What did the Second Beis Hamikdash look like before Herod renovated it?

Question: As penance, Herod rebuilt and remodeled the second Beis Hamikdash (See Bava Basra 4a). Most of the models of the Beis Hamikdash are of this rebuilding.
What did the original one look like?
Comment: I have no idea if [this site](http://www.bible-architecture.info/Jerusalem.htm) is accurate, but they have [a floor plan of the Second Temple showing before and after Herod's renovation.](http://www.bible-architecture.info/Jerusa3.gif)
Comment: @Mike I think that the 2nd Temple is Herod's temple and the 3rd is their understanding Yechezkel.
Comment: Herod was not the first to renovate the Temple. Are you looking for plans/pictures of what it looked like when it was built in the Persian era or for any pre-Herodian version?
Answer: The original one was built by the poor immigrants from Bavel, and it had wood in a one to three ratio per the orders of Darius. He decreed this so that if the need arose he'd be able to burn it down.
Comment: sources?.......
Comment: [Pasuk in Ezra](https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%98%D7%92%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%94:%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%A8%D7%90_%D7%95_%D7%93) quoted in [Rosh Hashanah](https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A8%D7%90%D7%A9_%D7%94%D7%A9%D7%A0%D7%94_%D7%93_%D7%90).
Comment: I'll wait for the original poster (OP) to weigh in on this, but I got the feeling he was looking more for a floor plan than for the materials it was made out of
Answer: Note that Herod was not the first to renovate the Second Temple. Prof. Yosef Patrich divides the Second Temple period into four stages per versions:

The original version, built in the Persian period.

The renovations of the outer part of the Temple by Shimon Hatzaddik (per Sefer ben Sira 50:1-4)

The renovations of the Chashmonaim period. Most significantly, they widened the Temple Mount to the size of 500 square cubits.

The Herodian renovations.

I'll assume you mean the original version from the Persian era. Naturally, being that we don't have enough information on it, there are disagreements, so further note that all of the following is very hypothetical based on the limited information we have available:
Prof. Leen Ritmeyer thought the hechal at the time of Nechemiah looked like this:

In terms of measurements, Ezra 6:3 is very clear that it was 60 cubits high and 60 cubits wide. The length is not mentioned. I do not know based on what Ritmeyer determined the length. Rambam wrote that the Temple was built as a combination of the First Temple and Yechezkel's Temple-vision. According to Daat Mikra on Ezra 6:3, footnote 16, this would mean that the Second Temple's hechal's length was 20 cubits. It seems Ritmeyer thought the mesiba that surrounded the hechal was built by Herod. Patrich appears to concur; contemporary architecture seems to prove this (i.e., mesibot as features in pagan temples were common in the Herodian period). I don't understand the length of Ritmeyer's ulam (entrance hall/porch). According to Middot, in the Second Temple it was 100 cubits, while in the First one it was 20 cubits (equal to the length of the rest of the hechal; i.e., there weren't parts that stuck out/were wider than the rest of the hechal).
In terms of the outer court, Ritmeyer thought it looked like this:

Ritmeyer assumes that from the onset of the Second Temple, the Mount was 500 square cubits. However, Patrich pointed out that it is highly doubtful that Koresh would have authorized the building of such a huge site. Its size of 500 square cubits would have been from Shimon Hatzaddik's time or from the Chashmonaim period. In Ezra's time the Mount would have been significantly smaller.
If I may, I also find the locations of Ritmeyer's leshachot (chambers) problematic. He puts them at the edge of the wall that surrounds the Temple Mount. The mentions of the leshachot in Ezra and Nechemiah seem to suggest that they were at least part of one of the courts of the Temple itself and not simply on the edges of the Mount. This seems most evident by the mention of what eventually became Tuvia's lishkah (Nechemiah 13:4-9):

"Earlier, the priest Eliashib, a relative of Tobiah, who had been appointed over the rooms in the House of our God, had assigned to hima a large room where they used to store the meal offering, the frankincense, the equipment, the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, the dues of the Levites, singers and gatekeepers, and the gifts for the priests...When I arrived in Jerusalem, I learned of the outrage perpetrated by Eliashib on behalf of Tobiah in assigning him a room in the courts of the House of God. I was greatly displeased, and had all the household gear of Tobiah thrown out of the room. I gave orders to purify the rooms, and had the equipment of the House of God and the meal offering and the frankincense put back."

In the Hebrew it seems that Elyashiv had taken over a lishkah that had once held tithes of grain, along with some of the vessels of the Temple. Putting it at the edge of the Temple Mount does not seem to make sense. Moreover, the phrase "לעשות לו נשכה" seems to suggest that the lishkah was built then. It then says "בחצרי בית האלוקים" - "courts" in plural. To me it sounds as though we are talking about a lishkah that existed in the inner court and was then renovated for Tuvia, causing it to spill out into the outer court - thus making it within both of the courts (בחצרי).
Here's my suggestion for where the leshachot might have been located:

Lishkat Meshulam in the edge of the outer court is per Prof. Chanan Eshel's essay on Yerushalayim in the time of Nechemiah, pg. 334. Don't mind the nonexistent distance between the Western side of the Birah and the back of the hechal. The design is mainly for the proportions and locations of everything.
Here's another possibility:

This is of course highly hypothetical. Even if the general design is correct, the location of the different leshachot could vary, and there may have even be some that we are not aware of, having not been mentioned in the text. I reasoned there were four for the following reasons:

A chamber of Yehochanan ben Elyashiv is explicitly mentioned in Ezra 10:6. I surmised that this chamber would have been on the side close to Yerushalayim because it seems that Ezra lamenting the nation in that chamber was a sight at least partially visible.

A chamber for vessels of the Temple - per Nechemiah 10:40 where the vessels are mentioned, as opposed to ibid. 13:5 where they are not.

A chamber for tithes given to Tuvia and evidently enlarged - see above. I think it makes sense that Tuvia would be given a chamber closer to the city - both easier to reach and safer.

Chambers for tithes are mentioned in plural in Nechemiah 10:38. As there were at least two chambers for tithes, it is probable that they weren't close to one another - should a fire burn down one, at least the other has a good chance of being saved.

Hope this helps for getting at least a partial picture of what the Second Temple looked like originally.


Book about kids facing world ending scenario

Question: There's a very specific book that I would like to re-read, it's been almost 5 years since I've read it and I cant find it on google.
It's about 2 kids, who are faced with a world-ending scenario. The earth creates macrophages to eat humans, and transports them using a mist of sorts.
Near the end they discover a signal from the future, and end up sending their own signal back in time. I'm sorry I cant be more specific, that's all I remember.
Answer: Could this be The Tomorrow Code by Brian Falkner?
This review mentions a number of the themes you've discussed.

Take a look at a few of the major sci-fi themes discussed: analyzing
  data from background gamma ray radiation detectors for messages sent
  backwards in time, macrophages, gene splices spiraling out of control,
  personal submarines, genetic codes for our destruction living in our
  own genes, time loops and causality, and more. In fact, if the
  protagonists hadn't been kids, I'd argue this was a pretty ambitious
  novel all by itself.
Comment: And if so, a dupe of https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/79989/book-involving-fog-and-primordial-soup


New harddrive, cannot sync my iPad

Question: I just got a new hard drive and I want to sync all my iPad stuff back into my iTunes but it's just asking to erase the iPad. I just want all my books and stuff to be back in my iTunes.
Comment: Apple specifically doesn't want you syncing with multiple computers.  To do this, you will need to find an application that will pull the data from your iPad back to your computer.  It may involve jailbreaking your iPad.
Comment: @Harv That is not accurate. While hard drive failure on a computer is not common, iTunes _does_ offer an option to backup your purchases from an iOS device without syncing.
Comment: @mummey Purchases, yes.
Comment: Could you Authorize this new computer and check whether you can bring back those docs. But without using a 3rd party tool, you can't bring back the Music.
Comment: Authorized it, but didn't work.
Answer: As I referred to in the comment:

Right/(Control)-Click on iOS device in sidebar of iTunes.
Select Transfer Purchases

This copies over everything you purchased using the iTMS, App store, and iBooks.
For all content you put on the device that you purchased/received elsewhere, the process is a bit more complicated. Here are some suggestions:

Right/(Control)-Click on iOS device in sidebar of iTunes and select Backup. These at least gives you a place you can quickly fall back on.
If the computer in-question is a Mac, I can't recommend Podworks enough.
If Windows... well I haven't tried any, but found this thread on SuperUser.

Hope this is enough to get you going. Best of luck!
Comment: Great instructions, +1

New harddrive, cannot sync my iPad


Centos 7.6 MAC addresses change for a network interfaces

Question: On one of the CentOS Linux release 7.6.1810 (Core) server the mac address's of networfaces got changed e.g. eth0 has eth3's mac address and so on . Does anyone know why this happens and how to resolve it ?
Answer: For whatever reason, your system has disabled consistent network device naming. This means that instead of using modern device names for interfaces, which remain the same for each NIC, on every boot your NICs may come up with a random eth* identifier that you cannot predict.
You should re-enable consistent network device naming, and then reconfigure the NICs with their new consistent names, which will remain the same unless you physically change the hardware. If present, the boot command line options net.ifnames=0 and biosdevname=0 should be removed. If they were not present, then only net.ifnames=1 should be set.
You also should read the entire RHEL documentation chapter linked above, including the troubleshooting section, before beginning. This is a pretty invasive change and will require some downtime, but once complete it will solve the problem for the remaining life of the server hardware.
Answer: NetworkManager probably did that. To prevent it in the future, just disable it if you're not specifically using it for something. Otherwise, save your configurations so you can restore them later.
# systemctl disable NetworkManager
rm '/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/NetworkManager.service'
rm '/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service'
rm '/etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service'

To fix things up, Edit file /etc/default/grub and add net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0 to line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX, then re-make a GRUB configuration file and overwrite existing one:
# grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

Edit NAME and DEVICE parameters in ifcfg file to new Network Interface name.
# cat /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eno1

......
NAME=eth0
DEVICE=eth0
......

Edit ifcfg file name:
# mv /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eno1 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

Repeat as needed for all eth-s.
As long as NetworkManager is off, nothing will mess them around anymore.
Comment: This problem is caused by `net.ifnames=0 biosdevname=0`.
Answer: Adding MACADDR field in interface files fixed it for me. As explained in https://access.redhat.com/solutions/70215


Encrypting images in CSS

Question: How can I protect my background images like in this fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/johniehjelm/eECc6/
?
Comment: That's a [base64-dataURI](https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Canvas_tutorial/Using_images#Embedding_an_image_via_data:_url).
Answer: The background images used in the example are called data URIs. They aren't really protected, the data is converted to base 64, that's all. Just like all the other answers have said. The primary purpose of this technique is to reduce the number of HTTP requests. So instead of 10 requests for 10 different images there will only be one for the CSS.
More information about the hows and whys of this technique can be found here http://css-tricks.com/data-uris/
The above site also has links on the limitations of data URIs (IE7 and below don't support them) and it has links to other sites with ways to get around those limitations.
Answer: This is not encryption. This is encoding. The image data is base-64 encoded (described here); modern browsers can decode and display an image encoded this way.
PS: To save the image, all a user has to do is right click and click save image as....
Answer: You aren't encrypting the image. You're just encoding it in base-64 and shoving that string directly into the CSS file's url().
I've used this tool whenever I had to do this: http://www.greywyvern.com/code/php/binary2base64
Answer: This isn't really encrypted and I don't believe it would protect your image in anyway (if your browser can display it, you can save it).
It is simply base64 encoded and placed inline in the CSS.
There are lots of tools (and sample code) around for converting a binary file in into a base64 encoded string. Here is a tool that I found quickly with with a google search: http://webcodertools.com/imagetobase64converter
Thanks,
Hal
Answer: Actually its not protection. You can convert images in base64 format and use them in CSS
First result in Google
http://webcodertools.com/imagetobase64converter/Create

Encrypting images in CSS


Tezos Development Toolchain

Question: Are there similar libraries in Tezos ecosystem similar to the OpenZeppelin library and the Hardhat development environment in Ethereum?
Comment: I'm not sure what OpenZeppelin / Hardhat is. It seems like libraries of trusted (community-vetted) components that can be used to compose smart contracts. As far as I know, there is no such thing for tezos. The closest thing is probably Archetype: it is a high-level language for Tezos smart contract that also contains a library of formally verified components: https://archetype-lang.org/
Answer: The closest to OpenZeppelin I've seen are the collection of contracts made by TQ Tezos here:
https://github.com/tqtezos
And for a Hardhat-type tool for deploying contracts (not sure what else Hardhat does...) you can use Taquito:
https://tezostaquito.io/docs/originate/

Tezos Development Toolchain


How do I create an AJAX filter for a view?

Question: I have created a page using Views and it works fine. I want to add an AJAX filter to this page to allow visitors to filter the contents based on PubDate or by Taxonomy/Vocabulary for this content type. How can I accomplish this?
Comment: Hello Lina, and welcome to _Drupal Answers_. For which Drupal version is your question?
Comment: it is for drupal 6.19
Answer:
Edit the view, and add a filter to the page:

Drupal 6: Third column, section is called Filters
Drupal 7: First column, section is called Filter Criteria

When you configure the filter, you want to expose it:

Drupal 6: Click the Expose button in the top right of the configure area
Drupal 7: Check Expose this filter to visitors, to allow them to change it

Enable AJAX:

Drupal 6: Use AJAX is under Basic settings in the first column
Drupal 7: Use AJAX is under Advanced → Other in the third column

When the view is saved, there will now be a form that'll allow users to filter the view dynamically via AJAX.
Answer: Maybe, you can use the Better exposed filters module to change output of your filter items to links.
And Use AJAX option in Advanced settings of a view to make filtering ajaxifyed.
http://drupal.org/project/better_exposed_filters


Should I still support a screen resolution of 1024x786 or can I ignore it and support 1280x720 and higher?

Question: Only for websites, not webapps.
There are not many computers left with 1024x786, so why still support it?
Answer: That entirely depends on your user base, for a commercial site I work on 1024x768 represents 9.49% (166,453) of our visitors, we will continue to support that for some time.
The flip side to that, a hobby project that I work on has a different audience and I don't support 1024x768 as it only represents about 2%.
Check your existing stats and use that to make the decision. Failing that create a responsive layout and stop worrying about the resolution.
Comment: also consider tablets - iPads are 1024x768, and are a small but rapidly growing market, owned by people with (generally) a higher disposable income.
Comment: it's a commercial website but only 6% of the uses have 1024x768, guess I'll still support it then
Comment: +1 for responsive layout. Of course then you may have to start looking at browser _version_ stats instead of size to decide what CSS features you can use (IE <9 doesn't do media queries), but it's getting easier and better all the time.


Interpretation of Second isomorphism theorem

Question: I have a question about the Second Isomorphism Theorem.(Actually my book called it the first), namely, let $G$ be a group, $N$ is a normal subgroup of $G$, and let $H$ be any subgroup of $G$, then $ (HN)/N \cong (H/ (H \cap N))$. So what's the main argument the theorem want to tell?
I understand that the first homomorphism theorem (For a homo from group $G_1$ to $G_2$, $G_1/ker(\phi) \cong \phi(G_1)$) basically try to describes the image of $G_1$ by using the partitions by $ker(\phi)$. So what about the Second Isomorphism Theorem? Is it only a "formula" like theorem ? Is $N$ being normal the key in this theorem? (Else $H \cap N $ is not the $ker(H)$?)
Comment: You missed a character in your statement of the theorem. (You mean to say $H/(H\cap N)$).
Answer: I guess it comes from very natural problem.
Let $\phi$ be cononical homomorphism from $G$ to $G/N$. Let $H$ be any subgroup of $G$.
Question is that what is the image of $H$? If $N\leq H$ then answer is simple $\phi(H)=H/N$.
What if $H$ does not contain $N$? We can find answer in two different way and it gives us an equality.
$1) $ image of $HN$ and $H$ are same since $\phi(hn)=\phi(h)\phi(n)=\phi(h)$ and since $HN$ includes $N$, $\phi(H)=\phi(HN)=(HN)/N$
$2)$ Let restriction of $\phi$ on $H$ is $f$ then $f$ is an homomorphism from $H$ to $G/N$.   What is the kernel of $f$? $Ker(f)=H\cap N$. Then by first ismomorphim theorem $f(H)\cong H/(H\cap N)$.
From $1$ and $2$, we have desired result.
Comment: @hengxin: Yes, actually. After asking following question you can reach the result. We know that image of subgroup is subgroup of image. What about normal subgroups? Is image of normal subgroup is normal in image ? Or Inverse image of normal is normal in G?. After that when you answer these questions, you should wonder  is there any relation between the quatient in $G$ and the quatient in $G/K$.
Comment: +1. Nice explanation. Does [the third isomorphism theorem (in my post)](http://math.stackexchange.com/q/764052/51434) also come from a similar, natural problem?
Comment: Just for future reference, if anyone is wondering where does the assumption that $H$ normalizes $N$ is, it's in point $1)$, $HN$ is a subgroup iff $H$ normalizes $N$.
Answer: The intuition, to my mind, is it describes two different ways of thinking about "$H$ mod $N$." Note the theorem is true even $N$ isn't normal, we just have to interptet $\cong$ differently. Quantitatively, the coset spaces are in canonical bijection, and qualitatively it is an isomorphism of so-called "$H$-sets" which means sets equipped with an action of the group $H$ (here, by left multiplication on cosets).
One way to interpret the phrase "$H$ mod $N$" is to mod out $H$ by the relation that two elements are congruent if they are "related" by an element of $N$ (equivalently, define the same coset of $N$). It's not possible to get from one element of $H$ to another through an element outside of $H$, so all of the elements of $N$ outside of $H$ are irrelevant, so deleting superfluous data, we're really thinking of "$H$ mod $H\cap N$" which is already described as a coset space.
The second way is to project $H$ onto the space of cosets of $N$. These are collected simply in $HN/N$.
Comment: It may help to describe $HN$ as the set of all elements of $G$ that are equivalent (modulo $N$) to an element of $H$. So switching from $H$ to $HN$ doesn't change anything from the perpsective of working modulo $N$, but it is a nicer object to work with because it contains $N$.
Comment: @Hurkyl I find it more interesting to combine the explanation on $H/(H \cap N)$ of `sea turtles` with that on $HN/N$ of `mesel`.


Is there a distro of Linux without GUI? What do hosting companies install?

Question: I believe OS GUI takes some machine resources and is not really needed for a web server.
What OS do people install to make a Linux-based web server without GUI?
Answer: Personally I like Debian the most for servers.
The installer gives you the option to install a desktop environment, print server, file server, base system.
For your case you would just select install base system.
In that case the installer will just install the base packages to get your server up and running.
From that moment you have a rock-solid and very lightweight server and it's trivial to install other packages that you may need via apt-get or aptitude
Comment: The Debian Stable base install makes for a very nice small installation, and it's easy to add anything missing using aptitude.
Answer: Most linux distros can be installed without a GUI.  Personally I would recommend Debian for servers, but you'll probably also hear from the Gentoo, Linux from scratch, and Red Hat crowd.  Pretty much any distro could handle a web server pretty easily.
Comment: From what I've seen, Ubuntu Server, Debian, Gentoo, RedHat, CentOS, and one or two that I'm missing are the popular server distros.
Comment: @Thomas: Pretty much the same here, although I haven't encountered any Ubuntu servers just yet.
Comment: My hosts use Debian as well :) Although I have also used CentOS in the past
Comment: I personally use two Ubuntu servers because they were fairly idiot-proof to install/maintain.  One is my public website, the other my Subversion repository and test deployment box.  Any of the distros listed can do the job.
Answer: Ubuntu server is fairly common I think.
Comment: Ubuntu has a great community, most of their support is applicable to Debian also, so either one would be good.
Comment: It is also a good choice for the inexperienced, as it is quite user-friendly and there is tons of online help.
Comment: Yeah. I'm just learning linux and I picked Ubuntu Server. It's worked well for me so far and it's ubiquitous enough that it's easy to find help.
Answer: We've been using CentOS for our SaaS app for a long time. Just configure the install to not include any GUI (X)
You can fully automate the install starting from a simple kickstart approach, to a full PXE setup.
BTW, the advantage of CentOS, is that it will be supported for a longer time than other distros. I think 7 years at the moment.
Comment: I agree. Either in kickstart or on the boot line "linux text" is how I install my stuff
Answer: The distributions I most often encounter are:

Debian
Ubuntu Server
CentOS

And Fedora.
All of them come with a CLI only setup for server use AFAIK.
Answer: Ubuntu server only has CLI.
Most other distributions offer a server or headless install.
Comment: Jack-O-Lanterns may be attached at a later date.
Answer: I think most Linux servers operate in runlevel 3, which doesn't run a GUI.  As part of the install process, just don't install X and you should be all set.  I'm not sure what will happen if you try to switch to runlevel 5 (normal windowing system on most systems) on a system that doesn't have a GUI... it may just act like runlevel 3.
I've used SuSE, RedHat, Fedora, CentOS, and Ubuntu for servers.  The ones that I set up, I just let have the GUI (in runlevel 5)... it comes in handy when you need to remote in, and with no one logged in the overhead is negligible.  The ones that I didn't set up myself I think normally ran in runlevel 3, but I don't know if they had a GUI installed.  I prefer the Fedora/CentoOS/RedHat family for any system just because of the massive number of well-maintained packages available for install.
Comment: "Run level 5 = GUI, run level 3 = no GUI" is a Red Hat-ism.  Run levels 0 (shutdown), 1 (single-user mode), and 6 (reboot) are the only ones with universal meaning.  Run levels 2-5 can be arranged however the distro/sysadmin likes - in Debian, they are all identical by default.
Comment: Note this is only true for init based linux. Ubuntu uses a different mechanism (upstart) and always runs at run level=3
Comment: @mgb that's wrong on two counts.  Ubuntu like Debian runs by default at level 2 regardless of if you have X installed or not.  If you don't believe me open up a terminal and type `runlevel` to display the current init runlevel.  By default it will start gdm if present in level 2.  Which you can see in /etc/rc2.d.  Also upstart emulates sysv init so things should work pretty similar on a Linux distro that uses upstart vs the standard init system.
Comment: @mgb I stand corrected about the gdm being in /etc/rc2.d/.  It's a symlink in /etc/init.d/ which a directory with all the tasks that upstart runs.  But runlevel 2 is the default runlevel in Ubuntu not 3.
Comment: ok - but the point stands - you can't just switch to runlevel 2 and disable the gui.
Answer: I don't think Ubunutu Server Edition has a GUI, and in some distros, you can choose what GUI (or lack of GUI) you want.
Answer: You might want to check out the Ubuntu Server Edition "JeOS" (Just Enough Operating System).  It is a stripped down version of Ubuntu and targeted at virtual appliances, but we've used it for some of our VM servers.  The URL is http://www.ubuntu.com/products/whatisubuntu/serveredition/jeos.
Answer: Note that even if the GUI (that is, the X Window System) is installed, you don't have to start it.  So you can configure normal startup to not start X, and still have the capability of running a GUI should you want to.  The only resource this takes is some disk space.
Note also, that the way X works, it may be very useful to have the X client applications on your web server host, allowing them to use the local X Server on your desktop.  (Yes, I know the terminology is confusing, but it's consistent).
Comment: Why it might be useful?
Comment: Because if you are working from a desktop with an X Server, you can run the GUI tools on the web server host and have their display (and keyboard and pointer) on the desktop.  That works even if the web server host has no graphics capability at all.
Answer: Hmm. Just uncheck GNOME and KDE while installing any linux OS on DESKTOP or SERVER, so that it will install only CLI and only Command Prompt will be available once the installation is finished. No need to change run levels also.
Answer: sudo apt-get remove gnome;
sudo apt-get remove gdm;
sudo apt-get remove kde;
sudo apt-get remove kdm;
sudo apt-get remove xfce;
sudo apt-get remove xdm;
This should work for Ubuntu. Do it by entering CTRL+ALT+F1, log into root, and type the commands above depending on the DE.


Maximum cable length between Raspberry and a 5V WS2812 led strip

Question: I have a 2 meters WS2812 ledstrip connected to my raspberry and it works fine. Does anyone knows what the maximum length can be between the raspberry and the start of the led strip? I tried a 5 meters long old CAT5 cable I had laying around but this caused already the leds to be less bright and had problems with the refreshrate.
Anyone has any experience with this?
Comment: Depends on the cable thickness.. the thicker the cable the lower its resistance and the longer it can be
Comment: There are three possible distinct issues - ohmic loss in the power path, AC impedance of the power path, and transmission line effects on the control signal and its return.  Each needs distinct remediation efforts - for example, wire gauge, point-of-load capacitance, and impedance matching.
Answer: There are many answers to this question.  Some rely on starting over with good requirements.

(As already stated) Thicker wires offer less resistance. Also CAT5 is a twisted pair cable and is best used to transmit balanced signals, not digital logic signals.
Remote power supply for LEDs.  Why not only connect data and ground back to the controller.  And provide power to the LEDs local to the LED.  Thicker wires are not as necessary as the current will be reduced. But caution will need to be taken to prevent ground loops!!!
Consider buying LED strips with less demanding timing requirements.  The strips you specify require signals with nanosecond accuracy.  There are strips with separate clock and data lines which are likely more tolerant.

added later...

Arduino boards are small.  Consider locating the Arduino board closer to the beginning of the LED strip.
Avoid powering the LED strips through the Arduino's own 5 volt regulator (if you are using 5 volt parts).  Instead use a heavy duty (several amps) regulated 5 volt power supply and connect the LED power lead to the 5 volt regulated power supply.
Comment: Okay, let me try a thicker wire first and see how that works out before switching to a different led strip. I have a couple of lpd8806 laying around i can test with as well.
Comment: You probably only need the thicker wire for power and ground.  If you still have the CAT5 cable you can double up the power and ground pins for this experiment.  I think the 8806 strips can be clock at a slower rate.  This will increase the latency but should increase the signal quality over longer cables.
Comment: Slowing down the communication only helps with transmission line effects if it means that the receiver will rule out reflections, which is not necessarily true for a receiver capable of multiple speeds.
Comment: In faster signals that are under-damped ringing may introduce unexpected transitions.  On the other hand faster signals that are over-damped have slow ramp up and down time.  Causing missed transitions.  Usually slowing down the data rate helps.  Doesn't always but is usually one of the 1st things to try.
Answer: Microphone sound cable does not work. The data signal is rising and falling so fast your cable act as a capacitor damping your signal.
Network cable CAT5 6 UTP can make your day - you have 8 cores, use two for +, three for - and one for DATA. Make sure your DATA is twisted with one of your - GND wires.
If you want to split to two LED stripes. You split with a buffer IC in order to reject reflections. To do that quite simply put two LEDS DS2812 in parallel close to the signal source and split from here.
To make sure your cable loss is small, put your LED on White RGB is all ON and measure the voltage to decide the voltage drop, and build a "local 7805 regulator" on your stripes and increase the voltage, and please put a buffer in, to protect your Raspberry Pi or Arduino, if the cable makes a twist and return voltage on your data line.


Repeated prompt for user name and password when accessing AS400 IFS under Windows XP using map network drive

Question: I was trying to access the IFS using map network drive. It prompted the dialog asking for user name and password. But after I had entered them and pressed enter the same dialog appeared again. No matter how many times I press enter it kept prompting the same dialog and it did not suggest that the information was incorrect. I could use another user profile to access this IFS without the above problem. Someone else was able to map drive it a few days ago and now it is not working. I had asked another colleague to try the same and the same problem occurred as well. So what could be the cause of this issue?
Comment: I have asked the IT support to help solving the problem. They managed to fix it by reset the user profile (disable and re-enable it) but they could not find out the reason either. Does anyone know why?
Answer: I've seen this occur when the username is the same as the AS/400 username but the password is different.  Also this can happen if there is an existing map to the AS/400 using different credentials.
I find the easiest way to map a drive is to use the command prompt and specify the username and password:
NET USE Z: \\<ip address or host name>\<share>
  /USER:<username> <password> /PERSISTENT:YES

The /PERSISTENT:YES option will keep the map across reboots.
Comment: The password is correct, that is for sure. And there is no other mapping of the same IFS. Any other possibilities? For some reason this mapping has to be done with window explorer so command prompt is not applicable here.
Answer: In addition to James' answer, something else to check is to see if the user profile has been disabled in the NetServer server.  This is different that a normal disable.
To find out if this is the case, open System i Navigator from your desktop.  Then expand the target AS/400->Network->Servers->TCP/IP. Right-click on I5/OS NetServer and selected "Disabled User IDs".
If you don't have the Network option in iSeries Navigator, then the other easy way to test is to log in to green screen as the target use and run CHGPRF from a command line.  Then try connecting again.  If the password is a problem, you'll see a message in the QSYSOPR messages indicating the user has been disabled for NetServer access.
Answer: I've encountered this when users use mixed-case passwords and the IBMi (AS400) is not configured for mixed case, see this IBM techdoc.  It includes some "special" mapping techniques that I've also found useful when I have trouble with the re-prompting for credentials.
You may also want to check this IBM TechDoc regarding NetServer mapping and Windows 7.
Answer: I get this myself, and I'm fairly sure there is an authority issue behind it.  I can't map a drive with my own user, but I can with a *SECOFR-class one.  I have to do it infrequently enough that I haven't bothered to get to the bottom of it, but hopefully this will of some use to someone else.
Answer: I have a different but maybe related problem. I use Windows 7 and an Apple Time Capsule on the network, protected by a password that is different from my password on Win 7. Of importance is that the Time capsule only needs a password but not a username (I did not realize this for a while). When I tried to connect to the Time Capsule, it repeatedly asked for a username and a password. A password alone was not sufficient, so I entered my Win 7 username with the password of the Time Capsule. After a few attempts, the connection was established, but sometimes it needed a lot of times to try. I could not realize what the problem was. After doing some research, I realized that the problem might be that the system confuses the two passwords used for the same username. Maybe it does not know which password to send to the Time Capsule or something similar. Since the Time Capsule actually does not need a username (only a password) but Win 7 does not allow the username to be empty, I started to enter nonsense usernames (e. g. "xxxx") with the correct Time Capsule password. This has solved the problem and it now works fine, even remembering the username/password combination. So the problem simply was that I used the same username with two different passwords for Win 7 and the Time Capsule and this confused the system.


Where is the torus primitive in geometry nodes?

Question: I'm trying to add a torus primitive object in geometry nodes to use as an instance input, but Blender doesn't seem to have one within the geometry nodes context.  Is there a way to input a torus mesh procedurally within geometry nodes instead of calling a static outside object? I've searched around online and nobody seems to be asking about this.
Answer: Yes, you can add a torus by using two Curve Circle nodes and combining them with a Curve to Mesh node. The first circle is plugged into the Curve input and controls the major radius and segments (Resolution). The second circle is plugged into the Profile Curve input and controls the minor radius and segments (Resolution):
Comment: This may be a small and relatively simple answer, but you've taken just that little bit of extra time to label everything and describe usage. Appreciated. :)
Comment: Thanks Robin. Less than a day later. This is already the top online search result when searching for "blender geometry nodes where is the torus" on google. The view count here should indicate how many people had trouble figuring it out without help. Maybe the Blender team should just add the torus primitive directly in so its easier to find.


Is it safe to remove these groups from the Local Security Policy area?

Question: I'm trying to edit a particular section inside the Local Security Policy snap in and I'm wondering if I really need to give all of these groups (I think they're groups) permissions.  Based on this information I may remove the same groups from other parts of the snap in but these look strange particularly the number ones and possibly Classic .NET AppPool.  I do development in Visual Studios but I don't do development in ASP.NET or at least haven't in a number of years.  I'm wondering if it's safe to remove them without causing future headaches.  It may be that the only way to know for sure is to remove them and then do things that I normally do to see if they work properly but maybe someone else has already been through this experience.  Here's a screenshot of the particular section I'm looking at but the same user groups will be in other places to remove.
Comment: Typically, a RID (last four digits of a SID, which is those long numbers @RoryAlsop is referring to as GUIDs) of 1000 represents the first user-made account on the system. The built-in Administrator is 500, Guest is 501. User-made accounts start at 1000 and go up sequentially. So, 1001 would be the second user you created on the system and 1010 would be the eleventh. (Deleted users included.) You can see how existing users map to SIDs by running `wmic useraccount get name,sid` from a CMD prompt. However, troubleshooting for your case may be different if those SIDs point to domain accounts.
Comment: Windows has an interesting feature: those numbered accounts - they're likely to be system accounts that require these permissions. If you remove them without understanding what the GUIDs refer to, your machine is quite likely to start behaving oddly...
Comment: Similar to mapping users, you can map groups to SIDs with `wmic group get name,sid`.
Comment: @Iszi - oops, yes - SIDs, not GUIDs
Comment: @RoryAlsop That's ok, it took me awhile to catch onto the mistake myself.
Answer: What you are looking at is called an SID (Security Identifier). It is a unique and immutable value used to identify a security principal (includes machines, domain computer accounts, users) and security group in Windows OSs.
Below is the structure of an SID:

Common SID's
MS Developer Page lists these SIDs as non unique.
From your example, it looks like it's listed under the NT autority, 21 signifies that the remaining subauthorities identify a domain and the RID signifies that it was not created by default (has an RID > 1000)(@ Iszi) & src)
Use the powershell function to match the number to the {name} of the domain member:

get-sid "{name}$"
  (src)

To aid you in your search you could use you could also use the PsGetSid tool from the Windows SysInternals Suite.
Classic .NET AppPool is a synthesized account related to a mode of the Internet Information Server(IIS) 7.0 system. When an application pool is in Classic mode, IIS 7 and above handles requests in the same way as in IIS 6.0 worker process isolation mode. ASP.NET requests first go through native processing steps in IIS and are then routed to Aspnet_isapi.dll for processing of managed code in the managed runtime. Finally, the request is routed back through IIS to send the response.(z) If you delete this it will be gone. I would suggest running TaskManager to see if any application are running under this pool before doing that. Also, ensure that you are not using an older web application built on IIS 6.x and older.


panorama apparent angles

Question: I enjoy driving past an orchard or vineyard and seeing the paths open up when you are in line with the trees/vines.  I have wanted to get to the edge of one and take a panorama to show that.  I got a chance for a test shot, which is below.  The rows line up nicely.  There are not enough of them, which I suspect can be solved with a vineyard and its closer spacing.  The two lines of trees at the edges appear to be at about a 90 degree angle from each other.  In fact, they are the parts of the closest row to my right and left.  Is there a way to make them appear as in the same line?
Answer: Here's the problem. You want to show something that is close to being on either side of you (the trees in the row closest to the road) and display that on a flat display medium (screen or print, it doesn't matter) that is in front of you sufficiently that the extreme edges of the image are not on either side of you.
Short of displaying the result on a circular medium such as an IMAX screen that wraps 180° around the viewer, so that the extreme edges of the display medium are at the same angles to the observer's eyes as the items in the scene were to the camera's lens the easiest solution is to back up significantly and use a much longer focal length. A higher camera position that points down at a greater angle might also be helpful. Of course the change in perspective will also affect the relationships of all the other rows and columns in the orchard.
If you warp the projection to straighten the line along the road, the relative sizes of the trees will no longer look natural. In fact, some of the closest trees near the left and right edge of the image will look larger on their outside half than on their inside half.
Answer: What you need it to render the panorama using a rectilinear projection. This is limited to scenes that span less than 180° but since those trees are 90° appart can do it, but will need more photos that cover the space between those trees.
With the frames you have, if you project as rectilinear, the panorama will have a <code>⋂</code> shape with trees on both sides but nothing in between. By taking extra images or at least shooting at a lower angle or from a lower position, you will capture the ground that would get projected between the trees.
Comment: The trees are probably more than 90° apart from the camera position's perspective. If the camera is closer to the line drawn by the row of trees along the roadway than one half the distance the two nearest trees in that line are to each other, then the angle will be greater than 90°.
Comment: @MichaelC:  Yes, the trees were close to 180 degrees apart because I was close to the row.  As I think about it, I am not sure how you show that on a flat medium as you said.
Comment: Guess you are going to have to take a few steps back then. You have to be able to make out an angle that can be projected rectilinearly. It does not take much but even if you get then under 160, it is possible to render them in a line.
Comment: Thanks.  I'll give that a try next time.  I didn't find rectilinear in the projection options in Photoshop or Lightroom.
Comment: @RossMillikan - It's very common, maybe they call it by another name. Usually there are 3 projections that are found everywhere: spherical, cylindrical and rectilinear *but* it is possible that the software does not offer it when the images span more than 180°. If they truly don't have it, then you can try the free Microsoft ICE that does offer it.

panorama apparent angles


More selling volume but more aggresive buyer?

Question: I was wondering something about supply and demand on a stock exchange. Suppose there is a higher selling volume than buying volume (1000 dollars vs 500 dollars). Normally the price should go down. But imagine the buyers are extremly aggresive and ready to buy (for any possible reason) always at a much higher price than best ask price. Imagine this situation is continuous with still higher selling volume. Then what would happen ? Would the price goes up or down ?
Thank you :)
Answer: Buying and selling volume is quoted in shares not dollars.
So for example, right this second the NBBO quote for NVDA is:
$279.15 x $279.30 with a size of 7x2
The size means that there are 200 shares being offered for sale at $279.30 and 700 shares being bid for at $279.15
If buyer(s) take out the 200 available shares at the ask price of $279.30 and no one else comes in with an offer to sell shares at that price then the ask price shifts up to the next ask price in the order book. If that price is taken out then the ask price moves up again.  When the buying pressure taps out, price rise stops.  NVDA will remain at that new higher price as long as buying and selling is in equilibrium.
When aggregate selling volume takes out the bids, price will drop until equilibrium is again reached.
Comment: Thank you for your answer :) But i really still don't understand :/  I think you are saying that the price would go up as long as there is still this (aggressive) buying pressure even with more seller ?
Comment: Quote is: $279.15 x $279.30 with a size of 7x2 The size means that there are 200 shares being offered for sale at $279.30 and 700 shares being bid for at $279.15.  Six sellers of 100 shares now place orders,  willing to sell at $279.15 has the same effect as one seller of 600 shares at $279.15.  The number of sellers is irrelevant.  It's the aggregate selling volume (the total number of shares) that results in transactions.  After the 600 shares are executed and assuming no new players show up with orders at current price, the quote becomes $279.15 x $279.30 with a size of 1x2
Answer: You are falling for the common misconception that prices are 'controlled' by someone or something, or 'actively acting' in some way.
Prices are exclusively after-the-fact information, once a sale completed. There is no price without a sale being completed, and the price does not 'change' because someone is agressive or not. The price is always the last successful sale that happened, meaning that a buyer and a seller agreed on a price (and number of shares).
No matter how many buyer want to aggressively buy, if there is no seller, nothing gets sold, and therefore the price = 'last reported sale' is not changjng.
Comment: Thank you, I was talking in the case where you have a seller. I have always wonder, imagine i want to buy a stock which ask price is 50. If i have 10 dollars i can buy 0.2. But if i say that i want to buy only 0,02 then what will happen on the price ? Can it immediatly rise or crash even with lower buyer volume than seller ? Thank you :)


After replacing pressure tank water stops completely for several minutes at a time

Question: I just installed a new well tank, replaced all with new parts,made sure the air was set on the new tank at 28 as the instructions said to do ,I have a 30/50 switch . Never had this problem until we replaced the tank, the old one was not producing enough water pressure and was over 20 years old. The water stops and after 3 or four minutes it starts back... what can I do now to fix this problem?
Answer: Pressure tanks don't develop pressure they hold pressure and the air chamber is there to push the water out of the tank that is stored there reducing the number of on off cycles on the pump providing a more uniform pressure at the taps. It sounds like your pump may be the weak link if your pressure switch is turning on prior to running out of water and it still takes 3-4 minutes to get water, the check valve or foot valve in the pump may be leaking and it takes that long to refill the pipe to the tank, I have seen this more often with jet pumps than submersible pumps but it can happen to both. First verify the pressure switch is turning on where you expect, if it is I believe your next step is checking for a bad check valve/ foot valve if your flow is good once water makes it to the tap.


Get GDAL to convert all four bands to a VRT from a NITF?

Question: So I have a series of four band NITF images (RGB + Near Infrared). I am currently storing them in a VRT with gdal_translate. Unfortunately, gdal_translate keeps interperting the fourth band as an alpha channel which causes it to be rendered incorrectly later on. How can I force gdal_translate NOT to use fourth band as an alpha mask. The NITF does not currently have any masks and I would prefer if the VRT didn't either.I am aware that using photometric=RGB can help when creating Geotiff, but I don't want to rely on this since the NITFS I am using are massive and translating it to GeoTiff for no reason seems like a waste.
Comment: Edit your vrt file and set color interpretation of all bands to Unknown. Perhaps that helps.
Answer: In your gdal_translate command, try setting the creation option (-co) 'ALPHA' value to 'NO':
<code>gdal_translate ... -co ALPHA=NO ...
</code>
Comment: I was under the impression that only work with Geotiff. Regardless, the VRT does not flag it as an alpha channel and I've already tried that. Even then Alpha=NO only works when PHOTOMETRIC=RGB. I've also tried -mask NONE with gdal_translate.


Restrict Access to @AuraEnabled Apex Methods for Authenticated Users Based on User Profile

Question: This update is getting enforce in my org on the 5th of April 202o, since some of the updates in my org are having deactivation options after enforcement and some of them are not having. so  I want to know that will this update have a deactivation option after the 5th of April when it will automatically activate in my org?
Answer: You must read this:-
Notes on Critical Updates

Salesforce analyzes your organization to determine if a critical
update potentially affects your customizations. If your
customizations aren't affected, Salesforce automatically activates
the update in your organization.
On the scheduled auto-activation date, Salesforce permanently
activates the update. After auto-activation, you can't deactivate
the update.
Each update detail page describes how your customizations might be
affected and how you can correct any unintended behavior.
Salesforce displays a message the first time you access Setup after
a critical update becomes available. The message lets you choose to
have Salesforce display the updates immediately or remind you about
the updates later.

Update
Also, You might be interested to read this:- Critical Updates "Auto-Activation Date"
Comment: but some of the critical updates are having deactivation option even  after the auto-activation  date likewise will this critical update have a deactivation option?


How to get the video not-mirrored when Skype video chat?

Question: I work with my team using Skype and view their whiteboard but all text are mirrored. How can I get it fixed?
Comment: This works in Ubuntu 18: https://askubuntu.com/a/796328/769781
Answer: Here's a way I eventually found that works.
It's independent of camera drivers or manufacturer, to a large extent.
The idea is to use software that takes input from the webcam, applies some transformations and then offers the output as a virtual webcam.
A virtual webcam is something that exists purely in software, but programs (which query the DirectShow API on Windows) see it in the list of installed webcams and can interact with it just as they would with a physical webcam.
I found an open-source program that provided the necessary functionality for me: Webcamoid.
How to use it is self-explanatory, except that to get the mirroring transformation, choose the filter called "Matrix Transformation" and specify a matrix like:
-0.75    0    0
0        1    0

(For some reason, to get the scaling right, I had to use "-0.75", but on some systems it would probably be just "-1".)
For a flip around the other axis, i.e. to fix it if the video is upside-down, change the "1" in the second row to "-1".
And it works: after enabling the virtual webcam in Webcamoid and restarting Skype, we see the virtual webcam in the list of webcams under Skype's Options > Video.
Webcamoid has to be kept running for this to work.
The downside is that this isn't a set-and-forget solution: one has to launch Webcamoid and set up the filter before every Skype session.

Miscellaneous notes
(Actually, for me this didn't work the first time. I had to restart Webcamoid and Skype a couple of times, tear down the virtual webcam and set it up again. But after this minimal settling in, it works well. Also, after certain combination of actions with its interface, Webcamoid crashes, but I just avoid taking those actions. When it runs steadily in the background, it seems to be quite stable and reliable.)
Another open-source program that seems to be able to solve the problem, using a similar approach, is ucanvcam. However, when I start it up, it immediately crashes on my computer and I haven't investigated why. But maybe the bugs would be fixed by the time you read this.
Answer: I would like to mention OBS Studio, which seems to be free and open source. Worked pretty well for me to mirror webcam video, add overlays etc.
Note that OBS Studio's main purpose is to stream to video services such as twitch or YouTube. To use it in Skype, you need to install the OBS-Virtualcam plugin, which will give you a virtual webcam. The plugin description says that this works only in the Skype desktop app.
Answer: Easy,go to Tools/Options...
Video Settings/WebCam Settings Image Mirror Flip :D
Comment: It seems to depend on the webcam device we use. Mine doesn't have the `Image Mirror Flip` option at all.
Comment: The "Webcam settings" button brings up a device-dependent dialog: a different one is provided by each manufacturer. For example, on one computer I see a Logitech-branded window, with "Image orientation: ⨀ Normal  ⃝ Mirrored". On another computer I see a completely differently looking window entitled "Video Capture Filter Properties" with a tab called "Video Proc Amp" and nowhere to fix the mirroring that it's doing.
Comment: Strange, what do you see in Webcam Settings then?
Answer: UWP
When you are using the UWP version of Skype you will not get the Webcam properties option for most cameras:

Desktop Version
When you install the desktop version of Skype you get the properties to set underneath:

In these settings however there is no option to mirror the image for e.g. Chicony

But there is for Logitech:

So it is driver/manufacturer dependent. So this means you will have to search the internet or specify in the question the specific model. For each specific model there are threads over the internet of workarounds and sometimes the option to download different drivers to obtain the same functionality WITH mirroring.
Another generic option is to install another driver/application e..g ManyCam and choose this in the settings pulldown above the camera preview instead of your other driver. This will give you new options to manipulate the output.


To what extent is suicide legal in the U.S. and in individual states?

Question: At one point, legal scholars referred to suicide as a form of self-murder (for example, see Coke or Hale).
Are those who take their own lives guilty of some crime, or have some forms of the act been decriminalized?  What about those who willingly assist?
Note:
If you've been contemplating things, the people at the
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline are great.  They speak Spanish and English, and their number is 1-800-273-8255.
Comment: Assisting a suicide is a crime in all but two U.S. states. One is Colorado and the other is either Oregon or Washington, I forget which. Successful suicide can't be a primary crime because by definition there is no one to convict although attempted suicide could be and there could be non-criminal legal consequences of a successful suicide.
Answer: This is interesting because things get extremely different on state and federal levels.
Quoting this,

Under modern U.S. law, suicide is no longer a crime. Some states, however, classify attempted suicide as a criminal act, but prosecutions are rare, especially when the offender is terminally ill.

The "some states" part is much more important than was emphasized there, however.
A case that reached the Virginia Supreme Court, Wackwitz v. Roy (referred to in Wikipedia) pivoted about the legality of suicide. From the decision:

We are aware of only one legislative enactment that addresses suicide as a crime. Code § 55-4 provides that "[n]o suicide ... shall work a corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate." Thus, although the General Assembly has rescinded the punishment for suicide, it has not decriminalized the act. Suicide, therefore, remains a common law crime in Virginia as it does in a number of other common-law states. See, e.g., Southern Life & Health Ins. Co. v. Wynn, 29 Ala.App. 207, 194 So. 421 (1940); Commonwealth v. Mink, 123 Mass. 422 (1877); State v. Willis, 255 N.C. 473, 121 S.E.2d 854 (1961); State v. Carney, 69 N.J.L. 478, 55 A. 44 (1903); State v. Levelle, 34 S.C. 120, 13 S.E. 319 (1891), overruled on other grounds by State v. Torrence, 406 S.E.2d 315 (S.C.1991).
To constitute suicide at common law, however, a person who takes his own life "must be of years of discretion, and in his *865 senses." 5 William Blackstone, Commentaries *189; accord Plunkett v. Supreme Conclave, 105 Va. 643, 646, 55 S.E. 9, 10 (1906) ("`To constitute suicide at common law the person must be of years of discretion and of sound mind.'"). This common law rule comports with a contemporary definition of suicide. Suicide is defined as "the deliberate and intentional destruction of his own life by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind." Webster's Third New International Dictionary 2286 (1981).

I believe that the "only one legislative enactment" refers merely to Virginia state law, not nation-wide law.
Thus, in Virginia, and other states, suicide could be treated as a common-law crime. However, in United States v. Hudson, it was ruled that such common-law convictions are not allowed at the federal level. I'm not always a fan of Google Answers, but the last one here provides a fairly well-documented section on common-law rulings about suicide. Note that in many states, this is not enforced, as common-law rulings are increasingly rare.
Comment: The question of which states still have common law crimes is an interesting one (beyond my knowledge) that probably deserves its own question. Wikipedia supports your description of the situation in the U.S. (i.e. that there is state by state variation on that point). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_law_offence As of 1947, only 18 states had abolished common law crimes, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1118102?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents but many more have done so since then with the 1970s and early 1980s being a particularly common  tie to do so.
Comment: Who would be the wronged party in such a case? Society?
Answer: The question of who would be wronged party is easy, either nobody (state) or any person who feels the choices directly affected them. If say your mother plans on you out living her, or your wife/husband plans on growing old together. Those moments are taken from them and thus are lost forever. But in the case of a suicide there would be no defendant for a successful attempt.
I suppose I find it interesting to note that these who are wronged could also be anybody financially burdened. Stay at home spouses are forced back two the workforce, a company could have paid a lot of money getting you trained for a position just to have it open suddenly and without warning. Or your elderly parent/s live in a nursing home you provide money for... Now the money is gone.
I don't actually know anything about this subject, I heard a suicide referred to as a crime on television and got curious as to the legality of suicide...
Comment: None of this has any relevance to the legality of suicide, except for the point where you exply a total lack of knowledge about it.


Eclipse + Perforce: Is it possible to avoid interrupting a build to check out a file?

Question: This may be somewhat obscure but I've been happily using Eclipse + Perfoce/P4WSAD for over a year now and have thus far been unable to figure this out myself.  I often start a build and let it run in the background while I continue to edit source files.  The problem occurs when I try to edit a file that is not checked out from perforce.  In this case, eclipse pops up a modal dialog box that forces me to choose between either canceling the build or canceling the check-out operation.  So usually I just cancel the build, check out the file, and start the build up again, but this is very time consuming.  Is it possible to get eclipse to allow check-outs during builds?
Answer: I don't know, but you may want to check with Perforce on this (as this might be something specific to their plugin rather than something in the team su8pport), I never have this problem with SVN or CVS (though maybe my builds are not big enough).  Also from what I understand the first generation Perforce plugin had major problems, but they have a new one that's much better.  You should make sure you are on the new one.
Answer: A simple solution (although it can be disk-space consuming) is to have a building branch on which you merge any of your recently committed development (simple merges with no conflicts: you overwrite what is on the build branch).
Another eclipse project references that build branch sources and builds it whenever you want, while you edit the sources of your first original project.


Which shout does the most damage?

Question: I was disappointed to find out that Unrelenting Force doesn't do any direct damage. Also, I can't seem to find any information on how much damage shouts do.
Comment: I'd also be interested to know precisely how much damage each shout does. It must be a number.
Answer: Nothing beats Unrelenting Force level 3 if you can push the NPC down a cliff/stairs etc... Instant kill ftw
Appart from that, I guess Call Storm is the most damaging shout you can get, all other options are kinda lacking. It's hard to evaluate the effect of summon shouts though.
Comment: Be careful not to force your companion over a ledge. Poor Lydia, she'll be missed for her equipment carrying abilities.
Comment: the ice form shout can be damaging (indirectly) as it freezes the opponent for some time and allows you to attack them without repercussions.
Comment: It's never too late to answer a question. Though it won't be accepted, you might still get upvotes for an adequate addition to the debate.
Comment: I guess that Fire Breath with the mediation buff on it would do the most single-target hit damage, but it's still really meh. The shouts that somehow disable opponents let YOU do more free damage.
Comment: Careful with Call Storm - it's a friendly-fire hazard.
Answer: Marked for Death does 3/sec for 60 seconds and -75 Armor as far as I know. Fire Breath does 90 Damage, the Ice thing does 2/sec so 120 in 60 Seconds FREEZE, meaning if you only autohit that target while frozen this should be the most damaging. The other ice spell does 90 dot damage, and slows wich can be really nice for multible targets...
Answer: Storm Call has the highest damage value over its duration, that or Call Odhaving . The base damage for Unrelenting Force is actually something like 10 points, although it does non-listed damage based upon physics. Odhaving could theaoreticly match it by doing the "lift and drop" attack to also inflict physics damage. Note that Storm Call has no IFF and cannot work indoors, greatly limiting its use.
Comment: Mark of Death actually does a lot of damage. However, it does it over a long period. The lowered resistance value is more likely to lead ot a kill than the damage. I believe it inflicts somewhat more damage than the Fire Breath over its full duration. It is always viable for boss fights (particularly in small spaces where you will trade many blows) due to the vulnerability but the damage is only good on low and mid levels.
Answer: Soul tear does 300 damage with all three words. This shout was added in the Dawnguard expansion.
Answer: unrelenting force can disintegrate weaker enemies if you have beat the dragonborn expansion
Answer: Soul Tear is very strong with 300 damage and fills Soul Gem if it kills and reanimates the person it killed to fight for you for 60 sec. Only downside is this shout only hits one person unlike other shouts that can do AoE where you are facing. Completing the Dragonborn DLC you can add the Ice form effect to the Freeze Shout which has a much better cool down allowing you to do DoT from the shout and free range to attack without consequences. You'll only need lvl 1 shout to freeze most enemies.
Answer: favorite freakin shout lol i was waiting for someone to say soul tear. also cyclone does just about as much as fire breath and it has a couple of physics bonuses as it lifts and throws enemies. Cyclone with all three words is like storm call (but weaker) and unrelenting force (but stronger) combined.

Which shout does the most damage?


Is consubstantiality and homoousis the same thing?

Question: Is consubstantiality and homoousis the same thing? Or are they different concepts?
Answer: They should be taken as meaning the same thing, but the Greek meaning was somewhat complicated when put into Latin, which was further complicated when that Latin was later put into English.
The original Greek word 'ousia' meant essence or substance. The usual Latin for that is 'substantia', meaning essence or substance.
The Greek word 'hypostasis' meant person, or a second meaning was substance. The usual Latin is 'persona', meaning person, or a second meaning is of an actor, or role.
The Greek word 'prosopon' meant face or mask, with a second meaning of person. The usual Latin for that is 'persona', and that is where we get our understanding of 'person' from, but our English ideas suffer from having come from Latin which, in turn, originally came from Greek.
If we went back to the original Greek of the New Testament era, we would see that essence or substance was the meaning, and it is that language that gives the understanding of the Trinity doctrine. Most English speaking people today only think of it as an individual person.
The Greeks described the Trinity as 'mia ousia en trisin hypostasesi' = one substance (essence) in three subsistences [persons]." Unfortunately, that could be misunderstood as saying, "one essence in three substances", which would be 3 gods. When the Latins then said, 'una substantia in tribus personis' = one substance in three persons", they could be misunderstood as saying one 'hypostasis' (person) in three roles. That was the error of Sabellian modalism.
We are 16 centuries removed from this. Yet orthodoxly Christian teaching back then remains the same as today - "Three - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - are God, yet God is not three, but One." That is why I said that English translation from Latin loses something in the translation. And Latin translation from Greek lost something as well. There's nothing like sticking to the original language that such statements were written in, but few of us are linguists, and it was never going to be easy, getting a verbal handle on the awesomeness of Deity.
Conclusion:  In order to grasp the concept of consubstantiality, the Greek language needs to be examined, after taking a spiritual sorbet to cleanse our spiritual palate from modern English language 'contamination'.
[This is extracted from Heresies and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church, Harold O.J. Brown pp 63, 128-130 (Hendrickson 1998)]
Answer: "Consubstantial" is an English translation of homoousios so yes they are meant to convey the same meaning, namely having the same substance. However, underlying this fact there is a problem: the Greek "ousia" can be understood as something quite different from the English "substance." Merriam Webster provides two definition of the term "ousia":
<code>1: true being : ENTITY, ESSENCE, SUBSTANCE
2: HYPOSTASIS
</code>
The issue gets even stickier when the Greek trinitarian formula -- which speaks of three hypostases in one ousia -- translates into "three persons in one being." As Merriam-Webster implies, hypostasis is much closer to ousia than person is to substance. Besides this, there is also the problem that in modern usage, "substance" tends to be understood as something material more than something essential. So while "Consubstantial" and homoousios are intended to be used interchangeably, in practice the terms need to be unpacked.


Algebraic manipulation and inequality

Question: Given real-valued terms $a,b,c \in {R}$ with the following conditions on them: $ 0 \leq a \leq 1 $, $|b|<1$, and $|c|< 1$. And given the terms
$ X= \frac{1}{1-( (1-a)b + ac )}$ and $ Y =\frac{1}{1-b}$, are these two terms related via some inequality like $X\leq Y$? Does this inequality hold true all the time or does it need conditions to be true? I am trying to prove an interesting relation here, so was wondering if someone here could give me some tips or suggestions? (This is not homework).
Comment: If $c > b$, then $X>Y$. If $c < b$, then $X<Y$. If $c=b$, then $X=Y$.
Answer: It's wrong. Try $a=b=\frac{1}{2}$ and $c=1$.

Algebraic manipulation and inequality


Releasing keyframes from an action strip in the NLA editor

Question: I was experimenting with the NLA editor to loop a walk cycle. I've decided I no longer want use the action strip, how do I release my keyframes back into the timeline without losing them?
Thanks!
Answer: Keyframes are stored into an "Action", which has a name (Generally the rig name + Action, like "MyCharacterRigAction").
Delete the action strip from NLA, open a Dopesheet Window, turn it to an Action editor, select the rig and choose the Action from its dropdown menu.


Can't play DVDs on Linux Ubuntu laptop

Question: I can't play a DVD on my Ubuntu laptop. I've tried VLC. A window with a traffic cone opens and the Drive spins for a short time, then stops. Nothing else happens.
Answer: It's usually easier to just install the restricted extras package:
$ sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

If you have any problems the official Ubuntu documentation on playing DVDs has a good troubleshooting guide as well.
The specific steps outlined in @illuminE's answer are from this page as well, mainly:
$ sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
$ sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

References

RestrictedFormats - Ubuntu official docs
RestrictedFormats/PlayingDVDs - Ubuntu official docs
Comment: thanks for your suggestion. I'm new to this. I've done what you suggest, the first line got response that libdvdread4 is already the newest version. the s
Comment: the second line got "Command not found" I'll follow the links and references you give here
Comment: Is the issue only this movie DVD and does the dvd reader work in general? In the reference _slm_ gave there's information on simply using the Media/open disc/ menu in vlc to disable "DVD menus", and I remember that being useful to me once. Also a package which is installed can sometimes be reinstalled, just to make sure, with the `sudo apt-get install --reinstall packagename` command.
Comment: Wow, that worked for me and I have been at this for 6 hours! Thank you.
Comment: @Shane - glad it helped you out!
Answer: Make sure you have the proper codecs and libraries, including libdbdcss2:
sudo apt-get install libdvdread4

then
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/install-css.sh

Can't play DVDs on Linux Ubuntu laptop


Where to find API documentation for NVIDIA 3D Vision?

Question: I'd like to start coding for NVIDIA 3D Vision and wonder where can I find the documentation for it?
Answer: I know this question is very very old but I was looking for the same information and have found these links to be useful.
The GDC 2009 PowerPoint that David mentioned:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/presentations/2009/GDC/GDC09-3DVision-The_In_and_Out.pdf
A PDF put out by Nvidia:
http://developer.download.nvidia.com/whitepapers/2010/NVIDIA%203D%20Vision%20Automatic.pdf
These stackoverflow questions are handy:
NV_STEREO_IMAGE_SIGNATURE and DirectX 10/11 (nVidia 3D Vision)
Nvidia 3d Video using DirectX11 and SlimDX in C#
Also there were a number of good topics in the nvidia developers forum, but the forum remains down due to last July's hacker attack. Nvidia promised to restore the old content once they eventually get a new forum up and running.
Answer: The docs should be on the nVidia developer site, though I think that it may be called 3D sterio there. As there isn't a visible heading for either, the info you're looking for may be included in the OpenGL or DirectX docs.
Answer: Here is the main page for 3D Stereo Development http://developer.nvidia.com/object/3d_stereo_dev.html
Some of the links are outdated, as there are new technical presentations at GDC 2009 and SIGGRAPH 2009 (just given yesterday, in fact!).  We will be getting those updated soon!


MySQL 5 (32bits) on Windows 2008 server

Question: As above, anyone tried that before on Windows 2008 server? If yes, how is everything go? Stable enough for production use?
Answer: I've successfully (as in no problems with the default install and operate) done the following several times:
Transferred a major application built on LAMP (ubuntu and others) to WAMP (2008 server).
Operated both SQL Server and MySQL 5 from the same 2008 server simultaneously.
Been running MySQL 5 and SQL Server simultaneously on my dev laptop for over a year (both as nonstop services).
Upgraded all cases from 5.0 to 5.1.
Tuned queries and database config on laptop, and implemented the results on the server with corresponding benefits.
I'd be very surprised if you ever see a hiccup that's attributable to the operating system.

MySQL 5 (32bits) on Windows 2008 server


How many of Bartimaeus' anecdotes and name drops are accurate?

Question: Bartimaeus often boasts about his previous epic feats. Ran with buffalo fathers, rebuilt walls of Karnak, Prague  et cetera. How many of these boasts do we have evidence for?
Comment: Hmm. Good question! Somebody calls him out on his claim of having "spoken with Solomon" at some point, saying something like "well, didn't we all? let's face it, he got around", but as we discover in the companion novel *The Ring of Solomon*, there actually was more to that story than meets the eye.
Comment: Think that was Honourios in Golems Eye.
Answer: Not many
Bartimaeus has a definite tendency towards self-aggrandizement. As such, we can consider what he says to be entirely confirmed only when shown in the text, or when confirmed by other witnesses to these events, or when Bartimaeus mentions it to them and they do not contest it. Since most of these events happened hundreds or thousands of years prior to the events of the books, the only remaining witnesses are other spirits. Bartimaeus has claimed hundreds of feats and associations throughout the series, and only a few of these can be confirmed.

Knew Ptolemy

"I have spoken with Solomon and Ptolemy, and hunted down the Sea
  Peoples in the company of kings."
—The Golem's Eye

True.
In Ptolemy's Gate, we see Bartimaeus interacting with Ptolemy.

The boy lowered his gaze to the impassive doppelganger watching him
  across the moonlit room. I gave a mock salute. Ptolemy brushed the
  dark hair from his eyes and bowed.
"Thank you, Rekhyt," he said.
—Ptolemy's Gate

Indeed. he more than knew Ptolemy: Ptolemy was one of the few magicians who did not try to enslave Bartimaeus, and consequently one of the few he genuinely respected (as illustrated by the previous quote). They were good friends for several years.
Knew Solomon

"I have spoken with Solomon—"
"Oh, please!" The afrit made a dismissive gesture. "Haven't we all?
  Let's face it, he got around."
—The Golem's Eye

True.
You might say that Bartimaeus knew Solomon. He spoke with him, stole his Ring, and otherwise  irritated him.

"Now," King Solomon said, "to my judgment. Bartimaeus of Uruk, you
  first of all. Your crimes are legion. You have caused the deaths of
  dozens of my spirits, you have spread chaos and disaster across
  Jerusalem.
  It was by your advice and through your actions that this girl was able
  to get access to the Ring. Not only that, you have at all times
  displayed extraordinary insolence toward my royal person. Your hippo
  guise—"
"No, no, that was perfectly coincidental! It looks nothing like your
  wife!"
—The Ring of Solomon

Built the walls of a number of cities

"I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak, and Prague—"
—The Golem's Eye

True.
This was not contradicted by Queezle, who knew him well. She also added that he had built the walls of Jericho.

The young man smirked. "Prague? What, these ones here? The ones it
  took Gladstone five minutes to break down? Sure you didn't work on
  Jericho, too?"
"Yes, he did," Queezle put in. "One of his first jobs.
  He keeps quiet about it, but—"
—The Golem's Eye
Answer: Our first introduction to Bartimaeus:

"I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus! I recognise no master. So I charge you in your turn, boy. Who are you to summon me?"
Impressive stuff, eh? All true as well, which gives it more power. And I wasn't just doing it to sound big. I rather hoped the kid would be blustered by it into telling me his name in return, which would give me something to go on when his back was turned.
-- The Amulet of Samarkand, Chapter 1

He claims that this is all true, but we can't necessarily take him at his word since he's known to be an unreliable narrator at times. So let's go through his claims:

I am Bartimaeus! I am Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty and the Serpent of Silver Plumes!

True. These are just names; not much of a boast there.

I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak and Prague.

Probably true. He repeats this claim so often over the course of the series that you would've expected someone to pick him up on it at some point if it were a lie.

I have spoken with Solomon.

True. In fact, as we find out in The Ring of Solomon, he has done rather more than just spoken with Solomon - he held, for a while, a position that perhaps no other spirit ever did. (Spoilers!)

I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains.

Unknown. As far as I recall, he never elaborates on this. Probably true though - when you get right down to it, it doesn't sound like a particularly impressive feat, so if he'd wanted to make something up, he probably would have chosen something more grandiose.

I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people.

Unknown. Probably true though, since again it doesn't sound like much of a feat, to sit and watch over a city.

The very last boast we hear from Bartimaeus, as he taunts Nouda during the final stages of book 3:

"Nouda! It is I, Bartimaeus, Sakhr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty and the Serpent of Silver Plumes! I have fought a thousand battles and won them all! I have destroyed far greater entities than you! Ramuthra fled before my majesty. Tchue cowered in a crack in the earth. Hoepo the Thunder Snake ingested his own tail and so swallowed himself rather than taste my fury! So then, I challenge you now. Come face me!"
-- Ptolemy's Gate, Chapter 38

Most of these claims are rather more embellished, and at best a grotesquely twisted version of the truth.

I have fought a thousand battles and won them all!

False. Whether or not he's won a thousand battles in his life is unknown, but he certainly hasn't won all the battles he's fought, and likely not even the last thousand. For instance, in the Battle of Prague he was rather ignominiously defeated, as we saw in the prologue to The Golem's Eye.

I have destroyed far greater entities than you!

Unknown. I'm tempted to say 'false', since Bartimaeus is only a mid-level djinni and Nouda a spirit vastly more powerful than even a marid. But then, Bartimaeus did defeat Jabor (a powerful djinni), Honorius (an afrit), and, in The Ring of Solomon, even a marid. He does have the potential to defeat much more powerful spirits, by his trademark guile and trickery.

Ramuthra fled before my majesty.

False. Ramuthra, the spirit summoned at the end of book 1, was defeated and sent back to the Other Place by a joint effort of which Bartimaeus was part, but "fled before my majesty" is a blatant lie.

Tchue cowered in a crack in the earth. Hoepo the Thunder Snake ingested his own tail and so swallowed himself rather than taste my fury!

Unknown. But given the rest of Bartimaeus's rant here, I suspect false.

Now I've been through some of Bartimaeus's most notorious and oft-repeated boasts. I'm not terribly inclined to do a DVK and go through every single statement Bartimaeus ever made in all three or four books to verify its veracity or otherwise; but if anybody else wants to do so, I'll certainly award them a bounty for the effort.
Answer: The Amulet of Samarkand
On Simon Lovelace's defence nexus:

"Not bad but I could handle it."

True - He dug under it on the way in and tore through it on exit.
On Lovelace's imp:

"I could squash it without a second thought."

True - They never fight but Bartimaeus beats a lot of imps so it seems likely.
On triloids (Lovelace's guards):

"Thus does superior intelligence win over brute strength."

False - The triloid has actually outsmarted him (with Farqual's help) by leading him to Faqual.
To Kitty Jones

"You don't really know who I am, do you?", "A magician would know better than to trifle with one such as me.", "I'm toying with you.", "I have many abilities at my command."

False - Bartimaeus freely admits this is "empty bluster".
A footnote on talking to Djinn:

"Strictly advisable when dealing with subtle, intelligent entities such as myself."

True - His intelligence is his main trait.
On swinging through a door using spider webs:

"It was a great stunt"

Probably true - We have no reason to disbelieve it.
At this point we have the first (I think) name drop of Ptolemy.

"Ptolemy was about fourteen when I knew him best."

True - He did know Ptolemy very well as seen in Ptolemy's Gate.
When asking an imp about Lovelace's servants:

"I don't mean squirts like you, but potent ones like me."

True-ish- He is more powerful than the imp but he is less powerful than Lovelace's servants Farqual and Jabba.
On how intelligent he is compared to humans:

"My mind works on several levels."

True - He is seen multi-tasking several times in the books.
On Uttuku and his prowess killing them:

"I first fought these at the battle of Al-Arish."

True - Batuk calls him "The destroyer of my people" giving some credit to his claims of defeating many utukku.
More name drops now:

I, Bartimaeus, who spoke with Solomon and Hiawatha"

Not sure - The Solomon bit is true the Hiawatha bit I don't think is ever repeated but it seems possible so I would be tempted to say true.
On serving in Pharaoh Tuthmosis's army:

A motley group  of higher Djinn of which surely the most notable was...No, modesty prevents me from continuing."

Probably false - It seems likely he served in the army as most Djinn serve in many armies and he is shown to serve in Egypt. I doubt he was their most notable Djinn as his tactic in the battle of Prague seemed to be to allow others to take the brunt if the enemy.
On the rescue and flight from Jabba:

"That dramatic rescue I pulled off"

True - They succeed in not only escaping but also temporarily slowing Jabba.
Threatening Nathaniel's scurrying imp:

"I pick my teeth with imps his size"

False - We never see him eat an imp or kill one if he doesn't have to. He even let Nittles go despite having trapped him.
Next Bartimaeus boasts of his exploits in Prague:

"A Czech magician, who shall remain nameless, charged me to steal certain documents."

Probably true - He was one of Prague's most powerful spirits in the later days of the war and was given various important charges.
On his essence and position among sprits levels of power:

"When you're pretty darn perfect to start with"

False - He has many flaws including boastfulness.
Talking about his construction experience:

"When you've helped construct some of the world's most majestic buildings, and in some instances given some pretty useful tips to the architects concerned"

Exaggeration - He has done a lot of building work, including things like Solomon's Temple, but we never see him giving out any architectural tips and he mainly seems to so building not planning.
On his lizard form:

"All things considered, it was another perfect choice of form."

True - In this situation a camouflaged, climbing lizard was a good choice.
On stealing the Amulet:

"My fine trick"

True - It was a very clever idea which worked to get the Amulet.
On his escape from the Tower of London:

"The swashbuckling djinn I who had lately escaped from the government prison."

Exaggeration - While he did escape it was not down to his power but from Farqual and Jabba's assistance.
So in the Amulet of Samarkand Bartimaeus is mostly truthful with some exaggeration although he does occasionally lie.


How would I cut off particular parts of a shape in Inkscape?

Question: I want to get rid of the parts of the blue and red bars that are outside of the green circle, how can I cut these?
Answer: Duplicate the circle, and select the duplicate circle + one of the bars. Path -> Intersection will result in the bar cut to the circle.
Repeat for the other two bars.


Preprocess value from DB before showing in Admin

Question: My question is very simple, but I can't manage to solve my problem: I need to process a Field every time that this is showed in the admin, because it has to be saved differently in the DB.
For example, I need the user to input percentages in the admin, (say 50, 70 or 100), but those values will be saved in the database as 0.5, 0.7 or 1. After, when the user wants to edit or just see those values, they mus't be preprocessed to show them as percetages (integer numbers) again, even though they were saved as floats in the DB.
I thought something like:
def valid_percentage(value):
    if not 0 <= value <= 1:
        raise ValidationError(u'Must be a value between 0 and 100')

class PercentageField(models.IntegerField):
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        kwargs['validators'] = kwargs.get('validators', []) + [valid_percentage]
        super(PercentageField, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

    def to_python(self, value):
        return None if value is None else int(100 * value)

    def get_prep_value(self, value):
        return None if value is None else value/100.0

will do it. But this is saving and showing data all wrong.
Comment: You probably shouldn't subclass `IntegerField` since you aren't going to store integers in the database. Try `DecimalField` or `FloatField` instead.
Answer: I took it pretty far, got one version of your code that works for saving, another that works for display. So that's quite some fun but not really useful.
A correct to achieve what you want is:

Use a simple DecimalField or FloatField in your Model class definition,
Create a ModelForm for your Model
Define clean_yourpercentagefield() in your ModelForm to divide input value by 100
Make and use a custom widget class to multiply the value by 100 before rendering

As stated by django custom fields and modelform documentation:

you must ensure that the form field used to represent your custom field performs whatever input validation and data cleaning is necessary to convert user-provided form input into a to_python()-compatible model field value. This may require writing a custom form field, and/or implementing the formfield() method on your field to return a form field class whose to_python() returns the correct datatype.

Indeed, you can also take these steps:

Create a PercentageField class overriding formfield()
Create PercentageFormField which should be called by PercentageField.formfield()
Create PercentageWidget which PercentageFormField will use by default

The error you will run into if you intent to do it the way you suggested, which is wrong,  is that to_python() is called several times over and over again, basically with this code:
def to_python(self, value):
    print 'to python', value
    value = None if value is None else int(100 * value)consider this section of the documentation
    print 'converted to python', value
    return value

Saving the model from a modelform will output something like:
to python 32.0
converted to python 3200
clean 3200
to python 3200
converted to python 320000

You'd have to use SubFieldMetaclass if you insist in wanting to do it the wrong way.
Conclusion: KISS FTW !
Credits to SmileyChris for helping in this answer, which might not be perfect but i thought it would be too bad to not share what i've found.
Answer: Try get_db_prep_value and then look into DB to see on which step does it fail.