Why real distinction in God gives act and potency composition

Question: So Thomists believe that there are no real distinction between perfections in God as He is pure act and He isn't composed in any manner. But Im not getting how real distinctions between perfections can lead to act and potency composition.
Comment: When act and potency are really distinct (as in the created world), they can be real parts that compose a whole, a creature with potencies and actions. In God, act and potency are one, and they are also one with his fully actual essence, and so cannot be his parts. They are only distinguished analogically by us.
Comment: What does mean "act and potency composition"? Can you refer to a precise question from Summa Theologiae or to a specific commentary on Aristotle?
Answer: If the perfections were really distinct, then it would be possible for them to subsist apart from each other. Then there could be a being with completely unsurpassable power, but which would lack perfect goodness or universal knowledge. This metaphysical possibility would then constitute an abstract, but real, act/potency division in the perfectly unified divine nature—there would have to be an external determination that the one nature is what It is—which would be in tension or conflict with said unity.
Or so the theory of divine simplicity goes. A corollary of the doctrine of pure actuality is that of impassibility, which is that God is all-determinative without being determined in any way by external conditions (and possibly even internal ones other than pure identity). If God has no inner variables such as could assume a diverse range of values in the first place, then "once" God is what It is (which is for all eternity, after all), there is nothing left to "decide" (nor was there ever, really, save it be something like the will to create). But then God's action will be all from this "once," "before" anything created does its own work, so no action of the divine nature is otherwise a response to the activity of any created thing whatsoever.
Consider also Aquinas' claim that God "is subsistent being itself" (ipsum esse subsistens). In this case, existence is not a predicate of things that exist, not firstly that is, but rather things exist by being predicated of some Existence, which Existence is then like a substance for those things (a subject of which they are metaphysically predicated, that is). God would be this via the creation relation, since creating something (from nothingness, no less) is causing something to exist. Now, if God is Existence, it seems as if God is Actuality, too, in some way, or then again the act/potency distinction itself has been blurred to oblivion by the ambient doctrine of simplicity (on behalf of unity and aseity, even) and so in God, the form of substance and the form of attribution are one. One might argue: if the one distinction is erased, why not the other (the act/potency one)? Again, there is an appeal to the doctrine of simplicity at the heart of the matter, since simplicity is for Aquinas what infinity is for Scotus:

As a first approximation, we can say that divine infinity is for Scotus what divine simplicity is for Aquinas. It's the central divine-attribute generator.


How to install the latest Git version on Ubuntu 10.10?

Question: Synaptic just gives me version 1.7.1, but I want version 1.7.3 without the need to download and build from sources.
Comment: I wonder why is your question not specifying the reasons why do you want a version of software newer than the one from the official repository.
Answer: A way likely to work would be downloading from upstream and running the usual
$ autoreconf
$ ./configure --prefix=/PATH/WHERE/YOU/PUT/YOUR/STUFF
$ make install

inside the unpacked source directory.
EDIT
Since in your edit you now explicitly write that you do not want to build from source and want 1.7.3 tagged on 2010/10/21 things look differently.
Ubuntu's git package seems to come directly from Debian's and Debian just migrated 18.104.22.168-2 to TESTING a week ago. You might have some luck with asking for a version bump in the Debian bug tracker, and could directly use that package in Ubuntu then.
Comment: You get updates for git too, and just like for each and every other application it takes a while until the latest release finds it's way into the repositories.
Comment: I'm lazy and prefer the usual installer way. Why there is such a nice package manager on Ubuntu Linux when I need to build from sources? For each and every application which is installed by default I get updates, but why not for Git?
Answer: Debian and Ubuntu often do no track the absolutely latest minor revision of a package that is actively developed unless there are significant feature fixes or security updates (and even in the even of such changes they will often backport the update for the significant change to the revision they do carry rather than picking up a whole new revision. This is particularly true of Debian/Stable and Ubuntu/Released in general and Debian/Testing and Ubuntu/Next close to release time (when they are in a "feature freeze" state).
To get a later version you have a few options:

Take the risk of using the later release of the distribution (i.e. Debian/Testing or Ubuntu/Next - Squeeze and Natty respectively at the moment) even though it is still officially in testing. This is not generally recommended, especially for production environments.
Use Apt Pinning (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PinningHowto) to take just the packages you want from the later revision while keeping the rest of your system at the current stable/released level. This is less trouble-prone and option 1. You may still need to do a compile step if LibC has been updated significantly between the releases, but this is still easier than using the upstream source as you get the Debian/Ubuntu tweaked version (they sometimes tweak initscripts and related utility parts to better fit with the rest of their system layout and chosen standard tools) and apt/aptitude can bring down updated source for you when there are updates in the repository.
Compile from the upstream sources as honk suggests. This will get you the latest and greatest stable (or bleeding edge beta/alpha) version, but it more effort at the outset and the onus will be on you to monitor the project for security updates and other reasons to need to recompile.

Ubuntu/Natty currently carries 18.104.22.168-2 (which probably means "220.127.116.11 with at least two back-ported updates from later revisions"), the same as Debian/Queeze.
You could also try the version from Debian/Sid (though this is currently the same version) but this is not recommended. "Unstable" is given that name for a reason - packages may be broken at any given time as it exists specifically to find significant breakages before packages are promoted to Testing.
Answer: After having added following line
deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian squeeze main

to /etc/apt/sources.list I was able to install Git 18.104.22.168 using Synaptic.
Comment: you should be careful with adding "testing" sources to sources.list -> it is better to install from source instead.


Predicting the next track using a vanilla RNN in PyTorch

Question: For some context, I have a set of 37 playlists of 12 tracks long. Each track has been hand-selected in a certain way. Early songs in the playlist are generally more chilled and as the playlist progresses tracks begin to increase in tempo. I decided to commit to a project and build a deep playlist generator.
I am implementing a many-to-many vanilla RNN in PyTorch and am seeking clarity on how to train the RNN one playlist at a time, where each track is then parsed and the model predicts the features of the next track.
Pictured is a Many-to-many RNN - for this case - each red box is the current track's features and the opposite blue box is the predicted next track's features:

The feature set (9), X, looks like so:

The target y simply mirrors the above feature set of the next track.
For my RNN Class it looks like so:
class RNNEstimator(nn.Module):
    def __init__(self, input_size=9, hidden_size=30, output_size=9):
        super(RNNEstimator, self).__init__()

        self.hidden_size = hidden_size

        self.i2h = nn.Linear(input_size + hidden_size, hidden_size)
        self.i2o = nn.Linear(input_size + hidden_size, output_size)

    def forward(self, inp, hidden):
        print("inp", inp.shape)
        print("hid", hidden.shape)
        combined = torch.cat((inp, hidden), 1)
        hidden = self.i2h(combined)
        output = self.i2o(combined)
        return output, hidden

    def initHidden(self):
        return torch.zeros(1, self.hidden_size)

This is taken from the PyTorch tutorials page. However, I have adapted the RNN Class to output 9 features rather than a binary classification.
The playlist dataset has been processed into a tensor of shape torch.Size([37, 12, 18]), and stride (12, 1, 444)) - meaning 37 playlist, 12 tracks longs with 9 X_features + 9 y_features (18).
The train_rnn function:
# Model Initiation
device = torch.device("cuda" if torch.cuda.is_available() else "cpu")
model = RNNEstimator(9, 30, 9)
optimizer = optim.Adam(model.parameters(), lr=0.001)
loss_fn = torch.nn.L1Loss()

# Training function for RNN
def train_rnn(model, train_loader, epochs, criterion, optimizer, device):

    model.train() # Make sure that the model is in training mode.

    # training loop is provided
    for epoch in range(1, epochs + 1):

        for batch in train_loader:

            total_loss = 0

            # get data
            batch_x = batch[:, :9, :].float().squeeze()
            batch_y = batch[:, 9:, :].float()

            batch_x = batch_x.to(device)
            batch_y = batch_y.to(device)

            optimizer.zero_grad()

            hidden = model.initHidden()

            # For each track in batch/playlist
            # TODO: THIS NEEDS WORK
            for x, y in zip(batch_x, batch_y):
                output, hidden = model(x, hidden)
                loss = criterion(output, y)
                loss.backward()
                optimizer.step()
                total_loss += loss.data.item()

        if epoch % 10 == 0:
            print('Epoch: {}/{}.............'.format(epoch, epochs), end=' ')
            print("Loss: {:.4f}".format(loss.item()))

What I am trying to understand is how to train this model one playlist per batch?
I am getting an error from the cat function like so:
IndexError: Dimension out of range (expected to be in range of [-1, 0], but got 1)

The model should parse each track (t) - via the forward method - then output the next track (t+1). The hidden state will reset each playlist given they are independent of one another.
Answer: Even though you want to run with a batch size of 1, your input (x) still needs a batch dimension. Try:
output, hidden = model(x.unsqueeze(0), hidden)


90s (or early 2000s) scifi (mini)series where a boy and old man chase a black guy in metal suit

Question: I'm looking for a 90s (or early 2000s) scifi (mini)series where a boy and old man chase a black guy in metal suit. I think they were going through different dimensions. I remember part of it, but I don't think I ever saw how it ended. I remember my friend telling me there was a twist at the end. I think they were trying to find something and he was always ahead of them..
Comment: I think it was either blu-ish or red, like Tychus on starcraft 2, the memory is a bit fuzzy though
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2307/2457256111_ff91d622a8_m.jpg
Comment: Metal suit as in shiny or just metallic as in (black/grey) body armour?
Answer: Your question was actually asked and answered already on another StackExchange site (Movies and TV, currently in beta). The answer?...
Josh Kirby... Time Warrior!
The images from rumandwrite's answer to the question should look familiar:

The twist?...

 The guy in the suit was actually the good guy, and the white-haired scientist was evil!
Comment: Geez, thanks a lot. This is exactly it! Been looking for that for years... Again, a BIG thanks!


Curvature and length contraction paradox

Question: I was thinking about the Flat-Earth model and I confronted with the following issue. Consider a sphere and an observer who is leaving the sphere. Using length contraction principle from special relativity, I supposed the observer would see the sphere has shrunk parallel to the movement direction and so it seems like a disc. The curvature that the observer would measure can make arbitrary small in some points by choosing the rapidity large enough. Although, according to GR, the curvature is an invariant within all observers but the inertia observer calculate identical curvature at all points on the sphere, however, the moving observer would seemingly measure different value for the curvature. I always thought GR would reduce to SR if we restrict in local neighborhoods and it seems we can actually perform this experiment in a local way. I am sure I have made some mistakes in my conclusion. I would be thankful if you could clarify this for me.
Answer: The Riemann curvature tensor is a tensor field defined on a $4$-dimensional manifold. However, the curvature I was talking about is the Riemann curvature tensor defined by the induced metric on a $3$-dimensional sub-manifold. The sphere is the $3$-dimensional sub-manifold that is described by $t=const.$ in their chart, while the disc in the second observer's coordinate is described by $t^\prime=const$ where in general are different. So, the $3$-dimensional curvature need not be invariant under Poincare transformations in $4$ dimension.


What do you use to create a website architecture?

Question: Sure, we can use a simple bulleted list or a mindmap.  But, there must be a better, more interactive way.  What do you use when starting your website architecture?
Answer: From a physical and logical architecture standpoint, nothing beats the whiteboard, drawing up the layers/tiers of the application in boxes.  Then create an electronic copy using Visio.
After that, iteratively dive into each layer and design it using appropriate tools and techniques.  Here are what I commonly use:

Database: ERD
Business Objects (and Service Contracts): UML class diagrams
UI: prototypes & wireframes
Workflows and asynchronous operations: flowcharts and sequence diagrams
Answer: I like to sketch out a design with pen & paper. Seriously. No computer. Layout the home screen, including a navigation bar. From here, think about what you'd like 2nd and 3rd tier pages to look like.
I've found that this process of writing things out on paper really helps me think about what I want out of the site. Try to come up with templates for a few of the screens. Then create an outline of the content you would like to include.
Answer: Paper prototyping baby - post-its on a whiteboard (so you can move them around and keep the relationships fluid without having to modify the page ideas themselves). Then of course, once you get down to the nitty-gritty of interface design, 'zoom in' on each of those post-its and  use them to represent individual elements. Good for usability testing, avoiding code duplication, clean structures...just about everything. Plus it's cheap and very, very fast.
Answer: By "architecture", do you mean the initial site map? If not, please post a clarification and I'll edit my response.
Our tech team starts development after our creative department has done their stuff. Part of what we get is output from the information architect. He passes off a graphical sitemap, a detailed sitemap as an Excel sheet, and a set of wireframes in a PDF.


Couldn't render template "ideas/share.tt: file error - site/wrapper: not found"

Question: This is an example in Chapter 8 of The Definitive Guide to Catalyst and the example from the book nor the source code for the example from the Apress site actually work.
I too new to Catalyst to even guess what this is saying as I've tried everything I can think of and nothing works. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
[info] SneakyCat powered by Catalyst 5.80029
You can connect to your server at http://linux-0lwf:3000
[debug] "GET" request for "/" from "127.0.0.2"
[debug] Path is "/"
[debug] Rendering template "ideas/share.tt"
[error] Couldn't render template "ideas/share.tt: file error - site/wrapper: not found"
[error] Caught exception in SneakyCat::Controller::Ideas->share "Can't call method "search" on an undefined value at /home/atomic/SneakyCat/script/../lib/SneakyCat/Controller/Ideas.pm line 48."
[error] Couldn't render template "ideas/share.tt: file error - site/wrapper: not found"
[debug] Response Code: 500; Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8; Content-Length: 9615
[info] Request took 0.038715s (25.830/s)

Comment: in your view you define WRAPPER => 'site/wrapper' but the file name is most likely something like site/wrapper.tt
Answer: Do you have a file site/wrapper?  Looks like it couldn't find one where it looked.


Fuslogvw.exe tool for .Net does not show UI

Question: I'm trying to use fuslogvw.exe on a Win 2008 R2 system.  It shows the process started and using CPU but no UI appears.  I've tried the 32bit and 64bit version in and not in admin mode but no luck.  I don't see anything in the event log as a problem.
Comment: @unforgiven3, apart from the fact that the Assembly Binding Log Viewer "helps you diagnose why the .NET Framework cannot locate an assembly at run time", I've used it before when trying to work out why a plugin wasn't loading in a product I work on. It's *very* much programming related.
Comment: @unforgiven3 Name one. Instead of just voting to close, suppose we actually be helpful and direct the person to a better place?  (for the record, I don't think there is one)
Comment: @Rob, even if the question was "Visual Studio 2008 won't run on my PC", I still would have voted to close it. Sorry, but I don't equate general troubleshooting with programming.
Comment: @Rob, there are other sites in the StackOverflow trilogy that would be better suited for general troubleshooting.
Answer: If you cannot get the UI to work, it is not actually needed to configure and view the fusion logs. You can set the fusion log settings in the registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Fusion key, and then view the logs directly from the directory you have configured (as they are just HTML files).
If you want to configure the logs using the registry, you need to set the following keys (from here):

LogFailures = 1 (DWORD Value)
This turns on failure logging so that failed attempts to locate all assemblies are logged.
LogResourceBinds = 1 (DWORD Value)
This turns on failure logging so that failed attempts to locate satellite assemblies are logged. This is not logged by default.
ForceLog = 1 (DWORD Value)
This turns on logging for all assembly binds - both failures and successes. By default, only failures are logged. This is useful if you want to verify that an assembly is loading from a specific directory instead of from the global assembly cache.
LogPath = "C:\fusionlogs\" (String Value)
If you want to view the fusion logs easily, set the LogPath to a directory to output them to. By default the log files go into the Temporary Internet Files folder of the current user's profile. For an ASP.Net or a .Net Windows service application, the only way to view the fusion log is to use this option. This is because they run as users other than the current user. The directory specified must already exist and have appropriate file permissions to be written to. For ASP.Net applications, the ASPNET user must have write permission to the directory. If the permissions are wrong, there will be no log output.
Comment: +1. This is one of the most helpful posts I've read. Hunting down FUSLOGVW and getting it on to production machines is the bane of my life, and now I don't have to :) Thank you!
Comment: Most useful answer on SO and perhaps the whole internet. A1+++ would use to solve binging issues again
Answer: I recently ran into the exact same issue. fuslogvw.exe would start but seemingly freeze on startup.
As it turns out, I had forgotten to turn off logging last time I was checking binding logs. So I now had in the range of 40000 folders in Default and a similar amount in Native (and hundreds of thousands of log files). I can only assume that the log viewer was trying to load all of these up as it was starting and that's what stopped it in its tracks.
Deleted the logs and the log viewer starts up as expected.
Comment: I guess folks don't want to 'fess up their mistakes... I'll admit, this was the cause of my problem. Great answer!!


Firebird linked tables in Access 2010

Question: I have multiple data sources in multiple databases that I have been tasked with correlating for business analytics.  I currently have ODBC connections to two (one Pervasive, one Firebird) that I can use successfully in Excel.  A DBA friend suggested I use Microsoft Access to create linked tables and perhaps make creating lookup tables between the data sets easier.
I've run into a problem.  Although Excel uses the ODBC connection to Firebird fine, Access can't create the linked table through the Create Linked Table dialogue.  I get the following error message:
ODBC--call failed

[ODBC Firebird Driver][Firebird]Dynamic SQL Error
SQL error code = -104
Token unknown - line 30, column 13
when (#-104)

I take this to mean that whatever query Access is using to attempt to create the linked table is failing to be interpreted correctly by the Firebird database, but I don't get to see any of the code because Access is handling it.  I seem to recall reading that Access tend to fall back to SQL query structure when it can't figure out how to talk to certain databases, but I can't find the source.
I did see a post by Max Vernon with regards to linked tables in SQL server 2008.  He suggested using Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, but I have been unable to locate the driver.
I guess my question is this: Is it possible to manually configure linked tables in Access, do I need to get the OLE DB interface working (I have yet to figure out where it is to install it), or is there another method I should be exploring?
Answer: It is very easy to connect, just configure ODBC. However, when you install Firebird Server, you must select the option to copy files to the Windows directory.

Firebird linked tables in Access 2010


Would you recommended supplements for the average Joe/Jane?

Question: I see a lot of people using pre-workout boosters and I tend to question myself if they are really necessary for the average gym user. I can understand it for pros though as they potentially have more frequent training.
While using them you are actually tricking yourself to feel better. Wouldn't it be better to just listen to your body and react accordingly?
Comment: What sort of boosters are you talking about? Caffiene? Aspirin? Steroids? Creatine?
Comment: I think he just means pre workout supplements in general.
Comment: Ah I see, maybe the question is not precise enough. ... Lets try this way: Any Kind of physical or psychological positively stimulating substance not naturally available in any organic form (in that combination and amoun) - aka any pre-workout suplement examples: jack3d, mesomorph, black blood, narc and others...
Comment: Ah. That does make sense. However, that really starts getting into opinions, particularly asking if we use anything in particular.
Answer: I think the first question that needs to be answered is "do workout supplements have any effect other than placebo?". The answer to that depends on the supplement and what you consider to be a reasonable effect. Creatine is a classic example of a supplement that has a proven effect with relatively few side effects. If you're pushing your limits, creatine can push you a little bit further. Protein supplementation works in a fairly obvious manner — if you don't have sufficient protein in your diet, your body can't manufacture muscles — but most casual (non-vegan) lifters are probably already getting enough protein.
As for commercial products, they run the gamut. Many of them are just protein powder or creatine, sometimes with a B.S. ingredient added so that they have a "proprietary blend". More dangerously, some of them are essentially prescription pills, whether they've isolated a particular chemical compound and added it in (Jack3d's purported signature ingredient is ostensibly extracted from geraniums although it's been proven that they'd have to process several tons of geraniums for each bottle, so it's more likely they're just dumping the chemical in) or, in some cases, they're actually grinding up pills and adding them to the mix. Supplementation is a very unregulated industry, and the companies involved pay good money to lobbyists to keep it that way.
Of course, there are also non-supplement options. Taking a painkiller or anti-inflammatory such as aspirin can let you lift longer because you don't feel the pain as much. Caffeine can boost your performance. Glucose will keep you moving. Notably, many of these chemicals are added to your typical supplement mix and then sold at a substantial markup. In the end, other than protein and creatine, that's how most supplements provide the effect that they do.


I've combined dust with other, valuable UTXO's. Can I de-link them?

Question: Long ago, when Bitcoin was only a geeky novelty with very little fiat value, I mined some BTC in a mining pool. There were several transactions resulting in (fractions of) newly generated coins sent to my single address.
I recently found my old private key and swept it into a new wallet. Looking at the blockchain explorer, I now see that a few of the old address' inputs were single-Satoshi dust transactions.
I understand that I could have simply not spent those specific UTXO's, but now it's too late. Is there any method for me to minimize any privacy (correlation / de-anonymization) issues now that it's done?
Answer: I would consider running them all through a mixer


what are some examples of how evolution's limitations prevented species from climbing to the absolute highest peak on the fitness scale?

Question: In this answer, the author argued that plants are green instead of red or any other color because of some  limitations of the evolutionary process. what are other examples in which the physical and functional characteristics of an organism were a direct result of limitations of evolution?
Comment: What does "absolute highest peak on the fitness scale" mean? There really is no such thing, unless perhaps you think of a biological [grey goo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_goo) sort of scenario.
Answer: The "limitations" of evolution is somewhat subjective, but a couple of the important ones include random mutation, "greediness" (chasing short-term advantage), and environment.
Evolution is a complex process by which mutations occur which either 1) benefit an organism, increasing reproductive success or 2) harm the organism, decreasing reproductive success, or 3) cause no noticeable change. Over time, these collected mutations bring about significant phenotypic changes. There's no goal or underlying purpose, though. In your example of plants, chlorophyll could certainly have evolved a structure that absorbed light in different wavelengths, but they ended up doing just fine with their current absorption spectrum.
Another example is the difference between the vertebrate eye vs the octopus eye. For mammalian eyes, the optic nerve covers part of the retina. This is commonly known as the "blind spot", and has obvious negative consequences. For Cephalopods, on the other hand, the optic nerve is located behind the retina, so they have no blind spot.
Both of these examples are the result of random mutations coinciding with ideal (or non-ideal) environmental situations. The author of the post you cited is accurate to say that evolution is not an engineer, working towards a goal. The only goal of evolution is "What maintains life?" It's merely millennia of trial and error, and occasionally calamities occur, causing extinctions and loss of genetic potential.
I really think ANY characteristic of any species you care to name could be considered a result of evolution's limitations.
Answer: The term you are looking for is evolutionary baggage.
An easy example is the crappy color vision in mammals and to a lesser extent primates, for a long time mammals were only small nocturnal insectivorous (or at least that is all that survived),  during this time mammals lost two of the light sensing pigments in cone cells, leaving only two, primates had a strong enough pressure that a mutation creating a new pigment was favored giving use three, however two of them are very close to each other and overlap, and a whole portion of the spectrum is still invisible to us (ultraviolet) but non-mammals can see it. Birds see colors everyday you and I will never see.
Another mammal example is we turned the gene that would let us keep growing new teeth into control genes that give our teeth complex shapes, which was an advantage to our ancestors who were tiny short lived insectivores, but now mammals can't just grow new teeth to replace old ones like everything else can. there is no way to get these genes back without re-evolving them from scratch or giving up genetic controls on tooth shape, the first is simply to unlikely to occur and the second would be too detrimental.


Job Interview after dropping out of Master's Program

Question: I completed my B.Sc. with average marks, then tried half a year in vain to get an entry level Data Science job, since most of them have a requirement of 3 years of work experience, and the ones without usually are given to those with years of work experience. As a proactive measure I decided to enroll in a Master's program to collect work experience as a working student. I actually landed a very good ML/Data Science job and collected 2.5 years of work experience. Since I did not take any exams the university kicked me out at that point and now I wonder if the whole thing was such a good idea after all. How do I talk about this in a job interview? Are there any real chances of getting another job after not taking exams for 2.5 years?
Comment: What's wrong with being honest and tell them exactly what you told us?
Comment: Are you asking how to frame goofing off for 2.5 years in grad school?  Or do I misunderstand what not taking exams means?
Comment: Does this answer your question? [Interviewing for positions without a formal degree](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/78058/interviewing-for-positions-without-a-formal-degree)
Comment: Not at all uncommon.
Comment: It would help to indicate where you are located, such as which country
Comment: Use the university placement service as companies coming to interview students have an expectation of getting people without experience. Recent ex-students should be able to use that service.
Answer:
Since I did not take any exams the university kicked me out at that point

The university did not kick you out. You chose to leave university because you got an interesting job offer.
The fact that you never told the university that you were leaving, and the fact that the university administratively "kicked you out" when they noticed that you were not taking exams, is a purely formal detail that prospective employers do not care about.
During an interview, explain why this choice made sense for you, and talk about the work experience that you have.
We have to make many choices in life, and it is always tempting to second-guess ourselves and see our past choices as failures, because every time we chose option B, it meant giving up on option A. But choices are not failures. They are choices. Do not frame your past choices as failures during a job interview.
Answer:
Honestly.
Try smaller companies to build a CV. They are hiring more than big companies now.
If you aren't going to get the Master's, consider getting certifications.

Build on the experience that you already have. 2.5 years is a long time in tech.
Answer: You're a BSc graduate with 2.5 years of work experience.


Installing node with nave

Question: Can nodejs be installed via nave on your raspberry ?
Does node 0.10.x is working fine when installed this way ?
Answer: I have not used it on the pi, but there's a node binary in the raspbian repository:
» apt-cache show nodejs
Package: nodejs
Version: 0.6.19~dfsg1-6
Architecture: armhf
Maintainer: Debian Javascript Maintainers <email@example.com>

You should be able to install this very easily with apt-get install nodejs.  The version is more than 6 months old, however.
If that isn't good enough, the node.js crew themselves appear to maintain more recent versions pre-compiled for the pi:
http://nodejs.org/dist/
Currently, the "latest" version links to 0.10.3, for which there is no pi binary.  However, there's one for 0.10.2, and there's also one for 0.11.0.  Nodejs follows an odd/even version numbering meaning the odd minor numbers are the development branch and the even ones the stable branch.  Most people will want the stable.
Those tarballs contain a directory tree:
bin/
lib/
share/

You can unpack this into /usr/local/ on the pi.  As root (or with sudo):
mv node-v0.10.2-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz /usr/local/src
tar -xzvf node-v0.10.2-linux-arm-pi.tar.gz
cd /usr/local/src/node-v0.10.2-linux-arm-pi
mv bin/* ../../bin/
mv lib/* ../../lib/

Check if you have a /usr/local/share/man/man1, and if not:
mkdir -p /usr/local/share/man/man1

Once that's there:
mv share/man/man1/* ../../share/man/man1/

Done.  Check:
> file /usr/local/bin/node
node: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, ARM, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), for GNU/Linux 3.1.10, not stripped

Should work, and it does; node on the command line acts as a javascript interpreter.  If you've already used node on linux you are good to go.  If not, you do not need to use a pi centric tutorial, the oodles that apply to linux generally should be fine.  However, worth mentioning is this blog post about setting up a node server to run as a boot service, etc, specifically for the pi.  Note that the author of that installs into a dedicated /opt/node directory and not /usr/local.
Comment: I've used this link http://blog.rueedlinger.ch/2013/03/raspberry-pi-and-nodejs-basic-setup/, it explains how to install the binaries.
Comment: @Luc : Hey that's great, I've added some stuff about that.
Answer: Node.js can be installed on the Pi.
I am not sure about your second question though, I will edit this answer as more info comes up.
This is how you do it:

First we need to download the SSL dev libraries.
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev

Now we need to download the latest stable release of Node.js
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.6.15/node-v0.6.15.tar.gz
tar -xf node-v0.6.15.tar.gz
cd node-v0.6.15
export CCFLAGS='-march=armv6'
export CXXFLAGS='-march=armv6'

We will use the nano text editor to edit a file.
nano deps/v8/SConstruct

Edit lines 82 and 83 to match the following:
 'all': {
   'CCFLAGS':      ['$DIALECTFLAGS', '$WARNINGFLAGS', '-march=armv6'],
   'CXXFLAGS':     ['-fno-rtti', '-fno-exceptions', '-march=armv6'],
 },

Then comment out lines 157 - 162
Now comes the longest step.
 make
 make install

Lastly, do write this in the terminal:
pacman -S nodejs

That should install node.js I have not tested it, but it should work. Here is my source.
Comment: Latest node is 0.10.x
Comment: Thanks for this solution, I'll try it. I hope the automated installed using nave will be available soon on raspberry though :)
Comment: Also: Looks like node maintains binaries for the pi in that http://nodejs.org/dist/ repository, so you don't have to compile it from source (unless you want to).

Installing node with nave


Got weird noises with auxiliary jack while charging in the car

Question: I'm using Galaxy Note. And I got this weird noise with auxiliary jack while charging in the car.
There is no noise while music is playing, and there is no noise if the charger is unplugged.
How do I solve it?
Comment: Just to verify, you have an audio cable running from the 3.5 mm out on the phone to the 3.5 mm aux input on the front panel of your stereo? Or is it some custom installation? What's your charger?
Comment: @Sammy: Yep, audio cable running from the 3.5 mm out on the phone to the 3.5 mm aux input on the front panel of my stereo. The charger is just a USB car charger that fits to the lighter plug.
Answer: After a lot of Googling around, I found 2 possible solutions:

Hardware solution: Kensington Noise Reducing AUX Audio Cable - haven't tried it myself. Yet some guys at android central report it worked for them.
Software solution: Aux Noise Filter app - Tried it on my Galaxy Note. Works like a charm.
Comment: That Kensington looks promising. It probably has a ground loop isolator built into it. I'm not sure how that app can solve this type of problem. I'd say it cuts off some low frequencies when no music is playing and no other audio service is running, like receiving a phone call. I mean there's not much more you can do, software-wise. This is a hardware problem. It's a way of sweeping the problem under the rug. I'm glad it worked out. But in the long run you might consider getting that special audio cable or get the grounding checked out.
Comment: Yeah man, grounding is a real bitch! Humming noise problems in audio are often caused by some grounding issue. The cause is not easy to locate or identify. There's ground from the charger coming in to the phone, and then there's ground coming out of the phone via the 3.5 mm audio plug and enters the car sound system via the aux in. They need to have the same potential. But a ground loop isolator can often solve the issue. But I didn't expect to see this problem with a smartphone. So much for being "smart".
Comment: @Sammy: Can this grounding issue cause damage to the battery?
Comment: No, it can't damage your battery. It can't damage anything, it just causes interference problems. You don't even know you got a problem until you try connecting some audio equipment. Audio equipment, especially in cars, is sensitive to interference. Humming is just one of these problems, and it's usually caused by improper or not optimal grounding situation (from audio point of view). A professional car audio installer should be able to work it out. Check out [ground loop (article)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_loop_%28electricity%29).
Answer: I had this problem on my Galaxy S4 - whining noise from alternator (changing pitch with engine revs) plus random static. It only occurred when the charger was plugged in the USB port, and when no music was playing. I installed Aux Noise Filter and it worked a treat.
Answer: Now, that is weird!

Play some music or unplug the charger.
Try a different cable.
Try a different charger.

I won't tell you to change your car, your stereo, or your phone, as those are expensive. But you can always try it out in someone else's car, if that's an option. You have to narrow down the problem by using trial and error method.
Comment: Hi Sammy, thanks for the quick answer. I Tried both different chargers and cables. Didn't helped.
Playing music or unplugging the charger are not an option sometimes (when GPS is running for example).
Comment: Playing music with the volume set to zero maybe? Weird work-around, but better than nothing until you have a real solution.
Answer: Same problem. Tried changing the charger and audio cable. Only buying a ground loop isolator worked. The PAC SNI from Amazon solved my problem, and got high reviews too.
http://www.thoughtworthy.info/BlogPost/158/Android-Phone-Buzzes-in-Car-While-Charging-And-Listening-to-Music


pls help me to understand

Question:
I have a question about my Biblical Hermeneutics Stack Exchange post: why god is like to provide a way to lie?
Comment: Hi John, questions on this site should *start from a text*. So there are two problems: 1) It does not clearly show which text it is about. 2) It does not ask a clear question. I would suggest editing your question so that it is clear and easy to understand.
Comment: The best thing to do is to go and find the Bible passage you are interested in, and read it carefully from beginning to end before writing your question. Perhaps you are thinking about [Genesis 27](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2027&version=GNT), but you will read that God does not tell the people to do any of these things - they make the decisions themselves.
Answer:
pls help me to understand

There are multiple reasons why your post got closed. Yesterday I posted a comment there, but I see it has been removed.
The question itself ("why god is like to provide a way to lie?") is unintelligible even after reading the description and comments. If this is just a matter of proficiency in English, feel free to formulate your question also in a language with which you feel comfortable (and therefore proficient). Many contributors understand multiple languages, which increases the chances of us making sense of what you are asking.
The comments reflect that (1) the post required others to do guess work, and (2) you were confusing the biblical passage at issue. These two factors tend to frustrate any efforts because in Hermeneutics the context and subtleties very often are decisive. The requirement about providing a specific Bible reference is for purposes of setting up a common ground, or starting point, and thus preempt misunderstandings of the sort "oh, that's not what I was asking about". Making sure that we are all "on the same page" (pun intended) is important.
The description contains statements that seem to be truncated.
Also your subsequent edit adds confusion. The edit states that "the question is about birthright" whereas the title refers only to the god and lying. The presumption that "god like[s] to provide a way to lie" seems unrelated to matters of birthright, which is why you should outline the link between these two.

pls help me to understand


Value of $\pi$ in a redifined space

Question: We know that $\pi$ is defined as the ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle. Also the circle is defined as collection of points at a fixed distance from a given point (centre). Here let us assume the centre to be origin for sake of simplicity.

We know that, in euclidean space the distance is defined as $\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$. Now if we redefine the distance as $\sqrt[n]{x^n+y^n}$ the shape of the circle (as defined above) would change and so would the value of $\pi$. Can someone derive the formula for any general $n$.

I proceeded with taking a circle of 1 unit radius. Equation of this circle would be $x^n+y^n=1$. We just have to find the perimeter of this circle and divide by $2$ to get the required $\pi$.

But the catch here is that the distance is redefined. So, if we try to use integration to calculate perimeter by taking small elements, the length of this small elements would be $\sqrt[n]{x^n+y^n}$ and not $\sqrt{x^2+y^2}$.

Due to this I get a complex integral which I am unable to solve analytically. Is there any other way round?
Comment: This concept is related to the concept of the [$p$-norm in finite dimensions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lp_space#The_p-norm_in_finite_dimensions).
Comment: This is also very related to [this question](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2044223/measuring-pi-with-alternate-distance-metrics-p-norm).
Comment: Thanks. But does that mean that analytically solving $\pi$ is not possible yet?
Comment: I'm unsure, as I know nothing about this field.  [This answer](https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/254620/pi-in-arbitrary-metric-spaces?noredirect=1&lq=1) discusses a paper which involves numerically computing it for various $p$, that paper may have references to the infeasibility of the analytic solution.
Comment: "Is there any other way round?" Is that a pun?
Comment: Haha @GerryMyerson . Let's say it is.
Answer: The definition of $\pi$ is not

"the ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle"

One of its possible definitions is

the ratio of circumference and diameter of a circle in the Euclidean geometry.

In hyperbolic geometry (as an example) the circumference of a circle of radius $r$ is
$$2\pi \sinh(r).$$
(Here the parameter of the hyperbolic plane is $1$.)
So the "hyperbolic $\pi$" is not
$$\frac{2\pi \sinh(r)}{2r}=\frac{\pi\sinh(r)}r.$$
Such a "$\pi$" would not even be a constant. It is an Euclidean specialty that the circles are similar and, as a result, we can define $\pi$ as constant. The real surprise is that this rudimentarily Euclidean constant appears so may times without Euclidean geometry.
Comment: I'm not sure this is a suitable answer - the question might misuse $\pi$, but it does ask for calculation of a particular constant, which is merely motivated by the definition of $\pi$ from Euclidean geometry.
Comment: @MiloBrandt: I understand. So, consider my answer to be a comment, too long to be a comment comment.  The OP may have used the Euclidean definition only to motivate a calculation, yes, then my answer did not help him/her.
Comment: Thanks @MiloBrandt . I always thought that $\pi$ is defined the way I said above. Although It did not help me much regarding the question asked but it is good to know that $\pi$ is a variable in some geometries.

Value of $\pi$ in a redifined space


Train a point rather than a bounding box for object detection

Question: In the graph below, object detection is done through a point that points to the right place rather than a bounding box (e.g., using faster RCNN). What method enables to  train such a point?
Answer: Ususally the x,y coordinates of the top-left corner of the bounding box and the width and height of the bounding box is returned by objection detection algorithms (eg: Haar Cascades)
You can always convert a bounding box to a point via the equation:

$BoundingBoxCenter_{x}= \frac{BoundingBoxCorner_{x} +
 BoundingBoxWidth}{2}$
$BoundingBoxCenter_{y}=
 \frac{BoundingBoxCorner_{y} + BoundingBoxHeight}{2}$


What did the framers have to say about the idea of a self pardon?

Question: Did they not explicitly state in the Constitution that it isn't allowed because they thought it was ok or because the idea of that happening was too ridiculous to warrant their attention?
Answer: When we look to the framer's of the constitution, the main debate was whether the pardon prerogative should extend to "treason" (it does) or "impeachment" (it doesn't).
Hamilton writes about the pardon in paper 74:

Humanity and good policy conspire to dictate, that the benign prerogative of pardoning should be as little as possible fettered or embarrassed. The criminal code of every country partakes so much of necessary severity, that without an easy access to exceptions in favor of unfortunate guilt, justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel.

Here we can see something of the 18th century mind on pardons.  They are a mercy by which cases of "unfortunate guilt" can be mitigated.
Hamilton goes on to argue why this power should be in the hand of one person. As a committee will tend to follow rules, whereas one man can act out of shared humanity.  The act of pardoning is intended to be one man showing mercy to his fellow creatures, who have reached a state of guilt as much through bad luck as through evil intent, and who deserve release from the punishment (which for many crimes would have been capital)

one man appears to be a more eligible dispenser of the mercy of government, than a body of men.

While not explictly stating it is impossible, nothing in these texts suggests that self pardoning is intended, as self pardoning is not an act of mercy, but self-preservation.
Comment: By the way "Sanguinary" is not the same as "Sanguine".  Sanguine means "optimistic and happy",  "Sanguinary" means blood-soaked.
Comment: Yes, the sentiment was clearly to allow executive authority to mitigate the intended or unintended excesses of the legal system in an expedient matter. Practical application may vary.
Comment: French derived.  [Sanguinaire](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/sanguinaire) means bloodthirsty.  [Ensanglante](https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/french-english/ensanglant%C3%A9) would be bload-soaked.  Nice reasoning on the answer.


Partial Reconfiguration in FPGAs

Question: I have been doing a project involving partial reconfiguration of a FPGA for some time now. I am having trouble understanding what is meant by terms like 'partial bit file', 'bitstream' etc. How can a .bit file be partial? Also, I know Xilinx provides PlanAhead tool for reconfiguration, but does it require some sort of license to get it working?
I know that for reconfiguration, I would have to separate my fabric into two parts-static and dynamic. While static part is what is usually done, is there a specific way to code my dynamic logic in HDL?
Any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
Answer: The idea behind partial reconfiguration is that you can basically swap out a portion of your design on the fly without having to reconfigure the entire FPGA.  I have not used partial reconfiguration myself, however.  And you may need the System Edition of ISE to get access to PlanAhead.
The bitstream is the configuration information that informs the FPGA how to configure all of its interal logic and routing elements and block RAMs to implement your design.  The idea with partial reconfiguration is you don't specify a configuration for the entire FPGA, just for some portion of it.  There are certainly limitations on how much of the chip can be reconfigured on the fly and how the reconfigurable portion needs to interface with the rest of the design.
As far as how to code the dynamic portion, well, it's not really 'dynamic' per se, just reconfigurable.  So you would have to generate probably a separate project for each configuration, and each project would have the implementation of that configuration.  The outputs of those would be partial bit files.  When you load one of the partial bit files, it would replace the implementation of the configurable block accordingly.
Let's say you had a design for a software defined radio that can speak several different wireless standards.  You can have a common interface to the data path and ADCs and DACs and maybe even a softcore or two in the non-reconfigurable part.  Then you implement the specific modems in the reconfigurable section.  On the fly, you can load up a partial bit file and shut down the radio and swap out the modem while the softcores are still running.
I'm afraid I can't be of much help on the specifics, though, as I have no experience with partial reconfiguration.
Answer: Just a brief expansion on Alex's answer. The tool flow he describes is the one suggested by Xilinx, which is probably where you should start.
However, as long as you can generate partial bitstreams you can run-time reconfigure the FPGA at will. The restrictions Xilinx places on partial run-time reconfiguration are more related to their tools than what the FPGA hardware is capable of.
Our research group has been working on implementing Dynamic Circuit Specialization, which generates new specialized circuits at run-time and updates the FPGA configuration to fit the new circuit. It is useful when the number of possible modules is very large, for example when implementing a adaptable FIR-filter. If you are interested in this, our tool flow can be found on github.

Partial Reconfiguration in FPGAs


In what way Jesus is God's Wisdom in 1 Corinthians 1:24

Question: The verse is saying that to those who are called,both Jews or Greeks, the Messiah for them is God's power and wisdom.
 1 Corinthians 1:24
So in what way  Jesus is God's Wisdom here?  As divine? Or as plan?
Comment: I think that Radz is paraphrasing the verse, not quoting a translation
Comment: Is there any scriptural evidence that "wisdom" is ever a plan? Please define "plan" and cite relevant scripture in support of this if indeed it is so.
Answer: In the Hebrew Bible the wisdom of God and the power of God occur often in tandem (Job 12:12-14; Prov 8:14; Is 10:13; Jer 10:12; Jer 51:15; and Dan 2:20-23). That is, the wisdom of God is evident through his power, and of course God's power demonstrates his great wisdom.
In the Christian New Testament, the power and wisdom of God are described as on full display through the death and resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene (also called Christ), which message is viewed as "foolishness" to the world (compare 1 Cor 1:18 with Acts 17:32). That is, the Christian New Testament indicates that God in his wisdom had removed the curse of sin upon mankind through Jesus (1 Cor 1:18 and 2 Cor 5:19), and then was able to create life out of death through the very resurrection of Jesus (Rom 4:17), which demonstrated God's power. That is, the wisdom of God here reversed the law of death-conquering-life to the new law of life-conquering-death through the eternal power of God. That twist of law came about through both the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, which message is "foolishness" to the world.
In other words, the Christian New Testament is about the New Covenant ("new law"), which was introduced by Jesus Christ to replace the Old Covenant ("old law"). The "old law" was death-conquering-life because of condemnation (Rom 5:16), whereas the "new law" was life-conquering-death because of justification (Rom 5:18).
Thus in the Christian New Testament, the believer in Jesus Christ can have not only the palpable experience of forgiveness of sins (1 Jn 3:19-21 and 2 Cor 7:10), but also access to the power over sin in his life today. Therefore the "good news" is not only that one can be forgiven of sins, but that one can also live ones life in obedience through the same power of God that had raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 8:11), since the power of sin was conquered by the power of the resurrection. That is, God's "indestructible" eternal life in Jesus Christ (Heb 7:16) in the resurrection had "abolished" death (2 Tim 1:10). Obedience to God therefore cherishes life both for ones neighbor as well as oneself.
In summary, the great Biblical conundrum is disobedience to God (which are sins and transgressions) and the separation of man from God (which eventuates in death). This conundrum was solved by the wisdom of God when the sins of the world were judged (and eliminated) on the cross, and then the death problem eliminated by the power of God in resurrection. (The future resurrection of the body of the believer is therefore a "living" hope in 1 Pet 1:3.) This "living" hope is not an abstract concept about some time the future, but is concrete today, since the life of the obedient believer is the actual testimony or "witness" to the power of God in the present time (Acts 1:8 and Acts 4:33).
Answer: This passage is to be taken literally. Jesus is both the wisdom and power of God in both the atonement and in creation..
Is as others say the wisdom of God manifested in Christ,yes. Though one has to have a thorough understanding of what the OT has to say of this matter. Since Christ is the wisdom of God, not a created thing, but the creator of all things then we can better understand what the writer of Proverbs is actually speaking of.
Comment: Welcome to BHSE! We're a little different here, please read our [Site Directives](http://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/tour) as you ask and answer questions-Thank you!
Comment: Your point, though taken, does not reference any text. What is just as important is *how* you arrived at your conclusions. My assumption is you are referencing the OP's text, 1 Cor. 1:24; can you illuminate how the reading of this text(or any other text) illustrates your point? Thank you!
Comment: I agree with u , according to scripture Christ IS the wisdom of God and there should be no need of special interpretation to that. Plus one
Answer: 1 Corinthians 1:24-25 says that God is wise and powerful because Christ is his very Wisdom and Power per se.
The Son as God's Power per se means God does'nt need his ability to do all things because he has his own Son to do all things ( John 1:3,Col. 1:16, Heb. 1:2,10, Prov. 8:22-30,Rev. 3:14
The Son as God's Wisdom per se means God does'nt need experiential knowledge to make sensible decisions and judgments in a situation because he could make all sensible decisions and judgments in all his activities via his Son ( Luke 11:49-Matt. 23:24, 1 Cor. 1:24-Col. 1:16-17, Heb. 1:3-Wisdom 7:25,26).
These facts shows that God is totally unlike and uncomparable to humans( Isaiah 46:5).
Answer: This is how i understand 1 Cor 1:24...
Jesus Christ is manifested as the RIGHTEOUSNESS that's of God, only to those that are called to LIBERTY or FREEDOM from the law given through Moses (Gal 5:1,13; 4:5; Jn 1:17; Ro 8:2); or, to those that are without the law of Moses or the Ten Commandments, as meant in Ro 3:21 & 10:4. Why? Because, Jesus Christ is the RIGHTEOUSNESS that's of God, or the end of the law given through Moses, for RIGHTEOUSNESS to everyone that believes or have faith that works by LOVE (KJV Phl 3:9; Gal 5:6; Matthew 5:20). This kind of RIGHTEOUSNESS is the PERFECT WAY meant in Ps 101:6; Jn 14:6 & 2Pe 2:21,20; and, the POWER of God meant in 2Cor 12:10, and the WISDOM of God meant in 1Cor 2:7 & Eph 3:10.
Only those that are blessed with the WISDOM of God turn many to RIGHTEOUSNESS, and only the RIGHTEOUS will UNDERSTAND things of the Spirit of God, as meant in Daniel 12:3,10 and 1 Cor 2:14,4-16.


Tight-binding model in the presence of a metal atom

Question: Consider a molecule such as a porphyrin ring. For many purposes, a simple tight-binding model in which only pi-electrons are included provide a very good description of the electronic levels, shape of the molecular orbitals, etc.
Now imagine there's a metal atom in the center of the ring. DFT analysis of the projected DOS show that, around the Fermi level, only the pz orbitals of the non-metal atoms and some of the d orbitals of the metal play a role (I am assumming the molecule is on the XY plane). This suggests also that it should be possible to construct a very simple model (similar to the one in which only pi-electrons are treated in hydrocarbons) with hopping between the pz and d orbitals (of course, many-body terms will be important in the d-shell, but focus now on the one-electron part and the coupling with the rest of atoms).  Are there standard tight-binding hamiltonians for such systems, with parametrizations for the pz-d hoppings, something akin to Huckel hamiltonians but for systems with metal atoms? And how to count then the number of "pi'' electrons that enter the calculation? (I was guessing by looking at the number occupations of lowdin orbitals in a previous DFT calculation)
Answer: As far as I am aware there are no universal parameters for p-d only calculations, but tight-binding models were widely used in solid-state physics to described oxides and other compounds.
A more chemically relevant method is DFTB, a tight-binding method that has extensive parametrization for a wide range of elements. DFTB has several implementation, including an efficient open-source version, DFTB+.
Another closely related tight-binding method is Grimme's xTB, which is also implemented in the DFTB+ package.


I want to take backup automatically of a SharePoint online list as excel file every day

Question: I have a SharePoint online list with more than 9000 items and the list is being populated on daily basis. I am taking backup manually every morning by saving the list as excel file in the document Library and in my local Computer.
My question is:
How can i automate that function?
May be a workflow that save the list as excel file every day in the document library?
Answer: What do you plan to do with the backups? The format needed in the download will help determine the best solution.
If you are writing a little console application or PowerShell script to run as a Windows scheduled job you could use JSON and bring down the data in XML or REST format. This will also let you choose which columns to bring down, and can support a filter so you can bring down subsets, such as just the last day or the last week.
Something like:
<code>http://yourServer/sites/yourSite/_api/web/Lists/getbytitle('yourList')/items?$select=Id,Color,Title,Category

http://yourServer/sites/yourSite/_api/web/Lists/getbytitle('yourList')/items?$select=Id,Color,Title,Category&$filter=Created gt '2016/01/01'&$top=10000
</code>
Answer: I would use a Timer Job. Just choose the best moment to exec your code and that's all.
Maybe this page will help you.
http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/634208/Create-and-Deploy-Custom-Timer-Job-Definition-in-S
Dan
Answer: You can create a powershell script to export list data to csv file and create a windows task to run this daily.
Comment: This is a good option but  the script is not for SharePoint online. Can you please  help me writing the script for SharePoint online .


Rechargeable battery Backup circuit

Question:
I have seen this rechargeable battery back up circuit on web.The resistor is used to limit the current.The diode in series is mainly to prevent the back feeding the power supply during battery operating mode.But I am not sure what is the application of another diode which is in parallel to the resistor.What would be the impact if we I remove the diode.
Answer: The resistor limits the charge current, but when the battery's in use, you don't want to limit discharge current the same way - you want the battery to be a low impedance source for the circuit it's powering. The diode bypasses the charge-limiting resistor so it can discharge a lot faster (and more efficiently) than it charges.
Comment: @sanju As long as your supply's current limit is less than the battery's charge rate limit, and you retain the diode between the plugpack and the rest of the circuit, that should work fine.
Comment: Make sure the float voltage is appropriate for the battery. If you have a wide range of ambient temperatures, you may need to temperature compensate the float voltage. Also, batteries should have fuses in series, just like other power sources. A 2.1 Ah lead battery might not need a special fuse, but the fuses for large batteries need to be capable of interrupting very large DC currents. (see MIDI fuses, for example).
Comment: Thank you Nick. Since I am float charging my battery(security systems),I wanted to eliminate both the resistor and the diode.Even if the battery develops shorts,my AC-DC Converter has current limitations.Would it work in that case?

Rechargeable battery Backup circuit


How do I create, dry or roast my own barley malt for beer?

Question: I live close to a farm and I have access to fresh barley. How would I go forward to create barley malt, so I can brew for example a Pale Ale beer?
Comment: I admire your ambitiousness, but I think you're trying to tackle too much at once.  Turning barley into malt is the first of many steps of the beer-making process.  If you want to brew something like a Pale Ale, I think you're going to be much more likely to succeed if you start with malted barley.  You'll have enough to do without making your own malt!  When you've got the later steps of brewing down, making your own malt would be pretty cool too!  But I wouldn't start there.  Enjoy!
Answer: You need to soak the grain for 2-3 days first. Just put it in some kind of tub of cold (!) water, and change the water once or twice a day to provide oxygen.
Once that's done, lay the wet grains out in a layer 5-10cm deep in room temperature. Now it will sprout: rootlets and the shoot will start coming out. It will also start heating up. Turn it a couple of times a day to make the sprouting even, and to prevent the rootlets from turning the whole thing into a massive cake of tangled grain. Touch it to make sure it's not getting too hot. If it does, douse with cold water, or turn the temperature in the room down. Let it grow until the shoot (not the rootlets) is about half the length of the grain. This will probably take about a week, depending on temperature.
Finally, you need to dry it. You can do this in a hot air oven (beware of going too hot, above 80C) if you don't have very much grain. Another solution is to make a wooden frame with a fly netting bottom and a hot air fan. Or you can dry on the floor of a heated room. Or even in the sun (watch out for birds and mice). All you really need here is to get the water out by any means possible, to dry fast enough to prevent mould (if you get mould, throw everything away!), and to not go so hot you kill the enzymes.
Expect to get a lot of character and flavour, but lower efficiency than from commercial malts. Mastering malting is a lifetime project, but unless you fail to sprout or burn the enzymes out you will get beer.
Comment: I've malted wheat at home. You can buy wheat in the USA in 40lb buckets online very cheaply. Barley is nearly impossible to find un-malted. I used the malted wheat about 50% in a home brew and it was perfectly fine. I used a dehydrator to dry it out. It's actually pretty easy to do and don't listen to people that say you won't get a decent end result. The biggest issue is mold so keep an eye on that.


IE9 Mobile - html5 video events?

Question: Doesn't IE9 Mobile support html5 video events?
till now i got no luck with that ... and also found no information about it.
any ideas ? ;)
thx!
Answer: it seems to only support a very, very minimal subset of what desktop ie9 can handle. So far from what I observed, ie9mobile supports e.g. "loadstart" and "canplay" events but does not fire the "ended" event just like many others. Test with your phone here to see what's possible and what not: http://www.w3.org/2010/05/video/mediaevents.html

IE9 Mobile - html5 video events?


exporting image from photoshop to illustrator colour change

Question: The same image with both photoshop and illustrator which are using the same setting and the same profile colour and despite that, colour change a little when pasting from photoshop to illustrator. for example I have an image which the background is yellow with value-c1 m13 y77 k0 in photoshop and when placing it in illustrator these values change a little and I got - c1 m15 y87 k0.
Why so?
Answer: Did you set the colour settings to same as well?
Check Edit > Color Settings and look what is under Settings.
Make sure it's not emulating anything.


deviceID format for PS/2 mouse

Question: I would like to know the DeviceID and PNPDeviceID format for PS/2 Mouse. On my system Device ID for PS/2 mouse is ACPI\PNP0F13\4&1F1D307&0. So is the format is ACPI\PNPxxxx{something} or some thing else? I mean is ACPI is mandatory for PS/2 mouse?
Answer: The PS/2 port is not on a bus that can discover all devices connected to it. i.e. it is not Plug-n-Play. Therefore the OS relies on the system's firmware to find all the devices that would otherwise be undiscoverable. On modern x86 systems, this mechanism is ACPI. However, older OSes such as Windows 95 used a different firmware interface called PNPBIOS to do the same thing. the PNP0F13 pnpid is a carry-over from PNPBIOS. The ACPI\ prefix is there to indicate that it was enumerated by the ACPI bus driver. The Windows driver model hides such details from the mouse driver -- it can just list the pnpid in its .inf, and get an AddDevice irrespective of what platform enumerator its device was found by.
Of course, PS/2 mice existed before ACPI and even Win95. Back when you used your mouse on DOS, the device driver just assumed the port was at a particular io or memory location, and probed those itself. Fun!

deviceID format for PS/2 mouse


In what ways a professional robotic sports team generate rapport with fans to keep the money in the game the same?

Question: It's 2100 and sport athletes costs way too much. The English FA has had enough of years of losses in the league and replaces the players in the Football leagues with a league of bipedals robots. In what ways would those robotic "athletes" build rapport with the fans considering that most of the revenues in a professional sport team is derived from fans buying merchandise, showing up to the stadium or paying to see the games on TV?
Comment: I don't really see how this would happen - if footballers cost a lot it's because they are generating that money in the first place. If popularity in the sport declines, so will players' wages...
Comment: I think this would be very difficult. The major appeal of football perhaps coming from childhood where kids play football and dream one day of becoming just like their idols. Robot football may grow a larger and larger following but won't replace the game played by humans.
Comment: The idea would be to remove wages to improve profit by using autonomous robots instead and keep the same popularity so the money doesn't go away.
Comment: Very interesting question because this Nike commercial during the World Cup 2014 sums it up almost perfectly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afUUBvWBp3I
Comment: Wages are high because the rewards of winning are high. Without an artificial cap (which could just as easily be applied to players' wages) the teams would just spend all of their money on really expensive robots instead.
Answer: Since the main appeal of professional sports is to participate vicariously with the team, robot players could amp this to "11" by literally being under the control of the fans.
One could imagine lotteries where fans bought tickets and the winners received an "X box controller" gadget that allowed them to take control of the robot for a half or some pre determined time limit. Depending on the league rules, the robots could be totally controlled by the fans, or have general algorithms which provide parameters that the fans can only marginally effect. This way when millions of fans are screaming "kick the ball", the fan with the box can punch the "kick ball" control.
Since there are only a limited number of games, fans can also buy tickets to participate in training camps, exhibition matches and other events where the robot team is playing. Much fun can be had by mixing and matching sports: "Buy your ticket for Manchester United vs the Denver Broncos!". Since robots are quite adaptable, all kinds of bizarre and unlikely exhibition matches can be devised, ranging from fan controlled robots playing against a real soccer team to them playing water polo.
So long as the fandom feels they have equal chances to participate by actually "playing" in a match, then I suspect that the league will be rolling in money. If it ever comes out there is some sort of shenanigans in selecting fans to control the game, the scandal will rapidly destroy the fan base and the league (a powerful incentive to keep things honest).
Comment: Letting fans actually play in the league itself makes no sense: they would just lose against professionals. You want a professional player to play, instead, or nobody would have fun, not even the player himself, let alone the spectators!
Comment: Just a slight variation of this answer: Instead of a lottery to who receives the controller, all the fans could be allowed, using an advanced version of the "crowd pong" experimental game...
Comment: @colmde fun as an experiment to do only once, ultimately incredibly boring due to poor tactics and trolling (not to account for opposing team supporters takeovering your decisions…)
Comment: I really like the idea of exhibition matches that wouldn't be possible otherwise. I was thinking of a "last leg standing" match where robot would tackle each other like crazy and breaks each other legs until only one robot remains with a leg while reading your suggestion. Or a referee demolition derby following a bad penalty call. You could also have 20-30 sets of robots to simulate all the games in the world - just change the "wallpaper" on their skin.
Comment: I also like the idea that the fans would have an influence on the match - maybe make it more-or-less staged like WWE with the loudest fans increasing the odds for their team. As well as the finances of the teams from sponsors/merchandise sales increasing their odds.
Comment: Sorry can't edit my comment about the crowd pong above, but here's a link to what I'm talking about... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9eVz4wBBgU
Answer: I just finished watching a season of Battlebots on TV last night, so I think you could use the same approach. Each robot would have a different design (within parameters set by the league), and a different set of engineers & programmers making it work. The humans would build the rapport with the fans through interviews, press conferences, signings, etc, but the robot athletes would be the ones on the merchandise and the ones that the fans are cheering for at games.
Comment: _Lol I misread Battletoads TV._
Comment: I'm not sure how much that would apply though because from my understanding battlebots is individual where as these would be team games and the results would probably be based on statistics, probabilities and chaos theory (movement of the ball and attitude of the fans in the stands). What I mean is that it wouid probably be a simuIation -  don't think there would be humans teams controlling each robot individually.
Comment: @Mystra007 someone has to program the simulation. And it's best to let each team do it their own way, so every game doesn't end the same way.
Comment: Can't edit my original comment but I wanted to add that I do watch Battlebots and used to watch and play(on PC) Robot Wars. I asked the question because it didn't seem to adress the issues I mentionned previously.
Comment: @Mystra007 I was thinking the robot athletes would HAVE TO work as a team, unlike the solo competitions in Battlebots. So that would be part of the programming the humans have to do. If the robot is too selfish, the fans will boo it, or maybe it will get kicked off the team. Also, I picture autonomous A.I. robots that don't require human intervention during a game (except for damage repair). After games the humans would improve the robots' A.I. and perhaps upgrade their bodies so they'll do better next game.
Answer: You didn't specify that the robots would be autonomous, so I assume they would actually be controlled by a "player".
So, we have a professional player, who controls a machine, which is built by his team… hm, looks a lot like F1. I guess F1 does have enough fans and marketing, doesn't it?
Also notice that in F1 both the driver and his team usually have fans.


Polynomial inequalities in ordered fields

Question: Let $p(x)$ be a polynomial over an ordered field. If $p'(x)\ge 0$ for all $x$ in an interval over that field, is it true that $p(x)$ is increasing over that interval?
Comment: That's what I'm saying. Isn't it true that $1>0$, so $m>0$ for all positive integer $m$, so $q>0$ for all positive rational $q$, so if $b>a$, then $p(b)-p(a)=(b-a)\sum_j q_jp'(a+r_j(b-a))>0$ for any rational positive coefficient quadrature formula of order greater than the degree of $p$?
Comment: Don't we have arbitrary order integration formulae with positive rational coefficients and "rational" nodes? Or am I misunderstanding the question?
Comment: I am asking if this is true in non-Archimedean fields, i.e. can this be proved purely algebraically.
Comment: The answer to the OP is certainly 'yes' in the case of real closed fields, since these are elementarily equivalent to $\mathbb{R}$. Hopefully an affirmative answer can be obtained by exploiting the fact that each ordered field embeds in a real closed field.
Comment: @fedja: I think it would be great if you could expand your comments into a proper answer. (And yes, a polynomial identity with rational coefficients like this holds automatically in all ordered fields if it holds in the reals.)
Answer: It is remarked in A Course in Model Theory: An Introduction to Contemporary Mathematical Logic by Bruno Poizat, page 101 (Google Books link), that the assertion is true for all ordered fields, but that its proof is difficult. He gives the proof for real closed fields just prior to that remark.
Comment: @ToddTrimble: What fedja suggested would amount to this in the degree $2$ case (as an illustration): we have the identity $p(b)-p(a)=((b-a)/2)(p'(a)+p'(b))$ for all $p$ with $\deg p\le 2$. Obviously, this holds in all characteristic $0$ fields (just check it on monomials), and the OP's claim is immediate now.
Comment: Todd, the remark is, indeed, there but I still wonder what subtlety I'm missing if any because the argument I proposed is totally trivial :-(
Comment: @fedja I have to confess that I didn't understand your argument. What if the coefficients of $p$ aren't rational?
Comment: @ChristianRemling Thanks; that's very helpful indeed. That does seem like a promising idea (wonder what could go wrong?!).


Choosing a framework - important criteria from UX point of view

Question: We are starting a new project, and have to decide which framework to take.
Which criteria are important from the UX point of view?
Comment: I think this is very subjective and influenced by many thing like the business process en personal preferences. But to answer your question as good as I can. UX asks for a lot of testing and trying so choosing a framework with which you can prototype pretty fast, seems logic
Comment: What framework are you talking about?  Is this a web application?  Please clarify the question.
Answer: A lot of frameworks tend to have UX features built in that help you from having to build them, test them, etc.
If you look at frameworks like Bootstrap they help you achieve at the very least responsive design. But as an added bonus you also get form editing features, menus, modals / dialogs, etc.
The idea behind these frameworks is that it provides developers with a common framework for them to work on and get help if they run into problems. Also helping you get to market faster. Generally speaking though, the UI is something you will want to work on as they don't often have the prettiest UI or a UI that is best suited for your product.
First and foremost is that you must know what you want for your product. Then you will know what should look for. Whether the framework has UI / UX elements that you know you will want and need. Look to see if editing is easy and what the possibilities are.
Answer: From a UX perspective, it shouldn't matter. At all.
What matters is who's developing it. If the team that is developing it has the will/skills to built it to meet the UX requirements of the project, you're good to go. Any product/framework should work.
If, on the other hand, the dev team is highly dependent on the framework to be able to produce a UI, then it does make sense to try and find a framework that, out of the box, best matches your needs from a UX POV.
In that situation, it then depends on the type of UX you are after. Quickly built responsive site? Go with Bootstrap. Custom blog? Maybe WordPress. Etc.
Answer: UI Frameworks and UX are independent factors. You don't have to mold your UX to fit a framework and there is no unicorn framework that fits every UX design.
Some criteria you can consider are:

Responsive design
Grid size (960px or 1200px, column count, gutter etc)
Mobile first or Desktop first
Organic animations vs. static UI

Again, they are not important - but it will help you narrow down a framework that suits your developers for your designated UX.


Proof of Authority or PBFT

Question: I want to choose a consensus algorithm for permissioned blockchain in healthcare. I know PoA and PBFT are good choices, but I want to know which one is better?
Thanks...
Answer: According to an abstract of this paper:

The analysis advocates that PoA for permissioned blockchains, deployed
  over the Internet with Byzantine nodes, do not provide adequate
  consistency guarantees for scenarios where data integrity is
  essential. We claim that PBFT can fit better such scenarios, despite a
  limited loss in terms of performance
Answer: Proof of Authority (PoA) is a very well-tested consensus mechanism that has been used on Kovan since it's inception. It has been used by a number of individuals as well as corporations in order to test their code in a controlled environment.
The initial Plasma whitepaper suggested started with PoA (before switching to another mechanism), and the OMG team is using PoA on their Plasma implementation.

Proof of Authority or PBFT


CIFilters inside Dispatch Queue causing memory issue in an ARC enabled project

Question: I was running some CIFilters to blur graphics and it was very laggy so I wrapped my code in
dispatch_async(dispatch_get_main_queue(), ^{ /*...*/ });

Everything sped up and it ROCKED! Very fast processing, seamless blurring, great!
After about a minute though the app crashes with 250Mb memory (when I don't use dispatch I only use around 50Mb memory consistently because ARC manages it all)
I used ARC for my whole project, so I tried manually managing memory by releasing CIFilters inside my dispatch thread, but xCode keeps returning errors and won't let me manually release since I'm using ARC. At this point it would be an insane hassle to turn off ARC and go through every .m file and manually manage memory.
So how do I specifically manage memory inside dispatch for my CIFilters?
I tried wrapping it all in an @autoreleasepool { /*...*/ } (Which ARC strangely allows?) But it did not work. /:

Example code inside dispatch thread:
        UIImage *theImage5 = imageViewImDealingWith.image;

        CIContext *context5 = [CIContext contextWithOptions:nil];
        CIImage *inputImage5 = [CIImage imageWithCGImage:theImage5.CGImage];

        // setting up Gaussian Blur (we could use one of many filters offered by Core Image)
        CIFilter *filter5 = [CIFilter filterWithName:@"CIGaussianBlur"];
        [filter5 setValue:inputImage5 forKey:kCIInputImageKey];
        [filter5 setValue:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:5.00f] forKey:@"inputRadius"];
        CIImage *result = [filter5 valueForKey:kCIOutputImageKey];

        // CIGaussianBlur has a tendency to shrink the image a little,
        // this ensures it matches up exactly to the bounds of our original image
        CGImageRef cgImage = [context5 createCGImage:result fromRect:[inputImage5 extent]];

        imageViewImDealingWith.image = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:cgImage];

        CGImageRelease(cgImage);
        context5 = nil;
        inputImage5 = nil;
        filter5 = nil;
        result = nil;

Comment: You can add the -fno-objc-arc flag to a single file in the build phases section of the project build settings.  Other than that I've had good luck with NSOperationQueue and allowing only one process at a time in the queue.  My memory build up situation was resolved with that.
Comment: @Putz1103 How do you modify `NSOperationQueue` to only allow one process at a time? I would add the flag but this is a VERY large .m file with only these CIFilter sections (sprinkled throughout the file) not needing ARC. If I can't find another solution though I will move do this.
Comment: `operationQueue.MaxConcurrentOperationCount = 1;`
Comment: @Putz1103 Adding the CIFilters to the NSOperationQueue didn't fix crashing, still too much memory allocation. Also, it is very laggy where as dispatch is not. /:
Comment: Looking back it occurs to me this might not have been a leak at all, but rather it was just processing so much that memory really did get that high (even with ARC releasing the old processes) Can't recall if I ever fixed this or not
Answer: do you release the cgImage?
CGImageRelease(cgImage);

Comment: Ah! Yes I do, sorry when I was copy pasting the code I left that out! Adding it in now!


Theoretical bound - regression error

Question: The Bayes error rate is a theoretical bound that determines the lowest possible error rate for a classification problem, given some data. I was wondering whether an equivalent concept exists for the case of regression algorithms. My aim is to determine how far my regression algorithm's error is from that theoretical bound, as a way to assess how far am I from the best possible solution. Is there any way to obtain a bound of the lowest regression error for a given dataset?
Comment: This is a great question.  My initial thought was R-squared, which tells you how much of the variation is explained by the regression for a given set of features.  Since the Bayes error rate gives a statistical lower bound on the error achievable for a given classification problem **AND** associated choice of features.  Though the Bayes Error Rate is difficult to calculate (estimate), it has great universal utility for any classifier as you point out.  So I started thinking about Bayesian Regression and it almost seems like you are looking for the Bayes Loss.
Comment: Thank you for your answer. The computation of R-squared requires predictions, so I am wondering whether a theoretical bound of R-squared can be estimated. I read a paper on the estimation of the Bayes error rate by  means of an ensemble of classifiers; maybe something similar can be applied to R-squared (just a random thought here).

I am not familiar with Bayesian regression. I will check that out.
Answer: I realize this question was asked more than a year ago, but I think one possibility is to use the bias-variance decomposition to calculate a lower bound on the error rate.
Essentially, the error rate is written as the sum of three terms, the bias, the variance, and the irreducible error. One good source for learning about these terms is An Introduction to Statistical Learning.
Assume that the true function ($f(x)$) lies within the family of functions that our machine learning model is capable of fitting, and take the limit as the amount of training data we have goes to infinity. Then, if our machine learning model has a finite number of parameters, both the bias and the variance will be zero. So, the actual error will simply be equal to the irreducible error.
As an example, suppose our true data is linear with Gaussian noise: $y \sim N(a + bx, \sigma^2)$. One of the the optimal estimators is obviously linear regression, $\hat{y} = \hat{a} + \hat{b}x$, and, as we add more training examples, the estimated coefficients $\hat{a}$ and $\hat{b}$ will approach $a$ and $b$, respectively. So, the best error (assuming squared loss) we could hope to achieve would be equal $\sigma^2$, the inherent error/irreducible noise associated with the data generation itself
In practice, computing the irreducible error is difficult (impossible?), since it requires knowledge of the true process for generating the data. But, this critique is also applicable to the Bayes error, since that requires knowledge of the true class probabilities.
Comment: Thank you for the answer. I think that it makes much sense.
Answer: Yes, that would  be the sum of the  squares of distances of the response variable from the true or the actual regression line(provided you know it).

Theoretical bound - regression error


Are etymology of legal terms on-topic?

Question: I submitted https://english.stackexchange.com/q/494623/334589 here before it got migrated, but What is the origin and history of the term "grand theft auto"? has remained? Clarification appreciated - thanks!
Comment: A. That other question is three years old, and B. it is **not** about a legal term, since *grand theft auto* is slang, and C. It is also clearly off-topic. It is even noted there that somebody asked it on the wrong site previously, that doesn't make this site the right one.
Comment: Background for an answer might be informed by reviewing questions tagged [tag:legal-terms].
Answer: Depends on the question
Many words in common English usage have very specific and often quite different meanings when used in a legal context. Largely this is to do with the fact that the law requires more precision than common usage and, once a term acquires such legal precision it becomes 'frozen' in meaning within the law but continues to change its meaning 'in the wild'.
As such, questions focused on the legal meaning of words is on topic if they are different from common usage and belongs on English stack if they are not different in a legal context. Similarly, etymology can be useful in so far as it explains the legal thinking behind the development of the word.
Comment: I tend to agree with you, but mods (particularly on English.SE) have problems with questions that could be characterised as 'on topic if the answer is *yes*, but not if the answer is *no*'. Particularly since OP certainly, and the rest of us perhaps, don't know the answer.
Answer: In principle, a question about "etymology" could be marginally on-topic for LSE, depending on how it is asked. For instance, "consideration" as a technical term developed within English from a verb meaning "mediate on". The legal core of the question would be about the development of the legal doctrine, so to the extent that it is on-topic to ask how "consideration" became a requirement of contracts, such an etymology question would be on topic and has a narrower focus (the earliest development of the concept and antecedent concepts, where terminology is a by-product of creating a new concept). That is not what one gets in the answer to the GTA question or the "sound" question, instead you get guesses or answers that don't actually answer the question. (Similar problems arise with questions about "cross" and "direct" examination, or "replevin" and its relation to "replevir").
On the other hand, a question which in essence asks why English has the words "grand, gross, petty" used in a legal context is a language-trivia question best not asked here. If you don't know about the influence of French on English especially in the context of law, you might be a bit confused if for example you think that "gross" only means "disgusting".
My objection to the GTA question is that it does not establish that "Grand theft auto" is or was a real legal term. In Washington, it is not; nor is it in California. In California, there is a defined crime "grand theft" but that is far as official nomenclature goes. There are complex conditions regarding particular things and values from which one might conclude that there is such a thing as "grand theft avocado", "grand theft mollusk" or "grand theft firearm". It is imaginable that at some earlier point in the history of the California statute, there actually was an offense named "grand theft auto". There has not been a crime "grand theft" in Washington for at least 45 years, and possibly there never has been one. There is a possible legal-trivia question that could replace the GTA question, namely "Does any jurisdiction define the crime 'grand theft auto', using exactly those words and punctuation?".

Are etymology of legal terms on-topic?


Showing Navagation for External users with Document Library access only

Question: Is it possible to have the navigation menus displayed for external users who are only given permissions to document libraries?  I would prefer to keep them without any access to the parent team site, but still want them to see the navigation menu.  I have tried turning off audience targeting but that was unsuccessful.  Thanks!
Answer: If the user has no access to the site/list/library/page, he cannot view the link of this site/list/library/page in the navigation. The link will disappear if he does not have any access to it. It is impossible to display all links in the navigation for the user has not access.
As a workaround, you can insert links to the page.


Uac interaction for people with physical disabilities (no keyboard, mouse or foot pedals)

Question: Is there any way for a user to interact with a uac prompt for admin privileges despite not being not able to use a physical keyboard, mouse or foot pedal? I use both voice and eyetracker software, Dragon naturally speaking and Optikey,but neither can interact with uac, AFAIK. One workaround, that I use is using something like Teamviewer to interact with the uac prompt. This is not ideal, as it requires a second accessible computer. Is there another approach that obviously doesn't need to disable uac either? Perhaps something like a physical key (e.g. Usb)?
Answer: UAC (technically, consent.exe) is a high-privilege application (runs as LocalSystem), which by default prevents other applications (such as accessibility programs) from interfacing with it.
However, Microsoft is aware of this limitation, and created the "UIAccess" application property, which bypasses that limitation (if set to "true"), under the following conditions:

The application is signed with a trusted signing key.
The application is installed under the Program Files / Program Files (x86) directory, or in the System32 directory.

Dragon should fulfill all of these requirements, unless you installed it in a non-default location.
However, by default, UAC prompts also appear on a special "desktop" (not the same as the virtual desktops feature of Win10). This also prevents programs from interacting with the prompt. Therefore, you need to turn off the Secure Desktop for UAC prompts. There are two ways to do this:

Search for "UAC" and open the "Change User Account Control settings" result, then move the slider down to the third position from the top (will say "Don't dim the desktop").
Open the "Local Security Policy" management console (secpol.msc), then into "Local Policies" > "Security Options", and change the following settings:

"User Account Control: Behavior of the elevation prompt for Administrators in Admin Approval Mode" should be set to "Prompt for Consent". The default value might also work (with the next setting) but I'm not sure.
"User Account Control: Switch to the secure desktop when prompting for elevation" should be set to "Disabled".

At that point, accessibility tools - including eye trackers and dictation tools - should be able to interact with UAC prompts, if they were installed correctly.
Comment: Thank you. Removing screen dimming seems to have worked. Switching to secure desktop was already disabled, and behaviour of elevation prompt was set to "prompt for consent for non-windows binaries". I trust that this setting is okay? I did see "Allow UIAccess applications to prompt for elevation without using the secure desktop" set to disabled. Is this related to the first part of your answer?
Comment: The "Switch to secure desktop..." option is an override in that if it's enabled the secure desktop is always used, regardless of other settings. The screen dimming is the visual representation of the switch to the secure desktop. The "prompt for consent for non-Windows binaries" is much easier to bypass than the simple "prompt for consent" but generally OK if you aren't running sketchy programs. The "Allow UIAccess..." thing is usually not needed; it specifically allows accessibility programs (but not other things) to bypass the secure desktop when elevating.