audit review trap: link doesn't show the answer you should review

Question: I fell recently in the following (late answer) audit trap: Instead of reading the answer in the review queue I clicked on the link and read there the (only) answer. Since it looked pretty similar and the points where equal I went back, voted the good question up and failed the audit: the test was about a deleted answer... My request is now to avoid such traps as already deleted answers or to give the link to a page, where the answer still exists.
Comment: Good lord, they're both in English even!
Answer: This isn't a trap. This is you not paying enough attention. The review queue provided you with a post to review and buttons to click related to that specific post. You decided not to use that tool.
If you are leaving the queue to get more context, you need to pay attention.
This is the audit you failed:

Reliable transfers are what's important and the add-on that it does the advancement of error checking seems sufficient to toggle the amount of bits per packet or segment especially if the frame is read and delivered without TCP and in sequence with the fewer bits. It pays to receive something quality and another good question to ask is whether those bits are randomly arranging other parts of the network to another device or are you saying it takes all 1's and time consuming arrangement of a packet or segment to deliver CRC?

Whether it looks similar or not to the existing answer, isn't relevant. It clearly is not the same post.

The solution to your problem: Slow down and read the post you are presented in the queue. If you leave the queue for more context, make sure you are still reading the same post.
Comment: I am not complaining that a fell in the trap. I might even deserved this for not comparing the two answers on different sides. It is just a little bit annoying for reviewers always to check, if they are in an audit or not (this shouldn't be even possible!) because then things behave differently from what they should. There just shouldn't be a difference in the normal review flow when an audit comes.


Wittgenstein vs Derrida

Question: Derrida and late Wittgenstein challenged the 'traditional' understanding of language. What is similar and what particularly different in their views of language? What materials shall I read, that compare their positions?
Comment: Maybe starting from on-line sources : [Ludwig Wittgenstein](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/) and [Jacques Derrida](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/derrida/) and [Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889—1951)](https://www.iep.utm.edu/wittgens/) and [Jacques Derrida (1930—2004)](https://www.iep.utm.edu/derrida/).
Comment: Then try with some ["comparative" books](https://www.google.it/search?safe=active&biw=1366&bih=637&tbm=bks&ei=Ny0ZW_3oLMSRUdeulvAL&q=derrida+and+wittgenstein&oq=derrida+and+wittgenstein&gs_l=psy-ab.3...7875.8271.0.87184.108.40.206.0.0.0.164.263.1j1.2.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..1.0.0....0.GEnWD7ZWtBQ).
Comment: Wittgenstein is clearer, and therefore makes sense. Of Derrida, though, one can not say the same.
Answer: ▻ One book to try, not recent but well worth reading, is Henry Statten, Wittgenstein and Derrida, ISBN 10: 0803291698 / ISBN 13: 9780803291690
Published by University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Also :
Simon Glendinning, On Being With Others: Heidegger, Wittgenstein, Derrida, ISBN 10: 0415171245 / ISBN 13: 9780415171243
Published by Routledge, 1998.
And :
Eve Tavor Bannet, Analogy as Translation: Wittgenstein, Derrida, and the Law of Language, New Literary History, Vol. 28, No. 4, Philosophical Thoughts (Autumn, 1997), pp. 655-672.
☛ Christopher Norris points out three possible (there may be more) ways of juxtaposing Wittgenstein and Derrida :

There are three possible lines of attack for anyone who sets out to write about
   Wittgenstein and Derrida. One - and up to now [1986] the prevalent approach - is to
   claim Wittgensteinian warrant for dismissing deconstruction as merely a species
   of bother-headed "continental" theory. In this view it is not worth engaging seriously with Derrida's texts, since Wittgenstein has provided a range of well-tried
   techniques for coaxing philosophy down from such heights of self-imposed mystification. The second line would hold, on the contrary, that Wittgenstein's arguments themselves need deconstructing, or reading with an eye to their various
   textual twists and complications.1 Far from offering deliverance from the prob-
   lems thrown up by deconstruction, Wittgenstein's texts fall prey to those same
   unsettling effects within language that philosophy has always been compelled to
   ignore or treat as a merely local (and corrigible) source of error. Despite their
   avowed therapeutic intent his writings inescapably rejoin that tradition of "logo-
   centric" thought whose inbuilt assumptions Derrida traces from Plato down to
   Husserl and Saussure. Properly to read Wittgenstein-attending, that is, to the
   textual complications as well as the express meaning-is to find oneself drawn
   into a labyrinth of sense where few philosophers seem willing to tread....
So far I have sketched out two positions that are often taken up by parties to
   the debate between Derrida and Wittgenstein, or (roughly speaking) between
   deconstruction and "mainstream" philosophy. But what of the third possible line
   of attack that I mentioned at the start of this essay? Henry Staten's book is intended precisely to establish this alternative way of approaching the main points
   at issue. It is wrong, he argues, to see Wittgenstein and Derrida as spokesmen for
   two entirely different, antagonistic styles of philosophical discourse. That they
   have been read this way - mostly in the context of a long-running feud between
   critics and philosophers - is merely the result of strategic misreadings induced by
   a variety of prejudicial blindspots.
Staten's corrective comes in the form of a neatly double-edged critique. On the
   one hand he sets out to deconstruct that standard "Wittgensteinian" ploy which
   consists in denying all interest and validity to questions that can't be posed in the
   idiom of (so-called) "ordinary language." This move is usually followed by the
   argument that language is one of those "forms of life" that make sense for us only
   in the context of our other manifold communal activities. Philosophy is powerless
   to explain such activities, beyond pointing up their familial resemblances and
   applying its veto to other, more presumptuous forms of critique. Staten firmly rejects this reading of Wittgenstein. Quite apart from its highly conservative cast -
   implying that "language-games," like social institutions, are beyond the reach of
   any radical critique - it ignores a whole dimension of Wittgenstein's text in which
   language does much more than beat the bounds of a straightforward stylistic consensus-view. Reading Wittgenstein alongside Derrida brings out the extent to
   which the former's writing partakes of "new analogies, new possibilities of syntax"
   that scarcely belong to ordinary language, at least as conceived in the normative
   account. The "forms of life" reading is a straitjacket imposed by commentators
   who fail to recognize the looseness of fit between culturally-sanctioned modes of
   understanding and language in its more heuristic or exploratory styles. Wittgenstein's most characteristic gesture, as Staten reads him, is "to imagine the liminal
   moments of rule learning during which it is not yet natural to go on in the standard way and something new might yet be done" (p. 101). The most characteristic move among his commentators (some of them, at least) is to appeal prematurely to some version of the "forms of life" argument which closes off any
   sense of these radical possibiligties. (Christopher Norris, Reviewed Work(s): Wittgenstein and Derrida by Henry Staten, Comparative Literature, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Autumn, 1986), pp. 350-359 : 350-1.)
Comment: I assumed and assume the Later Wittgenstein. Questions on Wittgenstein usually centre on the Philosophical Investigations and other later works. That phase of LW's work now generally prevails over the earlier phase of the Tractatus. Fair and relevant point, though - thank you. Best : GT
Comment: Very interesting positions, thank you very much!
Comment: There is also the everlasting problem of early Wittgenstein "philosophy" being mutually exclusive with his later approach. Which Wittgenstein, the one of the *Tractatus*, or the one of the PhI?
Comment: @Luis Henrique. Thanks for comment. I have taken account of it with acknowledgement in my revised answer ('Endnote'). Best : GT
Comment: Yup, I mean late Wittgenstein, it says in the question...
Comment: @wroom wroom. I would have noted that in my answer. But I forgot to re-check the question when I received Luis Henrique's comment. Homer nods ! Best - Geoff

Wittgenstein vs Derrida


Does the total conversion of electron energy into X-ray imply the electron comes at halt in the short wavelength limit of X-ray radiation?

Question: Suppose an electron hits a metal target after being accelerated in an X-ray tube. The production of the continuous X-ray is explained by stating that the electron decelerates continuously. In that process, it loses kinetic energy which is converted into X-ray photon.
My question is, in the short wavelength limit, the energy of the emitted X-ray is equal to the initial kinetic energy of the electron. This means all the kinetic energy of the electron has been converted into X-ray energy. Now, if the electron has no kinetic energy, does it stand still? Will this electron not be attracted by the nucleus?
Comment: Maybe just me being nit-picky, but this is also good advice for communicating in science in general: try to be more clear on the specifics of the problem you're working out. Even if it's something simple, try to start with "Consider an electron..." and set up the problem. As it stands, it's not exactly clear what the context of your question is.
Comment: ok. I will keep that in mind from the next time
Comment: You can also just edit your question to make it more clear.
Answer: At the limit, the electron makes a transition from the continuum to the lowest unoccupied state in the metal. These are the states at the Fermi level. The process is called inverse photoemission. This can be used in spectroscopy to measure the unoccupied density of states (the DOS above the Fermi level).
The process is completely analogous to photoemission from occupied states to the continuum, where an electron absorbs a photon. Just the other way around. For exact measurements, one needs to take into account the work function of the metal.
For very high quantum numbers, there is Bohr's correspondence principle connecting quantum behaviour (Schrödinger equation) to classical electrodynamics.


Alginate nanoparticles

Question: I want to produce alginate nanoparticles from NaAlg. I choosed nebulizing NaAlg solution into $\ce{CaCl2}$ solution but 2% (m/v) NaAlg solution is quite viscous. What should I do to make it inviscid?
Answer: Dilute the feed solution tenfold, etc.  Inelegant.  Try solution engineering,
http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/kosmos.html
Chaotropes and kosmotropes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theta_solvent
Add a little "poor" solvent like ethanol or acetone to ball the polymer, disrupting hydrogen bond crosslinking and reducing chain entanglement.
You want a novel solution not obvious to one skilled in the art.  That qualifies it for patent protection.  A large fraction of the hard answers you need already exist.  They were done by other people doing other things.  Accumulate bone piles of knowledge.  The process for creating ceramic dislocation-pinned nickel superalloys works for Plexiglass, which "dissolves" 30 wt-% copper phthalocyanine as a dye masterbatch.  So it can't be done, so what?  Do it the "other" way.
Answer: Heating most viscous solution will decrease their viscosity. Most agar gels will liquefy when heated. Also, some polysaccharide solutions don't become viscous again when they cool down. I think alginate will become viscous, but you will have to test that out.

Alginate nanoparticles


Do you score for all smaller words within the long one in the same move in scrabble?

Question: If the word you play in scrabble contains several smaller words, do you score all of them, or just the longest? E.g. TRAIN as TRAIN+RAIN+IN, or just TRAIN? Cannot find it clarified in any rules...
Comment: This was the last time I played Scrabble, back in the 90's.  I was playing with my hypercompetitive grandmother, who was scoring Roman numerals this way.  When I pointed out I didn't think that was allowed she yelled at me that she'd been playing Scrabble since before I was born and so I couldn't tell her how to play.
Comment: just train as one word. however, if a player made "rain" an original word, collected points for that word, and added a t for "train" in the next move, THEN they would take credit for both.
Answer: You only score each tile in a word once, where a word is the full sequence of letters added or modified in each column or row by your tile placement.
If you check the scoring example in the official rules from Hasbro (click on the Scoring tab, then scroll to the bottom), it will show you how it works.
The first word in their example is HORN which gives a total score of 14. This is reached by adding 4 points for H, plus one point each for O, R, & N for a subtotal of 7. Because it is the first word played, it is given a double word score bonus for a total of 14.
Note that there is no additional score for the O and R making a subword of OR.
This can also be seen in the second word placed where FARM only scores a 9 - the subwords of FAR and ARM cannot be counted as part of the total score.
Note that a tile you place that creates or modifies words on 2 or more columns or rows can be counted multiple times (as in turn 4 of the linked example where adding O & B creates three words - MOB, NOT, & BE) but this is the only way that a tile can be scored multiple times on the same turn.
Comment: I would add that if a tile in the newly played word also forms a crossing word, that tile is scored for both the played word and the crossing word that was formed (occasionally, there will be multiple tiles doubly scored this way).  Word and letter bonuses are scored both ways only if the tile on the actual bonus square forms the crossing word, and of course bonuses (double letter, double word, etc.) are scored only on the turn in which tiles were played on them.
Comment: @ZeissIkon That would basically be rewriting the entire scoring rules. I will clarify my answer (later when I have the time to do so properly) to make it a little more accomodating of multi-word placement, but a lot of what you suggest is beyond the scope of the question.
Answer: The short answer is no.
The long answer is that you play a single word, the fact that there are other words contained in that word doesn't matter, there is only one word you created, the full and final word. If you did gain points for subwords, then pluralizing a word would gain you effectively double the score. (-1 for the s)
There are very rare cases where a tile creates multiple full legal words, if the tiles you placed in the word you are creating modify an existing word in a legal way (most commonly pluralization) then and only then do you score for multiple words in a turn.
Comment: "*Rare*"! I don't think so. Roughly half the plays I make create at least two full legal words.


Why does "abesse" have a present active participle while "adesse" does not?

Question: I found that the verb "Abesse" unlike "Esse" or "Adesse" has a present active participle.
What makes "Abesse" different?
Comment: You also have *praesens*.
Comment: @FlatAssembler Absolutely not. The expected participle is *sōns* (still preserved as an adjective with a different meaning), and *ēns* was coined in the classical period but never widely used.
Comment: Isn't the present active participle of "esse" "essens"?
Answer: Frequency of use, really!
Originally, esse had a perfectly regular present participle—or at least as regular as a verb like esse can be. This was sōns, sontis, inherited from PIE *h₁sonts.
However, Latin didn't really need a word for "being" as much as English does. English uses "being" to form passive participles, for example, but Latin doesn't; to express "the ones who are being seen" you can use an adjective, a perfect form, or a relative clause.
As a result, sōns wasn't used very much, and became a specialized technical term in law. Eventually it no longer meant "being" at all. Eventually, under the influences of Greek and Romance, new present participles were invented: *essēns and ēns. But in Classical Latin, there simply isn't a participle "being", and people did fine without one. Even in later forms of the language, ēns has never been anywhere near as widespread as English "being".
But, some prefixed forms of esse did use their participles all the time! "The ones who are here" and "the ones who aren't here" are very useful, for example, so praesēns and absēns (from sōns via vowel reduction) were quite popular, and thus didn't disappear from everyday use the way sōns itself did.
The result was a perception that esse didn't have a present participle, and thus none of its derived forms (adesse, deesse) did either…except the ones where that participle was useful enough that it remained popular in everyday use, absēns and praesēns.
Comment: @d_e Well, if a word _does_ get used, presumably its users found it useful! Since we can say from the surviving corpus that people _didn't_ use sōns to mean "being" very often, it doesn't seem like much of a stretch to say they weren't finding it very useful for that purpose.
Comment: Very thought-provoking statements about language evolution here (or should we say devolution); Do words disappear because they are "not needed"? maybe there is chicken-egg issue involved here. I say that if *sons* was used, then a "need" would have been "found" to "justify" its existence. (I know how odd this sounds, but the point is there are many words in every language that are "not needed" yet still with us). Other than that, one can see a usage for this participle is AA constructions that is simply being omitted; e.g. "caesare duce" .
Comment: I see [Wiktionary gives the same explanation](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sons#Latin), but I don't think vowel reduction would actually result in sons/sont- changing to sens/sent- in a non-initial syllable. The usual reduction outcome of -o- in a closed medial or final syllable is -u-, as in the third-declension present 3rd person plural endings -unt, -untur or the [old gerundive ending -undus](https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/4807). Sont- vs. -sent- look more like ablaut variants (I don't know the reason for that, but it could be as simple as analogy with other participles).
Comment: right. The crux question then moves to "usage". For some reason *sons* was not used -- but is it because it was not useful? If we look at many of distinct words in English - there are clearly useful - I once encountered the dying word *malapert* in some old text (I think one Loeb translation :) ) and found that word useful and handy. then finding out it was marked as *archaic* by Wiktionary (and indeed many native speakers are not familiar with that word) - one step before "obsolete." why is that?
Comment: @d_e If nobody will understand you when you say it, is it really useful?
Comment: If a world celeb, or be it Cicero, start using the word *malapert* would  not the word be used then?  I say that in the ecosystem of a living language there are several factors determining the fate of a word. I venture to baseless guess that chaotic factors are there. Surely *malapert* was and still is an *intrinsically* useful word - it was just replaced by other almost synonym word(s).  The diminishing *intrinsic* value of words does count but only a small factor in language evolution: such as some specific agriculture words that surely now gone. All I offer is a point for thought.
Comment: That was insightful, thanks.
Comment: I'm not sure this answers the question so much as replacing it with a different question: if the pres. ppl. of "be" really was so infrequent in Latin that it was lost, why was that? The corresponding form in Greek is very frequent, and it's not clear to me what syntactic differences between the two languages would account for the discrepancy.
Comment: @TKR If I had to guess, I'd say Greek loves its participles much more than Latin does, with a much more thorough complement of them; as a result, participles for "function" verbs end up getting more use than in Latin.
Answer: It's perhaps a bit confusing, to compare English 'to be ' to Latin 'esse'. It's more clearly to interpret in Greek  and  high German  languages where a participial construction like "I am being" translates to "I exist" and in low German dialects to "Ich bin am seien". The so called "Rheinische Verlaufsform" constuctions  are still popular in the Ruhr area dialects.
The Romans and the Humanists after Luther discarded such philosophical terms of existentialism as pure linguistic jokes, mainly used by the  Greek philosphers as house slaves to make their Latin speaking patrons feel humbled intellectually.
Comment: Can you explain how this answers the question?
Comment: Difficult, similarly difficult as explaining how such a question is arising for Latin, a Language incapable to cope with philosophy at the classical level. Confer Shakespeare, Descartes or Heidegger for the reivival of all the ancient questions of "To be".


Python interface in C++ Windows Form Application

Question: I am an mechanical engineer with some programing skills and I need some advice from much more experience people from programing. I am writing an optimization platform that will involve (at least at the beginning) one commercial optimization tool, one commercial design program and one my program written in C++. The platform should prepare case for optimization tool which will run all necessary programs in right order. This part with setting optimization tool from my platform is not a problem because I had some training and they have very good instructions. Also communication with this commercial design program is quite easy because it use OLE interface and has a large number of examples of it.
The part with which I have a great problem is providing of a large flexibility to my program. The calculations are mainly based on empirical correlations and I do not want to put them inside a code. I need to take them out to provide easy access in case of new data and new correlations. I am not writing only about changing of some coefficients but about changing of whole equations. For example: let say that something is described with equation X = A*Y^3 + B*Y^2+C*Y+D. ABCD are coefficients and Y is value taken from object in program and X is of course solution. But there can be another correlation for this which can take into account another value from object from program. X = A*Y^2 + B*Z^2 +Y/Z. So I need a way to take out all correlations from my code put them in separete files and be able to create new ones so they will have access to object properties in my code.
I was thinking about using Python macros (because in this commercial design program it works weary well, exactly in the way I have described) but the more I reed about this the more I do not know if it will work. I am writing Windows Form application and I use VS 2010. First problem is that  is unmanaged and whole program is managed.
So I used something like this:
<code>#pragma unmanaged
#ifdef _DEBUG
#undef _DEBUG
#include <python.h>
#define _DEBUG
#endif
#pragma managed
</code>
At least program compile but I have problem with casting unmanaged types of variables from Pyton to managed in C++.
So my first question:

Is it possible to use Python as macro scripting tool in Windows Form application written in VS?
Where can I get more information about this? I read Python docs, and some tutorials in the web but there are all in Win32 console application.
Maybe I should try to use boost? It will help me?
Is there some easy and simple way to do this?
( If someone would show me a simple form application with one button, one textBox and one class with two properties A and B and macro in Python (in separate file) that would return X = A + B * 2 to this text box he would be my hero:)
If answer to first four questions is negative pleas at least give me some hints how I can do this in other way.
Thanks!
Answer:
Yes
The application type in the examples shouldn't really matter. For the most part the Python bindings and supporting code will be the same, it will just differ in how you source the python code that you want to evaluate (i.e config file, or text box inside the application).
Boost has a python module which supports writing objects which are then "automatically" available in python. It is not as powerful as writing it by hand of course but it should be enough for what you need to do. This might be a good place to start, see : http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_47_0/libs/python/doc/tutorial/doc/html/index.html


rsa securid token command line windows

Question: Is it possible to run RSA SecureID Token (4.1) and get the passcode from Command Line on Windws (Window7)? I know on UNIX you can https://superuser.com/questions/353547/can-i-use-an-rsa-securid-software-token-on-ubuntu-linux
Answer: I have found a answer to this... Using AutoHotKey (AutoIt can also be used)... any case I have automated the script - http://code.google.com/p/get-rsa-token-cli/
Also, in case you want to know how I implemented it, use autohotkey script generator

rsa securid token command line windows


How to record audio from guitar amp to Phone/PC

Question: I want to record audio from my amp to my Computer/Phone, what application do I use, and how do I connect the amp to the PC? Do I use a wire or something? (Don't judge me, I'm not a technical guy, I just started playing guitar)
 (P.s. I don't have a mic for my pc)
Comment: (@AlbrechtHügli - I don't think he will need a *MIDI* interface - maybe you mean audio interface?)
Comment: Can you tell us a bit more about what you want to do with the recorded audio?
Comment: I'll Probably make a video for Youtube, or a good audio file, that I could share with folks.
Comment: : what you need is a midi interface for your guitar and probably USB port on your computer as  you don't have a microphone, then you will need some software to edit your music (as wavelab) and finally you will need the knowledge to upload it to Youtube and for this you need first your own Youtube channel. The best you can do is learn to play guitar and this will last half a year that it will be interesting for your folks-  if not 2 or 3 years.
@topo morto: I think this question of seargeant kick ass will be hold on.
Comment: What amp do you have?
Comment: no, I didn't think about the audio-in as my Acer hasn't one, I'm working only with the microphone of the  laptop. A jack > -mini-jack adapter will fit.
Answer: While it is true how to connect the amp to your PC depends on what outputs your amp provides, it is most likely possible without a mic.  Most current amps have at least a headset jack.  Some with have additional outputs.
For me, I run a male mini plug stereo cable (like this one) from the amp headset jack to the input on my PC sound card.  That being said, you will still need some software to record it.
It might be a little harder to record with your phone, but still achievable.  Since you didn't specify, I will just offer this generic answer:  you will need some type of adapter like this 1/8 to usb.
If you can update your post with your amp, and pc model and even your phone model, I can probably give you more concrete suggestions.
Answer: Most folks I know mic the amp and have the mic connected to an audio interface. Alternately, they don't use the amp but plug directly into the interface guitar input and then use software amps and fx. Others, like me, use a multifx unit which also has amp simulations and then connect to the line in on the interface or go directly into the pc via USB. Another way, depending on what type amp you have, is to run the output from your amp head through a loadbox instead of going to the speaker cabinet and from there to the line in of your interface.
Answer: For an android phone: Plug a 3mm male to male cord in the headphone out on the amp. Plug the other end of the male to male 3mm into the headphone side of a 3mm audio splitter. Open the recording software that comes with your phone. Plug in the male jack from the splitter (need a 3 ring male) into the phone. The recorder will say it will be using an external mic (it won't yet). Now plug the male you put into the headphone side of the audio splitter into the mic side.  Now it will record the amps output. (If you plug into the mic side 1st it won't recognize it.)
Little odd but it works.
In my setup I have another splitter (both outputs the same) into my amp before the male to male above with the other side for head phones. (The headphones can't have a builtin mic.)
Answer: Try some positions near the speaker. If you use a 3mm cable to plug the amp's headphone output it will sound like Line without Impulse Response, unless you use an IR simulator pedal like Nux Solid Studio.


2 dimmers in one box, one with ground capped

Question: I have a box with 2 dimmers and one on/off switch.  One dimmer (right dimmer in the picture) has the ground connected to the bare copper wire in the ground box.  The left dimmer has the ground wire capped (looks blue).  This was done by an electrician.
Is it OK to have one of the ground wires capped?
This dimmer recently failed.  I replaced it and capped the ground the same way and it works.  Just want to make sure it's safe and correct.
Thanks.
Answer: Updated based on OP's comment that this is a Leviton RNL06-TW.
There are three different things going on here:

Green ground - Any green ground wire (i.e., coming out of a switch, receptacle, timer, etc.) should be grounded properly. That can be either to another ground wire or to the metal box (assuming the metal box is itself properly grounded).
Generally speaking, all switches should be grounded. They can be grounded via the yoke, as long as they are designed to be installed that way, which is normally the case with a metal plate/yoke as in your switches, and as long as they are installed in properly grounded metal boxes with nothing in between the yoke and the box, again as appears to be the case here.
Wires that are not bare copper or green or green/yellow are not ground. If any of those are not needed then they should be capped unless the instructions say otherwise. A typical example is a traveler/communication wire used if a timer is installed in a multi-switch (e.g., 3-way or 4-way switch) configuration.

In this case, the blue green wire should be combined in a wire nut with the other ground wires. Not strictly needed for grounding thanks to the metal yoke + metal box, but definitely best practice.
Comment: Agree with this.  Sometimes colors vary a bit in shade, but a green ground would never be so discolored that it looked blue.  The blue would be a traveller.  Also, just for the askers benefit... The green screw or ground wire is almost never needed for a device or switch to function.  You may never notice a problem, so people assume it's not important, but the ground wire should _always_ be used for safety reasons.  They come into play when there is an electrical fault, and then you _really_ want it to be there and working.
Comment: Thanks again.  The model is Leviton RNL06-TW
https://www.amazon.com/Leviton-R00-RNL06-0TW-Dimmer-White-Almond/dp/B0787VDDRM
The instructions refer to the "Green dimmer ground lead".
Comment: If you connect the ground wire to the other grounds before working on anything else, then the metal plate on the front of the switch is grounded even when the switch is unmounted and you're working on its live conductors.  A small added safety margin that perhaps the original installer of this switch couldn't be bothered with.  If the box were plastic it would be essential.  In your situation, it's ok to do it the way it was done, though not perfect, and it avoids untwisting and retwisting a bunch of wires that ain't broke.  What I would do is untwist them and reconnect them with a lever nut.
Comment: Thanks for the answer and comments.  Much appreciated!  I can assure you that the wire is green.  It's just a different shade and the lighting makes it look blue.  Is my best bet a grounding clip?  I don't see a yoke or any grounding screws in the box.
Comment: Well, it looks blue to me, and there is a green wire on the other switch and the difference is pretty clear. As far as the yoke - that is the fancy term for the part of the switch that the screw goes through to attach to the box - in both of your switches it is the metal front plate. I wouldn't expect to see any grounding screws - if they supply a ground wire then the expectation is that you would connect it with a wire nut. As far as the *blue* wire, what is the make/model # of the dimmer so we can check the directions?
Comment: Interesting. Cause it sure looks blue. But based on the model, it is green/ground and there is a slightly different 3-way model which uses red for the travelers.
Comment: I wasn't sure if I could connect it with the other ground wire in the same wire nut, but will do that or attach it to the yoke.  Thanks again to everyone for the timely advice.
Comment: You can't just "attach it to the yoke". The yoke is screwed to the box - a wire thrown into the middle will just mess things up. You either put it in the wire nut (which should be just fine) or a new wire nut (to replace the old one) or connect it to a ground screw to attach it directly to the box.


Does the wind push harder at lower temperatures?

Question: When air gets colder, the air molecules get closer together. Does this mean that for a given wind speed, the wind will push much harder against objects and people at a lower temperature than at a higher temperature?
Comment: Ask a sailor 'does a sail boat go faster in colder or warmer weather'......
Answer: Colder air is more dense, so an airplane needs less absolute airspeed, and therefore less runway, to take off in it.
Check my favorite e-book about aviation.
Absolute airspeed is not the same at indicated airspeed, which is what the airspeed instrument shows.
It works off of a pitot tube and static port.
These together measure the pressure difference between a hole pointing forward and one pointing sideways.
That's a good thing, because what wings care about is the actual air density.
They don't care about meters per second.
Pilots have to consider the density of the air.
At higher temperature it is thinner.
At higher humidity it is thinner.
At higher altitude it is thinner.
Also, when air is thinner, the engine generates less power, unless it is turbocharged.
All those things mean taking off requires more runway, as does carrying more weight.
So pilots have acronyms and memorized sayings.
One of them is "beware of HHH" - high, hot, and heavy.


Windows Task Scheduler

Question: Does anyone know how to set a trigger delay of less than 30 seconds (the lowest option given in drop down menu) for Windows task scheduler?  I want a delay of 5 seconds to give another task time to complete first.  Evidently there is no way to daisy chain tasks so that they complete in succession to each other.
Answer: You can have them daisy chained. After the first task, schedule the 2nd task to trigger on the event created when the first task completes. The details get a little messy, but it's all explained very well here.

Windows Task Scheduler


How to get chainlink price feed data for my national currency?

Question: I am new to blockchain currently learning and exploring. I followed Patrick's tutorial and now in order to have hands-on I want to implement a FundMe smart contract but for my national currency instead of USD. I am not sure if the way I am approaching this problem is correct. The reason I am thinking this way is that I want to display amount on frontend in my currency instead of USD.
I tried finding address for my desired data feed on chainlink, but did not find anything. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks.
Comment: This might or might be topical for you, but I just published few [Chainlink tutorials here](https://web3-ethereum-defi.readthedocs.io/tutorials/), including how to get price feeds. However if there is no existing Chainlink price feed, then you need to fetch the price data using Chainlink HTTPS oracle - a bit expensive depending on the chain.
Answer: Chainlink data feed not only provides price of multiple asset values in units of USD(like BTC/USD, ETH/USD) but also provides the price of multiple fiats in units of USD.
If you want to implement "fundme" in the currency of your nation, the priceConverter could use this calculation to convert ETH to the currency you want to use:
ETH value in unit of your currency = (amount of ETH) * (ETH price in USD) / (your nation's currency price in USD)
Please head to the data feed address list to find 2 necessary addresses for ETH/USD and (your national currency)/USD.
Please be noticed in sepolia there is no such data feed provided, but you can find them in mainnet.
Comment: Thanks for response. I tried but could not find my nation's currency in that list. There are very limited currencies feeds
Comment: @doc what is your nation?
Comment: I am from Pakistan, so basically Im looking for PKR conversion.
Comment: I checked data feed for Fiat, and PKR is not there. There are only 8 feeds that are listed here https://docs.chain.link/data-feeds/price-feeds/addresses?network=ethereum&page=1&search=forex .


Is (0,0,0) an undefined vector?

Question: I'm not sure what to make of the direction of a vector with components (0,0,0). Is it an undefined vector?
Comment: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_vector
Answer: There's absolutely nothing wrong with a vector having all zero components. But a vector like that does have an undefined direction. So the definition of a vector as "something which has a magnitude and a direction" can throw you off here a little.
Answer: In mathematics that is the identity element 0 for vector addition, and is a key object in the definition of a vector space.
Physically, if $(0, 0, 0)$ is the position vector of some particle, then that just means it is located at the origin.

Is (0,0,0) an undefined vector?


How can I use a 3.5mm Headphone jack as mic only and have a usb headset as output only

Question: So I have a USB headset but the mic on it is broken so I have a mic that I'm trying to use over 3.5mm headphone jack but connecting that to the controller takes over output and input and trying to tell PS4 that the headset on controller is only input and not both, it symmetrically tries to put 1 of them as both I/O. How do I fix this?
Answer: As you said, the system will automatically change the input and output devices whenever they are changed. I experienced this annoyance as well while testing this.
After a little bit of troubleshooting, I was able to get this type of configuration set up. It's a little tricky and you might experience some audio or playback weirdness, but the following are the steps I took to accomplish this:

Turn off the USB headset and unplug the 3.5mm headphone jack from your controller

Doing this will change all the input and output settings to the systems default

Navigate to the system's audio settings

Settings, Sound and Screen, Audio Output Settings

Uncheck the option to automatically change output settings when new devices are detected

This should be the last option in the menu

Turn on the USB headset
Change the Output device to the USB headset
Plug in the 3.5mm headphone jack

The system will then automatically change the input device, but not the output device.

By following the steps above, I was able to receive all audio into my USB headset while using the 3.5mm headphones plugged into my controller to chat.


How do Fabrials work?

Question: `In Oathbringer, Fabrial's are explained as working by means of trapping a spren. But there are multiple instances of Fabrials requiring Stormlight (Spanreeds, etc.) to work. So which is it?
Comment: I think both? they feed the Stormlight to the gem with the trapped spren?
Answer: Fabrials need both a Spren and Stormlight. The spren helps determine what the fabrial does, and the Stormlight is the raw fuel.
We can see something similar with the Knights Radiant themselves:

 The Radiant has to swear oaths and bond with a spren. The oaths the swear and the spren they bond determine their Order, and what type of surgebinding they can do. However, even after swearing the oaths, they still need to take in Stormlight to be able to be able to actually surgebind.
Answer: I believe this is because spren themselves are kept alive by stormlight so without it they would die. I do agree the specification for use varied but it could also have a direct relation to what the individual sprens main area of power was how much stormlight would be required.
Comment: Where is it mentioned that spren live on Stormlight?

How do Fabrials work?


What is the case for active management?

Question: A recent personal finance question asks when to hire an investment professional?  Given that many of us here are on the professional manager side of the business, how would you make the case?  What quantitative evidence would you show a potential client?  What research is there to guide one as to the right asset level at which to switch from do-it-yourself investing to hiring a professional wealth manager?  Are there reasons besides investment returns to make the switch (e.g., tax, retirement planning)?  Keep in mind that most investors, unlike us, are not interested in spending a significant chunk of their lives thinking about investment decisions.
Comment: It's not a forum, it a Q&A site! ;-)
Answer: There's a strong theoretical argument that makes the case for active management that is also supported by empirical research. First, check out Jonathan Berk's paper "Five Myths of Active Management".  The paper reads like a clever Gedankenexperiment.
Starting with a theoretical approach is better than starting with an empirical approach because as Berk points out:

One might suppose that to measure skill, one simply needs to measure
  the manager's return before fees. The problem with this reasoning is
  that the fee the manager charges for services is only a small part of
  the costs of managing money. To achieve high returns, management must
  identify undervalued securities and trade to exploit this knowledge
  without moving the price adversely. In doing so, managers expend
  resources and pay bid-ask spreads that diminish the return available
  to pay out to investors. At some point, these costs increase
  disproportionately, eventually driving the managers' expected returns
  down to the benchmark. To measure a manager's skill level, one would
  need to measure return absent these costs, clearly something that we
  cannot do directly.

Berk shows that in equilibrium, the following seemingly plausibly hypotheses are false:

The return investors earn in an actively managed fund measures the
  skill level of the manager managing that fund.
Because the average return of all actively managed funds does not beat the market, the average manager is not skilled and therefore does not add value.
If managers are skilled, their returns should persist—they should be able to beat the market consistently.
In light of the evidence that there is little or no persistence in actively managed funds' returns, investors who pick funds on the basis
  of past returns are not behaving rationally.
Because most active managers' compensation does not depend on the return they generate, they do not have a performance-based compensation contract.

His point in a nutshell is that in equilbirium the excess returns (after fees) of active managers is driven down to the return from indexing/passive management. The first $XYX dollars under management generate alpha but at equilibrium the manager has taken on enough funds such that the marginal invested dollar does not.
Excerpt of the argument:

Imagine an economy with skilled investment managers with differential
  ability who can generate positive risk-adjusted excess returns.
  Managers and investors alike know who these managers are. Assume that
  managerial ability to generate excess returns cannot be effectively
  deployed at an arbitrarily large scale. Eventually, the amount of
  money under management grows so much that each additional dollar
  contributed reduces the expected return of the portfolio as a whole.
  Certainly, this assumption is consistent with the observed
  decentralization of the professional money management industry.
How is the equilibrium determined in this economy? Who gets money to
  manage? Well, as investors know who the skilled managers are, money
  will flow to the best manager first. Eventually, this manager will
  receive so much money that it will impact the manager's ability to
  generate superior returns, and expected return will be driven down to
  the second-best manager's expected return. At that point, investors
  will be indifferent between investing with either manager, so funds
  will flow to both managers until their expected returns are driven
  down to the third-best manager.
This process will continue until the expected return of investing with
  any manager is driven down to the expected return investors can expect
  to receive by investing in a passive strategy of similar riskiness
  (the benchmark expected return). At this point, investors are
  indifferent between investing with active managers or just indexing,
  and an equilibrium is achieved. Notice that in this equilibrium all
  managers, regardless of their skill level, have the same expected
  return.

Berk goes on to relax the assumptions and offers a more realistic experiment. Then he proceeds to cite his 2004 paper "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets" where he empirically models indirectly the value-added from managers and finds that "the vast majority of active managers add value" and "80% of mangers generate value in excess of their fees".
Comment: I don't think this answers the question as it's a bit on the theoretical side but +1 for an interesting read.
Comment: Check out the link the 2nd paper. That provides an empirical answer which reveals 80% of active managers add value.
Answer: An active manager can be good for a few reasons.
They can scale resources much better than an individual investor, and as a result can get better execution prices and access to assets that would be impractical for some individual investors(unsponsored foreign listings comes to mind).
Better firms will have tax professionals available to minimize taxes and therefore increase returns - whatever it takes to beat the benchmark, right?
Also, it might be worthwhile to look at a manager who has a contrary style to your own.  This can offer a hedge of sorts and may supply opportunities you otherwise wouldn't undertake.
Comment: Hi Jeff, welcome to quant.SE.  These are all great additional reasons in favor of active management.  Thanks for contributing to the discussion here.
Answer: Directly from the Berk paper Five Myths of Active Portfolio Management:

"Even more surprising is the extent of what the average manager adds. The mean of the distribution in the Exhibit is 6.5%. Given a management fee of 1.5%, this means that the data are consistent with an alpha of 5% for the average manager.
"Of course, investors themselves never see this. Competition among them increases the size of the fund and drives the alpha to zero. Instead the managers themselves capture this value through the fees they charge."

The second paragraph is especially telling. From the investor's perspective, active managers provide no value in terms of return. Berk himself is saying exactly this. With this conclusion there are then many reasons why active management is a negative for investors (style drift, fees, etc.). This paper only serves to strengthen the argument that participating in active management is a loser's game for investors.
Comment: All the more support for low fee funds.  It still boggles my mind why people pay high fees to invest substantial amounts of money in an index tracking fund.

What is the case for active management?


Unable to ask a question

Question: I don't know how but I am not able to ask a question. It shows that we are no longer accepting questions from this account. What should I have to do so that I can again ask my questions in forum??
Comment: Read the FAQ.  There is no excuse for not knowing the rules.
Comment: @OlinLathrop I already did it. But I don't know what should I have to do to. Is there any way as there are two questions(as a newbie I want to ask my query) on which I got lots of downvotes. But I also got my answer. Are moderators have some priviledge to delete that question as I don't think that editing a closed question make a sense of others.
Comment: If I remember correctly, this happens of the sum of the votes on your questions goes negative past a certain threshold. You also have a few closed questions, but I'm not sure how they affect the issue.
Comment: @AndrejaKo So how can I get rid of this situation?
Comment: I'm not sure. You could wait for one of the moderators to wake up and hope that they will have an explanation for this. One thing that could be useful is to try to analyze why the down-voted questions got their down-votes and try to avoid similar situations in future.
Comment: @AndrejaKo As a newbie I got lot's of downvotes. May be it was just because I don't know how to ask a good question or my questions doesn't seems any research effort?
Comment: Exactly. At this point, allowing you to ask more questions doesn't make sense. You need to step back and learn how to ask questions properly. Note that this has nothing to do with your level of electronics, but *how* you ask the questions. I just looked at your question history, and I agree that you have abused your priveledge here. Don't just blurt out more questions without learning why your previous questions were downvoted and closed.
Comment: @OlinLathrop So could you please suggest me what can I do. I understand that I asks in wrong way but as a newbie I don't know about the forum rule. Now I know what and how to ask a question. But what next as I am already in trouble. How can I get a upvotes on the questions that I asked
Answer: The following post on Meta.SO post contains the official list of recommendations:
What can I do when getting "We are no longer accepting questions/answers from this account"?
I strongly suspect in your case the reason wasn't a couple of "average" questions, it was the answers you posted that contained plagiarism and copied content without proper attribution. There was one answer I recall that had close to 10 downvotes before it was deleted (possibly by a moderator). If you read the above link those deleted answers still count against you.
On that answer you had multiple comments that you should attribute the source of the answer, which you decided not to heed. Not only did you not edit that post, you went ahead and did the same on another answer that now only contains attribution because someone else edited it after you failed to do so:
Formation of Ions in diode
The Creative Commons Attribution license used by Wikipedia requires that. When you don't do it apart from not sitting well with other members it also has possible legal implications.
As for your current situation I can't view your deleted questions and answers but maybe you could try to improve some of your existing questions. For example the following question might have a bit more promise and possibly be re-opened if you gave a few examples of specific circuits where you'd seen the use of a MOSFET for power control and wondered why they would be chosen over an SCR:
Application of SCR & TRIAC in electronics Field
And otherwise just go through your questions and answers and see if there's any way they can be improved and you'll possibly pick up a vote or two. But if you do get your post privilege back please don't go cutting & pasting material from anywhere into answers else without stating the source it came from! That, along with ignoring constructive comments on your posts seems to have led to this situation in the first place.
Edited to add that W5VO has pointed out in a comment that question bans are separate from answer bans. So it appears in this case you should be concentrating on improving questions but keep in mind the same could apply in the future to answers if too many are downvoted for similar reasons.
Comment: @Atom, closed questions can be re-opened, in fact for a while they are called "on hold" so they appear on a reopen queue after being improved by an edit so many users can vote on if they should be reopened. Because yours are older they won't automatically appear, but anyone (with enough reputation or a moderator) that sees the edit can put a reopen vote on it if they feel the changes are sufficient to give it another go.
Comment: How can I get or edit a question which is already closed.If you are talking about my question "Application of SCR in electronics Field", I got the answer but as I already got a lots of downvotes, what should I did to neutralize it. As a newbie (at that time) I just heard these in my books so I just want to ask their application.
Comment: The only thing I have to add is that question bans are separate from answer bans.
Comment: @Atom, that question started very broadly and now I think further it may be hard to make it more generic without changing the context too much. Maybe ask for specific applications where an SCR or TRIAC may be used, there are a few limited examples outside AC. But you can't 'neutralize' any votes, you'll need to make them better enough that people want to upvote them which might not be easy. As mentioned the real problem was likely the answers that got heavy downvotes so maybe you could try to expand a few answers to make them better as well.
Comment: Are moderators have some priviledge to delete that question as I don't think that editing a "closed" question make a sense of others.

Unable to ask a question


Wifi apparently connected, but webpages won't load

Question: I'm running the latest Ubuntu 14.04.3, and my issue today is that my Wifi connection sometimes becomes really slow, and eventually disconnects. I tried googling around to see if I can get any good answers, but nothing fixed my issue. I found a thread that used a diagnostic tool (wireless-info on github), which might help you guys figure out if there's anything wrong with my current system/drivers. This is what the diagnostic tool found. http://paste.ubuntu.com/12041942/
Is there anything I can do about this? I'd love to get this issue fixed. Thanks!
Answer: There are no less than eleven SSIDs in range with the same name. In your message log, we see your wireless device roaming from among them.
I suggest you ask your wireless to bind to your access point. Right-click the Network Manager icon, select Edit Connections. Fill in the MAC address for your access point; find it with:
sudo iwlist wlan0 scan

For example:
Cell 05 - Address: 00:13:19:F2:2E:D0
                Channel:6
                Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                Quality=66/70  Signal level=-88 dBm
                Encryption key:on
                ESSID:"UCInet Mobile Access"

Use the address (MAC address) you found for the strongest access point to place in BSSID in Network Manager:

Save and close.
Answer: You could maybe try this from the terminal:
   rfkill list up
   lspci wlan0
   rfkill list up

and then this:
   sudo -i
   gedit /etc/networkmanager/ifupdown/ifupdown.conf

and then write in this line at the bottom:
wirde properties=true

and it might work fine this way.
Comment: Do you just type random commands? They will do no harm except creating a useless file in `/etc`. And will do no good.


What's the longest wavelength single photon we've ever observed?

Question: At short wavelengths, our light detectors tend to be photon counters (e.g. CCD light sensor). At longer wavelengths, we use antennas and bolometers that tend to add up energy instead of counting photons. What is the longest wavelength at which we have "single isolated photon" type detection? Or, at least low number of discrete photons counted directly?
Comment: It depends on the temperature. At low temperatures one can use the superconducting gap to detect single photons.
Comment: (Note that the detector that I describe there does use a bolometer, but it has single photon resolution.)
Comment: @Pieter Awesome! What's the longest wavelength photon that superconducting gaps have bee used to observe? Or, at least, what's the range of wavelengths they operate in?
Answer: One cannot detect single energy events when there is a lot of thermal noise. So the detector needs to be cold to detect small quanta of energy.
Fortunately, there is a nice mechanism at low temperatures: some materials go superconducting, and this opens a superconducting gap in the density of states around the Fermi level. The size of the gap $2\Delta = 3.53 k_BT_c$ according to BCS theory, which is of the order of 1 meV. Excitations across this gap can be measured electronically. Not just counted, one can even do spectroscopy.
I do not know what the current world record is. But here is a recent article measuring wavelengths up to $\lambda = 90\ \mu$m: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7151327/


sp_dboption is not available in SQL Server 2012

Question: The system stored procedure sp_dboption is not available in SQL Server 2012 anymore. How could it be replaced?
Answer: sp_dboption was deprecated a while ago - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187310(v=sql.105).aspx
The recommended alternative is ALTER DATABASE - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms174269.aspx
Comment: What's the replacement for getting options? Just query `sys.databases`?
Answer: This is probably extremely terrible advice but I'll post it anyways: I needed to create a SharePoint 2003 (WSS 2.0) site and I am using SQL Server 2014 for my DB Server. I could not create a site collection. I copied the contents of the sys.sp_dboption stored procedure and created it in my master database on SQL Server 2014 (in the dbo namespace) and SharePoint works now.
So yeah, that can be an option if you're stuck...
Comment: Told you it was terrible advice :)
Comment: Maybe terrible advice, but it got me out of a pickle. Thanks for daring to post it!
Comment: Nice. Got me out of a pickle with an old version of Fortress too.
Comment: Terrible, but for test database it was very useful! Thank You :)
Comment: Ran into this issue while recovering a WSS farm to upgrade to current. This was also helpful in providing the required sp for the installer. sp_ms_marksystemobject


Where can I find material that introduces homotopy (co)invariants?

Question: Thanks for pointing out any reference.
Comment: Is there a specific setting in which you want to study homotopy (co)invariants?  For example, do you have in mind a question about topological spaces, or complexes of vector spaces?  Are you looking for an abstract homotopy-theoretic treatment?
Comment: In Costello's work "The Gromov-Witten potential associated to a TCFT", it says the pullback operation is not well-defined in simplicial chain, but it is defined for homotopy coinvariant, that's what I am studying.
Answer: If you like complexes of vector spaces over the field with two elements, Lecture 2 in this set of notes by Jacob Lurie has a nice treatment of homotopy coinvariants in that context.  Some technical complexity that arises in the topological category is avoided in the linear algebraic treatment.
Comment: Analogues of coinvariants for comodule algebras over Hopf algebras in model categorical setup is in a recent paper of Kathryn Hess on the arXiv.


asp.net, use a server cert to make httpwebrequest C#

Question: Sorry this is my first post and I'll try and be as descriptive as possible...
I am having an issue converting an HTTPWebRequest to reach an HTTPS website that requires a certificate. On my local dev machine I can create the web request to the site by using my client certificate from my CAC card using a CAC card reader. My problem arises when I have to push this code to our dev/prod server to access this site. I cant read my CAC card when I am on the server but I do have a server cert that I can use that is on our IIS 6.0.
Can you get the client's CAC card cert on the server? Is there a store to look from? Or is there a server store to look from?
I dont know the steps to using this server cert, whether I have to code this or work with my IIS Server Manager to enable it. This is my code on my local dev machine that is working. I added the ServerCertficateValidationCallback to test on the dev server.
<code>   protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
   {
        ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback += new System.Net.Security.RemoteCertificateValidationCallback(ValidateServerCertificate);

        ServicePointManager.MaxServicePointIdleTime = 300000;

        HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("https://url");
        request.Accept = "text/xml, */*";
        request.Method = "GET";
        request.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.AcceptLanguage, "en-us");
        request.UserAgent = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; .NET CLR 3.5.30729;)";
        request.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.Deflate | DecompressionMethods.GZip;
        request.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
        request.KeepAlive = false;

        X509Certificate myCert = null;
        X509Store store = new X509Store("My");

        store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly);

        int i = 0;
        foreach (X509Certificate2 m in store.Certificates)
        {
             if (i == 0)
                myCert = m;
             i++;
        }

        if (myCert != null)
        {
             request.ClientCertificates.Add(myCert);
        }

        //take the response and create the xml document to parse
        HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
        string str = reader.ReadToEnd();

        ...
        }

        public static bool ValidateServerCertificate(object sender, X509Certificate certificate,X509Chain chain, SslPolicyErrors sslPolicyErrors)
        {
            //certificate is in here
            if (sslPolicyErrors == SslPolicyErrors.None)
               return true;

            sslPE = "SSLPolicyErros: " + sslPolicyErrors;

            return false;
        }
</code>
Is anyone familiar with the process, for deployment, to use that server cert that is trusted by the web site im sending a request to? I want all users who access this site from our site ( our site requires CAC authentication ) to use the server cert. Unless someone has a better idea of using the users client certificate from their CAC card. I am having trouble putting this all together and any help would be appreciated.
Answer: The root ca (issuer) of your (CAC) certificate must be trusted by your server. Add the root ca certificate to the trusted root certification authority section of the windows certificate store of your server and restart iis.


Why "time patrol Goku" attacked "DBS Goku"?

Question: In the first episode of Dragon Ball Heroes we saw as the preview showed, the battle between Goku SSJ4 ("time patrol Goku") and Goku SSB ("DBS Goku"). Why "time patrol Goku" attacked "DBS Goku"?
Answer: We see a better representation of this in the manga. Xeno Goku was in search of Fu and charges towards him. This attack is blocked by Goku and Goku remarks on his unbelievable power and turns SSJB and a fight begins between the two of them.Two other interesting points to note is that Xeno Goku has not experienced anything from the ROF saga and is hence unaware of Super Saiyan Blue (Note: He is aware of the Super Saiyan God transformation). He is surprised by Goku's Blue hair. Also, an actual battle engages between the two of them, unlike in the anime which SSJB Goku ends up winning and Xeno Goku remarks that SSJB Goku was one step ahead of him.
Comment: Well, he is aware of Super Saiyan God definitely however, it is up for debate as to whether he attained it himself or not. In Ultimate Mission X, Xeno Goku states how with the help of his allies, Goku was able to turn Super Saiyan God. However, while some people (Including wiki, states he himself did turn Super Saiyan God), however some people argue that he is referring to an alternate version of him who did because of the Japanese translation.
Comment: hmmm interesting, what does he know about the Super Saiyan God? did he fight him or something?
Comment: You mean some people thinks Xeno Goku obtained super saiyan god? Which transformation would be stronger then, super saiyan god or super saiyan 4?


Top Speed of Radeon RX 480 8GB

Question: I'm mining in ethpool with windows 7 (intel i7 @ 2.80GHz 16GB....but that doesnt really matter, right?) and a Radeon RX 480 8GB card. humming along at a steady 24.75 mh/s. haven't done a thing to the settings. can i get better mh/s out of this setup by tweaking it a little bit? any input appreciated. cheers
Comment: I am currently running on ethos and only getting 23 mh/s max. Wondering the same thing you are.
Comment: yea i'm trying to maximize this thing to the fullest (without frying it). have u tweaked your speeds at all?
Answer: Your hashrate seems par for the course. At this point in the game, the mining software you are using is optimized to the fullest extent.
The only thing you can do now is try overclocking your card.  The core clock won't affect your hashrate much, but raising the memory clock may give you a boost.
I would start playing around with that value and determine what your card can run at stably.  If you go too high, your card may fail immediately or may work at first but fail in a few minutes/hours. Keep lowering the overclock until the card can run indefinitely without failure.
Comment: great....thanks for the input. any idea what might be a good speed to start off with? looks like its currently running at 1342 mhz and memory at 2000....whats a good increment to give a first try with? appreciate your help. cheers
Answer: I use MSI burner to overclock the memory. I got 27 mh/s
Many says they can get 30 Mh/s and lower power consumption by updating bios. However I have no luck doing so.
See Why I got lower Hash Rate in Mining Ethereum after I use Someone Else BIOS? as I keep doing that.
Answer: I have been consistently hitting 31.5MHs for months.
Answer: Seems like driver problem. My Asus rx 480 used to get very low speed due to use of very recent driver (non supported)
Now using 16.12.2 and found everything alright.
Comment: Welcome to Ethereum! If you have another question, please ask it by clicking the [Ask Question](//ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) button.
Comment: i just hooked up a 4th monitor to my computer (need them all for work) and it brought me down to 20 MH/s (from a steady 25). i hooked it up to hdmi port on my system (not the card) and it definitely decreased the speed by 5 MH/s. anyone have any suggestions as to how to get it back up to speed (pun intended)...using driver version 9.14.10.01249. any known issues with that version?

Top Speed of Radeon RX 480 8GB


Jupyter websocket issue

Question: I have a debian Jupyter running on port 8888.
I want to make it easier to connect to my server,so I have a node.js
app running that forwards request to  jupyter.mydomain.com:80 to
port 8888, andother domains to other ports.
This way I dont have to remember the ports of different apps, and instead
can refer to the server with different dns names. All the different names
are setup as a links in the dns server.
Now Jupyter works this way; but the Websockets that report the result of
calculations do not due to security error.
Is there any setting how I can get this to work?
Regards
Andreas
Comment: so the node app doesn't forward the websocket requests? or are the websocket requests not made to port 80?
Answer: node-http-proxy is a node proxy that supports websockets. Your node app that's proxying requests must also proxy websocket connections.
JupyterHub is a multi-user server for spawning and authenticating single-user notebook servers, and it uses configurable-http-proxy, a subclass of node-http-proxy that adds some live configuration, to relay connections to notebooks.  If you use NHP or CHP for your proxy app, the websockets should work.
From the node-http-proxy readme:

You can activate the websocket support for the proxy using ws:true
  in the options.
//
// Create a proxy server for websockets
//
httpProxy.createServer({
  target: 'ws://localhost:9014',
  ws: true
}).listen(8014);

Jupyter websocket issue


Convert something that runs off two D cell batteries to instead run off a car battery

Question: I do not know much, but I have a portable shower (http://help.venditiogroup.com/support/solutions/articles/6000178636-zenvida-portable-tankless-water-heater-outdoor-shower-260-pcwh01) that I would like to set up to be powered by the 12V car battery that runs the water pump which is a necessary but separate part of the shower.  All the 2 D batteries do is spark to light LP to heat the water.  The lock on the battery compartment broke and the MFG wants $10 to send me a replacement.  This is a mostly permanent set up where the car battery is on a solar charger and I just don't see the logic in maintaining the D cell batteries but I am clueless to what would be necessary to convert and would appreciate any assistance that can be provided.
Comment: This would cost far more than $10. If you still think it's worth it, give us more information on what's inside the machine and maybe we can help. How is the high voltage for the spark generated?
Comment: You are not going to end up in less than $10 in any scenario. Since you don't really know what you are doing I would suggest to go with the simple replacement.
Comment: All that I know is that the 2 D cells are in series and the battery compartment plugs into wires going deeper into the heater.  I have not found any specks online (I have to drive to town for cell service so no internet at heater) so additional info is not readily available.
Comment: Welcome to the site.
Answer: Two D batteries provide 3V. You can use a 3V regulator (LM317 wired properly) to decrease the car battery voltage to 3V.
However, since this is a gas heater, I'd recommend paying the $10 and getting the replacement... for peace of mind and preventing a fire (explosion) hazard.
To explain about the possibility of explosion hazard... If it is possible to supply the 3V using long wires (i.e. the battery and voltage converter is somewhere else, at least a few meters away) this should be safe. Considering also that if the heater is waterproof, it may also be outdoors, not in an enclosed space, which reduces the risk. If this was a manually operated device, i.e. you turn a knob for the spark, and gas line shuts off if flame goes out, there would not be any worry. However, the supply is 12V, so 9V is dropped across the regulator. To create sparks a substantial current is drawn by the boost converter (which creates a high voltage), hence the D cells (instead of AA cells). Being automatic, if there is some intermittent fault in the gas line, the boost converter will operate for a longer time and draw high current. At 9V drop, this will heat up the voltage regulator, maybe a lot. If located near the gas line, could lead to an explosion. Risk can be minimized by using a 5V or 6V supply for the LM317, and a large heatsink for it. In any case, it is best to place it far away from the gas lines. Other than that, it should all be fine. Use thicker wires and make sure they are connected properly (crimped).
One could potentially use a step down buck converter to decrease 12V to 5V, and then regulate it down to 3V (or 3.2V to account for voltage drop on long wires). This is probably safest, and most energy efficient (considering it may be running from solar), but may just be too much work. With a step down buck converter to 3V, the regulator may not even be necessary, but that may be a bit risky, without knowing what's in the boost circuit inside the heater. If the gas does actually turn off, if the flame igniter fails, then it may be safe, otherwise not.
Comment: Sounds to me like the broken battery door and its replacement cost is beside the point - the OP wants to be able to run the shower off the big battery and not use any D cells.
Comment: Thanks, I will try to obtain more info about the unit.  Again, this current only operates to create a spark to light the gas to heat the water.  So when the power is turned on, it is not on unless the water is flowing, and the water is cold.  Its kinda like the electric igniter in a gas grill, just that it keeps sparking until the gas lights and and sparks when needed if the gas shuts off because of water presser and/or temperature.
Comment: Mike65535 is mostly correct.  That would be the preference, but I am also looking at the cost benefit consideration of the conversion.


definition: dual of a vector field

Question: Let $X:\mathbb{R}^3\rightarrow T\mathbb{R}^3$ be a vector field, what is the definition of its dual ? I know that the set of vector fields on $\mathbb{R}^3$ forms an $\mathbb{R}$-vector space.
Answer: What you want is probably the metric dual. If $g$ is a Riemannian metric on $\mathbb{R}^3$ the metric dual is the 1-form $\alpha=g(X,\cdot)$, which is a section $\alpha:\mathbb{R}^3\to T^* \mathbb{R}^3$ of the cotangent bundle. When $g$ is the standard metric (i.e. the dot product $g(v,w)=v\cdot w$ from vector calculus) this is the map induced by $\mathbf{i}\to dx$, $\mathbf{j}\to dy$, $\mathbf{k}\to dz$ in each fiber.

definition: dual of a vector field


What causes the electric field to change over series resistors?

Question: So for example if we have a a wider and a narrower wire of the same length in series, since v1A1=v2A2, in the narrower wire the charges will move with a greater velocity. Since v is proportional to the electric field, this means that the electric field will also be greater in the narrow wire. Thus it will have a larger potential drop. So this is pretty trivial and directly related to Ohm's law. My question is what exactly "causes" this changing of the electric field? I'm sure this is a pretty stupid question and probably the best way to look at it is from another angle but I just can't see the intuition behind it right now.
Comment: There is a short moment, upon the application of an electric field, where the circuitry rapidly sets up charges (they reside on surfaces, as a rule.) For changing fields, there is a continual modification of the charge arrangements over time. I've discussed this in general terms [here](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/449151/38098), [here](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/411784/38098), and [here](https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/419140/38098). But you should read a good, readable undergrad book on physics: say, 4th edition of Chabay and Sherwood's "Matter & Interactions."
Comment: As charge re-arrangements take time (they cannot be instantaneous re-arrangements with exactly zero time), there is a delay. Adding to this is a delay whereby the changing long-range electric field forces from these momentarily re-arranging surface charges are then "felt" by charges moving in conductors (limited, at best, by the speed of light.) Some of this delay can be readily modeled as an orthogonal force -- which we call a magnetic field.
Comment: Take two (-) charges in an empty vacuum, separated by 'd'. A force is felt between them. One is moving relative to the other, which we take as "fixed." Time passes before changes in position by the moving charge affect the other. So it's not instantaneous. If we assume the electric force is instantaneous (Newtonian instead of Einsteinian), then this field effect delay gives rise to a new force (one we can construct) called a magnetic field. So Maxwell's electric and magnetic fields are "classical" or pre-Einsteinian. Full consideration of all details in solid state matter is quite "complex."
Comment: At the start there's an equal electric field across the whole thing, but then the charges start moving and distort it. What you are describing is the equilibrium condition. We use a lot of equilibrium calculations in electronics.
Comment: So how does this happen in a little more detail?
Comment: This is one of those questions that sounds simple but is horribly complicated to model! I would note that inside a conductor the macroscopic electric field is considered to be zero - but that will raise more questions ..
Answer: In the context of classical electrodynamics, it's surface charge.
You should first ask yourself "what makes the electric field follow the path and shape of the conductor?"
Well, it is surface charge.
The battery generates an electric field nearby it, when you place the conductor near to it without connecting it to the battery, the free charge in the conductor will feel the field and will reposition itself of the surface of the conductor in order to make the electric field inside zero. This is just plain electrostatic induction.
Let's consider a cylindrical conductor of conductivity sigma with different cross sections.
When you connect the conductor to the battery, the charge will change its configuration in order to make the field inside the conductor conform to local Ohm's law j = sigma E.
If you solve Maxwell's equation adding in the continuity equation and a pinch of Ohm's law in its local form, you will find that the charge density in the system will depend on gradients of conductivity and permeability:

This means that there will be rings of charge around the cylinder that will shape the field to follow the conductor, and there will be charges at the discontinuity in section to make the field 'concentrate' or 'dilute' according to cross section.
This paper has some nice pictures
Voltage and Surface Charges: What Wilhelm Weber already knew 150 years ago
(Originally published in the German Journal "Praxis der Naturwissenschaften-Physik" (PdN-PhiS_2012_5_S_25-31)
Translation: Hermann Härtel
This is a resistor made of a material of different sigma

in this case the different field is caused by surface charge at the interface between materials

(picture from the same paper above).
In the case of a resistor made of the same material but different section you would have surface charge at the surface required to change the section's diameter. Those charges will steer the field lines inside the smaller section. Sigma is the same but both j and E will rise. When you integrate the field along the path you will find a higher potential difference.
Here are a few reference you might find interesting:
W. G. V. Rosser
What makes an electric current "flow"
American Journal of Physics, vol. 31 no. 11, november 1963
Bruce A. Sherwood, Ruth W. Chabay
A unified treatment of electrostatics and circuits
American Journal of Physics
(you can find it free online with a Google search. Also, Chabay and Sherwood wrote an introductory textbook that explains exactly what you want to know).
Ian M. Sefton
Understanding Electricity and Circuits: What the Text Books Don't Tell You
(School of Physics, The University of Sydney)
Science Teachers' Workshop 2002
and if you want to take it to the next lever, who is better than Jackson?
John D. Jackson
Surface charges on circuit wires and resistors play three different roles
American Journal of Physics 64 (7), July 1996
Do you like simulations?
Rainer Muller
A semiquantitative treatment of surface charges in DC circuits
Am. J. Phys. 80 (9), September 2012
American Association of Physics Teachers
and let's not forget the paper by Jefimenko and his oil-seed demonstrations
Oleg Jefimenko
Demonstration of the Electric Fields of Current-Carrying Conductors
American Journal of Physics 30, 19 (1962)
doi: 10.1119/1.1941887
(formatting on this site sucks!)
Comment: Thanks for everyone I didn't think there's this much to it  and I'll get so many anwsers. I will try to understand them lol.
Comment: The papers from American journal of physics are not available for free.
Comment: @Sredni Vashtar can u please also explain what would happen if we connect just one piece of wire to only on end of battery say +ve terminal,,,,If there would be some net positive charge on its surface to cancel the electric field due to battery then it would mean thta the positive electrode of battery has accumulate some of its electron so it should change the potential difference of battery but all textbooks says that battery doesn't accumulate charges ,,why they are saying this? there is no proof to it,,,,,similarly why a capacitor always carry equal and opposite charges,,,what's the proof?
Comment: @ArunBhardwaj the battery displaces charges at its poles thanks to its inner chemical reactions. In open circuit there is an equilibrium and the amount of charge separation does not proceed further. If you attach a piece of conductor to the posite pole, the charge that had accumulated at the pole will quickly redispose itself on the whole surface in such a manner as to make the internal electric field zero. It is only when you close the circuit on a load that current will flow - thanks also to the internal reactions in the battery itself.
Comment: @SredniVashtar I still did not understand you in a clear way,,,,,,,,I mean if battery has accumulated some negative charge then it should change its overall potential difference right?? but all textbooks say that battery potential difference is always maintained because of the chemical reactions but in this case how chemical reactions can maintain potential difference ,,,the net negative charge would still have an effect on potential difference of battery as chemical reactions cannot neutralize these charges
Comment: @SredniVashtar also ,,,if battery's potential difference is always maintained then what's actually meant by internal resistance,,,like in physical terms?,,,if there's an internal resistance it means some net charge will be deposited here also,,,like it does on wires ...and will change the potential difference of the battery,,,but how's its happening inside the battery I can't clearly understand?
Answer: You have a choice of models.
Circuit theory will tell you what, but not how or why. Think of your wide wire as several thin wires in parallel, assume the current and voltage conditions are the same for each elemental wire, and use the resistor formulae to add them up.
The Drain Pipe Theory, aka the Hydraulic Analogy, is very intuitive, but of course it's about a totally different system, so it doesn't offer any 'how' into what's going on with electricity. It's surprising how far you can push the analogy before it breaks - potential, current, power resistance, capacitance, inductance, diodes can all be 'explained' with it, you can even build a boost SMPS with it. You only need fat and thin pipes, where the flow through and the pressure across them are proportional. A thin pipe will develop a larger pressure (aka potential) drop for the same flow.
The Drude model is inaccurate, but it's quite intuitive. It sort of works for conductors and resistors, but don't push it too far. It's a classical theory, so doesn't describe anything that needs quantum mechanics for an understanding, like conduction bands and band-gaps. It doesn't tell you how or why anything, and it's not really that good for calculating how much either. It's no better than circuit theory for adding up parallel resistances.
The fundamental theory you need is Quantum Electrodynamics, though quite how photons ping about in DC circuits is beyond me. Perhaps you'd ask this in the Physics stack. Intuitive it's not, and like all physics, it's going to tell you how to calculate the results, but not how or why.


Why bosons have integer spin and fermions have half-integer ones?

Question: Due the fact that the fermions are the "block particles" and the bosons are the "carriers" I just came out with the question that, why the "block particle" have half-integer spin and the "carriers" have an integer spin?
Comment: Yes, i know... But what does it have to do with their interaction?
Comment: @Mithoron The value of the spin does not provide a definition for bosons and fermions.
Comment: Yes, It's true, but is curiouos that the fermions the "blocks of the matter" and the bosons "the carriers of the forces" have this difference. And I wonder why it is so.
Comment: Related: https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/13787/2451 and links therein.
Comment: Indeed it is true that the value of the spin does not provide a definition of a boson or a fermion. As long as one assumes Hermiticity of Hamiltonian one is bound to satisfy spin statistics correlation. This correlation breaks down if one softens this assumption without compromising positivity of energy. For instance, one easily obtains spin-1/2 bosons in quantum field theory. For this recent insight see   EPL, 140 (2022) 24001.
Answer: The fact that bosons have integer spin whereas fermions have half-integer is actually a result from the so-called spin-statistics theorem.
The definition of bosons and fermions is not in terms of spin, it is in terms of symmetry of the wave function under the exchange of particles. The spin-statistics theorem says that the wave function of an integer spin identical particles' system is symmetric under the exchange of particles and therefore those are bosons. On the other hand the wave function of an half integer identical particles' system is antisymmetric under the exchange of particles and thus they are fermions.
If you are interested in knowing why force carriers are bosons you can check this: Why are all force particles bosons?
Answer:
why the "block particle" have half-integer spin and the "carriers" have an integer spin?

Everything of coursed is based on observations and measurements, which define your  "block" particles particularly. Chemistry is an old science and it depends crucially on "block" particles. The existence of nuclei also is based on "block" particles . The existence of spin states is an observational fact.
The mathematical model that fits this contains the Pauli exclusion principle which led to the spin statistics theorem imposed on the quantum mechanical solutions for atoms.
Without the Pauli exclusion principle there would be no chemistry, no nuclei and thus the universe as we know it.
Bosons are an observational fact also, because photons are bosons. (Please note that all particles can be carriers of dp/dt in loops in  Feynman diagrams as long as quantum numbers are conserved) . But if the carriers of the simplest interaction in lowest order , electron electron scattering  for example, would not be bosons the quantum number exchanges would not be conserved. Thus the gauge theories which developed to explain observations have bosons as carriers of the simplest, lowest order, interactions between elementary particles, describing the different fundamental forces.
Comment: I am sorry, I disagree with your statement. The only observational input is the fact that all observed particles come in two classes: totally symmetric or totally antisymmetric representations of the permutation group. The rest is the content of the spin-statistics theorem, and not just some empirical fact.
Comment: I do not consider myself a platonist.  Would you say that charge conjugation is just an experimental fact or the consequence of a symmetry? I'd like to argue that it is the latter, and similarly the spin-statistic theorem tells us that the statistics is a consequence of other things. But I also do not want to start a discussion.
Comment: In my view the mathematics imposes consequences in the analysis of the data, not on reality. Reality is what it is and one chooses mathematical models that fit it and are predictive of new situations (othewise it would be a mapping). For example I see many here   really believe that space is filled by the fields of the elementary particles in the  standard model and that is the ultimate level of reality, not the particles and the data that describe them.  But yes, it is not worth it to discuss as each has a fixed pov.
Comment: @marmot  so then you are one of the platonists, "mathematics defines reality".  It is the way many theorists view the world. In my view , there is a huge number of mathematical possibilities that never manifest in reality. It is the observation of a symmetry/behavior  of matter  in reality that chooses the mathematical model that fits it. And spins are measured quantities, in real numbers.
Answer: I think as follows:
1.   The de Broglie waves of multiple particles moving in a single orbit and having same spin quantum number are connected in series.
2.  The de Broglie wave shift msλ at the joint.
       (ms:spin quantum number, λ:de Broglie wave length)
Then, the connected waves of Fermions interfere destructively and the connected waves of Bosons interfere constructively.
Therefore, we can explain Pauli exclusion principle.  And we can say that the connected n    electro-magnetic waves correspond to a harmonic oscillator which has energy nℏω in a black body.
Comment: What does "connected in series" mean in point #1?
Comment: I think that symmetric and anti-symmetric wave functions are false.  Because, these functions may not be the eigenfunctions of the system composed of plural identical particles.  Please think about the system composed of two electrons.  One is in a hydrogen atom.  Another is in a helium ion He+.H1=(p1^2)/(2m)-(e^2)/(4πε0 ❘r1-rA❘ ), H2=(p2^2)/(2m)-(2e^2)/(4πε0 ❘r2-rB❘ ), H1φA(r1)=EAφA(r1), H2φB(r2)=EBφB(r2).  The wave function ψ=φA(r1)φB(r2)-φA(r2)φB(r1) is not the eigenfunction of operator H1+H2.  (H1+H2)ψ≠(EA+EB)ψ.  Please calculate it.
Comment: Then, I tried to explain Pauli exclusion principle by interference of de Broglie wave.
Comment: Please remember Black body radiation.  I think that the connected electromagnetic waves in a black body correspond to a harmonic oscillator which has energy nℏω.


battery dies while truck not running

Question: 2001 chev pick up battery drains while not running. Can park at night and turn everything off. When I try to start it in morning battery is dead
Answer: First try this:

Park the car and disconnect the battery.
Wait (and sleep).
Next morning: Reconnect the battery.

If it is dead then you got a problem with the battery. If not you have something which drains it overnight. Which leads to the next step: Finding out which part causes the drain.
To do this either disconnect some of the fuses during the night until the drain stops.
Or put something in between the battery and the car and measure the current flow. (e.g. a lamp, or a multimeter).
WARNING: Do not try to start the car or use the headlights in the latter case. Those will draw a lot of current and you will need a new multimeter.
Answer: All sorts of things can cause this, but they all come down to current draw. Something is drawing power from your battery. It could be as simple as lights or the stereo being left on.
Even interior lights will drain a battery.
So your first check should be simple.
If you are certain there is nothing on, your next step should be to check for unwanted current flow; short circuits, dodgy wiring etc. - and this is best done by a qualified electrician.

battery dies while truck not running


What does oobe\audit.exe do?

Question: I ran C:\Windows\System32\oobe\audit.exe (bad idea, I know), I got a pop-up message saying "Windows could not complete the installation. To install Windows on this computer, restart the installation" and my computer immediately restarted after pressing OK. Now my computer has a defaultuser0 account, and my start menu and recent items have been cleared out. There may be other effects I haven't found yet. What exactly does this audit.exe do to my computer?
Comment: Here's a very nice answer at the HP Forums: https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Operating-System-and-Recovery/Audit-exe/td-p/5859391
Comment: @MichaelBay - The suggested answer would not help the author reverse the changes to his system.  All that answer explains is how to change the password policy on a password.  Enabling Audit mode does a great deal more then change the password policy on an account.
Answer:
What exactly does this audit.exe do to my computer?

It is used to make changes to your current installation so a custom installation images can be created.

Audit mode is used by OEMs and IT professionals to add customizations
  to their Standard 7 images. Audit mode does not require settings in
  Windows Welcome to be applied. By bypassing Windows Welcome, you can
  access the desktop quicker and perform your customizations. You can
  add more device drivers, install applications, and test the validity
  of the installation. OEMs and corporations should use audit mode to
  complete their manual customizations before shipping the computer to
  an end-user.
In audit mode, settings in an unattended answer file in the
  auditSystem and auditUser configuration passes are processed. For more
  information about these configuration passes, see auditSystem and
  auditUser.

Differences between Audit Mode and Windows Welcome (Standard 7 SP1)
Comment: I suggest booting to a boot configuration from before you ran this particular executable.

What does oobe\audit.exe do?


Geometric Maximization Exercise

Question: What is the height of a circular cone with surface line ("Mantellinie") s, which has the maximal volumina?
My problem here is, that I am not really sure what surface line is..is this the same thing as just to say surface?
Answer: The surface line should be a line on the surface which, when rotated, will form the surface in question. Usually I'd expect such  surface line to lie in the same plane as the axis of rotation. So in the case of the cone, this would be a line segment starting at the origin, assuming your axis of rotation passes through the origin as well.
I'd think about this as an angle problem. Let's use $\alpha$ to denote the angle between surface line and axis of rotation. Then the height of the cone will be $s\cos\alpha$, the radius of its circular base will be $s\sin\alpha$, the area of the base will be $\pi s^2\sin^2\alpha$ and the volume will be $\frac13s^3\pi\cos\alpha\sin^2\alpha$. As you can see, the actual length of $s$ is irrelevant, you can choose your unit of length arbitrarily. All that matters is $\alpha$. You're looking for the value which maximizes $\cos\alpha\cdot\sin^2\alpha$. Simply typing this into Wolfram Alpha will, among others, tell you:
$$\max\left(\cos(\alpha) \sin^2(\alpha)\right) =
\frac2{3\sqrt3}
\quad\text{at}\quad
\alpha = 2 n \pi\pm2 \tan^{-1}{\sqrt{2-\sqrt3}}
\quad\text{for }\pi\in\mathbb Z$$
So your best solution is something close to $\alpha\approx54.73561°$. And since you can construct square roots using compass and ruler, you could even construct this angle using the classic set of construction tools. You can even Google for the above decimal representation. If you do, you will find various situations where that angle plays a certain role, and some documents will even give a nicer formula for the optimal angle:
$$\alpha=\arccos\frac{1}{\sqrt3}$$
All the above computation assumes that the base cap of the cone is not counted as part of the surface, since I did not count its radius towards the length of the surface line. If you do count that as well, things will become a lot more difficult. In particular, you'd have
\begin{align*}
r &= h\tan\alpha \\
s &= h+r
\end{align*}
From these two you could compute $h$ and $r$ given $s$ and $\alpha$, and then again maximize $V=\frac13\pi h r^2$. But since the equations are very non-linear, the result will likely look even uglier than the previous one. But the term "Mantellinie" in particular does usually not include the cap, so you probably won't have to worry about this.
Answer: The "Mantellinie" $s$ is what you think it is: It's the distance from the tip of the cone to the rim at the bottom. Given $s$, you are free to choose the height $h$ in the interval $[0,s]$, and the radius of the bottom circle will then be $r=\sqrt{s^2-h^2}$. Therefore we have to maximize the function
$$V(h)={\pi\over3} r^2 h={\pi\over3}(s^2 h-h^3)\qquad(0\leq h\leq s)\ .$$
As $V(0)=V(s)=0$ this maximum is taken for some $h\in\ ]0,s[\ $, which will come to the fore by solving $V'(h)={\pi\over3}(s^2-3h^2)=0$ for $h$. There is only one  solution in the interval $\ ]0,s[\ $, namely $$h={s\over\sqrt{3}}\ ,$$
and this is the height you wanted to know.

Geometric Maximization Exercise


Cannot enable node_view in ctools page_manager permanently

Question: I have a strange problem. If I enable node_view in page_manager everything works as expected and the node layout is according to my settings. If I then do a menu cache clear node_view is not used anymore and my node layout is as without node_view. If I do a
page_manager_get_current_page();         (1)

shortly after activating node_view the array contains the normal values. Looking into the db the variable
variable_get('page_manager_node_view_disabled')         (2)

returns 0 as it should be. After the menu cache clear the function in (1) returns an empty array whereas the variable in (2) remains 0. Also the node_view page stays active inside the page_manager UI. If I deactivate and activate node_view everything works again until I refresh the menu cache again. So this seems to be an infinite loop for me: Everytime I do a menu cache flush I have to deactivate/activate node_view.
I don't know how long this problem exists, but I observed changes in my node layout also last year. I am using Drupal commons, so maybe the problem is related to this, since commons throws in a lot of modules and perhaps something overwrites node_view (panelizer is disabled on the specific nodes).
If I look into the code of the module, there should be a message
drupal_set_message(t('Page manager module is unable to enable node/%node because some other module already has overridden with %callback.', array('%callback' => $callback)), 'error');

if node_view is overridden, but there is simply nothing in dblog. I am really stuck here...
Does anyone have an idea what could be wrong or what I could do to find the reason for this behaviour?
Answer: Found the reason:
I had a module enabled which implemented a menu_alter which has changed
$items['node/%node']['page callback']