What is the fastest EU country for an EU citizen's spouse to get citizenship?

Question: Assuming an EU citizen wanted to grant their spouse EU citizenship as fast as possible, which EU country would be the best to do so? This is assuming the EU citizen will move to that country with their spouse under Article 10, so it excludes routes such as citizenship for investment.
Comment: By just moving there and living, or by going done one of the "citizenship by investment" routes and throwing a load of money at it?
Comment: @Gagravarr by just moving there under Article 10.
Comment: Article 10 actually concerns only the issue of residence cards.  The right of residence is controlled by Article 7.
Comment: Be aware that you will probably have to be domiciled there and prove a certain  income for some time (2 years, generally), so the quickest country might be the one in which you currently reside.
Answer: Actually, gaining citizenship (as opposed to simply having the right to reside, work, etc.) might be the one thing where EU law isn't of much help or relevance. I am not aware of a single country with a fast-track to citizenship for EU citizens' spouses, the only way open to that person would typically be the regular naturalisation process.
According to Wikipedia, the most accessible countries would therefore be Belgium, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands, and Sweden, all of which have a five years minimum residence requirement. That, of course, is an absolute legal minimum and does not account for the duration of the procedure nor does it reflect all the other restrictions and requirements (renouncing your previous citizenship, learning the language, holding a job, etc.) that might apply.
Note that in some cases it might be easier and faster to acquire the EU spouse's citizenship, even without residing in the country (that would for example be the case for the spouse of a French citizen). That's not always the case obviously, some countries even have residence requirements before granting citizenship through marriage.
Comment: Note: The UK is listed separately on Wikipedia and also has a five-year residence requirement but that's not enough: You need to have held an ILR or "equivalent" for 12 months and an EU citizen's spouse would only get that (namely the permanent residence status under EU law) after five years (so at least 6 in total).


AboutMe Link in SharePoint 2013(On Premises)

Question: We have a SharePoint site running on SharePoint 2013 on premises. It got "mysite" set up already. from the main site, I am unable to see the about me link to navigate to "MySite". I can see the about me link from the Central Administration site. Also, I can not suit link bar for the main site. I have checked the following.
User Profile service sysnchronisation is running correctly
Service account is having full rights access for SQL Server.
Please let me know how do I display the "About Me" link in the main site.
Answer: Check the Service Application Associations for the Web Application in Central Administration. The User Profile Service Application proxy group identifies the connection.


How to check user by user name is exist in ldap server?

Question: I am using LDAP as my source for users. This works fine, and everyone can simply log in using their LDAP info, and it will create a Drupal user for that person.
However, one of our requirements is during user registration how to check this user already in ldap server or not , means is there any API by which i can check this user already in ldap server on user registration.
Comment: what is your drupal version?
Answer: The LDAP module can handle that for you.
Comment: In my scenario user is crating by custom module so i need check user is already in ldap server or not if not then new user created as drupal user.
Comment: Fair enough... the LDAP module contains the only good API I know of, but you can use the php [ldap_connect()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.ldap-connect.php) and [ldap_search()](http://php.net/manual/en/function.ldap-search.php) if you want to do it manually


Rule-based rendering of one line with two line styles

Question: I need to show parts of a network, which meet two criteria at the same time. So I would like to use the style of criteria 1 and the style of criteria 2 side by side (see picture). The problem is, that the orientation switches for every part of the network (like in the red circle). Why? I used a +0,4 offset for the green line and -0,4 for the magenta one. Where is my mistake or is it not possible?
Comment: What software are you using?
Answer:
The problem is, that the orientation switches for every part of the
  network (like in the red circle). Why?

The orientation of your offset changes from one side to the other for some parts because these parts were drawn into your GIS in the opposite direction.
Lines are drawn from a From/Start point to a To/End point, and if you offset a line the offset is based on your drawn direction.  A positive offset value will move the line to the right, a negative offset will move it to the left.
So if a line is drawn from South to North with a positive offset, the new line will appear to the East (to the right of the drawn line), but if your line is drawn from North to South the new line will appear to the West (still to the right of the drawn line).
Best way to picture this is to imagine you are walking along the line in the direction it's drawn - on your right will be positive offset, on your left will be negative offset.

To get the lines to display the way you want, I can see two possible solutions.

It could probably be scripted to flip your lines to match the orientation of the other lines by detecting start and end points for intersecting lines.
Merge your lines so that all the different segments become one line.  This is the quickest and easiest, but will leave you with a new dataset and potentially less attributes than in your original.  For a one-off this is the way I'd do it - keep my original but display the new merged line.
Comment: I'll try to add some images to clarify when I get in the office
Comment: Thanks. Is there a way to have the styling the way I want it to be in spite of this problem?
Comment: @Phil I've added a screenshot for clarity and a couple of possible solutions.
Comment: Tried solution 2 and made a selection with the network parts I needed and merged them into on single line feature. Still the same picture. Solution number 1 is above my abilites. I have yet to start learning python.


Adding url rewrites directly into database

Question: Ive just added around 100 url rewrites directly into the url_rewrites db table but Magento doesn't use them, Ive reindexed and cleared the cache but really don't know what to do next - what am i missing ?
Comment: Did you mention respective entity_type and entity_id proper into DB? tried 2-3 first if you success thereafter that add other. entity_type is really mattered. after that just run **php bin/magento indexer:reindex && php bin/magento cache:clean && php bin/magento cache:flush**
Comment: The entity_type is custom so theres no associated entity id :( is there any other place that is used other than url_rewrites - the entries dont even show in the grid in the admin area
Comment: I actually just ran another index and it seems to have worked - thanks for your help
Answer: I would suggest that, Please do remove those from database and do install below extension... so it will do provide an to generate new URL, generate new and keep OLD etc.
Please do review below extension from github for more details...
https://github.com/olegkoval/magento2-regenerate_url_rewrites
Problem solved? Please give 'Kudos' and accept 'Answer as Solution'


Simple amplifier Cuircuit

Question: I am new in electrical transistors. My project is to make a 1 watt audio amplifier. Can anyone provide a best amplifier circuit using darlington pair and 2N3904 transistor. i searched google. So please dont refer anything from google.
Comment: You searched Google and found ... nothing?
Comment: -1 because the restrictions are silly. Maybe somebody here knows Google search terms that *will* find what you're looking for.
Comment: Why the requirement for a darlington and a 2N3904?
Comment: found many thing but most of them are for advanced use and the simple one is detected as fault by Electronics.stackexange.com
see: http://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/32697/calculating-the-power-of-a-simple-amplifier
Answer: Your restrictions seem arbitrary and silly.  Why only use a single darlington pair made from two 2N3904 transistors?  Actually that restriction makes it essentially impossible because you want 1 W out.  The darlington will act as a single active element, which means efficient topologies are out of the question.  You are going to end up with class A operation, so the active element will have to dissipate 1 W also, which is a bit much for a 2N3904.
Step back and explain what you are really trying to accomplish and leave out any restrictions that aren't truly necessary.  Not all things are possible.  With too many restrictions you get no result at all.
For example, if this is a learning exercise, you might ask how to make a audio amplifier to drive a small speaker using common off the shelf small signal transistors.  That can be achieved, and will be easier if complementary NPN/PNP transistors can be used.  I see no point in specifying a darlington configuration.  Most designs probably wouldn't include one even if you said a bag of 2N4401/2N4403 and arbitrary resistors and capacitors are available.
Answer: See the circuit below.
It is capable of doing what you want with not a lot more than you specify. It uses

2 x 2N3904, which is apparently what you have available
One additional PNP transistor which could be substituted by a wide range of other ones.
2 x capacitors
2 x resistors
2 x diodes

to complete the circuit.
Whatever you do you can expect to use some extra passive parts, and 2 each of R, C & D are reasonably minimal, so it effectively costs you an extra PNP transistor.
If this circuit does not meet your needs you should say why in enough detail to allow people to understand your real need.

There are many excellent examples accessible via  Google.
 If you search on likely search terms and then look at pages returned you could learn much.
Using image search provides an excellent idea of what the pages are about .
If you look here you will find many links to amplifier pages and some will meet your need.
The demand to use a specific transistor type has no obvious point except perhaps that you already own one. This is not the best way to choose a part for an amplifier.
Mention of "a 2n3904" implies that you want to use only 1 transistor. This is notionally doable but unusual and unwise. Also power inefficient as the amplifier must use either Class A or Class D (switching) - very unusual in this context.
It would be an excellent idea to explain WHY you want only to use a specific part and whether you insist on only using one transistor and why.
2n3904 datasheet here. It is rated at 40 V but only 200 mA and only 600 mW dissipation It would have trouble pulling the skin off a rice pudding and would be nobody's ideal choice for a 1 transistor 1 Watt amplifier.
What you appear to be asking for is doable but not sensible. What you are asking for may be sensible but if so, you need to explain it more fully.

This circuit is closer to what you want and uses a 2N3904 and 2 other transistors.
[The circuit is fromClass AB Audio Amplifier.
 which provides a brief but good comment on the subject.

If this circuit is not suitable you need to explain why in more detail.
Comment: Your are great man...!!! working great....

Simple amplifier Cuircuit


Yii - Get all data of filtered CGridView

Question: I got a question about the CGridView in Yii. The case is that I want to export the current filtered data of all pages within a CGridView to an excel sheet. Now the problem is that I am getting the id's of each row within the gridview with jQuery. This means that only the rows that are currently visible on the page of a pagination are sent to the excel generator and not the ones that are at another pages.
My question is, is there a way within Yii to get all the data from all paginated pages from a CGridView in some kind of object?
Thanks in advance.
Comment: see http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12562626/yii-how-to-print-out-from-cgridview-to-csv
Comment: Is the export code written in PHP or in JS?
Answer: You can use the the $.fn.yiiGridView.getSelection(containerID) to retrieve the key values of the selected rows in jQuery. And then you can post your results and retrieve the exported file for downloading.


Why only reversible adiabatic processes are called isentropic and not irreversible ones?

Question: For both reversible and irreversible adiabatic processes, $dQ =0$,and by the definition of entropy $dS=dQ/T$, it should imply that entropy is constant for both. Why it is not so?
Comment: Your definition of entropy change is incorrect.  It should read $$dS=\frac{dQ_{rev}}{T}$$ where the subscript rev refers exclusively to a reversible path.
Answer: In general, you can write that for all processes $\frac{\delta q}{T} \le dS$ (Clausius) but in the case of a reversible process you have equality $\frac{\delta q}{T}|_{rev} = dS$. If the process is adiabatic then by definition $\delta q =0$ hence for the reversible case you have the equality $dS=0$, i.e., an isentropic process, but for an irreversible process you can only say that $0<dS$ which is usually verbalized by saying that the entropy can only increase (never decreases) in an adiabatic process that is not reversible.
Answer: Although entropy is defined for a reversible transfer of heat as $dS=dQ_{rev}/T$, entropy can be generated without heat transfer. An example of an irreversible adiabatic process that generates entropy is the rapid expansion or compression of a gas.
The classic example is the case of an insulated rigid chamber that is divided into two parts, one containing a gas and the other a vacuum. An opening is created in the barrier between the two parts allowing the gas in one part to spontaneously and rapidly expand into the evacuated part. This is an irreversible process (You would not expect the gas to spontaneously return to its original part leaving a vacuum behind) that involves no work, no heat transfer and no change in internal energy. If the gas is an ideal gas, then there would also be no temperature change.
For this example you can calculate the entropy change by assuming a reversible process between the initial and final states and applying the definition for entropy change. The obvious choice is reversible isothermal expansion process.  You can do this because  entropy is a state function. The difference in entropy between two equilibrium states does not depend on the path (process) connecting the states.
Hope this helps.


How to avoid 12:00 AM midnight/noon confusion in a time input field?

Question: I recently specified the wrong deadline for an assignment, for a "dropbox" in the D2L course management application.  I was trying to choose 12:00 noon, and the time entry field showed 12:00 right below 11:00 AM, as shown here:

But of course, what I had done was specify 12:00 AM, which is actually midnight, a famously confusing time specification.  (In my case it was also a time which had actually already passed, and the application actually created a deadline in the past.)
It seems to me that this is an especially confusing input form, since the 12 is below the 11, clearly suggesting that it comes afterwards in time.
In this case should the 12 should show up at the top of the menu, above the "1"?  Or should it be at the top listing "midnight" if the AM/PM indicator is an "AM", or "noon" if the indicator is a "PM"?  Or at the bottom, with those roles reversed, but misrepresenting the "AM/PM" indicator?  It seems to me that the switching the menu between midnight/noon depending on AM/PM would be an extra complication, hard to do using some technologies, but clearer.  Or is there another presentation that would be better?
Is there a usability guideline somewhere suggesting how to do this that I could refer the developers to?
Comment: +1 This confusion is why I always prefer the 24 hour clock... Though I suppose that people used to the am/pm stuff might not be as confused as those who are not?
Comment: Wow, I just realized that clocks are basically zero-indexed.
Comment: When they select 12:00 am, giant neon green text on a dark purple background appears: "WITCHING HOUR!"  Subtle and effective.  Bonus points for creepy font, double bonus for witch flying across the screen.
Comment: Despite the confusion, most applications still take that approach.  Most users expect 12:01AM to be 1 minute after 12:00AM, so using AM is a slight compromise.
Comment: Okay, but I don't have the drop down option. The simple question is "Is midnight 12 am or not?" Please send the answer as a yes or no.
Comment: @Perry it's both and neither at the same time--it's actually the moment of transition between the two.
Answer: There is some interesting pedantic information on the weirdness of midnight: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight
Specifically, technically, at midnight, it's neither am nor pm. But merely the instant of transition between the two.
Some ideas:

Use a 24 hour clock. Perhaps with 12 hour correlations in parenthesis:

<code>...
10
11
12
13 (1pm)
14 (2pm)
etc
</code>

Perhaps indicate the am/pm with an icon as well (moon/sun) when 12 is selected as the hour to emphasize the difference
use a 12 hour clock, but list all 24 options

<code>...
10 am
11 am
12 noon
 1 pm
 2 pm
etc...
</code>

I think I prefer the last option for a couple of reasons:

selecting from a drop down of 12 options vs. 24 isn't a huge burden
you can remove the am/pm drop down since this handles both
noon and midnight are very clear in this list
Comment: +1 for last option it is very clear yet doesn't change the UI structure, which is a bonus
Comment: You could also just put the 12 first in the list, indicating that it comes before 1 for a given AM/PM selection.
Comment: I'd combine option 3 with the moon / sun icon suggestion.   This has the advantage that it needs less screen space than trying to write 'midnight' and that its easier to understand for users who don't have a high level command of English as "noon" is quite an obscure word ( As I've just tested:   my native English speaking, average at school,  12 year old has just told me that "noon means at the end of the day" :-)
Comment: @PhillipW I notice that you're in the UK. It never occurred to me that 'noon' would be obscure. Looks like it's maybe an America-centric term?
Comment: Noon is a proper British English word.  And people with a large vocabularly will understand it.     But it's not used very much.  We use "midday" generally.  ------ (Demonstrating once again, the dangers of the assumption that both sides of the Atlantic speak the same language :-)
Answer: So the real problem here is, given that the user selected 12 for the hour input, how should they know if PM = day and AM = night.
Here's a solution - when the hour input is anything else but 12, show am/pm for the dropdown menu; when the hour input is 12, the dropdown menu should change to night/day from am/pm.
Comment: This is not a bad idea. I'd maybe suggest midnight/noon instead of night/day, though.
Comment: night/day is much more straight-forward without any thinking at all. Besides, I think noon is only referring to 12 o'clock PM, if the minutes isn't 00, it doesn't make sense, since both 'noon' and 'midnight' are points.
Comment: There are some places in the world where you get very few hours of daylight (near the poles) for several months. Using "Night" and "Day" is very, very confusing. Everyone knows what AM/PM is though (if you use the 12-hour clock).
Comment: Maybe it's cultural. In the US, noon = 12pm, midnight = 12am.
Comment: that's what i meant as well, I am saying what if it's 12:30pm, is that still noon? or afternoon? 12:30 noon doesn't make sense as noon is referring to 12:00 only.
Comment: Oh, i see what you are saying. I was assuming the night/day drop down only appeared at 12:00 while you suggested it appear at 12:xx. In that context, I agree with you, night/day makes more sense for something like 12:30.
Comment: This could extend the ambiguity.  Especially now (winter months), "6 at night". It's dark at both 6AM and 6PM. This becomes much more subjective to the user. If you start work at 6AM then 6AM and 6PM could both be "Day" (speaking from personal experience I don't know which I'd consider Day or Night, would depend on how tired I am when I fill this form out).
Comment: please read my answer carefully, I said it changes to night/day only when hour is 12.
Comment: Either way, people often don't know if 12 midnight is the end of one day or the beginning of the next. I've seen more than one person show up a day late for a 12:00 AM flight.
Answer: I find that instead of putting in 24 drop downs, A display of selected field works best.
You make a selection in the drop down, the field just indicates what you choose.
In your current form, it would look like -

So, whenever you change something in the drop down it shows you what time you selected. For 11 AM, it would say - 11:00 AM. For 12:00 AM, it would say midnight and 12:00 PM it would say noon. Its just a display thing that cannot be edited unless you change the dropdown you selected.
This small display functionality is easy for a form to handle (just getting the value from the drop down and updating itself). It makes it clear for the user what selection he is making; also its not interfering with good interface practice since you are not compromising on your functionality and/or making it any less convenient for the user.
Comment: Wouldn't that information seem in most cases very redundant?
Comment: No, you can think of it is a minor validation check. Something similar to when you fill out a form, you usually get a validation check after the form is filled. This is something similar to that. It's not interfering with the usability of the software at all, neither is this field all over the place, which could have led to downside user experience. (thats where redundancy is a problem)
Comment: My idea is similar; when they select `12`, show a subtle moon / sun icon as a visual hint
Answer: You could add hint text that "12AM = midnight"
Comment: This answer is very low on reasoning and detail. Can you expand this answer to say why this is a good suggestion? Otherwise its not really a suitable answer; it's just your subjective opinion.
Comment: It is, but I think JonW is saying Mark should add some reasoning for this. I've seen this used on sites before, and it's the simplest, least intrusive way of doing things, that doesn't require a lot of change to how the form already works.
Comment: I think it's a good suggestion.
Comment: I think the reasoning is obvious.
Comment: ah, but is it midnight at the end of that date, or midnight at the start of that date? The system in the question appears to think its the former, which makes sense if you then set the minutes to something other than 00.
Comment: @Erics that's actually an excellent point that I think a lot of us (myself included) missed in the initial question. That's a much more complicated (and likely more common) problem. I think, technically, midnight doesn't belong to EITHER day, so people can make assumptions both ways.
Answer: I really like the idea that was suggested by Sylar with the little tool tip pop up but I would keep the 'midnight' or 'noon' information located within the dropdown window so that the "Now" button does not move around as seen in United's implantation here.
The suggestion of using the 24hr format can be confusing for American's who do not typically have a lot of exposure to the system. However, you can still use the "24 option idea" (as mentioned by DA01) to  list all the times from 1am at the top to 11am and then from 12pm to 12am at the very bottom. This sort of progression may give the user a better idea of time since they "scroll" through the time progression in their head potentially better conforming to their mental model of time. See this example at Delta. This would probably be my preferred method of choice.
If you do want to keep only 12 options in the dropdown, I do like the idea of moving the # to the top because then if the user has to select 12 they will probably give it slightly more thought if it's not immediately after the number 11. You can adjust the (noon vs midnight tool tip accordingly based on the AM/PM seleciton).
The next question would be, just how fine grained do you need your search to be? For example if you dont need exact minutes an hours you can use something like: 9am - noon, 12:01pm - 3:00pm, etc and break it up into a few categories or get rid of it all together. I believe Paypal's advanced history search tool doesn't specify a time and only a date.
Answer: To be as unambiguous as possible, we use 11:59pm and 12:01am in our drop-down options. It's a little odd looking with all the rest of the even times, but the oddness helps people pay closer attention to it.
Comment: 12:01am is still ambiguous here as I wouldn't be sure if it means almost midnight or almost noon.
Comment: From what you are saying, 12:01am is ambiguous to you, but you reference "almost midnight" or "almost noon" … I'm a little confused because 12:01 would be "just after." Regardless, what I hear is that 12:01 am still doesn't strike you as being clearly in the dark or light of the 24-hour cycle. This is somewhat similar to the issue of the new year beginning smack in the middle of the coldest, darkest days of the year (in the northern hemisphere). In many cultures, it begins in spring, which feels like a new beginning to a day. But I digress.
Comment: I am saying that 12:01 AM/PM is confusing because I wouldn't know when AM or PM takes place. 11:59 is less confusing because it is within the 1 – 11 hour range where AM/PM makes sense, but when it becomes 12 with or without minutes after it, it becomes confusing. When I said "almost midnight" and "almost noon" I meant one minute off. My main point is that AM/PM becomes confusing when the hour is 12 because it's unclear if it loops around there or not.
Answer: You could adopt the Thai Six hour clock

The hours in each quarter (with the exception of the sixth hour in each quarter) are told with period-designating words or phrases, which are:
<code>... mong chao (Thai: ...โมงเช้า,  [mōːŋ tɕʰáːw]) for the first half of daytime (07:00 to 12:59)
Bai ... mong (บ่าย...โมง, [bàːj mōːŋ]) for the latter half of daytime (13:00 to 18:59)
... thum (...ทุ่ม, [tʰûm]) for the first half of nighttime (19:00 to 00:59)
Ti ... (ตี..., [tīː]) for the latter half of nighttime (01:00 to 06:59)
</code>

Which translates as Morning, Afternoon, Night, Early Morning.


How to add Rating to sort list in Magento 1.7

Question: Looking for some help adding sort by Rating in Magento.  I have added code snippets to toolbar.php which seem to add the sort by Rating but when trying to select it, it gets stuck until I reload the page.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Code can be found below: This is the Toolbar.php file.
// Begin new Code
<code>    $this->getCollection()->joinField('rating',
        'review/review_aggregate',
        'rating_summary',
        'entity_pk_value=entity_id',
        '{{table}}.store_id=1',
        'left');
    // End new Code
</code>
AND
// Add rating to "Sort by"
<code>$_availableOrder = $this->_availableOrder;
$_availableOrder['rating'] = 'Rating';

return $_availableOrder;

$this->_availableOrder = array(
'rating_summary' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Rating'),
'price' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Price'),
'newest' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Newest'),
'name' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Name')
);
</code>
Comment: Please include enough of the code here to help us understand the question well enough to write an answer. External links come and go, so it's important to have enough of the code locally so that people seeing this question later can understand the context.
Comment: Took out pastebin and added proper code.  Thanks. :)
Comment: Sorry about that.  I have added a link to the full file on pastebin.
Answer: Best is to make this in a module but here you go:
First we shall alter the way products are retrieved from the database, to include the overall rating (shown as the number of stars on the product) along with the rest of the product attributes. Copy the file app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List.php to app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Block/Product/List.php and open it for editing.
In the new List.php file find the following line (around line 86):
<code>$this->_productCollection = $layer->getProductCollection();
</code>
After this add the following:
<code>$this->_productCollection->joinField('rating_summary', 'review_entity_summary', 'rating_summary', 'entity_pk_value=entity_id', array('entity_type'=>1, 'store_id'=> Mage::app()->getStore()->getId()), 'left');
</code>
Now we need to add in an option so that the customer can select "Rating" as an attribute to sort by. Copy the file app/code/core/Mage/Catalog/Model/Config.php to app/code/local/Mage/Catalog/Model/Config.php and edit.
In the new Config.php file find the following code (which should start around line 298):
<code>$options = array(
    'position'  => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Position')
);
</code>
Replace with code with:
<code>$options = array(
    'position'  => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Position'),
    'rating_summary' => Mage::helper('catalog')->__('Rating')
);
</code>
Now when viewing categories on your website you should have an option of "Rating" in addition to the others. Note that the sort order defaults to ascending so the lowest rated products will be displayed first. The sort order can be changed by the customer by clicking the arrow next to the drop-down box. Aside from this caveat the new sort is fairly easy to implement and extends the usefulness of the ratings.
Credits: https://www.fontis.com.au/blog/sort-products-rating


Why did ~20k Drupal 7 websites just drop off the map?

Question: I was looking at Drupal statistics and surprised by how a bunch of sites just disappeared from the count. I'm assuming this is due to a change in the code, and not actually reflective of total count. But who knows!? Can anyone here offer any deeper insight?
https://drupal.org/project/usage/drupal
https://drupal.org/project/usage/1960640
Comment: Note the downward excursions on the chart which happens each year on Catholic Christmas.
Answer: If you look back through the statistics they fluctuate quite often really.
Looking at stats for May 26th 2013 (642,589 Drupal 7 sites) or June 9th 2013 (666,573 Drupal 7 sites) I'm not actually certain it can be taken to represent sites disappearing so much as people evaluating Drupal or indeed installing and uninstalling new development snapshot instances.
It's also well worth bearing in mind that the accuracy of the statistics is not 100% and sites which don't use the update manager module don't report in at all. (It is, in some circles, common practice to disable this component once a site goes live if it's being updated in a separate development environment).
Comment: Thanks MJCO, that makes sense to me. But I would suspect more even variations averaged across this large sample set. I see the other sudden peaks and valleys, which begs the question. What caused those as well.
Comment: That's true though I suppose the seemingly random variation will have a lot to do with people 'trying it out'.


Proton spin precession and alignment to magnetic field in NMR

Question: Precession due to magnetic field occurs when the magnetic moment of a small coil is proportional to its angular momentum ($\vec{m}=g\vec{L}$). This is due to Euler momentum equation, which for such a system reads: $$\frac{d\vec{L}}{dt}=\vec{M}=\vec{m}\times \vec{B}=g\vec{L}\times\vec{B}$$and has the shape of a precession equation. In NMR theory we are told that a single proton can both precess around a magnetic field and align to it. This happens because of its spin, so in principle even in absence of orbital angular momentum. First of all: to justify the precession, do we need to generalize Euler equation and write that $d\vec{J}/dt=\vec{M}$ (where $\vec{J}=\vec{L}+\hbar\vec{S})$? Does this always hold? Secondly, what causes alignment? Is alignment just a statistical prediction? Does it always hold?
Answer: You will need to use the full angular momentum of the system considered, here $\vec{J}=\vec{L}+\vec{S}$ (note usually $\vec{S}$ is considered the spin, i.e. including the $\hbar$). This certainly holds for simple systems like this one, in more complex systems the specific type of spin-orbit coupling may need to be considered.
Alignment of protons in a magnetic field is caused by the interaction of the field with the proton's magnetic moment. The spin, and hence the moment, being parallel, or anti-parallel to the magnetic field vector result in different energy levels, therefore the proton's spin will show preference for the orientation with lower energy. At temperature $T=0$ all spins will settle in this orientation. At higher temperatures, thermal energy will cause a lot of the spins (up to 50%, or balanced, at very high temperatures) to switch to the non-preferred orientation; in this sense we're talking about a statistical phenomenon. In fact, at room temperature in easily achievable magnetic fields the relative imbalance for protons is only $10^{-10}$ .. $10^{-8}$, explaining why NMR signals are so small at room temperature.
The spin pointing up or down is terminology that neglects half of the picture. It only represents the z component of the spin (magnetic field assumed in z direction). The operators of the components of angular momentum do not commute, that means that with determined (certain) z component, the values of the x and y components are completely uncertain. In particular they are not zero, so, in a semi-classical picture, the spin never points just up or down. Continuing this picture, the residual misalignment results in a force on the spin causing precession. This precession is unsynchronised over the ensemble of spins, but can be synchronised by external RF pulses with the right frequency; the synchronisation lasts a while so that an echo can be detected. This is what we call NMR. A proper (more rigorous), but much less intuitive description of this can be given in terms of Bloch vectors on a Bloch sphere.


Why Does My Kitty Howl/Yowl When Digging Under Bed Covers

Question: I adopted two rescue kitty Sisters from same litter when they were ~seven weeks old. We sadly put one of them to sleep several months ago at age 17 years, due to complications of chronic kidney disease. Her Sister showed signs of missing her even though they were not cuddle buddies, but had always been inside cats together. She searched and cried, seemed disoriented and didn't eat well for about a month afterward. She continued to be loving and cuddle close to me especially during evening and during night. But she started a new habit of waiting until I'm out of bed for the day, then digging under covers to make a nest in blankets, making a howling noise until she settles in. The howling part is what I don't understand. She has been recently examined by our veterinarian and had Senior cat lab tests. She is very healthy with the exception of minimally-elevated kidney function tests, which doesn't surprise me with her age and her Sister's history. She really acts a lot like a smart, sharp kitten. Can anyone help me understand the reason for her yowling while burrowing? I have a feeling it could still be related to losing her Sister as her Sister used to sleep right where she burrows. Thank you.
Comment: My cat does this and hence the google. She's also from the street, very mute, very skittish. We have her for just 7 month. However She's just about 2 years old. She rarely meows but give a not too short whining sound when she finally made it into the blanket. Given that she rarely meows, I am curious about this behavior and what I should react. It's almost like a winning call or something you do when stretching
Answer: Some cats want an "answer" when they meow (perhaps as reassurance that they are not alone), and they will meow until they get one. In the past, her companion may have answered her. I suggest you try "answering" her. Just say "hello" or anything you like; you don't have to meow unless you want to. She probably just wants to hear a voice, animal or human.
Given her age, it might be hearing loss that causes her to yowl. She may not be able to hear her own voice. If the problem persists, you might check with the vet about this possibility, if the vet didn't already check for it.
Comment: I think as has been suggested, she's still grieving the loss of her sister. The "yowl" is usually "answer me, pay attention to me." Give her lots of extra cuddles.
Comment: mhwombat, Thank you for your reply. That may be the answer, as I always call to her and tell her everything's okay, and then she goes to sleep! We are very close, and she will come to me and meow insistently for me to follow her up onto the bed at certain times of day. Luckily I'm retired and we get to cuddle a lot.


Can I enter the US on my B1/B2 visa during leave of absence from F1 program?

Question: I am an F1 student on a leave of absence from my PhD program. I want to attend a 5-day conference in the USA. Can I enter using my valid B1/B2 visa? This entry will only be for the conference; I will re-enter using my F1 visa once I get my new I-20.
Answer: Yes, you can enter with a valid B1/B2 visa, as a visitor and to attend a short conference. You may want to have a copy of the I-94, so that your university is able to verify the time you were in the US, and that you did not enter under the F-1, and so that it doesn't conflict with the issuance of the new I-20.


descending chord sequence from a bossa nova

Question: IM LISTENING TO " MY LITTLE BOAT" bossa nova song.
it has a descending sequence in the verse:
Dmaj7 - Db7 -Cmaj7 -B7 -Bbmaj7 etc...
what's the best way to describe this theoretically?
(from a jazz perspective)
Answer: I have played this song many times and have heard various versions of it. The original by the composer is in the key of F and it is often played in Bb as well but the analysis is the same for any key. I will use your example key of D for my explanation. (FYI I use all capital Roman numerals with chord qualities written in)
This song is a series of two modulations down a whole step for three keys total, D, C, and Bb, then back to D. The maj7 chords are the tonics and the 7th chords are substitute dominants, aka tritone substitutions, dominant chords that are a tritone away from the V, called sub V chords for short. If they were regular V chords it would be D-G7-C-F7-Bb, or a cycle of descending 5ths. The subV chords create a chromatic descending motion instead of a cycle of 5ths. This is fairly common in jazz and Brazilian music, both of which share very similar harmonic elements.
Interestingly, the next chord in the sequence, A7, is used as a regular V, not a sub V in order to return to the original key of D. It is however preceded by a IIIm7-V7/IIm7-IIm7-V7 before arriving at the Dmaj7 chord for the repeat.
Another thing to point out about this song is that in most versions, including the version by the composer Roberto Menescal, the sub V's actually are preceded by IIm7 chords added to them so Db7 becomes Abm7-Db7, etc. This eliminates the chromatic motion but the analysis is basically the same.
Here is a rough analysis of the version with the IIm7-V7's. The chords written in blue (IV7 chords) are actually played by the composer but are not used in many other versions. The basic analysis is below on the last line.
Comment: For 'sub' - read tritone substitution..? This answer agrees with my thoughts, tts everywhere! But I woke up too late.+1.
Comment: @Tim Its the luck of the draw when a question comes in, lol, I'll be in bed in 30 minutes. I actually tweaked my answer to include the phrase "tritone substitution". Gotta love names that are also descriptions!
Comment: Thanks y'all !
Awesome .
Answer: The best description would be that it's a chromatically descending sequence of alternating major and dominant seventh chords.
The core of the progression is that the root always descends by half step, while the sevenths come in pairs. For example, The seventh in the CM7 chord is B, and the seventh in the B7 chord that follows is also B.
But even more, the entire triadic part of the chords descends by half step, with the sevenths occuring pair-wise as described above.
D(+C#) Db(+Cb=B) C(+B) B(+A) Bb(+A)
Comment: Thanks . Much appreciated.
Comment: I see this as a description of the sequence but not a theoretical or harmonic explanation.


How to add Linuxmint repositories to Ubuntu?

Question: I want to add some Linuxmint packages to be installed in Ubuntu 14.04LTS. How can one add the Linuxmint (any version) repositories to ubuntu (any version) ?
Comment: What packages are you looking for specifically? If it is Cinnamon and Nemo you want, they are in a PPA (which is safer than adding Mint repos).
Comment: @RolandiXor I am not specifically looking for one package but some good functionality to add to my Ubuntu box from some other repositories. Such like Mint-X Gtk3+ themes and some Mate Desktop environment settings
Answer: I added the Linux Mint LTS release (Qiana or Mint 17) repositories to my Ubuntu 14.04 LTS by running the following commands through the terminal:

Add the repository

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ qiana main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list'

Now run an update to retrieve information about what packages are available:

sudo apt-get update

You'll see an error in the update highlighting that public key is not available for the Linux Mint repository just added:

GPG error: http://packages.linuxmint.com qiana Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY &ltSome scramble encryption number&gt

To avoid this, run another command to download the Linux Mint keyring:
 sudo apt-get install linuxmint-keyring

It will ask your permission to download, say yes.

Once downloaded, update your package database again:

sudo apt-get update

Now you'll see that the update is successful and without any error.
Once updated, we are ready to install any packages from linuxmint repositories.
Comment: BTW - Is it safe to use mint packages in ubuntu? mintbackup for example? would it work ok?


Map-side join with Hadoop Streaming

Question: I have a file in which each line is a record. I want all records with the same value in a certain field (call if field A) to go to the same mapper. I have heard this is called a Map-Side Join, and I also heard that it's easy if the records in the file are sorted by what I call field A.
If it would be easier, the data could be spread across multiple files, but each file sorted on field A.
Is this right? How do I do this in with streaming? I'm using Python. A assume it's just part of the command I use to start Hadoop?
Comment: I'm still keen on knowing the answer. Should I clarify anything?
Answer: What is the real justification for wanting only certain records to go to certain mappers? If what you want out of this is the final result to be 3 output files (one with all A, another with all B, last with all C), you can accomplish that with multiple reducers. Need to know what you really want to accomplish.

Map-side join with Hadoop Streaming


Meaning of lyrics to Vangelis (Losing Sleep)

Question: Could someone please enlighten me to the meaning of the lyrics to "Losing Sleep" by Vangelis (sung by Paul Young):
Here are the lyrics: www.azlyricdb.com/lyrics/Vangelis-Losing-Sleep-294174
Comment: I misunderstood the lyrics, assuming the singer is contemplating death (a "sleep" from which one never wakes up).
Answer: The recurring theme in this song seems to be returning to (or longing for) a previous love interest. Here's my take:

A recurring face I see

The love interest.

You keep turning me round again

They keep thinking about the other person.

... my mind ... Is blind to danger

They know that this is bad for them.

If I knew all there was to learn,
Every twist and turn,
Why do I still try

Even knowing that they should move on, the singer still won't let go.
Answer: The feelings behind the lyrics are quite meaningful and deep. The person expressing these feelings is suffering intolerably. Time has not erased from his memory someone he loved very very much. Someone he lost due to his own foolishness regarding love.  After it is too late and the woman he loved has moved on, he cannot escape her memory. Even sleep cannot help him forget her face. Her smile. Her scent. Deep down, she is quite aware that the memory of her is driving him inside. He realizes he should get help because he is playing with his very existence. His very life is at stake as is his sanity.  Despite the fact that his life has taken many "twists and turns", the things that refuse to change concern her.  His memories of her consume him both day and night at the unlikeliest moments.  The song is very meaningful to me personally. Because you see, there is a woman in my past as well who has made me feel just as he does. The thing to take away from this for you the reader of these words is that you should be very cautious when giving you a feelings, your heart, to another person. Because if you invest too much of your emotions and things don't work out in the end, then you too will know what it is like to be Losing Sleep because of the fact that you lost the love of your life.


Being "registered" as Democratic/Republican/Independent vs being a party member

Question: I was following online media during last year's primaries, and noticed anchors and commentators discussing people's "registration" as Democrats, Republicans or Independents (never for other parties though), as something determining which primaries they can vote in. They were not using the term "membership" in the different parties, and I got the impression that this is some sort of registration with state or federal authorities.
This sounded weird to me, since I'm used to the situation in which organizations (such as parties) keep their own membership record; and voting in inter-party elections is based on that registration and has nothing to do with state authorities.
So, is there really a difference between how you're "registered" to vote in primaries and your party membership? More specifically, what different duties and privileges do you have as a "registered Democrat"/"registered Republican" as opposed to a member of the state or the national Democratic or Republication party?
Comment: This seems like a diplicate (perhaps http://politics.stackexchange.com/questions/8802/do-the-democratic-republican-parties-have-any-control-over-their-membership-and?rq=1 ? )
Comment: @user4012: That question focuses on the legitimacy of the "registered as X" mechanism, this one is about the details of the differences between being registered X and member of X.
Comment: @dan-klasson: Well, I don't know people here, but - downvoted answers are still answers.
Answer: The primary elections are carried out by the state. As a result, many states require that voters in the primary election officially register in that state as a member of the party to which they belong. In some states,only the Republican or Democratic parties have public primaries (as an example Kansas). In other states (such as New York) there are other parties that have primary elections through the state.
Since the registration is done through the state, the rules for registration and the methods are processed by the state.
Rules for Voting in a Primary Election

In a primary election, voters select the candidates who will represent
  each political party in the upcoming general election. But not
  everyone is eligible to vote in a primary election. Here is what you
  need to know before you vote.
Register
To vote in a primary election, you must register in your district at
  least 30 days before the primary election. Each state has different
  requirements, however, so be sure to check your state's Division of
  Elections well in advance of the next primary.
Open Primary
Several states, such as Arkansas, Idaho and South Carolina, have open
  primaries. In an open primary, voters can vote in either party's
  primary regardless of their own party affiliation. They may only vote
  in one party's primary, however, not both.
Closed Primary
In a closed primary, voters may only vote for a candidate in the party
  with which they have registered. So, for example, only registered
  Democrats may vote in the Democratic primary, and only registered
  Republicans may vote in the Republican primary. Voters who have not
  declared a political party are not eligible to vote in either primary.
  States with closed primaries include Connecticut, Florida, and
  Maryland.
Comment: Maybe worth also adding that primaries are not officially part of the American election cycle and are essentially run by semi-private organizations. As such it is not even always required for a state to have a primary (ie Colorado for the 2016 race did not have a primary on the R side).
Comment: @DavidGrinberg: How does that square with sabbahillel saying they're run by the state?
Comment: @DavidGrinberg: So, I don't quite understand what that means. Do party officials, or state officials, run the primaries?
Comment: @DavidGrinberg That's a good point, the Republicans also didn't have a caucus in North Dakota in 2016.
Comment: @sabahillel: Ok, but what about actually being a member of the party? What does that typically mean?
Comment: @einpoklum That would be a different matter. That is actively working for the party, not just signing up to vote in the primary.
Comment: @einpoklum Its a little complicated. It's not really the state government that runs it (though there are federal/state regulations on political parties), its more that each state has its own chapter of a political party (ie the Iowa Democrats) that runs the primaries. This is why its semi-private (there are some other complications too, but too much for a comment).
Comment: @einpoklum they tend to get the same people, and there are some regulations that restrict them, but technically the party officials
Comment: @DavidGrinberg what?  When I vote in a NY primary I go to the same polling station and talk to the same poll workers as those registered for the other party, and the same as for the general election.  How is that consistent with your assertion that the party or some "semi-private organization" runs the primary?  As to their being officially part of the election cycle, they are because the constitution gives states the power to decide how elections for federal offices are conducted.
Comment: @phoog The state sets the location and the hours, but the party chooses the names on the ballot and certify the people. The poll workers are technically there for the party, but the state sets up to ensure that they give out the correct ballots.
Answer:
This sounded weird to me, since I'm used to the situation in which organizations (such as parties) keep their own membership record; and voting in inter-party elections is based on that registration and has nothing to do with state authorities.

Rules differ by state in the United States (US), but in general, the state runs primaries which choose the two major party candidates.  These are publicly financed.  They may or may not be limited to people who are registered to vote as a member of that party (if the state even has party registration, not every state does).  If not limited to one party, sometimes it is limited from the other party.
The major parties (Republicans and Democrats) are privileged in the United States.  The winners of their primaries (first round) automatically get a position in the general election (second round).  Most other parties have to pay for their own candidate selection process and have to get each candidate listed manually.  There generally is a process by which they get signatures.  Enough valid signatures and they get ballot access.
In addition to that, people can run for party positions.  These often occur as part of larger elections, run by the state.  Often there will only be one candidate for such a position, so the "election" is somewhat moot.  Other times, these are picked by caucuses.  Caucuses may be run by the parties, although there are also caucuses that substitute for primaries and are state funded (e.g. Iowa).
Most of this was originally a combination of cost-saving and anti-corruption measures with the convenient side-effect that it reinforced the two-party hegemony.
It has also produced a system where the two major parties are part of the system.  They can't pick their nominees freely because each state has rules about how nominees are chosen.  Because the state rules control ballot access, they also control the party process.
In theory, a major party could organize itself as a purely private entity and control its nomination process.  But then the party would lose its automatic ballot access.  It would become like the Libertarians and the Greens, where it would have to gain ballot access by collecting signatures.  In districts (congressional or statewide for Senators and presidential candidates) that did not collect enough signatures, the candidate would not appear on the ballot.
As a practical matter, both major parties prefer their privileged status to having the freedom to choose.  This may change, as in the last primary season, one party was dominated by an independent who had been a reality television star while the other saw a strong insurgency from an independent who made a career out of being a gadfly.  Perhaps this will lead to reform of the process.

More specifically, what different duties and privileges do you have as a "registered Democrat"/"registered Republican" as opposed to a member of the state or the national Democratic or Republication party?

Registration is an official action.  The effect varies by state.  In a closed primary state, people can only vote in primaries if their party registration matches the primary.  In some states, independents can choose a primary in which to vote but Democrats and Republicans are restricted.  Other states are open primaries, where registration doesn't matter.
In New York, voters are limited to just their own party's primary, but a candidate can run under multiple party lines and in the general election the party results are combined (fusion).  In California, party registration only matters for president (other primaries are non-partisan), but the Republican party primary is closed while the Democratic primary is open.  In both states, the primaries are state run affairs and limit what candidates can appear in the general election (except for president, which has its own goofy rules).
Kentucky, Louisiana, and West Virginia are generally considered Republican states.  They voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump for president (and previously Romney, McCain, and Bush).  They have mostly Republican congressional delegations.  But they are majority Democrat in registration (technically Louisiana is only a plurality, but with a 19% lead).
"Member" is an amorphous term.  It could mean party registration.  Or it could mean donations.  Or it could mean that they answered a poll saying that they preferred a particular party.  Or it could mean that they have a formal party position, like a delegate.  I've seen it used in each of these ways.  Without additional context, "member" doesn't tell you anything.
Note that when people talk about party registration in the US, it is registration with the state.  The two major parties in the US are not private organizations, free to choose however they want.  They are officially recognized parts of how the system works.  Each state sets its own rules for elections and such elections control the party process as well.
The parties could give up that status.  But if they did, they would lose the funding that went with it.  They could choose their own nominees but they would have to pay for the process for doing so.  And they'd have to get their nominees on the ballot through their own actions.  They choose not to do so.
The two major parties in the US are not private organizations.  They are quasi-governmental organizations (contested).  They enjoy privileges not available to purely private organizations.  For example, their nominee selection is state funded.  And they have to accept the rules set by the individual states that come with that funding.  For example, the party nominee is the person selected by a plurality of those voting in the party primary or through a state approved caucus.
Some would like to argue that "quasi-governmental organizations" is not the right description.  But the fact remains that even if the parties can choose their nominees by a process other than the person selected by voters, it doesn't matter.  The person who appears on the ballot as the party's nominee will still be the person selected by voters.  Because that's how the state determines ballot access.  And ballot access is naturally within the purview of the states unless they delegate to the parties.
The "party" primary is a state election.  Note how Louisiana, Washington, and California don't have party primaries.  Their processes just select the top two, possibly of the same party.  Presumably the parties could have separate nomination processes there, although they have not yet chosen to do so.
Comment: How can the rule be decide by the _state_? A political party - not being controlled by the state - can adopt whichever way it likes to select candidates for elections (including a random draw among willing members) - couldn't it?
Comment: @einpoklum The parties *are* controlled by the state, through state election law. If the law says that candidates have to fulfil certain criteria (such as selection method), then the parties have to meet them, or win a legal battle.
Comment: @origimbo: And state laws forbid something like, say, random draw? Or member with first name in dictionary sort order? Or oldest member? etc.
Comment: @einpoklum The USA is really, really federal, so the answer to that will vary a bit. As Brythan's answer now points out, a couple of states effectively say anyone who can meet the nomination criteria can stand in a nonpartisan primary election. If you want to look up the details state by state, http://www.thegreenpapers.com has a lot of useful links.
Comment: Your assertion that the Democratic and Republican parties are not private but privileged semi-official organisations and that they have privileged status compared to other parties require references.  This is the first I've heard of it in several decades of following US politics.
Comment: @phoog You contest that party primaries are state funded? Or that they don't set the selection process unless the state delegates that power to them (e.g. some states allow parties to choose whether they have open or closed primaries).
Answer: Some states, like Colorado, have caucuses in addition to primary elections. Anyone registered with the political party may attend in person, usually at a school or a church or a library or someone's house.
Caucuses are organized by precinct, each of which would typically have a few thousand people, of whom a few hundred would typically be registered in any given political party. In a slow year, half a dozen people might show up. In a Presidential election year, it could be a hundred.
A caucus nominates delegates to the next level of the nomination process, typically at the county/state legislative district level (eventually nominating candidates for almost all political offices, but sometimes sending a contest between a few candidates who get comparable support in the caucus process to a primary election), suggests items for planks in the party platform, and also elects precinct committee members who are charged with running caucuses, with distributing literature, to electing people to higher offices within the political party organization, and, in Colorado to voting in all vacancy elections for elected officials from the party whose districts include that precinct. So, in Colorado, if there is a horrible scandal, members of one's own party try to get you to resign, rather than the members of the other party, so that the tarnished candidate can be replaced with a party loyalist.
Thus, while at one level everyone who registerers with a party is a member, in other ways, only people who are precinct committee people or hold higher offices either in the government or in a political party, are actively participating members of the party who carry out its day to day business.
Many states have weaker parties that have less of a role in nominating and filling vacancies in public offices. But, almost all have some way of selecting precinct officers for the party and they are really the truly active members of the party rather than its merely nominal members.


Kafka as a data store for future events

Question: I have a Kafka cluster which receives messages from a source based on data changes in that source. In some cases the messages are meant to be processed in the future. So I have 2 options:

Consume all messages and post messages that are meant for the future back to Kafka under a different topic (with the date in the topic name) and have a Storm topology that looks for topics with that date's name in it. This will ensure that messages are processed only on the day it's meant for.
Store it in a separate DB and build a scheduler that reads messages and posts to Kafka only on that future date.

Option 1 is easier to execute but my question is: Is Kafka a durable data store? And has anyone done this sort of eventing with Kafka? Are there any gaping holes in the design?
Answer: You can configure the amount of time your messages stay in Kafka (log.retention.hours).
But keep in mind that Kafka is meant to be used as a "real-time buffer" between your producers and your consumers, not as durable data store. I don't think Kafka+Storm would be the appropriate tool for your use case.
Why not just write your messages in some distributed file system, and schedule a job (MapReduce, Spark...) to process those events?
Comment: Although Kafka was originally designed to be a real-time buffer in one sense, my understanding is that it is built in such a way that it makes perfect sense to use it as an immutable data store.  There is even a section of the documentation dedicated to using Kafka as an event store for event sourced applications.
Comment: What I want to rule out is the option to store the data in Kafka before considering a different data store. Just to keep the number of moving parts small and hence make the solution more resilient.

Kafka as a data store for future events


Autobiographer badge is cross-site, but Informed badge is site-specific?

Question: This question has been bugging me ever since the few minutes I spent joining several Stack Exchange sub-sites whose subjects fell within my interests and thus I expect to be active in within the foreseeable future (19 of them, to be exact): How come the Authobiographer badge is auto-unlocked across all SE sites (i.e. you only need to complete one "About Me" section), but the Informed badge has to be unlocked separately for each site despite the Tour page being virtually identical in each case? Not that I'm complaining, but is there an actual point behind this redundancy?
Comment: It isn't. You're just awarded the 'autobiographer' badge right away because you have put something in your profile already when you join a site.
Comment: _"despite the Tour page being virtually identical in each case?"_ Because the differences in the Tour pages is _important_ and should be checked. Things like site scope and what doesn't belong are in the Tour pages, and those _do_ differ from site to site. Autobiographer just seems automatic, because adding a new site automatically ports your existing "About Me" section (IIRC) which means you already have it filled out when you start on the site.
Comment: @Kendra: Well, perhaps I would appreciate the importance of those differences if there was evidence that they can be far from trivial. And by trivial, I mean that having read WorldbuildingSE's tour first, I found that the BiologySE tour did not tell me anything that I did not know already from reading the WorldbuildingSE's tour; the few keywords and right-side illustrative examples that are indeed different may be useful as reference if I ever feel I need a refresher on specifics, but that's it.
Comment: I would argue that you skimmed, then, but I cannot prove this. Each tour covers what is allowed, topic wise, on those sites. If you already knew what _kinds_ of biology questions were on-topic for Biology SE from reading the Worldbuilding tour, I would gladly pay you money to teach me how to do that.
Comment: @Kendra: It's more like each Tour is obviously structured in the same way, most if it does not actually pertain specifically to the particular SE it's for, and the parts that are specific to the SE (namely, the "Get answers to practical, detailed questions" section) use such similar framework and follow such similar broad principles that I managed to correctly infer the gist of it just by changing the context (e.g. from "Worldbuilding" to "Biology").
Answer: When you fill up the About Me section of your profile, and hit save to all communities, it pops up a green notification tab right above the save button saying:

Saved to all communities

This means that when you join a new community, you already have filled up your About me section for that new community, since you saved your profile for all communities.
That is why you earn the autobiographer badge by default.
On the other hand, guidelines for posting are really important to every Stack Exchange sub-site, so making sure you read it is a priority. That is why you have to go the extra mile by taking the tour of the new community you just joined, and you earn a badge every time you read it.
Comment: @MarqFJA87 that's a different thing altogether; cheating to get a badge. But, those who really want to contribute positively to the community will go through the effort to read the description in the tour, because, in the end, for those who have not understood the guidelines, their questions and post will reflect it, and will attract downvotes in the end anyways. The way I see it, what StackOverflow does is provide an incentive for the user to read the Tour page, which will ultimately benefit the user if he/she does so properly.
Comment: Well, that seems reasonable on paper, but to take the respective Tours for BiologySE and WorldbuildingSE as examples, I find that the only differences I could see are a few keywords and **some** of the illustrative examples. And that's just the **minor** problem; a much bigger one is that I found I could just skip the whole thing by clicking the "End" key to jump to the bottom of the page, and then give it 5 seconds for the badge to be earned; that can be easily replicated by an automated script, I believe, so it's practically useless as a method to get people to actually read the guidelines.
Comment: @A Busy Programmer: Good point. I'll probably check those Tour pages more thoroughly when/if I get around to actually participating in those communities, just in case I missed/forgot something. Still, I hope you guys do find a better alternative to your current approach; at least something that can't be circumvented with just a single button click. Perhaps make it so that the page only loads one section at a time and the new section only loads once you reach the (current) end of the page, the way some blogs do?
Comment: @MarqFJA87 That would be a great idea, why don't you post that here as a feature-request? It will allow stricter enforcement of users reading the tour-page rather than merely skipping over it.
Comment: @A Busy Programmer: [Done](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/292534/make-tour-pages-load-only-one-section-at-a-time).


Does using component cable help improve video quality?

Question: I have a standard definition (SD) set top box which has three jacks for its output(Red,white,yellow). I recently bought a Sony TV which has WXGA (1280x800) resolution and 5 jacks for input which has "Component IN" written near the input. I was wondering that , if I use a component cable as a replacement for my existing Red,White,Yellow cable (using the same SetTopBox), will it help to improve the picture quality. The current video quality is not too sharp and has significant motion-blur. I am asking this since the Sony installation guy told me a component cable will provide a better output keeping the same set top box.
Comment: The red/white/yellow scheme suggests the usual stereo audio and video composite out. If the STB doesn't support component video output, the cable won't make a difference, unless it has a built in adapter to factor the supplied composite signal into the 3 components. But that's not optimal.
Answer: It won't make a difference because your box is SD. No amount of signal inserted in it would make it look HD. To show HD, you need HD ready equipment.
Comment: This is simply wrong.  He is not asking if it will make it HD, he is asking if it will improve the quality of the signal.  Separating components of a signal results in more stable transmission than incorporating them in a composite signal, so the quality will, in fact, improve the quality of the feed, especially the longer the run is.  It won't up the resolution unless there was significant deterioration, but it will impact other signal quality issues.


Does Ubuntu Phone support encryption?

Question: Does anyone know if the Ubuntu phone (especially the first official release - BQ E4.5) supports full device encryption? And if it does not, then if there are any plans for it?
Answer: The phone images do not yet support device encryption. There are plans to add it at some point, yes.
Answer: Canonical's founder promised to "suggest it to the team" one year ago: Here is the Link

Does Ubuntu Phone support encryption?


Variable band-pass filter for splitting audio signal into separate signals (high and low freqs)

Question: I've been wondering for quite some time how to create a sort of audio splitter. The idea is to get an audio signal (e.g. guitar) at the input, and have two separate outputs, one with the input's low frequency part, and one with the input's hight frequency part. From what I understand, I firstly need to duplicate the input signal with opamps, and then apply a bandpass filter on each signal to extract specific band of frequencies. Now, for fixed bands this is trivial, but I'd like for the circuit to allow for varying both bands independently. Hence, I need to apply separate, variable high-pass filters on both, and then separate low-pass filters, giving a total of 4 variable pass filters. So my question is - is there any way of creating a continuous (not sure if it's the right word, as in not discrete, allowing for smooth variable change instead of choosing from a constant number of options) variable low-pass and high-pass filter? Thanks for any advice.
Comment: This is called a "crossover". You'll want a low level electronic one, check out "Linkwitz-Riley active crossover" for plenty of info on them (aimed at hi-fi loudspeakers, but more generally useful)
Comment: Is this specifically for a guitar?   You can do this easily with a couple EQ pedals and a "Y" adaptor.
Comment: @BrianDrummond does Linkwitz-Riley allow for frequency overlap? I.e. can one of the outputs be say 60-1000Hz and the other output 600-1500Hz? And can such crossover be variable?
Comment: The basic approach allows it, but the actual L-R filters are matched (only enough overlap to prevent a hole between them). But, just cheat a bit and you can design what you want.
Answer:
is there any way of creating a continuous (not sure if it's the right
word, as in not discrete, allowing for smooth variable change instead
of choosing from a constant number of options) variable low-pass and
high-pass filter?

It sounds like you are looking for a parametric equalizer: -

Parametric equalizers are multi-band variable equalizers which allow
users to control the three primary parameters: amplitude, center
frequency and bandwidth. The amplitude of each band can be controlled,
and the center frequency can be shifted, and bandwidth (which is
inversely related to "Q") can be widened or narrowed. Parametric
equalizers are capable of making much more precise adjustments to
sound than other equalizers, and are commonly used in sound recording
and live sound reinforcement. Parametric equalizers are also sold as
standalone outboard gear units.
A variant of the parametric equalizer is the semi-parametric
equalizer, also known as a sweepable filter. It allows users to
control the amplitude and frequency, but uses a pre-set bandwidth of
the center frequency. In some cases, semi-parametric equalizers allow
the user to select between a wide and a narrow preset bandwidth.

They are commonly available and, if you don't want to build one you can buy one like this stereo model: -

Feed both channels with the same common input signal and adjust each parametric equalizer to give you the response you want. You can find tons of circuits on the internet for them too: -

Schematic from here.


According to the Catholic Church, why did Mary go with haste to visit Elizabeth?

Question: Luke 1:39-40 says that Mary went with haste to visit Elizabeth. What, according to Catholic Church, does the departure of Mary in haste to visit Elizabeth tell about Mary's personality?
Answer: Elizabeth, who had been called "barren," is going to be a mother. Gabriel, sent by God, had informed Mary of it. Shortly afterwards, Mary set out in haste for the hill country, to a town of Judah (Lk 1:39).

She is not motivated by curiosity, nor does she make the journey to
  discover for herself whether the angel's message is true. Humble,
  filled with charity—a charity that leads her to be more concerned for
  her elderly cousin than for herself—Mary goes to the home of Elizabeth
  because she has discerned in the heavenly message a hidden
  relationship between Elizabeth's child and the Son she carries within
  her.

It is a long way—nearly a hundred miles—from Nazareth to Ain Karim, the little town in the hills of Judea where, according to tradition, Zachary and Elizabeth lived. Most likely it was Joseph who arranged the trip, looking for a caravan in which the Blessed Virgin could travel safely. He himself may have accompanied her, at least as far as Jerusalem; some commentators even think he went with Mary right to Ain Karim, which is only five miles from the capital. If so, he would have needed to return immediately to his workshop in Nazareth.
Mary entered the house of Zachary and greeted Elizabeth (Lk 1:40). According to a local tradition, the meeting of the two cousins took place, not in the town, but in a country place where Elizabeth—as the sacred text affirms (Lk 1:24)—had secluded herself for five months from the sight of curious relatives and neighbors, to raise up her heart in gratitude to God for such an immense gift.
The rest here if interested.
Answer: As recorded in St. Thomas Aquinas's Catena Aurea (Golden Chain) for Luke 1:

AMBROSE; The Angel, when he announced the hidden mysteries to the Virgin, that he might build up her faith by an example, related to her the conception of a barren woman. When Mary heard it, it was not that she disbelieved the oracle, or was uncertain about the messenger, or doubtful of the example, but rejoicing in the fulfillment of her wish, and conscientious in the observance of her duty, she gladly went forth into the hill country. For what could Mary now, filled with God, but ascend into the higher parts with haste!
ORIGEN; For Jesus who was in her womb hastened to sanctify John, still in the womb of his mother. Whence it follows, with haste.


When "be it" is at the beginning of a sentence, what kind of structure do you call it?

Question: I think it is kind of inversion and I'd found some info on Wikipedia, but I cannot recall what term this structure is, I even remember some examples from Wiki, say, "be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."
Can anybody help me out?
Comment: Fi Fi Fo Fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman.   Be he live or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to butter my bread.
Answer: In terms of morphology, the verb is in the subjunctive mood (be rather than indicative is).
In terms of word order, we're dealing with a case of subject-auxiliary inversion (be before the subject).
In terms of semantics, the structure can express a variety of meanings such as optative, a wish or a hope (be it the best year of your life), in which case the structure carries archaic, formal, often religious connotations. But in your case it encodes arbitrariness or free-choice, 'no matter which' (be it new or be it old), or concession, 'although, even if, even if I grant' (be it as it may). The two uses are difficult to distinguish.
So your construction could be described quite well as a case of subject-auxiliary inversion with free-choice/concessive, subjunctive be.
Comment: Thanks for your detailed explaining Richard I learnt a lot; btw I just succeeded in locating it on the Inversion section of the English subjunctive on wikipedia and that's exactly what I wanted to find.
Comment: @Angyang Please mark this answer as your accepted answer if it answers your question.
Comment: @Angyang On the other hand, if you mean that either [English subjunctive § Inversion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_subjunctive#Inversion) or [English conditional sentences § Inversion in condition clauses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_conditional_sentences#Inversion_in_condition_clauses) answered your question, can you please post an answer with those details?


How to create a mp3-clip from an existing mp3?

Question: Is there a free audio tool where I can just grab a snippet from a mp3 file and save it as a new mp3?
Answer: Open it in QuickTime Player, click Edit → Trim… (⌘T), drag the yellow handles to truncate it to the snippet you want, and export the result.

Note that it will export in AAC (.m4a) format, so if you need MP3, you'll need to convert it afterwards.
Answer: "Audacity" is also a good tool for audio editing.  It has an "Export Selection..." menu item that supports MP3, including tag editing.
Answer: You could also use GarageBand, included with the iLife suite with Mac computers.

In Garageband go the beginning of the sample you want and press ⌘T.
Select the first cut section, and press delete.
Do the same at the end of the sample you want.
Select menu item Share > Send Song to iTunes…, in the following popup make sure your Compress Using: setting is set to MP3 Encoder. Hit the Share button.
Answer: Macsome audio editor is freeware and will allow you select a portion of your audio file, then use "Save Selection..." to export as mp3 or aac.


how can I set the working directory in old version of docker in the run command?

Question: I am a bit new to docker and I have been trying to run deploy a meteor container with my meteor application. I have been using the dockerfile and instructions from https://registry.hub.docker.com/u/golden/meteor-dev/
However, I cant run docker run -p 3000:3000 -t -i -v /path/to/meteor/app:/opt/application -w /opt/application meteor-dev because my docker (version 0.5.3) does not recognize the flag (-w) to set the working directory.
Is there some workaround to set the working directory with docker 0.5.3? The work directory is already set in the docker file, but I guess I need to set it again when I run the container.
Comment: By Docker standards, 0.5.3 is really old. Try to upgrade to the latest version (1.0.0 as of today).
Answer: well, my workaround was to create a bash script that would go to the working directory and call the commands one by one. I created the bash script where my source is located  "/path/to/meteor/app" and call docker run -p 3000:3000 -t -i -v /path/to/meteor/app:/opt/application meteor-dev bash /opt/application/start.sh with the bash as command and my script as argument


How do I install the ASUS USB-AC51 Wireless Adapter?

Question: I do  not know how to install the ASUS USB-AC51  wireless adapter.  I am not very good with
Comment: Please [follow the instructions for Wifi issue diagnosis](/q/425155/) and [edit] your question to include or link to the results.
Comment: this adapter only works for kernels up to 2.6, i tried in vain to get it up and running on 14.04. asus needs to let customers know it onlly works on legacy os's.
Comment: @duanestroh Does Asus have any documentation to this effect?
Answer: I struggled to make it work on modern distributions, but since Kernel 4.19 there is native support for mt7610u. Fedora 30 and Ubuntu 19.04 has this kernel version.
These distributions should work without any additional effort.
Comment: Just purchased one and it works out of the box without any configuring on Ubuntu 19.04
Answer: There is a newer Linux driver for the underlying chipset "MT7610U USB" here:
https://github.com/maage/mt7610u_wifi/tree/some_changes
This worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04.4, whereas the MediaTek drivers did not. The above is a fork of the MediaTek drivers which fixes the compilation errors and warnings.
Answer: Download the linux driver from here. The instructions are included in the zip folder and following them will install the driver. Reboot the system after installation to get your USB adapter working.
You can also refer to the user manual which you can download from here.
Answer: I bought this adapter yesterday, and at first it seemed like nothing helps to make it work.
Luckily, I found this: TP-Link AC600 driver on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS x64
P.S. It is a guide for TP-Link's driver, but it seems to do the trick for ASUS USB-AC51.
Comment: Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Please do not post duplicate answers on different questions. It just creates more work for the moderators. If the questions are so similar that the same answer works on each, then the later of the two is likely a duplicate and should be flagged as such.
Comment: Oh sorry, I will be more careful in the future with that :)


can I use a 10 speed brake lever shifter If I have a 7 gear cassette

Question: I'm restoring an old Myatta 1000 and want to use a brake lever shifter that I have. It is a 10 speed shifter and I have a 7 gear cassette. Can i use this?
Comment: I'm going to guess Myatta = Miyata?
Answer: No.
The brake lever has to be matched to the cable pull of the brake (short pull/long pull); V-brakes need different cable pull than caliper brakes, for example. Else, you'll have not enough power to stop or you'll lock up the wheel instantly.
The number of speeds on the shifter needs to match the number of speeds on the cassette (*). The shifter also has to be compatible with the derailleur.
Also, note that road and mountain shift+brake levers have different clamp diameters since the handlebars have different diameters, so you need to use road shifters+brake levers on a road bar, and mountain shifters+brake levers on a flat bar.
(*) There are a few special cases where you can violate this. 7 speed cassette with 10 speed shifter is not one of them.

In this case (assuming Miyata 1000; a drop bar road bike), I'd suggest finding a compatible brake lever (which will be easy), and using friction shifters (downtube/bar end). Or find a 7 speed indexed shifter which is compatible with the derailleur at hand (if the rear derailleur is Shimano, theres now a 7 speed brifter in the Tourney range, as well as one made by microshift; you can easily find 7 speed compatible index/friction switchable downtube or bar end shifters for Shimano as well).
Comment: Miyata 1000 seems to come with drop bars and cantilever brakes, so a lot of this answer is irrelevant.
Comment: @ojs - its irrelevant if you assume that you know what type of levers and stuff you need. Which based on the original question it doesn't seem like you can make that assumption safely.
Answer: No, you can't. Indexed shifting requires all the components to be precisely matched. The shifters, derailleurs, chain and cassette all need to be compatible.
You didn't say why you want to replace your shifter. If the one you have works, then just leave it alone. Otherwise, you have the following options:

Fix it.
Replace it with a shifter that's compatible with the rest of your drivetrain (without knowing more about your bike, I don't know what that would be).
Replace the whole drivetrain (shifters, chain, derailleurs, cassette, possibly front chainrings).
Answer: It obviously depends on what you plan to do with your bike, but provided you're willing to get your hands dirty the answer is a definite Yes.
I have been riding my modified Tdf-100 (9-speed SORA with 7speed MTB cassette) for 10.000+ km, and I'd feel pretty confident saying that with a little bit of patience and careful indexing you'll have a perfectly functional bike, although maybe not competition worthy due to slightly sub-optimal shifting reliability and braking power.
That said, as most of the other answers point out, you have to make sure of the following key points before you even start:

You can fit the lever shifters to your bar (duh..)
You can brake effectively with the available pull: from a quick image search it seems that Miyata1000s do mount cantilever brakes, which require a relatively long pull distance. You should first of all true your wheel (I haven't had time to watch the whole thing with audio but the guy seems to be using a method I personally found to be very effective). You may then proceed to adjust the cable tension by shortening the cantilever "beam" so that your brake pads rest as close as possible to the wheel, in order to reduce the required pull to a minimum. You should then be able to clamp the rim hard even with a relatively short pull lever.

You will then have to work around the mismatched lever/cassette indexing. There are two main aspects to consider:

Lever Pull Reach: easily solved by careful tuning of the limit screws. Were your cassette larger than the lever range you'd be in trouble, but this is not your case.
Indexing Step: chances are the sprockets on your 7speed cassette will be farther apart than they'd be on the 10speed your lever was designed for. This means that in theory you can only index ONE chain position to be perfectly aligned with a lever click and all the others will be working slightly out of alignment.

It is important to clean and lubricate the entire drivetrain, as you'll be striving to adhere to the First Law: Ye Shall Make No Sound as you make your adjustments.
Proceed as follows:

Set your limit screws with no cable on (push and pull the derailleur by hand) so that both limit positions are about 1mm wide of the corresponding sprockets (i.e. left of the large one and right of the small one).
Put the lever in hardest gear thus releasing all cable, pre-tension it and clamp it into the derailleur.
If you can index your gears normally from here then RIGHT ON, skip the rest of this boring answer, sit back and enjoy this blissful moment of the-universe-sorting-itself-out-for-your-happiness. Otherwise..
Index your preferred chain position: you can choose the perfect chain line (or maybe the sprocket you think you'll be riding on the most?). The more different the spacing is from the lever clicks, the more important that you choose a mid-range sprocket as your indexing centre, so as to minimise the maximum misalignment your jockey arm will have to endure. Click the lever into the desired position, and adjust the cable tensioner (or have a friend hold the derailleur in position as you unclamp the cable to make small adjustments) until the "indexing centre sprocket" turns smoothly and silently. Proceed to make small adjustments until you can smoothly shift up to softest, down to hardest, and back to your centre sprocket.

By trial and error you should be able to get to the stage where the centre sprocket and the closest four work smoothly with minimum racketing.
The deviation between clicks and sprockets for the highest and lowest gear might be large enough for them to require TWO clicks (or a full lever swing) to get to, hence the need to allow a little extra slack on the maximum limiting screw (so that you may reach the click with the lever, then let the derailleur settle in position by clicking down once).
Extra trick:
If and only if you're really not satisfied with the results of the above procedure, you can index your centre sprocket (Step 3) one click up, and have a "ghost gear" click below the hardest to release enough cable to reach the smallest sprocket. The low limit screw should then be as tight to the perfectly aligned position as you can get it. This will allow you a bit more room for manoeuvre but can get quite complicated since you won't be able to rely on the small-sprocket=cable-fully-extended equation.
It may all be a bit awkward at first if you're used to perfectly indexed gears but I take if you were that picky you wouldn't even be asking this in the first place. You'll get to know your ride and the way it shifts, and the half-pull and two-up-one-down will become second nature soon enough.
I hope this makes sense, I may have assumed prior knowledge in an attempt to keep it linear. Please comment if you need clarifications.
Enjoy the hacking!
Answer: They won't just work together. However, presuming it's an STI lever other then ST-4700, you can use a Jtek Shiftmate 3 to match them.


Showing the irreducibility of $x^8 - 60 x^6 + 1160 x^4 - 7800 x^2 + 8836$ in $\mathbb{Q}[x]$

Question: I would like to show the irreducibility of  $x^8 - 60 x^6 + 1160 x^4 - 7800 x^2 + 8836$ and $x^8 - 120 x^6 + 4360 x^4 - 45600 x^2 + 15376$ in $\mathbb{Q}[x]$. In both cases Eisenstein criterion fails. I also attempted some linear changes of variables but nothing seems to work. Any help?
Comment: What is the origin of these two polynomials? They are similar in many ways. In addition to those congruences I looked at in my answer and the comments under it, they share the prme factors of the discriminants: $2,3,7,31,47$ (by Mathematica). I would bet against that being a coincidence.
Comment: Further toying: Both have eight real zeros. Also, both have the curious property that the four local minima are all equal, $-8064$ for the former and $-129024$ for the latter. Speak up, man! It is not given that I can reverse engineer them, even when aided by Mathematica :-) It's just that their origin may also simplify the irreducibility proofs.
Comment: I'm fairly sure that both the polynomials have Galois group isomorphic to $D_4$ (Chebotarev density analysis). Meaning that they are solvable in radicals (square roots actually).
Comment: Are these polynomials constructed to have an element $\alpha$ of a field $L$ such that $Gal(L/\Bbb{Q})\simeq D_4$ as a zero? And you want a confirmation of irreducibility to conclude that you have found a primitive element?
Comment: Ok. The depressing trick let's us easily find the zeros of both polynomials. I'm still curious about how you found them.
Answer: Irreducibility of the first polynomial
$$f(x) = x^8 - 60 x^6 + 1160 x^4 - 7800 x^2 + 8836$$
can also be deduced as follows.
Recall the usual business with Gauss's lemma. If $f(x)$ factors in $\Bbb{Q}[x]$, it also factors in $\Bbb{Z}[x]$. Let's assume contrariwise that
a non-trivial factorization $f(x)=g(x)h(x),g(x),h(x)\in\Bbb{Z}[x]$ exists.
Without loss of generality the leading coefficients of both $g$ and $h$ are equal to one.
A potentially useful feature of $f(x)$ is that modulo five it becomes very sparse. More precisely
$$
f(x)\equiv x^8+1\pmod 5.
$$
In $\Bbb{F}_5[x]$ we have the factorization
$$
x^8+1=x^8-4=(x^4-2)(x^4+2).
$$
These quartic polynomials are actually irreducible in $\Bbb{F}_5[x]$. We have
$$x^8+1\mid x^{16}-1.$$ Therefore any zero of either factor (in some extension field of $\Bbb{F}_5$) must be a root of unity of order sixteen. But $16\nmid 5^\ell-1$ for $\ell=1,2,3$ meaning that the field $\Bbb{F}_{5^4}$ is the smallest extension field containing such roots of unity. Therefore their minimal polynomials over $\Bbb{F}_5$ have degree four.
At this point we can conclude that the only remaining way $f(x)$ can factor in $\Bbb{Z}[x]$ is as a product of two irreducible factors of degree four, and
$$
g(x)\equiv x^4+2\pmod 5,\qquad h(x)\equiv x^4-2\pmod 5.
$$
Another feature of $f(x)$ is that it has even degree terms only. In other words, $f(x)=f(-x)$. Therefore $f(x)=g(-x)h(-x)$ is another factorization. But, factorization of polynomials is unique, so we can deduce that either $h(x)=g(-x)$ (when also $h(-x)=g(x)$),
or we have both $g(x)=g(-x), h(x)=h(-x)$.
Claim. It is impossible that $h(x)=g(-x)$.
Proof. Assume contrariwise that $h(x)=g(-x)$. If $g(x)=x^4+Ax^3+Bx^2+Cx+D$, then $h(x)=x^4-Ax^3+Bx^2-Cx+D$. Expanding $g(x)h(x)$ we see that the constant term is $D^2=8836=94^2$. Therefore we must have $D=\pm94$. But, earlier we saw that the constant terms of $g,h$ must be congruent to $\pm2\pmod5$. This is a contradiction.
Ok, so we are left with the possibility $g(x)=g(-x)$, $h(x)=h(-x)$. In other words, both $g(x)$ and $h(x)$ share with $f(x)$ the property that they have even degree terms only. Let's define $F(x),G(x),H(x)$ by the formulas
$$f(x)=F(x^2),\quad g(x)=G(x^2),\quad h(x)=H(x^2).$$
The above considerations can be summarized as follows. If
$$
F(x)=x^4-60x^3+1160x^2-7800x+8836
$$
is irreducible, then so is $f(x)=F(x^2)$. Furthermore, the putative factors must satisfy the congruences
$$G(x)\equiv x^2+2\pmod5,\quad H(x)\equiv x^2-2\pmod5.$$
A miracle is that depressing $F(x)$ produces a surprise:
$$
R(x)=F(x+15)=x^4-190x^2+961.
$$
The substitution $x\mapsto x+15$ does not change anything modulo five, so the only possible factors of $R(x)$ must still be congruent to $x^2\pm2\pmod5$.
Irreducibility of $R(x)$ follows from this. The constant term of $R(x)$
is
$$
R(0)=961=31^2,
$$
and this has no factors $\equiv\pm2\pmod5$.

The other octic surrenders to similar tricks:
$$f(x)=x^8 - 120 x^6 + 4360 x^4 - 45600 x^2 + 15376.$$
Again, $f(x)\equiv(x^4-2)(x^4+2)\pmod 5$. The constant term
$15376=(2^2\cdot31)^2$ is a square of an integer $\equiv\pm1\pmod5$,
ruling out a factorization of the form $g(x)g(-x)$. Again, we are reduced
to proving that
$$
F(x)=x^4-120x^3+4360x^2-45600x+15376
$$
is irreducible. Depressing this gives
$$
R(x)=F(x+30)=x^4-1040x^2+141376\equiv(x^2-2)(x^2+2)\pmod5.
$$
This time the constant term $R(0)=2^6\cdot47^2=376^2$ has more factors, so we need a different argument. However, we can repeat the dose! $\pm 376\equiv\pm1\pmod5$, ruling out the possibility of a factorization of the form $R(x)=G(x)G(-x)$ as above. So the remaining possibility is a factorization of the form
$$
R(x)=(x^2-A)(x^2-B)
$$
with integers $A$ and $B$. But, the equation
$$
x^2-1040x+141376=0
$$
has no integer roots. Irreducibility follows.
Answer: Let $f(x)=x^8 - 60 x^6 + 1160 x^4 - 7800 x^2 + 8836$.
$f$ has degree $8$ and assumes prime values at these $18 > 2 \cdot 8$ points and so must be irreducible:
$$
\begin{array}{rl}
n & f(n) \\
\pm 1 & 2137 \\
\pm 3 & -4583 \\
\pm 5 & -8039 \\
\pm 7 & 1117657 \\
\pm 13 & 557943577 \\
\pm 15 & 1936431961 \\
\pm 33 & 1330287723097 \\
\pm 37 & 3360699226777 \\
\pm 55 & 82083690591961 \\
\end{array}
$$
Comment: Very interesting idea, didn't know about this test. It seems it requires too much computing, though
Comment: Adapted from https://math.stackexchange.com/a/2942032/589
Comment: @RayBern, it's one line in Mathematica. Too bad it does not work in WA. `Select[Table[x^8-60x^6+1160x^4-7800x^2+8836,{x,0,100}],PrimeQ]`.
Answer: Both these polynomials have irreducible remainders in $\mathcal{F}_2[x]$, field of integers modulo 2, when we try to divide each by $x^2+x+1$.
The reference is to Artin's Algebra, Proposition 12.4.3

Let $f(x) = a_n x^n + \dots + a_0$ be an integer polynomial, and let $p$ be a prime integer that does not divide the leading coefficient $a_n$. If the residue $\bar{f}$ of $f$ modulo $p$ is an irreducible element of $\mathcal{F}_p[x]$, then $f$ is an irreducible element of $\mathcal{Q}[x]$.

This means if we divide our polynomials in field $\mathcal{F}_2[x]$, and we are lucky (= this often works) to get a remainder which is an irreducible polynomial in this field, then the original polynomial is irreducible.
In field $\mathcal{F}_2[x]$ the following polynomials are irreducible, $x^2+x+1$ and $x+1$.
If we divide the original polynomials by $x^2+x+1$, the remainders are
$$16575 + 8959 x \equiv 1+x \mod 2$$
$$60855 + 49959 x \equiv 1+x \mod 2$$
Note
If any of these two polynomials had proper divisors in $\mathcal{Q}[x]$, then it had proper divisors in $\mathcal{Z}[x]$ as well, Artin 12.3.6.
This might suggest that if any of these polynomials had proper divisors in $\mathcal{Z}[x]$, then divisors would be monic polynomials with limited choice of the last term, ie $8836=2^2 \times 47^2$. But I do not have a deep insight to pursue it further.
Comment: -1 You seem to have misunderstood the proposition you quote. None of this is logically sound.