Would a sentient creature that agreed to be resurrected via Animate Dead be less agressive than normal undead?

Question: If a necromancer were to make a deal with like 4 people before a fight that the necromancer could animate them if they die during the fight, and then those same 4 people were to die, would those 4 people be more friendly when they were reanimated than most skeletons/zombies? Or would they just be as aggressive as regular undead?
Comment: Just to be clear, what spell or ability is the necromancer using to reanimate them?
Comment: Welcome to RPG.SE! Take the [tour] if you haven't already, and check out the [help] for more guidance.
Comment: Animate Dead would be cast and althpugh it doesn't necessarily have a tie to the person's soul however, the undead still shares some traits with its former life.
Answer: It's unclear
The personality of skeletons and zombies and the relationship of such to who they were in life passes entirely without comment in published material at this date.  We know that the creatures created by Animate Dead are:

Neutral Evil, whatever that means in your setting
Unable and/or unwilling to do anything you don't command them to do except 'defend[s] [themselves] against Hostile creatures', which itself can be interpreted in a variety of ways
When they go uncontrolled, they don't start doing anything: they just stop obeying any commands you've given them.  They do nothing except defend themselves against hostile creatures until they are destroyed.

We further know about skeletons that:

[Their animating force] motivates a skeleton to move and think in a rudimentary fashion, though only as a pale imitation of the way it behaved in life.

An animated skeleton retains no connection to its past, although resurrecting a skeleton restores it body and soul, banishing the hateful undead spirit that empowers it.

Independent skeletons temporarily or permanently free of a master's control sometimes pantomime actions from their past lives.

When skeletons encounter living creatures, the necromantic energy that drives them compels them to kill unless they are commanded by their masters to refrain from doing so.

There is an obvious contradiction between having no connection to their past lives and pantomiming actions from their past lives.  Nevertheless, that's what the Monster Manual says.
Ultimately, regardless of published information and in particular given the contradictory and sparse nature of such information, your DM is going to have to come up with how skeletons work.  They might decide the hateful animating spirit of a skeleton hates you, for example, though there's no particular textual indication that must be so, or they might decide the skeletons' hateful animating spirit is somehow shaped by the soul of the animated corpse and certain kinds of contracts can persevere across death.  You need to ask your DM if skeletons can be made in such a way that your idea works or not, the books provide neither an affirmative nor negative answer, just as they do not specify that skeletons have "regular aggression".
We further know about zombies that:

A zombie retains no vestiges of its former self, its mind devoid of thought and imagination.

Zombies have 3 INT, 6 WIS, and 5 CHA

A zombie left without orders simply stands in place and rots unless something comes along that it can kill. The magic animating a zombie imbues it with evil, so left without purpose, it attacks any living creature it encounters.

A zombie can follow simple orders and distinguish friends from foes

Zombies, unlike skeletons, do not have contradictory MM material. The statement about not having thoughts is wrong, but is easily read as an exaggeration.  Zombies have no real connection at all to their past lives in the published material, and your DM would be changing that in letting them have a different attitude towards you based on pre-death agreements.  That's not to say you shouldn't investigate that-- your DM is already away from published sources in deciding that zombies created by the spell have "aggression", so assuming your DM is unwilling to let you find a way to accomplish what you are looking for is probably unwise.
It doesn't usually matter
While it may well work differently in your DM's game (it certainly does sometimes in mine), in the most by-the-book way of running 5e, it doesn't really matter if your undead skeletons/zombies hate you or not.  Before the spell wears out, they obey your commands.  Afterwards, they do nothing (the descriptions in the MM are for undead made in different ways). As long as you aren't Hostile towards them they won't attack you and they do their best to accomplish what you direct them to do, whether they like it or not.
Answer: There are a few spells that can be used to re-animate the dead, all with varying effects, from being the shambling undead zombies every necromancer knows and loves, to bringing the dead completely back to life, as if they had never died to begin with.
Each of these spells have their own specific effects, as outlined in the spell's descriptions. For example, Animate Undead states (PHB p. 212; emphasis mine):

This spell creates an undead servant. Choose a pile of bones or a corpse of a Medium or Small humanoid within range. Your spell imbues the target with a foul mimicry of life, raising it as an undead creature. [...] The creature is under your control for 24 hours, after which it stops obeying any command you've given it. To maintain control of the creature for another 24 hours, you must cast this spell on the creature again before the current 24-hour period ends.

This description of a Zombie states (MM p. 315; emphasis mine):

A zombie retains no vestiges of its former self, its mind devoid of thought and imagination. A zombie left without orders simply stands in place and rots unless something comes along that it can kill. The magic animating a zombie imbues it with evil, so left without purpose, it attacks any living creature it encounters.

So, following the RAW, once the effects of the spell ends, the Zombie will act on its base urges, and attack at will, regardless of any promises made before death.

Depending on the spell you use for this, by default, a zombie that is devoid of a "master" will become the mindless creature that will attack anyone, regardless, but you could discuss this with your DM, and perhaps create some kind of magical or spiritual bond with the creatures you are aiming to revive. This way, since the creatures technically still have their "souls" (by means of the bond created before death), after the effect of the spell ends, they won't lash out, but simply remain entirely passive until the appropriate spell to retain control over them is applied once again.
Comment: "you could discuss this with your DM, and perhaps create some kind of magical or spiritual bond with the creatures you are aiming to revive." You might want to mention the Karrnathi Undead from Eberron: Rising from the Last War, here.
Answer: No
The spell says the animated undead are "a foul mimicry of life", implying their decisions in life have no more effect on them mentally.  The spell also says "The target becomes a skeleton if you chose bones or a zombie if you chose a corpse (the GM has the creature's game statistics)", meaning the zombies/skeletons you make are no different from a random one you might encounter, except for appearance.
Also, when a creature retains its alignment and personality after being targeted by a shapeshifting feature/spell, it explicitly says so, for example, Polymorph says "It retains its alignment and personality."  Additionally, given a zombie's INT score of 3, and Neutral Evil alignment, it is unlikely to remember who you are and help you even if it wasn't a separate creature.  Finally, zombies can still be targeted by True Resurrection, as stated in the MM: "Once turned into a zombie, a creature can't be restored to life except by powerful magic, such as a resurrection spell. (Raise Dead and Revivify cannot do this though)"; this implies that zombies are a distinct entity from their original person.
Comment: Adding the quotes and citations to the mechanics you provide would help propel this to a +1 for me. I agree in theory, tho!


Backup software for automatic mirroring folders from one drive to another?

Question: I am looking for software which will allow me to sync the entire drive (E:) to a folder on another drive (D:). It should be completely free and should copy new files from E: to that folder on D: every 3-6 hours.
Comment: Do you have an operating system preference, or is any acceptable?
Comment: @RockPaperLizard mentioning drive letters probably means Windows (unless it's DOS or OS2/eComStation). **ScarWolf:** Please see [What is required for a question to contain "enough information"?](http://meta.softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/q/336/185) :) And check with [these Google-Search results](https://www.google.com/search?q=rsync+windows) – RSync is (at least on Linux/Unix) the first choice for this kind of task.
Comment: GoodSync, PureSync, FreeFileSync, AllwaySync, SyncBack SE...The list is long, any software on it will match your (very basic) requirements and virtually all of these will have a free version of some kind.

Perhaps you have some other requirements in mind?
Answer: DSynchronize is a very useful for this purpose. It works great. I have been using it for some time now. Lots of features. You can download it here
Answer: I have been using BitITorrent Sync and am very pleased with it.
It is free, easy to set up and handles more devices than just PCs.
Ufortunately, I am behinfd acompany firewall at the moment, so can't access it's home page to quote form there. This is from Wikipedia:

BitTorrent Sync by BitTorrent, Inc is a proprietary peer-to-peer file
  synchronisation tool available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS,
  Windows Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. It can sync files between
  devices on a local network, or between remote devices over the
  Internet via a modified version of the BitTorrent protocol.
Although not touted by the developers as an intended direct
  replacement nor competitor to cloud-based file synchronisation
  services, it has attained much of its publicity in this potential
  role.1 This is mainly due to the ability of BitTorrent Sync to
  address many of the concerns in existing services relating to file
  storage limits, privacy, cost, and performance.

There is a nice review from PC mag here.


What are the use cases of a Petzval lens?

Question: I am interested to know when would one use these lenses and what are they best suited for?
Comment: Kickstarter link: [The Lomography Petzval Portrait Lens](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lomography/the-lomography-petzval-portrait-lens). That's obviously currently relevant and interesting, but isn't necessarily part of the question and longer-term answers. (Lomography wouldn't be doing this, nor would it have generated so much interest, if there weren't something bigger behind it. And there is... see my answer.)
Comment: I'm assuming this is a question off the back of the Kickstarter project by lomography. There is a lot of information on the actual kickstarter site. Thats where all the answers will quote from and send you to.
Answer: The Petzval lens design was revolutionary, because it was the first commercial lens with a fast aperture. Previously, the Chevalier lenses had a fixed aperture of f/15, and when combined with recording media with a sensitivity equivalent to a small fraction of today's ISO 1, that meant very long exposures.
Chevalier improved on this with an f/5.6 design, but that suffered from poor sharpness. Petzval's design allowed apertures up to f/3.6, and had great sharpness in the center, making it a much better tool for portraits.
So, that's interesting historically. If this aspect interests you, there's a fantastic and detailed article at antiquecameras.net, with vintage advertisements and pictures of several vintages lenses, although unfortunately not many samples. You can find samples in this Large Format Photography forum thread.
Additionally, the design has very dramatic field curvature, which tends to render the background as a dramatic and distinctive swirl — the "Petzval swirl". Like all such optical effects, this is hard to replicate exactly with a filter without a 3D model of the scene, and if you like the look and are fascinated with the low-tech, lo-fi aesthetic that the Lomography company (and others like Lensbaby) have made their bread and butter, this may be something you'd like to add to your creative options.
Answer: Petzval lens, developed by Joseph Petzval in 1840, in Vienna, is a lens consisted of two doublet lens.

It was popular in the 19th century since most of the photos were shot using theses lenses. Photos are immediately recognizable for their sharpness and crispness, strong saturation, swirly bokeh effect,  artful vignettes and narrow depth of field.  They are extremely ideal for portrait photography which make it really really famous during those times.

Modern lenses are designed to minimized field curvature which will have the whole image in focus.  In Petzval lens, it's different.  It has an optical effect that gives you an area where it is sharply focused over a narrow field. The there is a vignetting effect towards the non-focused area.
[Source: www.kickstarter.com]
Click here to tell know more about the Petzvel Lenses or View sample photos using Petzvel.
Comment: In general, I think this leans a little too much on the Lomography promotional materials. For example, I think "extremely ideal for portrait photography" is overly-strong — they are pretty cool for a certain type of portrait photography, but a lot has changed in 175 years, and what was most ideal then isn't necessarily what's most ideal _in general_ now.
Comment: It might be nice to ask Lomography for permission to repost their sample images.


In a comic panel, how do you show your readers that the voice is heard within?

Question: In a comic panel, how do you show your readers that the voice is heard within? Do you use a different font, do you use italics, do you use bold characters? And how do you write this in a comic book script? I saw people use BOX: to refer to descriptions inside of box and then BOB: to refer to what people say, but I am not sure what you should do when the character or a character hears a voice from the inside.
Comment: @HighPerformanceMark That is typical of newspaper comics.  In modern comic books (think Superman) a thought box is prefered (typically stylized in color to match one character vs another, though usually yellow if only one character's thoughts are known).  That said, it depends on the artist.
Comment: I'll also echo @towr and his confusion.  Can you describe what you are looking for better?  Is this an internal monolog or telepathy accessed thought?  Or is it a statement said by a character off panel (either they are in another room or are dramatically hidden from the POV character for a big reveal?).
Comment: Is it the character's own inner voice (thoughts), or an outside voice intruding on their mind (like telepathy)?
Comment: Oh wait, I think I misunderstood. You meant "within the panel", not "within".
Comment: Isn't one of the standard comic book techniques to use a line of bubbles between the characters mouth/head and the panel enclosing the text of their thoughts?  Rather than the solid arrow used to enclose the words they speak?  A search of Google Images for *comic thought bubble* might be illuminating.
Comment: inside voice imagined or heard telepathically, not one's own thought.
Answer: What I've seen is either italics for the text or quotation marks around it to indicate that this is interior monologue in the box and not narrative.
Answer: As discussed in comments, you need to define this better as we're having trouble understanding if this is a narrative voice, internal thoughts, or off-panel dialog?
If this is a narrative voice, typically a "text box" or "thought box" is used.  They are usually ascribed to a narrative voice of a character (in novel writing, think of this as a first-person perspective or a journal or letter written by a character).  Less likely today, they can be used for a narrative voice, though this is no longer in style as a panel in a comic would be third-person objective style by its very nature, so a narrator would be a violation of "show don't tell".
Occasionally, the text box will be used for "Ed" to make comments (Ed isn't a person but short for "Editorial" and provides information to help the reader who might be confused).  Typically the phrase starts with "Ed:  [information]" with the asterisk linking it to dialog text.  These are used to cite previous issues that are being referenced (i.e. Aracanid-Man:  Professor Cephalopod?!  I thought you died when you fell into that industrial deep frier" Text Box: Ed: See issue 198) or to denote that this dialog is being translated from another language that is not the work's primary language (i.e. Thug 1:  <Tell him nothing.  He doesn't speak Russian.>  Aracanid-Man:  English, MoFo, do you speak it?!  Text Box:  *Ed: Translated from Russian.)  Text Boxes are sometimes also called "Yellow Boxes" as they tend to be yellow, often the same shade as post-it notes, though this is not always the case.
Superhero comics have a tendency to use a symbol of a superhero and do the box to mimic attributes of the hero's costume so their text boxes stand out from those of other characters (the Superman/Batman series does this to denote Superman and Batman's contrasting thoughts, with Superman's text boxes being more like a burst of sunlight while Batman's evoke a moon at twilight.  The first box in an issue would also have their respective insignia fitted to the box).
Thoughts of the character that are fitting with the dialog are normally given thought bubbles (often a trail of puffy disconnected clouds leading to the "thinker" while the speech bubble is either round or similarly cloud-like).  Contrast with speech balloons where the balloon is a defined oval with a cone like tail that leads back to the speaker.  In setting, the speech balloon denotes spoken dialog whereas thought bubbles denote ideal dialog that for one reason or another is not said, i.e. you wouldn't mouth off like that to your boss who is throwing a fit.  Some characters speak in nothing but thought bubbles, such as the titular cat in Garfield.  His owner Jon does use speech balloons but because Garfield is a cat and cats don't talk, it's debatable if Jon is really understanding Garfield's retorts or is just reading (or failing to read) Garfield's very obvious retorts.  Can be used to denote an implied communication by body language, which might be difficult to covey in a static drawn medium (think of how you know what a teenage girl is thinking when she rolls her eyes or what Ariel is trying to say during the period on the Little Mermaid where she is mute and cannot speak).
Dialog spoken off-panel but heard in-panel would use a speech balloon leading in the direction of the source of the dialog.  If a speaker sneaks up on the visible character and says "What are you kids doing here?" the speech balloon's tail would lead to a portion of the panel that reflects general direction of the speaker in relation to the character (a speech balloon from a speaker who is behind the hero would usually be drawn to the lower part of the panel).  If the character is eavesdropping, the balloon's tail would lead to the barrier that separates the hero from the speaker (a door, a window, the slats in the air duct's vent).
Answer: Telepathy or internal voices aren't your standard types of dialog so you're not going to find a definitive answer and you basically have to define your "style" yourself.  However, there's examples of this in the past in text and visual media.
Sometimes alternative "quotation marks" are used to indicate telepathic or otherwise inaudible dialog.  I've seen things like squiggly, square or angle brackets used.  Although angle brackets (<>) have often been used historically in comics to indicate spoken language in a different language than the rest of the narrative so that might not be the best one to use, but you should get the idea.

{hello}
[hello]
< hello >

In a visual medium like comics, a font that is different than the font used for all other dialog can be used.  A differently designed dialog bubble with an outline style that is different than a spoken dialog or thought dialog bubble can be used.  Color of the text or the background of the dialog bubble can also be used.  You can use some internal dialogs early on between the character and the internal voice to firmly establish what is going on.
When writing the script, it may be beneficial to include a "Style Guide" that explicitly defines your needs.  You might use it to define the label "INT:" or "TEL:" as indicating internal telepathic communication and then explicitly define what it should look like.
The important thing is to explicitly define your needs and what they look like and then stick to it.


Is the Borel subgroup the only closed double coset?

Question: Let $G$ be a quasisplit connected reductive group over a $p$-adic field $k$.  Identify $G$ with its rational points.  Let $B$ be a Borel subgroup of $G$ containing a maximal torus $T$, both defined over $k$.  For $w \in N_G(T)$, consider the double cosets $BwB$, which are locally closed submanifolds of $G$.  Is $B$ the only closed double coset?  Is there some general description of the closure of a Bruhat cell?
Comment: For the final question over any field equipped with a non-trivial absolute value (or even a wider class of Hausdorff topological fields), see 21.28 in Borel's *Linear Algebraic Groups* (2nd ed.).
Comment: @D_S: Your first line is confusing to me, since it's misleading to *identify* an algebraic group with its points over a field which isn't algebraically closed.      The group scheme formulation is generally preferable in any case.
Answer: In general, and this holds for algebraically closed field as well as local field of charracteristic 0, at least in the split case, the description of orbit closures is as follows:
Let $\omega \in W_G$ be a weyl element, and write $\omega = \sigma_{\alpha_1} ... \sigma_{\alpha_k}$ as a reduced expression in simple reflections, i.e.
$\ell(\omega) = k$.
Let $P_{\alpha_i}$ denote the parabolic subgroup containing $T$ of the form
$SL_2^\alpha B$ where $SL_2^\alpha$ is the $SL_2$-triple with roots
$\alpha, -\alpha$. Then, the orbit closure is given by
$\overline{B \omega B} = P_{\alpha_1} ... P_{\alpha_k}B$. In particular,
$B$ is the unique closed orbit, and the orbit closure contains exactly those orbits $B \omega' B$ such that $\omega'$ is obtained from $\omega$ by excising several reflections from the reduced expression.
Comment: As mentioned to me by Uri Bader, the order I described in my answer on the $\omega$-s is called Bruhat order https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruhat_order
Comment: Note that the question is formulated in the quasisplit (not the split) case.  (Also, I think your "arising" should be something like "excising".)
Comment: thanks, I edited my answer. For some reason I assumed that the torus in the problem is split.


how to know where http request 302 leads?

Question: I'm working on Shopify API and trying to register uninstall webhook for my plugin which is registered successfully and i do get a response e.g.
<code>stdClass Object
(
[webhook] => stdClass Object
    (
        [id] => 52102211
        [address] => http://www.example.com/dev1/login?code=42db53dae6d706f095711b8365a941e8&hmac=6ca8a5fa6659ea9b976454d352c73024d98417b0e20665c08090c636d3c9662b&shop=my-shopify-shop.myshopify.comsignature=ed384b260216b100ea2090e0d3c26460×tamp=1438850605/delete_shop
        [topic] => app/uninstalled
        [created_at] => 2015-08-06T04:43:27-04:00
        [updated_at] => 2015-08-06T04:43:27-04:00
        [format] => json
        [fields] => Array
            (
            )

        [metafield_namespaces] => Array
            (
            )

    )
)
</code>
When i delete my plugin it generates a 302 POST request.
I want to see that where does this request leads so that I'd be sure that it is coming straight to my controller action for handling this i.e. to example.com/delete_shop
I'm working in PHP CI and sending email in my code upon the call of this function. Here are the routes:
<code>$route['default_controller'] = "home";
$route['product_edit/:any'] = "home/product_edit";
$route['delete_shop'] = "home/delete_shop";
$route['404_override'] = '';
</code>
Is there any problem with my routes because I never receive an email even after hours?
(email functionality is working properly in the application though)
EDIT :
here is the image for the request generated
Answer: A 302 is a temporaly redirect. You can follow the requests with tools as:

Firebug (https://getfirebug.com/downloads)
Browser console for developers in Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.

The tools above make it possible to log the requests. Detailed information provided, such as request headers, response headers, response body, etc.
Comment: yes, i'm using them but found no trace of the URL where I want the request to come. let me share the screen image.
Comment: Kindly see the image @Henri


Azure - can't link VM to site-to-site vpn

Question: I'm experimenting with setting up an azure site-to-site vpn. I had a test server already set up and working in a subscription. The server had internet access but no vpn link.
I ran through the options to create a site to site vpn and it came up without any great problems. the on-prem firewall says its connected.
I followed one of the online examples where I used 10.10.0.0/16 and created two subnets 10.10.1.0/24 and 10.10.2.0/24
My problem is that my server doesn't seem to be in any way linked to this new virtual network I've created. I've tried rebooting it just in case but it comes back up with an ip in the 100. range which azure gives out to new machines. I expected it to have an address in the 10.10. range, or maybe a second interface.
What I have is a VM + Virtual network under the same subscription. Both work independently.
I've spent hours digging through blogs and docs and can't find anything which helps.
If I try to create a new test vm under this subscription, when I get to the "Choose A Region/Affinity group/Virtual Network" I can choose the virtual network I created, but I can't work out any way to modify the existing vm.
Can anyone suggest what I may be missing?
Answer: I discovered the answer to my own question. After spending hours and hours on this, I discovered the solution not long after posting this.
The simple answer is, you can't.
Instead you have to remove the vm, but leave its disks and then recreate the vm and attach it to the virtual network.
Answer found thanks to this blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/walterm/
Comment: Just a quick note, you can make the deletion/recreating a bit easier by using the Export-AzureVM cmdlet which will lay down a template file you can use to recreate it.


How can I know what reasons my questions are closed for, if I don't agree with it at all?

Question: I've had so many of my questions closed. 100? Maybe a little shy. I won't list questions, at least while people have consistently closed my questions without giving reasons. Just the latest example of this: how is this off-topic (mostly off-topic closes):
What good is philosophy that is not clearly reasoned?
Comment: Can you clarify a bit? Is the question "why is this specific question closed" (if so maybe mention that in the headline) or is it rather: "can I get guidance on how to write good questions for this site in general?"
Comment: Very quickly on that individual question -- the formulation is not particularly NPOV; please remember we have an ethos similar to Wiki's, so consider narrowing the frame and indicating what exactly is the specific, narrow problem you're having in your *study of philosophy* that you would like someone here to help you with -- indicating more fully what you've been reading or studying can help answerers find out an appropriate level to approach the concern and provide a great explanation
Comment: lack of clarity is an issue sometimes. duplicates come up. likewise not knowing enough to ask a focused question (though these are also consistently left open when asked by other users). but... the opinion based / off topic question closes seem to me, and i mean this as politely as  i can be, to be someone with a vision
Comment: are people just closing questions that don't have answers on wikipedia?
Comment: @JosephWeissman that's two good comments, thanks. apologies for the somewhat bitter question, i'll return to it in a few days have been away
Answer: I would like to add another point that is too long for a comment.
I understand your efforts and continuous rejection produce frustration. I think this has something to do with your inexperience in expressing your thoughts in written format.
Oftentimes, there is a good philosophical intuition behind your questions and I think that you know that and become so frustrated as they seemingly are not seen or ignored.
The real reason for the closed threads is rather the package than its content, if you like. Obviously, you frame your intuitions in a way that is completely understandable and intuitive for you, but hard tho comprehend for others.
It is kind of ironic in context of the example, but I really think you should try to learn to introduce into your thought and contextualize it, so that it can be followed by people having a completely different background. In effect, this is what most so-called obscure philosophy didn't care about, therefore, oh, the irony.
Positive feedback: Give introductory remarks and contextualize your thought after, most importantly, having clarified for yourself what exactly your thoughts are. The second recurring theme is that your contexts are again your personal opinions instead of concise philosophical positions. You will have to learn to omit these, because it will let your questions look like subjective reflections and personal philosophy.
Others cannot be expected to dive deep into your mindset, you will have to find a way to express your thoughts in a way compatible to theirs.
Answer: The off-topic reason for a close does give a specific reason for the closure. When you click on close and choose the off-topic reason this comes up:

which lets you go further and explain why exactly the question is off-topic. For the question you gave as an example, the reason given was the "pushes a personal philosophy" reason. This can also be seen by going to your question and looking just above the comment boxes:

It even says "The users that voted to close gave this specific reason". So, at least to me, it seems like you shouldn't be so focused on the phrase "off-topic", as you are in this question and your comment on the question; more so, you should be asking "why is this pushing a personal philosophy?" if you still disagree with that assessment of the question.
I wrote a comment on the question after I voted to reopen it but that was before I saw that you had made a meta-question about it. I will repost what I wrote in the comment:

I'm voting to reopen this question. The actual questions that are being asked are "Why are some philosophical arguments difficult to follow?" and "Can a willful lack of clarity be justified?" and those, I do not think at all, are "pushing a personal philosophy" which is the reason it was put on hold. However, maybe the reason that people voted to put it on hold is because of the framing of the rest of the text in the question, because you are saying "I can't see what obscure style can do." I don't know, maybe you can try to reframe the question in a more neutral way.

And as a side note, I have to agree with Joseph that there's something off about the tone of this question. The title of the question is not a question, it has nothing to do with the question that is being asked, it is just the start of your first sentence. That isn't a very good way to introduce a question, at least I don't personally think so. I think that it, as well as some of your questions (and I'm absolutely not saying you are the only person who does this) come off as conversational, while this site is explicitly designed to not be a forum. Questions that are focused and get straight to the point, written with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation,  and don't come across as someone who is writing the words out just as they're thinking them are often a lot better received by the community than the opposite. I'm not saying this applies to the specific question you listed, I already said what I think about it (the issue is the framing) but I think in the past you've asked questions that look more like you're thinking through the question at the same time you're typing it and it comes across more so as a statement than a question. I'm not saying this applies to all of your questions.


iOS VPN using the MS Defender app

Question: Has anyone noticed the MS Defender app VPN not working on the iPhone?   The iPhone actually shows the VPN is connected, but in WiFiMan the phone shows connected to the cell co. With the VPN server missing? Wondering if this started after the iOS 16 upgrade, I did the other day, did not really pay attention.  The Cloudflare and Google VPN working fine
Comment: I am in Athens right now.  My usual T-Mobile Esim to US shoes the same issue
Answer: The defender vpn started working again per wifiman (other net tools also). For several days a lot of people did not have VPN connection, even though their iPhone showed they did…
Comment: So basically the problem solved itself without user intervention?
Comment: Microsoft fixed the issue.  Their vpn service was out for few days.  Same timing with the iOS 16 upgrade.   Not sure if related though
Comment: Yes nohillside, no user intervention

iOS VPN using the MS Defender app


Programmatically check is specific coupon is valid for product

Question: We have a Magento CE 1.9x shop that we developed a message that shows on the product page with a coupon, but we need to ONLY show the message IF the coupon (price rule) IS VALID for that item.  Is there a reasonably simple way to test if the coupon is valid for that item WITHOUT actually applying it?
Answer: Since the conditions tie a coupon (salesrule) to a product you could check the conditions_serialized field in the salesrule table.
The conditions are serialized before storing it in there but with some fancy mapping I'm sure you can check if a certain SKU is in the conditions.
Still, I'm guessing you only have a limited amount of coupons. A simpler and cleaner solution would probably be to make an attribute where you indicate per product what coupon applies. But that might also depend on the number of products you have
Comment: Yeah, we have like 3500 products that is increasing quickly, and the coupons change regularly.  Our marketing team handles the coupons (allowing on certain products and not on others) and I don't want them messing with the actual products to do so, so I'd like to have a way to check if the coupon can be applied.  The other catch is that in this case it's ALWAYS the same coupon code in this case.  You would think that it would be easy enough to say "*Can code XYZ be applied to this product?  If yes, show this message.*"
Comment: Hm in that case i'd probably go with a query in the `conditions_serialized` column. That shouldn't be too hard
Answer: i spent all day on this and put together from a few things i found online. this works on the magento product page. it checks a specific rule and goes into the actions of that rule to see if the item is there. this code is only if there is one specific sku set in the rule. but there is enough code here to figure out to do other things.
$ruleid = 54; //get the rule id from the admin
$oRule = Mage::getModel('salesrule/rule')->load($ruleid, 'rule_id');
$actions = unserialize($oRule->getActionsSerialized());
foreach ($actions as $key=>$val){
    if (is_array($val)){
        foreach($val as $keyb=>$valb){
            $switch= $valb['value'] == $MySKU ? 1 : 0;
        }
    }
}

the above code for $switch is based off of sku. and that is if there is if there is only one SKU in the action. if you want to check the action before the switch you can use
$valb['attribute'] == 'sku'

also, if you have more then one SKU in the action then you would need explode the $valb['value'] and add another loop.
Answer: I don't think you can have a silver bullet solution since the rules for a coupon don't involve only product attributes. They can involve quote settings. Also a rule may be valid if 2 or more products are in the cart at the same time.
And the possible combinations are infinite (almost), so you cannot test all of them


Correct Glue for Foam Outsulation?

Question: My house is masonry block about halfway up and then wood siding with top.  Two months ago I had outsulation installed.  It's made up of 2x4 feet foam panels that are 2 inches thick.  These are covered by a plastic mesh in a scratch coat overlaid with a stucco like finish.  The outsulation works well and looks even better.
My problem is I'm not sure how to re-attach the address numbers.  I have 5 x 2 x 1/8 an inch address numbers that were screwed into the wood siding with three-quarter inch wood screws.
What I was thinking to do is to drill about an 1/8 inch hole through the stucco into the foam board and glue in the screws.  What I don't know is what kind of glue would hold metal screws into a foam board.
Any ideas of what kind glue to use?  Or an even better idea on how to attach the numbers?
Answer: With a light touch on the screws you will be able to attach the numbers. Drill the surface with a slightly smaller bit than the threads, not the shank of the screws. An 1/8" bit may be the right size... Run the screws in and if you like put a small dab of clear caulk behind the number to seal the screw to the number and the screw to the hole so water may not get in. As light as the numbers are, the screws will keep the numbers at the right elevation and spacing and the way the caulk will hold, the numbers will stay until somebody removes them.
Comment: Length, in this case will not matter, it will be what little grip you will get from the threads if the screw engaging into the stucco finish. The amount of caulk needed, just to clarify, will only need to be applied to the screw after it is started in the hole. The amount needed will be smaller than you expect. A drop the size of a pencil eraser will be much too big, unless the texture of the wall is really coarse. If it is only a sanded finish, half the size of a pencil eraser will do at each screw location. Use clear so if it goes out beyond the edges, it will not be a problem
Comment: Do think a longer screw, maybe inch, would be better?  Thank you for your help!
Answer: I would not suggest mounting the letters you have directly to the stucco finish. There may be another place where it would be appropriate to mount the numbers such as a fence, door, etc.
If the best place is on your home where they used to be, then you may want to consider getting an address plaque that you can mount them to. There are many different designs, sizes, etc. that might work for you.
Once the letters are mounted on the plaque, then you can screw the plaque directly to the wall. Since you say the foam is 2" thick, plus there is a parge coat over it, it will be approx 2 1/8" to get to solid wood. Based on those measurements plus the plaque itself, you would need 4" screws to ensure that it would be mounted solidly.
I would suggest pre-drilling the holes to make sure they are in the right place, and using a level to make the plaque sits straight. Another thing you would want to do is put a small dab of caulk on the hole and the tip of the screw before you install it. That will have the least amount of impact on your insulation. Also, when tightening the screws, make sure they aren't over-tightened. Over tightening the screws could crack the insulation and the mortar.

Correct Glue for Foam Outsulation?


Deployment with local Git submodules

Question: Here is the current setup. I have a:

Central Git repository (origin) on a network drive
Working copy on my local hard drive
Repository on the web server to deploy project to

I use a submodule to pull in a framework that is hosted on GitHub. My understanding is that when I add a subdmodule to my repository, it downloads the repository from GitHub to my local working directory, where I can then checkout the desired version, and ultimately push to the origin.
When I commit the code to the origin repository, does it push a copy of the framework as well, or does it only, for lack of a better word, store a reference/pointer to the remote repository?
I ask because I would like to create a few repositories of third-party tools that I often use with this framework (currently not managed with Git), so that I can easily pull them into the projects that need them. The goal is to then update my local, third-party repositories whenever needed and update the individual projects with a newer version.
The way I deploy my projects is by pushing them to the web server, which will then deploy the application using the post-receive hook. The potential problem might be that if Git doesn't push the submodule itself and only a pointer, which I think is the case, because that's what git submodule init && git submodule update is for, the web server will have no way of getting a copy of the submodule's contents.
The easiest solution I can think of would be to simply host those third-party tools using a public-facing service like GitHub or Bitbucket, but I'm wondering if there's another way?
Answer:
When I commit the code to the origin repository, does it push a copy of the framework as well, or does it only, for lack of a better word, store a reference/pointer to the remote repository?

The latter: it store a special entry (as seen here), which means if you have done:

any checkout in the submodule (ie. you have changed the HEAD but have not modified any file), you need to go back to the parent repo, add, commit and push that new special entry which reflect the new HEAD SHA1 of your submodule
any file modification in your submodule, you need to:

add, commit and push that submodule back to its origin
go back to the parent repo, add, commit and push.

Your post-receive hook can take care of a git submodule update --init --recursive step.
See this hook for instance.
Comment: +1 since this was helpful, however I'm still wondering about the best way to get a local submodule on to the remote server, if possible,  when local can push to remote, but remote can't pull from local.

Deployment with local Git submodules


Thinking of next chords messes me up

Question: So as an example of a song I'm trying to learn. Still got the blues for you by Gary Moore. Chords played as arpeggeos with all notes ringing out.
On one hand I'm trying to fix some problems with transitions that aren't perfect..... and at the same time if I think about that change before hand I'm actually just screwing up even more.
How do I give it my attention, without the stress of anticipation ???
Comment: One note at a time. No, I'm not joking. Think carefully about playing each note before you play it. Visualize your fingers moving there. Do not race. Pause. Relax. Think. It's tough to do this, but if you spend 10 minutes doing this, i.e. thinking carefully about each note before you play it, it makes up for an hour of wiggling fingers until you get it right.
Answer: When a chord has to be played, strummed or arpeggiated, it's best getting all the appropriate fingers down onto the strings in one go.
Hammering on each chord during practice time is a good ploy. Eventually, all fingers will land together, and feel solid. A few minutes a day for a couple of weeks will often suffice. Try one chord followed by the next, just two at a time to start with.  It'll also mean your changes will be tidier, without the need to put in an open strum as you change - something a lot of self-taught guitarists manage to 'learn'.
A bonus with such a song is that those changes occur in many other songs, in different keys, so actually, you're sort of learning other new stuff unknowingly!
Were 'on one hand' and 'before hand' chosen specially?

Thinking of next chords messes me up


What types of styluses would work on a Microsoft Surface?

Question: I tried using a regular stylus on the Microsoft Surface, but that doesn't work; the screen is unresponsive. Is there a stylus available or does anyone already have good experiences with another type of stylus?
Comment: what is a "regular stylus"?
Comment: I guess one for use on a Wacom tablet, N-trig Duosense screen or similar.
Answer: According to Paul Thurrott's Microsoft Surface: RT vs. Pro, a Specifications Comparison article:

Pen support
Surface RT : Capacitive pen supported (but not included)
Surface Pro : Includes pen (likely active digitizer-based but not specified)

Also,

Pen. A number of readers were worried that Surface RT/Windows RT didn't support pen input. It does.

Further, if you go to the official Help Me Choose page, click the Download specs link and read the PDF, it clearly states:

Other Relevant Links

Can you use a pen to take notes on the Microsoft Surface RT version?

Does the Surface RT support pen input of any kind?

Difference between digital and capacitive stylus?
Comment: Nice.  It's bizarre that the links I gave are also official MS links (same website, different tab), and the specs just don't mention Pens for RT.  Classic... Now, have you found a source for a compatible pen? :)
Comment: @techie007: Any capacitive stylus for phones or tablets should work.
Comment: Gotcha, based on that, then I've got something right up his alley..
Comment: If anybody reading this has not used a Wacom tablet, they work in a way you may not imagine - the mouse cursor moves around even when the stylus is several inches away from the screen/tablet, but you only draw when touching it, and only select by touching or pressing the stylus' button.  This is different to a capacitive stylus.
Answer: Capacitive pen means nothing but finger replacement, i.e. instead of using your finger, the pen tip has enough contact surface that mimics finger touch.
Inductive screen/active digitizer e.g. Wacom are actually screen recognizing pen itself as a special input device.
A few major advantages of having an active digitizer, but in short capacitive can not give true paper & pen feeling, whereas an active digitizer can (potentially).

Accuracy. Try writing very small letters on actual paper with your pen/pencil. You should have no problem. Similarly, a well implemented active digitizer will let you write as small as you can actually write. On the opposite, a capacitive pen needs certain amount of contact surface, therefore you can not write too small. In fact, even regular handwriting size is probably too small for it to be well detected.
Palm rejection. Since inductive technology recognizes the digitizer as a separate input device, if you rest your hand on the screen, it can ignore the palm. Just write things on your paper and you should quickly realize your natural writing behavior is to rest the palm on the paper. Active digitizer can replicate this. However, capacitive cannot distinguish between palm touch and pen touch as it only recognizes that something is touching the screen. So as soon as your palm rests on the screen, you lose writing. Writing without resting palm on the screen for prolonged time is very uncomfortable.
Pressure sensitivity. An active digitizer can send data of pressure sensitivity, i.e. as long as the application supports it, you can actually make a line thicker by writing harder on the screen just as with real paper and pen. There are technologies out there attempting to make capacitive screen/pen pressure sensitive but those pens are very expensive and it's not certain how well they work.

So in the end, Microsoft stating that RT supports capacitive pen seems a bit misleading because any touchscreen essentially supports such as they are nothing but a replacement of your finger. But true underlying technology is not there to replicate pen & paper experience. So if that is something you are looking for, you have to watch out.
Answer: Pen input is not available on the Surface tablet running Windows RT.
edit:
As Karan pointed out in his answer, there is conflicting information on the Microsoft website and as well, other sources point to there being capacitive pens available for it.
From my experience capacitive pens are generally more like a replacement for your finger, verses a replacement for a pen.  But I can't speak to the Surface's specific implementation.
Since you mention you have a Wacom tablet, then here a Bamboo Stylus from them that should "just work".
This is not a product endorsement, there should be plenty others by many other companies to choose from, none of which have I personally tried.
- end edit
It will be available on the Surface that runs Windows 8 Pro, which is I believe is slated for release sometime in 2013.

Surface with Windows RT Specifications
Surface with Windows 8 Pro Specifications

The second link specifically lists:

Pen Input ::  Pen input and pen (included with purchase)

edit:
This pen (with Surface Pro) will apparently be of the digitizer variety (similar to your mentioned Wacom), which should have the features and resolution more similar to what you're used to with your Wacom.
Comment: The Wacom Bamboo stylus should work fine with a Surface RT, but then so would any capacitive stylus for a couple of dollars from eBay.


How can I route storm water away from my atrium?

Question: I have an atrium in my condo that is exactly in the middle of the house.  It has gutters and downspouts around it and whomever built it, just let the downspouts empty into the open courtyard of lava rock.  I want to put a solid floor in the atrium and have the gutters empty somehow else.  There is no possible way to empty them into an underground system, nor even an above ground one.  I cannot see anyway to reroute gutters  to go off another point of condo.  Is there a fix for this?
Answer: Can you tear up the courtyard and put a leach field under it before laying down the floor, thus preserving the through-ground drainage now present?
Can you consider rain-permeable material as flooring? (Some ideas here and here, or  investigate other options.)
Other than those, the only idea I've got is a sump, a pump, and run the pump's output thru basement to outside.
(Or to drain and sewers if that's legal in your area; it isn't here.)
Answer: If the atrium is open to the sky, then it will always receive rainwater when it rains. Therefore, enclosing the space is the only way to entirely divert rainwater away from the space.
This points to the general solution, changing the direction in which the roof system slopes (as a useful abstraction consider the roof system to include the gutters and downspouts). If you cannot change the direction of the slope and the slope is toward the atrium, then you cannot divert water away from the atrium.
What is under your control is the meaning of solid floor. Something as simple as spaced deck boards will allow the area to become useable outdoor space while still allowing the water to drain. The key idea is permeability.
Other alternatives range from replacing the lava rock with pebbles as in a Zen Garden to exotic solutions like permeable concrete, to practical compromises such as providing a solid floor over only part of the area.
My advice is to proceed so as to avoid reducing the drainage capacity of the existing system. It works, and flooding is usually not worth gaining outdoor space.
Answer: Is there any way you could add a pipe going through the wall, and direct it to an adequate exterior drainage spot, and then route the gutters to that pipe?
That said, if this atrium is open to the sky, redirecting the output from the gutters isn't enough if you want to add a solid floor. Where is the rainwater going to go? You'd probably need to add a roof structure of some sort.


Transit with Easyjet through Gatwick

Question: Is it possible to remain Airside at Gatwick Airport when changing between two Easyjet flights?
I will have Hold luggage.
Comment: I won't leave this as an answer as I'm unclear if it is still running at the moment. But if it is the GatwickConnects (https://www.heraldscotland.com/business_hq/17716249.self-connecting-gatwick-use-new-gatwickconnects-service/) program could make things easier.
Answer: easyJet does not transfer bags. They just don't. You need to collect your bags, check them back in and go through security again.
This is a fundamental difference between traditional and low cost airlines: low cost airlines are point-to-point.
With a traditional airline, if you buy a ticket from A to B with a connection in C then their contractual obligation is to get you from A to B come hell or high water. Much to the chagrin of some tricky people, they have no contractual obligation to take you to C, in fact. This is to compare with easyJet which will take you from A to C (probably -- but see below) and should you make the second flight then they will also carry you from C to B. But if you are late from the second flight, you will be in C, in your case in LGW, and you are completely on your own to get to your original destination. As far as easyJet is concerned, it doesn't matter whether you started late from home driving to the airport or you took another flight with whichever airline which was late -- even if that airline happens to be easyJet. This is called an unprotected connection.
In fact, you might even find yourself stranded in A. If the first flight is cancelled, easyJet will probably have a lot fewer options than a traditional airline and might just decide to offer you compensation. A traditional airline likely will just reroute you (and offer delay compensation if you are starting from or arriving to the EU).
This is not to discourage you from flying such LCC airlines. This is to calibrate your expectations. People tend to be rather critical of airlines when the airline merely fulfills their obligations according to terms and conditions instead of fulfilling the wishes of the passenger. Airline tickets are just that: contracts with very, very specific terms and conditions.
Ps. Buying a second ticket to a later flight from Gatwick to your destination might be considered good insurance. Consider the price of it at purchase and try to guess how much it could be when bought last minute based on the current last minute prices and decide. Actual insurance will never exist for this kind of thing, would be too expensive.
Comment: For the record, easyJet do now have the "easyJet Worldwide" service, which *in principle* protects connections provided some minimum transfer time between scheduled arrival and departure. But that "protection" doesn't seem to be worth much: It comes from Dohop rather than easyJet, and their [terms and conditions](https://support.dohop.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021507179-Terms-Conditions) seem to explicitly exclude (section 4) many of the most common reasons protection would be necessary, while also giving them "absolute discretion" presumably to just say no for any other reason they feel like.
Comment: Right, so that service is snake oil, it doesn't change the fundamental operations and nature of an unprotected connection.
Comment: yes. That comment was intended to support your answer (by explaining why easyJet promoting protected connections isn't the full story); not to disagree with it.
Comment: Didn't Easyjet have a limited programme allowing luggage transfers in some airports? Or was it Ryanair? It looks like Ryanair does it in Fiumicino only, but I have a vague recollection of one of those doing it in a few more places. Can't find anything about Easyjet doing that at this time though.
Comment: Actually EasyJet used to sometimes offer missed flight cover as an optional extra when booking the flight. Not sure if they still do! If you purchased that for your second leg, it would actually mitigate some of that risk. I've bought it a few times and even used it once. Got caught in traffic on the M25, missed my flight and true to their word they booked me on the next flight for free! On trouble was, it was the next morning...!
Comment: That was an insurance for journeys starting in the UK only for the residents of the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Also, it has not been on offer for three years now. Possibly because it was often more expensive than a second ticket from what I read...

Transit with Easyjet through Gatwick


How do you update a data blob column by searching and replacing a string using drush?

Question: How would one do the following in drush? I want to change some data in one of the users table for one of my users. The thing I want to change is in the data blob column with all the punctuation's and what not. I can copy the data blob out, edit, it and then paste it back in, but was wondering how can this be done via drush with a search and replace?
Answer: You can use the following MySQL statement in the drush SQL console:
<code>drush sqlq "update users set data = replace(data, 'string_here', replacement_string') where uid = 1"
</code>


how to set custom permission to custom menu access?

Question: I  am trying to create student management system in which i have been created custom 'registration form', for registering to website then i have created 'list of registered students' menu to show registered students.I want to set permissions such that admin can edit registration form and authenticated user can only see 'registration form',admin can see list of registered students but authenticated user can not see that list.So please guide me to do so.
Answer: If you do this using a custom module, you can use hook_permission to defile your permissions, and use in the views. You can also restrict access by role and set the visibility if you use blocks fir the 'list of registered students'.
Comment: From views, Create a 'User' view, then add 'Link to edit User' field. Or by custom module something like **/user/{uid}/edit**. Also check this : https://drupal8.ovh/en/tutoriels/56/get-current-user-drupal-8
Comment: ok thank you i am done with this settings and its working
Comment: can u please tell mi how to add edit link in this to upadate self info


Timewalking gear sets in World of Warcraft

Question: For the newly introduced timewalking dungeons, your gear scales down to ilvl 95 gear. My question is - if you do the lower level quests that the dungeons have in them and/or loot the gear that actually comes out of the dungeon - is it typically better than your scaled down gear? Should I be creating a timewalking gear set - or just leave my high ilvl pve gear set on and let it be scaled? What is more beneficial?
Answer: The most beneficial items for Timewalking are going to be raid items, current and old, that have the most gem sockets. This is, of course, outside of old tier sets that provide some broken bonus or something else ridiculous for that level of content.
Essentially, you'll stack said items, put the best gems you can in to them, and from there you have to look at your weapons and trinkets.
Example: Shadowmourne's AoE damage proc can be procced almost instantly while also using the Pandaria legendary cloak, due to the rapid hits it generates.
Any trinket with a silly effect, like a powerful cleave or guardian or something (Deathbringer's Will is a good example here) is also recommended.
A warning, though: I use the Pandaria cloak in them, and pull off of the tank frequently. You need to let them establish enough threat, especially on group pulls, before your dive in and the cloak procs almost instantly.
Answer: The gear from the quests is the same as if you had walked into the dungeon in heroic mode, so unless your at level 71 they wont be likely to offer an upgrade to the existing gear that you have.
The gear that drops from the bosses is a special type of gear that scales up to the level you are at when it drops, I have found that it's often an upgrade to what I have.
Answer: The dungeons themselves are not so difficult as to warrant a separate gear set.  Scaled down gear will work fine.
The drops in the dungeons scale up (660, 675 warforged).  They are unlikely to replace your current raid tier gear, but if you have a fresh 100 they may be a gearing option.
Answer: If the older Raid Tiers still perform like they were supposed to, then I think that gear is gonna be awesome.
I've always kept two pieces of T5 hunter gear on my hunters. The two piece set bonus is 15% of my damage done to direct healing on my pet. And that healing generates no threat. Using the T5 (Rift Stalker Set) bonus was part of my toolbox of things I would use to solo content with.
There is a problem using the older Tier gear though. As you level the benefit drops in two ways.  First and obvious way is you are getting very little stat bonus from it, and would be better off in current level green gear and doing more damage (and this was before the Stats squish, I haven't really done the number on same gear after the stats squish, but I'd bet it still holds true).
The second problem is that Blizz has Tier Sets do less for you as you level away from level requirement. For instance, the AoC Trinket (Assurance of Consequence) at level gives an awesome reduction to almost all of your cool downs. Making this one of the all time favorite trinkets ever. But at level 100, the reduction to your CDs arent worth the loss in DPS resulted in using it.
But there is hope. Once out gear is scaled down to the TW dungeon, AND we are scaled down to it as well, then the trinkets and gear effects might be viable again. If so, look for a lot of TW gungeoneers wearing 3 or 4 sets of different Raid Tier gear at the same time. Im currently gathering some older Tier sets for multiple 2 pc bonuses at the same time.
I have already used my T5 2 pc bonus for my pet in a TW dungeon, and only once did I need to pop mend pet. I could see a steady stream of non stop healing going to my pet from my damage. I was doing about 4,000 DPS, which converts to 600 HPS on my pet.
The other Tier bonuses Im currently looking at are a 5% damage boost to all damage, a 15% damage boost to certain main abilities, and a 10% focus recharge gain. I haven't had time to test anything but the T5 set. But Next TW weekend I'll have all my hunters using their new TW sets, and see just how far I can stretch it.
One thing makes me sad, I cant solo queue for TW dungeons.


Carbon monoxide question

Question: When reading lots of articles about carbon monoxide poisoning cases I came across to it being referred as "silent killer" many times. Now, I know that carbon monoxide is a byproduct of an incomplete combustion with insufficient oxygen available in the air. Also that we as people only have a carbon dioxide (a product of the combustion) build-up alert system and not "lack of oxygen in the body" alert (unless you consider oxygen deprivation symptoms as such). So, my question is: how come people don't wake up when being poisoned by carbon monoxide if carbon dioxide is a main product and in an environment when oxygen is insufficient for carbon monoxide to be produced, carbon dioxide would still be in the space and not vented out?
Comment: CO binds more tightly to hemoglobin than oxygen does, so your internal transport of oxygen is reduced. Your CO2 alert is for buildup in your lungs, not in the incoming air. It takes very little CO to make a big difference by taking hemoglobin out of action compared to external CO2 setting off your alarms.
Comment: That is a question rather for human physiology. Tolerance for CO2 is much higher than  poisonous level of CO.
Comment: Our bodies are designed to live in caves and hunt woolly mammoths. CO poisoning was not a thing back then, so no alert for it was needed.
Comment: Current levels of carbon dioxide are about 400 ppm outside, and inside it can go up to ~2000 ppm (stuffy air, no health problems), while above ~40,000 ppm might be deadly. Carbon monoxide is deadly at ~200 ppm within hours, even with plenty of oxygen. So if 10% of the exhaust is carbon monoxide, it is a potentially fatal problem.
Answer: Part of the resolution of your question rests on the definition of "insufficient oxygen". Part of the question relates to the relative threshold for oxygen deprivation and CO poisoning.
A chemist using the term "insufficient oxygen" is referring to the process of combustion. You appear to assume it applies to the whole room. In real combustion reactions, it is very easy to have insufficient oxygen in part of the flame even when there is a good supply of oxygen to the fuel being burned.  Even well regulated heaters based on burning fuel often produce some CO even when the carbon dioxide dominates. This is why regulations insist on good ventilation of the exhaust gases from heaters.
The scenario you describe is neither common nor relevant to worries about CO. If a flame used up all the oxygen in a room and replaced it with carbon dioxide, you would surely be asphyxiated, but you would also notice  very early that the carbon dioxide level was worrying long before that point.
But what happens with badly ventilated heaters is not that. Leakage of CO into the room is the dominant problem not a lack of oxygen. CO is very poisonous because it forms a relatively stable compound with haemoglobin, blocking the blood's ability to move oxygen around the body. This happens at very low levels of CO, long before any external shortage of oxygen has happened. When town gas supplies consisted of hydrogen/CO mixtures (phased out in favour of natural gas which is mostly methane in the 1960s in the UK) "putting you head in the oven" was a favoured method of suicide. As was piping a car exhaust into the car (which became harder post catalytic converters which remove CO and some other gases).
The point is that a small level of CO in a space where there is plenty of oxygen is deadly. And the deadly levels are far lower that the levels of carbon dioxide that would trigger any physiological warnings in the body.

Carbon monoxide question


jquery: read div id and remove appropriate div?

Question: hey,
had no idea what title this post should have, hard to describe :)
i have a dynamic id's with a number

Content

Content

i want to query the dynamic number (in this case 116) of id="post-full-116" and if another div on the page with id="post-116" exists i want to remove that.
sounds weird i know. so you get the idea behind it, the div with id="post-number" holds a preview of a post and the the div with id="post-full-number" holds the full content of a post.
i don't want to show the preview of a post if the full post is already shown - so i simply want to hide it with jquery. i know i should do that on the serverside before, however in this case jquery would be perfect.
any idea how i can query the number of the dynamic id and the remove the appropriate div with the same number?
thank you
Comment: these divs wouldn't happen to have classes of any sort would they? `class="post"` would help a lot to make the selection easier.
Answer: $('div[id^="post-full"]').each(function(){
    $('#post-' + this.id.split('-')[2]).remove();
});

Answer: .toggle() will show the div if its hidden, and hide it if its visible.
Example:
$("#post-full-116").toggle();
$("#post-116").toggle();

Alternatively you could check if the div was visible or hidden with this:
if ($"#post-116").is(":visible")
{
  $("#post-116").hide();
  $("#post-full-116").show();
}
else
{
  $("#post-116").show();
  $("#post-full-116").hide();
}

Answer: Can you just have a
Content
 and add something like class="full" if its the full size version.  If you go from preview to full size view you just find the element with id="post-116" and replace the contents and add the attribute.  If you go from full size view to preview then find the div again and replace the contents and remove the class.
Answer: I'm thinking you would do something like this:
$(function() {
    $('[id^=post-full]').each(function() {
         var num = $(this).attr('id').replace(/post\-full\-/,'');
         $('#post-' + num).hide();
    });
});

That should grab any "full" posts, find the number of the post, and hide the "preview" version of it.
UPDATE:
Here's a live demo of that: http://jsfiddle.net/Ender/saUQf/


Is it possible to increase the TPS on a a paper server to make red stone computation faster?

Question: Can I increase a Minecraft servers TPS to make computational redstone faster.
Answer: 1st. Don't use paper (or spigot or bukkit), they only do surface hack fixes that only break stuff and do very little of actually optimizing the game.
Should instead use Fabric. Fabric by itself does not change any of the vanilla game mechanics (forge rewrites Minecraft adding in heaps of its own bugs and changing vanilla behaviour) but allows other mods to do so instead
Now to the optimizations!
Lithium: Optimizes a lot of areas in entities, block updates, block/entity collisions, world border checks, ram/GC usage and TNT. This is ~90% of the lag
Phosphor: Optimizes light updates. Helps with chunk loading, chunk generation and normal light updates
Carpet: Mostly adds redstone and creative mode based features (like creative no-clip), but has a few optimizations as well (like disabling spawn chunks and optimizing redstone updates)
Sodium: Client-side only. Is like Optifine but much faster (Still in development, not released to the general public yet)
Sadly fabric does not support plugins that paper has, like CoreProtect or Plot^2, but does WorldEdit
JellySquids Discord: https://jellysquid.me/discord


How do you entertain a 7 week old infant?

Question: I have a 7 week old baby and I stay home with him. The days can be long. I run out of ideas of how to entertain him. He doesn't talk or walk or crawl. He can't hold any toys. I don't want to always lie him on his back because of fear of a flat head but dont want to carry him. Also I feel that he isn't stimulated enough if I lay him down while I do other things. Please help.
Comment: You won't always have the time to be right there all day.  He might as well get used to finding his own ways of amusing himself.
Comment: I would encourage you to stay away from always entertaining him. They may grow to depend on it instead of experiencing things themselves. I would suggest a book called The Baby Whisperer. She goes through many things, but your fears will be covered.
Answer: Everything is new for a small baby and everything is stimulating as they discover the environment around them. Change in lighting, a new sound or a colorful object can evoke a response. What cause it doesn't matter as it's all new.
Once they can hold their head up consider getting a chair so they can watch you. Move the chair around the house following you. If they don't like sitting for long periods maybe get a sling. Slings can be very comforting, especially as it's close, warm and they can hear your voice. Perfect for a sleep or watching and listening as you carry on.
Regarding slings, I recommend you find a group that can advise you on correct usage and positioning of your child especially the 'M' position. In the UK for example: https://www.nct.org.uk/parenting/sling-safety
Answer: As a father of a 15 days old child. The below list helps

Sing to him - He knows he is around someone who keeps him comfortable.
Hold him close to you.
Walk him around the house
Talk to him while he stares at the lights. Talk to him and he does make eye contact.
Swaddle him - Some babies like to be swaddled.
Play white noises - Newborns like white noises
Try different holds - see what makes him comfortable.
Rocking motion on your arms.

While he certainly does not care for toys, but what matters to him is a feeling of being loved.
Comment: I like this - except I wouldn't recommend white noise specifically. Yes, the noise of the vacuum can be restful, but for the sake of the parent, also try music, bird or animal sounds, any noises in fact.
Answer: You don't do much...
If you fear Flat Head that much, you should buy a helmet. Else, just let your kid sleep and rest on his own, somewhere where you can see him and where he can see you. You don't hold your kid when you sleep. It's the same when you are awake. You might want to find some soft support to put him. (We use babymove's doomoo but there should be a lot of possibilities.)
As for entertainment, at his age there is not a lot to do : your kids has to get through some developmental stages before really interacting with his environment. From personal experience, a house pet will do better than most toys to help your kid stimulate himself. Not that we let the cats raise our daughter ! But when she is playing on her mat, she tends to stop whatever she is doing as soon as one of them come close. Sometime, when she is crying, if one of them arrives to her before us, it'll be enough to calm her (works like a charm during naps).
Above all, don't cut yourself from life and don't over stress : a happy, caring, parent will have a happier baby.
And a sign you might be a good parent (I don't know you and thus can't judge) : you ask yourself if you are doing well and enough.
Once your kid starts to recognize you and is able to start expressing himself, the smiles will be indication enough of your results.


How can i color this shape?

Question: i tried a lot to color this shape to blue but couldn't . i'm using Photoshop but with tool Magic Wand .. is there any other way to color it please
Answer: Illustrator is not especially flexible in editing bitmap images. I guess your image is a PNG which is one popular bitmap image format. Hopefully you have a higher resolution or at least a less blurred version (see NOTE1). If it's your photo, you hopefully can shoot a better version.
To edit bitmap images use Use Photoshop:

Use Image > Adjustment > Hue/Saturation. By setting option Colorize ON you get a strictly single hue result like above. If Colorize is OFF you get hue shift, but keep hue variations. RGB system limitations keep black and white uncolored.  If you expect color also for ex. to the white areas you should use adjustment layers. An example:

The curves layer (shown) is adjusted for acceptable contrast, but still so that the brightest white is now only grey. The Hue/Saturation layer makes the same as the adjustment Hue/Saturation above.
With Adjustment layes one can experiment without changing the underlying image permanently.
Such Photoshop things as layer masks and layer styles are as essential as adjustment layers in non-destructive editing. This example used only adjustment layers.
NOTE1: The image is blurry. Using Photoshop's sharpening filters such as Unsharp Mask helps a little:

Not asked, but you may want to make from scratch a sharp version. The Image is complex, I wouldn't try to make it in Photoshop nor Illustrator. In a 3D program the job is easy - at least, if one accepts a version where the holes are regular cones, like this:

The shape in the question is more difficult, because the less regular holes need much more tinkering than regular ones.
Comment: Op erroneusly tagged this illustrator.
Comment: It was not an error. OP was ready to see If Illustrator could  be used. Removing that tag is a way to get some kicks.
Comment: Ok, anyway you could do this in illustrator if you had some of the astute graphics plugins.
Comment: Illustrator  could be used as is .Blending modes change colors. But It is not handy.
Comment: Sure but astute has the hue transform. Anyway prefer to use smart sharpen instead of unsharp mask (unsharp mask is a signal conditioning tool from a time when we didnt know how to truly sharpen a signal)

How can i color this shape?


Multiply array with different dimension

Question: I wanted to multiply(or divide) two arrays with different dimensions (a1=[48,38,31] and b1[48,38]). So far, I was using a for loop over the third dimension. However, I was wondering how to use (if it's possible) apply for that. Let's say I have the following samples:
a1<- array(rnorm(20), dim=c(2,3,3))
b1<- array(rnorm(20), dim=c(2,3))

If I tried to do directly a1/b1 (or *) I can't because they need to have the same dimensions. So I used a for loop:
for(i in 1:3){
  m1[,,i] <- a1[,,i]/b1
}

But I would like to avoid the use of the loop.
Comment: Try `apply(a1, 3, FUN=function(x) x/b1)`
Answer: One option would be
array(c(a1)/rep(b1, dim(a1)[3]), dim= dim(a1))

Or we can use apply
apply(a1, 3, FUN=function(x) x/b1)

Answer: Alternatively, you can use sweep function which is designed to do this kind of operation.
 a1<- array(rnorm(20), dim=c(2,3,3))
 b1<- array(rnorm(20), dim=c(2,3))

 m1 <- array(0, dim=c(2,3,3))

 # original solution
 for(i in 1:3){
    m1[,,i] <- a1[,,i]/b1
 }

 # apply sweep
 # to avoid the warning info add 'check.margin=F'
 m2 <- sweep(a1, 1, b1, "/", check.margin=F)

 all.equal(m1, m2)
 #[1] TRUE

Multiply array with different dimension


how can i stop my dog from begging for human food?

Question: My mom taught my dog to beg and now I can't get him to stop. He begs for everything we eat and it gets so annoying.
Answer: First you should put a pillow, blanket or dog bed in a place where the dog can see the table but that is at least 2 meters away from the table. Then you train your dog to go to this place on command. You need to start this training when you are not eating and there are no distractions around.
When your dog goes his spot on command, you should introduce new rules for the whole family:

Whenever there is food on the table, the dog goes to his spot. He stays in his spot until the last person is finished eating.
When the dog comes to the table anyways, you send him back to his spot. No exceptions. Don't punish him or anything, just send him back.
The dog does not get any food during your meal. You can put morsels aside to feed him later, but never during the meal.

Some dogs are especially stubborn and try to beg at the table again and again. In that case you can think about putting your dog on the leash in his spot so he cannot walk away.
Comment: um I said my dog is a he not a she sooo I'm guessing you made a typo..I'm just letting you know
Comment: This method worked for my dog. Now he knows that he will eat later after we finish and just goes to his spot by himself. It is important to not feed the dog as you or your family eats. Otherwise he knows that if he begs he will get something out of it
Answer: I am assuming that you are sitting at the table and the dog approaches you, sits or stands or lies down very close to you, and looks at you imploringly, urging you to give him some food.
You say your mother taught him to beg. Sitting up in a begging posture when asked is fine, so I am assuming that she "taught" him to beg for food by giving him titbits, either deliberately or unknowingly, perhaps from the table. If she has been feeding him from the table in this way, rewarding him for begging, you have to make sure she stops.
The second thing you have to do is to train him to do something else instead, which you can do by rewarding him to go to a special place when you are eating. Consider teaching him a special thing like shaking hands or a high five, if he doesn't already do both of these, or you can still use one of them if he does, and reward him with a tasty treat which isn't what you're eating. Make say a hand up be the cue. It's OK to start doing this at mealtimes, a few times only, then once only, then get up from your chair at the table and take the interaction over to another part of the room, or to another room entirely, perhaps to his basket, and stop doing it from the table. He may ask once or twice for you to do it when you're at the table, but if he does, ignore him. The idea is that he goes and waits nicely, without pestering you, and then at the end of the meal, once you've cleared up, you go and shake hands with him or give him a high five, and give him a nice treat.


How to tell when the stepper motor is done stepping?

Question: I am working on a project that requires mildly accurate positioning of the x and y axis. It involves an airsoft gun and it is basically a motion tracking turret. Because of the requirements for movement that could be tracked I determined that a stepper motor would probably be the best option. I have ran into a problem though while picking the motor and a driver or even if I am going to stay with the stepper motor idea. My question is how do I know when my stepper motor is done moving like is there a pin that goes low on most drivers saying that the motor is done moving? Or should I just move onto using a servo. I choose stepper motors because they were powerful and relatively cheap but I don't really understand how to control them. I understand the whole signal sending idea and I will be using the accel-libary with an arduino to control it but how do I know when to give the motor a new position. Also as a side note will a motor with a torque rating of .1416 in-pd's I will be using a .5pd airsoft gun and will mount it in the middle of it's center.
Answer: I don't think you can know that.  From the datasheets that I've read on stepper drivers, they always (micro)step on every pulse from your software.  There's also a direction pin: high = one direction and low = the other direction.  That's about all that your software gets to worry about, as far as the driver chip is concerned.  After that logic is done, then the driver chip does whatever voltage/current limiting needs to be done and may or may not tell you anything.
So basically, you get to know your application well enough that you can give it enough juice but not too much (adjustability is good here) and that you never pulse it faster than it can keep up with, and then you assume that it's always in the correct position.  If you've satisfied the first part of that statement and it's not jammed, then the second part is generally true too.
You can also add encoders, switches, or other sensors to help you know where it is instead of assuming.  If you care about absolute positioning, you might want at least one "home" switch that you can find on startup and then navigate from there.  If you want limited travel, then you might want a limit switch at either end that can also function as home switches.  Write your software to never overrun the limit switches.  :)
Answer: Stepper motors are actually not very powerful compared to a geared DC motor, but they have the advantage of providing accurate positioning without needing a feedback mechanism. The whole idea of a stepper motor is that it only moves when you step it, otherwise it stays put. So the answer is, it's done stepping when you stop stepping it!
However this only works reliably if you:-

Don't step too fast, or accelerate and then try to slow down too quickly.
Supply enough holding current to stop it from slipping under heavy load.
Have some way to detect or set the 'home' position.

Some early disk drives set the home position by simply stepping in one direction enough times that the mechanism must have hit its end-stop, which would make a horrible clattering sound if the heads weren't on the innermost track!


Magento Attribute

Question: I'm looking to create a new attribute set in Magento, I based it on our 'default' set and I'd like to remove some existing attributes from the new set I've created. However, when I attempt to drag and remove I get a 'no entry' symbol. Is there anything I can do to get around this? Or is there a reason I'm being blocked from removing attributes from the new set (new set has not been used to create any products)?
Comment: what are your trying to remove?
Answer: You cannot remove system attribute from your set, because these attribute are use in core magento. I.E name, description, sku, weight etc. (any attribute with the red mark on them)
.
Comment: Even attributes without the red symbol are staying put, for example 'features' in your example above.
Comment: Take a look at my update... you need to drag it right there, with in the unassigned attributes list
Answer: Some attributes can't be deleted from a set. Like SKU, Status, Name etc. These attributes have a round red symbol on them.

Magento Attribute


Stuck shutter does not go fully down - Nikon D3100

Question: the shutter does not go fully down. The photos have a horizontal line on the top. Could you please advise?
Answer: It seems your shutter is wearing out. The line at the top of the frame indicates that the first curtain is never fully opening at the bottom of the sensor. (The image is inverted inside the camera -  the top of the scene in the outside world is projected on the bottom of the sensor.)
Most people who have noted a problem such as yours find it gets progressively worse until one day the shutter does not work at all.


is it possible to use disable function in CommandLink

Question: Need some help with the Command Link. I know there's no attribute as "Disable" for , like we do have for  . But as per the requirement, i want to have the link disabled for a particular page. Can this be achived??
my code-

how i will use commandLink ?
Answer: You can do this with JavaScript:
<apex:commandLink onclick="return {!not disableLink};" ...

Where disableLink is a Boolean value, either as a function: public Boolean getDisableLink() { ... }, or as public Boolean disableLink { get; set; }). When an onclick function returns false, the default action (e.g. activating the link) is not performed.
You can also do this by way of not doing anything in your action method:
public PageReference doSomeAction() {
    if(actionDisabled) {
        return null;
    }
    // Do whatever you're going to do here
}

This has the disadvantage of taking a round trip to the server, of course.


Dispersion relation of a monoatomic chain

Question: The dispersion relation for a 1D Monoatomic chain is given by $$\omega = 2*\sqrt\frac{C}{M} \sin\left(\frac{qa}{2}\right)$$ We say that strong dispersion occurs when $q$ approaches $\frac{\pi}{a}$. Going by the literal meaning of dispersed, what exactly is begin strongly dispersed here? Or is there another specific meaning to the word "dispersed"?
Answer: So the idea is that different plane waves will travel with different speeds $v=\lambda~f = k^{-1}\omega(k)$. A wave packet made of multiple of these would then be expected to disperse as one wave packet overtakes another.
Worth remembering that dispersion is not diffusion. The most common example is a Gaussian wave packet centered on some momentum $k_0$ which will travel as a Gaussian with speed $\mathrm d\omega/\mathrm d k$ without spreading out.
Comment: Really nice answer.


What are the steps to install LoadRunner on Ubuntu?

Question: What are the steps to Install LoadRunner on Ubuntu? Any link will also work.
Comment: what is ubantu? did you mean ubuntu, if yes this belongs on serverfault
Answer: You cannot install loadrunner on any Linux machine. You can only run load generator on a unix box.
Answer: Ubuntu is not noted as a supported distribution in the requirements, however Redhat is so noted.  Please refer to the requirements and installation guide for information on installing a load generator on Redhat linux.
You will face limitations on the types of virtual users you will be able to run with a linux-based load generator as many of the virtual user types are Windows API depedent.   You will also have an issue when you call for support, as the Windows-based generator is considered the "reference" generator for control and support.   So, if you have an issue and you contact support one of the very first things they will ask of you is to reproduce the problem on a windows-based load generator.   This will tell them if the problem is common to all generator types or to your specific generator type.


Photoconductivity of Selenium

Question: Selenium is a good conductor of electricity in presence of light. This phenomenon is called photoconductivity. How does this phenomenon occur? Are there any other elements or compounds in which this phenomenon is noted?
Answer: A very handy diagram and explanation of photoconductivity is shown below, from the American Physical Society page Viewpoint: Holey Intrinsic Photoconductivity:

The caption explains:

Excitation process leading to photoconductivity in a condensed matter system (upper panel) and its cold-atom counterpart (lower panel). In the condensed matter system, incoming laser light ($hv$) excites an electron to the valence band, leaving a positively charged hole behind. In the cold-atom analogy, the optical lattice is tuned to allow an atom to move into the excited band, also leaving a hole behind.

From the Wikipedia page Photoconductivity, states that some 'classic' examples of photoconductive materials (asides from selenium) include:

The polymer polyvinylcarbazole
Lead sulfide

Some more examples exist in the paper Organic photoconductive materials: recent trends and developments include the chemical classes:

Phthalocyanines
Squaraines
Azo pigments
Perylene pigments
Answer: User15489(Santiago)'s answer explains the phenomenon of photo-conductivity in a general way. My answer typically describes the photoconductivity of selenium.
The following is an excerpt from the book Weller, M.; Overton, T.; Rourke, J.; Armstrong, F. Inorganic Chemistry, 6th ed:- (see link)

Selenium exhibit both photovoltaic character, where light is converted directly into  electricity, and photoconductive character. The photoconductivity of grey selenium arises from the ability of incident light to excite electron across its reasonably small band gap (2.6 eV in the crystalline form, 1.8 eV in the amorphous form). These property make selenium useful in the prdouction of photocells and exposure meters for photographic use, as well as solar cells.

Photoconductivity of Selenium


What monsters do I kill for hides?

Question: What monsters do I kill to get a monster hide? I've been trying to get one for ages but I still can't find any.
Comment: Killed a chort, no hide killed a necrophage, no hide. There is no guarantee that you'll get a hide even if you kill the correct monster unfortunately.
Answer: Larger monsters can drop "x Hide". You can dismantle this, at a crafter, to get generic Monster Hide.
Example, Necrophage Hide becomes Monster hide and Monster blood:

You can convert these items into monster hide:

Necrophage Hide
Troll Hide
Werewolf Hide
Ekimmara Hide
Beserker Hide
Chort Hide
Comment: @Rhcfref Necrophage is a type of monster, usually a carrion feeding undead, such as a Drowner or Ghoul
Comment: Where do I find this monster called Necrophage?
Comment: The point is that it doesn't matter what type of monster you go after, as you can convert any non-animal hide into Monster hide (seemingly). You might also have some luck looting monster nests.
Comment: Yeah that's the thing though... I've been killing monsters for 2 hours nearly and haven't got 1 hide or anything that can be dismantled into one
Comment: @Rhcfref Please see my updated answer. Hope that helps (carapace too).
Comment: @Rhcfref: In addition, I most recently found Necrophage Hide from a Devourer (basically a higher level Rotfiend).
Answer: I was looking for monsters to get monster carapace and monster hide needed for upgrades of Witcher Gear. Unfortunately I had already slain all big monsters, done all quests, destroyed all monster nests, etc (OCD anyone?).
But I found this cave I visited before with a bunch of respawned Devourers close to the entrance, a Harpy or 4 furthermore down the cave and 3 Erynia flying monsters at the bottom. On my first visit to this cave I had looted and killed everything, so imagine my joy that all these monsters respawned in between visits.
And - JAY! – I got me 3 Necrophage hides amongst others. And those can be dismantled into monster hides and/or monster carapace. You can find the cave next to the fast travel point of Clan fordarroch Forge – Skellige (south-west of Kaer Trolde).

What monsters do I kill for hides?


How to roast vegetables correctly?

Question: I have heard that roasted vegetables are more tasty than steamed, but I have never been successful in roasting in small batches.
What is the best temperature to roast and for how long?  Should I add olive oil? How much?
Comment: Which vegetables were you trying and how did you do it @HersheA? What specifically went wrong? What vegetables would you like to roast?
Comment: related: https://cooking.stackexchange.com/q/18168/67
Answer: Preheat your oven to 425F (218 C).  Squashes and root vegetables will take about 45 minutes at this temperature.  Mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, and brussles sprouts will cook in about 25 minutes. Cut your vegetables into evenly sized pieces. Place in one layer on a baking sheet (parchment lined is good for browning and easier cleanup).  Drizzle generously with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Roast.  Turn the vegetables over halfway through the cook so that they brown evenly. This information, with pictures, can be found here.
Answer: Yes, roasting vegetables has more flavor than boiling or steaming, because the higher heat will cause browning, which creates additional flavorful compounds in the food.  You also reduce the moisture in the vegetables, which will concentrate the flavors, and you don't risk washing away water-soluble flavors as happens with boiling/simmering.
But as this came from the parenting site, I don't know if you necessarily want this to be too flavorful, if you have picky eaters, or you're intending this to be pureed into baby food.
I don't know if there's a truly "best" way of roasting vegetables.  If you're cooking from raw, you need to roast at a lower temperature, so that the inside is cooked through before the outside gets burned.
You can also adjust this by how you cut up for vegetables; the smaller they are, the faster they'll cook.  But don't go for too small of a dice, or it's more finicky to cook.  You're better off with thinner slabs to cook things quickly, although I'd also make it bite sized for the smallest mouth at the table.
I agreed with moscafj about oiling your vegetables, but I'd recommend that you mix the vegetables in a bowl before spreading it on a sheet pan.  It's just easier to make sure that everything is well coated without making a mess.  (and if you have children, this is a task that they can do).  You can use a slotted spoon so you don't end up with an oil slick under the vegetables if you've added too much.  I also take the opportunity to season the vegetables in the bowl; I typically add some herbs and a splash of vinegar along with the oil and a few pinches of salt.
Spread the vegetables out in a single layer, but you'll also want to make sure that they're not crowded -- there should be some space between then, not packed in tightly.
Because of the 'bite sized' issue, and firmer vegetables (carrots, winter squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc.) take longer to cook, you may want to start some vegetables before others; start with them, then add peppers, onions, summer squash, etc. about half way through after you've flipped over the firmer vegetables.  (exact time depends on how large they're cut up; check recipes online for a starting guideline).
...
And then there's another trick ... You can simmer potatoes and other firm starchy vegetables until they're just cooked through (but not soggy), drain them, put them in the bowl (or back in the pot), and knock them against each other before oiling and seasoning.  This will rough up the outside, creating more surface area so it crisps up more.  And they'll then cook in a similar time to the other vegetables.
You can also pre-heat the sheet pan, so you'll get a little bit of extra browning and possibly avoid needing to flip the vegetables when they're cut fairly small.
...
So, to summarize:

pre-heat oven (optionally, pre-heat the pan)
Cut up vegetables into bite-sized bits
(optional) simmer, drain, and rough up potatoes or other firm, starchy vegetables
Toss the vegetables together in oil, salt, and any other seasonings
Spread the vegetables out on the sheet pan in a single layer, with some space in between them
Roast
Flip the vegetables over (optionally, add softer vegetables now)
(optional) flip over the vegetables added later
Remove from oven once nicely browned and cooked through.
Answer: In addition to the great answers here, I would add some tricks I've learned experimenting with roasted veggies:
-pre-steam veggies before you roast them. this is especially helpful for thicker and denser veggies like some cruciferous (broccoli) and root (potatoes) veggies. this helps start the cooking process and reduce the roasting time so you can have thoroughly cooked veggies before they get too brown or burnt and lose all their moisture.
-mix your veggies with the oil and seasonings for better distribution, don't simply brush and sprinkle on top.
-use a baking sheet and rack combo like this one that allows warm air to flow around the veggies on all sides. this is not only more effective than straight on the pan, but it also removes the (annoying) extra step of flipping your veggies part way through!
-roasted veggies taste best right out of the oven, but we're all busy, so how can we speed up the process? prep a bunch of veggies ahead of time (washing, chopping, etc.), store in the fridge, then flavor and cook when you're ready to eat!
The best tool I've found is the Anova steam oven where you can set up a recipe workflow that will preheat pans, steam, and brown with a click of a button on your phone.
Answer: I personally find grilled vegetables to be more to my taste. I also like my vegetables more firm, so grilling on high heat for only a few minutes works well. If you prefer more thoroughly cooked veggies, you will definitely need to lower the heat and cook longer.
Here are my approximate time tables for a grill @ 550-650 degrees F (roughly 300-350 C):

Brussels sprouts 12-15m
Broccoli ~10m
Asparagus ~8-10 (depending on thickness)
Zucchini, other squash 8-10m
Bell peppers 8m
Onion 6-8m
Cherry or grape tomatoes (whole) 4-6m
Answer: Try frying in a pan on your stove, or on your grill if you have one.
Chop/Slice/Dice your vegetables into pieces that seem appealing to you, toss with a bit of olive oil, and fry over medium-high heat.
Let the pan heat up first, then add the olive oil, then the vegetables. Toss in some kosher salt and some fresh ground pepper, and stir. Stir every-so-often to ensure nothing burns, but you do want to develop some brownness which is where a lot of flavor comes from.
After the vegetables have developed a little brownness, or become a little soft, you're done! Usually takes about 10-15 minutes, depending on what you're cooking.
You can even try drizzling with balsamic vinaigrette, or other coatings for an extra tasty side.

How to roast vegetables correctly?