Existing hypothesis, same country, but different years and setting – is it plagiarism?

Question: I am working on a master-thesis research paper. Recently, I have chosen a research topic and found a related survey dataset to work with. However, just now, I have found out that other authors did the same work for the same country, but used a different survey and for years earlier. Now, I am confused about what to do. If I would carry on the research, would it be considered as a plagiarism, even though I will use another survey for later years, and work in a different setting?
Comment: What part of this would be plagiarism?
Answer: Plagiarism is selling somebody else's idea as your own. Therefore as long as you properly cite the other paper, you are in no danger of committing plagiarism. The worst that can happen is that you are reproducing an existing study¹ instead of doing something novel. Whether this is a problem, is for you and your supervisor to decide, as you know the differences in detail.
On top, suppose you hadn't found out about the other study: In this case you would not have committed plagiarism since you cannot possibly use the ideas of others without knowing them. Had you published your paper in this case, you would perhaps² be guilty of sloppy literature research, but not of plagiarism. However, the evidence may (incorrectly) point to you being a plagiarist and thus you still want to avoid this situation.

¹ which scientists almost universally agree on being done too rarely.
² if the other paper is sufficiently easy to find
Answer: Reproducing a published study is good science. It isn't plagiarism as long as you properly cite the earlier work and don't copy from it.
It is especially good science if you have any doubts about the conclusions of the earlier study or about its applicability in new circumstances.
But, to be published yourself, you will need to be clear about why you are doing this and what, if anything, is new and different in your study as compared to the old. That isn't an ethical issue, but just the fact that publishers want to publish the new and novel.
If your methodology is the same, you need to say that and cite the original. If you have made changes you need to carefully explain them along with the reasons for the changes. If your conclusions are different you need to analyze why that is and explain it.
But it can be good science. There is quite a lot of published science that isn't good. Often and especially if it was done by someone with an agenda beyond seeking the truth.

The answer of Wrzlprmft gives a good explanation of plagiarism and how to avoid it.
Answer: Probably not.  However, it is not possible to be certain without reading both studies.


Windows Server 2012 R2 printer deployment ghost printers

Question: I have problem with printer deployment in Windows Server 2012 R2, so the problem is when deploy printer with one driver, and then change driver for that printer, i have ghost copies on computers in domain and on server only one printer. Another problem is with paper size, if i set on server, printer preferences A4 size, and on printers itself, on computers on network are still letter size... changed location of server and computers, change to metric, deploy few times nothing help... Does anyone have expirience with this type of problem? Printers I deploy are xerox, lexmark and hp plotter...
Comment: I really don't understand the issue you describe. I guess you're having two issues, but even that is not clear to me. Could you please try to rephrase your question?
Answer: You can get "ghost printers" if you change your print driver while there is still documents waiting to be printed. To solve this, try delete the print queue and restart the print spooler service.
When changing paper size/orientation etc this has to be done from the "Advanced" tab and "printing defaults" button on the printer properties on the server. if you change it from the "General" tab and Preferences, it will only affect the local user profile.
I guess you are connecting to the shared printer on the server \\server\printername and not creating a local port on the client connecting to the ip address of the printer
Comment: When i changed the driver there are no documents waiting to be printed. I done all of that. Intresting is that i dont have ghost printer on all computers in domain, its like 50-50% situation. In advanced tab i dont have that option, think there is a driver problem. Yes, i connected to the shared printer on server. Any other ideas? The second problem is when i delete printer deployment, on half computer deploy printers are left, cant remove them...
Comment: Make sure you use a print driver designed for server usage and if possible for terminal server environment. If you use a standard desktop print driver you can almost be 100% sure it will give you a loot of problem in a network environment. This kind of drivers should never be certified by Microsoft because all of them is just a huge piece of crap.
Comment: Yes i did use drivers for server. So you when the name of driver "microsoft certified" mean is the best choise. My users uses autocad, adobe and office...


What's the prognosis for Bluetooth device support in the emulator?

Question: It's pretty clear that the current emulator does not provide Bluetooth support.  While there appears to be a third-party emulator available that might work it seems to come with warnings about bugs that tend to suggest that I might be better off spending my energies elsewhere.  Does anyone know of progress, and perhaps even a target, for getting Bluetooth support built into the device emulator in the Android SDK Tools?
Answer: There is a workaround available though that lets you utilize your computers bluetooth and still have the benefits of debugging on the spot, so to say.
You can install a virtual machine android and have it use your onboard bluetooth. There is a readily installed image for this available, just google it. You can then have adb connect to this device as you would with any other real or virtual device, it is also described if you look it up on the net. I hope this helps.
Still, build in bluetooth support is something I would love the emulator to get enhanced by.
Comment: @JPM: Check this other answer on another related thread http://stackoverflow.com/a/4983743/186880
Comment: can you add links of where this is and then I will upvote you. yeah you can google it but maybe we aren't using the right keywords or same ones you did.


SDL2 fixed framerate without VSync

Question: My attempt at a fixed framerate using SDL2 without using VSync. Just using SDL_Delay left the fps a bit slower or faster due to the fact SDL_Delay only works with milliseconds. So the solution I came up with is after using SDL_Delay the remainder of the "extra" time is elapsed through a loop. The solution seems a little bit cluttered to me and my experience with programming in general is very limited so any pointers would be much appreciated.
float frame_cap{ 60 };
float ms_per_frame{ 1000.0f / frame_cap };
float fps{ 0 };
uint64_t start_counter;
uint64_t end_counter;

bool quit{ false };
while( quit != true )
{
    start_counter = SDL_GetPerformanceCounter();

    //HANDLE INPUT
    //UPDATE
    //RENDER

    end_counter = SDL_GetPerformanceCounter();
    //multiplying by 1000.0f to convert to ms
    float elapsed_ms = ((end_counter - start_counter) / (float)SDL_GetPerformanceFrequency()) * 1000.0f;
    if( elapsed_ms < ms_per_frame )
    {
        float ms_left = ms_per_frame - elapsed_ms;
        SDL_Delay( floor(ms_left) );

        //loop for the amount of time that could not be delayed with SDL_Delay
        float missed_ms = ms_left - floor(ms_left);
        start_counter = SDL_GetPerformanceCounter();
        float delayed_ms { 0 };
        while(delayed_ms < missed_ms)
        {
            end_counter = SDL_GetPerformanceCounter();
            delayed_ms = ((end_counter - start_counter) / (float)SDL_GetPerformanceFrequency()) * 1000.0f;
        }
        //adding time delayed to elapsed time of frame for fps calculation
        elapsed_ms += floor(ms_left) + delayed_ms;
        /*floor(ms_left) is time delayed using SDL_Delay
        this has a chance to be inaccurate if SDL_Delay
        delays more then floor(ms_left) due to OS scheduling*/
    }
    //dividing by 1000.0f to convert to seconds
    fps = 1.0f / (elapsed_ms / 1000.0f);
}

Answer: Why you exactly need the framerate to be constant?
You can use SDL_GetTicks() this way:
const int ms_frame = 1000 / 60;
Uint32 initial_ticks, elapsed_ms;
while(true){
      initial_ticks = SDL_GetTicks();

      //do things

      elapsed_ms = SDL_GetTicks() - elapsed_ms;
      if(elapsed_ms < ms_frame) SDL_Delay(ms_frame - elapsed_ms);
}

Comment: `elapsed_ms = SDL_GetTicks() - initial_ticks;`?

SDL2 fixed framerate without VSync


Positive euphemisms for desert?

Question: Looking on thesaurus.com I can find only synonyms for "desert" with negative connotations. Are there any synonyms with positive connotations? Specifically, something that invokes the sense of clean desolation and unspoiled nature.
Comment: *Desolation* doesn't exactly have positive connotations, even if preceded by *clean*.
Comment: What connotations does *wilderness* have for you? I think some people would say it has positive connotations, but not others, but I'm not actually sure.
Comment: 'The widest beach _ever_'
Comment: "Sunny, mosquito-free, well-drained expanse beneath a sheltering sky" might work if you were selling real estate in, say, the Sahara. And "geological wonderland" may be suitable if nothing grows there at all.
Comment: The desert often is quite beautiful.  But descriptive words like "beautiful", "vista", and "quiet" are not synonyms.  It's not desolate to anyone who looks closely.
Comment: Note that a "desert island" need not have an arid climate; it just needs to have no people on it.
Comment: Why would anyone need a euphemism for dessert?  (What?  It's *desert*??  Never mind!!)
Comment: @SvenYargs: Your second suggestion is absolutely terrific. Though it does not address the core feature of the desert, it would be a terrific substitute in many contexts.
Answer: Following your link shows a tremendous number of synonyms with negative connotations!  Here are some relatively neutral, albeit not quite synonomous, words:

solitude, with sense "A lonely or deserted place."
sere, "Without moisture."
unpeopled, "Not inhabited by people."
The Outback in Australia  is a vast, remote, arid area, and you might compare an area to it.
You could talk about horny toad country; that's pretty neutral, isn't it?
Comment: Sorry for the late reply! Solitude could in fact be construed as positive, thanks!
Answer: The Etymology tells the story:

The Classical Latin word deserta (abandoned, deserted wife) is
  derived from the Latin word desertus (deserted, uninhabited, without people), which is
  derived from the Latin verb deserere (to cease to be concerned with; to fail, fall short; to leave, depart, quit), which is derived from negative or past de- plus the verb serere (to plant, sow).

Hence, a desert is unused or unusable land. Arabia Deserta is the classical Latin name for guess which country? And guess what it means?
There really aren't many positive connotations available for the word desert; perhaps that's one reason why we often spell it dessert and vice versa. There's rarely any confusion about which word is meant.
Comment: My elementary school teacher always reminded us how to spell them properly by saying "Dessert has two s's because you always want more."
Comment: So the root of the word desert is actually a "negative" root. That is important to know. Thanks!
Answer: Expanse, as in wide expanse or open expanse, is fairly positive. It evokes a sense of opportunity and possibility, to me: Riding off into the open expanse.

expanse A wide and open extent, as of surface, land, or sky.
Comment: Isn't *expanse* used also in referring to the ocean and even vast land areas in general?
Comment: Yes. It would need to be used in context to make sense.
Answer: Rather than look for a word with positive connotations (even National Geographic wasn't able to put their usual positive gloss on an article about the Atacama), you can use a word that gives an exotic flavor to the defining feature of a desert:

xeric, adj.: (of an environment or habitat) containing little moisture; very dry [OED]

So you can write about crossing the xeric landscape of the Mojave, for example.
Answer: 'Arid' region(s) is used in a neutral/ technical sense. An expressly positive connotation may not be possible without specific context.
Comment: The context is for a product made in, and embodying the essence of, the desert. Such as pottery.
Answer: One positive synonym I can think of is 'The Sands'. This might be a useful version for you.
Comment: Nice idea, thank you! Though this particular desert is not sandy, I could use 'the cliffs' or some other similar feature.
Answer: Untouched, undeveloped, uninhabited.  Perhaps wilderness.
Comment: *Unspoiled*, too!
Answer: Thebaid

The Thebaid or Thebais (Greek: Θηβαΐς, Thēbaïs) is the region of ancient Egypt containing the thirteen southernmost nomes of Upper Egypt, from Abydos to Aswan. It acquired its name from its proximity to the ancient Egyptian capital of Thebes. During the Ancient Egyptian dynasties this region was dominated by Thebes and its priesthood at the temple of Amun at Karnak. [...]
Around the 5th century, since it was a desert, the Thebaid became a place of retreat of a number of Christian hermits, and was the birthplace of Pachomius. In Christian art, the Thebaid was represented as a place with numerous monks.
Social Vocabulary
The subjects range from the pleasures of courtly life to the spiritual rewards of religious retirement from the world in a Thebaid, to the degradations and miseries of the poor [...]
The Oxford Dictionary of Christian Art and Architecture

Positive euphemisms for desert?


how to connect an android device to a printer?

Question: is there an android api that would connect an android device to a printer?
what are the possible ways to connect to a printer in android?
thank you in advance!
Answer: Try using USB android.hardware.usb package. USBManager class and further.
I dont know much.
I myself am learning about it.
Hope you try out.
Tc
Answer: Are you looking to print to a big desktop printer or a receipt printer?
If you're looking for a receipt printer, Star Micronics has an Android SDK that you can freely download here: http://www.starmicronics.com/support/SDKDocumentation.aspx.
It covers USB, ethernet, and bluetooth printing. If you want to use USB, these printers can be connected directly to tablets supporting that port. Your tablet needs to have Android V3.1 or higher for direct USB connection with a printer.
This SDK has a really nice sample app that lets you test and customize a lot of printer functions to see them in action. Each function is documented in the source code. The commands and their parameters are also available in the app itself as a quick on screen reference which is convenient. On top of all that, it's well documented.


Projection on a Non-Orthonormal Subspace

Question: I'm just here to ask if there is anything dramatic or marginally more complex when you project a vector onto a subspace that is not defined by an orthonormal basis. We are currently studying an elementary course, and the strict definition of projections onto subspaces emphasizes the fact that the basis of the subspace is orthonormal. What could go wrong otherwise?
Comment: Naturally the subspace doesn't change whether you use an orthonormal basis or not. The *computation* of the orthogonal projection may be more complicated, however, than the convenient case of using an orthonormal basis.
Comment: In  an inner-product space the orthogonal projection of a vector v onto a  closed linear subspace S is not dependent on choice of basis for S. It is a function of v and S. If however you compute it by applying the computational formula that uses an orthonormal basis for S, to a basis for S that is not orthonormal,the chances of being right are between slim and none.
Answer: If the basis of your subspace is just orthogonal (not normalized) then nothing major changes: you just have to divide each term by the norm squared of the basis vector.  However if your basis is not orthogonal even then you've got two options:

Orthogonalize your basis vectors via the Gram-Schmidt process and then proceed as normal
Find the dual basis for that subspace

Each of the above is a bit more complex (but just a little bit) than simply using the projection formula.  If you want more info, just let me know in a comment below.


how to merge an end anchor point with a path

Question: I tried to unit and join the end anchor point with the path shown in the picture but I either get the paths interlocked or part of the drawing just disappear.
Comment: You can only join end points to other end points. You can only join endpoints of un-grouped paths. You can make Illustrator treat individual paths as one object by making it a compound path. (Object>Compound Path>Make).
Answer: You can't merge it with a path. You can only join anchor points to other anchor points.
Anyway, there is no need to do that. There's nothing wrong with the paths just the way they are in your example. If your ultimate aim is to colour in the drawing, learn about the Live Paint functionality in Illustrator - there are tutorials online.


Delete products from single website

Question: I need to remove some of my products from one a single website and it's store view. How do I do this, without ending up deleting it from all all stores?
Answer: The product-website association is kept in the table catalog_product_website.
If you have the product ids you can remove them fast from a specific website by running the query
DELETE FROM
    catalog_product_website
WHERE
    product_id IN (your product ids here separated by comma) AND
    website_id = website_id_here

When you are done, rebuild your indexes.
[EDIT]
If you don't want to touch the database you can do it via code like this:
$productIds = array(...your product ids here...);
$websiteId = your website id here
Mage::getModel('catalog/product_website')->removeProducts(array($websiteId), $productIds);

Comment: I don't know exactly how the data profiles work (I've never used them) but I assume you don't get and id there because the id is not important for import /export functionality. but you should get an SKU. and from the SKU you can get the id like this `$id = Mage::getModel('catalog/product')->getIdBySku($sku)`.
Comment: Thanks. Really appreciate it! :-) However, is this correct? `removeProducts(array($websiteId), $productIds);` Why would the websiteId be an array?
Comment: yes. It's correct. You can theoretically remove some products from more that 1 website at a time. And the method `removeProducts` expects the first parameter to be an array with 1 or more elements.  if you need a confirmation take a look at `Mage_Catalog_Model_Resource_Product_Website::removeProducts` and see how it works.

Delete products from single website


Ruby alternative to Scrapy?

Question: What are some Ruby-based tools that can help me achive something similar to what Scrapy does for python?
http://doc.scrapy.org/intro/overview.html
Comment: You might want to just give scrapy a shot. It seems to have excellent documentation and a very friendly API. If you are familiar with ruby picking up python probably won't take you more than a day or two. They are extremely similar languages.
Comment: No, he asked about a ruby alternative to scrapy, which is a python application framework for crawling web sites and extracting structured data. I was just pointing out that learning python is easy, and he might as well just use it (assuming no satisfactory alternative is found).
Comment: @zeekay, do you mean [scrappy](http://rubydoc.info/gems/scrappy/0.3.5/frames)?
Comment: Ruby Toolbox for HTML parsing: http://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/html_parsing.html . HTTP clients: http://www.ruby-toolbox.com/categories/http_clients.html
Answer: There's Mechanize which is built upon Nokogiri.
There's Nokigiri which is based on XPath.
Hpricot is another tool.
There's Scrapi which is based on CSS selectors to extract information, but performs slower than Nokogiri based on my testing.
There's scRUBYt.
I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones that I came across.
If you don't find a single tool that solves your problems, checkout web spidering libraries like Anemone and combine it with one of the low-level scraping frameworks listed above.
Or just go ahead and learn Python. It'll expand your karma in the programming world.
Comment: But.. crawling is only one aspect to Scrapy. It has many features that apply to any kind of scraping, such as Items and pipelines for storing results. The tools you linked to seem comparable to lxml or BeautifulSoup rather than Scrapy.
Comment: As far as I can tell (I don't know Ruby), those modules are just HTML/XML parsers, not scraping frameworks like Scrapy.
Comment: @Acorn - these are all scraping frameworks. What they don't have is a crawler or a spider. Scraping is orthogonal to crawling.
Comment: @Acorn, @Anurag - I'm looking for something more similar to Scrapy, that makes it easy to spider as well. Extracting from single pages with nogogiri is pretty easy, but traversing pages to fetch the links of individual postings is a pain. But I guess I could just go learn Python too :-)
Comment: @Acorn - that's true, Nokogiri, Hpricot, and Scrapi are for extracting data from a single page. scRUBYt has the option of following links but their documentation is not very good. There is another tool that I didin't list - [Mechanize](http://mechanize.rubyforge.org/mechanize/GUIDE_rdoc.html) which is built upon Nokigiri and seems to be a better tool for the job.
Comment: the main question is which one of this tools allows you to easily scrape a client rendered website without running an instance of the browser (headless chrome) which will be very slow
Answer: You can also check out Anemone

Ruby alternative to Scrapy?


Elementary particles and Bosons

Question: Which of the elementary particles in particular are called 'Bosons'? It is  a trivial knowledge  that electrons are Fermions obeying Fermi-Dirac statistics. Fermions follow Pauli Exclusion Principle as per which no two elementary particle in atom can have same set of quantum numbers. So two such particles in same energy state must have +1/2 or -1/2 spin(anticlockwise or clockwise) or magnetic quantum number. But Bosons have integral spin meaning thereby two particles can have same set of all quantum numbers. Bosons subscribe to Bose-Einstein statistics. It owes its name to an Indian scientist Satyen Bose who proposed the statistics in parallel to that of Einstein.
Answer: The following elementary particles are bosons.
Higgs boson: spin 0
Photon, gluon, W bosons, and Z boson: spin 1
Graviton (?): spin 2
Answer: Note that in the case of 2 fermions "having opposite spin" is somewhat of a classical colloquialism, since the antisymmetric state of which you speak is:
$$ |0,0\rangle =\frac 1 {\sqrt 2}[|\uparrow_1\downarrow_2\rangle - |\downarrow_1\uparrow_2\rangle] $$
in which particle one and two are both spin up and spin down, which is the same as in the forbidden symmetric state:
$$ |1,0\rangle=\frac 1 {\sqrt 2}[|\uparrow_1\downarrow_2\rangle + |\downarrow_1\uparrow_2\rangle] $$
So the particle don't have definite spins, though the states are combinations of state with definite and opposite spins, which say nothing about their symmetry and only guarantees $M=0$ in complete state.
Moreover, fermions can have additional internal quantum numbers that need to be considered before making definitive statements about all pairs of fermions.
Note also that any pure state with integer spin is a boson (e.g. helium-4), no matter how large, but if you include "elementary" as a condition, G. Smith's answer is complete.
Comment: What you say at the beginning applies to identical fermions, but two different particles can have opposite spins and join.

Elementary particles and Bosons


Paying property taxes at refinance closing

Question: I'm refinancing my existing mortgage, just to lower my payment, no cash out, in California. I currently have an impound account to pay for taxes and insurance but don't plan on having one for the new loan. The taxes are not due until December 10th, but the lender wants me to either pay them to the county now, before closing, or pay the amount in to the lender at closing so (I assume) they can pay them.  Is there some law or state rule in California that says the property taxes have to be paid before a refinance is done?
Answer: Must not be a law about it.  I was able to push back on the mortgage broker, who told me he received special dispensation from the title company to not collect the taxes up front.  If there had been a law to quote, I'm sure they would have enforced it.
Answer: Tax liens take first position. Therefore even if you opt for no monthly impounds a lender will require current taxes installment to be paid in order to limit liability on their collateral. (the property). Enlighten me if I'm wrong.
This is my understanding.
Comment: It may depend on your credit score and/or LTV. I've self-escrowed my last four mortgages, but I also could show years of history of paying my insurance and taxes on-time and had a low LTV (there was plenty of equity left even if back taxes needed to be paid). For a high LTV loan I can imagine banks requiring escrow.
Answer: Looks like this situation is fairly common. I doubt it's a specific law in California, rather, lenders trying to be overly cautious on external risks. From a Q&A at Zillow:

One week before the closing we're being told the title company has a
  rule that property taxes (which are paid ahead here) due within 60
  days of closing must be paid in full at closing (which is 30 days
  ahead of when the city says they are due).
Comment: it is best to quote the relevant parts of a link. That way if the link rots the answer still has value.
Answer: I recently refinanced in Oregon and there was no property taxes or insurance collected.  The lender wanted to setup an Escrow, but I told them that I did not want it and they let me pay separately.  I've been doing this for many years.


Why regularity is important for a Borel measure?

Question: Why the property of being regular for a measure is important and what are some important and essential theorems that use this properties to hold true ?
Thanks in advance.
Answer: The main theorem about Borel measures is the Riesz--Markov--Kakutani representation theorem. There are several versions of it, so I am not going to be too precise here. Actually all this answer is mostly discursive, to be taken with a grain of salt; for precise mathematical statements, I recommend a good book in measure theory, such as Rudin's "Real and complex analysis", chapter on Borel measures (I think it is chapter II or III). The linked Wikipedia page also contains a bit of useful information.

Roughly, the theorem of Riesz--Markov--Kakutani states that there is a one-one correspondence between finite Borel measures $\mu$ on $\mathbb R^d$ and bounded linear functionals $\Lambda$ on $C_c(\mathbb R^d)$, where the latter denotes the Banach space of continuous functions with compact support, equipped with the sup norm. The correspondence is given by
$$\tag{1}
\Lambda f = \int f\, d\mu.$$
The regularity property of $\mu$ is essential for this to be a one-one correspondence. Given a measure $\mu$, it is rather clear that (1) defines a bounded linear functional; linearity is obvious and boundedness follows from the triangle inequality $\lvert \int f\, d\mu\rvert\le \int \lvert f \rvert\, d\mu$ (replace $d\mu$ with $d\lvert\mu\rvert$ if $\mu$ is a signed measure).
However, it is not clear how to go the other way: given a functional $\Lambda$, how to uniquely define a measure $\mu$ that verifies (1)? A measure, after all, is a mapping defined on subsets of $\mathbb R^d$, whereas (1) prescribes a mapping on $C_c(\mathbb R^d)$. The regularity fills exactly this gap.
Indeed, we can use (1) to uniquely define $\mu(O)$ and $\mu(K)$ for all open $O$ and compact $K$. This is done via the lemma of Urysohn, which states that if a compact set $K$ is contained in the open set $O$ then there is $f\in C_c(\mathbb R^d)$ such that $\mathbf 1_K\le f\le \mathbf 1_O$, where $\mathbf 1_A$ denotes the function which equals $1$ on $A$ and $0$ elsewhere. Iterating this lemma appropriately, we can approximate $\mathbf 1_K$ and $\mathbf 1_O$ arbitrarily well with functions in $C_c(\mathbb R^d)$, for which (1) gives a unique prescription. In the limit we obtain a unique meaning to $\mu(O)=\int \mathbf 1_O\, d\mu$ and $\mu(K)=\int \mathbf 1_K\, d\mu$.
And now, since we required $\mu$ to be regular, we are done. Indeed, if $E$ is a measurable subset of $\mathbb R^d$ then it must be approximated arbitrarily well by open and compact sets, in the sense of $\mu$. We can therefore apply again a limiting procedure to give a unique meaning to $\mu(E)$.
The linked Wikipedia page contains an example of failed uniqueness if $\mu$ is not required to be regular.
Comment: thank you so much sir, it was very helpful !
Comment: No problem. Glad this helped. If you think this answer is useful, upvote and accept. This is how this platform works.


Did Abraham leave Haran before or after Terah died?

Question: One of these days I heard from a local rabbi that according to the commandments of bnei noach one must respect father and mother even if it is not literally explicit in the 7 commandments, since Abraham only left Haran after his father died, not to say that he disrespected his father, only he said that Abraham left before his father died, based on what? By tradition? According to him the Torah reversed and did not explain why.
Comment: Please can you clarify this question. The Torah reversed what? You are saying bnei noach need to "copy Avraham, who didn't leave until his father died" then you say "only he said that Abraham left before his father died" and I don't follow at that point.
Comment: That's what a rabbi said about the need to fulfill father and mother, that as Abraham was a Gentile he respected his father leaving Ur after he died, this is in the Torah only that this rabbi said that in fact Abraham left Ur before his father died, he wanted to know if this is inequality or he took it from a tradition
Answer: וימת תרח בחרן. לְאַחַר שֶׁיָּצָא אַבְרָם מֵחָרָן וּבָא לְאֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן, וְהָיָה שָׁם יוֹתֵר מִשִּׁשִּׁים שָׁנָה; שֶׁהֲרֵי כָתוּב וְאַבְרָם בֶּן חָמֵשׁ שָׁנִים וְשִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה בְּצֵאתוֹ מֵחָרָן וְתֶרַח בֶּן שִׁבְעִים שָׁנָה כְּשֶׁנּוֹלַד אַבְרָם, הֲרֵי קמ"ה לְתֶרַח; כְּשֶׁיָּצָא אַבְרָם מֵחָרָן עֲדַיִן נִשְׁאֲרוּ מִשְּׁנוֹתָיו הַרְבֵּה, וְלָמָּה הִקְדִּים הַכָּתוּב מִיתָתוֹ שֶׁל תֶּרַח לִיצִיאָתוֹ שֶׁל אַבְרָם? שֶׁלֹּא יְהֵא הַדָּבָר מְפֻרְסָם לַכֹּל וְיֹאמְרוּ לֹא קִיֵּם אַבְרָם אֶת כְּבוֹד אָבִיו, שֶׁהִנִּיחוֹ זָקֵן וְהָלַךְ לוֹ, לְפִיכָךְ קְרָאוֹ הַכָּתוּב מֵת, שֶׁהָרְשָׁעִים אַף בְּחַיֵּיהֶם קְרוּיִים מֵתִים, וְהַצַּדִּיקִים אַף בְּמִיתָתָן קְרוּיִים חַיִּים, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר וּבְנָיָהוּ בֶן יְהוֹיָדָע בֶּן אִישׁ חי (שְׁמוּאֵל ב' כ"ג):
AND TERAH DIED IN
HARAN after Abram had left Haran (as related in the next chapter) and had come to the land of Canaan and had been there more than sixty years. For it is written, (Genesis 12:4) "And Abram was seventy five years old when he left Haran", and Terah was seventy years old when Abram was born (Genesis 11:26), making Terah 145 years old when Abram left Haran, so that there were then many years of his life left (i. e. he lived many years after that — as a matter of fact, 60 years, as he was 205 years old when he died). Why, then, does Scripture mention the death of Terah before the departure of Abram? In order that this matter (his leaving home during his father's lifetime) might not become known to all, lest people should say that Abram did not show a son's respect to his father, for he left him in his old age and went his way. That is why Scripture speaks of him as dead (Genesis Rabbah 39:7). For indeed the wicked even while alive are called dead and the righteous even when dead are called living, as it is said, (2 Samuel 23:20) "And Benaiah the son of Jehoiada the son of a living man" - Rashi on Genesis 11:32
Comment: @Thales - Abraham left Haran because G-d told him to, but the Torah just doesn't wish to publicize it
Comment: But then the Torah is excusing Abraham for having left before his father died for the wicked even alive are as dead? Isn't this about respecting your father and mother unconditional then? Does it depend on whether the individual is a wicked or not?
Comment: I understand now
Answer: Terah left Ur Kasdim with his family in the hebrew year 2000.
Terah was born in the Jewish year 1878.
And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, in the Jewish year,  and they came as far as Haran and settled there.
And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.
Comment: He mentioned Ur but he must have confused the events, which does not explain the issue of him saying that Abraham left before his father died when the Torah says that first his father died and then he left, as he said the Torah portrayed it like this not to say that Abraham disrespected his father by leaving before his death.
Comment: @Thales They had a stop over at Haran. It was not a direct flight. Air Iraq didn't operate directly into Tel Aviv!


What 32 bytes TLS data records for?

Question: I've captured my tor client network traffic and noticed that in every packet it sends 2 TLS records first of which is always 32 bytes long. The first TLS record seems not to be carrying any data. What is it for?
Comment: Near-dupe https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/41709/weird-size-of-data-transmitted-in-sslv3 and cross https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/63215/why-does-firefox-split-https-request
Answer: It's a defense against the BEAST attack.
This attack is against TLS 1.0 (and SSLv3) and CBC mode; in CBC mode, TLS always uses the previous ciphertext block as the next IV, and hence the attacker can always predict the IV that will be used to encrypt the next block.  So, what the attacker does is convince the sender to send a specific piece of data; that data, combined with the IV, causes AES (or DES/3DES) to encrypt an attacker chosen block, and that allows the attacker to tell whether previous blocks of encrypted data corresponded to a specific plaintext.
So, for this attack to work, the attacker needs to know the IV that will be used when he chooses the data to encrypt.
What this empty record does is mess this attack up.  The attacker knows the IV that will be used to encrypt the empty record, but he can't control the data that is encrypted (as it is empty).  TLS then sets the 'next IV' to the last ciphertext block of that record; then, TLS encrypts the real record (including the plaintext that the attacker has potentially chosen); however it uses an IV that the attacker could not predict when he selected the plaintext, and so the attack doesn't work.
An easier defense would be to use TLS 1.1 or latter (which selects the CBC mode IV for each record unpredictably), however if you're stuck with TLS 1.0, this is the sort of thing you need to do
Comment: Thanks! I was wondering why I dont see such records outbound from my browser. So now I know is happens due to outdated TLS1.0
Comment: @poncho In general, the first record is not totally empty; it contains exactly one byte worth of plaintext. This is called the "1/n-1 split". This is done that way because there are (buggy) TLS implementations that choke on empty records; having one byte of plaintext still leaves 7 or 15 bytes (depending on 3DES / AES) of unpredictable data in the first block, which is enough to deter BEAST.

What 32 bytes TLS data records for?


How to prefetch Silverlight in web pages into client cache

Question: I'm working with Silverlight, and we have several controls (.ascx files) that contain the code below in the html portion of the file. This is supposedly how you properly include Silverlight in web pages, and the code below works. The extra script code just checks if the necessary Silverlight.xap file is cached and doesn't try to download it again if it is.

<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="100%" height="100%">
    <%
        string orgSourceValue = @"bin/Silverlight.xap";
        string param;
        if (System.Diagnostics.Debugger.IsAttached)
            param = "<param name=\"source\" value=\"" + orgSourceValue + "\" />";
        else
        {
            string xappath = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(@"") + @"\" + orgSourceValue;
            DateTime xapCreationDate = System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(xappath);
            param = "<param name=\"source\" value=\"" + orgSourceValue + "?ignore="
            + xapCreationDate.ToString() + "\" />";
        }
        Response.Write(param);
    %>
<param name="onError" value="onSilverlightError" />
<param name="background" value="white" />
<param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" />
<param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" />
</object>

Now I'm tasked with figuring out if it is possible to pre-fetch, or pre-cache, the .xap file. The reason for this is because the .xap file is a custom file of ours that takes a bit to load, so we want it to be pre-loaded on pages that come before the ones that actually use Silverlight. So for example, our web site has a simple form log-in page that goes into a menu page where you choose which Silverlight application to load. What I'd like to do is, for example, load the .xap file when the user clicks the log-in button, or even when they load the log-in page, and ideally in the background so the user doesn't notice it, so that when they finally get to the a page with Silverlight content, it's ready and cached. Trying to paste the above code in the html portion of pages not running Silverlight just causes and infinite refresh loop and an alerted message of "This request could not be processed. Error has been logged" and I notice this error showing up in the error console:
Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIDOMWindowInternal.alert]"  nsresult: "0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE)"  location: "<unknown>"  data: no]

I don't know anymore if I'm trying to do something that can't be done, but any input would be very helpful.
Answer: The XAP file is just a resource that you can point to like any Image or CSS file.  One method you could try is to load it into a 0x0 image tag that is hidden.

Did you enable Application Library Caching?  That would complicate matters.  Another option is ComponentOne XapOptimizer which is a commercial product that can substantially reduce XAP file sizes.


Torah Hebrew calligraphy

Question: I want to know what was the calligraphy used in the first Torah manuscript? I searched Google but found no answer.
Answer: It's a famous dispute in the Gemara. According to Mar Zutra (and some say Mar Ukva), the Torah was originally given in Ktav Ivri. According to Rebbi and Rabbi Shimon ben Eliezer (in the name of Rabbi Eliezer ben Perata, in the name of Rabbi Elazar HaModa'i) the Torah was originally given in Ktav Ashurit. (Comparison photo) See Sanhedrin 21b through 22a for more on this. (In any case, the halacha is that a Sefer Torah must be written in Ktav Ashurit.)

Torah Hebrew calligraphy


How do i detect the compounds a plant is made of, automatically?

Question: Let's  say I want to take a random plant , and get the chemical formulas of  the compounds he's made of. Is there an automated method for doing so  and how costly is it(roughly) ?
Answer: HPLC-MS (high performance liquid chromatography- mass spectrometry), the latter with a suitable database for known small molecule plant components (alkaloids, terpenes, THC, etc.) would do it.  Cost would be three to low four figures/shot.  Saccharides and proteins are different and more expensive problems.
Consider what you are asking.  Mere pokeberry contains astragalin, canthomicrol, caryophyllene, esculentic acid, jaligonic acid, lectins, oleanolic acid, 3-oxo-30-carbomethoxy-23-norolean-12-en-28-oic acid, 6-palmityl-Δ7-stigmasterol-Δ-D-glucoside, 6-palmytityl-α-spinasteryl-6-D-glucoside, phytolaccagenic acid, phytolaccagenin, phytolaccatoxin, phytolaccosides A,B,C,D,E,F,G (esculentoside E), pokeweed mitogen, tannin, triterpene alcohols, α-spinasterol, and α-spinasteryl-β-D-glucoside and a whole bunch more.  One injection is hardly a beginning.  If you do not know how to cook it, it kills you.
Comment: You don't get "everything" as a practical matter. How would you characterize "everything" re celluloses and hemi-celluloses, lignins, tannins? You do care about cooking in the cited case, re "poke salad," http://southernspaces.org/2011/mess-poke and "seizures, coma and death."
Comment: Thanks.i didn't know it was important but i want a list of everything, not just known substances, and including proteins etc. Is it possible ? how at what cost ?. and cooking don't matter. Just thinking if it's possible to "catalog" everything.
Answer: In general, no it is not possible to catalog all of the compounds a plant is made of automatically. Uncle Al's answer is as close as you could get, but even that is far, far away from getting every single molecule (there would be tens of thousands, at least). HPLC-MS is good first step and would get you most of the small molecular weight substances.
For larger biomolecules, you would have to use gel electrophoresis, which is not very "automated."
We are a long way from cheap, automated separations of biological mixtures, but it is one of the major research goals of the pharmacology, molecular biology, and medical fields.
This link describes many of the currently available methods for protein purification, which is one of the most difficult problems in the field of separations.


Can I use Yakult as a yogurt starter?

Question: I'm wondering if we can use Yakult as a yogurt starter to obtain drinkable yogurt?
Answer: Update: Yes, it is possible.
After a note in the comments, I tried researching and had to go no further than Wikipedia to see how it is done commercially: The incubation happens in the presence of glucose and continues for 7-8 days. I checked their source too, an article in an encyclopedia on food technology, and the information was correctly transcribed.
Method
I decided to try it out. As I didn't have glucose, I poured in a random amount of agave syrup (a mixture of glucose and fructose). Indeed, at 8 hours (my standard incubation time for Lactobacillicus Bulgaricus yogurt) it was still completely liquid. But after 24 hours, it started looking good, and now, at hour 36, it has firmed up as normal yogurt.
Result
The Shirota yogurt turned out to be quite interesting.
Visual
It looks like normal yogurt, with a small layer of whey on top, which looks somehow different from typical yogurt whey. The top slightly-fatty layer that builds on top of other yogurt is on top of the liquid layer and not below it. The colour is very slightly off-white, but nowhere near as orange as Yakult drinks.
Taste
The yogurt tastes differently from standard yogurt. It has a fruity smell, and is more sweet than sour, with bitter notes mixed in. I didn't notice acetic acid smells, the sourness must be predominantly lactic acid. The smell is rather subtle. The texture is unremarkable, just like standard Lactobacillicus yogurt.
Verdict
At first, I was afraid that the long incubation time and the need for dextrose might mean that L. Shirota is difficult to grow, and might not work well under not-so-precisely controlled conditions, producing spoiled milk instead of yogurt. Now, having smelled the yogurt, I am pretty sure that there is a lot of the original Shirota culture growing there. My new hypothesis is that they need long growth times to achieve a very high concentration, so they can dilute it to make the drink and still get a strong taste.

Long-term results
I left the yogurt to incubate somewhat longer than a week. I was not happy with the result.
Some of the glasses got a band of light-reddish colour, reminiscent of commercial Yakult but slightly paler, while others got no such band. Those who had it had the band in the top third of the glass, but it was not the top layer.
The yogurt smelled quite sour. I tasted just a little bit, the taste was sour, but not as much as over fermented L. Bulgaricus yogurt. I didn't smell much acetic acid if any. There was a bit of sweetness in the taste, but no more than at the beginning, it felt. The Shirota-typical smell was subtle, not much stronger than at 36 hours.

After some more resarch, L. Shirota is sensitive to the absence of certain nutrients, mostly aminoacids and vitamins. See https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lwt.2019.108735 for details. But note that even without nutrients, they reached a good (for typical yogurt, not for yakult) concentration after 31 hours.

You can use most yogurts as a starter, no matter the brand. The only requirement is that they contain live culture, and all the ones marketed as a probiotic should have it.
It should give you normal yogurt, not a yogurt drink. You will have to follow a recipe for a yogurt-based drink if you want it liquid - just water and sugar to taste should do, of you want to mimic  Yakult, or you can branch or into more interesting stuff.
Comment: I tried yesterday. After 12 hours of incubation, it's not thick, which I don't mind because I want to make it drinkable. But it's not sour either. I think using Yakult doesn't work.
Comment: Lol, that is so "you"! Well done!
Comment: The flavours will be a result of the metabolic processes of the particular strain used in the Yakult - much like beers have distinct flavours, the same applies to all fermentations. The length of fermentation will enhance these. I'm a little surprised at the length of ferment needed. I wonder what the phenotype is. If I can dig it out, i'll post it for those interested.
Comment: @bob1 yes, I thought that different bacteria will produce different flavors. After my experiment, I also think that the Shirota strain is quite picky about its fermentation conditions - seeing how strong the specific flavor is in the diluted drink, they must have a much stronger culture going on in the commercial production, but I was not able to get that at home, while other strains are much more robust and make good yogurt under a wide range of fermentation conditions. If you have additional info you can post, I would be interested to read it.
Comment: @bob1 can you find out if it produces esters? The smell is very characteristic, but hard to describe beyond slightly sweet/fruity, and, well, estery. It feels like the main component is not an acid - certainly not lactic or acetic acid, these are present too, but there is something else that makes is different from other yogurts.
Comment: It seems that it was originally used in cheese making, though I can't find if it was the main one or one of many in the cheese. It looks like Yakult has ~10^11 cfu/ml, which is a fairly high concentration - most yogurts get up to ~10^9 cfu/ml
Comment: It seems that lactobacilli (not Shirota strain specifically) produce about 90 flavour compounds in yogurt see [here](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2017.1295988)

Can I use Yakult as a yogurt starter?


Database get uid for menu creator

Question: I just want to get the user information who create a new menu item under menu section.  I am not able to get any entry in database regarding the menu creator (UID). There is a entry in {menu_links} table, but in this table or any other table there is no UID linked.
Comment: Drupal doesn't store that information, you'll need to do it manually
Answer: Create a custom module and use the hook hook_menu_link_insert. Get the active user with global $user; and save the user + link id in a separate table.
Comment: Thanks huelfe, But my problem is to get already saved information. Is there any table in database which save this. or any log where i can found this, as I want to fetch a specific menu entry which was entered by some content editor.
Comment: No, there is no table where you can find information like this. You have to create a custom module for this to provide this feature.

Database get uid for menu creator


How do I test external user functions in the sandbox

Question: I'm getting this error when trying to login or create an external user in a Salesforce Community site:
That operation is only allowed from within an active site.
From what I've read, this is because Site functions are only available to external users, not those logged in internally. But I am in the sandbox environment and must login to get to any of my visualforce pages. How am I able to test these pages while logged in?
Answer: Turns out this was an easy one - I just had to access the page using the external URL.


Stop Order - Question

Question: I have question for stop order and would need someone, an expert, to please check my statement whether I am correct or wrong. I think the statement is correct but just want to double check: Both Stop Order and Stop Limit order (i repeat: stop limit and NOT limit!) can be used only for ENTERING either long or short position. They CANNOT be used for exiting either long or short position. Is this correct? IF NOT correct then I would like to kindly ask you to please keep an eye of this topic because I will show the picture to explain why do I think Stop Order and Stop Limit (not limit but stop limit!) can be used only to enter long/short position but not to exit it. Thank you in advance.
Answer: You are incorrect in your thinking.
Stop limit orders and stop market orders can be used to both enter long and short positions and exit long and short positions.
I use them all the time for both my entries and exits out of both long and short positions.
In fact most people use stop orders to limit their losses or protect their profits on their existing open positions

Stop Order - Question


Bash script launching background process breaks terminal output and kills background process

Question: Problem
Hello! After moving some code from Ubuntu 20 to Ubuntu 22 I've realized some odd behavior from some of the bash scripts that I was launching. The first noticeable problem being that after running the script, the terminal starts to print the text following a staircase pattern as follows:
line1
     line2
          line3
               ...
                   lin
eN

Furthermore, any text that you try to write in the terminal does not show in the screen (but the commands still work). This mostly becomes a minor inconvenience as it is just visual since the commands still work as normal. The main problem is that when you run a process in the background from the same script, after the script finishes and the process is still launched, any key interaction with the terminal will instantly kill the background process.
This error only happens in Ubuntu 22
Expected behavior
The expected behavior of this code happens if your OS is Ubuntu 20. The script acts as expected and prints the numbers continuously. In order to kill the process you'll need to use a command such as "kill" or "killall". The terminal remains free to be used for future commands.
Minimal Example
After much debugging I managed to write a minimal example showcasing the error, the necessary files are the following:
File: test.cpp (compile as g++ test.cpp -o test)
// Minimal example in C++

#include <iostream>
#include <chrono>
#include <thread>

int main() {
    uint64_t i = 0;
    while (true) {
        std::cout << i++ << std::endl;
        std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));
    }
    return 0;
}

File: test.py
# Minimal example in Python

import time

if __name__ == '__main__':
    i = 0
    while True :
        print(i)
        i+=1
        time.sleep(1)

File: scriptC++.sh
#!/usr/bin/bash

sudo ./test &

sleep 3

File: scriptPy.sh
#!/usr/bin/bash

sudo python3 test.py &

sleep 3

The redundancy in files is mostly to showcase that the error is not due to C++ or Python and it's something related to Ubuntu 22 or a new version of bash or some other library (bash and low level libraries are not my expertise).
Extra Information
Some extra information I managed to gather related to the problem:

If the background process finishes before the bash script then everything works fine. This error only happens in the case that the background process lives longer than the bash script.
The background process needs to be launched with "sudo" privileges. Otherwise the error does not happen.

Question
My main question would be if this is a bug in bash, Ubuntu22, or some related library, and if other people are experiencing this problem. I've launched this minimal example in two Ubuntu22 computers yielding the same results, but I also have the same libraries installed in both so I can't rule out that it might be a third party library. And finally, if it is a bug, how should I report it? I've seen the command "ubuntu-bug" but it requires me to specify a process which I'm not sure which one would be in this case.
Comment: Related: [Gnome Terminal not displaying correctly in 22.04](https://askubuntu.com/q/1458458/968501)
Answer: I ran into this as well.  Using sudo -b rather than & to move the root process to the background seems to fix it and is probably the more "correct" way to do this.


Desktop zoomed in and enlarged in Ubuntu 16.04

Question: Why is my screen looking so off? I would like to revert to the standard size screen please. I don't know why this happened.
Comment: Did you install anything right before this happened? When you login, can you go to Display settings and see if you can change the resolution?
Answer: Before you do anything else, write these two commands for escaping from a login loop on a piece of paper, so if you get stuck in a login loop when booting you will be able to do something about it.

sudo chown $(whoami):$(whoami) .Xauthority
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

Also write down the link to this answer:  Ubuntu gets stuck in a login loop which has more detailed information about how to get unstuck from a login loop.

In a comment you wrote: Yes I tried to install cuda. Installing CUDA in Ubuntu 16.04 is known to cause exactly the same error as you described in your question, the desktop is zoomed in and enlarged to huge proportions, such that the login password input box is way larger than it should be and you can't even see all of the icons in the Launcher at the same time. Your problem may have been caused by the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver that was installed as a dependency of the NVIDIA CUDA toolkit (nvidia-cuda-toolkit). nvidia-cuda-toolkit installs nvidia-367 as a dependency in Ubuntu 16.04. Maybe you will have better luck if you installed the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver that is recommended for your computer's hardware.

Bring up a text-only virtual console from the login screen, using the keyboard combination Ctrl+Alt+F3 and then you will get a text-only console which shows you a login prompt. Login to the console at the login prompt with your username and password.
Uninstall NVIDIA CUDA toolkit and the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver from a text-only console.
sudo apt remove nvidia-cuda-toolkit nvidia-*
sudo reboot

Identify the recommended proprietary graphics driver for your system. Open the terminal and type:
ubuntu-drivers devices

If you can't login and get to a terminal yet, you can run the ubuntu-drivers devices command from a text-only console, the same way as in Step 1.
Install the recommended NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver and reboot.
sudo apt install <package-name-of-the-recommended graphics-driver> nvidia-settings
sudo reboot


How do I synchronise my Raspberry Pi File System to a directory on my Mac?

Question: Is there a way to keep my RPi File System in sync with a directory on my Mac? Can I do this with rsync? (I write most code on the RPi, and would like a copy of it on my Mac, in case I corrupt the SD card)
Answer: The simple answer is No.
If you search you will find a couple of posts on this. I tried unsuccessfully for some time.
It is possible to rsync your Home, but in general it will not work.
There are a couple of reasons for this;

rsync differs quite significantly between Unix and Linux
The users differ between the systems, making permissions difficult.
The most significant reason is the restrictions macOS imposes due to SIP. It simply refuses to allow access to certain directories e.g. /.

You may be able to rsync certain directories on the Pi, provided they are normal user directories, with no special access restrictions.
I suggest you try other options; netatalk on the Pi allows you to access from Finder using afp://. ftp is also a useful.
In general macOS does not like files with execute permissions and refuses to edit bash scripts, even though they are plain text.
Comment: I tried samba. I can connect to my Pi, but cannot edit any files, although I changed the permissions of them on the Pi. Do I need to do anything on my Mac? I have found samba the easiest.
Comment: @NullCoderExists I can't comment on Samba (I haven't used it for years, and found it a PITA). Using `afp` I can edit most files (exceptions being those with execute permission - which means most on FAT partitions, and those in "protected" directories, which violate some macOS foible). In practice I copy files to the Mac, change permissions, restore copied file. This is also a PITA but, in practice, does not affect many files.
Answer: You could use something called sshfs which allows you to mount a distant volume. Install this on your Mac then you should be able to mount a distant (RPI) folder to your local file system (Mac)


File access time not updated

Question: I just have viewed /etc/resolv.conf file using a cat command (or opening it with mcedit). Now when i list file details using ls -ul the "access time" doesn't change/update - have the same, old value. It's strange since for any other files "access time" is updated after cat.
Comment: [This answer](https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/8842/109842) suggests that many filesystems disable updating the atime for performance reasons, perhaps the case for you?
Answer: Invoke df /etc/resolv.conf and note under what mountpoint it exists. Example from my Kubuntu:
$ df /etc/resolv.conf
Filesystem     1K-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs             806600  9660    796940   2% /run

Surprisingly my resolv.conf is under /run. True:
$ ls -l /etc/resolv.conf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 29 Nov 24  2016 /etc/resolv.conf -> ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf

Then we need to know its mount options:
$ mount | grep " /run "
tmpfs on /run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,noexec,relatime,size=806600k,mode=755)

Pay attention to atime-related option. In my case this is relatime. man 8 mount explains:

relatime
  Update inode access times relative to modify or change time. Access time is only updated if the previous access time was earlier than the current modify or change time. (Similar to noatime, but doesn't break mutt or other applications that need to know if a file has been read since the last time it was modified.)

(Check the rest of *atime options to have a full picture.)
relatime is very common nowadays. It saves frequent writing yet still provides atime to programs that need it. In my Kubuntu only these mounts don't use relatime:
$ mount | grep -v relatime
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
tmpfs on /sys/fs/cgroup type tmpfs (ro,nosuid,nodev,noexec,mode=755)

Probably you broadly use relatime too.

It's strange since for any other files "access time" is updated after cat.

Maybe "the previous access time was earlier than the current modify or change time", so the atime was updated. Or "other files" are under a different mountpoint (e.g. with strictatime option). Note my resolv.conf is on a different filesystem than the whole /etc/ (/etc/resolv.conf is a symlink to elsewhere), so in general you shouldn't even assume that "files" in the same directory are on the same filesystem, under the same mountpoint with the same options.
Whatever your setup is, now you know how to investigate the issue.

File access time not updated


Calumnies on Aristotle's character

Question: I've heard people allude to writings of some of Aristotle's students alleging bad character of Aristotle. I've not found the actual writings or any secondary literature on them. Can someone point me in the right direction?
Comment: The largest compendium of anecdotes about ancient philosophers is Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers. There is a [chapter on Aristotle](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Lives_of_the_Eminent_Philosophers/Book_V#Aristotle) that retells some gossip.
Answer: John M. Dillon / Orality in the Later Platonist Tradition/ mentions a tale "related to us by the late (2nd c. A.D.) antiquarian and collector of miscellaneous tales Claudius Aelianus, but it may well derive from a more nearly contemporary source, the 3rd c. B.C. purveyor of malicious gossip Antigonus of Carystus":

Plato did not approve of [Aristotle]'s life and habit, for Aristotle
  wore rich garments and shoes, and cut his hair after a manner not used
  by Plato : He also wore many rings for ornaments; he had a deriding
  kind of look, and was peremptory in discourse : all which mis-became a
  Philosopher. Plato seeing this rejected him, and preferred before him
  Xenocrates, Speusippus, Amyclas, and others; to whom he shewed
  respect, and admitted them to his conversation. On a time, Xenocrates
  being gone into his Country, Aristotle came to Plato, accompanied with
  a great many of his Disciples, of whom was Mnason the Phocian, and the
  like : Speusippus was then sick and unable to be with Plato : Plato
  was fourscore years old, and through his age his memory much impaired.
  Aristotle assaulting and circumventing him by propounding arrogantly
  some questions, and arguing with him, discovered himself injurious and
  ungrateful.

Aelian, Var. Hist. 3.19
Answer: We have bare-bones information about Aristotle's character from various ancient sources. As to his personality reliable information is harder to come by.
Criticisms of Aristotle's personality were mounted systematically for the first time by Diogenes Laertius in his 'Lives' (3rd century CE). Not only is there a gap of centuries between Diogenes and Aristotle - no contemporary observation here - but also Diogenes' biography of Aristotle 'recycles a good deal of gossip and scandal; the portrait of Aristotle in particular is riddled with damaging allegations' (Gary Ianziti, 'Leonardo Bruni and Biography: The "Vita Aristotelis"',  Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 805-832: 812.) Diogenes appears to have had an animus against Aristotle and to have been less than precise and discerning in his search for and interrogation of authentic sources.
I don't want to get into a scales of truth exercise in assessing Diogenes but it may help answer your question if I mention a couple of points which relate to the 'bad behaviour' claim:

To begin with,
   Diogenes portrays Aristotle as an ungrateful pupil: "He seceded from the
   Academy while Plato was still alive. Hence the remark attributed to the lat-
   ter: Aristotle spurns me, as colts kick out at the mother who bore them.
   Next, Diogenes relates several stories concerning Aristotle's stay at the court
   of the tyrant Hermias. One of these stories was that Aristotle was the lover of
   Hermias. Another, told by Aristippus, had Aristotle so madly in love with
   a concubine of Hermias that he made sacrifice to her, as if she were one of
   the gods. Aristippus also related that Aristotle composed a hymn in praise
   of Hermias, which Diogenes faithfully reproduces in full. Diogenes also reproduces an epigram of Theocritus of Chios, in which Aristotle is accused of  lasciviously dwelling with Hermias, all the while lifting hymns of praise to
   the tyrant. According to Diogenes, these very accusations lay behind the
   charges later brought against Aristotle in Athens at the end of his life. Diogenes has him fleeing Athens in disgrace, without having answered his
   accusers, then committing suicide by taking poison at Chalcis.
   Diogenes transmits this information and much more. His account is
   laced with alternative versions. His Lives should be regarded as a great collection of lore, catalogued and passed on almost in its raw state, the wheat
   with the chaff, the slander and innuendo. (Gary Ianziti, 'Leonardo Bruni and Biography: The "Vita Aristotelis"', Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Autumn, 2002), pp. 805-832: 813-4.)

(The Vita Aristolelis is Leonardo Bruni's (c. 1370 – March 9, 1444) life of Aristotle, written in 1429.)
I do not support any of these criticisms - Diogenes is too unreliable a reporter - but if you are looking for a historically  influential source of allegations of bad character on Aristotle's part, Diogenes is a prime candidate even though Aelian's ''Varia Historia''  - see valuable answer above - is earlier than Diogenes' ''Lives''.

Calumnies on Aristotle's character


Safe to switch from warm to high on poultry in crock pot

Question: I put 6 fresh Foster Farms 'legs' (drumstick attached to thigh) , with skin removed, into my daughters crockpot , along with onion, celery, fresh herbs and filled with water to make my good chicken soup. I expected to wake up to that beatiful aroma, and was puzzled at what went wrong. Unknowingly, I set the crockpot on warm! That was at 10:00pm. I turned it to high at 6:00 am. I can't find anything online regarding this. Will the dangerous backteria be killed off or should I just toss it, to ward off any food poisoning?
Comment: I've linked you to the two main duplicates for this. Basically, the warm setting is *probably* below 140F, and it's been way over 4 hours, so it's probably unsafe.
Comment: Warm is not under 140F on either of mine but it is not likely to bring raw food to 140F in 4 hours.
Answer: Warm not low? I would toss. Chances are you had high levels of pathogens before switching to high and not all toxins from bacteria are destroyed by heat.


Required box not appearing, Event Registration

Question: When I try to register event participants I receive a notification saying that I have not filled out three required fields. However, I cannot see or edit these required fields. Anyone know how to fix this? I am using version 4.7.3.
Answer: you will get this error due to following reason -

First if your Event registration is creating an New contact and if you have required field in your contact creation you will get this error message
OR If you have some custom field created against Event and if those custom field are required fields then you will be getting these error message
OR If you have any payment processor involved in your Event registration and if the address field are not field properly or card details are missing still you will get these error message

So just make sure you find the required field first and try to set some default value or include the fields in the event registration
If nothing helps please give some example - thanks
Comment: Here is a link to some screenshots of the issue: http://imgur.com/a/pm3hP
Comment: please try to register an Event using online registration (test drive)


If a civilization had the technology to create portals (wormholes) for FTL space travel, what about wormholes would make them not work for weapons?

Question: If a civilization had the technology to create wormholes for travel, what would stop them from using this technology to open wormholes right above their targets and launching a weapon through it?  If they did this, it would basically be impossible to counter the weapon, because there would be no warning, and not even a visible projectile until the end of its trajectory.  Basically, what rules should exist to prevent this in my plot?  If a civilization has the technology to use portals for travel with reasonable levels of precision, then it seems inevitable that someone would weaponize this technology.  So why choose to send a weapon in the form of a gun-ship instead of a warhead or some other destructive projectile?  What laws of physics would explain why this technology is used for ships but not smaller weapons by themselves?  Is there some limitation to wormholes that could explain this?  What about wormholes would only allow ships to use them for travel and not weapons?
Comment: Basically, you are the author, it is your world, your word is divine command in that world. Just use your imagination to create the rules which forbid this scenario. Most usually, the fictional physics in science fiction works which feature worm holes places suitably chosen restrictions on where the wormholes can open. For example, they may only open in places where spacetime is sufficiently flat, that is, sufficiently far from any large mass such as a star. But this is only one of an infinity of possible explanations; VTC as too broad.
Comment: People are voting to close this as opinion based, but it's really an internal-consistency rules question. e.g. he's not asking why they wouldn't do it as in a story reason ("they are nice people and it is very mean to do this") but rather, what rules should exist that prevents this. Correct me if I'm wrong about the aim here, Kal Madda.
Comment: In Andromeda, the route between entry points must be navigated and this can only be done by an organic sentient because choices must be made to select between the intertwining, everchanging branches in the route. It doesn't matter what choice you make since the act of decision making causes the probabilities to collapse to the same destination, but only if a sentient organic being makes the choice. An AI or computer might wander the route forever. If I recall, Andromeda does not use this to explicitly explain why slipstream weapons don't exist. They just don't save for some cybernetic systems.
Comment: In other words, rethink the way your portals work and make them not just be instantaneous doorways.
Comment: Maybe they do have such a weapon, but they just decided not to use it. An instant nuclear annihilation, without the 30-minute delay like that from an ICBM, it is MAD principle on steroids. There is a story on fanfiction.net called "A sky full of Starlight" that talked about the weaponization of portal technology.
Comment: @JamieB Yes, you are correct, that was my intention, maybe I should clarify that in my post.
Comment: @JamieB Looks like some people closed this question.  I edited my question to clarify, I'm not sure what else I could have done to make it more clear.  I think somebody just wanted to fill their "closed question" quota.  It's frustrating.  At least I think I got a few good ideas from some responses here.
Comment: @KalMadda We do get a lot of that sometimes. I usually recommend more people participate in the [Worldbuilding Meta](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/) which should be exactly for this kind of rule dispute/discussion. What we really lack in there is a quorum -- enough people participating to make it worth discussing anything, and not just the same 4-5 people making declarations in a vacuum. I voted to reopen.
Comment: Problem with this question is that it is a brain storming question. Which are frowned upon because they are open ended.
Comment: @DKNguyen Thanks for the advice, that makes good sense.
Comment: @AlexP Thanks for the advice on proximity, that makes some sense that of there's some variability in precision of the exit point of the portal you would have to open within a certain range from other objects.
Comment: @JamieB Thanks, I appreciate it! . I'll have to check out the link you shared.
Comment: Your edit has you asking about the motivation of a character or organization. Motivations by definition are arbitrary and subject to the whims of the writer. Questions about what a character or organization will do are not appropriate for this site.
Comment: @sphennings I'm asking what physical laws of physics would favor transporting a ship vs a smaller weapon, not about individual motives.  Sorry if my wording didn't make that clear enough.
Comment: That's not what the title of your post asks for. Furthermore what makes you think that this isn't an open ended question with many valid answers (note how you're already up to 7) We have a prohibition on such overly broad questions on this site.
Comment: @sphennings I clarified the title of my question, thanks for pointing out the problem with the phrasing of the title.
Answer: The process to create a Wormhole is (relatively) time consuming and delicate
So, let's say to create an end-point for a Wormhole takes 24 hours and due to the incredibly complex nature of the Physics involved, this process is very easy to disrupt, either deliberately or just 'Stuff Happens because space' way.
Now, for interstellar travel and trade - 24 hours and a controlled environment to setup an entry and exit point (when the alternative could be millenia of travel at sub-light speed) is very clearly worth the wait and the time to properly setup the Wormhole for commerce.
However, should there be nefarious intentions - you've got plenty of warning (24 hours - or however long your story requires) and the targetted group has the ability to disrupt this process - making it so difficult for a Military context (where surprise and speed of action are generally key).
In addition, if the Wormholes are stable once created - you could even have a scenario where there is in effect a border guard type force or other port authority that has the authority (and the means) to prevent the Wormholes being used for a Military context.
If either of those aren't to your fancy - you could look at Commercial GPS and how there are certain limitations to prevent the Commercial GPS network being used in a Military context, by looking at the differences (Speed, size etc.) of the vessels that would be using the Wormhole and limiting entry based on something that would only exist on a Military vessel.
Answer: Because gravity interferes with wormhole formation.
Most wormholes are formed either in specialized portal zones with artificially flattened spacetime or outside of solar systems. If armies could use portals for warfare they would, but the technology just doesn't work.
Of course, there may be rumours about precursor technology that can do it, but for the galaxy in general, it can't be used for warfare.
Answer: Most respondents jumped to the conclusion that you're looking for reasons why wormholes wouldn't be used as weapons. I'm going to jump to the conclusion that you're looking for a confirmation that anyone with this technology would, indeed, use them as weapons.
I'm assuming that your use of the internal-consistency tag means you want your idea to be substantiated. Please keep in mind that, normally, the purpose of that tag is for you to tell us the rules of your world and provide a circumstance that uses or is intended to obey those rules for us to judge whether or not you've created consistent rules and/or you are using your rules consistently.
If human history has proven anything, it's that every invention ever created or discovered has been weaponized. This includes everything from language to golf balls (if you haven't been on the receiving end of an angry golfer...).
Absolutely, wormholes would be weaponized. Nuclear power was weaponized. Gunpowder was weaponized. Arsenic was weaponized. Water has been weaponized. Social Media has been weaponized. Humans are remarkably good at using anything and everything at our disposal to get back at someone we think has maligned us — real or imaginary.
However, godlike weapons are as boring as godlike characters.
We occasionally get questions of the form, "how do I defeat my godlike character?" The answer is always the same: your character can't be godlike, introduce a weakness. You're in the same boat. One cannot open anything instantly without having access to, basically, infinite power. Wormholes would take time to open (if they could be opened remotely at all...). When they do open, they have the potential of causing massive climatic disturbances due to atmospheric pressure differences, gravitational differences, and the energy differences between the two termini of the wormhole (both openings are in motion, and that's a really big deal).
So, the situation isn't quite as dire as you suggest. But that's where you as the worldbuilder come in. Because (insofar as humanity knows) wormholes aren't real, therefore you have the privilege of defining the rules of your wormholes so they meet the needs of your stories.
And this is an important point. Wormholes aren't real... yet. Today they are nothing more than an interesting mathematical exercise. We've never seen one. We've never measured, tested, or experimented on one. We certainly haven't created one. Keep in mind that just because people talk about them all the time, that doesn't make them real. Dark Matter is in the same boat. We've never seen it, never measured it, can't prove that it exists. It just happens to solve some nasty problems with measured gravitational effects — but it's just as likely that it's our mathematical models that are wrong. Only time will tell. Finding some would solve the debate. Finding a wormhole would solve the previous debate. My point? Don't fall into the trap of the Religion of Science (aka, believing that everything that's presented logically and matter-of-factly must be real). Build your world the way you want it to be, because if you're trying to be as "scientifically accurate as possible," you might discover that in a few instances, physicists are kinda faking it — in an outrageous and incredibly fun way, which is their job, if you think about it.
Answer: You could rethink the way your portals work and make them not just be instantaneous straightforward doorways from point A to B. For example, maybe the route between them needs to be navigated and it is somehow difficult for a computer or artificial intelligence to do. Or maybe, the technology simply does not exist yet for autonomous navigation. Cruise missiles did not exist for a long time because of this.
Or the requirement could be imposed that the wormhole generator must pass through the wormhole to keep it stable en route. That would mean that even if the wormhole created could be shared, The result would be that any weapon sent through the wormhole would necessitate sacrificing the rare or expensive drive or require the drive to disengage at the destination and be recovered (which is probably not desirable or even possible in some cases such as if it opened onto a planet). Then you just make the wormhole generator requires rare materials, or simply be too expensive to sacrifice.
Answer: Reciprocated vulnerability
It's really obvious when a wormhole opens. There's a detectable circle several AU wide for 30 minutes before one opens.
In addition, any energy that is applied to that area is transmitted back to the wormhole generator.
If you see an unexpected wormhole opening up right next to your planet, you just nuke it. Whoever tried to open it had it coming.
This means that when selecting a wormhole destination for a weapon, it's a tradeoff between vulnerability and distance from target. If you can discover when an expected, 'friendly' wormhole is going to open next to your enemy's planet though, you have a chance of faking friendliness and achieving complete strategic surprise!
Answer: Social pressure. It's just Not Done--not by anyone civilized, anyway!
Otherwise... every setting I know of that features that kind of wormhole technology--Schlock Mercenary, Farscape, Star Trek, etc.--absolutely does use it for uncounterable weapons, which are controlled only by keeping the technology itself secret.
Comment: Schlock Mercenary counters it with technology that blocks the opening of portals. That's another way an author can make things manageable.
Comment: Xenosaga has the UMN but in that universe the actual nature of the UMN, let alone how to use it, is understood by very few and they reserve weapons that can strike through the UMN for their own use and even then requires the use of equipment that is non-replicable. Stargate uses such weapons more than most, with the most prominent and the first being Earth.
Comment: @DKNguyen Stargate doesn't have the ability to open wormholes in arbitrary locations, though--gates are chokepoints which can be, and are, managed and defended.
Comment: @LoganR.Kearsley They have hyperdrives though which for all intents and purposes is the same thing for this question. There were also cases were stargates were literally sent via hyperspace drive via ship to a locations and then weapons unloaded through it. Or collapsible large stargates through smaller stargates. All the shenanigans.
Comment: @DKNguyen Tactically, hyperdrives aren't the same thing at all--a hyperdrive cannot materialize a weapon inside an enemy structure without passing through the intervening space.
Comment: @JohnDallman, that's a great idea, thanks for sharing that! . I didn't think about the possibility of technology to restrict the opening of portals.
Answer: No Hollywood wormholes
Wormholes in reality probably wouldn't work the way they do in the movies. You wouldn't "open" one to a distant location. Rather, they'd be created side-by-side in pairs at very small scales, like particle pairs in quantum mechanics. And through much labor they might be "inflated" to macroscopic sizes by throwing small amounts of mass into them.
They might well be used as weapons but not in the way you think. It's suspected that collapsing wormholes may release ~70% of their mass-energy in gamma rays, depending on how (or if) the metric is coupled with the EM field. Even for kilogram-scale wormholes, that's super high-yield nuke territory. And if one goes both go. So, really, it's two nukes.

To get a wormhole to the enemy planet, you have to fly it there. Through all the intervening space, like transporting any regular object. This leaves open the possibility of the enemy detecting the approaching wormhole and destroying it. Or sending a wholesome, thermonuclear surprise your way instead. It's a two-way street, after all.


Visual Studio 2005 keeps "recompiling" XML Schema

Question: I have the following inconvenience while working with MS Visual Studio.
My project contains some C++ code, and a Schema file (with extension .xsd).
 I have a "custom build step" for converting the file to a C source; the generated file looks thus:
extern const char xmlSchema[] = {
    0x3c, 0x3f, 0x78, 0x6d, 0x6c, 0x20, // <?xml ...
    ...
}

I noticed that when i edit the schema file outside Visual Studio, or perhaps download a new version from a source control system, Visual Studio immediately notices that and invokes the Custom Build step (which i would expect it should do only when i "build" my project).
This is particularly awkward when my project happens to be running (i get a Do you want to stop debugging? dialog out of the blue), and can result in lost edits (never happened during real work but possible).
This doesn't happen if i rename my file to have a non-standard extension (e.g. .xsk), but i don't like this because i lose syntax highlighting (and it just seems wrong).
I would like to get ideas and insights on this:

Is there a reason for this "feature", or is it just a random quirk?
Any better workaround possible?
Maybe you are using another MS-VS version, and it doesn't happen for you (i am using MS-VS 2005 Standard Edition)?
Answer: That is, indeed, very annoying. Exclude the schema from your build. Make sure you do it in all build configurations.
Right-click on the schema and open the properties dialog. Under "Common", set "Excluded from Build" to true.
Comment: Unfortunately, i cannot do it because i actually want it to be included in the build (i have a Custom Build Step for it). I guess I'll have to live with this bug/feature.


Babel syntax highlighting for React not working?

Question: I've installed the Babel package in Sublime Text 3 (I see it in Preferences -> Package Settings), but the syntax highlighting for a sample App.js still looks weird:

For example, I would expect the opening and closing <Text> tags to have the same color. Any idea why the syntax highlighting is not working as expected?
Answer: You have installed the package, but you're still using the default JavaScript syntax package (see the bottom right corner)

You can temporarily switch the syntax by clicking on "JavaScript" in the status bar and select Babel. The same can be achieved using the "Set Syntax" command from the Command Palette.
You can permanently switch the syntax from the main menu View > Syntax > Open all with current extension as… and select Babel


Value of needlessly rude and harsh answers.

Question: I flagged Strange behaviour in PCB when solenoid turns off answer as "inappropriate for respectful discourse" @W5VO clearly agreed. 12 hours later @Nick Alexeev unilaterally decided that it was not "inappropriate for respectful discourse" saying "In case you don't know: negative feedback is a valuable thing (especially in engineering), and sometimes it involves saying things like "bad design" or "you should learn basics". It's better to hear about problems at the drawing board, than to listen to all the cheer only to run headlong into avoidable problems." The problems I have with that is "Nick Alexeev" can unilaterally override another moderator, and that he effectively said "you can be a jerk if you are right, it is good for people". So my question is this, do we want that much power in the hands of one person?
Comment: what the fluffle? where the heck is that answer rude? Is telling the truth rude now? If there is a pcb layout that is crap, one should have to right to say so. It is not at all beneficial for anyone to pamper people and tell them they are doing great, when in fact they are producing crap.
Comment: @Sam The O.P. asked for design review.  He got it.  The basics have been posted on EE.SE over the years.  I'm sure that the O.P. is already on his way of finding it.
Comment: @Sam: sure, read http://electronics.stackexchange.com/tour where it says "Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for electronics and electrical engineering professionals, students, and enthusiasts." which pretty much excludes "spoonfeed me some basics" kind of questions. And on what planet "grumpy" equals "dismissive" ? Olin is just rightfully pissed that there is a question yet again with no research effort. There are at least a hundred questions on this site that are useful to enhance the presented PCB, let alone the thousands of "tutorials" on the intewebs
Comment: Olin could have: flagged as answered, or ignored the question, but instead chose to be mean and derogatory and Nick backed him up.
Comment: @Sam: Seriously, take a break, a deep breath, then grow a thicker skin (or skin at all). And his comment is constructive, since he clearly states that the OP got what he asked for. Students are not required to know everything beforehand, but they are required to sit on their very bottom and do research on the topic, and if they are not able to come to the conclusion that decoupling is a thing before laying out their first PCB, they might be better of learning carpentry. This is all about researching yourself and *then* coming here to ask when you got stuck. The basics are out there already.
Comment: I have no problem with telling people that the design is bad, the problem is the context and tone. Olin's tone is clearly dismissive and assumes the OP is "stupid and/or lazy". Ask yourself is that "appropriate for respectful discourse"?
Comment: Can you point me to the place it says "this site is not for beginners to learn the basics"?

You admitted the clearly part yourself when you recognized it  was  "old grumpy graybeard tone".
Comment: So "students" are immediately supposed to know that decoupling capacitors are strictly necessary in an inductive circuit? Because I didn't know that until I tried it and ASKED ABOUT IT.

What do you propose the OP search for  when trying to research "My board doesn't work and it has a relay on it" that would lead to the answer "you need decoupling capacitors"? because the only thing that taught me that was 1. stack exchange or 2. experience from asking stupid questions. You are narrating a person for trying to learn, which is wildly inappropriate.
Comment: @Sam  I for instance, think that this whole thread is not constructive.  Yet, I'm patiently not interfering with the process of you voicing your opinion.  By the same token, if you simply *disagree* with my comments, that doesn't mean that they are not constructive.  It's not a good strategy for you to flag them as such.
Comment: @Sam: I did read it to them, we all had a good laugh and will drink a beer on Olin this evening.
Comment: Can you point me to the "clearly" part? Olins tone might be his usual old grumpy graybeard tone, but I can nowhere see the mentioned assumptions. Keep in mind that this site is not for beginners to learn the basics, and in case you actually do a PCB, you should have at least done a bit of the basics; The presented PCB is even worse than eagle on autoplace and autoroute and clearly shows no thought process about things like current flow etc.
Comment: @ Nick Alexeev, your comment was not germane to the question, it was off topic and pointless and therefore "not constructive" therefore I flagged it as such.
Comment: @PlasmaHH, attack the argument not the person. "Seriously, take a break, a deep breath, then grow a thicker skin (or skin at all)"
Comment: @Sam: I am just giving you an advice to keep your health and sanity. High blood pressure is not good at all.
Comment: @PlasmaHH "(or skin at all)"?
Comment: @Sam: Being upset so much as to flag nicks comment makes me think the necessary thicker skin is so thin as to be almost nonexistant.
Comment: attack the argument not the person
Comment: @PlasmaHH, @ Nick Alexeev, I dare you to read the original comment to any of your co-workers tomorrow and ask for one word to describe it, the results will be less than flattering, or even better use that phraseology in a professional setting  and see how long your job lasts.
Answer: Let me tell you a story about Professor Jacob. Professor Jacob took up electronics with the military during Vietnam to avoid being drafted and having a gun put in his hands. He worked on, and taught others to work on ICBMs. He reflected on that experience in a Pugwash talk, and how he had one chance to get it right. On the first day of every class he taught, he would say that he would teach the material the way the military taught him to teach. His courses were tough, but well worth the effort.
Moving forward, I was in a prototyping class with a different professor, and we were to design a circuit and put it on a PCB. My circuit was built around an IC from a course with Professor Jacob. I drew up a relatively sloppy schematic, and decided to go by his office and ask him to review it. He agreed, and then spent about five minutes ripping my design apart, and calling me out for my sloppy schematic. By the time he was done, the paper was half red with corrections he had drawn.
I left his office glad I had went to see him. Had I not had my schematic reviewed, my PCB would have most likely been a paperweight. More importantly, that was the day I truly learned the value of a neat, properly drawn schematic.
What does this story have to do with the answer in question? The reality is classic engineering disciplines can be harsh. Unlike software where the product can be respun multiple times in a matter of minutes until it's right, multiple iterations of hardware are expensive and time consuming. We're not just talking about the cost of the prototype, there's: certifications, tooling, rework, etc. It's important to do everything possible to get it right the first time, therefore minimizing those costs. That includes scrutinizing every single design decision. Believe me, I've seen the results of half baked design reviews, and it's not pretty.
Finally, before ripping on Olin, keep in mind, he's been a EE for over 30 years and has forgotten more than most on this Stack will ever know. We're lucky to have him here as a regular participant. In many ways, he reminds me of Professor Jacob, always willing to help, if you really tried to help yourself, else, expect to be called on it.
Comment: "Olin helps those who help themselves"
Comment: Well said - Olin is cool and if he comes over a bit harsh, his message is usually clear and it sticks with those willing to learn and develop.
Answer: I don't think the original answer was all that rude.  It was a bit gruff, and used a pedagogical approach that I don't often use, but the OP got the answer that fixes the problem.  I wasn't all that thrilled with the comment thread, but I think you were the one that inserted bad language, IIRC, so that's on you.  It was locked before I could flag your comments, and the comment thread was appropriately moved to chat between now and then, and the inflammatory comments removed from there.
You should be glad they're gone, as they didn't make you look real good. Even if you're super ticked at a user, try to maintain dialog in the manner that you would like to be spoken to.  It's a much better way to get your point across.
Comment: I dare you to read the original comment to any of your co-workers tomorrow and ask for one word to describe it, the results will be less than flattering, or even better use that phraseology in a professional setting  and see how long your job lasts.


How do I hide the plugin list from my users?

Question: I want to hide my plugin list from my users. How do I do that? They just type /plugins and all plugins are shown. Is there any option to disable this? I am using Essentials.
Answer: You should use PluginList.
Answer: To completely hide your plugin list from other users you need to do the following:

Override the /plugin command.
Override the /pl command.
Override the /version command.
Override the /ver command.
Override the /help command.
Override the /? command.
Override all plugin commands with the string response "Unknown command. Type \"help\" for help." or some response that is equivalent to what an invalid command would also be for all default users.

Solutions

Solve problems 1, 2:

Bukkit PluginList plugin should solve 1 and 2 if working correctly, but the users can easily find out your plugins still by using the /? command.

Reduce the effects of problems 1, 2, 3, 4:

Bukkit Vanilla plugin should at least block the commands associated with 1, 2, 3 and 4. However, if they are blocked, a user will notice that the command response is missing. They still can figure out all your plugins using the /? command.

Solving problem 5:

Since you already have Essentials, you can override the /help command by placing a help.txt file into the 'Essentials' folder. You need to format the text properly to make it unsuspicious. This only solves the problem with the /help command revealing information.

Solving problems 1 through 6:

Since you already have Bukkit, the server which Essentials is made for, then you can override commands using the aliases in the 'Bukkit.yml' file. You can override the commands here. For example, if you type the following:
aliases:
  ?: help
  plugin: help
  pl: help
  version: help
  ver: help

Make sure that you indent the aliases two spaces, then you will successfully have overwritten all those commands with the command help. You may forward these to other commands such as motd, rules, info and alter what they print out by editing 'motd.txt', 'rules.txt', and 'info.txt' in the 'Essentials' folder. However, you may want to use other commands from further plugins to reduce the chance of someone figuring out that you are using Bukkit. An easy way to create a simple text response command is with a plugin like Bukkit MyCommand.

Solve problem 7:

Use Bukkit MyCommand, Bukkit aliases, and any other plugin you can find or create to override all commands for your plugins that users may use to test to see if that plugin exists. An easy way to do this in general is to simply respond ambiguously for all commands that do not exist as well as commands that the user has no privilege for. This is a sure way to prevent any user from figuring out traces of your plugins, and it does not require you to list out every single possible command for override.
Comment: [Click here](http://i.imgur.com/6dKghke.png) to see my reasoning for posting this answer and why PluginList is not sufficient.
Comment: You have a point: a player can check for what plugins are installed by trying to execute a command that correspond to those plugins, if the output message is "permission denied", then that plugin which has that command is installed. But when I posted the question all I wanted was just to hide the plugins so that my friends wouldn't be able to replicate my server gameplay and create their own server, I wanted my friends to play only on my server basically. So your point is kind of irrelevant while true.
Answer: Alternatively, you can use Bukkit Permissions and make the /plugins command an admin or op only command.
Answer: You should add permissions so only the specific ranks you want them to do /plugins. The permission node is bukkit.command.plugins.
Or, you can add -bukkit.command.plugins to all groups that you don't want to have permission to /plugins. the - part removes the permission, as /plugins is available by default to every user.
Answer: There is a plugin for Spigot which will hide your plugins. I'm not sure if you've solved this problem another way but I found this easier.