalent command in whatever toolset you're using?


Fully differential opamp with transformer coupled input voltage

Question: I want to amplify / buffer a transformer coupled voltage with a fully differential op amp. When using e.g. instrumentation amplifiers with a transformer coupled input voltage, one side has to be grounded somehow. I believe that the circuit shown below should work though. What is it that makes a fully differential op amp work with a "floating" input voltage?
Answer: A differential op-amp provides a path for the input bias current to local ground via the two resistors (feedback and input resistors).
An instrumentation amplifier does not require resistors at each input but, does expect input bias currents to be "soaked up" by the voltage source that connects to those inputs. However, if that voltage source is floating (as in the case of a transformer secondary), the bias currents can only flow to each opposing input terminal and you get a problem in that one input cannot necessarily act as a current sink to the other (because they are near-identical).
This is why such people as Analog Devices make recommendations like this: -

Taken from data sheet for AD8221 for example.
Answer: This should indeed be fine. It is the preamp circuit that needs a ground, the transformer can simply connect to the +/- inputs of any balanced input amp. Sometimes (in other circumstances) people use a single ended input and ground one side of the transformer secondary.
Note however that this circuit doesn't seem to be giving you isolation, exactly, as the same ground is used for the preamp as for the transformer primary, so I'm wondering what the point of the transformer actually is (because to step-up/down the signal)?
Comment: It was not about the specific probe. I wanted to understand in general why you could connect floating voltages to fully differential op amps. The question was answered with the return paths of the bias current. Thanks though.
Comment: It's not a common transformer. It's part of an inductively coupled measuring probe.
Comment: you haven't really given enough information for us to assess what the significance might be. Do the probe manufacturers give any specific recommendations.


How do you sniff a wifi router without connected into it?

Question: I am curious with current technology and tools, are we capable to sniff up and down stream of any open/closed wifi router without connected into it?
Answer: At first - strictly speaking - your wifi router is most likely two things. First: A wifi switch and second a router (and probably a lot more). The thing you want to attack is mist likely the wifi part as you state you dont want to initiate a connection.
Since wifi is no strictly directed method of message sending, packets will be broadcasted and that's it.
So: If the wifi is unencrypted you can simply use a wifi-card and put it in "monitor mode". That means it will simply accept all packets flying though the air. Since everything in an open WiFi is plaintext you can read the contents (until transport encryption kicks in).
If the Wifi is encrypted you can do the same as well but you will only get encrypted content. Under certain circumstances decryption after capturing is possible (see Wireshark-Wiki). You will need at least need to know the AP's SSID and PSK for that.
Answer: Yes, Wi-Fi technology are radio-waves following the 802.11 standard by the IEEE on different channels, the most common being 2.4 and 5 GHz, but also comprehend some other frequencies.

The 802.11 standard provides several distinct radio frequencies ranges for use in Wi-Fi communications: 900 MHz 2.4 GHz, 3.6 GHz, 4.9 GHz, 5 GHz, 5.9 GHz and 60 GHz bands

From: Wi-Fi - Wikipedia
Since the antennae aren't suppose to "hear" all radio waves, they operate on a "Managed" mode to accept only packets of information directed to you (Has either your MAC or IP - depending on the OSI level)
To be able to "Sniff" Wi-Fi packets you need to change (if the hardware/chipset allows it) the antenna mode to "Monitor" (Which will allow to accept/hear all packets) and use a software to read the information coming in, like the most famous Wireshark or aircrack-ng, ettercap, etc. or any other packet analyzer
All of this is possible without starting a connection to any network.


Software Project Management systems

Question: Ok, so I've only recently started getting serious about learning how to program, and I've started using Mercurial to manage my projects. I chose Mercurial over SVN because of it's ability to commit changes to a repo while not connected to the internet (these days I find myself in areas without internet access). I'm looking for a piece of software (preferably free, because I'm on a really tight budget :-P) that will allow me to manage a bug database and TODO list for each of my projects without requiring an internet connection. Is there anything out there that'll allow me to do exactly that (maybe more)? I'd prefer something that can work alongside Mercurial, because it'd be a pain to switch source control systems at this point.
Answer: Dot Project, best so far in my view.
http://www.dotproject.net/
Comment: Have you had a chance to check out web2project yet? We forked from dotProject 2 years ago and have made some major strides. :)
Answer: http://bugseverywhere.org/be/show/HomePage : Bugs Everywhere is a "distributed bugtracker", designed to complement distributed revision control systems.
Supports Arch, Bazaar, Darcs, GIT, Mercurial
Answer: You may be interested in a DVCS called Fossil which has a built-in bug tracker and wiki. I've never used it but it looks like it might meet your needs.
Comment: Can you convert Mercurial repos to Fossil ones?
Comment: Probably. I had a quick look and the only thing I found was this, which isn't very helpful: http://www.fossil-scm.org/index.html/wiki?name=Tutorial
Answer: Ok, so it's been a few days and I still haven't found anything that's suitable for my needs. Fossil sounds great, but I miss the Windows shell extensions that TortoiseHg provides (I don't like working on command lines), dotProject is a hosted solution and if I want to run it locally I have to set up WAMP. The BugsEverywhere repo seems to be down (I cant get anything from it using bzr), and Artemis is good but its easier for me to work with something that has a GUI. I found FogBugz, and its a step in the right direction for me, but it's not free (I'm using their 40-day online trial right now. I'm probably going to end up writing one, in Python using Django since I have some experience with it. I know that I shouldn't be re-inventing the wheel, but in this case the wheels available just don't fit right...
Answer: Here's a Mercurial extension that tries to provide this - ArtemisExtension.
Answer: ticgit, a git based distributed ticketing system, including a command line client and web viewer. it works alongside git. but if you really need distributed source and bugtracking
and you like this application, the cost of switching vc may be acceptable.
Answer: CodeBeamer MR looks interesting:  http://www.intland.com/products/cb-mr/overview.html
and promises to be free 'forever'...

Software Project Management systems


Are skills only improved via proficiency and ability scores?

Question: In D&D 5e, is the only way to get higher skill ranks determined by prof bonus and ability score? Is my only choice to wait til 4th level, raise an ability score, and improve my proficiency bonus from +2 to +3? Or are there other ways?
Comment: Related: [How do I calculate my skill modifier?](https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/83930/how-do-i-calculate-my-skill-modifier)
Answer: Other than ability increase and level there are a few ways to increase your skill modifiers: they are based mostly on class.
For example Bards and Rogues get the Expertise trait which lets them double proficiency bonus on selected skills of the players choice.  A Knowledge Domain Cleric can gain double proficiency bonus in certain skills. The Ranger's Natural Explorer feature, Sorceror's Dragon Ancestor, and Dwarf's Stonecunning also double bonuses in narrowly-tailored circumstances.
But beyond a specific grant, there is no way to increase a skill check besides increasing a stat to earn a higher bonus or by leveling up and gaining a higher proficiency modifier.
Everyone is capable of using every skill whether they have proficiency or not. Proficiency just grants them a bonus appropriate to their level.
Comment: Maybe worth including for completeness: The feat *Skilled* allows you to gain proficiency bonus on 3 skills where you did not have it before.
Comment: Consider adding that there are feats that can also increase skills in some fashion such as Observant. There are also items which grant you advantage on skill checks, increasing success rates (sentinel shield for example).
Comment: @NeilSlater That's not what the question is asking, though.
Answer: Yes, that is your only choice. It is a deliberate design choice for bounded accuracy.


Tools for multiple creators/writers documentation without clouds

Question: In many companies I've seen it that more than 1 person are writing at the same documentation (be it user manual or technical documentation) for a computer application.
What I have seen in usage was mostly svn in combination with windows word. This combination never worked out quite well and was quite a hindrance as far as I've seen. Other solutions
that functioned better for multiple users used clouds to store the data (example google docs) but that could be a problem with company policies in regards to storing important data externally.
So my question would is, if there are any tools that fullfill the following requirements:

PDF files are generateable
Does not use an external cloud for storage but instead can either be used locally OR the company using it can setup their own cloud for it
There is no large overhead for having multiple users work on the same part of the documentation at the same time (or on different parts in the same file)
Answer: The main challenge of having multiple writers is dealing with conflicts -- either you have to lock files to prevent concurrent edits (as Word does), or you need a way to compare and merge changes.  Locking files can be pretty limiting (especially as your group grows), but source-control systems give you the latter if you don't use a binary file format.
I wrote a lot elsewhere about the advantages of using source control for documentation.  The key factors for you are the support for comparison (diff), merging, and branching.  In my previous position I spent many years using Perforce (for source control) and XML (DocBook) source for documentation with a small documentation team.  We had very few problems with conflicts -- only if two people made differently-drastic changes to the same section without talking with each other first.  We learned to talk with each other first -- coordination for things like wholesale restructurings is still important, but we could just fix bugs and make minor updates without worrying.  In my current position my team of about a dozen uses svn with HTML files; I haven't done an svn merge yet but I know it's possible.  (I've been told it's not quite as nice as Perforce's, but it works.)
Comparison and merge tools depend on having meaningful source to compare, so that means you need to use some text source, not binary blobs.  Regardless of what WYSIWYG editor you might use to edit your files, you want the stored format to be XML or HTML or LaTeX or some other text format.
As for generating PDF, there are lots of ways to attack this.  I explained elsewhere how to generate PDF from DocBook source.  Flare projects can be built to produce PDF (and HTML), which you can invoke from within the tool or externally.  (We have a nightly build that builds from our Flare source in svn.)  LaTeX's natural habitat is the command line and, again, it can produce PDF.  (This is a placeholder for Scrivener, which I haven't used but I've heard great things about.)
Bottom line: use source control and use a comparison-friendly source format to allow multiple writers to work in the same doc set, and there are many ways to generate PDF depending on what you're doing.
Answer: I have used source control in documentation for several reasons besides multiple writers working on the same file. Some other uses are:

Tracking and communicating changes
Deploying documentation to a web site
Integrating documentation with software builds. For example, I worked in a doc/software system that facilitated linking javadoc to other documentation.
Documentation review. Depending on the format of your documentation, you can use the same review tools that software engineers use for reviewing their code. For example, HTML documentation is relatively easy to review this way.

I also think that you should strive to divide up documentation tasks so that writers work on their own set of files whenever possible. I can think of a huge number of reasons that this approach is preferable.
Having said all this, here are my specific answers to the OP's question:
You can generate PDF from HTML or XML, given the right tools. PDF is so popular that many tools support it out of the box. Because PDF is Adobe, the best PDF generation support is from FrameMaker, alas.
If you want source control without a cloud server, you should look at Git, which is an open-source distributed system. Technically speaking, Git doesn't have a "central" repository. Instead, everybody that's interested in a set of software , documentation, and so forth gets their own copy, which is called a repository. All repositories are created equal, and each one can be branched and merged at will. Most of Git's software handles merging and conflict resolution.
I can't answer for the overhead of the tools for generating PDF, but the overhead for Git depends on the number of files and the type of each file in each repository. Internally, Git tracks changes to text files rather than the entire file itself, but Git can't do this for binary files (such as .fm or .doc).
Comment: The problem is though if its documentation its mostly not multiple files but 1 file for a user handbook, or 1 file for a technical documentation...thus it is mostly necessary for  ite on the same file which leads to problems


MVC3 System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting Font does not render but Style does

Question: I am battling with the .net 4.0 Chart Controls and am currently stuck on why the font simply refuses to render. It shows as near unreadable overlapping characters. I'm sure the font is installed in my system.
Oddly the font stlye changes in accordance with the setting.![screen shot][1]
I also had a hard time discovering the Interval property where it was removing labels above the count of 9 until Interval was set to 1.  The interval property also behaved differently than the System.Web.Helpers.Chart() control which seems to ignore the setting. Lame!
Thanks for any help.
Razor Code..
//In Razer

Controller Code...
 public ActionResult ChartSample()
    {
        var chart = new System.Web.UI.DataVisualization.Charting.Chart();
        chart.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
        chart.Width = Unit.Pixel(250);
        chart.Height = Unit.Pixel(2500);

        var series = new Series();
        series.ChartArea = "ca1";

        series.ChartType = SeriesChartType.Bar;
        //series.Font = new Font("Verdana", 8.25f, FontStyle.Regular);

        var myRandom = new Random();

        for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
        {
            var dp = new DataPoint();
            dp.AxisLabel = String.Format("{0}-{1}", i, Guid.NewGuid().ToString().Substring(0, 4));
            dp.YValues = new double[] { myRandom.Next(5, 100) };
            series.Points.Add(dp);
        }

        chart.Series.Add(series);

        var area = new ChartArea("ca1");
        area.Area3DStyle.Enable3D = false;
        area.AxisX.Interval = 1;
        //area.BackColor = Color.Transparent;
        //var labelStyle = new LabelStyle();
        //labelStyle.Enabled = true;
        //labelStyle.Font = new Font("Arial", 3f);
        area.AxisX.LabelStyle.Font = new Font("Verdana", 8.25f, FontStyle.Underline);//Why does it recognize the style but not the font!!!???

        chart.ChartAreas.Add(area);

        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            chart.SaveImage(ms, ChartImageFormat.Png);
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

            return File(ms.ToArray(), "image/png", "mychart.png");
        }
    }

Comment: I'm also considering low resolution as a possible culprit as well.
Answer: Just give your chart a back color as follows:
 chart.BackColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 255);


In Javascript find if a checkbox is focused

Question: In Javascript how can I tell if a checkbox has focus or not?
I thought there would be a method or property called isfocused. But apparently not.
By in focus I mean they've tabbed to it using the keyboard and at this point pressing space would check the box.
Comment: Why do you need to know if it 'has focus'? Does that mean they've selected the label next to it?  Only 'chec' and uncheck seem to matter.
Comment: In the javascript I'm responding to some keyboard events and I need to know if it's the last checkbox in the list.
Comment: What happens if they use a mouse?
Comment: Then I don't need to worry about it. It comes down to if they tab past the last checkbox in the list, I need to hide the list. If they use the mouse, the list will be closed anyway.
Answer: Create an event handler that is wired to the onfocus event. When it's called, set a global var to remember that it's got the focus. Write another one on the onblur event which clears the variable.
Comment: [This answer is better](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/36430561/how-can-i-check-if-my-element-id-has-focus)
Answer: There is a onfocus event that fires when an element receives focus.

<input type="checkbox" name="team" value="team" onfocus="javascript:isFocused = true;">Spurs

Answer: You might have to just hook into the onfocus and onblur events for the checkbox to keep track of when it gets and loses focus.
Answer: Here's an example of the basics of an implementation that might help you.  Note: the output stuff is just for demonstration purposes and not part of the actual solution.

<form name="test">

<input type="checkbox" name="foo" id="foo1">
<input type="checkbox" name="foo" id="foo2">
<input type="checkbox" name="foo" id="foo3">
<input type="checkbox" name="foo" id="foo4">

</form>

What has focus?


Is it possible to use Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) for text classification?

Question: I am working on the classification of fake and real news. I did use a CNN Model for this problem and got satisfactory results. But, I was just wondering if it's at all possible to use any type of GAN for this sort of a problem.
Answer: (without philosophically adding some layers on top of GANS) answer is NO.
You can expect to generate images, news etc (generative adverserial network) but not to actually perform classification
Answer: Just for the sake of argument. It is possible that you could just extract the discriminator from the GAN and use that to perform classification in quite a crude sense. However, I can't see this outperforming a traditional CNN classifier.
Answer: It is possible to use GANs to generate text (see this question), but the results are worse than normal LMs in terms of quality and diversity.
If you trained a textual GAN, it should be possible to reuse the trained Discriminator for transfer learning into a classification task, either directly reusing the features and projecting them into the new logit space or finetuning the whole model. However, I would not expect good results, as the features learned by the Discriminator are specifically aiming at uncovering the data created by the Discriminator instead of just the real data.
If you have lots of unlabeled textual data you want to profit from in your classification problem, a better option would be to train a masked language model on the data, or even better, use BERT. If your domain is close to wikipedia data (which was used to train BERT), then you could use it as-is and simply fine-tune it on your classification task. If your domain is very different, then you can fine-tuning BERT on both the masked LM task with your textual data and your classification problem at the same time.


How to use Webstorm's local server with a .htaccess file to show pages without .html

Question: I have configured the .htaccess file as per this StackOverflow article. I am now wondering how I get the same functionality for Webstorm as I have setup my links such that they don't have '.html' at the end of them which makes testing a pain.
Answer: the built-in webserver provides a basic .htaccess support. But RewriteEngine directive is not supported, please try using FallbackResource instead.
Also, you would need to install 'Apache config (.htaccess) support' plugin - it's available in Plugins repository (Preferences | Plugins, Install JetBrains plugin...).
If you need more support (RewriteEngine directive, etc.), please vote for WEB-21869 youtrack ticket. See https://intellij-support.jetbrains.com/hc/en-us/articles/207241135-How-to-follow-YouTrack-issues-and-receive-notifications if you are not familiar with youtrack


Am I supposed to have both a Library/Privileged Helper Tools & a Library/PrivilegedHelperTools folder?

Question:
Library/Privileged Helper Tools is empty. Library/PrivilegedHelperTools has 3 items belonging to known installed applications within it.
Comment: What version of Mac OS X is running? What's the Date Modified for the "Privileged Helper Tools" folder?  In Terminal you can look at the folder & visible/invisible contents with ownerships using: `ls -laf /Library/PrivilegedHelperTools/`. The folder without the spaces seems to be the default on the three Macs I personally manage.
Comment: Yeah, even with invisible files toggled, it is still empty -- at least, right now. The creation date is December 11, 2015 as is the modification date by a difference of about ten minutes. I'm running the most recent publicrelease El Capitan.
Comment: I'd just delete it then.
Answer: No, you should only have "PrivilegedHelperTools" without the spaces. Make sure the folder with spaces really is empty including hidden files, then it should be safe to delete.
Comment: Is there any kind of forensics I could run to see what is or was making use of this folder? What created it?
Answer: fseventer (compatible until OS X 10.9.x) shows you all files which get read/written at the moment and it also has filters. So by creating the filter [path ▼] [includes ▼] "/Library/Privileged Helper Tools" and running fseventer for some time, this may reveal which process considers this folder and its contents. But nevertheless with this method you won't find out if the suspicious folder is used during booting and shutdown.


How do you increase page content?

Question: I am updating my Terms and Conditions page in the footer of my website and it won't let me add any more words in the back end. As if I have reached my page, word limit. How do I increase this?
Comment: On face value this issues seems a bit unlikely, which suggests there is some aspect of what you are doing that is currently unclear in your question.  Perhaps you could amend it to provide a bit more information about what you are trying to do, which would make working out how to help easier.  Plus it would be useful to know (amongst other things) what version of ExpressionEngine you are using.
Comment: @Joey Your requirement is not fully understandable. Can you elaborate more on this?
Comment: @jcogs.eecms Just like how this text box to ask and answer questions has a character limit. It seems I have reached the character limit in my page content box and I am unable to add new information. Is there anyway edit these preferences so I can add to the existing content that is there?
Answer: Well, you should increase the Maximum characters limit from Field Options of your textbox field. By default it set to 256. You can increase it according to your requirement.
Answer: Sounds like all you need to do is add a new field.  EE supports a broad range of fields you can add to a channel - if currently you are adding text to a 'text' field it as has been noted limited normally to 256 characters.  But there are other field options that support considerably more text - such as "Text Area" or "Rich Text Field".
All you would need to do to take advantage of this is modify the definition of the channel that holds your Terms and Conditions entry to include an additional field - easiest would be to add a 'Text Area' field.  Then update your template for Terms and Conditions to output this field in place of the text field you are using currently (if that is indeed what you are doing) - just find the <code>{tag}</code> that outputs the text field currently being used and replace the content between the curly brackets with the short name of the new field.  Finally, open the Terms and Conditions entry in your EE Control Panel and copy over the current text from the Text Field to the Text Area field, and add whatever extra text you need.
HTH

How do you increase page content?


have to process 512×512 pixel image will it be possible in Qiskit. what hardware requirement will be?

Question: I'm working on Quantum image processing of satellite images. I'm completely a beginner also I'm learning it by my own that's why I need help. Can you please help me out I want to process the image of crop fields taken by satellite in Qiskit? I have done basic Edge detection by QHED. Now how I should proceed for it? Please help me.
Answer: i think you need 9 qubit for the processing!!
read this
https://qiskit.org/textbook/ch-applications/image-processing-frqi-neqr.html


workflow comments doesn't show up in the Workflow history

Question: We have a interesting issue related to the workflow comments.
We are using lion bridge workflow for the items. When the workflow command is executed and comment box is filled with comments. Data is saved in the SQL Db but the Key is stored as "comment"
While retrieving the workflow history to view the comments, It is trying to fetch from the key "Comments" hence no comments are shown.
if I update the data in the SQL column to "Comments" it comes up in the History. Does anyone know what could be the issue or from where is the comment box save picking up the value for the  "Key"
Attached the screenshot below which shows the json values in the SQL.
Comment: Is it only for Lionbridge? Or the same problem appears for all workflows?
Comment: It is the same for all the workflows.
Answer: Sitecore's workflow uses /sitecore/templates/System/Workflow/Standard Comment Template/Comment/Comments field to store the key value and when display it in workflow history it uses below config from Sitecore.config file -
<getWorkflowCommentsDisplay help="Processors must accept PipelineArgs of type Sitecore.Pipelines.GetWorkflowCommentsDisplay.GetWorkflowCommentsDisplayArgs">
 <processor type="Sitecore.Pipelines.GetWorkflowCommentsDisplay.ExtractFields,
  Sitecore.Kernel" singleInstance="false">
 <Fields hint="list:AddField">
 <Comments>Comments</Comments>
   </Fields>
   </processor>
</getWorkflowCommentsDisplay>

Ideally this field name /sitecore/templates/System/Workflow/Standard Comment Template/Comment/Comments and this value <Comments>Comments</Comments> in config should be same.
To fix this you can do any of the below two options -

Change the config value to comment as you already have comments added in the table, no major impact but need to take care during the upgrade as it is not OOTB Sitecore value.
Update the template field value to Comments but you also need to run SQL command to fix this for already added comments which are showing comment as key.
Comment: Thank you for the response.
Below is the field name in the Sitecore for the Template

/sitecore/templates/System/Workflow/Standard Comment Template/Comment/Comments

And the showconfig shows the field is pointing to Comments and that makes sense.
I am trying to find why is it storing the key value as comment where as field name is Comments
Answer: LionBridge responded
"Dev team confirmed that this issue is a bug in the connector and they are going to fix it in a future release. "
But as a workaround we can use the Solution recommended by @Mahendra


Do gamma ray bursts play a role in cosmic evolution?

Question: If gamma ray bursts were to interact with gas clouds in the early universe, might it be a relevant factor in star production?
Answer: There have been plenty of studies on the connection of long-duration GRB rates and star formation (e.g., Robertson & Ellis 2011, Trenti, Perna & Tacchella 2013 and Wang 2014, all arXiv links). The relation comes from observations of star formation history, $\dot{\rho}_*(z)$, and the number of gamma-ray bursts, $dN/dz$, with $z$ being redshift in both cases; the relationship between the two takes the form
$$
\frac{dN}{dz}\propto \left(1+z\right)^\delta\dot{\rho}_*(z)
$$
where $\delta\gtrsim1$. So it seems that there is a connection between the GRB rates and star formation.
However, that is (sorta) the converse of what you want. A 1999 paper, Efremov, Ehlerova and Palous (also an arXiv link), discuss the role of GRB energy input in triggering star formation, with regards to the LMC. Their conclusion was that,

... the abrupt energy input connected to a GRB or a continuous energy input connected to an OB association can trigger star formation. Shells related to GRBs need the higher energy to fragment into protoclusters than shells connected to OB associations, where the lower energy is sufficient. The star formation triggered by GRBs can initiate or complement the star formation triggered by OB associations.

Which seems to answer your question in the affirmative, GRBs do play a role in galactic evolution by triggering star formation.
Answer:
Do gamma ray bursts play a role in cosmic evolution?

I don't really know the answer to that. But I imagine black hole jets in general play some kind of role. Have you ever read any articles like Black Hole Creates a Galaxy?
"The astronomers think the black hole is powering star formation in the nearby galaxy by spraying its jets of high-energy particles toward it. In fact, the quasar could have triggered the galaxy's formation in the first place when its energetic jets hit nearby clouds of gas. "
There's other articles along the same lines:
"Earlier observations had shown that the companion galaxy is, in fact, under fire: the quasar is spewing a jet of highly energetic particles towards its companion, accompanied by a stream of fast-moving gas. The injection of matter and energy into the galaxy indicates that the quasar itself might be inducing the formation of stars and thereby creating its own host galaxy; in such a scenario, galaxies would have evolved from clouds of gas hit by the energetic jets emerging from quasars".
And then there's articles with a different slant:
"Blasting up to 2,000 light-years from the black hole, a powerful radio jet penetrates through the galaxy's interstellar medium. Within this jet, up to 1,000 light-years from the black hole, there is a dramatic paucity of young stars; the jet appears to have cleared a cavity near the black hole, removing star-forming gases, snuffing out star birth".
For all I know, we may owe our very existence to a gamma ray burst. And for all I know, a gamma ray burst could kill us all. Check out looking down the barrel of a gamma ray burst.


Source media support

Question: The latest Tor Browser update seems to have disabled streaming video using Adobe flash, resulting in the message "Media not supported on browser. Error code: source media support." The same happened when I updated Tor on a second computer. Is this a glitch in the updated Tor browser? Is there a way I can return to the previous version?
Comment: Flash Player is disabled by default in the Tor Browser because it does not route traffic through Tor. By using Flash Player, an attacker can see your real IP address, and link any Tor traffic back to you. Of course, it's perfectly fine to use Flash Player if you're using Tor as a proxy to access blocked sites, and don't care if an attacker can see your real IP.
Answer: Tor browser bundle does not use flash in the browser bundle, it seems to me that you previously had it installed manually (which is not recommended), then the updater naturally overwrites those settings.
Flash is insecure and is not included in the tor browser bundle.
https://www.torproject.org/docs/faq.html.en#TBBFlash
Comment: True, but I use flash (it asks for permission) to access news sources that are embargoed in my country. At all other times I maintain anonymity. The flash player is still shown as a plug-in but doesn't work in the latest iteration of the bundle, though previous updates left it untouched. I'll try some tweaks and see if I can solve it.
Answer: Flash is a plugin that requires the separate binary executable container to run it, and this fact - regardless of the old NSAPI and other issues - is a big problem and leak source. Unless you're using an isolated and fully-routed VM - you should disable all plugins of such kind, not just Adobe Flash

Source media support


What are the key features to keep in mind when writing melodies in Mixolydian mode?

Question: When writing a melody in the Mixolydian mode, you don't want it to sound as if it were in a major key. So how do you go about writing melodies in the Mixolydian mode, while maintaining the essence of the modality?
Comment: It actually is a major mode, with that M3. The only difference is the lack of leading note, having a b7 instead, giving it a bluesy sound.
Comment: @Tim Are there tips by which I can use the b7 without overpowering its use in the melody?
Answer: You flatten all the 7ths but avoid settling on the subdominant chord too much.
But really, why set out to write in Mixolydian?   Write a tune, maybe it will turn out to be Mixolydian.   Think 'Oh listen, that's Mixolydian. Interesting...' then carry on.
Maybe it will stay in Mixolydian, maybe not. Quite likely it will 'mix' a lot of modes.   A basic blues starts out feeling a bit Mixolydian.  Then we get a flattened 3rd.  Then a dominant, complete with leading note.  We know where the tonic is.  Mode is pretty well up for grabs.
Comment: OK.  Write a 12-bar blues, but only use the first 4 bars!
Comment: I need to write tunes in Mixolydian mode for my Music Theory exam.
Answer: The ^7 scale degree is lowered (flattened.) Some features or qualities that will provide...

Generally it is one scale step in the direction of the minor mode, so that's a kind of "darkening" of mood or color.
Considering the primary triads - tonic, subdominant, dominant - the dominant become minor. A minor dominant is significant as it clearly moves out of the standard major/minor system.
When the ^7 is lowered the degree name changes from leading tone to subtonic, the triad built on the subtonic is a major triad which contrasts with the diminished leading tone triad in the major scale. That means the ^7 triad becomes a stable chord.
If the normally raised ^7 leading tone is characteristic of the major/minor system - with DO-TI-DO being a common melodic/cadence pattern, then the lowered ^7 in that melodic pattern using the lowered ^7 (solfege TA) helps make the modal quality clear: DO-TA-DO.

I don't know what style you intend to write in, but you might want to look for some folk tune examples that are in Mixolydian mode. That is fairly common and shouldn't be too hard to find either at online folk music sites or in folk song anthologies. Sometimes those resources are even indexed by key/mode which will make finding examples easy.
Comment: The tunes always sound like they're in the major key. But I can't seem to get the essence of the Mixolydian mode in them. I know the flattened 7th is needed to be used, but I am not sure if I'm using it appropriately.
Comment: To some extent they should sound major. As @Tim pointed out Mixolydian is a major mode. Also, try to follow Larry's advice about the subdom `IV` chord, if you use too much the `b^7` to `^6` of `IV` it may sound like you are moving the tonic to that `IV` chord. We can't really treat this forum as a composition lab, but try having the melody outline `I` and minor `v` a little bit, also `bVII`, and use the DO-TA-DO formula, and keep clear your tonic is that `I`. Compare with folk tunes as I suggested.
Answer: I need to write tunes in Mixolydian mode for my Music Theory exam. (s. comment to L. Payne)
Even that Grace will have passed her exam meanwhile hopefully with success I'd like to  add how helpful  it is to write yourself melodies in a certain mode and using the triad of the 1. and 7. degrees: soresotire so fadofala so... etc.
Comment: Haha yes, I did pass my Music Theory exam, & sadly, I was inactive on this site for a long time since then. But it would be great if you could elaborate on this :)


Mega upload does not upload file and test location

Question: I have two issues with Mega upload. I use EE 2.10.1 and Mega Upload 2.5.5.

I added a MU field to a channel. When I click on 'select file', nothing happens. I don't even get an error in the console. Are there known add-ons that interfere with MU or is it a problem in MU itself?
In the field properties you can choose an upload location and test it with the link 'test location'. When I click the link I get the error $.fancybox is undefined in my console. This is because the module tries to load fancybox from EE's core, but it doesn't exist there anymore. I solved this by adding fancybox to the themes folder and added js and css with the add_to_head function. Also I changed
$.fancybox.showActivity();

to
<code>$.fancybox.showLoading();
</code>
Answer: I found out what was wrong. The url to the upload directory was not correctly set.


Visualizing $\cap_{i = 1}^\infty A_i = (\cup_{i = 1}^\infty A_i^c)^c$

Question: As the question title suggests, how do I visualize$$\cap_{i = 1}^\infty A_i = (\cup_{i = 1}^\infty A_i^c)^c?$$Let's start with the right-hand side. So I have a bunch of circles representing the $A_i$'s, right? Then I take the complements of each one, so for each $A_i$, the corresponding $A_i^c$ is the entire ambient space with the $A_i$ removed. I have trouble visualizing that taking the union of all those $A_i^c$'s then taking the complement of that union is our desired intersection $\cap_{i = 1}^\infty A_i$. Could anybody help me visualize this?
Comment: how do you even "visualize" $\cap_{i=1}^{\infty} A_i$? :P
Comment: Also, I would tend not to "visualize" this at all; to me, this comes down to logical definitions.   In particular, I would prove it as is done [here](http://math.stackexchange.com/a/660687/81360).
Comment: I think it's easier to consider the equivalent
$$
\left( \bigcap_{i=1}^\infty A_i \right)^c = \bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i^c
$$
Comment: In my opinion, don't visualize an infinite set. Reduce this to just two sets and think about the Venn Diagram.
Answer: A graphical example of Robert Israel's explanation.
Some sets $A_1$, $A_2$, $A_3$, $A_4$ and their intersection $\cap_i^\infty A_i$.

Now we calculate their complementary (only the shaded parts).

Finally we join them and calculate the complementary of the resulting set.

We see that $\cap_i^\infty A_i = \big(\cup_i^\infty A_i^\complement\big)^\complement$
Comment: This is an amazing answer -- what software did you use to make these pictures/where did you find them?
Comment: Thank you. I've done it with CorelDRAW (it is propietary software). However, I suppose that it wouldn't be that difficult to do it with a free one such as Inkscape, for example.
Answer: It's easier to visualize $4$ than $\infty$, but the principle is the same.
Draw $4$ circles (and make sure the intersection of all $4$ is nonempty).  Note that this intersection is the only region that is not outside any of the circles.
Answer: It's easier, I think, to let $B_i=A_i^c$, so that your identity becomes $\bigcap_iB_i^c=\left(\bigcup_iB_i\right)^c$. Now draw your picture, with circles for the sets $B_i$. The set $\bigcap_iB_i^c$ consists of those points that are not in any of the circles, and so does the set $\left(\bigcup_iB_i\right)^c$.


Bash: ./filename : Cannot execute binary file

Question: I couldn't execute a fortran compiled code in ubuntu 11.10 32 bit.
Error message is
bash: ./filename : Cannot execute binary file.

I've installed the gcc and gfortran libraries too.
Could anyone help?
$ file um
um: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped

Comment: Please type `file filename` and report results.
Comment: That does not looks like a native Linux program. Try using wine.
Comment: Please type `file um.exe` or `file um` (whichever is the name of your binary file). However, likely the generated binaries are for one reason or other Windows binaries. Also, if the program is public, you can post the link to the sources. Or just post the makefile here.
Comment: filename is um.exe and result is bash: ./um cannot execute binary file
Comment: this executable is compiled using a make file which compiles a set of fortran codes. this exe is made in fedora machine
Comment: the output is :um: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 2.6.9, not stripped
Answer: As you can see from the output of file um that you posted in a comment, your binary is a 64-bit binary.
32 bit systems cannot run 64 bit binaries, it only works the other way around.
Comment: This is the most common reason I've seen for this problem, using `file` will identify this quite quickly.
Comment: So there is no solution to this?
Comment: @JohnMerlino Either provide Hardware with the correct instruction set and a OS which enable it (AMD64 Hardware and OS for AMD64 Programs). or simulate/emulate/virtualize it (Virtual Box/JVM/...) or get a version for your instruction set. You can not run Software for other Instruction set as native Programs.
Answer: Another solution for people who are having this problem except the part about unmatched bits is that running the file without the command "bash".
Just use chmod +x 'path to the file' and then run 'the path to the file' in terminal.This is how I solved my problem.
Answer: For Googlers:

32-bit or 64-bit? Check withfile yourbinary
Permission to execute? Do chmod +x yourbinary
Path correct? Do ./yourbinary
Answer: Try making the file executable
chmod +x um.exe

Then try running it
./um.exe

But if this is a exe file compiled for Windows, you probably need to install Wine.
Answer: Another possible source of this error: trying to run a Linux binary executable on a Mac, or vice versa.
For instance, trying to run the true binary from my Mac on an Ubuntu box that I SCPed it to:
$ ./mactrue
-bash: ./mactrue: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

If you've downloaded a binary and executing it fails with this error, check if you've downloaded the version for the wrong OS.
Answer: For me, copying the binary into Applications on my Mac then into my Path messed it up on my Mac. I'm pretty sure the Applications folder turned the binary into an Alias instead of an actual binary.
-bash: /usr/local/bin/terraform: cannot execute binary file
mike$ file /usr/local/bin/terraform
/usr/local/bin/terraform: MacOS Alias file

I unzipped the binary from my Downloads again and just mved it to my Path and it worked fine.
mike$ file /usr/local/bin/terraform
/usr/local/bin/terraform: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

Answer: For me, I was working in a Vagrant (VirtualBox) VM but had unplugged the portable hard-drive on which the VM image was stored -- I plugged in the harddrive and rebooted the VM and my binary was executable again.
I guess a large part of the VM was loaded into memory as I could still use it and execute system binaries.


Does the gravitational acceleration change value with height?

Question: My prof asked me to do a graphic of a given function and I have to just to vary the gravitational acceleration $g$ and the height $H$. If I know the interval in which $H$ is defined :$[500,2000]m$, how can I find the value of $g$?
Sorry for my English!
Answer: Small elaboration on t.c's answer:
If you say that
$$F = \frac{G\ M_e}{R_e^2}m = g\ m$$
at the surface of the earth $R_e$, then at other heights you can write (for $h << R_e$):
$$\begin{align} \\
F &= \frac{G\ M_e}{(R_e+h)^2}m\\
&= \frac{G\ M_e}{R_e^2(1+\frac{h}{R_e})^2}m\\
&\approx\frac{G\ M_e}{R_e^2}(1-2\frac{h}{R_e})m\tag1\\
&= g (1 - 2\frac{h}{R_e})\tag2\\
\end{align}$$
The trick at (1) is to use a first order expansion (the first term of the Taylor expansion) to show the relationship between the force of gravity at sea level and at greater heights. So you see it drops off linearly with height, and the coefficient of the slope is twice the ratio of the height to the radius of the earth. Now you don't need tons of significant figures to calculate the drop with height - because you can take the $g$ term out altogether and draw the sketch:
Comment: @t.c - the loss of precision is the second term of the expansion: $3\frac{h^2}{R_e^2}$. At a height of 6 km that's barely 0.1% of the first order term.
Comment: +1. This is a clever mathematical way of expressing F as a function of H. What's the precision loss resulting from taking only the first term of Taylor expansion?
Answer: You can use the Newton's law of gravitation which is given by:
$$F = G \frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2}=\left(G \frac{m_1}{r^2}\right) m_2$$
The gravitational constant, $G$, the weight of Earth, $m_1$, and the radius are constants, so:
$$G \frac {m_1}{r^2}=(6.6742 \times 10^{-11}) \frac{5.9736 \times 10^{24}}{(6.37101 \times 10^6)^2}=9.822 = g$$
You can adjust $r^2$ according to the height you require. The higher the $H$, the higher the $r$, and the lower the $g$.
Comment: I'm not familiar with that method. I tried expanding $(H+r)^2$ and got $\frac{Gm_1m_2}{H^2 + 2Hr + r^2}$, and got stuck. If you would write an answer I'd be thankful.
Comment: Thank you! So I have to consider the sum $(H+r)^2$?
Comment: Yes, that's right. @MariaQ
Comment: I would highly recommend doing a series expansion and showing the result as "g at sea level" and the "fractional change with height" - I personally am not a fan of writing things in such a way that I need 5 or more significant figures in a calculation in order to get the answer I need. I'm old school like that. Might I suggest you incorporate this into your answer - otherwise I may have to write my own...


How can I figure out if a Safari extension is using unreasonable memory/cpu?

Question: How can I figure out if a Safari extension is using unreasonable memory/cpu? I'm not really experiencing any unreasonable sluggishness, but I am starting to pile up on the extensions and was considering pruning the most performance draining ones just for good measure.
Answer: Disable the extension.  Run Safari for an hour (normal use) and note the kind of cpu/memory usages you get from it (using activity monitor or top).
Enable the extension.  Repeat.
Answer: You can also use Instruments and attach it to your safari instance and start from there.
Comment: How do I attach it to my safari instance? Does it still work nowadays when extensions are external processes?
Comment: Sorry @gio91ber I have stopped using macOS around 2016 so I have no idea if you can still do this.


Is there a way to force X to use Intel integrated graphics while mining Ethereum on discrete Radeon card?

Question: Update Did some further digging and found out the solution to this problem for the old fglrx driver: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=170470.60 This however does not work with the AMDGPU drivers, which don't come with switchlibglx prepackaged as far as I know.
Update 2 — Found this possible solution but it didn't work. Getting either one of 2 things: A, a black screen when I run systemctl isolate graphical.target, or B, if I proceed to blacklist the driver, the inability to mine.
Update 3 Opened /var/log/Xorg.0.log in a VT (with systemd default temporarily set to multi-user.target while this problem persists) ― extremely bizarre "no screens found" error. Wonder if AMDGPU drivers are actually trying to force X to use them on startup; hopefully not.
Update 4 Found these instructions in the Arch Linux forums when researching the exact message re: not finding any displays — now, instead of exiting abnormally, the system simply hangs when I try to run startx. An improvement, but still doesn't work.
Update 5 The above hang happens for about 5 minutes, then it exits with a "Connection refused" error. Pulled up ~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log — it actually says "Server terminated successfully" despite startx output saying that's what needs to be consulted.
Update 6 Googling site:bugs.launchpad.net "amdgpu" turned up this bug report which may be related to this problem. Attempted the workaround there ― nope, didn't work.
Update 7 Running journalctl | grep gdm | grep EE | less turned up some rather valuable information in helping solve this problem:
(EE) open /dev/fb0: Permission denied

WTF is the AMDGPU driver doing to the permissions on the framebuffer?
Update 8 Still no solution; placing bounty.
Update 9 Tried Wayland too; in fact that's what the live media defaulted to. GNOME does not use Weston, so weston.ini won't work when it comes to forcing use of i915 and ignoring amdgpu.
Original description starts below.
Alright, so I just built a mining rig that has Ubuntu 18.04.1 on it (tried pre-release 18.10 but for some reason AMDGPU fails to build DKMS modules in that case even with known workarounds like version spoofing applied, so had to just downgrade). The card is working fine; mining ETH at between 24.2 and 24.3 MH/s even with just one Sapphire Nitro Radeon RX 480 (which has a much better fan than the stock card and can thus sustain a high hashrate when fan speed is cranked all the way up).
The system also has an Intel Core i5-8400 CPU on it — which not only has six cores but also has on-chip graphics — running on the MSI H310-F Pro motherboard. Before I got the AMDGPU drivers configured to run that card, GNOME Shell was running perfectly fine. After I got the discrete GPU configured for mining, however, suddenly there's nothing but VTs — no GNOME, no GDM, no X, no nothing. Is there a way, therefore, to force X to use the Intel integrated graphics chip on the i5-8400 in order to be able to both use the desktop and mine at the same time? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Comment: Very recently I noticed my Ubuntu 18.04 with Nvidia drivers offered Wayland at login (initially it didn't).  Using Wayland, a switch to the i915 driver is made, and the non-graphical CUDA samples still work, so maybe just switch to Wayland?
Comment: +1 for hardest working + most updated question with no answers.
Answer: I FINALLY got it to work, via the purge-the-driver-and-reinstall-in-headless-mode method:
cd /home/realkstrawn93/Desktop/amdgpu-pro-18*
amdgpu-pro-uninstall --purge -y
./amdgpu-pro-install --opencl=legacy,rocm --headless

This installs ONLY the OpenCL component of the AMDGPU-Pro driver and not the display component.


Uninstall Wordpress

Question: I am still at the beginning and just wondering how to uninstall totally WordPress and then reinstall it.
I installed first time from this tutorial.
Comment: I'm sure arzyfex wanted to say `DROP DATABASE wordpress`
Answer:
go to your html folder
cd /var/www/html

check current files in the html folder using ls command
ls

delete wordpress installation folder from there .
you can use terminal to do that.
sudo rm -rf *

remember -rf forcefully delete all sub-directories .
-r > remove the entire directory and all its contents, including subdirectories.
f -> force delete ( only if you need ) .
and * delete is saying "delete all " so be carefull when you perform these actions .
I just add * assuming you don't have any other files inside html folder other than wordpress installation.
or you can open nautilus there using
sudo nautilus .

and delete all files there , make sure to not delete other folders if you have any .other than wordpress installation files.
delete database from mysql .
goto mysql using
mysql -u root -p

it will prompt asking password . type your mysql password if you have any added when you install mysql . else just press enter without password .
check your databases using
show databases;

and find your database in this case i assume it is call "wordpress"
drop it using
drop database wordpress;

it will prompt successful message .
thats all .
when you install wordpress next time in your localhost , be sure to install inside to folder . not directly into /var/www/html
you can achieve that by
sudo mkdir /var/www/html/wordpress

and move to wordpress when you moving
sudo rsync -avP ~/wordpress/ /var/www/html/wordpress

let us know if you have any trouble.
Answer:
Make sure you keep backup before doing this. find folder called wordpress in /var/www and delete them using rm -rf or if you have extracted the content of wordpress in /var/www then simply remove contents of /var/www/html/.
If you have installed wordpress using apt-get then use sudo apt-get purge wordpress.
remove the database from mysql using DROP DATABASE wordpress.
then follow the procedure to install.

Uninstall Wordpress


Is official generic System V ABI document from SCO?

Question: Looking at the revision history from SCO's website, is that true SCO is the one who maintains the ABI standard? If not, who are the people maintaining the standard?
Comment: Related: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18133812/where-is-the-x86-64-system-v-abi-documented
Answer: The Xinuos page hosting the System V generic ABI states that

The contents of these chapters is being actively maintained (in part) through an industry committee chaired by Intel. This group's efforts are greatly reduced from when they first were extending ELF to support 64-bit architectures, but there is still some active development.

(Xinuos was formed after the acquisition of OpenServer and UnixWare from the SCO Group.)
You'll find links to most of the current generic and processor supplement ABIs on Wikipedia's ELF specifications page and on Debian's tuple definition page.
Comment: Yes, SCO are the original authors, Xinuos are the current owners, and the specs are "maintained" by an industry committee chaired by Intel. Note though that, when it comes to ABIs, "official" is whatever is implemented by the operating system you're interested in on the CPU you're interested in, and how that's implemented by the relevant compilers.
Comment: Well I saw the links on Wikipedia and on OSDev wiki, but none state those specs are from official sources e.g. SCO hosts the documents, but I'm not sure if they are the maintainers.
Comment: It seems like SCO is the original authors, as older GABI documents states that: "Copyright 1990 − 1996 The Santa Cruz Operation, Inc.  All rights reserved.". Example: http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/elf/gabi41.pdf
Answer: SCO is dead and has been dead for a long time, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Cruz_Operation. The most recent edition of the Linux Standards Base (LSB) is at http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/lsb.shtml. Check the LSB Core specifications. Note that recently many Linux distributions have begun to distance themselves from LSB.
An ABI is very very architecture-dependent... and sometimes compiler-dependent (C++ is notorious for different compilers having different ABIs). You should find and read the specific documentation for the processor architecture of and possibly language of interest.
Comment: The LSB does not say anything about ABI. The processor architecture is relevant when defining an ABI, but not sufficient. The ABI defines things like which registers are used for passing arguments, and which register is used for returning a function result. A CPU can have several ABIs.
Comment: @JohanMyréen +1 — and an operating system can support multiple ABIs on one CPU!
Comment: Actually LSB Core specifications include such things as Low-Level System Information, Machine Interface, Function Calling Sequence, and Operating System Interface etc. The relevant documents then provide nice hyperlinks to the source documents. Despite the downvotes, I still think that it's the best starting point to understand the ABI.


Caching and serving pre-rendered vector tiles in pbf format

Question: I want to serve vector tiles server in pbf format. For that I used Mapnik-vector-tiles which is bundled by avecado. Using avecado_server i can render pbf tiles on the fly using

./avecado_server -b 2 test/xml/vector_imposm_nocollect.xml 7789

But the full planet avecado_server is not sufficient to server on the fly because it takes more time to render each tile.
So I need pre-render tiles using ./avecado and cache it in disk and server those cached tiles with separate server.
Avecado generate tiles in pbf format.
For this I prefer to go with Tile Stache but I didn't know how to use Tile Stache for this scenario.
What is the best way to cache and serve the pre-rendered tiles?
Answer: Probably you are looking for this page: This page lists implementations of software that work with vector tiles using the Mapbox protobuf format.


Are isobaric, isochoric, isothermal, adiabatic processes reversible if they all take place quasi-statically?

Question: From my understanding so far, I think that a quasi-static process is one where the system is in thermal equilibrium with itself as well as the surroundings and the process takes place infinitesimally slow. So, my question is are these different processes reversible? Are all quasi-static processes reversible?
Answer: In addition to being in thermal equilibrium, the system must also be in mechanical equilibrium with itself as well as the surroundings, which generally means minimal pressure differentials.
As @Samalama pointed out, all reversible processes are quasi-static but not all quasi-static process are reversible.  An example is a quasi-static process involving friction (e.g. piston/cylinder friction). Although the process can be carried out very slowly friction is dissipative, thereby generating entropy.
Hope this helps.
Answer: If I remember my thermodynamics correctly, all reversible processes must be quasistatic but the opposite is not the case.
For a process to be reversible, the entropy produced must equal 0. However, some quasistatic processes may produce entropy even though the system is in thermal equilibrium and the change occurs infinitesimally slowly. I recommend you to look for some examples of this online, there are plenty! :) A place to start would be the Wikipedia article on quasistatic processes, whilst this https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0911/0911.5010.pdf ("Are all Quasi-static Processes Reversible?") might be a bit more thorough.


Post to users facebook on achievement

Question: If a user wants to do a quiz on my website and when he answers 3 questions correctly, he can post this to Facebook. If posted to Facebook by the user, then I need a call back to my website so I can reward the user.
Which steps does this process take? I think the following, can you confirm?

User enters my site
User answers questions
On the last page it says 'congrats, well done' And i allow the user to click a button that links somewhere. Where does it link to?
By clicking on the button a message gets posted 'Facebookname; Correctly answered 3 questions and is rewarded!
I receive a callback or if not possible i inmediately after the user presses button in step 3 reward the user.

Is this flow correct? Can more details (flow wise, technical, API references) be added?
Answer: You can accomplish that very easy by using Open Graph actions and objects. But the process is quite long to explain here. I suggest you read here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/concepts/opengraph/

Post to users facebook on achievement


What is meant by 'have been to'?

Question: What is meant by "have been to" in the following sentence:

They have already been to Paris, haven't they?

Does it mean that:

They have recently visited Paris?

or

They have just come back from Paris?

Thank you
Answer: It could mean either of those and it could also mean They have visited Paris at some point in the past.
The key significance of the present perfect is present relevance, but the exact meaning of that present relevance can vary.
In your 1., the present relevance is that their being back is seen as a continuing consequence of their returning.
In your 2., the present relevance is that their trip was recent, and is seen in the frame of recent things.
In my 3., the present relevance is that they are currently in a state of having been to Paris at some point in their past.
Answer: "They have already been to Paris"
The general idea that is conveyed in this sentence is that they have been to Paris at some point in the past.
However, we do not know at what point in the past they visited Paris. Therefore, both of your interpretations could have potentially happened, but the sentence "They have already been to Paris, haven't they?" does not commit itself to only one of these.
By including "already" you are also creating an air of disappointment. To me, this sentence is trying to show that they were all hoping to go to Paris together, but because they (the other people) have already been (at some unknown point in the past), they would prefer not to go again.
Saying this, the sentence could just be neutral as well, by simply talking about the fact that some people they know have been to Paris in the past.

What is meant by 'have been to'?


Using larger resistor values

Question: I'm connecting a Raspberry Pi to an LED and this video tutorial says that I need 270 Ω resistors. I only have 100 Ω, 1 kΩ, and 10 kΩ resistors with me. Is it okay if I use the 1 kΩ resistor?
Comment: Which tutorial?
Comment: This one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NvDTZIaS4
Answer: Choosing the series resistor for an LED:

You need to know the forward voltage of your LED (Vf in datasheet) This will vary depending on the colour. For example a typical red LED has a VF of ~2V, a blue LED a Vf of ~3.5V.
You then need to decide on the current you wish to run your LED at. It needs to be under the maximum continuous current (Imax) specified in the datasheet. A typical 5mm indicator LED (as seen in the tutorial) has an Imax of 20mA.
As a rough guide, for this type of LED, it will be just visible at 1-2mA, and quite usable for an indoor indicator at 5-10mA. At 20mA it will be very bright (painfully so if an ultra-bright LED viewed too close)
Lets say you go for 10mA, and have a red LED with a VF of 2V. I'm assuming the the Rpi supply voltage is 3.3V, so the pin output high will be 3.3V. The resistor goes in series with the LED. The voltage across the resistor will be the supply voltage minus the LED Vf.  With this information, to calculate the resistor value we use Ohm's law:
R = V/I = (3.3V - 2V) / 0.010A = 130Ω
In the case of the supply voltage being lower than the LED Vf, the above formula does not apply (supply V must be >Vf)  The LED will not turn on (if just under Vf a small amount of current may flow, see the I-C curve below, it's not a perfectly sharp corner at the point marked Vd [aka Vf]) See edit at end for solution.

So you could use the 100Ω resistor and have an LED current of 13mA, ((3.3V - 2V) / 100Ω = 13mA) which should be within specs for most standard LEDs. With the 1kΩ resistor, the LED will be rather dim at only 1.3mA.
Just in case you wonder why the LEDs voltage seems to be fixed at a certain voltage, it's not quite that simple, but a useful approximation. Since an LED is a type of diode, when the voltage across it is lower than it's Vf, the LED looks like a very high impedance and no current passes. When the LED reaches it's Vf, the current rises very sharply for tiny change in voltage, so it suddenly looks low impedance. This means if we put a resistor in series with it, we can choose a wide range of currents for only a small change in Vf.
To illustrate this, have a look at this diagram which displays a typical diodes I-V curve (current in relation to voltage):

You can see when the voltage reaches the point Vd, the current rises sharply for a very small change in voltage, so we can "choose" a current anywhere in this range and get a similar voltage.

What about driving LEDs with a higher Vf than the available supply voltage?
In this case, we need to step the voltage up, and fortunately there are many cheap ICs available to do this for us. They cone in various varieties, and use linear, constant current, buck/boost (switched inductor) and charge pump (switched capacitor) topologies.
For example, the NCP5006 will drive up to 5 white/blue LEDs in series  from a 2.7V - 5.5V supply:

For a multi-channel option that can control each LED individually, the charge pump based TPS60250 will drive up to 7 white/blue LEDs from an input of down to 3V. I2C is used for the control interface:

These were picked at random from over 700 options on Farnell (under "LED driver" and boost/charge pump options selected)
Comment: @boardbite - Yes, it's quite a common issue - I added some more detail on how to drive the LEDs in this situation. Ideally you will have at least a few hundred mV of headroom, otherwise regulating the current becomes difficult, so for an LED with the same Vf as supply voltage, use a boost/charge pump driver.
Comment: Let's say you have a voltage of 3.3V output at the regulator on your board. If a (typical) blue LED has a forward voltage of 3.5V, how will it work in this scenario? E.g., the calculation of LED current then would be (3.3V - 3.5V)/100 ohm, giving a negative value. Or qualitatively, the forward voltage is GREATER than the voltage we're applying... A little confused about this.
Comment: @boardbite - see edits. The supply voltage must be higher than LED Vf, so an LED with a Vf 3.5V won't work for 3.3V.
Comment: Oli, interestingly though, it seems a LOT of the RGB LEDs (smd-types found on Digikey, Mouser, etc.) have 3.3V or even 3.4V as the forward voltage for the Green and Blue bits of the RGB. But I thought 3.3V was a fairly common circuit-wide voltage -- do you have any comment on this? At the least, are LEDs with Vf exactly = 3.3V runnable on a 3.3V supply? (appears to be the case looking at the sharp curve in your Answer)
Answer: 1K will work fine.  Alternatively, three 100 ohm resistors in series will give you 300 ohms, which is so close to 270 that you won't know the difference.  But either way is fine if all you want to do is to observe the LED turning on or off.
Answer: We'll need Ohm's Law and Kirchhoff's Voltage Law (KVL) for that. KVL says that the total of the voltages in a closed loop is zero. The RPi's output voltage is a given, that's 3.3 V. The LED's voltage is also more or less constant, though it depends on the color, for a red LED 2 V is a typical value. Then there's only one component left and that's the resistor, which, due to Kirchhoff, will have 3.3 V - 2 V = 1.3 V across it.
The resistor controls the current through the LED. Ohm says the current is voltage / resistance, or to put it differently resistance = voltage / current. An indicator LED will often be specified at 20 mA (70 % of Digikey's 15 000 LEDs are). They will work at less current but shine less brightly. So let's assume you have a 20 mA LED and you choose for 20 mA because you also want to see it light up on a bright sunny day. Then the resistance should be
\$ R = \dfrac{V}{I} = \dfrac{1.3 V}{20 mA} = 65 \Omega \$
If you only have 100 Ω resistors you can make a 65 Ω by placing two 100 Ωs in series and a third one in parallel with that. Or you can try with just a 100 Ω, then
\$ I = \dfrac{1.3 V}{100 \Omega} = 13 mA \$
In any case always check the LED's datasheet for the forward voltage drop and maximum allowed current. The forward voltage you can also measure by using a safe value for the series resistor (the 1 kΩ is fine).

Using larger resistor values


Is it necessary for an article about a problem to address solutions as well?

Question: I am writing an article which deals with some of the problems of the city. Since I have a word limit, is it necessary that I have to include the solutions of the problems too? Is it advisable? Or can I just tell the problems and leave it there?
Comment: Who is the audience? Is it for university, a magazine, a newspaper?
Answer: It depends on a lot on what you're trying to say; what structure and focus you give your article.
Basically, if your article prompts the question "why isn't anybody fixing this?" or "can't anything be done," then by omitting solutions you'll be giving an incomplete picture - possibly an actually misleading one, if e.g. the city is actively working on solutions, but your article gives the impression that nothing is being done.
But if your article is more on a different focus, e.g. "What is life like in a city with problem X?" or "What challenging issues is the city facing?", then detailed solutions aren't required - to a certain extent, they're beside the point.
Basically, you should be able to give a nutshell-summary of your article - just a couple of sentences. Look at that summary. Is detailing solutions crucial to fleshing that summary out? Or would that be moving away from your core focus? That's your answer.
If you're having trouble deciding, I'd suggest you try to write a single quick line saying what the status of solutions are. "The city is working hard to solve these problems, but it will take time to have an effect." Or "Solutions exist in theory, but nobody is implementing them." You can be very vague and general.
See where you can fit that line into your article. See what effect it has. That'll let you judge whether, in context, it's a line that needs to be expanded on, or one that can be omitted entirely.
Answer: It depends on what your purpose for writing the article is or the intended outcome. (If you don't have one yet, then consider creating one, so your article is more powerful.)
Are you:

trying to highlight problems so that people rally around creating solutions,
or are you trying to make someone look bad (e.g. a mud slinging campaign against a politician),
or are you trying to get people to take specific actions,
or pressure people in charge to take specific actions (i.e. adopt the solutions),
or is this part of a series of articles where you cover different aspects of the issue?

If you are focusing on evoking emotion (rallying people or drawing attention to a scapegoat), then you don't really need to give a solution, since the whole point is to get people upset or concerned.
On the other hand, if you want people to take specific actions (items 3 & 4 above), then outlining a solution would be most effective, especially if you tie it to what people can do (or what leaders must do) to solve the issue.
If this is part of a series, you may want to mention that you will cover possible solutions in future articles. (If you have a word limit, suggest to your editor that you create a series of articles.)
Whether you include a solution or not in your article really hinges on whether people feel complete when finishing your article, or whether they start looking for the rest of the column on another page.
I personally like mentioning possible solutions in articles I write, but I typically concentrate on problem-solving. But there are many example of articles that simply report what the issues are without proposing a solution. The choice usually comes down to the intended outcome of the article.
Answer: It would be a good idea to use a structure in your writing.
-Topic sentence
-Problem
-Your opinion
-Resoloution
When writing a newspaper article you should keep things formal and precise. In newspaper's journalists often exaggerate so it doesn't matter if you exaggerate things too much.
Furthermore, stories in a newspaper are placed in order of importance. Most important stories at the front and less important stories at the back.Details are given in order of importance, with the least important details at the end of the article, this allows readers to skim over the start of the article to gain the essential facts before deciding to read on. At the end of the article you should summarise the facts and opinions of the events.
When writing a newspaper use quotes.
When writing a headline consider using the following.
Stereotypes/Archetypes
Incomplete Sentences
Figurative langauge
Exaggeration.
The language features of a newspaper article often use clear and concise writing are in 3rd person. You should definitely provide your own opinion on the solution of your cities problems, and maybe get some quotes from other people about their thoughts.
I hope this helps.


Container shape not available

Question: I'm looking to use Draw.io to create some process maps. I can see from tutorials / other posts on this forum that I should use the Container shape, under General Shapes, in order to get a swimlane.
However, that shape does not appear to be available to me.
Is there something additional I need to do / install to get that shape?
Answer: Look into the advanced library.

Container shape not available


What ESB systems work the best for .Net stack

Question: What Enterprise Service Bus would you use and why?
Answer: I'd recommend looking at NServiceBus.  It is a powerful, open source service bus solution that uses a one-way messaging approach.  It can be scaled from a small single machine installation to extremely large grid-based high throughput scenarios.  It sits on top of MSMQ and MSDTC but can be used with a variety of other transport mechanisms, including Windows Azure. , but there is work being done to put it on Azure.
Since version 4 optional design and monitoring tools are now available and are collectively named the Particular Platform.
Some key advantages:

It's easy to deploy
Very testable
Robust and proven in use
Elegantly handles version changes
Is no longer open source and free, has very cost efficient commercial options (which are included with for BizSpark Program qualifiers).  There is a licence for startups on their Licensing page.
Has excellent samples, documentation and a strong community to get you started, and there are also training courses available.

Disadvantages:

As far as I know, it only runs on Windows (although Azure options coming in v3.0 and are already on the trunk if you're brave).
Requires MSMQ and MSDTC to be installed

Edit 2019:
NSB is still going strong and is an excellent choice.  But, in 2019, I would now recommend looking at Rebus which is a excellent free and open source .Net service bus.  I have been using this now for over 5 years and it it simple to use, has advanced features and also the benefit of being free!  It also runs on .Net Core.
Comment: NServiceBus is not open source, in the sense that you can get the source code and use it freely.  It's open source in the sense that you can download the source code and use it subject to a specific commercial license or a restrictive Express license.
Comment: Sadly not as free as it once was.
Comment: Josh - no, it is now commercial. However it does offer a free startup licence, which you can get from their licensing page.
Comment: @EricJ. You are essentially talking about the difference between OSS and FOSS. If the source can be viewed (regardless of licence) it is by definition OSS.
Answer: Somewhat late to the party but I would use Shuttle ESB (http://shuttle.codeplex.com/).
Mostly because I wrote it :)
It is a distributed ESB with a highly decoupled architecture.  The core assemblies have no direct dependencies on third party assemblies although they may be incorparated by using some adapter interfaces.
IQueue 'out-of-the-box' implementations include Msmq and Sql Server.  Pub/Sub is there.  Distributor is there.  Includes a management console and health monitor.  Message Forwarding is there.  There is even CRON job scheduling.
Answer: NServiceBus is fairly popular in the .Net landscape.  We are just starting to incorporate it, so I can't really offer any opinion on it yet.
Answer: You can also use PServiceBus because it provides a simple api for communication between application with variety of transports(MSMQ, RabbitMQ, Redis, RavenDB, TCP, WebService, HTTP, Email, and custom adapter option) and transformation(xml, csv, json, text). It also provide a javascript api/rest for use in the browser. For more information and samples usage visit http://pservicebus.codeplex.com/
Comment: +1, I'd never heard of PServiceBus before, I guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.
Answer: You should look into the Microsoft BizTalk ESB Toolkit.
I've used is successfully on several projects. There really is not a better powerhouse product for enterprise development out there (on the windows platform at least).
Comment: Can you substantiate, with some detail, your phrase: "There really is not a better powerhouse product for enterprise development out there"?
Comment: ESB has Enterprise in the name but it doesn't mean that you want to use it only in enterprise. Price of BizTalk based solution is enormous.
Comment: BizTalk is expensive, but compared to other solutions like IBM WebSphere, the cost is a fraction of what it might be. That being said however, it is all dependent on what kind of functionality that you need plus what stack are you already bought into as well.
Comment: BizTalk is expensive, requires specialised skills to develop, deploy and manage.  The unit testing of your solutions is not a straight forward as other options. I strongly suggest NServiceBus unless you have BizTalk development and management skills along with pretty deep pockets!
Comment: There's also the small matter of BizTalk using brokered messaging, which makes it actually not a real *bus*, so you can kiss your performance goodbye if you're working with high-throughput scenarios. Nothing against BizTalk, FWIW - it's a great tool for integrating legacy architectures and individual systems that already have their own, incompatible messaging systems, like a SalesForce or Oracle implementation, where it makes no sense to write reams of mapping code. But for new product development, where you're already control of all the pieces, I wouldn't touch BizTalk with a ten-foot pole.


Number of samples (n) and number of data points (N)

Question: I have a question: I am doing some research on the FFT and had an inquiry. If I have a fixed number of samples per period, what is the effect of increasing my data points, say from 128 to 256? I know that my resolution increases since it is the sampling frequency divided by my number of data points. In other words, the distance in HZ between two adjacent data points decreases. Is there anything else? Or am I looking at this wrong. Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Comment: What do you mean by "fixed number of samples per period"? Do you mean a fixed sampling rate? Or a fixed total sampling window?
Comment: I want to take out the dsp tag (which is obvious) and add a new tag:  NYQUIST - You must sample more than twice the rate of the highest frequency that FFT will properly analyze.  A fixed scanning rate can be divided by 2 to figure out what your top frequency will be properly represented in the data.
Comment: @KevinWhite a fixed sampling rate. I apologize for the poor choice in words.
Comment: @SDsolar -- Nyquist is not a necessary tag -- or rather, it's not any more necessary than it is on ANY question where data is sampled.
Answer: Yes you will get better resolution as the total sampling period will have doubled.  You will also get a reduced noise level in each bin as the quantization noise is spread over more bins.
kevin
Answer: If you increase the number of sampling points 2X keeping the same sampling rate, you will have the same bandwidth covered (top frequency remains the same in accord with Nuquist-Shannon-Kotelnikov sampling theorem), but you will have 2X better resolution of signal spectrum details.
If you increase the number of points 2X but sample 2X faster, you will have the same frequency resolution, but cover 2X of bandwidth.


How to read in British English 172147000122.25?

Question: Is my spelling right - a hundred seventy two billion one hundred forty seven million a hundred and twenty two point a quarter? Thank you.
Comment: You wouldn't say "point a quarter", you'd say "point two five". You also say "one hundred and twenty two" not "a hundred and twenty two".
Answer: Since the British officially agreed that a billion was a thousand million rather than a million million, many years ago, you would say:

One hundred and seventy two billion one hundred and forty seven million one hundred and twenty two point two five.

Using "a" in place on the "one" is acceptable in any or all cases.
"and a quarter" is acceptable in place of "point two five", but not "point a quarter". 'point twenty five' is also mathematically wrong, not just wrong in English.
Comment: This is correct, but could perhaps do with some commas - to indicate the natural pause in speech - after "billion" and "million".
Answer: Regarding "million" and "billion", it might be worth learning about "long count" and "short count". Those, as well as larger numbers, such as "trillion", etc. had different meanings in the two counting systems.
For instance, in the long count system, a billion is a million million, as stated, and what users of the short count system call a billion (a thousand million), the long count users might call a "milliard". There's also a "billiard", extremely likely having no connection at all to the game with that name.
Various different nations use one of these schemes, long or short.
If one is a translator, or involved in finance, one must beware of assuming the wrong system to be in use!
Those who have listened to the BBC's American service for a long time would probably remember their usage of "thousand million". Perhaps they considered "milliard" to be confoundingly obscure to us.
Apparently, Great Bnitain used the long count, but changed to short count to accommodate U.S. listeners, because we use the short count. (They also no longer use "lorry", which we know as "truck".)
I apologize for providing no refs., but Wikipedia is probably a good source, and "long count" should be a good search term.
It might be that long count is becoming obsolescent, but with the number of nations in the world, one can't be sure. There has been at least some general advice, if not a comprehensive list of who uses which.
India has traditionally dealt with large numbers in its own way. They apparently freely use the terms "lakh" and "crore" for fairly large numbers, but neither is a multiple of 1,000. "Lakh" might be 100,000, and "crore" 10,000,000, but don't assume that to be correct.
Moreover, their traditional system of grouping ("pointing off") quite large numbers is complex. One grouping would be 1,000,00. if I recall correctly. That just might be their traditional way of writing a lakh.
I don't recall anything regarding decimal fractions.
Comment: This doesn't seem to address what the question asked. And who says that the British don't use the word 'lorry'?