Looking for a way to mount cifs shares on centos 6 with multiple users

Question: We have a CIFS share on our network. I have a centos 6.3 server in which I want to map the share.
The problem is that when mounting it in /etc/fstab I have to set which user (and password) to use.
The problem is that the linux server has many users. I would like the local user to be used when interacting with the share (so the permissions for the share are the same as the user's instead of one for all).
Furthermore, I do not want to save the password in plaintext (even the credentials file is plain text even if the permissions are limiting).
Is there a solution for this?
Answer: look at autofs which dynamically mounts shares using the automount daemon.  look at the man pages and you should come up with something similar:
auto.master
/cifs /etc/auto.home --timeout=10

auto.home
share -fstype=cifs,rw,credentials=/etc/samba/credentials ://192.168.0.12/share

Answer: Think the problem you have there is that if you edit fstab the share will only be mounted once, as it is only mounted once it can have only one uid. Have you thought about using group privs for the mount?
the only alternative would be to remove the entry from fstab and instead have the login profile mount the share for each user as they login ( and unmount when they exit ) although this is a messy alternative.
Probably best to mount once using generic user account and provide group privileges to those users allowed to access the files.
Answer: I think you can use fusesmb or gvfs-mount.
Answer: As the sysadmin you'll need to add the user to the local fuse group.  The following steps are executed by the user.

If logging in from a remote shell (SSH), execute dbus-launch bash.  (If logging in to Gnome locally, this should be done for you.)
The user can mount the share either in Nautilus (Places -> Connect to Server...), or from the command-line with gvfs-mount "smb://domain;username@host/share".  They may need to start the gvfs-fuse-daemon if it's not started automatically. I haven't solved this problem in my own environment, yet. (/usr/libexec/gvfs-fuse-daemon ~/.gvfs) Shares will be mounted under ~/.gvfs.


Antenna Radiation Patterns Explained

Question: Been struggling to find information that I find to be obviously missing on how to interpret antenna radiation patterns. For example have a look in the datasheet for my chip antenna. I can understand the three 2D radiation pattern graphs, one for each plane, what I don't understand is what the Horizontal and Vertical plots mean in the context of an antenna. I know it refers to the polarization of the RF waves transmitted/received, but couldn't find a decent source explaining exactly how this information can be used correctly.
Comment: To me, the horizontal plot is the plot of the horizontal plane as the black circle is drawn and vertical is the vertical plot is the measurement rotated on the X-axis.
Comment: But then isn't the vertical of XY then just the horizontal plot of the third graph (YZ) ?
Comment: One thing is that in the other case the antenna is facing downwards, perhaps it has to do also with the anechoic chamber where the test was performed, they might just have put the antenna in different positions and written down the results on the datasheet. Floor (and other) reflections might affect the results.
Answer: OK, let's look at the radiation pattern plots in your example. [
You already know these show the relative intensity of radiation in various directions within 3 different planes relative to the antenna. Within each plot, the Vertical (red) and Horizontal (blue dots) tracings represent the relative intensity of the radiation components that are vertically and horizontally polarized. You can imagine the chamber test probe (not the antenna under test) as a dipole being rotated into vertical and horizontal positions for these readings.
The V and H plots give you some idea how effectively the antenna will work when transmitting to or receiving from a linear polarized antenna in those two different orientations.
Looking at the 3rd plot, it's not surprising that the predominant radiation is horizontally polarized, because the antenna under test is, to a first approximation, a dipole oriented along the Z-axis (which is horizontal).
In the 2nd plot, again, it's not surprising that the radiation is mainly vertically polarized, since the antenna's approximate dipole is now oriented along the Y-axis (vertical).
The 1st plot is a bit of a surprise. With the antenna's equivalent dipole still oriented horizontally, there's more vertically polarized component than you'd expect. I think this is because the chip antenna has nonzero thickness, and isn't 100% in the plane of the PCB, so the equivalent dipole is slightly tilted from the plane of the PCB.
Practically speaking, what does it all mean? For such a small component, it's a pretty good antenna. It gives coverage, without terribly deep nulls, regardless of the polarization of the other antenna. But do bear in mind that the size and shape of the PCB will have a significant effect on these patterns.
For maximum range, orient the PCB vertically and if you have control over the other device, position it for vertical polarization. If the PCB is laid flat, you'll have intermediate coverage, and it's best to orient the other device for horizontal polarization. The worst case is for the PCB to be on its long edge and for the other device to be vertically polarized (red trace in the 3rd plot).
Comment: Alex, that is correct.
Comment: Thank you for the very clear response. Things make a lot more sense now.

Just to clarify though, if we assume I use the same PCB for both receiver and transmitter, am I correct to assume that positioning the two PCBs vertically (as the second plot) would produce the best performance?

Antenna Radiation Patterns Explained


How to take payment in MATIC on polygon testnet

Question: I am using polygon testnet to deploy my smart contract and ethers.js to interact with it. I have stored the price required to do a particular transaction in the smart contract as 0.001 ETH but when I try to do this transaction using ethers.js by sending an object containing {value: 0.001}, the value required on metamask is 0.001 MATIC instead of the corresponding value for 0.001 ETH. How do I make this happen?
Comment: You need to use Wrapped Ether token. But it is more complicated. Easier to use the native token which is matic
Answer: Since the Matic / Eth conversion rate is dynamic you need a price feed to convert it on demand on chain from a verifiable source.
Oracles does the job for you
chainlink's matic-defi-price-feed


Hiding admin (user/1) account

Question: How can I hide the main administration account from authenticated users? I have created a new role and created a new admin account.
Comment: What specifically do you mean by hide?
Comment: I don't want users to view or access the profile/account page.
Answer: You can implement hook_menu_alter() in a module to alter the access callback used for the "user/%user" path.
The code I would use is the following one, which is generic enough not to take assumptions about the access callback already set, and the arguments passed to that access callback. This means the code will work even if there is another module that alters the access callback for the same path.
The same code would work for Drupal 6, once you replace any occurrence of user/%user with user/%user_uid_optional.
function mymodule_menu_alter(&$items) {
  if (isset($items['user/%user'])) {
    array_unshift($items['user/%user']['access arguments'], $items['user/%user']['access callback']);
    array_unshift($items['user/%user']['access arguments'], 1);
    $items['user/%user']['access callback'] = 'mymodule_user_view_access';
  }
}

function mymodule_user_view_access($account, $callback) {
  $args = func_get_args();
  // Remove $account and $callback from the arguments.
  unset($args[0], $args[1]);

  $uid = is_object($account) ? $account->uid : (int) $account;

  // 1
  if ($uid == 1) {
    // The user ID is 1; only that user can view that user account.
    return ($GLOBALS['user']->uid == 1);
  }
  // 1

  // Let the previously set access callback decide who has access to the user account.
  return call_user_func_array($callback, $args);
}

The code would not allow any user to access the super user account, except to the super user. If you want to allow the users with the permission to administer users to see that user account, you can replace the control statement commented with // 1 with the following one.
  if ($uid == 1) {
    // The user ID is 1; only that user can view that user account.
    return user_access('administer users');
  }

Comment: I implemented this solution and works perfect, thanks, but also I would like to hide in URL user/1->[name] with maybe a redirect with rules  when url is [site:url]/user/[admin:name] to [site:url], please help how to implement it.
Answer: The User One module looks like it may provide what you are looking for:

Since Drupal 7 is more restrictive in allowing multiple failed logins,
  using different names (in 6.x version) is not needed any longer. These
  are the features of 7.x version:

User one account is protected from viewing and editing. Users -- even with 'Administer users' permission -- will be denied access.
...
Answer: You can make hook_menu_alter to this menu to change permission
function hook_menu_alter(&$items) {
    $items['user/%user']['access callback'] = 'my_function';
}

function my_function()
{

}

Comment: It's important to understand that the above will do altering on _all_ user profiles. You need to add user 1 specific logic, and then fall back to the normal functionality or no user profiles will be available.
Comment: Do you mean replace 'user/%user' with user/user1?
Comment: no user/%user  it is like a pattern like user/1 or user/2
Comment: another answer is wonderful you can use it
Answer: You should be able to use Rules' "User is going to view a page" trigger to do this if you don't want to write your own module hook as well.
Answer: The easiest way to do that is to create a hook_FORM_ID_alter
function legal_form_user_admin_account_alter(&$form, &$form_state, $form_id){
global $user;

  if($user->uid != 1){
    unset($form['accounts']['#options']['1']);
  }

}

Comment: All that code does is hide the row for user 1 in the main admin accounts page. It doesn't stop you visiting user/1 or user/1/edit to view/edit the account.  I hope you aren't using that as a security feature in any production websites as it won't work :)
Comment: Thank you Clive for your comments. I didn't realize that feature, so I'll take care using that code.

Hiding admin (user/1) account


Borderless printing in Microsoft Excel 2016 not working

Question: As a quick note, I feel silly to ask such an obvious question: I cannot make Microsoft Excel 2016 print without any margins!
What I would like to do:
I would like to color the left top of my document with a height of 1 inch. There must not be any margin on the final document (printed or saved as PDF) or it would look ugly.
What I have tried:

I set Page Layout, Margins to 0 (top, left, right, bottom, header, footer).
I went to Print and tried setting Printer Properties to borderless.

What actually happens:
See the image below what happens in the left top corner of the document in printing preview (and also when I actually print it or save as PDF:

What I have found out:
If a cell has no border, it still uses up some space. But if I put a thick border to the left top cell, the upper margin magically disappears. But on the left of the document, there still remains a very small white margin.
What else?
I honestly don't know how to proceed.
Answer: You could insert an image in the top left of the size you require and place it so that it covers the margins.


How can you deploy your substrate-node-template in AWS?

Question: I want to deploy my substrate-node-template to a server in AWS.  How can I do that?
Answer: I setup a node on an EC2 running Amazon Linux. It was exactly the same approach as needed to setup a node in any linux environment. The only thing different is that you'll need to modify the security groups to expose the proper ports to call RPC endpoints, connect to other nodes, etc.
i.e. if you're running a node with a command like:
<code>./target/release/node-template --tmp --dev --alice --port 30333
--ws-port 9944 --rpc-port 9933 --rpc-cors all --ws-external --rpc-external --rpc-methods=unsafe --validator
</code>
Then you want to expose ports 9944 and 9933 through your security group.
Comment: Thanks so much Tony.  Exactly what I did but had to use NGINX/Proxy to be able to expose the websocket.   But all is well and done.  Thanks so much again


Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) protocol with all dishonest parties

Question: What if we consider an MPC protocol in which all parties are dishonest? Is it unattainable (even with allowing abort) or is it just meaningless to think about?
Answer: Secure computation against all dishonest parties is well-defined, and actually attainable under standard assumptions. The key point is that this notion is useful when we consider composable notions of MPC (e.g. MPC in the UC model). Indeed, in this case, you could have $N$ parties running a big protocol, which internally involves (among other things) $n< N$ parties running a sub-protocol. Now, you want the resulting composed protocol to remain secure even when all $n$ parties are corrupted.
This does not contradict poncho's answer: here, the $n$ parties refusing to participate would result in an abortion of the protocol (since the sub-component would never be run). In other terms, poncho explained that you cannot have security without aborts, and that the notion does not make sense in the stand-alone setting (or, rather, is trivially attained - "stand-alone" is the term used to indicate security of a protocol when the latter is run in isolation, not in a broader context). I'm pointing that, on the other hand, it makes perfect sense for composable security-with-abort (and is typically considered in Canetti's framework of universal composability).
The setting of full corruption is for example discussed here, see also pointers therein. The introduction explicitly discusses this setting.
Comment: Thank you for your detailed answer! Could you clarify why the notion does not make sense in the stand-alone settings? I am not getting it.
Comment: If you only run the protocol in isolation, what would be the security notion? The natural, « simulation-style » notion, would be along the lines of: there is a simulator who can simulate correctly the messages of all *honest* parties from the viewpoint of the adversary. If there are no honest parties, this becomes trivially true! But in a broader context, there could be honest parties *beyond* the parties involved in the protocol. Does that make sense?
Comment: It makes perfect sense. Thank you very much!
Answer:
What if we consider a MPC protocol in which all parties are dishonest?

If all parties are dishonest, then they all can refuse to perform whatever protocol we selected, and do whatever they want.  Hence, if there is a security goal that is met by an MPC protocol that we specify, that goal is met because the parties couldn't violate it.
Comment: So if I get you correctly, an MPC protocol with all dishonest parties that meets a security goal has to minimize the ability of the parties so that they cannot violate it. Or your point is that the notion does not make sense because of their ability to do whatever they want?
Answer: It sometimes make sense to consider all malicious parties in the context of adaptive security.

Static security = the set of corrupt parties is fixed during the protocol execution.
Adaptive security = additional parties can become corrupted during the protocol execution.

Security is trivial against an adversary who statically corrupts all parties -- i.e., there is nothing to simulate in this case. But security is nontrivial against an adversary who adaptively corrupts all parties  eventually. When the adversary chooses to corrupt a party, it learns that party's internal state. The simulator must therefore simulate that internal state, and this is usually nontrivial to do.
You can consider a scenario where some parties start the execution honestly, but all parties are eventually corrupted by the end of the execution.
This can be a natural situation when you consider composition. Suppose there are $n$ parties, and some subset of $n' < n$ of them run a subprotocol. The adversary can adaptively corrupt some of the $n$ "outer" parties, leaving some of the uncorrupted, but causing all $n'$ of the parties involved in the subprotocol to become corrupted. So even if it's unnatural to think that all $n$ "outer" parties become corrupted, you might still need the subprotocol to be secure against all corrupt parties.
Comment: This is a good complementary answer to mine: I forgot to discuss the fact that the issue crucially shows up in the setting of adaptive corruption (actually, the paper I pointed to specifically discusses adaptive corruptions in a composition setting).
Comment: Could the dishonest parties just be "corrupted by different adversaries"?
Comment: Corruption by different/independent adversaries is famously hard to get right in a composable model. So I can't claim to give insight about that case.


Trip to iceland: paying for tours or taking bus/car

Question: I will be in Iceland for three nights during the new year holidays.The are different websites that offer tours in Iceland with different prices. I can also take bus or rent car and explore by myself. I am wondering which option is more economical, safe, and carefree?
Answer: As you only have limited time and it is likely a busy time in winter, I think prebooking tours at this time of year makes sense. But when I was there in September, a few years back, I waited till I was there and could book in one of the many offices.
Whether regular buses or a rental car is suitable for you is more a matter of opinion and I do not answer that kind of question (nor do I have the needed knowledge) but you need to consider that if the weather turns real bad with you stranded in your car or without buses it it goes really bad. So before you set out, check the weather forecast. If booking tours, the tour companies will do that for you.
Answer: Car vs. organised tour on your three categories.
Economical: we can't answer that. It depends which specific trips you're planning and what kind of car you'd rent, among other things. If you gave us enough information to figure this out, you'd already know the answer yourself.
Safe: also somewhat dependent on what you're doing. In many cases being part of an organised tour might offer a little extra security, but if you're going to travel alone there probably aren't all that many places safer than Iceland from a personal security perspective. Obviously, if you're intending to go exploring the (mostly uninhabited) central regions, go mountain climbing, etc, that can tip the safety balance much further towards organised tours - unless you have experience you shouldn't attempt those activities without guides. But that's because those activities carry inherent dangers, not because travelling alone is particularly dangerous in itself. As you're travelling in winter, you should consider the weather. Icelandic winters aren't as cold as many think, but nevertheless you should certainly expect snow. High winds and fog are also common and can arrive quite suddenly (a saying I've heard regularly when visiting Iceland: "if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes") . If you don't have experience driving in such conditions, that's certainly something to think about and may be a good reason to avoid driving yourself.
Carefree: If you take organised tours you have to work to their schedule. If you drive yourself you can go more or less where you want when you want (opening hours permitting, but many Icelandic attractions are natural sites open 24hrs a day - although during winter that doesn't necessarily mean you can see them for more than a few hours even if you can go there). Of course, driving yourself also means you are responsible for planning a realistic timetable to get everywhere you want to go (and back, if applicable). For me, the car is the obvious winner here, but that may be different if you find that kind of planning particularly stressful. The points above about the weather are also relevant here - tours should ensure you don't find yourself stuck in bad weather without necessary supplies/equipment, if you go by yourself that's on you. Don't let this out you off too much: common sense while planning should be enough, just as long as you're aware of the possibilities.
Comment: @Willeke Although that should be factor, 4 friends of mine from Thailand who have never seen snow rented an RV and drove around Iceland for 6 weeks so no need to be unnecessary scared about driving in Winter but I agree one needs to be cautious
Answer: Economical and carefree option is usually when you travel by yourself.
There is lots to see there in many places. You want to see all the major Waterfalls, do the Glacier walk, go hiking up some of the well marked hiking trails. do the boat ride on Lake Jakulsarlon ( home to 2 James Bond Movies).
But taking tours to all those places might be quite expensive.
Still, since you are going in Dec-Jan it might not be safe to drive a car around the island, if you aren't comfortable with driving on snowy roads. And bus schedule may change according to weather conditions.
Of course you  can check the weather forecast beforehand. But if you're really concerned about safety, better to take a tour.


Android game showing a roboter on a windmill (which is built with Minecraft-like blocks)

Question: I need to identify this Android game. I only have a screenshot of the game being played.
Comment: Where did you get the screenshot from?
Comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeM3GKS6a1c&t=83s
Answer: This game is called: Mekorama
You can download it here: Mekorama Play Store


Qt Designer & Dock Widgets

Question: Is there a way to initialize two dock widgets as being tabbed using the Qt Designer? I know this is possible with the API in the C++ directly; however, I would like to edit two or more dockable widgets within the designer and have them be tabbed to start. When I dock both widgets to the bottom dock they are sitting side by side and not one on top of the other. I can open preview and drag them to be tabbed, but they do not start this way.
Also, any idea when they are tabbed to make the tab bar appear on the top of the group and not the bottom?
Thanks,
Jason
Comment: You can use the function tabifyDockWidget() inside your program to stack two widgets, even if they have been defined inside Qt-designer
Answer: The short answer to the first question seems to be: no that is not possible. Would be a great thing to have though.
For you second answer, please have a look here.

Qt Designer & Dock Widgets


How do you make nice recess in a melamine board for IKEA shelf holders?

Question:
Which tool could be used at home to produce a similar result?
Comment: Note that a recess to cradle shelf pins is usually considered optional, unless you expect to put pulling force on the shelves
Answer: The normal approach for drilling half-round holes would be to clamp a scrap piece of material tightly to the work piece, and then drill normally on the join. When the two pieces of wood are separated, you're left with a half-hole in the work piece.
As long as the scrap is clamped tightly and is of similar strength material (e.g. another piece of melamine) this should produce a very clean edge as there is nowhere for the material to tear out to as the drill cuts through it. Of course practice first on some scrap.
To get the flat bottom, you'd need to flat bottomed drill bit, though I'd probably start with centre-drill or regular drill bit to help guide the flat bottom bit into position.
You could alternatively use the same technique, but using a router. With a straight plunge bit or other flat bottom router bit, use that to drill out the hole which may produce a cleaner result and give you better control in positioning the hole.
The chamfered edge can be done with a countersink before separating the two bits of wood.

Fun fact: when IKEA make these in the factory, because the shelves are symmetrical, the "scrap piece" will actually likely be another work piece. That way they can drill out two shelves simultaneously without waste, probably using some giant industrial CNC or manually with a jig.
You can use the same technique if you need to drill out recesses into multiple shelves. Clamp the two shelves back to back (instead of using a scrap piece), and drill as proposed above. This will produce half-round holes in both shelves with half the effort.
Comment: If you are doing more than one shelf, clamp *two* shelves together bottom-to-bottom, and no scrap required.
Comment: A router is great for doing this BUT if you are not careful it can give you massive chip out at the surface. This is avoidable if you use tape over the top or if you pre score the surface
Comment: FWIW Roman's pictured cut would have been done on end, two pieces at a time, perhaps using a specially-shaped flat drill with no brad point guide and the round-over edge included in the drill profile. A dowel-drilling machine with appropriate fencing could do it. A router bit that can produce a half-round bottom would also produce a half-round end shape instead of the square end shape.
Comment: @Triplefault This was probably done using a router with the spindle  axis parallel to the surface, the same way people are proposing to drill it.
Comment: If it's particle board, a simple chisel could do the job.


Avoid splatter when buffing?

Question: I have a problem when I am buffing. Even when I rub in the buffing compound into the pad, I still tend to get splatter where tiny droplets of the compound and flung around the shop, contaminating things nearby. Any way to avoid this?
Answer: A couple of ideas:

Relocate the buffer so that it's in an area away from things you don't want to contaminate.
Enclose the buffer in some sort of box that contains the splatter.

There is really nothing more you can do, that's the nature of these things.  You apply a compound to a rapidly spinning pad and some of it is going to get flung off.

Avoid splatter when buffing?


Why do high-reputation users get more votes?

Question: Recently, a user with 85.7k reputation and I (4k) reputation both answered the same question. I answered mine first, with a nice explanation of everything that was going on. He answered the question after me, and his answer was exactly contained within my answer. Why are people prejudiced for high-rep users? Shouldn't the voting be fair?
Here is the question
Comment: *"Shouldn't the voting be fair?"* Since when has voting been fair? *"Why do high-reputation users get more votes?"* Because high-rep users are by definition people who have gotten more votes. You got the accepted answer on it. You also got upvotes. Why are you unhappy about the situation exactly?
Comment: If you want to write a longer answer, make sure you start it with a short version that can stand alone. Then put the long answer below it. That way, those who don't want to read the whole thing can get the point from just the first sentence.
Comment: Was it chance that you appended the bit about enumerate _after_ mgilson's solution, you should have referenced his answer if you added it because you saw his solution...
Comment: Generally, high rep users are high rep users  because they write good answers... it's a viscous circle. Have you actually objectively compared both of your answers? If you want "high" rep the quickest way is to write good answers and there's lots of people, especially in Python, who can help...
Comment: They have bigger gravity.
Comment: You might as well ask why people would read a concise answer instead of a wall of text. Of course your answer might be more useful for OP but for most users it's mostly boring.
Comment: Cause and effect confusion: they *have* more votes because they answer well and appropriately to the question.
Answer: I happened to upvote the 85.7k user, and not yours, for these reasons:

It was concise and directly answered the question.
You included a menu of options without guidance as to why one option might be better than another. It seemed potentially confusing to a novice.
It appeared above yours, which gave me the impression it was written first.

I did not consider reputations when I upvoted.
Comment: The first two are the most important. A laundry list of different techniques for achieving the same thing, without any explanation of why you would use one or the other, is just confusing.
Comment: The OP also *clearly* copied the enumerate part afterwards __without reference__ (see the edit history), granted in a slightly different (less concise) way.
Comment: @AndrewBarber I actually never realized you could sort answers in different ways. Hidden in plain sight!
Comment: Excellent explanation on all three points. It seems you note that you've realized the placement of the posts does not necessarily indicate when it was posted (unless you've sorted it that way.) That's useful to know to avoid ever making a mistake voting based on time. I have refrained from up-voting on something when it seems to rehash an answer that that had been posted a good while before... you just have to be careful you are doing so by the actual post times. Of course in this case, the time of the posts was only one of three criteria you used.


Can "logics" be used, in plural form?

Question: Various native speakers have flagged that using "logics" is not correct because "logic" is uncountable. I have conducted some research and have found very few instances of plural "logics" being used. However, "logics" seems correct according to some grammar sources:
www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-plural-of/logic.html
Comment: If you see logic as ["a logical system"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_system), then you can have many such systems (e.g. in mathematics). Otherwise, and much more commonly, logic is uncountable.
Answer: As with most uncountable nouns, logic may be plural, if it refers to different kinds of logic.
There certainly are different kinds of logic that have been written about and used.
Whether different kinds of logic have been applied in this case I don't know; but there is something else at play here: the whole sentence has a kind of rhetorical flourish, and can be read as saying something like "even if there is more than one kind of incontestable logic that has been applied, they are still not adequate to account for sociological analyses". In this reading, the mere possibility of there being more than one kind of logic makes the sentence acceptable.
Comment: I certainly didn't realise that the different logics were distributed among the different analyses. If you want to make that clear, I suggest something like _Sociological analyses do not rest on their respective incontestable logics._ Except that that is even harder to read.
Answer: There are surely circumstances in which a plural form "logics" can be correct. One may refer to multiple theories of logic, for example.

Science has used different logics at different times.

There are other senses of "logic" in which it is a countable noun.
That said, in most uses "logic" is not countable, and a plural form is not appropriate.  It is hard to be sure without more context, but in the quoted sentence it seems that "*logic *" is being used as a non-countable noun, and so then form should be "logic", not "logics".
Comment: @Samara That sort of thing is why I said that context will matter. In the context of a paragraph making that point, a plural form might well be appropriate. There is no hard and fast rule here.
Comment: @Samara It might well convey the same or a similar meaning, depending on the whole text. The use of the plural form might serve to emphasize the difference between the different logical bases of different analyses in a way that the singular form would not, but that emphasis might be supplied by the rest of the text.

Can "logics" be used, in plural form?


TDE In marketing Cloud

Question: I have been researching TDE(as my understanding is that FLE is going away) for Marketing Cloud, and came across this Link. It mentions "TDE within the Marketing Cloud environment requires a dedicated database. Existing customers on a multi-tenant database need to migrate to a single-tenant database to implement TDE."  Is this true?  I am looking at this Stack Exchange Question/Answer, and it mentions getting a new MID.  Is getting a new MID the process of going from Multi Tenant to a Single Tenant Database?  Any information about this process would be greatly appreciated!
Answer: Since the TDE is at DB level, it can't be either or when you share a DB with other environments - as some of them would need TDE, others would not. So the only option here is to move to a new shared DB which has TDE enabled - for all tenants. This operation is indeed also a DB migration, since the content of your old DB needs to be replicated to the new TDE enabled instance - so do expect some downtime while data is moved. As this is a different instance, your MID(s) will also change. I am not into all the specific details, as I am yet to experience such a migration first hand.
Comment: is this still the case? I've worked on an account on a shared DB and the MID did not change. Would this simply mean that it was already on a DB that had TDE enabled? And if on a shared DB, would all tenants share the same key?
Comment: @AntonioDePalma - I suspect that all the tenants on a shared DB with TDE share the same key. This is due to the fact, that you can't bring your own key, as you normally can on a dedicated DB with TDE.

TDE In marketing Cloud


Is measurement or interaction what collapses that wavefunction?

Question: I'm very confused about what exactly causes the wavefunction collapse. I was under the impression that quantum objects propagate as waves and interact as particles. That is, upon interaction with another particle their wavefunction collapses. But I have heard that it is measurement which collapses the wavefunction or even that it may have to do with conscious observation. This seems very vague to me. What defines a "measurement"? Is it simply that the wavefunction collapses only when interacting with macroscopic objects, regardless of if they are measuring devices or connected to a conscious observer?
Comment: Does this answer your question? [Is there a natural principle that forbids real wavefunction collapse?](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/712483/is-there-a-natural-principle-that-forbids-real-wavefunction-collapse)
Comment: I will be careful with calling a measurement just an interaction. You can have many particles interacting like quantum many-body system without ever having a collapse of the wavefunction. I would mostly say that measurement is **an interaction with a macroscopic object** (but the limit of micro-macro is blurry defined).
Comment: @Mauricio is it known what causes this "blurriness"? Does a microscopic system interacting with a semi-macroscopic system only partially collapse the wavefunction?
Answer: Every measurement is an interaction. That is an important statement from quantum theory. One way to think about collapse as follows:
The collapse of a wave function is triggered by the interaction with a bath in the measurement apparatus.
A bath is any system described by a temperature.
A measurement apparatus always has a bath inside, in order to be bale to show the measurement result.
Comment: Is this equivalent to the interaction with a macroscopic object? Can you have a microscopic bath?
Comment: Yes, all macroscopic bodies contain baths: they have a temperature. But also the surrounding radiation field has a temperature. And a body has to be really small to not have a temperature... So in practice, almost any body and alsmost any envrironment has a temperature.
Answer: You are right to be confused. In those interpretations where wavefunction collapse occurs, there is no clear mechanism or explanation for how it works - just a variety of hand-waving speculations.
In the Everett Interpretation (sometimes called the Many Worlds Interpretation) there is no actual collapse of the wavefunction, but you get the appearance of wavefunction collapse when the system under study interacts with the observer's wavefunction, and the two wavefunctions become correlated. When a particle in a superposition of mutually orthogonal states interacts with an observer, the observer enters a superposition of mutually orthogonal states, each component being one observer observing the particle in one state.
Any interaction between quantum systems can constitute an observation, but it only looks like wavefunction collapse if you are one of the quantum systems, seeing it 'from the inside' so to speak.
I will try to explain using an example from classical physics - that of coupled oscillators and normal modes of vibration.
Suppose we have two independent simple harmonic oscillators, with equations $\ddot{x}=-\omega_1 x$ and $\ddot{y}=-\omega_2 y$. We can pack them both into a single matrix equation like so:
$\begin{pmatrix}\ddot{x} \\ \ddot{y}\end{pmatrix}=\begin{pmatrix}-\omega_1 & 0 \\ 0 & -\omega_2\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}x \\ y\end{pmatrix}$
These oscillators are independent, they do not affect one another, neither can see the other.
Now we introduce a weak interaction between them, such that the state of one applies a force on the other.
$\begin{pmatrix}\ddot{x} \\ \ddot{y}\end{pmatrix}=\begin{pmatrix}-\omega_1 & \epsilon \\ -\epsilon & -\omega_2\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}x \\ y\end{pmatrix}$
These oscillators are coupled. Each of them affects the other, they can sense one another. We can figure out what is going to happen if we apply the trick of diagonalisation to the matrix in the middle. We can represent a non-singular matrix $M$ as a product $M=U^{-1}DU$ where $D$ is a diagonal matrix of eigenvalues and $U$ is a unitary matrix of eigenvectors.
$\begin{pmatrix}\ddot{x} \\ \ddot{y}\end{pmatrix}=U^{-1}DU\begin{pmatrix}x \\ y\end{pmatrix}$
so
$U\begin{pmatrix}\ddot{x} \\ \ddot{y}\end{pmatrix}=DU\begin{pmatrix}x \\ y\end{pmatrix}$
and if we change variables to $\begin{pmatrix}u \\ v\end{pmatrix}=U\begin{pmatrix}x \\ y\end{pmatrix}$ which is a new pair of variables that are each some linear combination of $x$ and $y$, we get a separated pair of independent simple harmonic oscillators again. These are called the normal modes of vibration.
$\begin{pmatrix}\ddot{u} \\ \ddot{v}\end{pmatrix}=\begin{pmatrix}-D_1 & 0 \\ 0 & -D_2\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}u \\ v\end{pmatrix}$
One of them will consist of $x$ and $y$ swinging in phase together, the other will have them swinging in anti-phase, in opposite directions. The result will be a superposition of the two - but because the $u$ and $v$ states are independent they cannot 'see' each other. Because the matrix $D$ is diagonal, they do not interact. It is as if they were in two separate worlds.
However, the $x$ and $y$ oscillators in either of the pure $u$ or $v$ states do see each other: they are correlated.
The wave equation works like there is something out there oscillating, too, and it is natural to expect that when two quantum oscillators interact, they will both enter a superposition of joint states in which they are correlated. In each component of the superposition, one state of $x$ 'observes' the corresponding state of $y$.
So to answer your questions, an observation is any interaction between you (the observer) and the system under study that causes you to enter a superposition of normal modes of vibration, and what causes wavefunction collapse is when each of your normal modes becomes unaware of the existence of all the others, and therefore assumes they all disappear.
And of course, for all we know, they might do. Since by definition we can't see them ($D$ being diagonal), there is no way to determine whether or not they exist.
It is essentially the same question as asking whether an electron passing through one slit can 'see' itself simultaneously passing through the other slit. (They're charged, so they ought to repel one another if they can interact.) For electrons, we have much less difficulty accepting that the answer is 'no'. Each possible history in Feynman's Sum-Over-Histories sees none of the others. We just have a lot more difficulty seeing ourselves as waves.
Answer: While there's still some (legitimate) debate over this, you can mostly think of it as interaction. When a quantum (microscopic) system interacts with a macroscopic system, "something happens" to its wavefunction that leads, one way or another, to collapse.
The macroscopic system can be an "active" measuring device built by humans for the purpose of measuring, but any macroscopic system capable of interactions will do.
What is known is that this interaction with the larger outside environment leads to decoherence, which is a process that selects a specific set of eigenstates. Most of the time, it'll be position eigenstates, because most interactions depend on position. For example, you can say that the Earth contributes to decoherence through its gravitational field.
What is not well understood is that, at some point, this interaction can also lead to the selection of one of those eigenstates. This process is hidden behind the "measurement" or "collapse of the wavefunction" moniker.
Comment: so would the interacting system have to be macroscopic in order to collapse the wavefunction? Is this because of decoherence effects require many interactions to become significant? I still don't understand how decoherence is related to the measurement problem
Comment: In the 50's and the 60's, yes people were mostly working with Bohr's decision to have microscopic quantum systems on one side, and macroscopic classical systems on the other. Now we know with mesoscopic systems that the phenomena becomes gradually more important and faster as size grows (see Nobel prize 2012). The "measurement problem" is just a name for the moment where a specific eigenstate is selected, after decoherence has done its work.
Answer:
This seems very vague to me. What defines a "measurement"?

This exact question is known as "the measurement problem". John Bell formulated the question in a way that I like a lot:

What exactly qualifies some physical systems to play the role of 'measurer'? Was the wavefunction of the world waiting to jump for thousands of millions
of years until a single-celled living creature appeared? Or did it have to wait a little longer, for some better qualified system . . . with a PhD?

In the standard/textbook quantum formalism, sometimes known as the copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, this distinction is not made clear. So there is no exact answer strictly in the standard formalism.
Having pursued it personally for a few years during my studies, the only framework which satisfactorily answered this question for me was Bohmian Mechanics. Since it has a particle position to begin with, there is no question of what the measurement outcome will show, and as for wave function collapse, there is no wave function collapse after any so-called measurement... so that making a distinction between measurement and non-measurement events is not necessary.
Physicists tend to have very differing (and often strong) views on interpretations/variants of quantum mechanics. There are more than a dozen of them, and surely there is some which someone else who sees this answer will like better.


no sound in Ubuntu 14.04 x64

Question: After every "suspend-wake'up" my computer have no sound.
I must "renew" sound in these two steps:

System settings>sound>input device, I shall microphone probe.
System settings>sound>test sound.

Then sound in my computer working properly.
Answer: There is a bug that seems to relate to this issue and it seems related to running apps incompatible with pulseaudio 4.0.  On my system if a PA compatible app is run last before the suspend, the bug is much less likely to occur.  An answer to a similar question suggests killing pulseaudio (it restarts automatically).  Creating an executable script "00custom" in /etc/pm/sleep.d that plays a sound and resets pulseaudio before suspending completely fixed the problem on my system.  You need a Snoring.wav file in your Downloads folder for example this.
<code>#!/bin/bash

# custom suspend resume stuff
#
# 1) play a suspend sound and reset pulseaudio to workaround Bug #1355025
#

DBUS_USERNAME=$(grep -z "USER" /proc/$(pidof gnome-session)/environ | cut -d= -f2-)
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/$(/usr/bin/id -u $DBUS_USERNAME)
export HOME=/home/$DBUS_USERNAME

case "$1" in
        hibernate|suspend)

                # play a suspend sound and reset pulseaudio
                /usr/bin/sudo -E -u $DBUS_USERNAME /bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/aplay /home/$DBUS_USERNAME/Downloads/Snoring.wav"
                /usr/bin/sudo -E -u $DBUS_USERNAME /bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/pulseaudio -k"

                ;;
        *) exit
                ;;
esac
</code>

no sound in Ubuntu 14.04 x64


Can I accelerate mouse sensetivity over the standard maximum?

Question: I've used "Mouse Preferences" window to set mouse pointer acceleration and sensitivity sliders to their maximums, but I am still not satisfied with how fast does mouse pointer move (I've got a very big display). Can I accelerate it over?
Comment: I've been trying to do the opposite: decrease the sensitivity below the minimum. Have you had any luck with your attempts?
Comment: No, I hadn't. I had to adapt myself :-(
Answer: I'm not really sure what the range of the mouse acceleration sliders are, but you can easily change this manually by using xset.
Try something like xset m 100 5, that makes it go very fast for me.
The syntax of the command is:
xset m <pixels to move when going fast> <pixels threshold before moving fast>

To make the changes stick, put them in your ~/.xinitrc
Comment: Does not help. Even after "xset m 1000 3" I can't feel any difference. I use Ubuntu 10.10 with Logitech M-BT58 USB mouse. I also have built-in PS/2 touchpad in my laptop, but it does not get much faster also.
Comment: @Ivan: I'm running Kubuntu 10.10 so I assumed it would be the same for Ubuntu. I can't really figure out why it would be any different for Ubuntu though. Can you try `xset m 50 1` instead? I'm not sure where the limits are but `1000 3` doesn't do much for me either.
Comment: @Ivan - it may be getting overwritten by gnome-settings-daemon or similar. You can use `xset q` before and after to see if it is having any effect. Also, do you have more than one pointing device (mouse, trackpad, ball) attached to your computer ?
Answer: I do not know if this is the right approach, but changing the AccelerationProfile from 0 to 6 and setting the VelocityScale to 10 you can get a really quick pointer. Much faster than if you change it in "Mouse Preferences". Here's how to do it:
First, you need to find your mouse ID and ProductName :
xinput list
...
 Logitech USB Optical Mouse                 id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
...

Now you can set the AccelerationProfile to 6 with this command :
xinput set-prop 11 "Device Accel Profile" 6
# 11 = DEVICE_ID
# 6 = linear (more speed, more acceleration)

Then you set the VelocityScale to what suits you. (1 to 10) (Higher = Faster):
xinput set-prop 11 "Device Accel Velocity Scaling" 5

If the above solution works for you, you can make it persistent by editing your xorg.conf (/etc/X11/xorg.conf). Add this section at the end of the file.
Section "InputClass"
   Identifier      "Logitech"                   # Whatever you want.
   MatchProduct    "Logitech USB Optical Mouse" # ProductName from xinput list.
   Option          "AccelerationProfile" "6"
   Option          "VelocityScale" "5"
EndSection

Once you reboot, you should have the same result as with the xinput command.
Let me know if it helps.
*** Tested with Ubuntu 10.10 ***
References :

man xorg.conf InputDevice Section
http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/Development/Documentation/PointerAcceleration


Collisions in space/vacuum

Question: Say an object in space collides with another object at 100mph. Say the same thing happens on Earth. Would the impact in space exert more force on the receiving object than on Earth because some energy on Earth would be lost to sound/shockwave being generated due to air being present?
Answer: There is a high pressure front pushed along by a vehicle moving in an atmosphere. Just before point of contact this will be squeezed between the objects and the increase in pressure will reduce the vehicle speed, just as the wind can.
The size of the effect depends on the geometry and mass of the objects.
Answer: It is not clear whether you mean speed at the impact is same on earth and in space. Assuming the speed at the time of impact is same, then the answer is no.
If the speed is at 100 mph till sometime before the impact and then the object is left on its own, then, yes, the air resistance will slow down the object before the impact and the speed of impact will be lesser.
If you meant the shock wave after the impact, then, also, the answer is no. The shock waves are created as a result of impact force. As they are consequence of the impact force, they would not reduce the force of impact. However, some energy will be lost from the two bodies post impact on earth due to sound waves, and conduction of heat, which will not happen in space.

Collisions in space/vacuum


Foundation casting of a house

Question: The foundation trenching has water about 3 inches  due to rainfall, also the surrounding area of the land is waterlogged. We blind the trenching base using sand and cement. Can we cast the foundation now or later?
Comment: If you pour a foundation into mud, the area where it is poured will be thicker and the foundation will be unbalanced.
Comment: "We blind the trenching base" Um, what? Please edit to clarify. Also, where's your reinforcing steel?
Answer: Concrete for the foundation base (aka footing) poured into mud and standing water will not cure properly will be not suitable for use as a footing. You would be well to do one of:

Wait for the water to evaporate and/or soak into the ground.
Pump out the water.
Dig an additional trench away from the low end to drain the water away from the footing area.

Then let the soil base dry out. You will have to remove the area of the footing with the punky concrete and re-pour it in proper conditions. All this needs to be done before you start building a foundation on top of the footing.

Foundation casting of a house


Why standard tokens manually create getters for balanceOf and totalSupply

Question:
I've been reading through different implementations of ERC20 tokens and I noticed that many of them define balanceOf[address] as balances[address] and then create a public getter() to match the balanceOf() standard.
  Similarly, totalSupply is usually stored locally under a different name and then has a getter created to match the standard totalSupply()
  https://theethereum.wiki/w/index.php/ERC20_Token_Standard
I was wondering what is the purpose of manually creating getters for these two variables? Solidity automatically creates getters for public variables so why not just name them the proper name to begin with?
Answer: It can't implement the interface
Even though this is  a duplicate question, I'm not sure the other answers adequately explain the issue.
The problem is easily demonstable with a simple example:
Example:
pragma solidity ^0.4.21;

interface ERC20 {
    function balanceOf(address) external view returns (uint);
    function transfer(address, uint) external returns (bool);
}

contract TestA is ERC20 {
    mapping(address=>uint) public balanceOf;

    function TestA() public {
        balanceOf[this] = 1000;
    }

    function transfer(address _to, uint256 _value) external returns (bool success){
        require(balanceOf[msg.sender] >= _value);
        balanceOf[msg.sender] -= _value;
        balanceOf[_to] += _value;
        require(balanceOf[_to] >= _value);
        return true;
    }
}

contract TestB {
    address a;

    function TestB() public {
        a = new TestA();
    }

    function aBalance() external view returns (uint) {
        return ERC20(a).balanceOf(a);
    }
}

If you try and compile this contract you will end up with an error like:
browser/contract.sol:28:13: TypeError: Trying to create an instance of an abstract contract.
        a = new TestA();
            ^-------^
browser/contract.sol:4:5: Missing implementation:
    function balanceOf(address) external view returns (uint);
    ^-------------------------------------------------------^

The reason why is that even though it gets some virtual getters, and acts like an ERC20 token, it doesn't implement the functions, so it can't be treated as an ERC20 token from the compiler's perspective.
If you either remove the is ERC20 from the contract, or add the wanted function manually, it works fully as expected, you just can't have the warm fuzzy feeling that you're guaranteed to have implemented the interface correctly and minimise code at the same time.
I believe this could probably be a compiler bug or something actually.
Comment: Weird. So the contract becomes abstract because it doesn't implement balanceOf()?
So the public getters that are automatically created from variables are different under the hood from actual function getters?
Comment: Either that or the point in time at which the compiler is checking for the presence of the functions, the virtual getter functions haven't yet been created.
Comment: Oh good point. If that is the case it seems like this is a bug, since it's a bit redundant to create a getter function when there is already one generated.
Comment: Actually I've decided to not be lazy and have created a bug report here: https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/issues/3841
Comment: Ok. I think it might be related to this one as well. https://github.com/ethereum/solidity/issues/3514
Comment: Ta for that. I've closed as duplicate. For now it's easy enough just to create the functions that the virtual getter would make anyhow, plus you get the advantage of naming the input variables in the ABI, so it's no longer `balanceOf(address) -> uint`, it's `balanceOf(address to) -> uint value`


How to create a user for newly cloned High Volume Customer Portal profile?

Question: I created a profile called Test Portal profile by cloning High Volume Customer Portal profile. I wanna add users to Test Portal profile. i am unable to add users to this profile.
Answer: You will need to go to Set up | Manage Users | User
Once you are on user record then you can edit the user record and change profile to newly added one.
Alternately if you want this in bulk ,export  users (only those which you need to change profile .query with profile name High Volume portal user )via data loader and update the profileId with Id of the new profile
Comment: Try changing the User license on User record .The profile depends on User license .
Comment: Hi Shrivasthava,
I already tried as you said. But new profile Test portal profile is not coming under profile list.
Comment: Added screen shot as well of that helps
Answer: You can't add High Volume Customer portal users from setup screen. You have go to Contact and click Manage External Users button and create new user with appropriate user profile.
Please make sure related Contact's Account owner has User Role before doing this.
Thanks,
Leanas Nixon.
Comment: You can certainly do that from set up screen
Comment: You can edit the High Volume Customer Portal Users from the User Setup screen but you do need to add them from the contact record, so in this scenario of updating existing records it is correct to do it from the User Setup screen.
Comment: You can modify the already created High Volume Customer Portal User. You can create only from Contact's Manage External user button only. Screenshot you have posted is for updating an user (Refer User Edit: Andy Young). If it is for create user, it will be "New User, User Edit."


What is half open range and off the end value

Question: What do these terminologies mean in C++?
1. off the end value
2. half open range - [begin, off_the_end)
I came across them while reading about for loops.
Comment: Excluding the edge value. It is mostly used when dealing with real/rational numbers - but can be applied to integers as well.
Answer: A half-open range is one which includes the first element, but excludes the last one.
The range [1,5) is half-open, and consists of the values 1, 2, 3 and 4.
"off the end" or "past the end" refers to the element just after the end of a sequence, and is special in that iterators are allowed to point to it (but you may not look at the actual value, because it doesn't exist)
For example, in the following code:
char arr[] = {'a', 'b', 'c', 'd'};

char* first = arr
char* last = arr + 4;

first now points to the first element of the array, while last points one past the end of the array. We are allowed to point one past the end of the array (but not two past), but we're not allowed to try to access the element at that position:
// legal, because first points to a member of the array
char firstChar = *first;
// illegal because last points *past* the end of the array
char lastChar = *last;

Our two pointers, first and last together define a range, of all the elements between them.
If it is a half open range, then it contains the element pointed to by first, and all the elements in between, but not the element pointed to by last (which is good, because it doesn't actually point to a valid element)
In C++, all the standard library algorithms operate on such half open ranges. For example, if I want to copy the entire array to some other location dest, I do this:
std::copy(first, last, dest)

A simple for-loop typically follows a similar pattern:
for (int i = 0; i < 4; ++i) {
    // do something with arr[i]
}

This loop goes from 0 to 4, but it excludes the end value, so the range of indices covered is half-open, specifically [0, 4)
Answer: These aren't C++ specific terms, they are general maths terms.
[] and () denote whether the range is inclusive/exclusive of the endpoint:

[ includes the endpoint
( excludes the endpoint
[] = 'Closed', includes both endpoints
() = 'Open', excludes both endpoints
[) and (] are both 'half-open', and include only one endpoint

Most C++ for-loops cover a half-open range (you include the first element: e.g for int i=0;, but exclude the final element: i < foo, not i ≤ foo)
Comment: More specifically, that mathematical notation you described has a name: interval notation.
Answer: As explained on other answers, half-open range is also a mathematical term and usage of this term in programming context, it is implied that the starting point is included and end point is excluded.
What does it actually mean in the context of programming in C/C++ ? Let's say, you are going to print the elements of an integer array. Speaking for the C language, because that you have no any run-time knowledge for the size of the array, you have two choice. Either you have to provide the size of the array and thus, the function signature will be as below;
void printArray(int * array, int size);

or you have to use the half-open range, which means, you have to provide both begin and end pointer (and function is going to process including the begin, excluding the end) additional to the array itself. And the function signature will be as below;
void printArray(int * array, int * begin, int * end);

To illustrate, here is an example for providing the size of the array;
#include <stdio.h>

void printArray(int * array, int size)
{
    printf("Array: ");

    for(int i = 0; i < size; i++)
        printf("%2d ", array[i]);

    printf("\n");
}

int main()
{
    int array[5] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

    printArray(array, 5);

    return 0;
}

In the example above, we have passed two parameters to the printArray function as it is obvious on the function signature, the pointer to the first element of the array (or the array itself), and the size of the array.
However, as I have written above, we can also use the half-opening range in the function signature which can be seen as below;
#include <stdio.h>

void printArray(int * array, int * begin, int * end)
{
    printf("Array: ");

    for(int * index = begin; index != end; index++)
        printf("%2d ", *index);

    printf("\n");
}

int main()
{
    int array[5] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 };

    printArray(array, array, array+5);

    return 0;
}

Both of the code will produce the same output as can be seen below;
Array:  1  2  3  4  5

As you can see, the printArray function prints the function for the range [begin, end). The index which is actually is a pointer to the elements of the integer array, starts from begin, and it includes the begin and the for-loop ends up when index equals to the end pointer, excluding to process the end. This i called half-open range.
Half-open range is the C++ convention.


Can multiple versions of virtual edits be stored in the same .XMP sidecar file?

Question: Can multiple versions of virtual edits be stored in the same .XMP sidecar file, or is a separate .XMP sidecar required for each different set of virtual edits? I know one can create "virtual copies" in Lightroom but, as far as I can tell, Lightroom stores all but the first "copy's" editing information within Lightroom's database and not in the .XMP sidecar file. I also know that DarkTable creates a separate XMP sidecar file for each version of edits. But DarkTable's file naming scheme for these .XMP sidecar files is unfortunate and unique to DarkTable.
Answer: Unfortunately you are right, XMP file store the changes of original file. Edits of virtual copies are stored in to the LR catalog. Do not be mislead by the naming of files on export, they are related only for this case and not the internal information.
I personally do not use cataloging features of LR and found no way to store my edited virtual copies.


extending lightning components

Question: I would like to find out which cases are appropriate for using inheritance in lightning components, particularly how can we use polymorphism by extending lightning componets or maybe implementing custom interfaces? As far as I know according to this article https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/developer-relations/2015/03/salesforce-lightning-components-by-example-component-extension.html  we can only inherit parent attributes and helper methods
e.g.
parent
<aura:component extensible="true" abstract="true" controller="ObjectPanelController">
   <aura:attribute name="sObjectType" type="String" required="true" />
<aura:attribute name="maxRows" type="Integer" default="20" />
<aura:attribute name="fields" type="String" />
<aura:attribute name="records" type="Object[]" />
<aura:attribute name="sObjectInfo" type="Object" />
</aura:component>

helper:
  navigateToRecord : function(component, event, helper) {
        ///
    },
    deleteRecord : function(component, event, helper) {
       ////
    }

Child
<aura:component extends="c:objectPanel">
    <aura:set attribute="sObjectType" value="Account" />
    <aura:set attribute="fields" value="AccountNumber,Website" />
            Del |
            navigate

</aura:component>

Controller
({
    navigateToRecord : function(component, event, helper) {
        helper.navigateToRecord(component);//calls parent helper
    },
    deleteRecord : function(component, event, helper) {
        helper.deleteRecord(component); //calls parent helper
    }
})

Could we have other reasonable use cases of inheritance with using polymorphism for instance something like this
<aura:attribute name="MainComponent" type="Object[]" />
 <aura:iteration items="{!v.MainComponent}" var="main">
   {!main}
// particular instance that extends MainComponent
 </aura:iteration>

Answer: I have also started using inheritance + interfaces to remove boilerplate and leverage a consistent codebase.
I use many of the same techniques and also add in in Notifers and Spinners to get a nice consistent messaging framework (I note that I've seen a better implementation of spinners than mine by using the doneWaiting and waiting system events, so you might want to take that into consideration if implementing some of my example code.
My interface looks a little like this:
<aura:interface description="Interface that enforces the use of certain events and attributes">

  <aura:attribute name="opportunityId" type="String" description="Id of the Opportunity "/>
  <aura:attribute name="componentId" type="String" description="Id of this component, which should match the aura:id"/>

  <aura:registerEvent name="someCommonEvent" type="c:MySharedEvent"/>

</aura:interface>

My abstract component looks like this:
<aura:component  abstract="true" extensible="true" >
  <aura:handler name="init" value="{!this}" action="{!c.init}" />
  <aura:method name="refresh" action="{!c.reInit}"/>

  <c:Notifier aura:id="notifier" />
  <c:Spinner aura:id="spinner" />

  {!v.body}

</aura:component>

Inside the Abstract helper, here is some of the code:
showSuccessAlert: function(message, component) {
  var notifier = component.getSuper().find('notifier');
  notifier.showSuccess(message, true, 3000);

},
showErrorAlert: function(message, component) {
  var notifier = component.getSuper().find('notifier');
  notifier.showError(message);
},

callServerMethod: function(component,apexMethodName,apexParams,successCallBack,errorCallBack) {

  var superSelf = this;

  if (!apexMethodName ){
    superSelf.showErrorAlert("Helper Error: no method name supplied");
    return;
  }
  ....
}

Finally, components extending the Abstract component can make server calls, show and hide spinners very easily as shown here:
saveData: function(component) {
  self = this;
  self.showHideSpinner(true,component);
  this.callServerMethod(
    component,
    'c.saveData',                        //apexMethodName
    {data: somedata},                    //apexParams
    function(result){                    //successCallBack
      self.postSaveActions(component);
    },
    null
  );
},

Most of this code is available on Github here
Note, in the Github version, I also have an interface and a common message format between Apex and Lightning that you may or may not want to use - it simplifies data transfer between back and front end, but does impose some restrictions that you might not like.
Comment: @CasperHarmer I definitely like this approach but will there be a overhead if multiple components extending the same/different base component rendered in view?. Let's us I have an Assessment and under each Assessment has few or more Section which inturn contains Questions(min 20). Each Assessment, Section and Question component as its own set of complex functionalities built-in. In that case, I believe above pattern is not suitable , any thought how you would approach it
Comment: Current approach I'm using a Service & DataService component combo. For eg:`AssessmentServiceCmp`, which would attach all the Assessment related server calls to the `window` and cache the assessment data as well. At the end of the day, component which needs to get hold of the Assessment data, would do `window.AssessmentService.getRecord(id,successCallback,errorCallback)`. All I did here is mix ServiceComponent and DataService Component concepts explained [here](https://developer.salesforce.com/blogs/developer-relations/2016/12/lightning-components-code-sharing.html)
Comment: You may be right - I also like you technique of attaching services to the SecureWindow. I think I need to do some testing to see what actually gets rendered. I was thinking that since each component shares it's helper code with all other similar components, there may not actually be that much code behind all these components - I'll have a look, as I do have a component that has 8 other sub components, all extending the same abstract class.
Answer: We use inheritance extensively in our work places. some of the use cases for extending a base lightning component kind are if you have some functions that you want to use in multiple components.
Lets say in your first component you have a method called callserver which makes a server call and returns the response. all your components which needs server interaction will need this method so instead of writing logic to call server in each and every helper you can write it in the abstract component and all the other methods can extend it. So in our case it takes parameters
1.Component instance
2.Server method name
3.Params
4.Callback function
5.cacheable property
So when other components extend this component we do this.callserver(); from them to re-use this function. All the logic related to calling server checking for status success,error and then incase of errors showing a error banner happens in the abstract method. This way we increase re-usablility and in future if SF change definition of server call we just change it one place and it will work fine across all the components.
For Interfaces we have lot of components which have pagination kind of functionality. they have kind of similar parameters like firstpage,lastpage,currentpage. so instead of re-creating them in each and every component we created a interface for it and re-use it across components.
All re-usable methods we need across multiple components we put it on the abstract component and re-use them across components by extending it. In the longer run these methods will get time tested and will become robust and that will result in a very stable solution.
Some of the reusable methods we have are
1.Calling server
2.Parsing URL parameters
3.Custom console.log function instead of javascript console.log to control them from one place
4.merging null value fields with sobjects attributes since SOQL doesnt return null fields back to lightning components.
Hope this helps!
If you need specific code examples i can post that  as well if its going to help you.

extending lightning components


Lactase quantity test?

Question: Is there a way to reliably test the quantity of lactase enzymes in a solution? For example, if I were to culture multiple bacterial species which produce lactase, is there a way to count the lactase enzymes? Adding lactose and testing for glucose would not work because lactase is reusable, being able to perform reaction after reaction without changing. I could also separate the lactase from all the other polypeptides and perform a Biuret test against controls. That raises the issue of isolating the lactase. Any alternative ideas are accepted.
Answer: The typical way to measure enzyme concentration is via enzyme activity: if there's more of an enzyme, you'll see faster conversion of reactant to product.
So actually yes, adding a known amount of lactose and testing for glucose is a good way to do this. See for example this 1961 paper:
Jasewicz, L., & Wasserman, A. E. (1961). Quantitative determination of lactase. Journal of Dairy Science, 44(3), 393-400.

Fifteen minutes' incubation at 37° C. is used for the enzymatic reaction on a pure lactose substrate. The lactase activity is related to the amount of glucose released by the hydrolysis, as determined by an enzymatic micro-method

I'm not certain what the best way to do this using modern laboratory methods might be, but in general measuring glucose concentration in a solution is quite a common thing to do.

Lactase quantity test?


Sending e-mail based on combo box dropdown selection in Sharepoint 2010

Question: As far as capability, is SharePoint 2010 capable of doing the following?
User selects combo box dropdown value in one of the fields on a SharePoint List.
Lets call this field, Status.
If Status gets defined as Submitted, then email should be generated to XXX indicating that there are issues ready for review that are in submitted State.
If Status gets defined as Proposed, then email should be generate to YYY indicating that there are issues ready for review that are in Proposed State.
Is this possible to do? If so, please point me in right direction.
As a further bonus, is it possible for SharePoint to somehow find the boss of the person who sets the status as Proposed, and send him or her the email (instead of a set address YYY)? This might be done if SharePoint can reference Outlook and look at the hierarchy structure...(or if the network domain has that information, I don't know...).  This second one is harder, but if it is possible, let me know on that one too.
Answer: Use SharePoint Designer to create a workflow that will send email notifications. You can have the workflow kickoff on item creation or modification. The workflow can check your status field and run actions based on its value.
As far as the manager of a user. In sharepoint designer workflow there should be action called "Lookup Manager of User." You can then set the user to created by.


Animal swimming styles

Question: Can a frog swim on its back, or it can use only the classic frog style? Does any (not specifically marine) animal exist with many different swimming styles, just like humans?
Answer:
Don't know whether it was ever investigated, but I'm pretty sure, that frogs can in principle swim upside down (e.g. when escaping from predator), but they normally do not do it.
One example of alternative swimming styles in animals is provided by some munnopsidid isopod crustaceans. Several genera are pelagic and have very elongated forelegs equipped with rows of setae and paddle-like hindlegs (see Marshall & Diebel 1995 and Giver 1998):

the forelegs are used to "walk" in the water column
the same legs can be stretched out for passive parachuting
the hindlegs are used for backward swimming

Below is a photo of a parachuting specimen. And here is a very nice video of a backward swimming specimen.

Foto by Karen Osborn from here
Comment: Does this count swimming? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45yabrnryXk :D
Answer: Yes, creatures can swim different ways.
If you drop a frog into water while it is in the ventral up position, it will indeed swim upside down to escape before righting itself, which occurs by rotating while swimming. If the water is too shallow, it will flop and flip before jumping away.
Swimming on the surface ventral side up is kind of silly for a frog since it's eyes would be looking into the water, and it wouldn't see predators or prey on the surface. But I doubt if it is impossible. It's certainly not instinctual. To see an aquatic animal belly-up usually means something bad.
Otters can float belly up and even swim that way:

While snorkeling, I have seen many fish (especially parrot fish) swimming completely sideways in order to keep an eye on me while I hover over them.
Male orcas will swim upside down to mate, and will float upside down when semen is collected. Cetaceans have been taught to swim on their sides and expose one flipper to give the appearance of waving. In the documentary Blackfish, you can see Tilicum doing just this thing, circling the enclosure on his side waving for two or three laps before killing one of his trainers. Other orca videos show Tilicum swimming upside down to show off their white ventral surface for the crowd. And dolphins, of course, can swim backwards.
Dogs will do the dog paddle on the surface of the water, but use a slightly different swimming technique to dive.

I wish I could provide videos but I can't find them.
Comment: Yepp, it is pretty hard to find videos. :S Thank you for the answer!

Animal swimming styles


Can a photo with nothing in focus be considered to have bokeh?

Question: This photo was accidentally captured by me. Can it be considered to have bokeh? I am confused, because it does not have any foreground in focus.
Comment: Just looks out of focus to me.
Answer: The Japanese word Boke (ボケ) or the American spelling Bokeh, refers to the out of focus areas of a photograph. It does not necessarily mean only the background blur, it refers to foreground blur as well. Bokeh is often used to refer to the quality of out of focus blur more so than its presence. In Japanese, Boke Aji (ボケ味) is used to specifically refer to the quality of bokeh. Aji literally means "flavor", so it would be referring to the kind of bokeh...good or bad, clean or dirty, etc.
Bokeh ranges in quality from poor, where blur circles are rough and polygonal with poor uniformity to very high, where blur circles are smooth and perfectly round, with clean uniformity or a slight spheric grade from center to edge. Circular apertures with rounded diaphragm blades generally create more pleasing bokeh, and a slight amount of spherical aberration in a lens tends to create the most pleasing bokeh.
In your specific shot, you do indeed have bokeh. The quality of your bokeh appears to be lower than one would really look for in a photograph. Its a bit rough and the blur circles are not entirely uniform. Your shot is also only slightly out of focus...you might notice better results if you put it out of focus even more, however without a useful foreground subject...bokeh is largely useless.
Comment: Yes, it originated in Japanese. Boke in Japanese means blurry or hazy, at least in its modern usage. It also means funny man or comedian in in other contexts, and I think thats the older usage, so I'm not exactly sure how it came to refer to out of focus blur in Japanese. The American form of the word includes an h on the end simply to enforce pronunciation (unlike good old English, Japanese is very phonetic, and syllables/letters can only be pronounced a single way.)
Comment: Is the word from the Japanese language? Is that why you reference it? That isn't clear from your description.
Comment: Thanks, @jrista. I was trying to capture this scene, and since its an S95, I do not have easy control the focus. I did read about good quality bokeh, and it seems circles that fade outward without hard borders are the best. I will try to achieve that. Atm, by popular demand, I will just consider this an out-of-focus image!
Comment: Generally speaking, although maybe more from a cinematic standpoint than still photography standpoint, spherical boke, where there the blur circle is lightest in the center and softly grades to the outer edge, where there may be a faint ring, is actually very desirable. This also often creates soft focus, which is preferred for portraiture as it keeps fine skin features and blemishes hidden. Second to that would be "normal" boke, where the blur circles are largely uniform center to edge, and fade out just at the edge. The latter is better for creamy backdrops behind birds, wildlife, etc.
Comment: See [this diagram](http://photo.stackexchange.com/a/48478/1943) on how bokeh relates to blur overall.
Answer: It looks to me like bokeh, and nothing but bokeh. I'm actually interested by the little colored lights in the middle. With some cropping, this might become an appealing -- if abstract -- composition.
Comment: Hey, good idea. Thanks! I will try something like that.
Answer: Every picture has some level of bokeh - as its the quality of the out of focus blur and there's always some out of focus blur since lenses focus a single plane and we live in a 3D world.
This looks like just a totally out of focus picture to me.
Comment: Thats the problem with my camera, its an S95. I cannot set focus. It focuses on the entire scene, or as the above picture shows, focuses away from the entire scene. That was like my 10th or so picture :D
Answer: Technically, yes, this is bokeh. Bokeh really only refers to the blurring that occurs in the out of focus area of a picture. But I personally wouldn't think of this as bokeh but just an out of focus picture. Most times bokeh is referred to it is always that which is not in focus.
This site has a good discussion on bokeh and why some people think that bokeh is more than just an out of focus area of a picture.
Comment: Glad to help! The way I learned how to work with bokeh is the old school aperture test. Starting with a wide aperture and going narrower and narrower on the same subject.
Answer: Yes, this is, in fact Bokeh. Bokeh refers to the part of a picture that is out-of-focus. It doesn't matter whether it is in the background or foreground. The picture is very interesting, and with certain adjustments though, could look nice.


Can I bring xanax (or valium) on a plane?

Question: Is it allowed in Union Europe to bring with you (i.e. in hand luggage) xanax (or valium or any similar anxiety medication)? for personal usage, most likely one box.
Comment: @NeanDerThal: That's a truly awful idea, for any number of reasons. **Never** disguise one drug look as another. In particular, never disguise a significant psychoactive drug look like an over-the-counter analgesic.
Comment: "Hiding" anything is *probably* a bad idea here.
Comment: Why would you not?
Comment: @NeanDerThal So I need to hide that this is xanax? I can't use xanax bottle?
Comment: Put it an aspirin bottle or something..
Comment: Checking medicines is a part of the pre-boarding security check, if they allow it I see no reason to prohibit it on planes.
Answer: There are two issues that sometimes get confused:

What's allowed on the plane - This is determined by security rules. If a prescription drug is not a liquid that takes you over the liquids limit, then it's allowed. If it takes you over the limit, it's generally still allowed as long as you can prove that it was prescribed to you. Prescription drugs in pill form are not a problem at all.
What's allowed into the country / EU - This is determined by customs rules of each individual country. I don't know the exact EU rules, but I would guess it's similar to US/Canada rules, where less than 1 month supply of a prescription drug is certainly ok, but for some stronger/psychoactive drugs you need to have proof of prescription.

In any case, DO NOT try and hide the fact that it's Xanax by putting it into another bottle, etc. Anything like this will just be a red flag for any official, either security or customs. Prescription drugs should be in original packaging, ideally with your name and prescribing doctor's name / contact info on the packaging.
Comment: I always bring "other evidence" that this was my prescription. My pharmacy sells medication in a bottle in an envelope that is printed with a lot of additional information about me, my doctor, and the drug. It corroborates that this is validly prescribed. I agree - NEVER try to hide a legal prescription drug. Note also that some drugs might be "over the counter" in one country, and "prescription only" in another. If you have an amount that is clearly "for personal use" you are usually OK - but if in doubt, get a note from your doctor.


Is it possible to automatically aggregate / collect test results from different projects using Serenity BDD?

Question: I use Serenity BDD in multiple maven projects. I would like to collect basic information (number of passed and failed cases, time of execution) from all project into one place - one HTML, CSV file, database or email.
Is it possible to do that automatically? Do I need any additional tool?
Answer: Serenity BDD generates reports in XML, which allows you to parse programmatically any data you want from them.


Which months are best for seeing nemophilas in Japan?

Question: I know Hitachi Seaside Park is best to see nemophilias (link to pic under), but how long do they bloom? What are:

the start date?
the end date?
Comment: The follow up question, https://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/48238/why-does-season-for-seeing-nemophilas-in-japan-end-in-early-may has been moved to Gardening and gotten an answer there.
Answer: The Hitachi Seaside Park website has a page with this information. The season is relatively short, from mid-April to early-May.
Answer: I Googled again and found https://jw-webmagazine.com/dive-into-the-ocean-of-4-5-million-blue-flowers-e7de15969e77/ -

The best time to see Nemophila Harmony is usually late April to early May.

See Baby Blue Eyes Flowers at Hitachi Seaside Park in Spring | Hitachi Seaside Park from Tokyo

Hitachinaka City began planting flowers like the Baby Blue Eyes in Hitachi Seaside Park in 2002. In the short years since the event has become one of Ibaraki's most well-known sights. The Baby Blue Eyes are sown every year in November, covered during the winter under a frost-free sheet, and carefully watered and weeded.
They usually bloom from about mid-April to early May, but sometimes weather conditions affect the season. In 2018, for instance, the peak of the bloom came ten days earlier than usual. Generally, the best time to visit the Hitachi Seaside Park is in April when the daffodils and tulips line up with the Baby Blue Eyes flowers.
During the 2 or 3-week peak of the Baby Blue Eyes flowers, the city provides free shuttle buses from Ajigaura Station. A temporary additional city bus runs from Katsuta station to support the number of visitors. It's fairly easy to access Hitachi Seaside Park in Ibaraki Prefecture from Tokyo, but it does take some time out of your day. A one-way trip by public transportation easily takes more than two hours if you go from Tokyo.
Opening hours of Hitachi Seaside Park during the Baby Blue Eyes bloom are from 9:30 am to 5:00 pm. Be mindful that the park is usually closed on Mondays, but opening days change during peak seasons. Please check their website carefully when planning your trip. Admission to Hitachi Seaside Park is 450 JPY for adults, 210 JPY for seniors, and free for children under 12 years old.


How to disable external call to newsletter subscribtion module

Question: Lately, I am getting calls to the newsletter subscribe module from outside servers. Is there any way to stop it or force Magento to validate the call is from the server?
Answer: I recently had the same issues. We fixed it by adding this module. https://github.com/magento-hackathon/HoneySpam
Basically it adds a hidden field to some of the Magento forms that often get abused by spammer. When the hidden field is filled (what spambots do) the request gets blocked.
If the requests really come from an outside servers directly to the controller you could also add formkeys to the newsletter submit form and check for them either by overriding the controller or with an observer. If you don't know how to do this let me know and i can provide with an example.


is there any known way of lowering lag?

Question: I have been getting a ton of lag for the past 10 games and it is getting very annoying. so is there any known way of lowering it? is it my connection or the MW3 servers?
Comment: did you try resetting your console/computer?
Comment: I have had a terrible time with Black Ops and MW3. I play with the same group of guys since Halo 3. We were competitive in Halo 3, Reach, and MW2. Enter Black Ops and my game has tanked. MW3 is even worse than Black Ops. I have changed out my entire home network, everything is brand new including the XBOX. Playing alone the experience is ok and I really enjoy the game. Playing in a party results in constantly being 1 step behind the game. Playing is futile.
Answer: You only connect to the servers to find games (or when you're hosting, to upload statistics, but it still shouldn't affect your game lag), so your connection to MW3 servers isn't the issue. It's all about finding good hosts. There are a couple of things you can do to help finding less laggy hosts:

Make sure your NAT type is 'open'. This means you can receive incoming connections in addition to sending outgoing ones (NAT types 'moderate' or 'strict' do not allow incoming). Try this link or any of the ones you find on Google for instructions on opening up your NAT.
Pay attention to the ping shown when attempting to match games. It starts out trying to match < 50ms ping games, then moves up. I usually bail out and try again in a few seconds or switch game modes if I can't find a <50ms game.
Geographically closest hosts are generally the least laggy, so try to play at the same time that people around you do. Usually this will be between 5-10pm local time.
Unfortunately it's harder to match games if you play in a party. More people in your party means more free slots have to be open, and there are always fewer games with lots of open player slots. Also, hosts that match well for other members of your party will not always be the best match for you. So if the lag is really getting to you go solo.
Use a wired connection to your router instead of wireless. This will help eliminate packetloss on your end.
Any downloads or web surfing or anything that uses the internet connection will contribute to lag on your end. Unless you have QoS set up on your router AND at your ISP endpoint, which is never the case, extra traffic will affect your perceived lag (even when your connection isn't saturated). So avoid having other computers connected to the network while you're playing.
Answer: Infinity Ward removed a lot of the lag-mitigating features from Black Ops (most notably local only host searching), instead giving "artificial lag" to hosts. However there are a few steps you can take to get a better connection.
The first method with the best results, is to set up a dedicated port-forward for the game. portforwarding.com does an excellent job at providing instructions for doing this, if a bit tedious, and can significantly improve lag for bad connections.
The easier method is to disable theatre mode recording from the options menu, as this attempts to save what is going on in-game while trying to keep up with the actual match at the same time. And removing that extra factor can free up a lot of bandwidth.
And lastly, make sure you aren't downloading anything, or using any internet heavy services at the same time as playing.
Answer: The #1 thing you can do to control lag is to limit how much other traffic is on your internet connection.  Things like streaming Netflix, downloading files or games on Steam, torrents, etc will all cause very serious lag.
Other than that, you can try exiting the lobby you are in and searching for another game; it might be that you're in a lobby with players who are far away from you (latency-wise).
Some people say having your Xbox on a wireless connection to your router is worse than a wired connection; I haven't noticed this personally.
If you're not already Open NAT (ie, it is restricted or closed) you should change your router settings to fix this, see the following Xbox.com article:
http://support.xbox.com/en-US/xbox-live/troubleshoot/connection-issues/nat-type-strict
You could also try switching Internet Service Providers (ISPs) although that's a more extreme measure.
Answer: The answer is no. The latency compensation is widely believed to be to blame here. Much like BlOps, your success is at the mercy of their net code. For some unfathomable reason, they abandoned the awesome MW2 net code and changed it for the worse.
Your best solution is to go play BF3 or Gears 3. Both are on dedicated servers and work amazingly well. MW3 was going to be my game of the year and then I played it and realized I can't win a battle on my own: I can shoot first, hit a guy in the back or play amazingly well and still get owned because it has absolutely nothing to do with how good I am much of the time; it was more about how the latency compensation either worked or bent me over a sandbag.
At this point, they can't overhaul the net code, they can only tweak it. This means they can maaaaaybe make it incrementally better, but it's not going to ever be fixed. BlOps never got better through at least the first 3 months until I maxed and quit. I have no faith in IW/Act to fix this, if it's fixable. The latency is the biggest reason I'm selling this game.
Comment: Sounds like fanboyism here. That is not the only possible explanation for lag
Comment: 'MW3 was going to be my game of the year...' So, I tell you MW3 was my most anticipated game and you think I'm anti-CoD? I played MW2 for a ridiculous 49 days - that make me anti-CoD? Those other two shooters work BETTER - this is a fact. They are hosted on dedicated servers. While latency compensation is not the ONLY explanation for lag, it is still greatly at fault. I played Gears 3, BF3 and MW2 (MW2 the night BEFORE MW3 released) and saw no lag issues. Did my internet connection suddenly suck for the 1st time since BlOps, via some coincidence? You're half-right: I AM a fanboy...of quality.
Comment: I don't think you getting owned is the game's fault - I have never had problems with playing well and getting owned - if there's lag, it's noticeable and I either find another server or get off for awhile. Granted, I have had better experiences with BF3 but I would say they tend to put more quality into their games while CoD knows they can make tons of money so they don't put as much effort.
Comment: What I'm talking about above is 100% _their_ fault. I can get 5 hit markers and then die the second the guy looks at me? I die 10' around the corner by Wanted bullets? Playing a situation perfectly shouldn't get me killed. Too often I outplay someone and lose. You even hear yourself? I should _get offline_ for a while in hopes I can enjoy the game I paid for later? Seriously? "It's cool it's broke, I'll just try again later". Really? So if you buy a new car and it breaks down pulling out of the lot, you gonna be like "it's cool, man. Enjoy my money. I'll try it again later."?
Comment: All I was saying you should wait until your connection calms down - that's what I do. Sometimes I get absolutely lit up and can't seem to win a single gun battle, but it's almost always when my connection is poor. Obviously if it really was their fault, getting off wouldn't help but if it was your connection's fault, then it would. I'm not convinced that it is their fault, but it doesn't seem to affect me so if it bothers you, then do whatever you need to.
Comment: Yah, but it is their fault. The latency compensation is a real issue. There are tons of complaints about it. I play at various points of the day. These same time slots are what I played MW2, Gears 3 and BF3 in and they worked fine. MW3's netcode is crap - check out the MW3 forums. There are a lot of angry gamers citing the same issue. If you are lucky enough to not see this, good. Everyone I know has seen it, though, unfortunately. It's just really disappointing they messed up a good thing.

is there any known way of lowering lag?


Is there a term for the words whose stress is on the first syllable?

Question: I know that oxytone, paroxytone, and proparoxytone mean that its stress is on the last, penultimate, and antepenultimate syllable, respectively. Does a term for those having it on the first exist? Thanks.
Answer: The term you're looking for is prototonic, meaning a word accented on the first syllable.  Additionally, there is the term deuterotonic, which indicates an accent on the second syllable.
Mitch's answer describes terminology from poetic meter rather than technical linguistic terms.  For anyone looking for terms in that regard, his information is correct.
Answer: A two-syllable word with the stress on the first syllable is called a

trochee.

Words like 'double', 'parent', and 'major' are trochees. There are a lot more examples in this xkcd comic.
This is in distinction to an iamb, with the stress on the second syllable, for example: 'police', 'manure', 'alive'.
'Trochee' isn't exactly what you're looking for since it describes only two syllable words, and you're looking for a word with any number of syllables where the accent is on the first. (anapest is for three syllable words.) Also, these terms are mostly used for poetic meter, irrespective of word boundaries, but they still are often applied to standalone words.
One would expect, by analogy with the Greek system, that

prototone

would be the word (proto- = first) but is not listed in the OED. It is sometimes used though:

It is generally agreed ... that preclassical Latin was prototone: stress the initial syllable.
Comment: "Trochee" is a term used to describe meter in poetry.  This is not the correct context for the question, which is asking about linguistic terms.
Comment: Also, proterotone isn't a word, but you're thinking on the right track.  I would think the correct noun form might be "prototerone," but that doesn't seem to be an established word, either.  In any case, the correct term the poster is looking for is prototonic.


"ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE" IN MAGENTO CONNECT MAGER

Question: I'm not able to access my Magento Connect Manager anymore.
Backend is correctly working, but when I try to open Magento connect Manager i see a blank page saying "Err_Empy_response".
Answer: It's not safe to use Magento connect for installing extension , click this link for more information.
in the worst case, if you want immediate solution , Alternatively you can install the extension through FTP (like FileZilla). You can paste the extension key in this unofficial link and you can download the extension files. Let me know if you find any problems in this.
Note : As this is unofficial 3rd party site, there is no guarantee about security. but i tested many extensions, i did't faced any security problems....