How do statisticians determine which distribution is appropriate for different statistical tests?

Question: For example, the test statistic calculated for the ANOVA test is compared to an F-distribution, while a t-test comparing means compares the test statistic to a t-distribution.
Comment: For a general overview, have a look at page 3 of [this paper](http://www.math.wm.edu/~leemis/2008amstat.pdf). It contains a chart depicting the relationships between many distributions. Quite neat.
Comment: At one level, the answer is simple: the distribution is that of the test statistic under the null hypothesis. Finding it is merely a calculation. The *hard* parts are coming up with a suitable probability model for a problem, eliciting a loss function, and finding a test statistic that produces a good test. Many distributions, including the Normal, $t$, and $\chi^2$, actually appear most often as asymptotic approximations to the actual distributions (and therein lies a separate part of any good answer).
Answer: The full answer to your question would be a full semester math-theory statistics course (which would be a good idea for you to take if you are really interested).
But a short and partial set of answers are:
Generally we start with the normal distribution, it has been found to be a reasonable approximation for many real world situations and the Central Limit theorem (and others) tell us that it is an even better approximation when looking at the means of simple random samples (bigger sample size leads to better approximation by the normal).  So the normal is often the default distribution to consider if there is not a reason to believe that it will not be a reasonable approximation.  Though with modern computers it is easier now to use non-parametric or other tools and we do not need to depend on the normal as much (but history/inertia/etc. keeps us using normal based methods).
If you square a variable that comes from a standard normal distribution then it follows a Chi-squared distribution.  If you add together variables from a Chi-squared you get another Chi-squared (degrees of freedom change), so that means that the variance (scaled) follows a Chi-squared.
It also works out that a function of the likelihood ratio follows a Chi-squared distribution asymptotically if the null is true and other assumptions hold.
A standard normal divided by the square root of a chi-squared (and some scaling parameters) follows a t-distribution, so the common t-statistic (under the null hypothesis) follows the t.
The ratio of 2 Chis-squareds (divided by degrees of freedom and other considerations) follows an F-distribution.  The anova F tests are based on the ratio of 2 estimates of the same variance (under the null) and since variances follow a Chi-squared, the ratio follows an F (under the null and assumptions holding).
Smart people worked out these rules so that the rest of us can apply them.  A full math/stat course will give more of the history and  derivations (and possibly more of the alternatives), this was just meant as a quick overview of the more common tests and distributions.
Comment: Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for. I think I will put off the math-theory stats course for now though.
Answer: A different way to answer your question is the following sequential thinking that I would like to illustrate with a simple example:
1) Whats the null hypothesis related to the question of interest? E.g. in US, the average income is $6000 per month.
2) How can we measure the deviance from the null hypothesis based on available data? First try: $T =$ Average income. The further away from 6000, the less plausible the null hypothesis is and the more we should reject it.
3) Find the distribution of $T$ if the null hypothesis is true. This "null distribution" is the basis for the test decision. In our example, if the sample is large, the Central Limit Theorem tells us that $T$ is approximately normally distributed with mean 6000 and standard deviation $\sigma/\sqrt{n}$, where $\sigma$ is the true standard deviation of the income in US. We know $n$ and $\sigma$ can be estimated by the sample standard deviation $\hat \sigma$.
Principally, we could now lean back and use this result to find test decisions. However, because we statisticians are nice, we usually try to modify the test statistic to keep the null distribution free of as much data dependent information as possible. In our simple example, we could use
$$
   T' = (T-6000)/(\hat \sigma/\sqrt{n})
$$
instead of $T$. This modified test statistic $T'$ is always approximately standard normal if the null hypothesis is true. No matter the sample size, the hypothesised mean and the standard deviation, the test decision is always based on the same critical values (like $\pm 1.96$). This is the famous one-sample Z-test.
Answer: There are only three reality based distributions. (1) The Binomial (2) The Multinomial (3) Abraham De Moivre's approximator to the binomial. The other distributions are 'derived' expressions with very limited dynamic range and very little contact with reality. Example. A statistician will tell you your data fits to a Poisson Distribution. He will actually believe the Poisson distribution has some kind of 'stand alone' reality. Truth is, the Poisson Distribution approximates the binomial for very small and very large amounts of skew. Now that we all have computers there is no reason to call upon approximators. But, sadly, old habits die hard.
Comment: An interesting and thought-provoking thesis, but ultimately less than helpful in this context. Moreover, its truth would seem to rest on an idiosyncratic and limited idea of "reality-based." (To justify that allegation of *limited,* consider--among many examples--what it would take to derive distributions like the hypergeometric or Benford from the three distributions named here.)
Comment: I don't see how a computer alleviates the need to approximate the model underlying a complex process. People aren't using Poisson regression because their data were generated from a huge number of Bernoulli trials where the success probability decreases proportional to the number of trials and they just want to save their computer the trouble. They use it because it's a simple model for testing how covariates affect the mean of a count outcome. A shrewd practitioner checks the assumptions of their models but, until computers become psychic, we'll be using models to approximate reality.
Comment: In the life sciences it is important to test data sets against the binomial distribution. Doing so gives us a measure of the total number of 'sources of error' which corresponds to the number of genes influencing the process. The Poisson Distribution, among others, obscures this relationship.


Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) 3.7 - how to drag n drop copy files from local to remote

Question: I've been able to use Apple Remote Desktop to copy files and folders from my local machine to remotes for many years. I've updated to ARD 3.7 and I can longer copy files. Is this no longer supported or is there some setting I need to change? I've looked and tried many things with no luck. How can I drag n drop files from my local Mac to the Remotes?
Comment: Have the client Macs been updated with the proper ARD Client updates?  Sending "softwareupdate -i -a" will run available software updates on the clients. What version of the OS are the clients running?
Comment: clients are running 3.7 ARD client and same OS 10.8.5
Comment: In the past I lost the ability to do this when the client had file sharing turned off. Turning it back on re-enabled the function. I seem to recall one of the recent updates on 10.8 disabled some of the services on a couple of my machines. Worth checking that it's still enabled.
Comment: It's definitely still supported, it's in the release notes of Apple Remote Desktop 3.7 (Build 3055) that it's still supported.
Answer: I can confirm that the file copy still works on the newer versions including ARD 3.7.1 so it's something you'll need to use logs to troubleshoot.
You may have to use the copy tool to try copying the file and look over the logs to determine what has changed between your remote computers and the controlling remote desktop computer.
That interface has better error messages and reporting and has helped me figure out what firewall settings were preventing me from using ARD in the past. Feel free to post your log if you can't make sense of the details it lists.
Comment: If someone wants to downvote an answer, please add a comment to explain why
Answer: At the client, try:

disable remote management
enable screen sharing
enable remote management

– and a restart of the Mac.
Also, you could try the kickstart routine.
Comment: This did not resolve the problem. Are you running ARD 3.7 and able to copy using drag n drop from local to remote?


Where is my Clothier?

Question: I beat Skeletron and recently learned this is supposed to cause the Clothier to spawn as an NPC, but this didn't happen in my world. How do I get the Clothier to spawn?
Comment: Is this...Terraria?
Answer: In order for the Clothier to spawn, ALL of the following must be met:

Skeletron must be defeated
All NPCs that have spawn requirements met must have a home
A vacant home must be available

Once all three are met, give it a few in-game days and he'll arrive. The number one thing I would recommend checking is that your houses are built correctly. It would also be a good idea to create a couple extra homes in case one of them isn't built correctly or if there are multiple NPCs waiting to spawn.
Answer: You need to have a house built with all the correct specifications for the npc to spawn and live there.
Comment: And then wait until the clothier decides that moving in is something good. Just like you have to wait for all other NPCs.
Comment: If you open the menu and hit the housing icon, you can see which NPCs you have and what houses they're assigned to.  It will also tell you if your structure qualifies as a house for the NPC.
Answer: A simple plan is to build an "apartment" building.  In order for everyone to have a spot you will want at least 11 "apartments".  This is for housing for all available NPC's and an extra one for you.  The only annoying part of the apartment complex is that goblin/snowmen spawns may kill one or several of the NPC's so that they would have to regenerate.
Comment: With Terraria 1.2 you will want a much larger apartment building, I have had 4 new people move in so far.  (I still have not made one of the new maps hardmode yet, so I do not know who else lurks in the creases.)
Answer: After you have defeated Skeletron, you need to go and make a room that is 6 blocks tall and 10 blocks wide. Put a door on one side. Fill the room in with walls. Then place a table, a chair, and at least one torch inside. The floor must be blocks (not platforms), and make sure there is at least three open blocks on the floor that he can walk on.
After you have made that house with those requirements, just wait a bit and he will spawn. After he spawns, then you can improve on making his home look nice and whatnot.

Where is my Clothier?


How to turn off panels in-place edit bar

Question: I know this maybe a silly question but how do you hide panels in-place editor bar?(The bar that has layout adjustment buttons.) I found a post that said there's a on/off setting on general settings page that I can use to hide it but I couldn't find that option. I need to hide it because that toolbar is covering Theme developer checkbox. I can't disable the module either because it's in used. Any suggestion?
Answer: Click on the "Panelizer" tab of your content type then click on "Full page override" (or whatever view mode that is panelized" and then under settings you will see:
<code>Standard
In-Place Editor
</code>
Click the standard.
The In-Place Editor setting is what is creating the tool bar at the bottom.
Comment: "Full page override" is just a heading with bunch of checkbox options. But under Structure/Panels/General, I found that settings but it doesn't hide the bar.


Does the speed of light change?

Question: I know that there is a similar questions, but I think mine is a bit different. I wonder if with the expansion of the universe the speed of light changes. It seems that the speed of light is very connected to the space-time continuum, e.g. it follows all it's deformations etc. So if the space-time continuum expands, does the speed of light change?
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it shows [insufficient prior research](http://meta.physics.stackexchange.com/questions/5778/what-counts-as-sufficient-prior-research-when-asking-a-question).
Comment: Hi Derb. You need to have a look at all [the many other questions asking why the speed of light is constant](http://physics.stackexchange.com/search?q=speed+of+light+constant), and then refine your question to explain exactly why you think the speed of light might be changing.
Comment: @igael This info help me to conduct further research. If you have some quick info why G4V would allow it, please let me know (I need to read into G4V now). Thanks again!!!
Comment: Thanks again @igael ! Really good material to get more information on that topic. Very nice!
Comment: I'm pretty sure "the universe is expanding" refers to all the matter and energy in spacetime spreading out, not spacetime itself "expanding" (whatever that would mean).
Comment: Hi @John I have a basic notion why the speed of light is a constant. (I am not a professional physicist, and try to understand a little bit more about it). What I understand is that the light speed is a constant without really a reason. It is a kind of axiom (measured and determined) which consequently leads to all the results of the theory of relativity. The kind of: If the speed of light never changes....we will have many things to consider to be relative (the flow of time needs to change if for all observers the speed of light is the same).
Comment: I think my questions is similar to the question if the gravitational constant changes by an expanding universe. (Again I am just an amateur, but did some research before on this topic, but not in a way that I could publish a scientific paper on it :-) ). Just curious!
Comment: in theories like G4V , yes. But, yesterday, G4V was refuted and GR again checked with success.
Comment: @DerbR. this is a site for, [and I quote from the tour](http://physics.stackexchange.com/tour), *a question and answer site for active researchers, academics and students of physics and astronomy*. Everyone is welcome, but we expect you to be willing to put some effort into your questions and a basic search of this site is part of the required effort. In relativity the speed of light is constant because it's a geometrical property. Have a browse through the search I suggested in my first comment to learn more.
Comment: [Gravitational Waves in G4v](http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+g4v/0/1/0/all/0/1)  by Carver Mead from Caltech. The deflection computation seems nice but the theory predicted G.W. with another signature. Search for the author on Youtube
Comment: @JohnRennie Thank you for your comment. I have to apologize I was not aware that it is only for active researchers, academics and students of physics and astronomy. Since you mentioned that the speed of light is a geometric property, could you please give me a reference on this? Until now I thought that there is "no reason" for the speed of light (as constant) having exactly the numeric value it has. (see the other questions). But if it is a geometric property, this numeric value for the speed of light can be derived from the space-time geometry. Any reference would help me!
Answer: In general relativity we describe the geometry of spacetime using a function called the metric. This metric is derived from the distribution of matter - indeed solving Einstein's equations normally involves starting with some distribution of matter and solving the equations to calculate the metric.
If we assume that matter is approximately spread out evenly in the universe then we end up with a surprisingly simple form for the metric. This is called the The Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker metric and it is this metric that describes the expanding universe. When a relativist talks about the expanding universe they almost invariably mean the FLRW metric (or something closely related).
The FLRW metric is:
$$ c^2d\tau^2 = c^2dt^2 - a^2(t)(dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2) $$
Exactly what the equation means is somewhat opaque to non-GR nerds, but the relevant fact here is that the parameter $c$ is a constant. With some jiggery-pokery we can work out what the constant $c$ means, and it turns out to be the speed of light.
So in general relativity the speed of light (technically only the local speed of light) is a constant because GR assumes it's constant. This is an important point to appreciate - GR doesn't prove $c$ is a constant it assumes $c$ is a constant. So the answer to your question is that whether the universe is expanding, contracting or turning cartwheels the speed of light is always constant.
GR could be wrong, and one day an experiment could demonstrate that the speed of light isn't constant. The trouble is that GR is pretty well supported by experiments, and of course the recent detection of gravitational waves adds more support. There are competing theories in which the speed of light can be variable but (so far) none them have proven a better description of the universe than general relativity.
Comment: _"So the answer to your question is that whether the universe is expanding, contracting or turning cartwheels the speed of light is always constant"_: you're saying this because GR says so, and GR has worked so far, is that so?
Comment: @SaravanabalagiRamachandran yes. For more on this see [this answer](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/297468/gr-einsteins-1911-paper-on-the-influence-of-gravitation-on-the-propagation-of).
Answer: Well, an axiom that is "measured and determined" is not really an axiom :-)
If the speed of light was different in another time or place in the visible universe, we could see it at least indirectly, since c occurs in a lot of physical balances, e.g., the structure or fine structure of bands in the spectrum of light emission or absorption by stars and gazs.
And for a start, the condition and result of creation of matter, molecules, galaxies, stars, would also be different.
We don't observe that, so it's reasonnable to say that in all the visible universe, and in the past since the formation of the first galaxies, c has not changed.

Does the speed of light change?


Is it secure to use TOTP with same key and different time-counters?

Question: If I use TOTP to generate codes with different "expiration" time, using the same key for HMAC, will I create some kind of weakness?
Comment: As for example in: I log-in today with TOTP code A and in 2 hours with TOTP code B? That's secure.
Answer: Yes, that's fine where TOTPs are generated in accordance with RFC 6238; this is because the time is combined with the secret before generating the HMAC. This means that it isn't practically possible to derive the time (or information about it, such as the time difference) based on the key alone because of the Avalanche effect in the hashing algorithm that is used.
Answer: It's not really clear what you're trying to do, so I cannot give a definitive answer.  But the default answer, in the absence of more details that you've provided, is that whatever you're doing, it probably isn't secure.
Specifically, TOTP (RFC 6238) keys are generated from two inputs:

a fixed secret key, and
an incremental counter, counting the number of (arbitrary) time steps elapsed since an (arbitrary) starting epoch.

While you could, in principle, choose epoch and time step values for two counter sequences so that the counter values will not overlap in the foreseeable future, this is not how TOTP is meant to be used.  In fact, there are TOTP implementations that will not even let you change the epoch or the time step from the default values.
Rather, the proper and secure way to ensure that two TOTP output sequences will not overlap (in order to e.g. generate distinct passwords for different purposes) is to use separate secret keys for them.
Note that, for some purposes, it may be convenient to derive the separate keys from a single master key using a key derivation function, such as HKDF (RFC 5869), which is based on the same cryptographic tools (hash functions and HMAC) as TOTP is.  For example, if you had a server that needed to authenticate with many clients, without storing a separate TOTP key for each of them, you could derive each client key from a master key stored on the server, allowing the server to re-derive the client keys as needed.


" I would say ... " vs " I think that ... " , are there any differences in meaning or use between saying them

Question: Are there any differences in meaning/usage between when NAmE Speakers saying or replying with " I would say ( that ) ... " vs " I think ( that ) ... " ?
Answer: Not much difference. "I would say that" perhaps suggests a more considered opinion than "I think that" at least for some speakers. But it could be mere style or habit of expression. "I would say" is slightly more formal. But either could be used in place of the other, and context might alter these shades of meaning.
Comment: I see. Tanks a lot! And by the way , would you mind giving me some few other contexts in which they can be used in and how their meaning can exactly change with a different context or perhaps suggest anything  to me that might actually help with gaining more accurate and correct understanding about it?


Is there any superstitious associations between the number eleven and evil?

Question: We're all familiar with various superstitious ideas that consider the number 13 unlucky. But is there any such associations with the number 11? I've found Kabbalistic sources that connect the number 11 to the sitra achara ("the other side" in Aramaic) which is the "dark side" or the "side of evil." Are such ideas found in other sources?
Comment: Ten is a very important number in Judaism (numerical value of the divine initial *yod*, Noah being the tenth from Adam, number of fingers, plagues, commandments, Sefirot, etc). Eleven, which goes beyond ten, signifies the beyond, or other (*ahara*).
Answer: The only one I can think of is in the Babylonian Enuma Elish. The goddess Tiamat creates eleven monsters to battle the other gods.


Muscle spasms in legs during long distance running

Question: Last spring I ran a half marathon. I trained rather well for it and hit distance close to and equal to 13 miles in my training. I managed these training runs without incident. However, during the race I experienced incredible muscle spasms in my calves from around mile 9 to the end of the race. It was as though my calves were experiencing electric shock. Why did this not happen during my training and what can I do to prevent for the same race this coming Spring?
Comment: How much different was the race from your training runs? For example: surface (road/treadmill/trail), shoes, weather, pace, food/drink.
Comment: I can only think of two differences: 1) the race was much hillier; 2) it was race conditions so I was going some faster than in my training.
Comment: 1. Ding ding ding. Hill running is murder on the calves. And 2. contributed a lot as well.
Comment: @MattCremeens - Essentially, yes.
Comment: So is the answer to train more on hills? I've been doing that and have a plan to stay hydrated better and add some nutrition. I really want to avoid that experience again if I can help it.
Answer: First, there are two things that you note in your comments that are the most likely culprits. The race being hillier than your training area is the first indicator, as hill running is an entirely different beast than flat. It's much harder on the legs, and the calves especially, as they are the springs and shock absorbers for your legs.
You're also doing this at a faster pace than your training (more on the training in a bit), which will also contribute to muscle failure, because you're working your muscles harder and faster than they are used to.
just a side note, is you say

...hit distance close to and equal to 13 miles in my training.

You really should have some overdistance, some slow easy miles longer than a 1/2 marathon a few times in your training. Not often, but every once in a while.
As to what will help it, it's basically just more hills. Find ways to incorporate hills into your runs, and if you can manage it, a few times a month go out and do 1/4 - 1/2 mile repeats up a hill. Run it hard, and use the down and a minute or two at the bottom of the hill as rest. If you don't run hills in training, they will hurt you badly in races.
Comment: @MattCremeens - There are quite a few good running questions here on the site, if you are a novice I suspect a couple of things (common to newer runners). You are running your easy days too hard, your hard days too easy, and not running enough. Those 3 things fix 95% of the problems for recreational runners.
Comment: Thank you. I'm still a bit of a novice so appreciate some seasoned advice. You may be saving me from an injury.


How to Compile sfml 2.2 in cmake for code::blocks

Question: I am having a huge problem with the new sfml and have spent the day trying to figure it out. I have finally found I need to costume compile it with cmake. The big problem is is cmake keeps asking for CMakeLists.txt and its not there. Please help me I just want to start coding in sfml. I am running windows 8.1 and if you need any more information just ask me and I will try to give you it. If I am looking at the problem wrong can you please come up with a new solution.
Comment: According to its [github repository](https://github.com/LaurentGomila/SFML), there IS a CMakeLists.txt in the root directory.
Comment: That is now fixed, except it now says libgmp-10.dll is missing from my computer
Answer: In my opinion the easiest way to build SFML is to use the "MinGW Makefiles" CMake generator and the CMake GUI. So here is a brief tutorial on how to build SFML that way.
Prepare your Development Environment
If you do not have your MinGW compiler's bin directory in PATH, you can temporarily add it by opening a command prompt (Windows Key + R and enter cmd + Enter):
set PATH=<path_to_your_mingw_compiler>\bin;%PATH%
Next you can start the CMake GUI from the command prompt by typing cmake-gui. If CMake's bin directory hasn't been added to PATH, I highly recommend you do so in a similar fashion as mentioned above.

Then setup the path to SFML and a build path for, I usually just use the subdirectory build\.

Setup CMake
Then press the Configure button and pick the MinGW Makefiles generator.
Note: If you use MSYS you need to use the MSYS Makefiles generator instead.

As a next step you can change the various CMake variables. A full explanations of these options can be found in the official SFML CMake tutorial. One of the important parts is to change the CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX, since you'll get permission issues with the default CMake value and you essentially really don't want your library files installed there. Also don't pick the build directory, otherwise the install will end up messy. I personally prefer to use the sub-directory /install.

After you've changed everything you wanted to change you can click on Generate and you should get the two done-messages.

Actually Building SFML
CMake merely generates makefiles and project files, as such SFML as a C++ library hasn't been built yet and thus we need to this next. For that we switch back to the command prompt and change the directory to the build directory we've previously set in CMake.
Since we want everything directly installed to the previously specified CMAKE_PREFIX_INSTALL directory, we'll now run the makefile's install target. Additionally since we're most likely using a multi-core processor, we really want to get things building quickly and thus make use of the -jN flag, where N is an integer that specifies how many threads shall be used. Keep in mind that this can really freeze your system if you pick a number too high for your system. Enter the command mingw32-make install -jN as shown below.
Note: If you're using MSYS (or nuwen's MinGW compiler) you need to use make instead of mingw32-make.

Wait for the process to finish and check the install directory.
Congratulations you have successfully built SFML!

Using Code::Blocks Instead
If you really want a Code::Blocks project file, then you can repeat the first few steps from above, but instead of the MinGW Makefiles CMake generator pick the CodeBlocks - MinGW Makefiles.

Adjust the settings as mentioned above, including CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX and press the Generate button. After everything has been generated, you can go and open up the Code::Blocks project file in the build directory.

In Code::Blocks you can then easily pick your preferred target (install is recommended) and click on the build button.

Wait for the process to finish and check the install directory.
Congratulations you have successfully built SFML!
Comment: I am trying to go through this tutorial but am stuck at cmake-gui, where at that point it says not recognized. I have pasted what I did here http://pastebin.com/fzP3kWfB
Comment: Can't you think one step independently from some fixed tutorial. If CMake is not in `PATH` you'll just have to open it via the start menu or by browsing to the program directory... http://i.imgur.com/5cyqquq.png
Comment: yes, of course I tried that before commenting but literally the exact same error happened so this did not help. The reason was asking is because when I did not follow the tutorial I got the same error. The error log I got is here on past-bin: http://pastebin.com/v39EUY8h
Comment: Make sure a) Code::Blocks is properly installed b) MinGW is properly installed c) CMake is properly installed (and up to date)


Can I ask if another answer is still relevant?

Question: I was recently looking this question when I noticed that all the top answers there are from 2008! That is back in early Java 6 days. I would like to know if that answer is still applicable. Would such a question be on topic for StackOverflow?
Comment: Note that the accepted answer was edited in 2014, so were some other ones. Instead of asking the question, I would do the research myself. The accepted answer provides links to the javadoc for Java 7. For Java 8 javadoc, just replace the 7 with an 8 in the links. For that specific question, I see no reason to ask if it still applies as you have all the tools available to find out on your own.
Comment: In general, if the existing information is outdated or about an old version of the tech, feel free to ask a question about the *new* version, linking to the old one if it provides context. That said, just asking "Is this still applicable" isn't a great question, because you can do the research yourself as was already noted.
Comment: @SotiriosDelimanolis yeah, I noticed that as well. My question is meant in general though, not in this specific case. There are plenty of Q and As that haven't been updated since foreverago.
Comment: I would personally hope if you simply asked "Is this still relevant?" that your question would be marked and closed as a duplicate (or closed for some other reason).  This really is minimum effort... please put some effort in on your own to determine to the best of your ability whether or not its still applicable, *then* if you find it isn't, either ask a question about the new way to do this (if you can't figure it out), or perhaps better yet, post an updated answer to the old question (if you do figure it out).
Answer: Please do not ask a new question about an old question's answer and only ask "is this still relevant".
If you have done testing and things, and weren't able to get it to work, then go ahead and ask a new question showing your code and you can also comment that you tried doing what this answer said, but can't get it to work.
At this point people can then answer whether it is a problem with doing it this old way and you should do it this new way now, or they can find out what you were doing wrong for why it wasn't working.


Can I use Bisquick instead of All Purpose Flour?

Question: Can I use Bisquick instead of All Purpose Flour?
Comment: Hello and welcome to [se] and [cooking.se]. When posting, you'll get a speedy answer in most cases -- regardless of urgency! Please also describe the substitution you're trying to make -- e.g., in what application (e.g., pancakes, loaf bread, pie crust, ...) or recipe to you need to make this substitution?
Comment: There might be a few places where you could get away with it (eg, as part of a three-step breading), but they'd be exceptions, not norms.
Comment: Yes, you can use Bisquick instead of flour, when making macaroni and cheese. It came out perfect (the roux).
Answer: You cannot directly use Bisquick in place of AP flour.
According to the company web site and Wikipedia, Bisquick consists of bleached all-purpose flour with several other ingredients, including fat (shortening), leavening (baking powder), sugar, and salt. It is essentially a self-rising flour with added fat. Because of all of the extra ingredients, it will not behave the same as regular all-purpose flour.
Depending on the recipe or application, you may be able to substitute or remove some of the other ingredients to make use of a pre-mixed flour like Bisquick.
Answer: Yes, sometimes you can use Bisquik instead of flour. I rarely cook, but I had been ending up with overripe bananas fairly often so I decided to make banana bread. I thought the container in the top shelf of the cupboard was flour. After making four batches of banana bread and one of zucchini bread over a couple of months, the container of flour was almost empty. That's when I found the back of the Bisquik box under the container. I had been using Bisquik all along, thinking it was flour. (I told you I rarely cook! I remember now I bought Bisquik to make pancakes eons ago.) All the bread turned out great. I took it to work, where it quickly disappeared, so that's more than just my opinion. So maybe sometimes you can't just substitute Bisquik for flour, but sometimes a 1:1 substitution works just fine. In fact, I'm a little leery of using real flour next time! :-)
Answer: Yesterday, I had made scones. I wasn't sure it was going to work with the Bisquick powder but it came out great. I put all the ingredients needed plus the Bisquick powder. Although in some recipes it may not work, so just be mindful.


How to zoom in on picture in Apple Keynote

Question: I've been trying to figure out how to slowly zoom in or ease in on a picture in keynote. I would like the effect to be something like this -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6af4AQG-r4E (go to 0:55 seconds). I've built a keynote presentation in a similar layout to what you see in the video. Additionally, the video also has effects where the image pans sideways. Is it possible to do any of these effects in keynote?
Comment: Which platform? macOS or iOS?
Answer: This can be done using the scale animation. If you are using iOS, you can add this by taping the image, tapping the animate button, tapping add action button, and selecting the "scale" animation. To change the duration and scale of the animation, tap the image again, tap animate, tap on the scale animation you just added twice, and a menu should appear, giving you more settings for your animation.


Hook up 3 monitors to Mac Mini Late 2014

Question: I have the Mac Mini late 2014 and want to hook up 3 monitors in total.
It works great with 2 displays (1x Thunderbolt + 1x HDMI). Once I add a third monitor to the second Thunderbolt port, just nothing happens. What can I do to get my third monitor working?
Answer: Apple's specs show that the late-2014 (which is still being sold today, October 2015) Mac Mini can support up to two displays using its HDMI and thunderbolt ports.
I've confirmed this by trying to plug in 3 monitors directly into the ports on the Mac Mini (two via thunderbolt, 1 via HDMI), with the same results as the OP...one of the monitors is not driven.
The following 3-monitor setup worked for me:

Late 2014 Mac Mini with 8GB RAM (purchased Oct 2015)
3 monitors, each with 1920x1200 resolution
Monitor 1: driven by Mac mini HDMI port (HDMI-to-HDMI cable)
Monitor 2: driven by Mac Mini thunderbolt port (I used this thunderbolt-to-DVI cable)
Monitor 3: driven via USB 3.0 adapter (I used this one from CableMatters and have had zero issues with flicker/performance, although I am not trying to play games or watch video on it...I use it for work).

Some notes:

You can use a different USB adapter (there are several on the market) but make sure that it's Mac compatible.  I previously tried one that had "beta" Mac support and it was terrible.
Thunderbolt-to-HDMI and Thunderbolt-to-DVI cables are really mini-displayport to DVI/HDMI cables....the Thunderbolt ports accept mini-displayport connectors.
For the two natively driven monitors (#1 and #2 above) you can use any combination of HDMI<->HDMI/DVI or thunderbolt<->HDMI/DVI cables depending on what your monitor accepts.
Comment: Has anyone done this as well to confirm it works ?
Answer: This article might contain information on why this doesn't work.
First off, you're talking about a low-end machine which utilizes shared system memory for its graphics.  I drive two Thunderbolt displays with my 2012 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM and an SSD.  The Mini uses a static amount of RAM for video, it does not adjust based on how much RAM is in the machine.  As an aside, this is a good reason to max out the RAM on a machine with shared video.
You have a machine with shared video RAM totaling 1 GB, and you're trying to drive two 1440p displays and one 1080p display, a total of 5.76 MP of video output.  It's worth noting, the iMac 5K is driving less pixels, and it requires a 2 GB dedicated video card.
Answer: You can do 1x hdmi
1x hdmi to mini display
And 1x hdmi to hdmi-usb dongle
The Mac mini only supports two monitors unless you mess with the graphics, so using the usb dongle tricks it. Warning (eats ram)
Answer: This works for me: https://www.i-tech.com.au/products/146188_Wavlink_WL_UG35D6_USB_3_0_to_DVI.aspx
Note: in my experience, the more additional USB devices you have plugged in, the more likely your 3rd monitor is likely to not work (flicks on and off) due to, I assume, lack of power.
Comment: Broken link :-P
Answer: I use a thunderbolt 2 docking station which allows me to add 1 hdmi port and an additional thunderbolt port to add 2 monitors


Born in USA to French father - how do I prove it?

Question: Does anyone know what proof you have to give that your father was French?  He passed away years ago.  He served in the French Navy.  Would proof of that be good enough?
Comment: It depends on the source of french citizenship for your father : born in France ? Born from french parents ? Other ?
Answer: France has double ius soli, which means that a child born in France to at least one French-born parent is legally a French citizen. Therefore, if you can prove that your father and one of his parents were born in France, you would have French citizenship. If you can get hold of any official document that states the place of birth, that would help your cause – preferrably one issued by a French authority. If you don't have documents but know their place of birth, you might be able to get a copy of the birth certificates.
Comment: (+1) That's by far the easiest solution, if applicable. Otherwise, serving in the French Navy should establish *possession d'état* which might be useful if the OP is unable to use double ius soli.


Is there a website that has sound clips with written transcription for various dialects?

Question: My specific use case is I want to hear how 私 is pronounced in Hunanese, but I remember coming across a website a few years ago with lots of speech recordings in various Chinese dialects with written character transcriptions that could be searched. Does anyone know of a website like that?
Answer: Perhaps the website you came across was Phonemica? https://phonemica.net/
It contains recordings from various dialects and has a search function: https://phonemica.net/search
Comment: Thank you, that was the one I was thinking of.
Answer: you may try the 漢語多功能字庫, maintained by chinese university of hong kong; that, it has a section "other dialects" (其他方言讀音)
choose the "長沙", "私" is entry 665; or, entry 602 in "湘潭" there's link to the sound file
https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/dialectIndex.php?point=F
https://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk//Lexis/lexi-mf/dialectIndex.php?point=G
i mentioned "may" is, the link does not work on a ios device in lockdown mode , but i guess that it should work on other platforms, or less privacy concerned scenario
Answer: Wiktionary has fairly good written records for Xiang.
Take 私 for instance

• Xiang
    • (Changsha)
           • Wiktionary: sr1
           • Sinological IPA (key): /sz̩³³/


Google Maps Distance Calculator api

Question: I found this cool feature in google map that allows to calculate distance between two points of interest. It doesn't simple calculate the linear distance petween points but allows to draw on the Map the route on the map. Have you ever used it? Do you know where i can find the API documentation?
Answer: Google's Maps API is publicly available. You might be looking for DistanceMatrix. You could then use Polyline to create the route, and DrawingManager to draw it.

Google Maps Distance Calculator api


How to analyse audio and to affect source?

Question: I want to use the audio from my PC and have it going to the speakers and Arduino for some lighting effects. This project is a bit of a struggle because I don't know what the best way of analysing audio is. So for the lights I only want bass frequencies to affect the lights.
Comment: You need an FFT for that - and an integer based one, too. And an Arduino that can store enough audio samples to make it meaningful. And ideally a faster system to process it quicker. Basically, while an Arduino *could* do it, it would struggle and not be wonderful. Better to use an ARM or PIC32 based board with more memory and a fast 32-bit CPU. An FPU as well would help, then you could do it with floats instead of ints (though ints are fine). Even better would be a chip with a DSP in it (such as a dsPIC33), but then you're straying way outside the bounds of Arduino...
Comment: While i dont really understand what you mean with the arduino not being able to store enough sample i could try and use my raspberry pi (i think i remember it being something with ARM).
Comment: I usually use at least 1024 samples (though you can use less, but you get less FFT buckets). At 16 bits per sample (actually 10, but you there aren't 10 bit data types) that's the entire memory of the Uno. For simple LED control you could get away with maybe 128 samples and sample at a lower frequency, since you aren't interested in the higher frequency range, and it then becomes viable. The fewer samples you have the less frequency resolution you get, but the less memory it uses and the faster it processes.
Answer: I have actually just finished a project doing exactly that. I used a frequency analyser chip called an MSGEQ7 (Available from Sparksfun), here's the datasheet.
https://www.sparkfun.com/datasheets/Components/General/MSGEQ7.pdf
These little things are really easy to use. Give me a shout if you would like any help with it such as coding or wiring.
Comment: Thanks alot i am currently  loooking into it to see if its what i need :-)
Answer: There's many ways of achieving what you want - some in software, some in hardware.
Since you are only interested in the lower frequencies this opens up the possibility of a low pass filter - either a hardware one, or a software one.  The simplest hardware one is just a resistor in series followed by a capacitor in parallel:

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
(representative component values: increase capacitance and/or resistance to decrease frequency)
Doing it in software is just as simple: you sample at a regular frequency through whatever means are suitable (there's plenty of resources for sampling at a specific frequency on the Arduino - google them), then you average samples together to remove higher frequency components. The more you average the lower your cut-off frequency. Each time you average you halve the frequency range. Note that the frequency range is already half the sample frequency.
For instance: if you sample at 8kHz (say 512 samples) you get a 0-4kHz frequency range in your sample set. Averaging each pair of samples (which results in 256 samples) gives you a 0-2kHz frequency range. Averaging again, for 128 samples, gives you 0-1kHz. Average again, for 64 samples, gives you 0-500Hz. Again, 32 samples, 0-250Hz.  Keep going, until you have your desired cut-off frequency.
Then you can scan the sample set for the maximum and minimum and take that as your peak amplitude for the sample set.
You have to make sure that your sample frequency is at least twice the highest frequency you are interested in (preferably more so that you can do some averaging), and that your sample set is large enough, at the chosen sample frequency, to contain at least one full cycle of the lowest frequency you are interested in.  For instance, at 8kHz sample frequency, if you are interested in responding to frequencies down to 50Hz, you need to sample for at least (1/50) 20ms, which at 8kHz means (8000 samples per second times 0.02 seconds) 160 samples. Since it's usually better to work with powers of 2 that means 256 samples is the next biggest "slot" that would do.
If you want to access more information about the actual frequency content of your sample set so as to light different LEDs when different frequency components are in the signal you need a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). This converts the sample set into a collection of buckets (exactly half the buckets as you have samples) each representing a portion of the frequency range of your sample set. For 256 samples that gives you 128 buckets, each representing 1/128 of your total frequency range. So at 8000 samples per second, or a 4kHz frequency range, each bucket gives you a 31.25Hz resolution.
The problem with FFT is it is computationally expensive. It also needs more memory than simple averaging.
Depending on the algorithm you use, you will probably find you need 16 bit samples, and each sample should be in the form of a "real" and "imaginary" component, amounting to 32 bits per sample. Most algorithms require powers-of-two for the number of samples. For 256 samples that means you are using 1024kB of memory just for sample storage and processing, which is half of what the Uno has. You certainly won't be able to go over 256 samples on an Uno (the next step up is 512, which would want to use the entire memory leaving no room for any other variables).
There are two basic forms of algorithms for FFT: floating point, and integer. The floating point variant is great on a CPU that has an FPU with it to do the number crunching, but on an Arduino that just isn't possible. So the floating point version would take a massive amount of time to process making your results incredibly jittery. Far from desirable. So you need to find the integer version (one example) which runs much faster.
Calculating an FFT is done in two parts: first it calculates the real and imaginary components from the sample set, and second it converts those two components into a single vector, the length of which is the amplitude of the bucket. Whether or not you are using the integer FFT algorithm that second phase is going to be slow. It involves a square root (it's basically pythagoras: sqrt((r*r) + (i*i));) and that is almost always slow. Getting that to work fast on an Arduino is not at all easy. You can sacrifice accuracy for speed though and write your own square root approximation routine (as I have done before for 3D vector manipulation in a graphics library):
float quick_sqrt(float number) {
    int32_t i;
    float x2, y2;
    const float threehalfs = 1.5F;

    x2 = number * 0.5F;
    y2  = number;
    i  = * ( long * ) &y2;
    i  = 0x5f3759df - ( i >> 1 );
    y2  = * ( float * ) &i;
    y2  = y2 * ( threehalfs - ( x2 * y2 * y2 ) );

    return 1.0/y2;
}

That uses a few tricks to do with the way a floating point number is stored to create an approximation of the square root.
With all that you can see that the Arduino can do FFT, but it's not the best solution for FFT. Ideally you need a faster, more powerful, chip with more memory (personally I use a PIC32MZ "EF" variant: 200MHz, 512kB RAM, FPU).


How to tell a manager that he is making technical mistakes?

Question: I had a 20-something CEO/CTO at a startup whose technical knowledge seemed very limited, but he was also very arrogant and he didn't want to hear my ideas AT ALL. Here was a person who was doing programming (our app was his baby) but didn't know how to encode RGBA in a uint32_t (he thought alpha was the low byte), even though he had been doing UX professionally before this. He went on to make many very basic mistakes but he avoided being told anything, and he rejected the ideas that I presented, and he often refactored my code without my permission and while avoiding any debate about it, making my code harder to maintain. He forbade me from adding comments to the code, and he added his own mean-little-messages to the code trying to be condescending. Other workers seemed to encourage his delusions of grandeur, why I don't know. I ended up leaving as soon as I could but was there a way to diplomatically deal with his lack of knowledge?
Comment: Seems like we have a double Zane. One that post, the other who edit.
Comment: This question has answers, although many are probably opinion based. Anyways, the OP's situation is not the norm but certainly not uncommon among incoming new-grads who don't think "good" practices are efficient. If it becomes obvious that simply telling them the answer isn't working then my usual next tactic is to simply ask leading questions that gets them to come to the same conclusion. If that doesn't work then I tend to let them screw up and use that as a teaching opportunity to reiterate what I hold told them. If that doesn't work then that person won't be working with me much longer.
Answer: It seems like the most diplomatic thing to do is exactly what you did in this case. If he actually knew what he was doing, and the rest of the team supported him, the only way to reconcile your contradictory opinion was to gracefully step away and find a group you work better with.
If he had no idea what he was doing, as you suggest, and everyone else on the team still supported him, you should have done the same thing but doubly as fast. Either way, finding yourself as a subordinate to someone who has blatantly different core methodology, and doesn't want to hear your ideas "AT ALL" is an unfortunate incompatibility. It sounds like any other approach would have simply caused frustration, followed by the same end result: you walking a different path.


What are the connectors for black irrigation hose called?

Question: I'm fixing my irrigation and there are some cracks that I need to cut out and reconnect them. I have these connections already but being new to irrigation, I'm not sure what to call them. See the attached images for a zoom in and a zoomed out with red highlight.
Comment: That's just one random brand of "drip irrigation" tube and fittings. They are NOT "standard" and the fittings and tube are not always interchangeable between different brands (although many manufacturers have wised up and made stuff compatible)
Answer: Home Depot calls them compression couplings. Here is an example.

And if you are looking for the type that go on the inside of the hose, it'll be called a barbed coupling or barbed connector.
Answer: Thes are also called Push to Connect fittings.
Answer: You have standard couplings and t's.
since it's above ground I would guess low pressure drip irrigation. There are tons of brands I just make sure the size is correct and go to a big box store. But Amazon also has them some are called compression, some barbed but coupling is for 1 pipe to another and T is for 3 pieces


Can any matrix be translated into a quantum circuit?

Question: Can any matrix be translated into quantum circuit? Is there any limitation to the qubits length or any other constraints to the matrix?
Can any matrix be presented by a unique quantum circuit or are there several options to present it?
Comment: Related: https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/15804/how-to-check-if-a-quantum-circuit-can-be-constructed-for-a-given-matrix-represen
Answer: It depends on what you mean by "translated". Let's say you're given a matrix $A$ and an input state $|\psi\rangle$. I imagine that what you'd be seeking is the ability to produce a state $A|\psi\rangle$. There are a few possibilities depending on the properties of $A$.

If $A$ is unitary, i.e. $A$ is square and $AA^\dagger=I$, then you can directly convert it into a quantum circuit. This translation is very far from unique, and there are also no guarantees about efficiency (indeed, most $2^n\times 2^n$ matrices, while implemented on $n$ qubits, would require a number of time steps that is roughly exponential in $n$).
If $A$ has singular values bounded below 1, you can always extend the matrix (by no more than doubling the larger of the number of rows and columns, producing a square matrix) such that the extension is unitary. As in the previous step, you can then implement that unitary. It will probably also include some probability of failure (basically, you perform a measurement to detect whether the output is in the extended or non-extended bit of the space). In that case, your output state gets rescaled so that you get $rA|\psi\rangle$, with $r\in\mathcal{C}$ such that the output has length 1 (but you might choose not to make the measurement, in which case the rescaling doesn't happen).
If $A$ has singular values larger than 1, you will not succeed with the exact task as defined. However, if you already know something about $A$, e.g. its largest singular value, or an upper bound on the largest singular value, $s$, you can redefine $\tilde A=A/s$ and follow the previous step.

The last case, up to a scale factor, lets you use essentially any matrix. This is, more or less, what the HHL algorithm lets you do.
Answer: Not all matrices are allowed in the conventional quantum circuit model.  That is, quantum circuits composed of gates correspond to unitary matrices that preserve distances, e.g., matrices $U$ such that:
$$U^\dagger U= U U^\dagger = I.$$
These matrices certainly are square, and have other interesting properties when restricted to real (or even boolean) entries - when the entries are selected from $\{0,1\}$ the matrix is a permutation matrix.
Further even given such a permutation matrix, along with a restricted set of gates (such as CCNOT and/or CSWAP), a simple counting argument shows that there must be multiple circuits realizing said matrix.  Even classically, when given a boolean function as a truth-table, we can realize the function with many different classical circuits composed of NAND gates or NOR gates, etc.


Can a bishop be "demoted" to a priest?

Question: In Catholicism, can there ever be a reason where a bishop is removed from his office and placed back as a priest? If this can occur, what are some of the reasons it might?
Comment: There was a degradation of Orders ceremony historically (from at least 1600-1960s) but I'm unsure whether they used it for individual ranks or just from current rank all the way down to layman. It's more symbolic anyways since the indelible mark from ordination can't be removed and the juridical status can be removed even without the ceremony
Comment: A bishop can never not be a bishop. But he can retire and thus not have any authority a bishop ordinarily has, or he can be removed from office, and usually then does not exercise public ministry as he might as a retired bishop (hearing confessions etc.)
Answer: The short answer: No
In Catholic Theology, ordination is tied to an indelible mark which cannot be removed. This is the same kind of idea as the indelible mark of baptism or confirmation. Through the Sacrament, God marks this souls as set aside, whether as a child of God by adoption or as a member of the clergy of His Church.
A Bishop can have his faculties stripped. The Pope can decide that a particular bishop has done something so gravely wrong that it warrants being barred from offering Mass publicly, from being given permission to ordain priests, from leading a diocese, etc. But the Bishop still retains that mark, and all of the powers that come with it.
The SSPX is a good case study of this sort of thing. Archbishop Lefebvre ordained four priests of his society as bishops. He did so illicitly, without the permission of Rome, and against the Pope's orders. He did not have permission from the Pope to do this, and he could not remain in communion with Rome after having done so, without repenting. This is why the order was considered to be in schism with Rome at that time. Lefebvre and his bishops were excommunicated, but they did not stop being bishops.
The same sort of thing happened with the Eastern Church in the schism of 1054. The Catholic Church recognizes valid apostolic succession of the bishops of the East. If the Pope could simply demote bishops, he would have demoted those Eastern ones in 1054, and the East would not have valid Holy Orders or Apostolic Succession.
Answer: Can a bishop be "demoted" to a priest?
In theory, it is possible. I am not sure this has happened, but the possibility does exists, especially if there was a case in which a bishop was consecrated in exceptional circumstances in which getting permission from the Holy See to be consecrated as a bishop was not obtained.
During the Communist era in Europe, some married individuals of the Latin Rite were ordained priests by their bishops. This threw off the Communists because they knew Roman Catholic priests had to be celibate. When Communism more or less collapsed in 1989, the Holy See ordered these men three solutions: Join an Eastern Rite where married clergy was accepted; be demoted to a the level of an active deacon in the Latin Rite and lastly be laicized.
Thus we could reason it out that the possibility of a bishop could be theoretically demoted to the level of a priest is possible. This naturally would only be done by the  Supreme Pontiff, the pope.
Although sacred ordination imparts an indelible mark on the soul of a priest or bishop, priests have been known to be reduced to the level of a deacon. Both priests and bishops have had their priestly faculties taken away by Rome. Once a priest or a bishop has been ordained or consecrated, they will be forever a priest or bishop. But degradation of their position is always possible by the Holy See.
Historically there was a one time an official ceremony for the degradation of clerics.
A scandalous bishop could have bishop faculties removed, demoted to the level of a priest and could be ordered to live a life of penance in a monastery. It would not surprise me if this has in fact already occurred.

A canonical penalty by which an ecclesiastic is entirely and perpetually deprived of all office, benefice, dignity, and power conferred on him by ordination; and by a special ceremony is reduced to the state of a layman, losing the privileges of the clerical state and being given over to the secular arm. Degradation, however, cannot deprive an ecclesiastic of the character conferred in ordination, nor does it dispense him from the law of celibacy and the recitation of the Breviary. Degradation is twofold: verbal, i.e. the mere sentence of degradation; and real or actual, i.e. the execution of that sentence. They are not two distinct penalties, but parts of the same canonical punishment. Degradation is a perpetual punishment, and the clergyman so punished has never any right to release from it. It differs from deposition in so far as it deprives, and always totally, of all power of orders and jurisdiction and also of the privileges of the ecclesiastical state, thus in all things subjecting the delinquent to civil authority. While a bishop, even before his consecration can inflict deposition or pronounce a sentence of verbal degradation and can reinstate those so punished, it is only a consecrated bishop who can inflict actual degradation, and only the Holy See which can reinstate ecclesiastics actually degraded.
Solemn degradation owes its origin to the military practice of thus expelling soldiers from the army; the Church adopted this institution in order to remove grievously delinquent clerics from the ecclesiastical order. The first mention of clerical degradation is found in the eighty-third Novel of Justinian; subsequently it was adopted with its external solemnities by early medieval councils as a repressive measure against heretics. It did not originally differ from deposition, and degraded ecclesiastics were still privileged and remained exclusively subject to ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The laity, however, complained that churchmen, even when degraded, secured in this way impunity for their crimes. Hence, Innocent III (c. viii, Decrim. falsi, X, v, 20) made it a permanent rule that clerical offenders, after degradation, should be handed over to the secular power, to be punished according to the law of the land. Degradation cannot be inflicted except for crimes clearly designated in the law, or for any other enormous crime when deposition and excommunication have been applied in vain, and the culprit has proved incorrigible. According to the Council of Trent (Sess. XIII, c. iv, De ref.), a bishop, when inflicting degradation on a priest, must have with him six mitred abbots as associate judges, and three such prelates for the degradation of a deacon or subdeacon. If abbots cannot be had, a like number of church dignitaries of mature age, and skilled in canon law, may take their place. All these must give their vote, which is decisive, and must be unanimous for the imposition of so grave a penalty.
The ceremony of actual degradation consists chiefly in bringing before the ecclesiastical superior the culprit vested in the robes corresponding to his order; in gradually divesting him of his sacred vestments, beginning with the last he received at his ordination; finally, in surrendering him to the lay judge (who must always be present) with a plea for lenient treatment and avoidance of bloodshed. The words pronounced by the ecclesiastical superior during the ceremony, also other rubrical details, are laid down by Boniface VIII (c. Degradatio, ii, de poenis, in VI) and by the Roman Pontifical (pt. III, c.vii). Degradation is now rarely, if ever, inflicted; dismissal, with perpetual deprivation, takes its place. - Degradation (Catholic Encyclopedia)

In the Middle Ages, there existed a Pontifical ceremony reserved to the pope for the removal of the red hat of a cardinal by the pope himself. Thus the cardinal lost his rank of a Prince of the Church.
It is a ceremony that was employed at least on one occasion, unfortunately I can not recall the situation at the moment. What I can recall of the ceremony is that the cardinal in question walked into the pope's presence wearing his red hat and bare-footed. When he reached the Holy Father, the pope removed his red hat, admonished him and finally pronounced the bishop or priest to no longer to be a cardinal.

Can a bishop be "demoted" to a priest?


Relation between torque and speed in a dc motor(say dc shunt motor)

Question: I have a doubt on relation between torque and speed in a DC motor. Please correct me wherever I am wrong.
As we know that if we increase load the armature speed will decrease so that back emf also decrease or say armature current will increase and we know that torque depends on armature current Ia ( in a dc shunt motor so the flux could be constant)
       Torque proportional to flux × Ia
          Sience Flux =constant
    =Torque proportional to Ia
So when armature current will increase torque will increase and thus speed should also increase.
  So my question is that if rotor slows down because armature is not producing enough torque for increased load then why  does it not regain the same speed (on which it was rotating) after the armature produces sufficient torque (due to increase in current)
Answer: At constant supply voltage, if you increase the load, that that slows the motor down, mechanically. The reduction in speed reduces the back emf, which leaves a higher voltage left over to push more current through the windings. The higher current generates more torque, which allows the motor to come to equilibrium with a higher torque into the higher load.
If you increase the current flowing through the motor by increasing the supply voltage, which increases the voltage across the winding resistance, that will increase the torque and the motor will speed up. Its load will probably require higher torque to drive it at the higher speed, so the motor will come to a new equilibrium at the higher speed, with a higer current and torque.
Comment: ... allows the motor to come to equilibrium ... at the new torque at the new speed. If the motor had zero resistance windings, then it would always run at the same speed, and draw whatever current was required to make enough torque to overcome the load. As the windings have resistance, a higher current means higher IR drop, which means less speed as the back EMF is balancing less voltage.
Comment: Actually my question was that why does armature not regain the same speed after when it has produced enough torque. I mean that when a rotor slows down because armature is not producing enough torque for increased load but when it produces enough torque for that increased load why does its speed not increase again. Hope this will clear you my question.
Answer: You have one too many unknowns or not enough information to answer this question.
You are experiencing some kind of rotational speed hysteresis with assumed same dynamic power resuming after dropping out. E.g. Solar powered motor.
DC motors have Torque proportional to Current ( like PV's have current proportional solar power input ) and then No-Load RPM proportional to Voltage.  Maximal Power may be around 80% of maximum no-load speed but maximal torque is always from 0 RPM and declines to 0 available torque at some voltage with no-load speed.
You have not defined the motor load (torque vs RPM profile.)
Hypothetically, if you have a load profile that is inversely proportional to speed or has positive feedback or friction is high initially and builds up momentum then you get a hysteresis effect.
Answer: The torque is proportional to the current and with no torque the speed is proportional to the voltage. In the simple model, there is a resistor, the armature resistance, and a voltage source, the back-emf, which is proportional to speed.

simulate this circuit – Schematic created using CircuitLab
In the ideal case when there is no load torque, the speed is proportional to the input voltage and the current is zero. If a load torque is added, the current increases, dropping voltage over the armature resistance, so less voltage is across the back-emf, so the speed has to be lower.
Answer: The current Ia increase to meet the demand of increased torque. To increase the speed of rotor provided torque should be greater than required torque. So here speed donot increase.


GA4 massive spam spikes from cities in different country

Question: More than a Month now our website has massive spikes in direct traffic. So my thoughts are spam. I discovered a lot of traffic from certain cities, especially Boardman, Montreal, Columbus. What is the best approach in GA4 to exclude this spam traffic?
https://i.stack.imgur.com/p5B9h.png
Answer: Well, GA4 is a way-way lower quality, but also cheaper (for Google) to maintain compared to GA UA. They got rid of the view filters with the whole concept of views. So in short, there's no easy way to filter the bot traffic out.
The easiest remedy is probably just to add country filters to your exploration dashboards (you're not supposed to reliably use Reports any way).
More advanced solution would be an ETL solution: exporting the data to BQ, sanitizing it there with SQL and then loading it to whatever datalake you like and use a real BI tool for analysis instead of GA4 interface.
Even more advanced solution would be hiding your collect endpoint by shifting your tracking completely to backend GTM. That way, spammers won't even know where to send their spam.
I suggest going with the simple Explorer filter solution. Or just doing nothing. The spammers will stop doing it eventually.


English Article

Question: I have come across a sentence where 'Niagara Falls' is used without an article. I seem to remember that there is a basic rule of the English language that there should be an article before any specific countable noun. Niagara Falls is a set of three spectacular waterfalls located on the US-Canadian border which makes it plural specific noun. Then why not 'The Niagara Falls'?
Comment: Your error is in supposing that "basic rules of English" that you have learned in school to help you remember how to speak and write English are actually basic rules. They are in fact just very simple generalizations (often very incorrect ones) that your teachers were told by their teachers. They are **not** rules that native speakers must follow, nor even usually descriptions of how native speakers talk, nor do they apply to most situations. They're just children's stories; that's all. Adults should not depend on children's stories for direction.
Comment: As an aside, 'falls' (in this sense) is arguably a semantically singular or sometimes perhaps plural noun meaning the same as 'waterfall(/s)', but having plural form and given singular _or_ plural concord. Lower Yellowstone Falls is certainly unitary; Iguazu Falls (' Numerous islands along the 2.7-kilometre-long (1.7 mi) edge divide the falls into numerous separate waterfalls and cataracts, varying between 60 to 82 metres (197 to 269 ft) high. The number of these smaller waterfalls fluctuates from 150 to 300, depending on the water level.': Wikipedia) is (!) certainly not. And _how_ count!?
Comment: @John: To this day I still believe that my atrocious spelling can largely be put down to having gleefully learned *I before E except after C*. For a while I really thought that was one of the first steps in climbing a "relatively" scalable mountain, but as I started to discover more and more cases where it didn't work, I simply lost all faith in "spelling rules". These days, I only normally write using keyboards, and usually just rely on built-in spellcheckers (except here, where I had to search the Net because my Google Chrome browser underlines both ***scaleable*** AND ***scalable*** Grr! :)
Comment: They dind't teach you the second stanza: _Or when sounded like **A**, as in "neighbor" or "sleigh"._ Shame on them. Then there's _Neither foreigner had the height to seize their weird leisure_, which would be the third stanza, only it doesn't scan or rhyme.
Answer: Not every common noun gets an article. For example there's no article before many countries except for a few. There's no article before Germany but there's one before UK and USA. In most cases you don't need an article before these kind of nouns unless the context asks for it.
Comment: Germany is a singular noun, where in the USA is the collective noun (States), which makes it plural and that's why we put 'The' before US. 'The United States of America' or 'The United Kingdom' or may be The Philippines.
Comment: The Gambia? Ukraine or The Ukraine?
Comment: @user78539: on top of what Ed mentioned, what about "the kingdom of Saudi Arabia?" it's not a collection of many kingdoms.
Comment: *The Federal Republic of Germany* does have an article, while *America* and *Britain* do not. It's not the country that matters, it's the name.
Answer: In the specific case of "Niagara Falls", your rule fails, because while there are three waterfalls which are The Niagara Falls, "Niagara Falls" is also a place with that name. Saying "Niagara Falls" without a the refers to the place, saying it with a the refers to the falls themselves.
Comment: This is not a true explanation of why the 'rule' fails. Certainly, the article would never be used with the settlement used non-attributively, but the composite waterfall is also usually used without: eg 'Interesting fact: According to the U.S.G.S. (United States Geological Survey) of Niagara Falls, it appears that almost 1/3 of the Canadian Falls lies within US Territory ...'

English Article


Fear of holding something to the air

Question: I have this thing that when someone holds something out into air from the high places i think of it dropping. Whenever someone hold their phone out from the 3ed floor for example i start panicking. I CANT LOOK. it can be anything. A water bottle, a rock or maybe if they just slightly Lean against the railing... What is this?? A phobia?
Comment: Arguably, OP has a form of [**barophobia**](http://www.phobiasource.com/barophobia-fear-of-gravity/)  – *Fear of gravity*.
Answer: batophobia wiktionary
<code>> The fear of high objects or of high objects falling down
</code>
Who knew? lol It likely mean to fall down upon one's self though.
Answer: Many people are afraid of heights but the term acrophobia is used to mean rather more - the body starts to react physically. But you are not at a height yourself.
This page: Health Check: why are some people afraid of heights? says:

When faced with heights or anticipating them, their sympathetic
  nervous system is aroused, as if preparing the body for an emergency.
  This arousal helps either approach or escape from a threat (commonly
  known as the fight-or-flight response).

In your case it seems to be the anticipation of the danger and not the danger itself, so the term acrophobia may well apply to your experience.

Fear of holding something to the air


Can I search in the terminal backlog in Terminator

Question: I'm using Terminator as my terminal. Is there a built-in way to find/search through the output backlog? I'm not looking for grep and piping a command, or piping into less or vim.
Answer: Terminator has a built-in search (ctrl-shift-f is the default keybinding), but it doesn't highlight the found text, which makes it fairly useless.
There's a bug open against terminator to fix this, but right now it's still unresolved:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/terminator/+bug/271487
Comment: Stumbled upon this thread today: bug has status fix committed, so things are moving forward. Milestone: Terminator 2.1.
Comment: Just started using terminator today.. I already ran into this and hope for the same. For ppl wanting this feature: go to the launchpad page, register, and click "This bug affects me" at the top of that page.. Though I don't hold great hopes, as that feature request is almost 10years old now.. :(
Comment: You just made this account to answer this question, right? Thanks a lot. :)
Comment: Happy to help. :-) I'm really hoping the terminator devs will be able to get this one fixed soon. It's a great program.
Comment: Man, I wish I always knew this. I can't tell you how many times I've [copy and pasted](https://askubuntu.com/a/1126741/256054) from Terminator to a text editor just to find something. Thank you!
Answer: You can install latest version on ubuntu where the bug is solved
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mattrose/terminator
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt install terminator

See https://github.com/gnome-terminator/terminator/blob/master/INSTALL.md
Answer: This actually has been resolved for terminator 2.1, yes good things do happen in 2020. However it's not on the repo yet, but you can clone the
github terminator repo
And follow the steps form install guide
Basically it will take you to
git clone firstname.lastname@example.com:gnome-terminator/terminator.git

sudo apt-get install python3-gi python3-gi-cairo python3-psutil python3-configobj \
                gir1.2-keybinder-3.0 gir1.2-vte-2.91 gettext intltool dbus-x11

# In the folder where you've cloned the repo
python3 setup.py build
python3 setup.py install --single-version-externally-managed --record=install-files.txt

you should be able to spawn a terminal from that point by running from the folder where you've cloned the repo
python3 terminator

And have the desired search working


"Something came up. The application has cancelled the request to choose a device"

Question: I'm a tech savy person but this has me at my wits end.
I have two apps and two devices I want to connect to with my OnePlus 5T running Android 10, OxygenOS 10.0.1

Image Sync, trying to connect to Pentax KS2
GoPro Quik, trying to connect to GoPro Hero Silver 7.

For Image Sync, this is what happens:

On my phone: turn on NFC
Turn on my Pentax camera.
Open the app on my phone, click on "cam images" to try to download the camera's pictures.
App wants me to connect through NFC or through wi-fi. I pick NFC and put the camera near the phone.
The connection seems to work, I see "connection successful" at the bottom of my phone. Then a popup lets me select my camera. I click "connect" and immediately after, another popup appears saying "Something came up. The application has cancelled the request to choose a device"
If I go the wi-fi route, the same thing happens.

For the GoPro, my phone is able to find my camera but when I try to download the images, it says "connecting" and nothing happens. Then another popup: "we had trouble connecting with your GoPro".
My phone has developer mode turned on. Is there a setting that i'm missing? It can't be that both apps are faulty, right? It has to be my phone.
I've tried various combinations of connections on my phone turned on/off: wi-fi, bluetooth, data. Nothing works.
Comment: If you've enabled developer mode have you looked at [adb](https://developer.android.com/studio/command-line/adb) [logcat](https://stackoverflow.com/q/3707880/295004) to see if any related message appears when attempting the action.
Comment: @MorrisonChang I tried that but I didn't get a lot of useful information
Answer: Well this is what worked.
For GoPro:

Phone: Clear all active apps and clear the app's cache.
Phone: "Forget" the camera on the app, and also forget the WiFi network.
Phone: Turn off data connection, leave only wi-fi and Bluetooth.
Turn on the camera, WiFi should be enabled automatically.
Phone: connect to the WiFi network normally, through the phone settings.
Phone: open app, connection should work.

For Image Sync:

Phone: Clear the apps' cache AND local data.
Phone: Forget the camera's WiFi network.
Phone: Turn off data connection, leave only wi-fi and Bluetooth.
Turn on the camera and enable its WiFi.
Phone: connect to the WiFi network normally, through the phone settings.
Phone: Open the app. It will ask you to accept terms and conditions and some permissions.


If I have to update minecraft will I have to pay for it again?

Question: If I have to update Minecraft will I have to make another purchase? I am scared that I will purchase it again and I don't want that to happen.
Answer: Since Minecraft's first release in 2009, all major content updates have been free to anyone who bought the game. This applies both to the PC and Pocket versions of the game.
I bought the game years ago and am still getting free updates.


How to remove part of a model?

Question: I want to remove the roof section of this batmobile model, I'd like to know if there is a faster way of doing this than selecting all the individual vertices and moving them away, as this looks quite tricky. What is the best approach?
Answer: You can use Separate by selection.

Select the faces you want to remove
Use Mesh > Separate > By Selection
Your selection is now a separate object you can hide/show at will
Answer:
Select Face
Ctrl + Select Face on the other side
Blender will search the shortest path along the faces and will select all of them

or

Press B to box select

or
If you've already assigned different materials (i.e. the glass window) you can select every face assigned to that material in the materials tab, or by pressing Ctrl + L and clicking on "Material" in the bottom left corner of your screen.

How to remove part of a model?


How do I keep Ender men out of my end shop

Question: I play on a small Minecraft server where I'm working on a shop in the end however the shop is a big glass dome with a high ceiling and I would like to keep the endermen out of the shop. How can I keep endermen from teleporting in? (Btw I know I can use a floor made of transparent blocks but that is my plan B in case there is no other way and a short ceiling isn't an option)
Answer: Cover the floor in double carpets - two layers of carpet. The endermen don't spawn on it, don't consider that a valid teleport destination and don't pathfind over it unless they happen to get there accidentally e.g. after dropping off ledges. Another option is waterlogged blocks - in particular, waterlogged upside-down stairs and slabs provide regular flat surface, and normal stairs can be shaped into fancy patterns of half block wide water channels.
Note full-top blocks like stairs or slabs will stop teleportation and pathfinding but not spawns - the endermen can still spawn on them (and sit there confused). Regular orientation stairs and carpets are spawn-proof. Also, transparent blocks like glass or bottom slabs are spawn-proof but don't do a thing against teleportation or pathfinding.
Comment: Thank you I will definitely try water logging the floor
Comment: Another easy way to do it is just make the roof 2 blocks high so enderman can't teleport inside.
Comment: @nerdbegaming please see the edit.
Comment: Yes I noticed the fact that they can spawn on the turned over waterlogged blocks after I made the floor
Comment: @dabbingsdednow I already stated in the question that a low ceiling wasn't an option
Comment: And to fix them spawning in my shop I have filled the room with torches because even in the end the light level must be below 7 to spawn


How to resume downloading image when interrupted?

Question: How can I resume pull when disconnected? The pull process always start from the beginning every time I run docker pull some-image again after disconnected. My connection is so unstable that even downloading just a 100MB image take so long and almost fails every time. So, it is almost impossible for me to pull a bigger image. So, how can I resume the pull process?
Answer: Update:
The pull process will now automatically resume based on which layers have already been downloaded. This was implemented with https://github.com/moby/moby/pull/18353.
Old:
There is no resume feature yet. However there are discussions around this feature being implemented with docker's download manager.
Comment: It would  be real nice to have a resume partial download like wget. I assume sha hashes are maintained to verify integrity.  I am setting up a virtual "develoipment workstation" as a docker image and some of the team members are on cellular modems out in the boonies and are having a hard time with 800meg layers.

Though originally intended for server clouds connected by fiber "The street finds it's own uses for things" and it could end up evolving to a form of OS kernel for running virtualized apps.on workstations and other devices.
Comment: Your comment might bring more benefit at the github discussion linked my NReilingh.
Comment: Feb 2020, docker pull downloads the layers again when interrupted.
Comment: 2023 and still downloading the layers again. I have one layer with 2.7GB to download via unstable VPN and with docker this seems unfeasible. I have to download manually with a download manager that can resume and then somehow feed this manually into docker...
Comment: The feature is still experimental and needs to be enabled manually:
https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/799078/223494725-a729f282-31e9-4ea3-8064-c26040403834.png
Comment: 2024 mar and this is still not resumeable partially at each layer. My Quota 10GB lost bcos downloading Step 1/8 : FROM mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/framework/sdk:4.8 AS builder, and still not finished until now from this morning. 12 hours. It need wifi with fast stable internet
Comment: I Can not see it @Jörg. Which docker version yours?
Answer: Docker's code isn't as updated as the moby in development repository on github.  People have been having issues for several years relating to this.  I had tried to manually use several patches which aren't in the upstream yet, and none worked decent.
The github repository for moby (docker's development repo) has a script called download-frozen-image-v2.sh.  This script uses bash, curl, and other things like JSON interpreters via command line.  It will retrieve a docker token, and then download all of the layers to a local directory.  You can then use 'docker load' to insert into your local docker installation.
It does not do well with resume though.  It had some comment in the script relating to 'curl -C' isn't working.  I had tracked down, and fixed this problem.  I made a modification which uses a ".headers" file to retrieve initially, which has always returned a 302 while I've been monitoring, and then retrieves the final using curl (+ resume support) to the layer tar file.  It also has to loop on the calling function which retrieves a valid token which unfortunately only lasts about 30 minutes.
It will loop this process until it receives a 416 stating that there is no resume possible since it's ranges have been fulfilled.  It also verifies the size against a curl header retrieval.  I have been able to retrieve all images necessary using this modified script.  Docker has many more layers relating to retrieval, and has remote control processes (Docker client) which make it more difficult to control, and they viewed this issue as only affecting some people on bad connections.
I hope this script can help you as much as it has helped me:
Changes:
fetch_blob function uses a temporary file for its first connection.  It then retrieves 30x HTTP redirect from this.  It attempts a header retrieval on the final url and checks whether the local copy has the full file.  Otherwise, it will begin a resume curl operation.  The calling function which passes it a valid token has a loop surrounding retrieving a token, and fetch_blob which ensures the full file is obtained.
The only other variation is a bandwidth limit variable which can be set at the top, or via "BW:10" command line parameter.  I needed this to allow my connection to be viable for other operations.
Click here for the modified script.
In the future it would be nice if docker's internal client performed resuming properly.  Increasing the amount of time for the token's validation would help tremendously..
Brief views of change code:
#loop until FULL_FILE is set in fetch_blob.. this is for bad/slow connections
            while [ "$FULL_FILE" != "1" ];do
                local token="$(curl -fsSL "$authBase/token?service=$authService&scope=repository:$image:pull" | jq --raw-output '.token')"
                fetch_blob "$token" "$image" "$layerDigest" "$dir/$layerTar" --progress
                sleep 1
            done

Another section from fetch_blob:
while :; do
            #if the file already exists.. we will be resuming..
            if [ -f "$targetFile" ];then
                #getting current size of file we are resuming
                CUR=`stat --printf="%s" $targetFile`
                #use curl to get headers to find content-length of the full file
                LEN=`curl -I -fL "${curlArgs[@]}" "$blobRedirect"|grep content-length|cut -d" " -f2`

                #if we already have the entire file... lets stop curl from erroring with 416
                if [ "$CUR" == "${LEN//[!0-9]/}" ]; then
                    FULL_FILE=1
                    break
                fi
            fi

            HTTP_CODE=`curl -w %{http_code} -C - --tr-encoding --compressed --progress-bar -fL "${curlArgs[@]}" "$blobRedirect" -o "$targetFile"`
            if [ "$HTTP_CODE" == "403" ]; then
                #token expired so the server stopped allowing us to resume, lets return without setting FULL_FILE and itll restart this func w new token
                FULL_FILE=0
                break
            fi

            if [ "$HTTP_CODE" == "416" ]; then
                FULL_FILE=1
                break
            fi

            sleep 1
        done

Answer: I am on Arch Linux with docker 24.0.2 (not docker desktop, just whatever you get with pacman -S docker).
You can enable docker pull to resume interrupted downloads by adding "features": {"containerd-snapshotter": true} to /etc/docker/daemon.json.
sudo mkdir /etc/docker
sudo gedit /etc/docker/daemon.json

Then make it look like:
{
    "features": {"containerd-snapshotter": true}
}

and restart dockerd:
systemctl restart docker

Please note that this feature is still kind of experimental and may change in the future. Also, it seems like it enables some other stuff as well, like downloading a lot of files at once. That works fine on my machine, but if your internet connection is slow, you may have problems.
Link to config file documentation.
Comment: This worked great! In the Docker Desktop app you can enable it under "Features in Development".
Answer: Try this
ps -ef | grep docker
Get PID of all the docker pull command and do a kill -9 on them. Once killed, re-issue the docker pull <image>:<tag> command.
This worked for me!
Comment: Is this any different from just `Ctrl-C` on the current docker stable version? This may allow you to pull an image without re-downloading already completed layers, but this Q is about _resuming_ downloads on layers that were only partially downloaded before stalling.
Comment: `Ctrl-C` killed the docker session on my terminal but I could still see some docker related zombie processes. My answer is more focused on a cleaner approach to re-pull the image. I'm not sure why this was down voted.
Comment: Did not work for me.  Also did not work: keeping the hung terminal, opening another terminal and issuing the command again.  This resulted in an identical status, all completed except the two downloads that were hanging from the first one, still hung on the second one.
Comment: not answering the above mentioned


Transfer and extract message by Audio signal in Android

Question: I do research about audio processing and have a big problem to solve. Is it possible to transfer a text message or binary stream(10101010) by embedding it into audio signal, broadcasting it so that other android devices can record that sound and extract text message or binary stream which was embedded?
Comment: This is possible, and was solved uncounted times by various espionage agencies.
Answer: If you don't mind your audio signal being plainly detectable, then this is what an acoustic modem does, and there's tons of modulation schemes, software protocols and modem implementations described in the amateur radio and telephony literature, including RTTY, AFSK, PSK-31, Bell-103, and etc., some decades mature and well tested on noisy radio bands and bad phone lines.
Answer: Field is EXTREMELY complicated, try googling for Audio Steganography.
You'll have to know exact properties of the medium that will carry your signal.
You'll have to analyze sound in real-time on both sides, searching for places to put your bits.
You'll have to avoid all compression and audio losses in the sending->receiving chain.
...
And in the end, you'll at best get few BITS/SECOND if you are lucky.  However, consider that you'll be unable to send ANYTHING if the sound is, for example, silence.
ALTERNATIVELY: try with audio watermarking, maybe that's what you need, in fact.


Paste comma separated content into different cells in google sheets

Question: Say I have the string "1,2,3,4". Is it possible to paste that string into Google Spreadsheets in such a way that each of the comma-separated values goes into a different cell to the right of the selected one?
This is what the spreadsheet would look like after pasting.
Answer: Since the file is a CSV. Ensure it is saved with the .CSV extension and upload the file to google sheets.
You also have the option of opening it with Microsoft excel and then pasting the cell formatted text into the google sheet.
Also You can paste the comma separated values into the google sheet and then click the paste icon that appears below the cell and select the 'Split text into columns' Option
Answer: Enter into the spreadsheet
<code>=SPLIT("1,2,3,4", ",")</code>
Comment: Great snippet. Just need to replace comma by semicolon: =SPLIT("1,2,3,4"; ",")
Answer: First select the cell on of your action and click Data
1st step
Now, select 'split text to column', it will name it a number
2nd step
now, again goto data and select split text to column open it will transfer every comma separated element into individual columns
3rd step
Answer: No. If you try inserting any formula by overwriting the selected cell the data the formula needs will be overwritten, hence not be available to the formula.
You could use say:
<code>=split(A1,",")
</code>
to obtain the results you want to the right of the cell with data in, but this would have to be placed to the right of the cell with data, not in it.
@Treyten's A would also achieve the result you seek except that it would not be to the right of the chosen cell (etc) but in the chosen cell (and to its right etc, assuming the usual LTR).
Similarly with @tks.tman's A. The contents spill out to the right but they do not start in a "cell to the right of the selected one" but in the selected one.


Standing water at back of shower need suggestions

Question: Contractor converted bathtub to shower, finished yesterday, shower has standing water at back and middle of shower after use. What are possible solutions.
Comment: The obvious solution is to call the contractor back to complete the job correctly.
Comment: The correct slope in any shower is very important and is a pretty fundamental thing to get right.  Agree that you should call them back.  This is basic and unacceptable.
Comment: What does "standing water" mean? Beads? Puddles? Water in the grout lines? I've voted to close because we know almost nothing about your shower's construction, and any answers would need much more information to be accurate. Please revise with more information and link to some photos if you'd like help and I'll retract my vote.
Comment: @mary - First, don't pay the contractor if you haven't done so already.  Second, as the others have said, the tiling in a shower MUST slope on all four sides.  This is called the "fall".  Third, and I'm sure you won't want to hear this, the ONLY solution is to have a contractor rip up the tiles, apply floor levelling again with the correct fall, and then re-tile.
Comment: @mary - I think this is a great question that will be very useful to a lot of people.  However to avoid the risk of having the question closed (see the proposal to do so by isherwood above), please add more information - e.g. (a) whether this is a frameless shower laid directly onto tiles or whether there is an installed shower base), (b) what other works were done after the bath was removed (e.g. other demolition work, floor levelling, water-proofing, etc).
Answer: The short answer
As others have said in comments, the slope of the shower - called the "fall" - is the most fundamental thing to get right.  You need a gentle fall from the edges of the shower to the drain on all four sides, so that any water immediately flows to the drain.  This is "bathroom installation 101", and an installer who does not know this should not be licenced to operate.
I'm sure you won't want to hear this, but the solution is likely to require a contractor removing the shower, ripping up the tiles, re-levelling the floor to apply the correct fall, re-tiling and then reinstalling the shower.  Worse, if the contractor was really dodgy, you may find that the waterproofing on the walls & floor is substandard, the implications of which are serious.
It's essential that you do not pay the contractor (if you haven't done so already) and that you let them know that you will take legal action if they do not fix it. The bad news is that cost of the rework will now be several times the cost of original work.
The longer answer
From a "doing" point of view, this is what needs to happen if it is done properly.

If the shower frame was installed after the tiles went down (as would be the case with a frameless shower), then the glass and frame need to be taken out and put gently into another room.
Next, all the tiles on the shower floor need to be chiselled out.  Worse, if the wall tiles were laid down after the floor tiles, then the bottom one or two rows of wall tiles need to come off before the floor tiles.
Then the precise edges of the shower frame need to be marked perfectly on the floor, so there is no ambiguity about precisely where the high points need to be.
Next, a competent floor-leveller needs to use re-level the floor under the shower, so that it falls correctly down to the drain on all sides.  This could end up an even bigger job, because if the level of the shower is ends up higher than the surrounding bathroom and there is no drain in the rest of the bathroom, then the existing ardit may need to be jack-hammered up before new ardit is laid.
Then the floor tiles need to be re-laid.  Depending on how well the ardit work was done at the previous step, there may also be a need to add some extra slope with the tiles (e.g. by adding thicker blobs of glue to the outside edges of the tiles near the frame and less glue immediately near the drain).
Finally, the wall tiles and shower need to be put back.

I note further that an installer who hasn't installed the correct slope may also have taken short-cuts in other areas.  For instance, were the shower walls and floor fully water-proofed?
If not, you have an even bigger problem on your hands.  A bath is obviously water-proof, but a shower is not: grout is porous and therefore water will seep into the walls and floor every time you shower.  The problem will be especially bad if water is pooling on the shower tiles instead of flowing down the drain, because it will soak through the grout and then into the sub-floor and eventually into other rooms as well.
Alternatives??
Notwithstanding all the bad news above, depending on what exactly what done by the contractor, there may be short-cuts to fix the problem.  As someone suggested in the comments, more information about the installation would help us answer your problem.
Please note that I'm not a builder, just a person who has done renovations myself (including a very recent complete bathroom demolition & rebuild).