Build animation modifier build up and then reverse

Question: I have a plane which I have applied the build modifier. I'm trying to make the build go to 50th keyframe (without a complete build up of the squares), and then reverse, so the modifier doesn't fully complete the plane. I also added another plane, which has it going into reverse, but the build is colliding and cannot see each individual square.
Answer: This (slightly unexpected?) keyframing works for me, for an animation to build to 50% and back, over frames 1-100.
In the Build modifier:

At frame 1 - Start Frame:1, Length:99, Reversed:True, Randomize:True
All fields keyfamed.
At frame 49 - Start Frame:1, Length:99, Reversed:False, Randomize:True
Reversed only keyframed.
At frame 100, All keyframed, as 49.

I suspect this is a hack.
Comment: Thank you for your reply Robin. But your modifier builds up, and covers up the whole plane. I've uploaded a rough video so I can show more precisely what I'm after.  See how the squares build up but don't become a whole square, then they become less again as if they're looping? https://streamable.com/4nnwno
Comment: @blenderbreath just multiply the length, so the animation doesn't reach the end before reversing. You won't get more reputable source than Robin, I'm afraid :).
Comment: @MarkusvonBroady 'Reputable' or not, I still can't get my head round achieving exactly what blenderbreath wants, this way :D
Answer: You can reverse without using the Reversed option simply by increasing the Start Frame property faster than the current frame number. So you may find using a driver solution more intuitive: max(0, frame-50) *2

Explanation of the formula:

frame is a global variable holding the current frame number - you can drive the field: Start Frame to be the same as the current frame number; this means that each frame becomes the first frame of the modifier, effectively making the object invisible throughout whole animation (because the first frame of Build modifier is empty)
* is a multiplication: by multiplying the frame by 2: frame * 2 you can make the driven field to be twice higher than current frame, e.g. on frame 15 the Start Frame will be 30; this is not very useful as the modifier makes the object invisible before the Start Frame.
(frame-50)*2 substraction is used to offset the animation so that on frame 0 the Start Frame is (0-50)*2 = -50*2 = -100, on frame 25 it's (25-50)*2 = -25*2 = -50 and on frame 50 it's (50-50)*2 = 0 * 2 = 0 and on frame 100 it's (100-50)*2 = 50*2 = 100  This finally shows the animation, in reverse, as the Start Frame starts at a value 100 lower than current frame, but increases twice as fast, so after 100 frames surpasses the current frame. Think of it as two runners holding a tape measure: a slower runner begins at the start, a faster runner begins with a handicap and is put 100 m before the start: so the tape is extended by 100 m at first, but as the faster runner comes closer and closer to the slow runner, the tape retracts to 0 length.
max is a function that returns the biggest of passed values. It's typically used to clamp values, to make sure they don't go below a certain limit. Here by using max(0, x) I make sure to get a value of x but no less than 0. This means that Start Frame will never be below 0. Looking at the runners analogy, imagine that the faster runner doesn't hold the tape from the beginning, it waits for him at the line marking 0 m of the racing track. So now as the slower runner starts the race, the tape extends, but only until the faster runner reaches the 0 m mark, grabs the tape and approaches the slower runner, decreasing the tape length.

Hopefully that clears things up.
Comment: Yay! Cracked it! This should be the one?
Comment: really cool solution!
Comment: Hi Markus, thanks for your information, I never knew about a driver solution. It worked well, and what I was after for my project. What I'd like to understand is, what's the: *2 value do? Thank you.
Comment: @blenderbreath see the edit.
Answer: You need to keyframe only the Reversed property to be unchecked at frame 1 and checked at frame 50 with a constant interpolation in the dope sheet.
Comment: +1 with the caveat it won't work if you want to reverse at a different point than half of the length.
Answer: and here is a geometry nodes solution, which is pretty flexible. You could easily change the frames, fill rate, size of grid etc.
Node tree:
Comment: Second Markus'  'Nice' :)  Just been playing... You can put a _Weld_ modifier below the _Geonodes_...
Comment: Nice. I still managed to not learn geonodes by now, so I need to ask: does this work only for this particular case (squares), or does it recreate the Build modifier?
Comment: HI Chris, thank you for the node tree set up, I might use it in the future. I'm still on previous Blender version currently, and get an alert when opening up your file, that some nodes are undefined appearing in red.
Comment: @blenderbreath: no problem. You are right, i used version 3.0 alpha for that. But you didn't write that there are version restrictions ;)
Comment: Thank you! Since geonodes works with instances and not with faces - it cannot recreate the build modifier. But of course you could do the same to every mesh/model, it would work, but if you use planes or whatever instance…your model wouldn't look perfekt so…


Redirect user to desktop browser in windows 8

Question: Is there a way to force or prompt a user to use the windows 8 desktop browser if they hit my web page with the windows 8 RT browser?  I want to be able to use plugins like Silverlight.
Comment: http://tablet-news.com/2012/02/02/windows-8-browser-may-prompt-users-to-use-desktop-ie-for-flash-content/ states that this might be the case
Answer: Yes, you can prompt users to switch to the Desktop version.  Microsoft added this as a fallback for sites that need it. (But not with JavaScript)
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2012/01/31/web-sites-and-a-plug-in-free-web.aspx

Developers with sites that need plug-ins can use an HTTP header or
  meta tag to signal Metro style Internet Explorer to prompt the user.
HTTP Header
X-UA-Compatible: requiresActiveX=true
META Tag
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="requiresActiveX=true" />
Metro style IE10 detects these flags, and provides the consumer a
  one-touch option to switch to IE10 on the desktop:

Microsoft is strongly encouraging us, however, to move to an HTM5 plug-in free world.  Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, but it wouldn't surprise me if they made it harder and harder to use plug-ins in the future.  They're the source of plenty of security holes.
So long-term, it might be better to start eliminating the use of plug-ins in your code.  That makes sense considering the plethora of Android, IOS, and other tablets and phones out there.  Cross-platform web development has never been more important than it is now, and I'm betting that will continue to be the trend.
Answer: If you design your website so that it is limited to be used in one browser, people might just avoid using it altogether. I know I would, unless it was a website that I HAD to use. i.e. banking website, or something for work.
Perhaps you should make a cross browser friendly website, and for the more enhanced features create an APP?
Comment: A 3D CAD/CAM ActiveX cannot be easily (within the confines of technology of present day humans) ported to Javascript and Canvas. At the very least Javascript needs to be statically typed, and an entire UI library needs to be created.


Forces acting on ceiling fan

Question: What are the forces acting on ceiling fan vertically?
I know that there is gravitational force acts on it downwards but what is the opposite force?
Answer: When it's off, there is only gravity pulling down, and the mount pulling up, so it remains stationary. While it is on, there is also a torque from pushing sideways through the air, which the mount must carry, and depending on the direction of rotation, also either an additional lift or downwards force from moving air down or up, respectively; this is also countered by the mount on the ceiling.
Answer: So one of the forces as you mentioned is the force due to gravity on the fan, acting vertically downwards. The other force acting vertically upwards would be the Normal Reaction Force.
You can think of the normal force kind of as tension. When you fix a string to a support with a mass attached to the free end, the tension T acts in the string, in a direction opposite to the downward force on the mass.
Also, when you place a block on a table, what is keeping the block on the table without falling through the table? It Is the Normal Reaction Force here too. If not for the normal reaction force, the block should have slid through the table.
Answer: The following forces acts on the ceiling fan according to me
Gravity,
Normal reaction from the clamp,
longitudinal drag due to the rotating blades,
vertical lift due to the air pushed downwards,
rotational friction,,
Armature reaction
Lastly the Electromegnetic force which is the main cause of its rotation.

Forces acting on ceiling fan


If a quantum error correcting code corrects both $X$ and $Z$ errors, will it be able to also correct $Y$ error?

Question: Does the ability to correct $Y$ error follow from the ability to correct $X$ and $Z$ errors? I suspect, that in general the answer is no. Are there examples, then? If there are no examples, is there a proof?
Comment: In the standard cases of CSS or non-degenerate, ability to correct X and Z implies ability to correct Y as you get distinct syndromes for the two errors. Outside of that, coming up with an example possibly stretches the definition of what it means to be an error correcting code: if a single Y cannot be corrected, then your error correcting code is distance 1, which is not really en error correcting code!
Comment: @DaftWullie, thx I see. But disagree on stretching, in principle I can definitely an ecc for an arbitrary linear space of errors.  My motivation comes from playing with a simple ML model to learn ecc from a scratch. I noticed that if it is trained on X errors alone,  it won't correct Z and Y errors,  but training on X and Z errors gives a model which can correct all errors. Not sure if this is a coincidence or a pattern.  The model assumes no special structure like CSS at all.
Comment: @NikitaNemkov maybe you can try to narrow your question a bit closer to your problem at hand.
Answer: I've understood from the comments that the OP is willing to consider a more general error set, rather than focussing specifically on the more standard case of distance being a measure of the number of single-qubit errors that can be tolerated. In that context, the following construction may be of assistance:
Consider a standard distance 5 CSS code, $C$. This code can correct an error $X_1Z_2Z_3$ or an error $Z_1Z_4$ because CSS codes are independently distance 5 on the two X/Z types. On the other hand, the product of the two errors is $Y_1Z_2Z_3Z_4$, which contains 4 $Z$ errors. So, the code will not be able to correct this error (or, at least, there surely exist codes that do not correct this error).
Next, let's introduce a unitary $U$ such that
\begin{align*}
U(X_1Z_2Z_3)U^\dagger&=X_1 \\
U(Z_1Z_4)U^\dagger&=Z_1
\end{align*}
Defining a new code $C'$ as $UCU^\dagger$ (please allow the abuse of notation; I hope it's clear what I mean), it must be able to correct errors $X_1$ and $Z_1$. However, it will not be able to correct the product error
$$U(Y_1Z_2Z_3Z_4)U^\dagger=U(X_1Z_2Z_3)U^\dagger U(Z_1Z_4)U^\dagger=Y_1.$$
Does such a $U$ exist? Yes

Note that, throughout, I've been lazy about imaginary numbers appearing, and have instead written $XZ=Y$. This makes no difference to what we're after.
Comment: Thanks! The construction looks a bit artificial, how did you come up with it?
Comment: Yes, very artificial. I think all cases of what you asked for will be. I simply said to myself "For a CSS code, can I make two errors which anti-commute and which are correctable, but whose product is not correctable? Then, is there a unitary transformation that maps these errors to Pauli operators?" (I needed the anti-commutation because that's something that's preserved under unitary transformations)
Comment: Great, your explanation does help! Very cool to have you around:)
Answer: They can be detected if a sign and bit flip are detected. A Y-error is the simultaneous occurrence of X and Z errors. As $ZX=iY$.
Comment: This works for the Shor code because Z and X errors can be detected and corrected independently. Why should that work for an arbitrary code?
Comment: Another argument : similarly to Y=XZ two-qubit error is a product of two single qubit errors,  but is not expected to be corrected by distance 3 code.
Comment: Well, that a linear combination of correctable errors is correctable is usually straightforward to show,  because most things are linear in quantum mechanics. However, that this applies to the multiplication of errors is not obvious to me.
Comment: @NikitaNemkov Here is a link where they discusses Shor 9 qubit code: https://quantum.phys.cmu.edu/QCQI/qitd213.pdf and why it also decodes Y-errors


Is there a Stack Exchange for the business side of mobile development?

Question: I'm interested in asking questions in regards to admob/iads/iap/freemium/revenue/etc for mobile/desktop app desktop. Basically business type of questions. I'm wondering if there's a stack exchange for mobile business development, or do those questions happen here?
Answer: I believe your best option would likely be looking at http://freelancing.stackexchange.com (help center: on topic) or http://startups.stackexchange.com (help center: on topic) depending on the topic of question.


I lost my iphone

Question: I lost my iPhone my phone is in offline so my friend search in find my iPhone but when he alert it in lost mode it never became online what can I do?
Answer: You can check your service provider to see the last location it detected your phone in, and you can search that area. Unfortunately, if your iPhone is offline there is nothing you can do to find its currently location.
Read the procedure listed here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472 for information on how to report your iPhone as lost and what to do (change passwords, etc.).

I lost my iphone


Cue ball foul in 8 ball

Question: We had a game the other night where the cue ball jumped off the table rolling on the wood surface and then hitting the metal silver lining around the pocket and returned to the bed of table, and I called foul. I was over ruled saying it didn't hit the floor and returned to the bed of table. Please, what is the correct call there?
Answer: From the rule book:

Driven off the Table
A ball is considered driven off the table if it comes to rest other
  than on the playing surface but is not pocketed. A ball is also
  considered driven off the table if it would have been driven off the
  table except for striking an object such as a light fixture, piece of
  chalk or a player which causes it to return to the table.
A ball that contacts the top of the rail is not considered to have
  been driven off the table if it returns to the playing surface or
  enters a pocket.

Not so clear cut, given your description, but I'd argue for foul if the ball would've fallen off the table had it not hit the part of the pocket.
Answer: The ball struck the metal lining around the pocket, which is part of the table.
So this was not a foul, according to the rule given by @jacob-g.

Cue ball foul in 8 ball


How to draw truly vertical or horizontal lines in PowerPoint

Question: I use PowerPoint for drawings and diagrams. When I try to add a vertical straight line, it is always slightly tilted (~2 degrees). I have the same problem when I am trying to draw a horizontal line (88 or 92 degrees rather than 90 degrees) I would like to force the line to be 0 degrees (truly vertical) or 90 degrees (truly horizontal). How can I do that?
Answer: Double click on the line and change the height to 0 in the "size" window (near the top right)

Note: if the height doesn't change, click on the down-arrow next to the height to force it to zero.
Note2: Sometimes for almost-horizontal lines, the height will say it is zero, even though it is not quite zero.  Click the down arrow and it will make it truly zero.
Comment: Is there a way to stop PowerPoint from adding the height in the first place? I have two rectangular boxes of the same size, moving them around until PowerPoint says their left, right and middle are aligned, and the connector between them is still crooked.
Answer: Hold down the shift key while drawing the line. In 2007 and probably 2010 you have to hold both the CTRL and the Shift keys down.
Also, if it is 2007 be sure and download SP2, there appears to have been a problem in SP1 which makes it impossible to draw a straight line (for some).
Comment: The shift key will also make an ellipse into a circle and a rectangle into a square.
Comment: You can force it to vertical. Just click the line open the properties and select Size and Position. Then change the Width to 0 for vertical or the Height to 0 for horizontal.
Comment: Thanks! Another question: If in an old file I drew a line that is not truly vertical, can I later force it to be vertical, or must I redraw it using Shift?
Comment: We need to install a service pack to draw straight lines. Way to go!
Answer: The best solution is the line properties making 'size' zero width for verticals and zero height for horizontals.
The Ctrl/Shift still not working.
Answer: Go to view Tab, click on Grid settings and you get a dialogue box, where you check on the Snap objects to grid option, which usually enables 45° and 90°.
In case you want to increase or decrease snapping adjust the Spacing for the Grid settings in the same dialogue box.
Answer: I'm using office 2013. As "Opsin" mentioned, you have to hold shift + ctrl both when drawing line. For me, this didn't worked on already draw line. You have to draw a new line while press both above keys.
Also, if you have already draw line (not straight line) and want to make it as vertical line follow below steps.
1. Click on that line
2. Select Format from top bar.
3. Click expand icon inside of size section
4. On new expand section, go to Size & Position section and under size set WIDTH to zero. (Please refer below screen capture)
Image
Note -: As "Scot" mentioned, you don't need to hold both Shift and Ctrl. Just hold Shift key only, when drawing straight line.
Comment: I believe you're mistaken. For me, holding down "Shift" is good enough to force a line to be horizontal, vertical, or at a 45° angle in Microsoft PowerPoint 2013.
Comment: Thank you so much @Scott for pointing out. I have added it as a note.
Answer: at a guess, try holding ctrl down when drawing. Alot of packages use it to lock the line to 90 and 45 angles.
Answer: With PowerPoint for Mac 2016, the key combination is Command+Shift and then draw the line. The line will rotate in 45° increments as you draw.


Update button for each line item in cart (drupal 7 commerce)

Question: The update cart button in drupal commerce updates all quantities at once. Since on my site there will be very lengthy lists of line items in the cart, I would like to have an update cart button for each line item (see screenshot, red column). How can that be done?
Comment: Should the update button update all lines or only the one. (hint it will be quite hard to make it update only one).
Comment: unfortunately, i meant updating just only one!
Answer: This is pretty simple to explain but building this will probably give you some headaches.

create a views handler (for the update button)
add the button in the cart view
done

Now the tricky part is building the form handler, you should take a look at commerce_line_item_handler_field_edit_delete which almost does what you need (only it deletes an item instead of saving it).
Since you only need to update the quantity you need to find out line item id and the new quantity. Load the line item and then update it. You don't need to update the order itself, commerce should handle everything when the order is updated.
Comment: Well, okay, I'll give that a try. Thank you for the clear instructions.


Sci-Fi Novel with Flaming Skull on Cover

Question: There's this book I'm trying to remember but can't seem to find. It was a sci-fi novel I saw in a store maybe 5 to 10 years ago. It has what looks like a flaming monster skull very prominently on the cover. I found it again online and it was part of a series. I think the book I'm thinking of, or at least one book in the series, had a name that was a compound word starting with "Necro".
Comment: Check Brian Lumley's "Necroscope" series covers.
Comment: Hi, welcome to the site. Can you tell us anything about the plot or setting of the book, or any of the characters?
Comment: Back in the '70s, Ballantine Books reissued a bunch of Lovecraft fiction with skull-themed covers. Could it have been one of those?
Answer: Thank you, Stanley Webb. That was it. Necroscope: The Touch (2006) by Brian Lumley was exactly the book I was looking for. It's the 14th book in the Necroscope series.

To test of the power of God, an insane triad of malevolent aliens decides to become so evil that God himself will have to stop them. They have already destroyed their homeworld, an entire solar system, and most of their own race. Their next target: Earth!
In addition to advanced science mankind can only dream of, the Mordri Three have the unique ability to forever alter skin, bone, and muscle with a simple touch. Once this powerful touch was used only for healing, but the Mordri Three use it as a weapon, literally turning people inside out, mutating them in front of their horrified loved ones, or seeding them with cancer.
Scott St. John is mourning the painful death of his beloved wife when he is struck by a golden arrow of light--a fragment of the soul of Harry Keogh, the original Necroscope--and gains powers he does not understand. Soon after, a mysterious, beautiful woman begins appearing everywhere he goes. She warns him to keep silent--about what, he does not know--and keeps trying to tell him something critically important, but each time, she vanishes before she can fully explain. And Scott begins to dream of a very unusual Wolf, who begs Scott--in human speech--to rescue him before the hunters come.
A fledgling Necroscope, a telepathic Wolf, a beautiful woman from beyond the stars, the ghost of Harry Keogh, the best of E-Branch's psychic fighting forces, and a dead girl who is not yet ready to seek her just reward must defeat three impossibly strong, psychically gifted monsters whose touch literally melts flesh from bone.


AC to DC transformer for LED

Question: Can someone tell me where AC to DC conversion happens in this type of LED light ? This is retrofit LED light which fits into can which has AC current. How and where does it step down voltage and also convert current from AC to DC ?
Answer: The voltage conversion (if nessessary) is done inside the lamp housing that you pictured. This type of retrofit lamp is designed to fit into existing recessed cans that are designed to take a reflector bulb with a standard base. If you disconnect the orange connector and screw the base adapter into a bulb socket, a voltage meter will show 120v AC at the orange connector.
There are some cans that are designed to work with this type of bulb/bezel combo and supply the orange connector inside the can instead of a screw-in light bulb base.
Comment: True I have 2 4' led lamps on my work bench that had cheap driver circuits and failed. the lamps ran on 60v dc so I tossed a full wave bridge on a cord and wired the 2 lamps in series I am still wondering how long they will last after 3 years. The conversion is usually a driver circuit that regulates the voltage and current but in my example a full wave bridge it is just 4 diodes converting ac to dc doesn't take much. +

AC to DC transformer for LED


How can we measure the tilt of steering wheel in car without any special sensor for it?

Question: I am searching for some possible way so that I can get the tilt or amount by which the steering wheel is rotated and without any use of special sensor for it , in Indian Cars like Swift D-Zire ,  Beat or ZEN
Comment: Carry a protractor with you?
Comment: Are you asking if you can access a tilt sensor on the steering wheel by accessing something from the engine computer?  Or are you wondering if there's an easy way to see that it's tilted?
Comment: I am asking if i can  access a tilt sensor on the steering wheel by accessing something from the engine computer.
Answer: You can't. If there is no steering angle sensor to input that information to the vehicles computer, you can't extract that information. Can I ask what you're trying to achieve?
Comment: by measuring the angle i want to get the tilt of steering on a straight road , so that i can get the idea of wheel alignment ..!
Comment: The steering wheel can be off centre without the alignment necessarily being out. Take it to a tyre fitter, they'll sort it out
Comment: Sir i am interested in measuring it , not correcting it at i have to use its data for some other purpose.


Exceptions to the Aufbau principle?

Question: Why are there exceptions to the Aufbau Principle? How do the abnormalities occur and why? If you could specify a few exceptions that would be swell.
Comment: Related: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/11042/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/30229/2451 , https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/103718/2451 and links therein.
Answer: The Aufbau Principle is a fairly heuristic approach to 'filling' atomic orbitals based on 'lowest energy atomic orbitals gets served first' and the Pauli Exclusion Principle (a slightly more detailed version also employs Hund's Rules). It also assumes minimum interaction between atomic orbitals. Based on these assumptions and considering how loosely it's defined, the principle is remarkably successful.
Some exceptions occur in the Lanthanide group of elements (aka 'Rare Earths', aka first $\mathrm{f}$ block group). These should have the electron configuration:
$$[\mathrm{Xe}]4f^n6s^2$$
But due to the energy similarity between the $4f$ and $5d$ orbitals, 'exceptions' so arise. Lanthanum (symbol $\mathrm{La}$, $Z=57$) is one of these. Its electron configuration is:
$$[\mathrm{Xe}]5d^16s^2$$
But these exceptions don't generally have serious consequences: despite the 'anomalies' the Lanthanides still show the $\mathrm{+3}$ oxidation state in most of their chemical compounds.
Answer: The Aufbau principle is about filling lower energy levels first, and most things in nature have a preference for lower energy.  So, the logical explanation must be that as the outer d-shell (or f-shell) level fills up, the existing outer energy levels are shifted relative to each other so that the 'unexpected' configuration has the lower energy level overall.  So, the Aufbau principle is still obeyed, the outer shell (and maybe more) energy levels are not fixed relative to each other, and so the 'beautiful' numbering/lettering system that is evident in the early elements is no longer obeyed !

Exceptions to the Aufbau principle?


How to prevent instances from changing positions during animation?

Question:
I would like to add a wave modifer to my object that has scatterd instances. however when the wave modifer is active the instances change postion via blinking in and out. How can i prevent this?
Comment: Hi, robin. I can reproduce this. The minimal case is: with the _Wave_ modifier above the GN modifier, and no random rotation/scale, with simple instanced _Mesh Primitives_ . Maybe better to present this case, to help focus on the central problem. (If you don't mind your instances being deformed by the _Wave_, you can realize them, and put the _Wave_ below the GN. That's a fix)
Answer: They blink in and out because the Wave modifier is changing the position and orientation of the surface the point distribution is happening on—as the surface moves, points get distributed all over again and they don't always fall on the same exact positions. In the setup below, I'm using two Geometry Nodes, placed before and after the Wave modifier, to work around this problem.

First GN setup distributes points on the surface and stores them as a selection for later use, with a Store Named Attribute—Boolean node. You can name them anything, I used dots.
Subsequent modifiers on an object that manipulate geometry cannot read unrealized data (like points or instances) and can only work on mesh, so I'm also converting them to vertices to make sure they move with the waves.
In the second GN modifier, after the Wave distortion has already happened, I place my instances (in your case, leaves) on the vertices I had saved before, using a Named Attribute.
Comment: +1 niiiiiiiice!!


What is a spoiler tag or spoiler quote and how would you create one?

Question: I have seen spoiler tags or quotes (not sure if terminology is correct) on other SE sites. I can't find anything in the help topics that addresses them. Please see  example . Any idea how to create these? Would there be any use for them on SA?
Answer:
 A spoiler!

You can create these with putting ">!" before your text that you want to hide.
<code>>! A spoiler!
</code>
I think a spoiler tag button above the text box for answers is not really necessary here on SA since we don't solve any riddles or reveal spoilers from any novels / video games.
Answer: The secret to making a spoiler like this one

 I am hidden

is to start a line with a right angle bracket followed by a bang, like this: <code>>!</code>. A useful trick: if you don't know how to do something in Markdown (the language used for formatting SE posts) but have an example, just use the Edit link on the example and you will see the source, even if your reputation on the target site is so low a real edit would need approval. Look at it, then leave the page without actually submitting an edit.
There are features which are not supported across the network, such as the rendering of mathematical formulas entered in a special LaTeX like language - this is only available on Math and other sites which need it, because the rendering engine slows the pages down. But other features, including the hidden paragraphs, are available everywhere.
I have never in my time on Seasoned advice seen a need for hidden paragraphs, they are typical for sites which handle movies, books and so on, where you don't want to read about plot turns too early. But if a user ever feels the need to use one, they are available.
Comment: But we have all those food safety questions!
Comment: Ha! @Jefromi! Different type of spoiler alert! :-)
Comment: whooomp whoomp @Jefromi


what is remedy for the heartbleed bug?

Question: I found lot of articles describing about the heard bleed bug but can someone please explain the remedy for the heart bleed bug ?
Comment: Patching? I assume you ran into that option in your reading.
Answer: The Openssl version patched is 1.0.1g.
From OpenSSL Security Advisory [07 Apr 2014] (CVE-2014-0160)
Affected users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g.
Users unable to immediately upgrade can alternatively recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.
Answer: The individual who runs the server needs to apply a patch to their implementation of OpenSSL. As a regular user you are not directly affected but some of the services you use are probably affected. Would be best to reach out to those companies and see if they were vulnerable and if they have corrected the issue, if so then changing your accounts is needed.
Answer: In addition to the comments above, if any services you use were found vulnerable to the heartbleed bug it means that some or all your personal information may have leaked. As a regular user you should consider changing your credentials especially for sensitive services such as ebanking

what is remedy for the heartbleed bug?


Lifting Robot To Lift Small Crates

Question: I am trying to design a robot to lift tote-crates and transport them around in a localized area. I want to be able to carry 3 tote-creates at a time.  This robot needs to be able to pickup the creates. I only want the robot to carry three at a time so keep is small and mobile. I was thinking of a design with a central lift that could carry the crates. What would you suggest as a simple ingenious way to create this robot?
Comment: Could you describe your idea in more detail?  Also, have you explored standard forklift designs?
Comment: Some design sketches would help users of the site help you...
Comment: I voted to close this question because it is an open-ended design question more suitable for [Robotics Chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/6221/asimovs-corner). We prefer *[practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face](http://robotics.stackexchange.com/help/dont-ask)*. Take a look at [ask] and [about] for more information on how stack exchange works.
Answer: The simplest way?  Every crate has its own wheels and motor.  In other words one robot  per crate.  I bet that in some cases this is lower cost.  It certainly lowest the design complexity.
The other design is a "travel lift".  These are used on boat and lumber yards.  You would build a smaller version.  It is the shape of an inverted "U" with four wheels. It looks like an overhead crane, the kind the runs on an overhead I-bean track but the I beam is on wheels.  Then you place three lifts on you mobile I-beam track.  The robot could stores three crates, if the I-beam where longer it could store more.
You crate ned a handle that a lift can capture.  A magnet might help to initially align the parts and then close a mechanical latch.
like the one robot per crate idea as being fool proof simple.

Lifting Robot To Lift Small Crates


How can I restore my Unity after removing KDE?

Question: Eliah Kagan's answer to how to remove KDE here (How to remove all traces of KDE installed) is a great first step in removing KDE from a Ubunutu, but I still have remnants of KDE that were not removed in Plymouth and LightDM.  How do you remove these?
Comment: Do they harm in any way? If not, why bother?
Comment: Hi Gunnar, I tried to add this as an addition to the suggested answer, but it was rejected, so I wanted to add it here so that others were looking for how to remove these would have an easy place to find it.  As for harm, that's not the point, it's about restoring the behavior of the OS to the pre-installation state.
Answer: The steps in the previous question will remove all of the KDE software, but it won't restore your system back to pre-KDE install state. There are two additional steps that I had to do to restore my system to pre-installation of kubuntu-desktop.
The first was to modify the Plymouth configuration to remove the "Kubuntu" splash screen (this is just cosmetic, but still annoying and unclean, documented in Ubuntu shows 'Kubuntu' on boot
sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth
sudo update-initramfs -u

And the second was to restore the lightdm configuration to use the unity-greeter instead of kde-plasma-greeter. First run this command to open the lightdm configuration page:
sudo -H gedit /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

and then edit it to replace these lines:
greeter-session=unity-greeter
user-session=ubuntu

This last step I cobbled together from these two pages:  KDE overrides lightdm logon screen and How to return the login screen of the original unity ubuntu?.


Installing Linux on a single primary partition

Question: Is it possible to install Linux on a single primary partition? I already have three primary partitions occupied by Windows 7 which I cannot give up.
Comment: Yes, and IMO (contra the conventional wisdom) using more than one partition on a stand-alone desktop has next to no value beyond setting yourself up for inefficient use of space.
Comment: @goldilocks not even `swap` and `/home`?
Answer: Yes it is. There is no requirement for separate partitions in a Linux install, it's just a very good idea. Having certain partitions separate protects you from losing everything if a single partition fails. It is also good to have your $HOME on a separate partition as that facilitates reinstalling or changing distributions.
However, you are free to set up Linux on a single partition and should have absolutely no problems with it.
A better option, however, is to create a fourth partition as an Extended Partition. That allows you to create multiple logical partitions within it and so have a Linux system with separate partitions for certain folders.
Comment: Great! This is all I wanted to know
Answer: Using a LiveCD Linux such as ubuntu you can open gparted (Gnome Partition Editor) to organize your hard disk.
You can then resize your primary partitions and create a new extended partition on the remaining free space. Then create at least two logical partition inside the extended one :
1. An ext4 partition for the system root filesystem /
2. A swap partition with the 2*RAM as size.
Then you can start installing your Linux.
Comment: @terdon, Merci bien !


How can I use multiple 7-segment displays in Tinkercad

Question: I need to connect five 7-segment displays using Tinkercad.
We know that Tinkercad doesn't have an Arduino Mega to use its pins.
How can I do this without the Arduino Mega?
Comment: Multiplexing? No idea what tinkercad has / does.
Comment: use a display module with a control chip
Answer: It sounds like you will need to multiplex them.
Assuming common cathode LEDs:
Set up a transistor for each digit that activates the ground for that digit. (Lighting all the segments of a digit will probably exceed the max current sink of one of your digital pins.) You may be able to drive a single segment directly from an output pin, assuming it's current draw is ≤20 mA. If the segments draw > 20 mA then you will likely need transistors for the segment drivers as well. (The max output of a pin on most Arduinos is actually 40 mA, and if the average current when multiplexed across 5 digits is < 20 mA, you might get away with drawing up to 40 mA per segment. I'd ask somebody with more electronics experience than me to confirm this.)
Write your code to switch one digit's ground on at a time, after turning on the desired anode (segment) pins. Cycle through the digits rapidly and they will all appear to be on at the same time.
The pseudo-code:
<code>setup {
   digit index = 0
   turn all pins (segment anodes and digit cathodes) to open state
}

loop {
   set up segments pins for digit[index]
   Turn on cathode for that digit
   short delay to allow segments of current digit to glow
   turn off cathode (ground) of current digit
   digit index = (digit index + 1) % num_digits
}
</code>
The above would require a digital pin for each segment, and a pin for the ground of each digit. (7 + 5 = 12 digital pins total.) Without multiplexing, you'd need 7x5 = 35 digital pins, and would still have to make sure you didn't exceed the total current output limits of the Arduino. (35 segments x 20 mA/segment would be 700 mA total.) Most Arduinos have a total current output of no more than 200 mA across all pins, so you could not light up all the segments of more than 2 digits at once, assuming 20 mA/segment.)
Note that it might be easier to ignore all of the above and get a serial LED display driver like a MAX7219. You just need 2 digital lines to drive that, and it will control 8  8-segment digits (7 segments plus a decimal point at each position)


How to copy a list of file names to text file?

Question: How can I copy the names of files in a directory to a text file or to a clipboard?
Comment: As mentioned by hochl, you do not give the operating system name... but the word "batch" refer implicitly to that famous "W"... :S
Comment: If you are ok with the full file path, hold down shift, right click on your highlighted files/folders, and choose "Copy as path". This will give you the full path of all selected files/folders in the clipboard.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Create file/folder list](https://superuser.com/questions/8755/create-file-folder-list)
Answer: It's very, very easy in the Windows Command-Line Interpreter (all Windows OSes):

Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd Enter)
Navigate (cd) to the directory whose files you want to list.
Enter dir > output_file_name (e.g., dir > C:\dir.txt) and press Enter.

Open the newly created text file (C:\dir.txt) and you'll have the complete output of the dir command in that directory.
The greater than symbol (>) signifies output redirection; it sends the output from most commands to a file you specify and is very handy for being able to log output from commands.
The output can be controlled with all the various options available for customizing the normal output of the DIR command; just add the output redirection at the end of whatever arguments you want to send that output to the text file.
Update: Creating a right-click context menu for creating directory contents listing
Create a batch file and save it as %windir%\DirList.bat:
@echo off
set dirpath=%1
dir %dirpath% /-p /o:gn > "%dirpath%\DirContents.txt"
exit

Open your SendTo directory:
Windows 7/Vista: %appdata%\Microsoft\Windows\SendTo
Windows XP: %USERPROFILE%\SendTo
Create a new shortcut pointing to DirList.bat and call it whatever you please.
Now, right clicking on any directory and selecting the SendTo sub-menu will present your new command for listing directory contents.
NOTE: This will only work when right-clicking on a directory, and it will only list the contents of the directory you right-clicked on. It also saves the list to that directory (to avoid overwriting other files). The script could be easily modified to change where the output list file is stored.
Comment: I guess you're missing the `/b` switch. Without it additional info such as file sizes and creation dates will also be logged to file.
Comment: It really depends on what he wants recorded. I used the most simple set so as not to confuse with additional info. You'll see I added information that the output can be customized with all the available options of the DIR command.
Comment: What I like to do is create a .bat file containing the command: `dir > dir.txt`. Then I can copy that file to any folder, run it, and get the text file listing right there, without opening a command prompt and navigating folders.
Comment: That would work. There may even be ways to integrating this functionality into the right-click context menu.
Comment: This link has instructions for printing a list, but it could be easily modified. I'll see if I can put something together this afternoon: http://www.watchingthenet.com/how-to-print-a-directory-tree-from-windows-explorer.html
Comment: If this is the correct answer, could you please mark it as such?
Comment: how to make it ordered by date modified?
Comment: Check how you get output from DIR sorted in the way you want and just add that to the info I've given above.
Answer: You can use dir /b > files.txt from the command-line to get the list of filenames stored into files.txt. Add a /s if you want a recursive listing.
To place the contents directly onto the clipboard, just pipe the output to clip, i.e execute dir /b | clip.
Answer: Since you did not mention an operating system, here is how it is working on *nix:
$ find . -maxdepth 1 -type f > /tmp/files.txt

for files in the current directory or
$ find . -type f > /tmp/files.txt

if you want to get all files in a directory tree.
Answer: Another Unix variant would be
ls -R > myfile.txt

This would list everything in the current directory and recursive directories.
Answer: I had a Google drive folder of audio clips that needed to be put into a web-archive. To do that, I needed a spreadsheet of the complete file paths.
Writing a Google script to list the files into a Google spreadsheet didn't work because of timeouts due to the large number of files.
So I downloaded the folder and combined the answers above to list the files and folders in an easy-to-process list that could be pasted into Excel and manipulated further:
dir /s /b > filelist.txt

If you don't add the /b option, it groups files by the sub folder and using that data in Excel becomes cumbersome
Answer: From Windows' file explorer, create a shortcut in the SendTo folder and type the following command:
%windir%\system32\cmd.exe /k dir /b "%1"

remove the "Start in" text
After the command was run once, you can change the defaults for the window (such as selction with mouse, instead of Edit → Mark).
The only problem is that you will need to ignore the first line (that says "file not found").


Is this a lettuce?

Question: A few of these have popped up this year in and around my greenhouse near Mainz, Germany. From googling, it looks to me like an "All the Year Round Lettuce", which I've never planted. Leaves are currently about 10-20cm long. Much obliged if anyone can confirm exactly what it is.
Comment: There are many varieties of lettuces and pollination cannot be controlled on our gardens, so every plant, which it come from our seeds, is hybrids. Maybe it is also better then original one, but not stable, so the seeds of such new plant (also with controlled pollination) will form an other "variety".
Comment: @decuria: why not? Usually we have various varieties of lettuces, and they flower for very long period. Near gardens we see often such "wild" lettuces in flower (and we have BTW also wild lettuces).
Comment: I don't think lettuces cross that easily, and I grow very little if any in a given year. But I guess it's possible.
Comment: @GiacomoCatenazzi yes, you're right: according to [wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettuce#Cultivation) "Lettuce will also cross with Lactuca serriola (wild lettuce), with the resulting seeds often producing a plant with tough, bitter leaves." Well, I tried it and the leaves are slightly tough, but not bitter. Tastes like... lettuce!
Answer: The colours don't look quite right to me but sessile leaves (attached direct to the trunk) with a relatively very strong midrib (slightly U-shaped in cross-section) from which the two sides fold slightly towards one another looks lettuce-like. However for me it is the stalk that is most convincing. That is not shown in this image of a Jericho:

but that bend looks very familiar (perhaps from planting too shallow or in a windy environment).
Yes, it is a lettuce.
Comment: Thanks @pnuts. The stalk is also what had me thinking it must be a lettuce. I nibbled on a leaf and it's a bit tough but not bitter. Perhaps I'll let it go to flower, just to see.
Comment: No rabbits around here, fortunately. As for slugs, we had a very dry spring. No rain from the end of February to until about three weeks ago. Also, it's growing inside my new greenhouse, which I built over an existing bed before winter. Presumably the seed was already present. It's kept watered because it's right beside a cucumber that I planted (you can make out the leaves in the photo, to the right), but otherwise no special attention.

Is this a lettuce?


How can you estimate the net amount of transactions? (deducting change)

Question: The change is usually to a different address, and it could be more or less than the amount sent to the recipient.  It seems like a crude estimate would be to just randomly remove one output (assuming num outputs >= 2), and hope it worked out on average but I was curious if anyone had better ideas.  Thanks!
Answer: The satoshi client always sends change to an address that has never been used before.
Often the amount being sent has less significant decimal digits than the change.  If you see 2 outputs, one for 1.235 and one for 1.19403995 then the change is probably the 2nd one.
The satoshi client will try to minimise the change.  Usually the change will be relatively small, and is often smaller than any of the inputs.
Comment: Interesting, thanks Chris.  The comment about significant digits is a great idea.  Do you think (assuming significant digits the same) selecting the smaller output as the change would cause your estimate to be too high on average?
Comment: Probably, yes.  Sometimes you see a chain of transactions where a single very large input is used to make a series of much smaller payments, with the change being very big each time.


To calculate the VIX are SPX calls and puts simply compared against the current price of the SPX?

Question: I understand the math behind the VIX calculation is relatively complex but I believe the concept is relatively simple. If I understand it correctly, the VIX is calculated in part by aggregating the prices of SPX calls and puts between 23 and 37 days into the future. To get the result (the VIX itself), is that aggregated price then compared to the current price of the SPX and the greater the difference (plus or minus, doesn't matter), the higher the VIX?
Answer: The VIX index is basically the square root of the theoretical fair variance swap strike. This logic was chosen because the metric allows to incorporate skewness and kurtosis (convexity) of the vol surface, which in turn adds additional information content to the number.
The intuition behind a Var swap is that a vanilla options trader, following a delta-hedging strategy, is essentially replicating the payoff of a weighted variance swap where the daily squared returns are weighted by the option's dollar gamma, which is highest near the strike. Taking this argument one step further, a fair variance swap can be shown to equal the integral of weighted prices of out-of-the-money options over all strikes. These weights are being inversely proportional to squared strikes, an application of the Black Scholes closed-form formula for gamma, which ensures results in constant dollar gamma as shown below.

Now, you do not have a continuum of strikes available, which is why the VIX is computed using discrete values. Specifically each strike that goes into the computation (there is some filtering), is computed as delta_K/k^2 * df * opt_val_mid.

delta_k is half the difference between the adjacent strike prices on either side of
k^2 is strike squared
df is the discount factor (computed with minutes to expiry accuracy from constant maturity treasury rate yield curve with cubic spline interpolation to get the yield on the expiration dates)
opt_val_mid is the mid of the options bid ask at that k (only OTM calls and puts are used, except for ATM, which uses the average of call and put).

The sum of all such values for all strikes (meeting the filtering criteria) for the near term (below 30 days) and next term (above 30 days) is combined to a 30 day weighted average.
The white paper is very clear and even replicates the entire VIX calculation step by step (only minor details like getting the correct df are ignored).

However, we can make our life a lot easier by assuming we do have a continuum of strikes available. In the GIF below, I plot a fictional vol surface at the bottom, and compute the Fair variance swap strike as the integral of weighted prices of out-of-the-money options over all strikes. While this sounds incredible difficult, it is straightforward to follow graphically:

The exact details, formula and most of the Julia code used here can be found in this answer from Quantitative Finance SE. For the purpose of this answer, just remember that the VIX is the area under the weighted OTM options (Puts red / Calls orange).
A vol surface (according to Black Scholes) does not exists. IVOL is known and constant. This is the starting point of the GIF (IVOL is a flat horizontal line). In this case, IVOL and the VIX are identical.
The vol surface exists mainly because there are fat tails, skewness, heteroscedasticity, jumps (crashes), and so forth. None of these real-world phenomena are featured in the Black Scholes formula. The market just developed ways to account for many of the shortcomings of Black Scholes. You can read plenty more details here.
Adding skew (the line tilts to one side) or adding kurtosis (the curve bends upward), not only adjusts for the shortcoming in Black Scholes, but also adjusts the VIX (Fair Var Swap strike, shown in the chart title). Usually, VIX is higher, relative to ATM, the more pronounced skew and kurtosis are.

Since imgur does not allow larger files, I am also adding a screenshot of the GIF, so that it is easier to see the details.
Answer: Option prices encode expected volatility via a probability distribution of future SPX prices. The VIX is essentially a normalized standard deviation of that inferred distribution. Option prices don't give a single prediction for the future SPX price that could be "plus or minus, doesn't matter".
The closest thing to a single prediction is the expectation value of the distribution, which due to arbitrage is always tied to the current SPX price (adjusted for interest and dividends, similar to futures trading).
Answer: No, it's not that simple. The VIX is intended to be a measure of implied volatility in the market. Yes, the way you measure implied volatility is by comparing option prices (all else being equal, the higher the volatility, the higher the price of an option), so there is probably very high correlation between the VIX, and the price of options relative to the SPX (e.g. dividing), but it's not as simple as taking the total and subtracting off the SPX. The arithmetic difference is not as important as the relative difference.


Is there any way to know when my Pokemon reached max EV on Gen I or II games?

Question: Is there any way to know when my Pokemon reached max EV on Gen I or II games?
On newer games you can actually talk to some Npcs that give you information about the EVs of your Pokémon, but what about Generation I and II games?
Answer: If you take a look at the Effort values page on the wiki, it states:

In the context of Generations I and II, the effort system is
  unofficially known as Stat Experience, or "Stat Exp." for short.

If you scroll down the page it brings you to a section on Stat Exp.

In Generations I and II, effort points given are equal to the base
  stats of the defeated Pokémon species.
The Pokémon data structure contains two EV bytes for each of the five
  stats (HP, Attack, Defense, Speed and Special), starting at zero when
  caught and with a maximum EV of 65535 for each stat. When a Pokémon is
  defeated, its base stats are converted to effort points and then added
  to the EVs. For example, defeating a Mew grants 100 effort points to
  each EV. (Defeating 656 Mew, therefore, will give a Pokémon maximum
  EVs in each stat.)
EVs are factored into the Pokémon's stats when it levels up.
  Additionally, EVs are calculated into stats when a Pokémon is taken
  from Bill's PC; this is called the box trick. A Pokémon which reaches
  level 100 can continue to acquire EVs up to the maximum of 65535 in
  each stat, and use the box trick to have those EVs factored in.
Vitamins add 2560 to one stat's EV, but cannot raise a stat above
  25600.
At level 100, the formula for determining the stat difference between
  a Pokémon trained in that stat and an untrained Pokémon is
with the square root rounding upwards unless that would take
  it above 255, and the whole calculation rounding downwards.
EVs behave the same in Generation II as they did in Generation I. Both
  Special Attack and Special Defense share the EV for Special to
  maintain compatibility. The amount of Special EVs received is equal to
  the defeated Pokémon's Special Attack base stat. The box trick can
  still be used.
Generation II introduced the Pokérus, a rare status condition which
  doubles the effort points gained in battle.

Surmising from this, it does not appear there is any NPC that can give you the information you are looking for, and that you would have to calculate this by hand using the Pokemon's stats.
Answer: Well, there is no easy way to do this while keeping the Pokémon at a specific level like 50 for the Pokemon Stadium/2 cups, but if your Pokémon is level 100 you can beat the Elite 4(with the one Pokémon in question) and use the Box trick. If your Pokémon has the same stats as before the Elite 4, your Pokémon is likely at its maximum stat experience.
I don't know a solution for pre 100 level Pokémon.
You could of course also just beat wild Pokémon, but IMO Elite 4 is better except in the case that your Pokémon can't take them out by itself (a toxic doubleteamer might have problems).


wp_schedule_event not working?

Question: I cannot get a Wordpress cron to trigger. I am trying to run this code to see if I can get an email sent to me hourly.
It's taken directly from the Wordpress examples here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Function_Reference/wp_schedule_event. Except I removed underscores (see caveat in documentation).
The code is running in my theme functions.php file. The cron seems to be registered but the prefixdothishourly function does not get fired (as far as I can tell.)
add_action( 'wp', 'prefixsetupschedule' );

/**
 * On an early action hook, check if the hook is scheduled - if not, schedule it.
 */
function prefixsetupschedule() {
    if ( ! wp_next_scheduled( 'prefixhourlyevent' ) ) {
        wp_schedule_event(time(), 'hourly', 'prefixhourlyevent');
    }
}

add_action( 'prefixhourlyevent', 'prefixdothishourly' );

/**
 * On the scheduled action hook, run a function.
 */
 function prefixdothishourly() {
     return wp_mail("firstname.lastname@example.com", "Notification TEST", "TEST", null);
 }

Answer: Turns out I had to set the ALTERNATE_WP_CRON flag in wp-config.php to make this work:
define('ALTERNATE_WP_CRON', true);

Answer: The ALTERNATE_WP_CRON basically does a transparent redirect on a user visiting your site and could result in a doing_wp_cron query parameter added to the URL.
If for any reason your WordPress cron jobs are failing due to too much load or due to too little traffic on the website, it may be a good option to switch to a server side/external cron job to fire the WordPress cron for you.

wp_schedule_event not working?


Variance stabilizing transformation for time series

Question: I differenced the time series and got this plot. I think I'm supposed to use a variance stabilizing transform because variance is increasing over time but I'm a bit confused as to which one I'm supposed to use. I understand it depends on how variance increases (linearly, quadratic, etc.) but how can you tell just from the plot? Is there some step I am missing or a different way I can stabilize this time series? I'm a beginner with these concepts so any help would be appreciated!
Comment: Does https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/74537 answer your question?  If you're curious about the underlying theory, also see https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/66001.
Answer: If the variance of the model errors is proportional to the expected value the power transforms may be appropriate When (and why) should you take the log of a distribution (of numbers)? ... your data plot doesn't suggest that remedy . If the variance of the errors changes at fixed points in time then GLS following the suggestion by TSAY might be appropriate http://docplayer.net/12080848-Outliers-level-shifts-and-variance-changes-in-time-series.html but that doesn't seem to be appropriate .
Outlier detection via INTERVENTION DETECTION can be useful insofar as unusual values inflate the error variance if not mitigated.
Why don't you post your interesting time series (not a pix but the actual value and I will put it under my microscope and try to help you further.


How to breed lots of Roostros?

Question: With the addition of Hunter Slimes, I find myself needing a lot more Roostros than I ever have, but Chickadoos grow into them much more rarely than they grow into Hen Hens. Are there any ways to make Chickadoos grow into Roostros instead?
Answer: AFAIK, you can't force a Chickadoo to become a Roostro. The best way to get a lot of Roostros is simply to improve your coops as much as possible to breed more chickens. Mochi Miles can provide you with special coop upgrades when you visit her Manor and gather enough Quicksilver Plorts for her.
Viktor Humphries will also provide you with the blueprint for a gadget called the Chicken Cloner. If you shoot a chicken into the cloner, it has equal chances of either coming out as two chickens or disappear completely. This is in fact a crappy, but when it comes to getting more Roostros, it might help you get started.
Alternatively, you could remove the need for meat by combining the carnivore slime types you keep with herbivore slime types, and feeding them the other type's favourite food instead. Feeding a largo either of its favourite foods will always give double plorts of both types, so if you choose your combinations properly, you can set up your corrals so that you never have to feed your slimes meat.
Answer: briar chickadoo breeds tons of rostaroos also stony chicadoo is slightly better then normal  chicadoo but brair is the best
Comment: I've never experienced this. Do you have any proof?
Answer: I don't think there is a way to really breed Roostros more effectively. There isn't a 100% chance that a Roostro will make another Roostro in it's lifetime. I'd recommend 2-3 roostros in a coop with 3-4 more hens of your choice. You should definitely trade with Mochi Miles so she invites you to her Ranch. You can then get a better coop and hold double the amount of hens if you take up the deal she offers you on her ranch.
Answer: My favorite way of getti g roostoro is finding a bunch in the wild and throwing them into a chicken cloner. It wont clone it everytime and theres even a chance you wont get anything out of it but it clones most of the time. To get the chicken cloner recipe you need to complete viktor humphries tasks in the simulation.
Comment: What do you mean by profitable? You didnt say anything about that
Comment: The chicken cloner has a net gain of 0 chickens, because its outcomes are 0 chickens half the time, and 2 chickens the rest of the time. You will not end up with more or less chickens than you started with, on average.
Comment: The chicken cloner is not profitable.
Comment: Oh, ok. Sorry. I can try to delete the answer

How to breed lots of Roostros?


Django apache environment variables

Question: I have a django project in which environment variables from a .env file work just fine in development mode, I can read them in my settings.py by using
<code>SECRET_KEY = os.getenv('SECRET_KEY')
</code>
but when I confugure the project in the apache httpd.conf and access the django project, the error log complains about the missing values. How can I load those values to the apache server?
Answer: Well, the solution was to use this library: https://pypi.org/project/python-decouple/ I hope it could be useful for someone in the future.

Django apache environment variables


Check made out to wife and husband

Question: We received an IRS check made out to my husband and myself.  We want to deposit it into my account.  How does my husband sign it over?
Thanks.
Comment: You need to ask your bank for specifics, most have more stringent rules when it comes to tax checks, but generally so long as both parties have endorsed it, it it can be deposited into an account that has at least one of those parties, though some require it into an account with both on them.
Comment: You'd probably want to ask the bank in which the account is.
Comment: Is communion of goods a thing in the US, if so are you married in it or not?
Answer: It depends on the bank and your account situation.
If you have a joint account, you can both sign and deposit yourself most of the time.
If you don't have a joint account, I would both go into a branch with ID and ask what the procedure is they follow.  Do not sign the check ahead of time, just both go into the bank.
If it is impossible for you both to get to a single branch call and ask for a branch manager.  Explain the situation and how you can get the check cashed.  Do what they say and go into the branch when you are sure that branch manager is working.  If a teller gives you a hard time, ask for the branch manager.
Following that procedure is your best bet.
Answer:
We received an IRS check made out to my husband and myself. We want to
deposit it into my account. How does my husband sign it over?

This method has worked for decades. Both people have to sign the check on the back. This is required because the check says "AND". If the check said "OR" only one would be required to sign it.
The check can be deposited into an account that is controlled by either person. It can be an individual account, or a joint account. The deposit can be in person, by ATM, or by web deposit, assuming you have enabled those options.
This is a standard occurrence. I have used it with checks from businesses or from family members.
Comment: I have received an IRS check in the last 5 years. It was made out to both of us, and deposited remotely into an individual account. The IRS doesn't care, the two signatures is all that is needed. If your bank is blocking it, they are behind the times.
Comment: IRS checks are actually treasury drafts and treated differently than regular private/business checks. Specifically refunds issued to a married couple may require either a joint account or both people present when depositing. Signature may not be enough.
Comment: "This is a standard occurrence. I have used it with checks from businesses or from family members."  Have you used the method for Treasury checks (which IRS checks are, and if I correctly remember past postings on this topic, are not processed through ACH, but are handled specially)?  In particular, they might need to be deposited into a joint account, and not an individual account as you state.
Comment: @mhoran_psprep that depends on state laws and bank procedures. Tax refunds (especially federal) are indeed a special case and are not the same as any other check.

Check made out to wife and husband


Is anything getting written to the boot partition?

Question: I want to maximize the lifespan of my SD card as long as possible, the Pi is looking at a everyday 10h use for several years to come.
Now I would like to have the boot partition to be writable to be able to alter some config files my application uses but I've seen a few guides regarding a read-only systems, also making the boot partition read-only.
Does that have any reason other than security or is the system writing anything on this partition except for firmware updates.
Comment: Then use "IPE – Industrial Perennial Environment R1". That is a Raspbian tailored to survive unexpected power downs. You can find it here: http://nutcom.hu/ipe-r1
Comment: Maybe you could save your self some time and use a ram disk system like TinyCoreLinux with on demand persistence already included? http://tinycorelinux.net/ports.html
Comment: Sounds interesting but Raspbian is an absolute must for this project.
Answer: The system will not write to the boot partition unless you ask it to by editing a boot configuration file (config.txt, cmdline.txt) or by updating the firmware.


Why is PRESENT 31 rounds?

Question: I tried a number of different inputs and keys and checked their respective hamming distances after each round. It seems PRESENT has an ideal or near ideal hamming distance (31 to 33) after only a few rounds. Indeed, some of the later rounds have worse hamming distances, e.g. 38 to 41. So why is it necessary to have so many rounds?
Comment: Are you sure your findings about hamming distance getting worse(I assume you mean average moving away from n/2 with that?)  with increasing rounds are statistically significant?
Comment: what do you mean by hamming distances ? between what and what ?
Comment: I observed hamming distances between an input M and each of the corresponding 32 outputs. I repeated this with several distinct inputs M. I also tried the same idea but with different keys K. In all cases the hamming distance were in the range 31 to 33 after only a few rounds, even just one or two rounds in some cases.
Comment: Not all later rounds were worse, but many were. For example, some hamming distances were in the range 29 to 34 by the end of the eighth round, but 36 to 41 several rounds later.
Answer: I think that the reason for 31 rounds is in their paper, Section 5.1.
 Bogdanov et al. have approximated a small $2^{−43}$ bias that occurs after 28 rounds of linear analysis.  Therefore they added another 3 rounds to arrive at a slightly unusual odd number of rounds.
This is how ciphers are designed.  There are no specific rules passed down through the generations on how many rounds a cipher should have.  We do know that more rounds improves resistance to analysis.  A very simple primitive can be easily strengthened by the addition of more rounds, and this fact is explicitly stated in the design notes for Skien and Threefish.  And preventing a designer from having 1000 rounds is the need to achieve a speed /performance for their target market. So they compromised at 31.
Singular increases in the round count work for PRESENT.  It's worth adding that sometimes its not possible to increase the round count by any arbitrary value.  The number of rounds has to match the key schedule and sometimes the schedule is designed more inflexibly than the main algorithm.
Comment: I am guessing that due to the "lightweight" cipher class of PRESENT; they also made 31 rounds because you can get the load state for free, not to mention the cryptographic safety margin.  I used a $2^5$ counter and then ended up with the loading state as the zero reset, and then the completion was the overflow   I do not know if that was their intention, but it was much nicer than the craziness on AES with only 14 rounds from a counter perspective.
Comment: @bdegnan Yes, AES looks like one of those ciphers that can have arbitrary key expansions, so I guess that you could have my 1000 rounds.  Speed (like always) was  a major winning factor. I wonder who would have won if there had been a server only category, or if security had been weighted well above performance...
Comment: Would the bias be different (better) if the permutations were different for each of the 31 rounds? And what if each of the permutations also changed dynamically after each full encryption?
Comment: @RedBook1 The bias would certainly be different.  I think that's all I can say in such a hypothetical case. It might not be measurable at all.  It might be hugely worse for a poor permutation choice.  Thing is, PRESENT is about as light weight as theoretically possible in that it has the bare minimum of a substitution bit, permutation bit and a round key bit.  31 unique round permutations would require a (relatively) massive code increase to inject all that additional entropy. And the code for dynamic permutation?  It wouldn't be PRESENT much...
Comment: Yes. I take your point. However, let's assume for  a moment that we are not so interested in how 'lightweight' the ciphers is. Assume we are only interested in security. In fact, I have made a PRESENT-like cipher that includes randomly generated permutations for each round and after every full encryption they all change again. When I compared the hamming distances between M and each of the 32 outputs, my cipher has similar hamming distances to PRESENT (original). So my question is, since my perms are random and dynamic might it be a good case for fewer rounds with the same level of security?

Why is PRESENT 31 rounds?


Why Zoom doesn't give join from browser option by default?

Question: I had this question why isn't Zoom giving the "Join from browser" option in the first go? Most of the time I would simply click the Launch button multiple times to get that "Join from browser" link. It's been on my mind forever.
Answer:
Why Zoom doesn't give join from browser option by default?

Probably because they want you to use their desktop app.
Why's that? That needs some speculation, for which I'll step back a little.
The generalized question here is "Why do companies want me to use their dedicated (smartphone or desktop) app instead of just using a (mobile) web page?".
Broadly speaking, web apps are limited in various ways: Because they can't hook into the system directly most of the time (although things like WebUSB and WebGPU are being developed), developers of web apps need to hope that the browser's implementation of whatever it is they're doing is good enough. In addition, developers need to be cautious about extensions and addons potentially breaking their web app, and different browsers supporting different features.
Because of all these things, there just is a practical advantage for certain apps to use the desktop variant of an app, even if tools like electron make it easy to keep the basic functionality available on the web. And if the feature set of the web version is so limited that it makes your app look inferior to another app, there's a strong incentive to nudge the user to using the desktop app instead of the web app whenever possible to the product owners.
One feature that stands out as being available to desktop apps is the ability to make itself more seen: It can place itself on your desktop, in your start menu, onto your task bar and even into the autostart. Web apps have a much harder time doing that and if they fail to convince you to do it, they'll just end up deep in your bookmarks.
Zoom in particular isn't just an online meeting thing anymore, it is morphing to become an entire groupware with chat, email, calendar and other collaborative features. It likely wants to be a desktop app you have open all the time and have you organize your work life around it. And to achieve that it uses all help it can get, and there's just more of that available if you keep using their desktop app.
So, does this behavior strictly improve the user's experience? From a certain angle, you using Zoom for everything improves the value Zoom offers to you, so encouraging you to use their desktop app sort of improves the experience you get out of Zoom. From another angle, you might call this an annoying dark pattern, or a special form of marketing. But in any case it's very likely very good for Zoom to handle it like this.
Answer: Because the browser is limiting, they will have more control and features with their native offerings.
I have heard of "native-first" as well, a method of developing web apps where you try as much as possible to move users to your native offering first then have the web app as I backup. Reddit, I believe does this. As soon as you pop onto their site on mobile they offer their mobile app for downloading. But I couldn't find any articles using the phrase "native-first", so please take this last paragraph with the largest metaphorical grain of salt.


Canon DPP - how to adjust brightness to specified maximum level on some spot automatically

Question: How to adjust brightness to specified maximum level on some spot automatically - for example - on some spot I want to make brightness not exceeding RGB (250,250,250). I can adjust brightness manually by looking at RGB values at bottom bar - but it's time consuming. Is it possible to do it automatically - by clicking some spot on photo (of course by saving some property before of 250,250,250 - maximum brightness)? Would be nice to have an option to do it automatically at the same time when adjusting/clicking white balance on some spot.
Answer: I'm a regular user of Canon's Digital Photo Professional 4 and I've never noticed any such way to do click on a spot to automatically do it.
Perhaps an easier way to identify when a particular spot is at a certain luminance level is to enable 'Show highlight/shadow warning'. This can be done via the 'Preview' menu, by clicking on the "curves" symbol with an exclamation point at the bottom of the edit pane, or by using keyboard shortcut 'Alt + M'.

You can then set the parameters of the highlight/shadow warning via 'Menu → Tools → Highlight/shadow warning display settings...' or the dropdown menu attached to the right side of the "curves" symbol with exclamation at the bottom of the edit pane.

By setting the highlight threshold to '250', any area of the image with an average (all three colors combined) value of 250 or higher will be displayed using the warning color selected in the settings. Default colors are blue for shadows and red for highlights, but you can change them to any of 48 preset or 12 custom colors.
Once you've got the highlight/shadow warning display set up, adjusting brightness, either by using the slider or, even better, the left and right arrows when the brightness slider is active will change the areas that show the warning. It's a little easier to watch the image as you press the right arrow until the spot your curser is hovering over turns red.

Would be nice to have an option to do it automatically at the same time when adjusting/clicking white balance on some spot.

Regarding using the same point to set a maximum value and to set white balance, in general you don't want to use areas that are near saturation to set white balance automatically. If one (or two) channels are fully saturated and the other(s) are not, your results will not be accurate. It's better to use a neutral mid-tone to set white balance. That's why gray cards are "18%" gray that should display as (127,127,127) when "properly" exposed.
Answer: Indeed, as Michael C mentioned, at least now I can see brightness that exceeds threshold level - quite useful (and interesting - how light flows):

But still - the function by clicking on some spot (as setting white balance function) and setting max. brightness (to entire photo), for example to (or max. R 250, or max. G 250, or max. B 250) - would be great. Perhaps I will try to ask Canon for improvement.
Comment: In general you don't want to use areas that are near saturation to set white balance automatically. If one (or two) channels are fully saturated and the other(s) are not, your results will not be accurate. It's better to use a neutral mid-tone to set white balance. That's why gray cards are "18%" gray that should display as (127,127,127) when "properly" exposed.
Comment: This is not about white balance - it's just that I want the same function as white balance picker to adjust brightness.. Perhaps not at the same time.
Comment: OK. It sounded on your original question like you wanted to click one spot and set it to (250,250,250) which would both modify brightness *and* WB. If you only modify brightness and the spot you click is not neutral (*i.e.* the same value for all three channels) then you'll wind up with something like (245,254,251) or (255,240, 255) for an *average value* of 250 for all three channels.
Comment: The logic is to find highest one of R,G or B channel - and then apply brightness to all picture. For example spot is (254,252,250), brightness setting is set to not exceed 250 (R, G or B each separately). The highest channel is R=254, other channels don't matter. So we need to subtract 4 of all three channels. The result would be (254-4,252-4,250-4) or (250,248,246). Ans so on (-4,-4,-4) to all the rest of pixels.
Comment: It's a bit more complex than that if you don't want to change the white balance as well. It's even more complex than that if you want the rest of the image to move in proportion to the bright spot you're using. Moving every (R,G,B) value in the image by the same linear number will change the channel multipliers in slightly different proportions to each other, so it will change the overall effective CT/WB.
Comment: It's easy - when you change brightness - it is already implemented. We need just "a picker" - calculate spot brightness (plus / minus compared to some desired value) and delegate work to brightness regulator.
Comment: Yes, but if you change the relationships between R, G, and B you also change the WB... [100,150,200) will not be a brighter version of the same color as [80,130,180], it will be a brighter version of a different color.


Will cleaning up the reflect mirror under strong sunlight damage the sensor?

Question: I was cleaning up the reflection mirror under the strong sunlight in an afternoon, after that I realized that could potentially damage my sensor, since I found the mirror is somewhat semi-translucent, am I overly worried?
Answer: As long as the shutter was closed the sensor itself would be protected by the shutter curtain from the light of the sun. I have heard of shutter curtains being damaged by sunlight, but that is usually in the context of a powerful telephoto lens being mounted to the camera and pointed towards the sun on an older camera with cloth curtains. On the 5DIII, the semi-translucent part of the mirror allows light to pass to the Auto Focus sensor array. There is a small chance that too much light could damage the focus array, but I doubt unfocused sunlight when there is no lens mounted could do so.
What I would be more concerned about is damaging the mirror. It is the most fragile part of your camera and should never be touched on the surface. Unlike most mirrors in other applications that have the reflective coating on the back of the glass, the mirrors in cameras have the coating on the front surface and it is easily damaged. At most, use an air blower to gently knock dust off of the mirror.
Addendum:
Lensrentals.com has posted a blog entry in which what happened to some of their rental equipment that were used without proper solar filtering during the August 21, 2017 total eclipse in the United States is shown in photos of the damaged equipment.
Damage to a shutter curtain, presumably this happened during use of mirror lockup:

Damage to a sensor:

Damage to the aperture diaphragm of a 600mm f/4 when the user used a rear positioned drop-in solar filter:
Comment: Thank you Michael, I also a little bit worried about the potential mirror damage, I was using a q-tip. How to tell the mirror doesn't affect? See no scratches from naked eye and nothing from the viewfinder? I ask it because I afraid of it will affect the AF performance. Thanks again!
Comment: If your viewfinder gets dimmer, it is because you removed some of the reflective coating. Since the metering sensor is positioned in the light path reflected by the mirror, this could also affect your metering accuracy.
Comment: Thank you, do you know what is the coating material?
Comment: By the way, here's what pointing a 600mm lens at the sun for about one minute during a lens flare test can do to your camera (in this case a Canon 1Ds mkIII  http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Help/Flare.aspx


How can correlation change without slope changing

Question: For a least regression line how can the correlation increase without the slope increasing or decreasing I am having some trouble understanding it. For the slope formula m = (r) * (sy/sx). How is it possible for the value of r to change without slope changing
Answer: One way is for the variability around the line to change.
For example imagine you have some scatter of points around a linear relationship, giving some particular correlation and slope. Now move the points closer to the line. The slope is the same but the correlation is higher.
Or instead move the points twice as far from the line. The slope is the same but the correlation is lower.
What's going on? Just rearrange your formula so it's $r = m \frac{s_x}{s_y}$. Now while you hold $m$ constant, how can you change $r$? By changing the other two terms. Increasing or decreasing $s_y$ will move $r$ in the opposite direction, just as described above.
(The other way would be to change $s_x$.)
Answer: Correlation measures the strength of the linear relationship between two variables, which is a measure of the tendency for the two variables to "move together" (or "move opposite").  It does not measure the rate at which the variables move together (or opposite).  In particular, the correlation is a measure that is invariant to scale, meaning that if you change the scale of one of the variables, the correlation coefficient will remain the same.
To understand this better, consider the case of perfect positive or negative correlation (i.e., when you have a correlation coefficient of one or negative one).  In this case the variables all lie exactly on a line, but that line can have any slope.$^\dagger$  If you change the scale of one of the variables (e.g., measuring a length in metres instead of centimetres) then you will change the slope of the line, but the correlation coefficient remains the same.

How can correlation change without slope changing?

Since correlation does not measure the slope of the line relating the data, it is unsurprising that it can change without the slope of the line-of-best-fit changing.  Generally speaking, if the data become more tightly clustered around the line-of-best-fit then the correlation coefficient will increase in absolute magnitude (i.e., if it is positive it goes closer to one and if it is negative it goes closer to negative-one).  Contrarily, if the data become less clustered around the line-of-best-fit then the correlation coefficient will decrease in absolute magnitude (i.e., go closer to zero).

$^\dagger$ ...except zero or infinity - if the data occur along a line with slope zero or infinity then one of the variables is constant, and the correlation is zero.


What gestalt law is being used on main page of youtube for videos thumbnails?

Question: I'm a bit confused on what law is being used on the video thumbnails, in the main page of youtube.
The thumbnails are closer together then they are from the 4 lines of text below them, yet I see a group composed of image and text and not see all the images together as a group. Shouldn't the elements closer together, in this case all the images on the horizontal row be seen as a group?
Also, if proximity isn't the prevailing principle here, what is?
Comment: Could you provide an annotated screenshot of what you're referring to? Some of us don't want to click to YouTube, and seeing this question in the future might not make sense after YouTube's layout has changed.
Answer: Welcome Carla!
I'm not sure of the prevailing principle (and that may vary by viewer anyway) but I think the principles being presented here are:

proximity
continuity (e.g. alignment)
similarity
Prägnanz (~orderliness)
past experience

Yes, the images are closer to each other than they are to their text, but the text is left-aligned with the image, accentuating their connection with the images. You'd actually have to move the text quite a way from the image before you started seeing the text in their own horizontal groups:

Because of the alignment, it's made clear that the image and text are intended to be related:

The proximity of the images (as the widest element) still plays a role in that you see a connected group of groups. Each sub-group is very similar in structure, and itself aligned to the next, even if not the same actual image or text. This creates an orderly structure that is easily afforded (the Prägnanz aspect)

Note that while horizontal images can be separated by a small margin, horizontal blocks of text need to be separated by a larger margin to make it clear that there is multi-line text wrapping to the next line, rather than continuing on below the next image. Although this is primarily about readability, this bigger horizontal gap between the text helps to distance the texts from each other, thus promoting the relationship with the image above instead. This means that the text could even have been centered without ambiguity (although then the principle of symmetry would come in too!!)
Finally...add into the mix that most of us are very familiar with text being underneath a related image, so familiarity is also playing a part towards meeting expectations from the layout. We also come to expect a reasonable amount of whitespace between text and related objects in order to keep the text easily legible.
While this seems like a complicated set of principles all working together, the brain does a wonderful job of subconsciously assigning importance to each aspect of the design in order to make sense of it. As mentioned at the beginning, you'd have to break things quite a lot in order to introduce ambiguity into this layout.
Comment: You missed one thing in your analysis - although I don't know if it matters. The text is left aligned and wraps well before right edge of image. Look at Rocket Man in the sample. The word "Man" could easily fit in the first line. So there is actually an imposed gap in the text.
Comment: glad to be of help. I was not sure since when it comes to UX I consider myself a hobbyist at most.
Comment: @JanDorniak - I think that's an important part of the readability in terms of not making it look like the text continues across to the next item. That, in turn, does help to separate the text of one item from the text of another, and so making it feel more connected to the image above instead. I'll add this to the answer because I think it all plays a part. Thanks for calling it out!
Comment: So, if I understood correctly, the proximity difference of the images from the text isn't enough to group the images together.Also, could closure be playing a part here with the text left aligned, becoming and invisble box with the text and image?
Comment: @CarlaGraça Correct. Closure in this case isn't really an important factor here. I mean, yes there's alignment and closure does rely on the implicit continuation of a line or shape that is incomplete, but it's basically just alignment in this case rather than an actual box.


Should I connect solar panels in series or parallel for my charger?

Question: I am making a solar charger for 3 AA batteries. I have two 6 volt 100mah solar panels. Will it be more beneficial to connect them in parallel to have more current or in series to increase the voltage? The voltage of the 3 AAs will be at least 3.6 so I am wondering if there will be enough potential difference to charge them. I am aware that this charger will be slow and I will make sure that the batteries do not overcharge. They will probably be 1300mah 1.2 volt rechargeables. This is the solar panel: http://www.ebay.com/itm/301018398863?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
Comment: I recommend using a solar panel based charger, as they account for variation in light to the panels vs. the charge current and voltage needed. A direct connection can overcharge the batteries and standard charger IC's do not account for a wide range of voltage inputs such as a solar cell array.
Comment: I plan on watching over the charging process and making sure that the batteries do not overcharge. Many instructables do it this way. I hope it works
Answer: (In this case) you're better off putting them in parallel - your batteries will not rise to 12V.
With the solar panels in series you will also have other issues.  Imagine that one of the panels does not receive sunlight - it would generate a low current and the other panel would generate a high current - I do not think that the low current panel will be happy with the high current of the other one.


Name of a series of Novels involving a Hero Flying a Harrier Jump Jet

Question: There was a series of books set in the future, in a war with various mutants. The hero was a merc pilot who flew a highly modified Harrier Jump jet. There were lots of sci-fi technology and mutants. I can't remember the name of the books. Can anyone help me?
Comment: I'm pretty sure you mean a Harry Turtledove book, the one where he features the USS Missouri.
Comment: I was thinking about the same series today. I can't remember the name or author, but i remember that the title of the first book had eagle in it with some adjective and another word like silver eagles and blank. If you have found out what it is please post it.
Comment: Reminiscent of one of David Drake's series...?
Comment: Sounds a bit like the Amtrak Wars by Patrick Tilley, what with the mutants and sci-fi...though I dont think the the pilot from the first book (and sequels) was a merc
Answer: Silver Wings and Leather Jackets (Eagleheart, No 1)
A review that mentions the mutants and the jet:

Bucko is a young seventeen year old living at the Twenty-nine Palms airbase in southern California. In this world a mad Russian sub commander launched an attack on the west coast. The resulting radiation gave birth to the RIHMs(Radioactive Induced Human Mutations). Bucko's father dies when his plane is shot down over Pasadena.
The orphaned Bucko sets off with his girlfriend Melodie Lane to find out his inheritance. He meets up with Black Pugh an old buddy of his father. Pugh has his fathers old TAV-8B Harrier. Bucko will get it if he graduates from the FAC academy in Quantico.
Answer: Wingman (Wingman #1) by Mack Maloney.

Disarmed and leaderless, the United States is united no longer. Washington has been reduced to a smoking pile of radioactive rubble. Out of the blasted ruins of a once great land emerges a hero for the ages, Hawk Hunter, the brilliant ace fighter pilot. A fearless man of extraordinary abilities crossing a war-blackened landscape, a nightmarish breeding ground of slavery, carnage, violence, and death. A savage lone warrior on the bloody road to retribution, keeping alive the indomitable spirit of a forgotten dream called "America."


Using outlook rest notifications api

Question: I created a function in azure functions that is triggered by http request.
Also I have a web app that used for clients to subscribe to my app.
My app and web app is written in .net.
My goal is to set a subscription button in the web app, so when the user subscribe it would allow me to get push notifications about new mail in his outlook inbox folder and send http requests to my azure function that includes the content of the newly received mail.
I read the doc about this API but couldnt understand it and what should I do to get my goal. Also I didn't find any examples for this.
How can I achieve my goal?
Answer: There are two options you can try for your scenario :
Option 1: you can create Function APP with Outlook connector and Microsoft flow ( you can listen for new emails using Office 365 API -> "When New Email arrives" and also can be posted the payload using http trigger function
Option 2:
Creating Push notification in your app when you received, you can push the payload to
Azure by a wehbook using Webjobs or Functions
Documentation Outlook REST API V2.0  : Push Notification
To play around with REST API use this URL :https://oauthplay.azurewebsites.net
good luck

Using outlook rest notifications api


How does Adventurer Conqueror King differ from B/X D&D, Labyrinth Lord, and Pathfinder?

Question: I wanted to begin playing with a system-light D&D, and I prefer ascending AC, so I'm looking at picking up Adventurer Conqueror King. Exactly how does Adventurer Conqueror King differ from similar games like B/X D&D, Labyrinth Lord, and Pathfinder?
Comment: Since the answers ignored the recommendation part and stuck to answering just the "how's this different?" part, I've just removed the part asking for a recommendation to bring this back on-topic.
Answer: It's design is basically an expansion of B/X D&D.
It still has race as class but expands the number of racial classes into a section labeled Demi-Human Classes for example there is a Dwarven Vaultguard and a Dwarven CraftPriest.
It adds proficiencies which are skill and abilities mostly non-combat oriented. They represent something that the character is better at than a non-proficient person.
The heart of ACKS is the campaign section where the author add several subsystems that allow the character to impact the setting beyond the usual adventuring locales. These include

Magic Research
Ritual Spells
Constructs
Crossbreeds
Necromancy
Divine Power
Strongholds and Domains
Sanctums and Dungeons*
Mercantile Ventures

The treasure type system has been tweaked to work with the various assumptions on wealth and income outlined in the above subsystems.
Comment: Thank you very much for your answer.

If i decided to separate race from class (using B/X Compendium or LL AEC), how difficult would you gauge it?
Answer: ACKS is closely derived from B/X by way of Labyrinth Lord. Ascending AC is one of its differences as explained here. The esteemed Mr. Conley does a good job of describing the other things ACKS is designed to do "out of the box", although I think the rules for running a thieves' guild and sending out your underlings to do hijinks are also worthy of mention.
You could separate race from class in Adventurer Conqueror King most easily by allowing any race to become any class. You might then want to define racial bonuses separately - right now they're baked into ACKS' non-human racial classes. (You could also leave racial effects as part of the setting instead of the rules; as it stands, humans don't get bonuses but are much more likely to enjoy positions of power in society.)
It'd be straightforward to adapt racial bonuses from any other D&D-lineage system. If you wanted to get more into it, the ACKS Player's Companion has a class design system that lets you create custom classes balanced for factors like racial bonuses, with a couple of examples of new race/class combos. The assumption is still race-as-class, but you could just as well use the system to design class features and racial bonuses separate of one another.
Comment: bought the .pdf :D ___when is the Player's Companion due out?
Comment: Real soon now! If you pre-order it through Game Salute you can get a download link for a PDF that isn't indexed and formatted for screens rather than book-binding; I hope it won't take much more than a week or two to make this into a final PDF version. Hardcover will be about two months after that, but if you email me at email@example.com I'll slip you the Word file so you can get started right away.


What is the proper punctuation?

Question: Is the following punctuation usage correct?
To Jim it was a mystery; to Jane, a revelation.
Comment: Can you say a bit about why you think it might or might not be correct?
Answer: That structure is called a zeugma.  Use of a semicolon is inconsistent.  The Wikipedia article cites two classics: Bacon, who wrote

Histories make Men Wise; Poets Witty; The Mathematicks Subtill; Naturall Philosophy deepe; Morall Graue

and Johnson, who quoted Cicero as writing

"Lust conquered shame, boldness fear, madness reason."

(Note, though, that the article replaced commas with semicolons and inserted commas for the missing verbs when it copied that quotation.)
For whatever it's worth, I think you should use a semicolon there, since each piece is technically a whole sentence.  The counterargument is that the clauses in the zeugma are yoked together too tightly to be separated that far.
As for the commas, the one after "Jim" that you omitted is recommended, although Strunk & White suggested that initial prepositional phrases of fewer than four words need not be set off by commas; the one after "Jane" is mandatory (pace Bacon).

What is the proper punctuation?