Is there such a thing as an illegal thought?

Question: Obviously, without a person saying or doing something, it is impossible to know what they are thinking, so they couldn't be prosecuted, but are there any things that are illegal to think about in the US/Oregon? Of course, if there are, the answer would have to be just "yes," because giving or reading examples would be illegal.
Comment: @Someone That's what romance novels and other trashy books are for. Utterly mindless reading.
Comment: Not necessarily: I don't live in Oregon so I could give details that might lead to prosecution in Oregon.
Comment: Do you fear the [Thinkpol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_Police) to hunt you down for [Thoughtcrime.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoughtcrime), or are you in the time and jurisdiction of the [Tokkō](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Higher_Police), which was abolished after the 2nd world war?
Comment: There is a sign near my home (not in Oregon, US) put up by the municipal government which states that people are "not even allowed to think about littering in this place". But I doubt that regulating thought is within their authority.
Comment: @user6726 yes, but by reading your answer I would be committing a crime.
Comment: Perception is not the same as thinking, so it looks like your question is even broader than it initially seems to be.
Comment: I just thought of how hard this would be to prosecute: Suppose thinking about XYZ is illegal. The police arrest John Doe for thinking about XYZ. Oops! They just thought about XYZ! Same for the prosecutor, judge, and jury, and John's attorney. They'll all be tried... which will result in more prosecutors, judges, jurors, and attorneys thinking about XYZ. Before too long, the entire state has thought about XYZ.
Comment: @user6726 is it possible to read something without thinking about it?
Comment: @doneal24 the only thing I've read without really thinking about was Einstein's paper on relativity. I understood about two thirds of it, but the other third didn't really make any sense to me. I was reading it, as in i was looking at the letters and knew what words they spelled, but I wasn't really thinking any coherent thoughts about them (other than "this doesn't make sense").
Answer: There are not "illegal thoughts" in the abstract, but what you are thinking can make the difference between something being a crime or a basis for bringing a lawsuit, and actions being non-criminal or not a basis for any legal liability.
If you fire someone because they are black, you've engaged in actionable employment discrimination. If you fire the same person, in the same circumstances, because you've noticed that they were late to work by 10 minutes every day this month but recorded their hours as if they came on time, you've acted legally.
If you shoot someone in bear suit hovering over your toddler in your backyard at twilight believing it is a bear, you haven't committed a crime. If you realize that the person in the bear suit is your husband playing a prank and shoot anyway, you are guilty of aggravated assault or attempted murder if he lives, and murder if he doesn't.
If you buy a $200 refrigerator thinking that it's a bankruptcy fire sale price, you are not guilty of anything. But, if you know that the refrigerator was stolen because you hear the store owner talking about it in the back room, you are committing the crime of trafficking in stolen goods if you buy it.
If you record a song because it just comes to you when you've never heard it before, you haven't infringed a copyright. But if you've heard it (at least if you remember it) and then record it, you've infringed the copyright in the song (assuming you don't get permission to do so and the copyright is still valid, etc.).
What a person committing an act is thinking is part of what must be proven in court for someone to be guilty or liable in the case of all but a small minority of crimes and torts (i.e. civil wrongs which can be the basis of a lawsuit). Often, the element that involves what you are thinking as one part of a case that must be established in court is described with the latin phrase mens rea (which translates literally as "guilty mind").
Conversely, sometimes thoughts are not crimes or torts unless there are actions taken in connection with the thoughts.
If you carefully plan out a murder, but take no concrete actions to carry out your plan, you haven't committed a crime or tort. But, if you have planned out a murder and take significant affirmative acts to carry it out, you've committed attempted murder, even if those acts might not have constituted attempted murder if you took those actions for purposes unrelated to a plan to commit a murder.
Similarly, if you imagine a seven year old having sex with you in your head, you haven't committed a crime (although if you are a sex offender, doing so might prevent you from receiving parole), but if you download or make a video depicting that act, you've committed a crime.
Comment: @phoog yes and no: there have been author groups that planned together *perfect* murders to toss at each other and challenge their fictive detectives with - sometimes they collaborated in designing such a murder. none of the *conspiracy* members actually planned to murder someone.
Comment: @phoog I think you still need someone in the conspiracy to take an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.
Comment: The "record a song" thing happened to someone who was both a famous composer and a famous conductor. Some music that he recorded was quite clearly based on something he had conducted earlier, and not remembering it.
Comment: "If you carefully plan out a murder, but take no concrete actions to carry out your plan, you haven't committed a crime or tort": only if you do so by yourself, no?  Otherwise you've committed the crime of conspiracy to commit murder.
Comment: If the refrigerator sale was genuine, then you are guilty of _attempting_ to traffic in stolen goods :-)
Comment: @gnasher729 Don't know if that does or doesn't count as copyright infringement. Once upon a time I was a classical music DJ at a radio station, and I noticed some allusions in 19th and 20th century classical works (this was pre-21st century) that were in that gray area where there was clear replication and almost surely it was borrowed but it is hard to guess if it was really intentional or not.
Answer: To properly and definitely answer your question we must first define and agree on the definition of "illegal" so as to ensure it is purely and literally answering the question of, if whether or not there can be such a thing as an illegal thought.
As it pertains to the context, Merriam-Webster Defines "illegal" as:

not according to or authorized by law : unlawful, illicit
also : not sanctioned by official rules (as of a game)

By that definition, it will be necessary also to establish what is defined as being "law". And, as defined by Oxford Languages (AKA Google's dictionary): Law is defined as...

the system of rules which a particular country or community recognizes
as regulating the actions of its members and which it may enforce by
the imposition of penalties.

With that established, it should then become apparent that to answer your question, we must first determine if having any sort of, or any particular type of, thought that could be observed or can be observed in order to be considered in violation of what has been established as being a law.
In The Literal Sense
Therefore, in the context of any city, county, state, federal, or otherwise government-established laws, at least as of 2022, a time when when the progression of neuroscience has yet to discover a methodology of "reading your mind" and as a result, has no means of enforcing any such law that prohibits any sort of particular thought, if one was to exist; then in terms of any sort of established authoritative power, there are no laws that I am currently aware of that exist today that would make any thought illegal,
Thus, in terms of having "illegal" thoughts or illegal thoughts existing, by the aforementioned regards, no, there is no such thing as an illegal thought because no law currently exists to enforce or regulate a restriction on a person's thought.
However, in more recent years and in the US, some laws have been proposed that prohibits the teaching of certain topic matters relating to race, American history, politics, sexual orientation, or gender identity which may be considered a proposed law attempting to limit and restrict indirectly the introduction of thoughts and ideas related to one or more of those topics. And, that may be a signal for some that we may one day in the future, see such laws being introduced that will attempt to make it illegal to have certain thoughts or ideas, especially if such proposed laws were eventually passed and if the technology was later discovered to interpret a person's thoughts that would enable enforcement of such laws. That is to say, perhaps one day there could be.
In Other Context
However, in the context of moral, religious and/or cannon laws that may rule over a man or woman not based on their physical location or of where they reside but by the faith that they entrust their beliefs in, and; whereas in some religions, it may be considered a violation of their religious teachings/beliefs and if such beliefs are also considered to some varying degree as a religious "law" but may not particularly reference said beliefs as "laws" literally speaking (i.e. "The Ten Commandments"), then in the context of a person's religious beliefs, it seems very plausible that "illegal thoughts" or what would be considered as illegal thoughts, do exist.
For example, in many of the version for the Christian Bible, which isn't a book of law per se, but is often referred to as a book of teachings that establish the moral guidelines of those who believe in it, contains text that suggests having mere thoughts of adultery is the same as committing adultery (or in some translation, has already "committed the sin").

...whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart

-Matthew 5:28 in the King James Version of the Bible
Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept exists in many cultures and is similar in Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Then in that context, it is very possible for an illegal thought to exist if the thought violates a religious law of one's chosen faith.
Conclusion
Therefore in terms of the original question which specifies only a condition of location (Oregon or in the US), no, there is no such thing as an illegal thought unless one was also a member of a religious group that holds the belief that committing an illegal or "sinful" within one's thought says otherwise.
Comment: 1) scientific journals have no legal power 2) the bible has even **less** relevance to any legal proceedings. 3) Law and morale are two highly distinct things. properly enacted and legal laws might be wholly immoral - like a law stripping citizens of their power to vote.
Comment: It's not the thought itself, it's whether a crime has been committed where the mental state of the accused matters. A good example was "selling a fridge cheap". If I think the seller just bought himself a better fridge and wants to get rid of the old one, fine. If I think (incorrectly) that I'm offered a stolen fridge very cheap and buy it to take advantage of that theft, that is an attempted crime. So the combination specific thoughts + action can be criminal.
Comment: If you read the comment by the OP, with their example of arresting someone for thinking about XYZ and suggesting that, in arresting and prosecuting a John Doe for thinking of XYZ the prosecutors would also have to think about whatever XYZ was thinking about and therefore commit the same crime, then you might see why a dystopian-based conceptual question such as this might be better served by a more practical and literal answer to address the underlying curiosity.
Comment: If anything, explaining how the act makes the thought illegal itself would be more applicable to what the OP is asking rather than proposing explanations on how thought plays a role in making the act illegal. They didn't ask if an act becomes illegal because of thought, they wanted to know if having the thought, by itself, without action, is illegal but more so as it relates to a general thought and/or idea, and likely one not necessarily involving action. Hence, no legal proceedings occur on grounds of thoughts by themselves and essentially may be a question more suited for morality than law.
Comment: While you both have very valid points, I was merely answering the question in the literal sense. In the matters of a 'selling a fridge cheap' example, you're conflating the concept of premeditation in a criminal act with an immaterial act of having a thought. Whereas my take is on the literal question of, 'are thoughts themselves on their own illegal', and that's what I had hoped to address and was not in any way objecting to those concepts you bring up, but rather, expands on the fact that thinking of murdering someone without taking action is not, in and of itself, an illegal act


Connecting to Snowflake cloud warehouse to accessing data tables in QGIS

Question: Is there a way in QGIS to connect to a Snowflake cloud data warehouse using ODBC, or other? I would like to access this data storage to natively create spatial content by accessing the WKT, Geography, etc. Or by creating an X,Y using the lat/longs stored in the table.
Answer: It is possible to connect QGIS to Snowflake using an ODBC connection as long as your Snowflake tables follow the OGR naming convention i.e. you would need to have a table called GEOMETRY_COLUMNS that indicates the names of tables that contain geospatial data, and the format of those data.
You can follow this step-by-step guide on how to create a live layer in QGIS from Snowflake data https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQXd3xyshMw


Android Widgets : On Focus, On Click effects to widgets

Question: Thank you for reading my question, please read it patiently. The scenario is bit different than normal Android application.
I am creating my own launcher for Android TV. I have complete permission to run my application as system app.
I have my own launcher in which I am placing widgets. In Android generally we place widgets by dragging and dropping on home screen, but in my case I have to place all widgets as soon as launcher starts. I am able to place all widgets successfully. User is not allowed to change widgets positions or not allowed to remove any widgets. All widgets are fixed.
Now requirement is something like this,

For Android TV, I have remote control to access all widgets and apps etc. Instead of touch screen I have remote to access everything.
On Home Screen/Launcher where I have all widgets, I need to implement spatial navigation. i.e I have to navigate through all widgets through remote left/ right/ up/ down key.

As a solution, I have done following things:

I have handled onFocusChangeListener to listen to focus change event and I have also handled onClickListener to handle onClick event.
On focus change and on click I am sending broadcast to each widget, along with extra data i.e. got_focus, lost_focus or clicked. In each widget I have a receiver which receives broadcast and according to whatever state, widget changes its background image. I have put Log in each of my receiver. All receivers receives their respective broadcasts, but the problem is the behavior of changing the state is not consistent. Sometimes widgets changes the states, but sometimes they don't, even they receives broadcast.

So, I want to know is there any other way to make this behavior consistent. Anybody who has worked on launcher and has come across the same scenario, please help me. I am stuck on this part from past 3 days. Is there any other way to update widgets background image from launcher.
Thanks for reading it patiently. Any kind of help will be appreciated.
Thanks again.
Answer: Now widget is not suitable for TV .
You can put LinearLayout contain widget.
Set the linearlayout with focusable.
Forbidden the widget content focus.
Remote key make the LinearLayout state change.
if you press ok. just start the widget's activity.
But it cannot control the content of widget(forbiddent the focus).
Answer: Go to developer.android.com and search for and apply a 'State List Resource' to the relevant Android TV GUI elements.


Interpreting Bias Corrected bootstrapping confidence intervals in logistic regression

Question: I have a question about interpreting and using the bias corrected confidence intervals for logistic regression as produced by SPSS. I understand the rationale for using bootstrapping, but want confirmation that the BCa confidence intervals produced by the bootstrapping cannot be used as is but need to be exponentiated in order to obtain the actual confidence intervals. The screen shot below indicates this issue. The original CI is 2.263 - 3.378. In the table below that the estimates from the bootstrapping are provide. The variable remains significant, which means the CI cannot contain the neutral value of 1. The BCa CI indicated is 0.813 - 1.226, which at face value suggests the variable is not significant. However, when I exponentiate the BCa CI I arrive at 2.254-3.407, which excludes the value of 1 and is also similar to the original CI estimates. Am I thus correct in finding the exponent of the BCA supplied values for the bootstrapping CI? Many thanks.
Answer: You have to be careful to distinguish coefficients in their original scales from coefficients in transformed scales.
Logistic and survival regression models usually do their work in a coefficient scale in which the null hypothesis for a coefficient is a value of 0. That's the scale in which the results for "B," "Bias," and "Std.Error" are reported in your printouts. The BCa CI of 0.813 - 1.226 are well outside the null value of 0 on that scale.
Many find it easier to think about the results in terms of odds ratios (logistic) or hazard ratios (survival). For that you exponentiate the coefficient in its original scale. Thus the null hypothesis of 0 for a coefficient in the original scale becomes a null hypothesis of exp(0) = 1 in the odds-ratio or hazard-ratio scale.
What's confusing in this SPSS output is that the non-bootstrapped results show CI already in the exponentiated scale where the null hypothesis is that the exponentiated coefficient value is 1, while the bootstrapped results report the CI in the original scale, where the null hypothesis is that the original-scale coefficient equals 0.
Comment: Hi, thanks for that great explanation. It helps clarify the matter and I am also relieved to find that I am not the only one who finds it strange (and confusing!) that SPSS reports non-bootstrapped results in the exponentiated state but does not do the same for the bootstrapped results.


Do I remove cornice when I'm getting rid of horse hair plasterboard walls?

Question: I'm removing old plasterboard walls and getting someone to help by cutting along the top edge. I did this so I don't have to remove the cornices (which seem fairly good condition). However, I'm concerned I still have a 10 to 20 mm of old plasterboard along the top edge of the wall, where it meets the cornice.
Is this going to be difficult to join new plasterboard (gyprock) to the old old horsehair plasterboard????? It's right at the top of the wall, so not that noticeable?
Comment: If the lath and plaster it thicker than the sheet rock it will not be hard to tape over the crack and feather some sheet rock mud down a few inches. if the lath and plaster is a lot thicker you will want to do it in several coats to prevent cracking and feather it in 12-18" down. I have done several of these type of remodels on the really high end ones we made molds of the cornice (the roses and flower type) and made new ones. Of the ones I have done the old stuff was the same or thicker. not sure how it would look if the old stuff was thinner.
Comment: I have no 'picture' in my head of what you're trying to do from your description! If possible I think a picture in this case really would be worth a thousand words.....
Answer: Normally I would remove the cornice and replace it once the drywall is finished and painted - because that is usually the easiest, if you are okay with installing new crown molding.
If that's something you aren't interested in doing (perhaps it's a molding you can't copy and don't want to get rid of), then you can finish your job without removing it. First, remove the plaster down to the studs, from the floor to about an inch below the cornice. Then nail strips on each stud to shim the surface of the drywall out to the surface of the old plasterboard which is still visible under the cornice. Plaster is generally about 7/8", and if you're using 1/2" drywall, that would be a 3/8" shim the length of the stud. (You should measure the plaster thickness in several places to be sure of this thickness, though.) Rip 2x4s into a lot of 3/8" x 1-1/2" strips and cut to the length of the studs. 4 penny nails are sufficient for tacking these shims onto the studs.
Then, hang the drywall as normal. Use 1-5/8" screws so that you grab the studs behind the shim strips. When taping, run tape right up against the cornice all around the room. Then finish as you would finish any butt joint, feathering down twelve inches or so.
Once sanded and painted, no one will ever know that there is plaster behind the cornice.


How to copy list permission to another list

Question: I tried to use Import-SPWeb with option -IncludeUserSecurity but it doesn't import permissions. Do you know any Powershell script that I can use copy list permission to another list?
Answer: As per MSDN, "IncludeUserSecurity" - Preserves the user security settings except for SPLists that have broken inheritance and item level permissions set. So list level permission will not be inherited.
Reference : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607895.aspx
Comment: Info: In our case there was one problem with "IncludeUserSecurity". A user that has been deleted from the site collection (flag tp_isActive = 0 in dbo.userinfo table in the content database) has been activated again.


Color guidelines for blue and orange website

Question: What would be the good choice of colors to put on my calendar day buttons so that the user will easily identify what is done, skip or ongoing. For now I use the orange as default button color, blue color for the ongoing, grey for done and skip is grayed orange. I will appreciate your inputs. Thanks!
As of now this is what I come up with:
Comment: Can you add a img or something so that we can see it.
Comment: @claudios, I can see from your image that you're still only using colour - If users cannot distinguish between orange and blue they will not be able to decipher which are "missed" and which are "ongoing". Again: use a symbol, shape, or pattern along with your colour. The colour you use should be largely irrelevant. As for contrast, there are plenty of free colour contrast measurement tools out there, either as stand alone or as plugins for popular image editing tools. My personal preference is this: https://www.paciellogroup.com/resources/contrastanalyser/ (also shows colourblind results)
Comment: As evidenced by the answers below, what you will get here will be almost entirely opinion based rather than based on any testable grounds. However,  I can tell you that using colour alone for indication of status or hierarchy is bad practice - use a symbol, shape, or pattern along with your colour so that users with low vision or colourblindness are not left out. If you're stuck on using orange in particular, you should also check the contrast ratio with the text and background to make sure that it's going to be visible for ALL users.
Comment: @neophyte, I added a sample image.
Comment: @AndrewMartin, Yes I know that. That's why I need some help to suggest any color so that I can play with. Sorry that the question is basically an opinion base.
Answer: I think for ongoing you should use some strong shade of orange- red.
Reason: red depicts importance so as your website is orange in I would suggest reddish orange.
As blue is a positive color so blue for done.
You can use grayed orange for skip  and grey button for default.


Sony Xperia Z1 - problems with voice sound after update to Android 5.0.2

Question: After update Android to 5.0.2 there is a problem in my Sony Xperia Z1 compact. When I make or receive phone calls the caller does not hear me (or hears, but poorly, with noise).
After restart these problems disappears for some time, but later appears againg.
Are there any known workaround for such issues?
Answer: I've found the workaround - to turn off the noise suppression. It fixed the problem for me.
To do that, press Settings -> Call -> Microphone noise suppression (off)
Answer: I have read the article about Sony patch, hopefully it is coming. Meanwhile, I press audio output selection button on the screen twice, that fixes the issue for the call I receive and have audio issue as described above.


Second order transfer function

Question: I've been struggling with this circuit for over an hour I'm trying to find the transfer function, can anyone help me with that?
![enter image description here]
Here are my attempts on this:
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/eMy2G.jpg)
Comment: On SE we do not answer question like this with at least an attempt from your side to solve it. What have you tried, how far did you get, where did you get stuck?
Comment: You should add where are you having troubles, what have you tried. We will not do your homework, we will help if you show us you at least tried..
Comment: I'm not asking you to do my homework, I want to actually understand and I did try I just don't seem to be able to figure out the catch, how do I upload another picture? I'll show you
Comment: There is a "edit" button on top of this comment
Answer: To determine this transfer function, you have several options: use the brute-force approach or the fast analytical circuits techniques (FACTs). The first option uses KVL or KCL (for instance) but I have selected superposition as shown below:

Now, good luck to develop this expression and factor it in a meaningful way without making mistakes. The FACTs, on the other hand, ask you to determine the time constants of this circuit for a zeroed excitation and a nulled response. This is described in the book I wrote in 2016. By breaking the circuit in small individual sketches, you will get the final result in a clear and ordered form without writing a line of algebra:

Simply remove an energy-storing element and "look" through its connecting terminals to express the resistance \$R\$ you see. The time constant is then \$\tau=RC\$. If you follow the steps, this is what you have:

The response between the brute-force expression and that of the FACTs are rigorously similar as shown below:
Answer: I will try to use KVL over the three loops or Thevenin. Always working with impedance Zc and R. After finding the solution you can replace Zc with the respective w(omega) dependent function.

Second order transfer function


How to download apps on 4gb storage so I can move it to the SD card?

Question: I have a HTC Wildfire S, and it's only got 4GB storage. I have a 16GB mirco SD card, but I can't download things because I'm out of the 4GB space (I don't know how ... ), so I can't get them installed so I can then move them to the SD card. I'm not great with technology, so I may be missing something, but this is just really annoying.
Answer: Welcome to Android Enthusiasts Stack Overflow!
To answer your question, you will need to move apps to your SD card off of system storage after their downloaded.  You can't download directly to the SD card, unfortunately.
Once an app is downloaded, open up Application Management in Settings and click the check box next to the apps you want to move to SD.  This should free up some space.  Be advised, however, that not all apps can run from the SD card.
It's in your best interest to clean up as much as you can, rather than trying to stuff apps on your SD card.  In the Data section of Settings, you can see what items are taking up the most space.
Answer: You'll need to move apps from the internal storage into the SD card. Go to settings app -> apps -> (select large apps). Next, you'll need to move the apps you've installed on that list. System apps are not allowed to be moved. In the app settings under storage, there is usually a move to SD card option, although not all apps support it. Look for ones you can move. You can move some apps to get your 4gb storage clear without uninstalling any application
I've added some photos of where you'll find this setting.


How does ICA works with more than two sources

Question: In all tutorials on ICA that i've seen, two sources are separated from each other.
but how is two source separation different from multi-source separations like data recorded by EEG hats ?
Comment: well, you've seen tutorials that only work on two sources then - but nothing about the ICA is inherently limited to that. Maybe a textbook would be the next step to go a bit more solid.
Comment: I needed to have a general understanding of ICA for my thesis about EEG data analysis. in reality work is done by MNE framework and the whole process is seen as a black box. do you know any online not too deep resource to answer my question ?
Answer: You might consider this book, it builds up ICA from the basics. It even has a description and some references to papers that tackled EEG data with ICA.


Change the width of the search bar

Question: I am a newbie and I am just getting started with all this so I apologize for my lack of education about this in advance.  I am trying to change the size of the search bar on Magento 2.  I have made a child theme from the parent magento and I just cant seem to change the width of the search bar.  I did search the similar articles but I had no luck figuring it out.
Answer: You have to just copy core file into your child theme and customize as per your need,
app/design/frontend/{Packagename}/{childthemme}/Magento_Search/templates/form.mini.phtml

and add in your css file.
.header.content .block.block-search {width: 300px;}

I hope it will help you.
Answer: You can do this with some simple CSS.
/* Size of the search box */
.form-search input.input-text {
    width: 250px; /* Your desired width */
}

Hope it helps..
Answer: Only Add some CSS to Change Width of Search Bar No Need to Overwrite any File.
Add This CSS code to your .css file
.page-wrapper .block.block-search {
    width: 100%;
}

For CSS File Path
app/design/frontend/[vendor_name]/{themme_name}/Magento_Theme/web/css/cssFileName.css

OR
app/design/frontend/[vendor_name]/{themme_name}/web/css/cssFileName.css

NOTE:- Magento has multiple Theme for Different Stores so Kindly Check which Theme are Currently used. to check follow this step.
1) In Admin, go to CONTENT > Design > Configuration. A Design Configuration page opens. It contains a grid with the available configuration scopes.
2) In the configuration record corresponding to your store view, click Edit. The page with design configuration for the selected scope opens.
3) On the Default Theme tab, in the Applied Theme drop-down, select your newly created theme.
4) Click Save Configuration
5) If caching is enabled, clear the cache. Click System > Cache Management.Clear the invalid cache types.
6) To see your changes applied, reload the storefront pages.
Reference Link:- click here
I Hope This Helps You.

Change the width of the search bar


Megapixels vs Compression Artefacts

Question: Assume everything is equal such as lens quality, sensor etc, except the megapixels. Does cameras with more megapixels produce pictures with less compression artefacts than cameras with less megapixels?
Comment: And further than that, compression artefacts are a file format issue - if I save the image as (say) an uncompressed TIFF, neither have any _compression_ artefacts. There may be artefacts from e.g. the demosaicing process but that's a very different question.
Comment: Is there an actual photographic problem you're trying to solve here? In reality, you can't assume everything else is equal because it's impossible to make two sensors which are identical apart from the number of pixels.
Comment: Agree with Philip. No real-world applicability. To "save" this question, OP needs to expand, to explain what the "real" problem is. Why, for example, is it so important to minimise compression artefacts? If you don't want them, use a lossless format. If you don't mind lossy compression (and you needn't), then that's kind of a separate consideration to what level of resolution is sufficient.
Answer: More and Less.
More artifacts because there's more pixels to have compression artifacts. If 1% of an image is artifacts, 1% of a bigger image is more than 1% of a smaller image in terms of number of pixels of image noise.
Less artifacts because each 8x8 or 16x16 block where artifacts live represents a smaller proportion of the image the larger the image is.
In short, once printed into, say an 11x17, the higher MP image will (likely) have more artifacts over-all, but they will be less visible to the eye when looking at the print as each artifact chunk is smaller relative to the scene.
TLDR: there is an effect, but it's a trade-off and therefore mostly a wash in terms of image quality, so it's fine to ignore.
Answer: If you are speaking about lossy image output it totally depends on image settings. All consumer cameras can produce images with no visible artefacts at highest quality level.
If you asked specifically about JPEG it can be produced either by a standard encoder or by some replacement codec (for example, Mozilla has an optimized JPEG encoder), and it's totally transparent to end user which one is used in camera as it's usually undocumented and unimportant.
In general, cameras can have different artifacts which are not direcly linked to compression losses. For example: 1 2.
Also, hypothetically, if the image is compressed with same quality settings, whatever artefacts it have they will be less perceptible if the resolution is higher. On the other hand if you try to fit two photos with different resolutions into same file size you will often find out the bigger image has more artefacts. However, that second case does not apply to cameras. Cameras do not have any specific setting to fit images into specific file size.
Answer: TL;DR: No, megapixels and compression artifacts are unrelated.
Compression atrifacts come from the lossy compression algorithm that reduces the original RGB image to a smaller (e.g. JPEG) format. And all these compression algorithms have tunable parameters how aggressively they do the compression.
The more aggressively the algorithm is set up, the smaller the file size gets, and the more compression artifacts you'll see, so it's a tradeoff.

Using the same compression settings, in pixel-peeking view you'll get the same amount of artifacts regardless of the megapixels.

If you want to compress to a given file size, a higher-resolution image is worse, as it forces you to use a much more aggressive compression, producing more prominent artifacts.

Given the same compression settings, an image with higher resolution can be better, as it allows you to scale it down to the lower resolution after compression, and thus level out some of the compression artifacts - but scaling down an image produces its own artifacts, so it might not really be an improvement.

If you are concerned about compression artifacts, use the least aggressive compression that the camera provides, or shoot in raw (uncompressed) mode.

Megapixels vs Compression Artefacts


Book series where only people with the right ability can do things like operate machinery

Question: I believe there are more than 4 books in the series. At the beginning of the book, you learn that people have different abilities, like being able to operate vehicles or machinery and so on, and only people with that ability can do it. In one of the other books, they go to a prison-like area, which is just a land mass surrounded by a giant wall. That is all I can remember, sorry. If someone has a close idea what it might be please let me know, it's driving me insane that I can't remember.
Comment: The people only being able to do certain things can you remember if it was literally if they dont have the ability they cant do something or only certain people were allowed to be trained to do certain things
Comment: if i remember correctly its an ability like they have special stones in there body from birth or something, its been like 8 or so years since I've read it so yea, sorry for being so vague
Comment: Career chips come to mind
Answer: Could it be Child of the River from the undervalued Confluence series by Paul J McAuley? The protoganist in that trilogy is able to operate/command machines, a rare and valuable trait that develops over time. I don't remember a prison-like area as such but then again I haven't read the books for many years. The trilogy is out of print but a Kindle version is apparently due out in early 2014 so I might have to get that. The opening chapters are surprisingly and appealingly reminiscent of Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun, although that is not the point of the trilogy.
Comment: @Joseph: if it is that, please post an answer to your own question - thanks!
Comment: its possible, i also think i might have found it while looking at related posts, I believe it is Broken Sky by Chris Wooding, I may have gotten some of the things jumbled since its been so long, but I looked at that and it looked interesting, so ill try giving it a read too


PS4 controller light flashes blue then the controller turns off

Question: I have a PS4 controller that I use on my iPad. It was working for 3 weeks, but now the light bar flashes blue and turns off when I try to turn it on. I don't have a PS4 console. How can I fix this?
Comment: Have you tried charging it or resetting it?
Answer: Sounds like it lost the pairing, but it could be something else.
Regardless, resetting the controller might fix the issue. When you flip the controller around, you should see 4 screws. To the left of the upper-right one, there's a little hole where the reset button should be. Press the button for 5 seconds with a paperclip or something similar.

Remember to pair your controller with your iPad again afterwards.
The official Sony documentation is here:
https://support.playstation.com/s/article/DualShock-4-Troubleshooting
See step 3.
Answer: I had the following symptoms:

PS4 unused for 6+ months
When pressing the PS button on the DualShock 4, the LED would blink a number of times with a blue light, then stop blinking.
The controller would not connect to the PS4 if the PS4 was ON.
The controller would not connect to the PS4 even with a USB cable connecting the two.

None of the solutions found on the internet would help.
Solution: Charge the controller for 30+ minutes. After that everything was working again. Apparently the controller was out of juice, but had enough juice to blink the LED.
TL;DR: Try charging your controller first.
Answer: This isn't an overly big issue. The flashing blue light simply means that there is a syncing issue between devices; either the controller and the console (in this case, your iPad), or the controller and a charging station.
The easiest solution is to reset it using. To do this, there is a small hole on the back of the controller. You can use a toothpick or a paperclip to press the reset button, then resync it.
Using a cord to connect it to your device is also a good way to reconnect it, though obviously not really an option (that I'm aware of) for your iPad.
However, you can boot it using "bluetooth mode". Once you reset it, hold down the PS button, and the "Share" button. Make sure your iPad also has bluetooth turned on, and it should hopefully appear in your available devices to be paired.
Comment: Ben, the last method worked but only when i had another controller operating the ps4. I turned on the ps4 via Bluetooth with the good controller, then plugged in the bad one via usb, paired it with the ps4 and share buttons, went to devices with the good controller and saw the new controller appear in the list.  Clicked on it, os4 asked me if i wanted to pair it, then hey presto it started working.
Answer: Inshort
1. Connect controller via USB to ps4
2. Press and hold power button on ps4 until u hear second beep this turns off the ps4
3. After a minute or two press and hold ps4 again to listen second beep. This launches safe mode
4. Then u can connect the controller in safe mode.


Why do people say excuse me when others say something offensive?

Question: I thought excuse me was only suppose to used to excuse yourself or after you sneeze. Also, is excuse me a phrase or a idiom?
Comment: If someone says "excuse me" in response to something offensive, it is most likely in sarcasm.
Comment: It's both a phrase and an idiom.
Answer: It is a semi-polite way of saying: "What you just said is offensive."
When someone speaks to us, and we do not hear what was said, it is polite to say something like, "Excuse me, but would you please repeat that." It implies that the listener was at fault for not paying close enough attention rather than that the speaker was at fault for not speaking clearly or audibly enough.
When saying "Excuse me" in response to something offensive, it is a way to suggest that the listener did not hear the offensive remark and cannot imagine that the speaker would have said what was just said.
Answer: It also could be used to get attentions. For example, if others say something offensive to you, you can response "excuse me !" to get attention from them, so they can realize it.
Comment: No, no one says "call attentions".
Answer: Yes, Saying "Excuse Me, Coming Thru..."  Or you've accidentally just bumped into someone and to be polite, say "Oh Excuse me or Pardon me..." Then theres the questionable statement of, "Excuse me? What did you just say?"


In the Features module, what does "Recreate" do?

Question: What does it mean to "recreate" a feature? How does this affect the database?  How does it affect the files, if at all?
Answer: Recreate allows you to re download the feature, including any changes made to config along with the option to add new config.
Comment: So is "recreate" intended as a way to change the features? To make changes to features, does one recreate the feature, download it, and replace the existing feature module in the file system?
Comment: Yes. That is how it works. Also, features does not remove code from the .module file, so custom code is safe.


Should all HTTP requests including credentials be made using a POST even if it is actually just a request for data?

Question: Assume there is a request which is going to look up a list of items from a service which requires authorisation (e.g. it's behind a Basic Authentication domain). If the service didn't require authentication, I would always make this request as a GET (it's idempotent). But because the credentials would end up in the query string, I'm basically required to do this as a POST. Is there any alternative to this method?
Comment: You might want to use [HTTP cookies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie); they also work with `GET` requests.
Answer: If you let the browser handle the authentication, it will pop-up a login screen.  The results will be included in a request header rather than as query parameters.  This login header will be included in every request after the user logs in until the browser is closed.
If you want your own login form, then you will need to POST the id and password to keep them from being query parameters.  After the login, you need to use a mechanism to track the login.  This is usually done with a session id cookie, although there are mechanisms to include the session id in the URL.  With session ids the userid and password only need to be sent once.  This is more secure, if you allow the user to access the site using HTTP after login.  Consider using a secure cookie for the session id if you want to restrict logged in access to HTTPS.
Comment: I would usually refer to "HTTPs only" cookies as "secure" cookies (to avoid implying contrasting with HttpOnly cookies).  Also, I would recommend using a secure, HttpOnly cookie.  HttpOnly cookies are not accessible via javascript.
Answer: It really depends. You could for example have a POST request to query the current time (or the current used memory in the server process, or the number of processed HTTP requests). It has to be a POST because it is not idempotent, but you might decide to accept such a simple status-querying request even without credentials or authentications.


Booting from flash, can't escape grub rescue

Question: I recently wanted to reinstall Ubuntu on a partition on my PC. I used Gparted to delete the partition so that I could start fresh. I tried to boot to the usb, but it went into grub rescue mode. I looked at other solutions on here, and tried the whole ls->set root->reboot method, I tried it on each partition on the hard drive, to no avail. I then tried loading grub onto the flash drive and booting to that, no change. Then I reinstalled Gparted, and still nothing, I'm just stuck in grub rescue. I am at the end of my rope here, anyone have any solutions?
Answer: It sounds like your system boots to the harddrive but fails. When you say "boot to the usb", is that Ubuntu Live on a USB stick? If that doesn't work, have you tried burning a Ubuntu Live CD and booting from it?


What would happen if a planet's escape velocity exceeded the speed of light?

Question: What would happen if a planet's escape velocity exceeded the speed of light? Would it also collapse into a black hole (by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Pauli's exclusion principle) or would it just remain as it is?
Comment: If its escape velocity exceeded the speed of light, it would already be a black hole.
Answer: At that point, it becomes a black hole. No other stable options exist. This fact is a direct consequence of general relativity.
Comment: Could you explain the process?
Comment: This process is very well-described in a variety of sources; try a search for "black hole" in wikipedia and if there is anything you find unclear there, come back here and we can go through it with you.
Answer: IT depends, ultimately, on how you want to look at it. If you a mechanism, then you'll have to read deeper yourself and then come back with better posed questions.
Anyway, before general relativity, the answer to your question was by John Mitchell who conceptualized the so called "dark star" in Newtonian physics, and it is defined exactly as you wish ($v_{esc} \geq c$).
In general relativity, this concept is more rigorously defined (and explored) and is called a "black hole." For instance, the introduction of P.K. Townsend's book might be helpful which discusses gravitational collapse. General relativity has been extremely well verified, and the observation of gravitational waves from black hole binaries is the latest verification.


How are half lifes calculated for radioactive substances that decay over many years

Question: How are the half lives (or whole lives) calculated for slowly decaying radioactive substances such as tellurium? I must be having a fundamental misunderstanding of how we are able to predict the amount of time it will take for an isotope or radioactive material to decay fully including for ones that can remain unstable for practically eons.
Comment: Same way as any other half-life: by counting the decay events. Did you think that the half-life of 1600 years for radium was obtained by counting atoms in a flask left by Marie Curie that long ago? Well, no.
Comment: "How in the world does somebody practically measure these decay events?"...Well by using [instruments](https://www.mirion.com/learning-center/lab-experiments/half-life-measurement-lab-experiment).
Comment: Well, 226Ra is fun, but 128Te with T1/2=2.2e24 years less so. In 1 mol of 128Te, the decay rate is 1 kernel in several years. It is worse than catching neutrinos.
Comment: @IvanNeretin How in the world does somebody practically measure these decay events?
Comment: Even 209Bi is fun, compared to 128Te.
Answer: Suppose you have a sample of $N$ atoms of a radioactive material. As it is radioactive, you may state that a small fraction $k$ is decomposed by second. This fraction does not depend on the total number of atoms. If this sample is placed in a Geiger counter, each decomposition of its atoms produces a ray that crosses the inner volume of the Geiger counter, and it will be detected and counted. In a given time, the number of rays is equal to the number of disintegrations. If $\mathrm dN/\mathrm dt$ is the number of atoms disintegrated per second (or per minute), the factor $k$ can be calculated by dividing the number of rays detected every second in the counter, by the total number of atoms $N$ of the radioactive material.
$$k=\frac{\mathrm dN}{\mathrm dt}\cdot\frac1N$$
Once $k$ is known, the half-life $T$ can be derived from the integrated law, if $N_0$ is the original number to atoms at $t=0$
$$N/N_0=\mathrm e^{-kt}$$
The half-life is the time $T$ after which $N=N_0/2$, which gives $$1/2=\mathrm e^{-kT}$$
with the following result:
$$T=\frac{\ln2}k=0.693/k$$
So the period may be obtained from the knowledge of $k$. It is not necessary to wait up to the radioactive material has decreased to one half.
For example, if $0.0238\ \mathrm g$, or $6.02·10^{19}$ atoms $\ce{U-238}$ is inserted in a Geiger counter, $292$ rays will be detected per second. From this measurements, the constant $k$ can be calculated:
$$k=\frac{292\ \mathrm{s^{-1}}}{6.02\times10^{19}}=4.87\times10^{-18}\ \mathrm{s^{-1}}$$
and the half-life is $$T=\frac{0.693}{4.87\times10^{-18}\ \mathrm{s^{-1}}}=1.423\times10^{17}\ \mathrm s=4.51\times10^{9}\ \mathrm a$$


How to check whether a cookie has been set on previous visit?

Question: In a java web application,I want to check whether a user who signs in is a returning user.  How can I check if there is already a cookie that has been set on earlier login.
Answer: On HttpServletRequest you have a getCookies() method that will give you an array of the cookies the client is sending with his request.
http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/servlet/http/HttpServletRequest.html#getCookies%28%29
Answer: Set cookie when user performs log-in:
Cookie c = new Cookie("visit", "old")
c.setMaxAge(3600*24*365*1000); // 1 year (for example)
response.addCookie(new Cookie("visit", "old"));

Now you can check this cookie when user with new session comes to the system: request.getCookies(), then iterates over returned array and find "your" cookie. If cookie exists this is "old" user otherwise the new one.


Rails Install Fails With Ruby 2.1

Question: I've just installed Ruby 2.1 using the instructions here for OSX:
https://github.com/postmodern/chruby/wiki/Ruby
Everything appears to be working fine and I've installed a few gems without issue.
However, when installing rails using:
$ sudo gem install rails -V

the installation fails part-way through with the error:

ERROR:  While executing gem ... (Gem::RemoteFetcher::UnknownHostError)
      no such name (https://api.rubygems.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/atomic-1.1.4-java.gemspec.rz)

I can grab a file from this URL using curl or by pasting it into the address bar, so it seems the file does exist.
Why is the installation failing?
I'm not behind a proxy and using the --no-http-proxy flag makes no difference.
Before the error, approximately 100 other files are downloaded successfully:
HEAD https://api.rubygems.org/latest_specs.4.8.gz
302 Moved Temporarily
HEAD https://s3.amazonaws.com/production.s3.rubygems.org/latest_specs.4.8.gz
304 Not Modified
GET https://api.rubygems.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/rails-4.0.2.gemspec.rz
302 Moved Temporarily
GET https://aws-eu-cache01.rubygems.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/rails-4.0.2.gemspec.rz
200 OK
HEAD https://api.rubygems.org/specs.4.8.gz
302 Moved Temporarily
HEAD https://s3.amazonaws.com/production.s3.rubygems.org/specs.4.8.gz
304 Not Modified
GET https://api.rubygems.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/railties-4.0.2.gemspec.rz
302 Moved Temporarily
GET https://aws-eu-cache01.rubygems.org/quick/Marshal.4.8/railties-4.0.2.gemspec.rz

... etc
Answer: I had the same problem at some point. Have you already tried
gem update --system

Rails Install Fails With Ruby 2.1


What happens if two persons eat a titan to inherit its power?

Question: What happens if two persons share spinal fluid from the same Titan?
Comment: I would assume that the first one inherits the power and the 2nd just becomes a normal titan.
Comment: If you eat all the spinal fluid of a titan then you get that titan's power. If you eat only some, then do you still get the power?
Answer: This scenario has happened in the past and has created additional titan shifters, although the mechanics of this process are not explained in detail and it is questionable whether it could be done again.
~2000 years ago, there were no titans, just normal humans, then Ymir Fritz comes into contact with a worm-like thingy and becomes the first (and at that point) only titan. Upon her death, her husband, King Fritz feeds her remains to their 3 daughters hoping that this will pass Ymir's titan powers on to each of them (which works since titans continued to exist). He then decrees (Ch 122),

My daughters. Give birth and multiply. The blood of Ymir must not perish. If you die, my daughters, have my grandchildren eat your spines. If my grandchildren die, pass their spines from child to child.

While the history gets foggy from here on, the end results of this decree are known.

The descendants of Ymir Fritz become the Eldian people / Children of Ymir whom are distinct from "normal people" due to their quirk of becoming pure titans (mindless titans without the ability to return to human form) when exposed to the spinal fluid of other pure titans or the scream of the Founding Titan

Ymir's ability to "titan shift" (swap between human and titan form at will) was splintered from being her's alone to becoming the 9 titans which necessarily means more than one person can inherit a single titan shifter's powers (otherwise there wouldn't be 9 sets of titan shifter powers, although it is not known if this splitting process is as simple as having multiple people consume a titan shifter)

Titan shifter powers are transferred when a pure titan consumes the spinal fluid of the existing titan shifter (many points of uncertainty, does the titan shifter need to be alive? Ymir had already died when King Fritz had his daughters eat her and his decree implied consuming corpses. Does the inheritor need to be a pure titan? Ymir's daughters were necessarily still human when they consumed Ymir's corpse. Is consuming part of a titan shifter's spine good enough? None of the onscreen power transfers ever show an attempt at "sharing is caring")

Some additional thoughts:

The 9 titans have been more-or-less a thing for almost as long as the titans themselves as noted in Marley's history books (Ch 86) which does imply after the original 9 came into being, no new titan shifter powers were created or destroyed for ~2000 years

The 9 titans can be reduced in number, the series begins with only 8 sets of titan shifter powers as Grisha Yeager had consumed Frieda Reiss merging the Attack Titan and Founder Titan together, this number is further reduced when Eren Yeager consumes Lara Tybur's Warhammer Titan

Despite the 9 titans being in the hands of powerful noble families who were in a constant state of in-fighting for much of history, and then the Marleyians who used their titan shifters as weapons it seems none of them ever gained additional titan shifters by trying to split their titan shifters' powers among multiple inheritors. The reason is never stated, it can be hypothesized that it was never attempted or it was attempted and didn't work, whether because the entire spine is required for the power to pass on, trying to get a pure titan to eat half a living person's spine is somewhat difficult, etc. What allowed for the initial creation of the 9 titans from Ymir alone is still unclear.

In conclusion, multiple people inheriting titan shifter powers from a single person definitely happened at some point, somehow which may or may not work anymore. In the present, it cannot be definitively said what would happen but we kinda need to believe one of two theories, no one has tried it, or, it has been tried before and is known not to work.


"Ĉionmanĝanta ŝafo" or "Ĉiomanĝanta ŝafo"? Can you build a word with the accusative like that?

Question: I want to build an adjective for a sheep that eats everything. I had the idea to put together the last part of the sentence "Ŝafo manĝanta ĉion", giving ĉionmanĝanta. However, this word is very uncommon, and ĉiomanĝanta gives many more results from Google. Why? I personally prefer ĉionmanĝanta, because with ĉiomanĝanta the ĉio can be the sheep.
Comment: I would use "manĝantema" for either of these methods, since the sheep is not eating all the time.
Comment: A sheep that eats everything is called a kapro.
Answer: In compound words, you only use the accusative form for si. (This is discussed in PAG §310.)
So the word you want is ĉiomanĝ(ant)a. Be aware that ĉiovora means omnivorous.
In PIV, under ĉio, these examples are given of ĉio as prefix:

ĉiofaranto (Dio), ĉiopardonaZ, ĉiopovaZ; ĉiovida, ĉiosciaZ, ĉiovora; ĉiovendejo
all-doing (God), all-forgiving, all-powerful; all-seeing, all-knowing, omnivorous; department store
omnific (God), omniremissive, omnipotent; omnipercipient, omniscient, omnivorous; department store
Comment: I've never seen "omnidimittent" or "omnipercipient" in my life, and my spell-checker doesn't recognize them. Perhaps simple "all-forgiving" and "all-seeing" would be preferable translations.
Comment: I don't find _omnipercipient_ on the _New Oxford American Dictionary_, nor on the _Oxford Dictionary of English_ too.
Comment: Althought, Wiktionary has an entry for [_omnipercipient_](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/omnipercipient), but nothing for _omnidimittent_.


Baking PBR Metalness maps 2.8

Question: It seems that blender still does not support Metalness baking in 2.8. This is essential to asset designers, will there be support for full PBR map baking anytime soon? and are there any Free programs or add ons that will allow me to bake out a full set of PBR textures specifically the Metalness map for a mesh?
Comment: So the issue here seems to be: there is no feature in Blender that would contain all the buzzwords like "PBR metallic map baking". Is it really needed? Sounds a bit pointless. If you have a material while using 'the PBR workflow it means that you must have already defined it's properties and used some textures and among them probably the 'metalness'. So in order to bake it, you just connect whatever you connect to Metallic input of PBR shader to an emission shader instead and bake it as emission - and that's all. Where is the problem?..
Answer: UPDATED
Partially true, it is somehow not very straight forward or obvious, but here is a work around:

remove - disable all of your lights from your scene (as you do for the rest of your bakes if you dont want to affect the baked textures)
Bake Glossy (only Direct Enabled)

As has been mentioned in the comments it seems that there is no color bleeding on the faces, but instead if any face is occluded will be affected by shadows (which is not wanted of course) as it happens on my example (see bellow)

So far I didnt find a proper way to get rid of it, in fact what I had to do was to remove the plane in order to get the appropriate result, which is a bad thing.

Nevertheless, this should do the job for now ;)
Comment: Doesn't that produce color in the map? as far as I have seen so far Metalness maps are always grayscale.
Comment: It does not if you have enabled only Direct (disable the other two "Indirect" and "Color" on the influence), although it is not the best options since I noticed that it takes in account the shadows when a face is occluded.
Answer: Just in case some else finds this like me.  The best method is to plug your metallic input into roughness and then just generate it as roughness but save it into a metallic texture.  Then reconnect back to where it should be.  Simple and effective without any shading (and roughness generates much faster than diffuse).

Baking PBR Metalness maps 2.8


Why does rubber shrink when it is heated?

Question: This is a well-known phenomenon, and a proper explanation is needed. It seems counter-intuitive since common materials expand upon heating due to faster oscillation of atoms. There would be some reasoning to this observation with rubber that goes in opposite direction.
Comment: Minor quibble: Thermal expansion occurs in common materials (e.g., metals and ceramics, whose stiffness is primarily enthalpic) because [the energy curve governing bonding is asymmetric](https://physics.stackexchange.com/a/283367/146039). If not for this asymmetry, then the faster oscillation would occur around the same equilibrium distance, and no expansion would occur.
Answer: Here is Feynman's intuitive explanation: rubber contains very long molecules like chains. nearby atoms continuously hit this chains. of course you can imagine the stronger hitting be, the shorter will be chain. now heating rubber makes atoms faster, make them hit stronger which makes chains and so rubber shorter.
Answer: By heating the rubber  up, we increase the entropy - the amount of disorder among its molecules - and we make it pull itself tighter together. That's why a rubber band contracts when you heat it up.
Answer: Late to the party, but I wanted to add my two cents in case someone wants it phrased differently:
Since rubber is made of polymer chains, when the rubber is heated up the long chains twist around like shoe laces or noodles, ultimately entangling themselves and "condensing" the rubber.
When the rubber is cooled down, the long chains "stiffen" and turn into something resembling uncooked noodles, ultimately allowing them to slide away from their neighbors and elongate the rubber.
Answer: Think of the type of chain you use on a bicycle, but laid out in a line. In a chain like this, each joint can bend easily but the links cannot stretch easily. Long chain polymer molecules are like this.
When you heat the molecules they jiggle about. All the parts of the molecule jiggle randomly, but they are linked together in this chain. So you should be able to see that when this jiggling occurs, the distance between the ends of the chain must get smaller, compared to the straight chain. And as the chain gets jiggled into more contorted shapes, the distance between the ends must on average be smaller still.
This is happening to all the molecules, and that's the reason why rubber contracts when heated.


Weighting with Cast Modifier

Question: Is there anyway to use weight paint to determine the influence on different parts of an object while using the cast modifier? If not, is there any other way something like this could be achieved (maybe something with vertex groups)?
Comment: Why not? Did you try that? Do you have any problems?
Comment: Have you tried using the *Vertex Group* option on the modifier? Vertex groups are vertex weights in Blender
Answer: This is what the Vertex Group option is for:

Start weight painting; a vertex group will be automatically generated.
Select that group in the cast modifier:

Note that Vertex Groups and Vertex Weights are really the same thing; the weights seen in Weight Paint mode belong to the highlighted vertex group in Properties > Object > Data > Vertex Groups.

Weighting with Cast Modifier


添{そ}い遂{と}げる (soitogeru) = "to be with" or "to remain married to for life"?

Question: Relative spoilers for Mushoku Tensei S2E11 (Jobless Reincarnation). A childhood friend girl meets with MC-kun years later, but doesn't reveal who she is. MC-kun falls for the girl, but is hesitant (and in denial) for various reasons. Childhood-friend-chan is also in denial, and after a lot of back and forth about her duty, finally admits that she wants to be with MC-kun.
In the scene where she admits this to the princess she has a duty to, she says "僕は...[MC]と添{そ}い遂{と}げたい", which, in the official subtitles, is translated as "I want...to be with [MC]". But looking it up on jisho.org, 添{そ}い遂{と}げる means "to remain married for life", which is quite the different statement @.@.
So which is it? Is she saying that she wants to be with MC (e.g. be around him), be WITH MC (e.g. get with him as a lover), or marry him for life? @.@
Fwiw, the "I want to marry him" interpretation seems way over-the-top and to come out of nowhere @.@. But that's the only definition that jisho.org provides.
If it helps, here's a bit more context (with spoilers)

Childhood-friend-chan and MC-kun were super close as kids, but separated due to a catastrophe. Childhood-friend-chan came into the service of a princess, to whom she felt very indebted to, and she pretended to be a man to hide her identity. MC-kun, meanwhile, got his heart broken, and forgot how to love (and also got erectile dysfunction as a result of his emotions). After years, they finally reunite, but MC-kun doesn't recognize childhood-friend-chan because she's posing as a man. Still, they again get close, and MC-kun starts to feel love again. Finally, childhood-friend-chan realizes she doesn't want to keep up the facade anymore, and wants to reveal herself to MC-kun. The princess presses her on this to make her realize it. At which point, childhood-friend-chan says the line: "僕は...[MC]と添{そ}い遂{と}げたい". Which, again, seems out of nowhere if marriage is the meaning, because there was nothing mentioned about them marrying at all before @.@. All that was implied was their romantic interest in each other @.@.

P.S.: That being said, in a following scene, she talks about what them being together would be like, and she basically says, "we'd share a bed, and he'd ask 'how many kids do you want', and I'd answer 'how many do you want me to have?', and he'd say 'lots', and I'd say, 'then make it lots'" @.@. So maybe the "get married for life" meaning is accurate, even if it seemingly came out of nowhere @.@.
Comment: 添い遂げる has two meanings.

https://kotobank.jp/word/%E6%B7%BB%E9%81%82%E3%81%92%E3%82%8B-551637

I think the official translation interpret 添い遂げる in the second meaning. But I personally think it is a rare usage, and there's nuance of "for life" even in this context.
Answer: 添い遂げる is quite a strong verb, as 遂げる has a nuance of "to finish" or "until the end". Depending on the context, the literal meaning of "until death" may not be that intense, but it generally means "to marry and be together forever".


Encrypt data before sync to dropbox?

Question: If I have FileVault on, this will encrypt all my data on my HDD. so this said, will this send to dropbox the encrypted files or the original files?
Answer: No as Dropbox is running as one of your apps and so sees the unencrypted data.
What you can do is create an encrypted disk image in your dropbox area using Disk Utility (or TrueCrypt etc). Dropbox only sees the encrypted image but you have to mount the disk yourself.
there are other cloud services e.g. SpiderOak that say they store encrypted data and don't have the key to decrypt.
Comment: yeah that makes sense, but i already have a plan for dropbox, and even tho this SpiderOak claims to be encrypted there is not warrantee NSA will get their hands in my personal files.. but i think i will go for the image in the dropbox :) thanks
Answer: There is BoxCryptor which acts as an encryption layer atop Dropbox and has clients for OS X, Windows, iOS and Android.

Boxcryptor is the right solution for all private and business needs. Once you have installed Boxcryptor, you can easily encrypt files in your Boxcryptor Drive and store them in your cloud provider's folder (e.g. your Dropbox folder). You will keep control of your data and enjoy 24/7 peace of mind knowing that your data is securely stored in the cloud.

Encrypt data before sync to dropbox?


Ball joint did not fit as deep on the new control arm

Question: I just changed the lower control arm on my 2007 Accord EX today. I bought the part from Amazon: Moog RK640290 Control Arm, I checked the new part with the old part and everything look identical but I noticed the ball joint did not go in as deep on the new lower control arm (maybe like 5mm shorter) because I could only put one side of the pin in instead of both side. I want to ask if it's normal and ok to drive like that?
Comment: Was there paint in the hole for the ball joint? If so, this little bit of filler in the hole could have prevented the ball from seating all the way.
Comment: there wasn't paint in the hole but paint on both side of the hole.
Comment: I was just concerned with the inside of the hole, not on the facing parts. Since the hole itself is in a wedge shape (or conical, I guess), if there is paint inside the cone, it could cause what you are talking about by not allowing the ball joint to seat fully. Since you said it was clean on the inside, this would preclude this from happening.
Comment: What did you torque the castle nut to?
Comment: I torque it to 50 ft lb
Answer: Is the ball joint nut torqued up to spec?.
The ball joint should fit very closely to the way the previous one fitted, and you should definitely be able to insert the split pin normally.
You need to double check that the arm is indeed correct and that its specs are comparable to the original one. Thicker material around the ball joint socket or a narrower hole in the lower arm will cause this issue. Something is not right here so measurements need taking to identify the exact issue. I would suggest perhaps a faulty new part has been supplied.
Comment: Amazon said this should fit so most likely faulty part then. darn it, took me a while to get the new arm in there.
Comment: I'd agree and say that as long as the cotter pin can be installed nicely, it's fine (you're not at risk of the nut falling off). In this case, personally, I'd leave it be as it meets the requirements and then check in on it in a week or so and make sure everything's still tight and looking ok. If you can't get the cotter pin installed properly, then all bets are off; return it.
Comment: Dangit, just re-read your post. Apparently I missed the part about the pin. You can't get it in so return the arm. My guess is the manufacturer didn't drill the hole properly for the ball joint. If you end up needing to pick a different brand, Proforged is excellent but they're much pricier. Moog is typically good; Beck/Arnley and Dorman aren't bad in my opinion.
Comment: @atraudes Yea, the replacement part is on the way already. Quick question can bad control arm bushing cause vibration?
Comment: It will not directly cause vibration but it will add to any suspension vibration say when you're travelling along an uneven road or one that is full of holes.. If say the wheel is out of balance already then a worn control arm bush will amplify it.


Correct way of computing dice score for image segmentation?

Question: In binary image segmentation, for given a set of images, it's true mask and predicted mask. How to compute dice score?, should I compute dice score for each image separately and then find mean across all images. or compute dice score for all images at once by flattening tensor? which is the correct way?
Comment: did you find a solution for this problem?
Answer: Usually - Compute dice score for each image separately and then calculate mean across all images.
Rationale
The above suggestion assumes that images may have truth masks of different size - and that they are equally important.
Example: Suppose 80% of your data have truth masks of size 1000px, while 20% have truth masks of size 10px. Now lets assume that all large masks are segmented perfectly, while the small ones are totally off (predicted with correct size, but no overlap).
Compute per image => dice = 0.8 * 1.0 + 0.2 * 0.0 = 0.8
Compute globally => dice = (0.8 * N) * 1000 / ((0.8 * N) * 1000 + (0.2 * N) * 10) = 0.9975
The small masks have negligible effect on the total dice score (although 80% of your images failed).
At some cases, it might make sense to measure a global dice score. You can look at it this way - what corresponds to an independent "test case"? an image or a pixel?


send mail later in Gnus

Question: I'm trying to find out if there is way to schedule a mail for later delivery in Gnus. I am not trying to just queue a mail to be sent whenever a connection becomes available, but I am looking for a feature to define a date at which a mail is to be sent.
Comment: Here is a [way](http://teaching.sociology.ul.ie/bhalpin/wordpress/?p=236) of achieving what you want. You'll let us know if working.
Answer: There is, you need to:
; Activate delayed messages:
(gnus-delay-initialize)

And this is also handy:
; Remove date, so delayed messages (C-c C-j) don't get a date until
; sent <firstname.lastname@example.com>:
(setq message-draft-headers '(References From))

automated sending is activated by this (otherwise it will be sent the first time you fetch new email after time is up, I think):
; Demon to send queued email every other minute:
(gnus-demon-add-handler 'gnus-delay-send-queue 1 nil)
(gnus-demon-init)

To use it, write your email, and instead of pressing C-c C-c to send it, you press C-c C-j and are prompted for when you want the email sent (time, date, or delay).
The email will show up in a special group called nndraft:delayed where you can delete or edit it if you change your mind.

send mail later in Gnus


Pneumatic screen door closer screws have loosened

Question: The screws that hold the pneumatic opener/closer to the screen door are loosing up and soon will fail.  The holes in the aluminum door are stressed and enlarging.  How can I fix?  Should I drill thru the door and attach with a longer screw and nut?
Answer: The best bet with this is to acquire a small sheet of plain aluminum. Consider material with a thickness of say 3/32 inch. Cut this to a strip that is about five times longer than the existing closer bracket mounting area. Make it as wide as the door web to which the closer mounts. Drill clearance holes in this plate at the ends (corners) and then drill proper thread tapping holes into the door web and mount this sheet centered over the existing bracket mount location using quality sheet metal screws into the door.
Finally you can mount the closer bracket into this new plate using some new sheet metal screws. The holes in the new plate have to be sized to allow the new screws to cut threads into the aluminum plate.
Answer: I'd simply shift the mounting bracket a half inch in the most appropriate direction and mount it with new, properly-piloted holes and fresh screws. In most cases these brackets have a long adjustment slot which should facilitate this just fine.
Otherwise, reinforce the area as Michael Karas suggests.


How many players can I invite to a 2-player realm?

Question: Let's say I Get a 2 player realm and I send an invite to 5 friends, let's call them a, b, c, d and e. I want all 5 to play therefore is it possible for a and b to play then b logs off and d plays. Basically can 5 people have access to the realm but only 2 can play it at a time.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Can a two player realm hold one host and two players?](https://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/317800/can-a-two-player-realm-hold-one-host-and-two-players) Although, admittedly, I don't fully grasp what you're trying to say with your last clause.
Comment: @Joachim I think he's asking how many invitations he can send out rather than what the capacity of the server is. I've suggested an edit.
Comment: Definitely not a duplicate. This question asks about how many invites can be sent, while the linked question asks about how many players can be on the server.
Answer: You can send out as many invitations as you want, but in terms of joining, whoever is the first to join, will be the one who joins. The rest will be denied access.
Answer: There can be an infinite quantity of players able to join the realm, there can be an infinite quantity of invites out at a single time.
However, a realm can only have 3 concurrent players, 2 non-owners and one slot reserved for the owner only.
Let's say you were the owner, you invite 20 players to the realm, all 20 can accept, and let's say they do.
Only two of your friends can be playing at a time, the other 18 will be unable to join, you, on the other hand, have one slot reserved for yourself.
You can have an infinite quantity of players ABLE to join, but only two can PLAY at a time.


How to get battery status in terminal?

Question: I have a phone with dropbear installed. I usually access my phone over WiFi & run commands in putty.
I want to get battery status & percentage in terminal.  Is there any command or program  to obtain battery info ?
Comment: See if there is/are any system service(s) having the string "battery". For example, `dumpsys battery` (needs root) does the job in Android 4.2.1. Or, see if `/sys/class/power_supply/battery/BatteryAverageCurrent/uevent` give you anything. See my answer here for more: [How can profile (log the charging and discharging current for some time period) my battery?](http://android.stackexchange.com/a/116029)
Answer: Query the system service battery (possibly requires root access)
dumpsys battery

Output would be like

Current Battery Service state:
  AC powered: false
  USB powered: true
  Wireless powered: false
  status: 2
  health: 2
  present: true
  level: 70
  scale: 100
  voltage:3950
  temperature: 260
  technology: Li-ion

level: 70 is the battery percentage here.

Not sure about Android 2.3 but  this is relevant for at least Android 4.2.1 and above:
(Prefix adb shell next to every command to run the command using adb.)

This would give you a list of all the historical broadcasts as well as the sticky ones:

dumpsys activity broadcasts

In the output search:

Sticky action android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED:

The lines next to it, until you encounter a new sticky broadcast, are useful to us. In my devices, they are listed as:

Intent: act=android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED flg=0x60000010
Bundle[{icon-small=17302819, present=true, scale=100, level=100, technology=Li-ion, status=4, voltage=4140, invalid_charger=0, plugged=0, health=2, temperature=200}]

Assuming that your Android has grep utility, you can shorten the search by using:

dumpsys activity broadcasts | grep -A2 "Sticky action android.intent.action.BATTERY_CHANGED:"

(Source: Monitoring the Battery Level and Charging State)
Alternative: it is possible to query the battery info from /sys  or I should say the Linux kernel.
/sys/class/power_supply/battery/ has some files with useful information. The file named capacity is equivalent to current battery percentage. You can get an accumulated info from uevent file as well.
For more and related info, read my answer here.
Comment: +1 to that: I can fully confirm the first approach (via `dumpsys`), which is exactly what I successfully use with [Adebar](https://github.com/IzzySoft/Adebar), tested on multiple devices. So your command will probably be something like `dumpsys battery | grep "level:" | awk '{ print $2 }'`. However, I've never tested that with Android versions <4.
Comment: Looks like I can confirm this for `cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/capacity` at least on Android 4.1. As sysfs is a Linux feature already available for quite a while, this should work on other/previous Android versions as well. Other "files" in the context of the question: `health` (e.g. "Good"), `status` ("Full"), `temp` (centi-degrees Celsius? here: "300"). Just figuring the current power source might prove a bit tricky :)
Comment: still works! `cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/status` cool thanks
Comment: Neither did I test on <4, but posted it because OP confirmed it. :) Waiting for somebody to verify the second approach here.
Answer: Script to show battery status on terminal (root required)
Using only the alternative method @Firelord mentioned.
#!/system/bin/sh # might need to change to your sh bin

print_battery_status()
{
    ctype=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charge_type`
    capacity=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/capacity`
    charging=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/charging_enabled`
    health=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/health`
    status=`cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/status`
    printf "# %s # %s # %s # %s # %s #\r" "Capacity: ${capacity}" "Charging: ${charging}" "Type: ${ctype}" "Health: ${health}" "Status: ${status}"
}

while [ true ]
do
    print_battery_status
    sleep 1 # 1 second of wait
done

You might need to adapt the script a bit. Some file names used above are device specific. For example, charging_enable should be replaced by charge_now and some devices, and so on.
It runs and shows status like bellow. To stop it use CRTL+C.
./batery_status.sh
# Capacity: 63 # Charging: 1 # Type: Fast # Health: Good # Status: Charging #

I use this since I do remote ssh on my device. It works even with zygote stopped.

How to get battery status in terminal?


Does the facility layout problem with zero and one matrices have a specific name?

Question: I have an facility layout problem where the flow between any two departments is either zero or one. Also the distance between each location pair has the same nature (zero or one). I am curious whether the problem with that specific nature has another name so that specific solving methods can be found rather than the original facility layout problem ones.
Answer: In the real situation, usually, this is not important how you could define the input matrices either by float numbers or binary numbers. The most important thing is that these matrices most show the applicable factors of the facility such as, material flow, the distance between the departments or whose related cost/time.
If you have a binary matrix for input data, it might be interesting to change those results in an objective function sense (e.g. cost or time). After that, you can use some useful traditional algorithms like CRAFT, CORELAP, etc. or solving your problem by developing a mathematical programme.


Guessing game with solidity

Question: I am new to solidity and I am trying to implement a simple game involving two players each challenging the other to guess an n-letters word. The winner is the one that guesses the maximum number of letters correctly. Before the game starts each player submits a bid. The winner gets the total amount. Any suggestions on how to approach this scenario? Anyone aware of an existing contract that does something similar so that I can use it to learn from?
Thanks for your help!
Answer: The biggest problem you will face with this idea is keeping the word secret. There are no secrets in the blockchain - everything is visible to anyone who knows how to look.
You would need some logic also outside blockchain to for example encrypt the word before sending it to the contract. You can't have the encryption keys inside the contract either as everything is public. And if you have logic and functionality outside blockchain, then is it worth it to make anything inside the blockchain?

Guessing game with solidity


How do I connect my Alesis iO2 Interface with video camera Nikon D3200?

Question: I want to run my condenser microphone through my Alesis iO2 interface directly into my D3200 Nikon video camera, which has a 3.5mm jack input.  Can I simply run a 1/4" output from the Alesis with an adapter into the Nikon's audio input?  Since the Aleis is powered by a USB into my computer, I am curious whether such a configuration will work?  I am very new to the recording world, so any insights or suggestions would be much appreciated.
Comment: What are you trying to accomplish?  This is a very, very weird objective and there is likely a better way to accomplish whatever you are trying to do.  Why do you need to record the audio in both places?  If you are recording the audio on the PC, you should not need it on camera and vice versa.
Comment: I am trying to make a video with simultaneous audio input into the camera. Ultimately, I will download the video to my computer for editing, etc, but are you implying that I can also run the video into the computer at the same time as inputting the audio and accomplish both inputs at the same time?
Answer: Im unfamiliar with the iO2, but it sounds as though you're basically wanting to use it as a preamp; you almost certainly can set up it so the inputs are mirrored back to the outputs so you can use it this way, but you will may  need some sort of audio application 'in the middle' to do so.  You'll also need need the computer running for it to work.
Thing is, though, this doesnt really sound like a particularly great way of going about recording your audio, and its certainly not advantageous to have to cart around, and hook up, a computer, just so you can basically misuse a USB soundcard as a preamp.  You'd be better off with a separate preamp.
Plus, if you were utterly determined to use the computer for some reason, you'd probably be better off using it to record your audio, rather than the camera; you'd be opting out on two extra stages of conversion between analog and digital for a start.
I think you're going about this the wrong way, though, and a separate battery-powered preamp would  be a simpler, easier approach.


Can two different programs be run on the same holodeck/holosuite?

Question: For example, could Captain Picard command the computer to use half of Holodeck 2 for his Dixon Hill program, so that Worf can use the other half to fight monsters?
Comment: The holodecks (as seen when they're deactivated) aren't that big. It's already a bit of a handwave how they don't walk into the walls all the time; now imagine subdividing that space...
Comment: Since holodecks can be programmed, in principle they could write a program where two different stories run in each half, however probably that would be quite complicated. Splitting the time one can use the holodecks is much simpler I guess.
Comment: @Cadence They wouldn't be much smaller than Quark's holosuites.
Comment: If this were possible, why would they need 16 holodecks?
Comment: @Cadence a floor with a treadmill effect is hardly a handwave.
Answer: I suppose it's possible. Not only two programs, maybe even more. Nevertheless, as Cadence stated, they aren't that big, so that it could be possible to accidentally touch or hit another person.
But: If you watch the episodes with long running programs (This village in Voyager, Vic Fontaine in DS etc) the same holodeck is used for dozens of crewmen. They are not always in the same room or place within the program. This has to be handled by the computer.
If you image the size of Vic Fontaine's club, it's not even close to the size of the holodock in Quark's. So if some crewman is at the bar and another one near the stage, it must be virtualized by the holodeck.
The holodeck program has also to care about noise and sounds. The one at the stage hears music much louder than the one at the bar. Also, they should not hear the dialogs from each other.
So, I think eventually it is possible in theory, but the computer of the holodeck must also have the needs for that (running two or more programs simultaneously could be a challenging task)
Comment: +1 This is exactly what I thought when reading the question,  the holo-deck is running 2 programs at once whenever there is multiple people in it as everyone will see and hear different things. If it does it all the time then it shouldn't be hard to write a program with 2 different environments
Answer: @christoph's answer is perfectly good.
Consider also that we know it's possible to run a holodeck simulation INSIDE a holodeck simulation. Like when Picard realized that he was inside a recreation of the Enterprise that Moriarty created. (TNG: Ship in a Bottle). The "exit" from 221B Baker Street to the Enterprise hallway was just a door.
So, to answer your question, yes. You just have an "exit" from Dix's office to some jungle full of monsters. Then "close" the "exit." Easy as pie.


How to make a user profile as an Active user profile?

Question: User account exists & active in AD however the user profile is showing under "Profile Missed from Import" in SSP, how to make this user profile as an Active Profile ?
Answer: Try reimporting your users from your Active Directory, making sure the connections are all correct(ed)
Answer: If the user profile is shown under missing profiles, it has been previously imported. Have you made any changes to the profile import filter or moved the user in AD to a location that is not covered by the import?


Why is the CP text green?

Question: I was going to fight at a friendly gym to train it, and I noticed the text turned green. I changed which Pokémon I was going to use between a few different CP level, and they were all green, no matter if the Pokémon I had was higher or lower than the one in the gym. Does it have anything to do with the adjustment for CP level in gyms, because the CP hasn't changed ever that I noticed.
Comment: What level is your trainer, and what level is that Exeggutor?
Comment: @TimmyJim I am level 24 as is the trainer who has the exeggutor. And the exeggutor is 2117 cp
Comment: I've been looking all around and I want to say it has to do with the scaling you mentioned but I can't definitely say it does.
Comment: I am also wondering if it indicates that you are training, along with the boxing glove.
Answer: I believe the CP changes to green only for training.  It likely changes to let you know its a training fight and to help indicate that it is a friendly gym.
If you watch this video around the 1 minute mark, you can see that for the Dragonite, it turns green and a boxing glove appears next to the CP. The CP is also reduced.  But, for the rest of the Pokémon in the gym, it still turns green with a boxing glove, but none of the CPs reduce for those pokémon (this rules out the question of if it has to do with the scaling or not).  You can also see that in the bottom right, the button to initiate the fight is a boxing glove.
If you take a look at this video at the very beginning, you can see that the symbol to initiate a fight looks like two Poké balls clashing together, and the CP never changes color (and the boxing glove next to the CP doesn't appear).
Since I cannot find any direct sources discussing this manner, I would have to argue the points I made above are correct.  In my opinion, the change is too subtle to be noticed by most, leading me to believe that is the reason why it is proving difficult to find any other sources discussing this.

Why is the CP text green?


Why would a stock price raise above an initial tender offer price?

Question: Company X received a tender offer buyout price of $8.50/share. Fast forward 10 days later and the share price has exceeded the $8.50 offered. Is this common and what is happening? It was in the offer filing that if the acquiring company would have less than 90% of the shares, it would go to a vote and I already assumed that the initial offer would be turned down by long term shareholders.
Comment: I've taken the liberty of making this good question a generic one rather than about a specific company. (Keeping it narrow would probably get it closed.)
Answer: Someone thinks the price will go up as the potential buyer tries to solidify control or as the current owners or the company buy to prevent the takeover... and the takeover bid is implicitly a statement that the company is worth more than this to those buyers.
Whether any of this is rational, gods only know; you'd have to research the company to find out.


How to reprogram the key fob for a 2009 Pontiac Montana SV6

Question: I'm looking for the 10 million steps required to reprogram the keyless entry fob for a 2009 Pontiac Montana SV6.
Comment: Do you have an owner's manual? I'd check there first.
Comment: Yeah, it just says that it is possible.

I just broke down and took it to the dealership.  I remember for my Focus, you turn the key in the ignition 3 times, put the signal light to the right, lock the doors, then press the keyless fob buttons all at once (or something like that).  I was hoping there would be something similar for the montana, but I think the dealers have to do them.
Answer: No idea if this works on a 2009, but it's worth a shot.  The programming procedure on some GM vehicles (2006 Cobalt at least) requires a GM Tech 2, which is highly annoying.  Hopefully linked song and dance works for yours.


HTTP Basic Authentication for Workflow Outbound Messages

Question: We have an integration scenario that would have been a perfect fit for workflow outbound messages. The only thing that's missing is HTTP basic authentication (so simple!) for the outbound requests. Neither IP restrictions nor the client certificate or a token in the notification are acceptable alternatives for authentication. Is anybody aware of a workaround, a dirty trick or anything that would help to use this beautiful (configurable + scalable + robust = like!) feature of the force.com platform?
Answer: No
Unfortunately outbound messages are very limited in configuration, you get your fields, session id, and the object id and that's pretty much it which means no access to the request headers.
Option 1 - Apex
Apex callouts support header access which will let you do HTTP basic authentication.
Option 2 - Proxy
I haven't used it with outbound messages, but in other scenarios where I had to get around Salesforce header restrictions I setup a proxy that takes the message to or from Salesforce and corrects the headers.  In my specific case we wanted to use a basic authentication header to verify requests to Salesforce, but unfortunately Salesforce strips that header.  We put a Node.js proxy up on Heroku and it takes input from a webservice with the Authorization header and converts it to X-Authorization.
I wouldn't say its quick and dirty per-se since it requires programming knowledge and periodic maintenance, but it fits your scenario.  If you were able to incorporate the target URL into the endpoint for the outbound message it would be able to re-used for different outside webservices.
Comment: yeah we also thaught about this "proxy" approach but it would add another component to the request chain that would require monitoring and maintenance as you stated correctly. so in the end i'd probably prefer to implement the callouts using apex. thanks anyway!
Comment: I don't see how a proxy would help - if you don't authenticate the messages arriving at the proxy you're not solving anything.
Comment: agreed, building a proxy, while fun, sounds like a lot more work than just going the apex route, i've updated my answer to reflect this
Comment: @Richard the proxy doesn't solve trust, but it does solve the salesforce doesn't provide a way to add the header ...
Answer: Another alternative is to simply not trust the payload of the outbound message, and use it instead to trigger your application to read from Salesforce. I.e. just use the org ID and record ID, then make a call on the REST API to read that object. This means you can never be fed bad data.
The downside is that you use an API call (you only get so many a month) for every outbound message.


shelf support removal

Question: I want to remove this shelf support in my office. It doesn't move with bare hands at least. I think I need to somehow remove the small round thing that is adjacent to the wall mount. My next action would be using a plier to see if that thing moves. Any advice is appreciated before I break this thing. Thanks!
Comment: With most of those, should remove the shelf and then just push up, maybe a tap or two with a hammer.  Should come loose, just little hooks holding them on.
Answer: I have pretty much exactly the same shelf brackets.
They wedge in place, and the cylinder is NOT the secret to removing them. It stays put on the bracket.
A light tap from a hammer (preferably after removing the shelf) on the bottom next to the wall standard, going upwards, is the way to get them out.
Comment: Looks like the cylinder is just used as a sideways stabilizer, to keep it straight/from flopping sideways.
Comment: Note: you'll probably need to lift it square, to half the height of one of those slots, then it will just come out straight towards you. As soon as you get the first one out, you'll easily see how they key in. Sometimes, if you get unlucky, the next wall screw above can be trapping it a bit.
Comment: Often, a good bang upwards will not only loosen the bracket from its slot but send it flying. Hold the away-from-wall-end gently with one hand while giving it a tap with a hammer in the other hand. Start with light taps, get more energetic as necessary.
Answer: See if its cousins are more tractable.
I see there are others of this mount type mounted the same way.  See if they come out.  Usually things like this lift vertically and pull forward.  If none of them move then maybe you are right about that peg.  But if this particular one is just jammed or bent somehow, you can figure out from one of the others what it is supposed to do, then try to make it do that.
Answer: Thank you all. The cylinder (or peg, whatever you call it) didn't seem to move. I just kept hitting the bottom part with a hammer toward upside several times and finally it came off. I think it was just too stiff to be done with bare hands. Thanks again for the advices!

shelf support removal