How can I speed up the deleting of very large directories on XP?

Question: I regularly check out incredibly huge directories onto my XP machine. When it comes down to deleting and finally trashing them, it takes forever. Is there any way to speed this process up?
Comment: For some reason every one of the answers thinks there's a problem with the recycle bin. Is that really even the problem?
Comment: ...and it's usually *quicker* when you use the recycle bin.
Comment: I can off assumed since he mentioned deleting then trashing both parts were taking a long time, therefore skipping one part would help
Comment: Are your partitions formatted as FAT32 or NTFS? You might want to try converting to NTFS if you're not already using it - some of the algorithms used on FAT32 (like the way it works out the 8.3 filename for each file) are poorly behaved (SLOW) on directories with 100s or 1000s of files.
Comment: Duplicate of this? http://superuser.com/questions/19762/mass-deleting-files-in-windows/289399#289399
Answer: I usually delete huge directories from the command line. It bypasses the Trash and is typically much faster. You should be careful and check the command you type twice, so as not to accidentally delete something really important.
The easiest way is to use rmdir:
rmdir /S /Q C:\My\Directory\Name
You need /Q to stop rmdir asking you if you're sure or not.
If some files are currently open by some process, they and the directories they contain naturally won't be deleted. There are tools that can help you understand which process locks the file, but it's a different story from this one.
Comment: I've found that del /followed by rmdir (to tidy the directory structure left by del) is quicker than just rmdir: http://superuser.com/questions/45661/how-can-i-speed-up-the-deleting-of-very-large-directories-on-xp/292155#292155
Answer: The worst way is to send to Recycle Bin: you still need to delete them. Next worst is shift+delete with Windows Explorer: it wastes loads of time checking the contents before starting deleting anything.
Next best is to use rmdir /s/q foldername from the command line. del /f/s/q foldername is good too, but it leaves behind the directory structure.
The best I've found is a two line batch file with a first pass to delete files and outputs to nul to avoid the overhead of writing to screen for every singe file. A second pass then cleans up the remaining directory structure:
del /f/s/q foldername > nul
rmdir /s/q foldername

This is nearly three times faster than a single rmdir, based on time tests with a Windows XP encrypted disk, deleting ~30GB/1,000,000 files/15,000 folders: rmdir takes ~2.5 hours, del+rmdir takes ~53 minutes. More info here.
This is a regular task for me, so I usually move the stuff I need to delete to C:\stufftodelete and have those del+rmdir commands in a deletestuff.bat batch file. This is scheduled to run at night, but sometimes I need to run it during the day so the quicker the better.
Answer: Press SHIFT + DELETE to delete files/directories while skipping the recycle bin.
Note: You cannot recover these files, but it's faster!
Comment: +1 I do the same thing. Much faster, but can sometimes cause headaches if you delete the wrong thing by mistake.
Comment: This is the easiest way, by far.  Windows has had this feature since Windows 95 and its really useful.
Comment: Even then enumerating files is slower in explorer than by other means. So better use console methods for the real big numbers
Answer: If you want to bypass the recycle bin just hold down the shift key while deleting, also sometimes I find the command line del command to be quicker than deleting through explorer.  If it's always the same folder you're deleting set up a batch file for it.
You could even schedule it to happen on a regular basis if that's suitable.
Answer: Maybe deactivating the trash can before you start could be helpful.
Answer: I don't have a huge directory handy to test this out on, buy try using shift+delete to delete the files. This step skips the recycle bin, which ought to save you some time.
Answer: Keep your trash can close to empty.  Putting items in a full trashcan takes much longer.
Windows will quickly move items into the trash until it fills up.  After that it needs to delete the oldest items in the trash to make room for new items.  This process is very slow.
Answer: FastCopy includes a delete option. I haven't tried it that much myself but it may a fast alternative.
Answer: Here's a more off the wall suggestion if you're regularly doing this and the circumstances are right.
Store your directory in a separate disk partition. The benefit is that you can very quickly (almost instantly) destroy and recreate partitions.
There are obvious limitations such as having fixed partition sizes unless you use/trust something like Partition Magic. However, I have used this technique when dealing with very large SDKs which get updated frequently.


When should I oversample data?

Question: I am dealing with multi-class classifiers. My data is unbalanced. Hence, I need to apply sampling techniques before training (undersampling or oversampling). When I apply undersampling, loss and val_loss, as well as acc and val_acc show a good fit. In this case, is it still necessary to oversample the data? What results should I expect?
Comment: [Almost never: it turns out that class imbalance is not a problem when proper evaluation methods are used.](https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/283170/when-is-unbalanced-data-really-a-problem-in-machine-learning)
Comment: Thank you for the link @Dave
Answer: The only case where I would consider resampling data is when there is a requirement to improve recall for a particular class. Thus the goal would be to force the classifier to predict this class more often, even though it usually means decreasing performance in general.
Resampling is an easy method but rarely the optimal one. In general I'd first do an analysis of the errors made by the classifier, possibly consider alternative designs and/or feature engineering.
Comment: Why calculate a wrong posterior probability instead of altering the classification threshold?
Comment: @dave I agree that setting the classification threshold is a good solution for binary classification (assuming a soft classifier which outputs a probability), but if I'm not mistaken it's not possible in the case of multiclass classification.
Comment: The trouble in a multiclass problem is that if you set a high standard of, say, $0.9$ probability of class membership, you might wind up with no class meeting your standard and having to consider that a grey zone. [Frank Harrell would see this as a positive, however.](https://www.fharrell.com/post/classification/) // I have no idea how software handles this, though, and assume most standard packages just pick the class with the highest probability.
Comment: @Dave Interesting, thanks. Yes, I think most software apply the [one-vs-rest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiclass_classification#One-vs.-rest) strategy which boils down to picking the class with the highest probability.

When should I oversample data?


Will changing the TLS Diffie-Hellman key exchange bit length from 1024 to 2048 cause client/browser compatibility issues?

Question: Recently discovered the need to upgrade our DH key exchange length (used for TLS) from 1024 bits to 2048 bits (due to Logjam exploit and other factors). The question is: How will making that change affect client compatibility? Is there an official list of OS's/browsers that can support 2048-bit crypto for key exchange when using TLS? I've only seen mutterings about older client versions of Java (
Comment: FWIW recent Firefox (AIR about a year) _rejects_ DHE 1024 and _requires_ 2048. And current Chrome doesn't offer DHE at all, only ECDHE (only with P256,P384,X25519) and plain-RSA. AFAIK IE offers only DHE-DSS not DHE-RSA so if you don't have a DSA cert it can't matter. Suncle Java before 8 definitely does fail for DHE over 1024 (Stack has multiple Qs on this), although 7 out of the box and 6 with a tweak prefers ECDHE over DHE so if your server supports ECDHE (with sane curves) the incompatibility that would occur on DHE doesn't matter.
Comment: Thanks, @dave_thompson_085. Good information; is there a reason you didn't post as an answer? Also, do you know of any OS dependencies (i.e. does WinXP support higher key strengths for TLS negotiation)?
Comment: (1) I don't have a list only a few items. (2) I don't recall trying this when XP was current or even supported, but I dug up my old XPSP3+IE8 netbook and it appears to handshake with DHE-2k but the key derivation is apparently wrong because Finished is rejected (by OpenSSL); for DHE-4k it aborts the handshake with FIN after ServerKX. Note these are with a DSA(-1) cert. FWIW XP needed SP3 to handle sha2 signatures on certs, which affects security but not 'key strength', and Server2003 didn't get an SP and needed a hotfix. OTOH Firefox 21 ca 2013-06 on that system DHE-2k _and_ 4k works.
Answer: Modern browsers will be perfectly happy accepting 2048-bit DH moduli. You can verify that your site's TLS configuration is compatible with popular browsers by using SSLTest. Only (very) outdated versions of Java tend to have problems with DH moduli larger than 1024 bits.


How can I cite the same reference in successive sentences?

Question: I've just read a paper that cited the same reference in two successive sentences:

This is the first sentence (xxxx 2013). This is the second sentence
  (xxxx 2013).

Up until now, I would have cited the reference just once, like this:

This is the first sentence. This is the second sentence (xxxx 2013).

Which method is correct?
Comment: Wouldn't the term _ibid_ apply? "This is the first sentence (xxxx 2013). This is the second sentence (ibid)." Or is _ibid_ used only in end-notes and footnotes?
Comment: "This is the first sentence (xxxx 2013). This is the second sentence."
Comment: _Ibid._ is only used in certain styles of footnotes and endnotes. It is not used when directly citing works in the text (in MLA style, for instance).
Comment: I have used loc. cit. in situations like these.
Comment: In such situations, if it can be done, I'd just qoute the source rather than cite to it. Depends on what's easier.
Answer: In general terms, the reference should be made where the cited information occurs. If you cite in the second it is not clear from where the information in the first originates. A similar problem occurs if you cite an entire paragraph by adding a reference at the end of a paragraph ass "(Xxxx, 2013)" (I am fully aware that this is the norm in some fields).
Citing the same reference in two sentences is clearly wrong. The solution as I see it is to write the sentences so that it is clear they belong together. There are several ways to do this. One way is to avoid the passive, parenthetical, reference and use the active reference where only the year is in parenthesis. As an example, you can start the first sentence by stating "Xxx (2013) states ..." and then in the second say "They furthermore  ...". In this example we provide a bridge between the two sentences so that it is very clear it is the same reference that applies. Instead of "They" you can also use "Xxxx".
There are clearly numerous ways to bridge sentences so the form depends on what you need to say. As a result I would recommend putting the reference in the first sentence, not the second.
Comment: Nice answer. Though I could imagine a situation where it is not "clearly wrong" to cite the same paper in two adjoining sentences because, e.g., you cite the same paper in two clusters of references like: yadda yadda yadda (xx1 2011; xx2 2011; xx3 2013). yadda yadda yadda (xx1 2011).
Comment: +1 - As a general point, many citation questions seem to assume that the text cannot be changed, only the citations, when the citation issue could be more easily addressed by editing the text itself. Compare http://rasmussen.libanswers.com/a.php?qid=107534
Comment: @O.R.Mapper: *every* synonymous version? We're talking about a natural language here. Sometimes - in fact, often - the best way to fix a problematic paragraph is to delete it and write it again.  Putting in citations as you go, and *planning ahead* for them, is key to good writing. "Avant donc que d'écrire, apprenez à penser." (Boileau 1674)
Comment: @OswaldVeblen: I think that assumption is simply based on the issue that changing the text may fix the citation, but break something else at the same time. Maybe the text ended up exactly like it is because every synonymous version would not sound good in the complete context (reptitions of words etc.). Note that incidentally, in the example you linked to, the "good" version is also the longest one - just by one line, but one line can make a page count difference, and also, lines add up -, and space in a paper can be (depending on the field) a very sparse resource to save at all cost.
Comment: @OswaldVeblen: Well, sure - and, as you go ahead in a systematical way, you usually try to consider all possible ways to express the intended statements. Some of those synonymous ways have to be ruled out because they don't fit in the context, and others remain. And sometimes, only one such version remains. The point is that citations do not need to "flow" grammatically in the sentence, and thus are still the most flexible part of the text to change, even when the sentences themselves are already restricted to a particular version based on the surrounding text or by the layout.
Answer: Neither is correct, it is a matter of style.
Refer to the style guide of the journal, publishing house or conference that you're writing for.
Comment: Where style guides are silent, it is normally a matter for academic judgement.  I would suggest that you either cite by sentence or by paragraph; rather than citing "all sentences prior to this citation."  I come from a footnoting field though, your field will vary.
Comment: @KennyPeanuts: the question of what counts as "proper" citation varies greatly depending on the field of study. In my field, it would be unusual to cite the same source more than once in a paragraph.
Comment: If the style guide does not provide specific instruction for that matter, what then? Neither is correct or neither is incorrect?
Comment: I disagree. In the second example the first sentence isn't properly cited (given only the info provided).
Answer: This is exactly what the abbreviation "Ibid." is used for:

This is the first sentence (Xxxx, 2013). This is the second sentence (Ibid.).

It derives from the latin word "ibidem", which means "in the same place".
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibid.
Edit: Disclaimer
Following the comment discussion below this answer, I would like to state clearly that the usage of "Ibid." is highly dependent on the field of study and the general citation style you are using. If you have never encountered this abbreviation before in your field of study, you should probably not start using it.
Comment: I've yet to see ibid. in Computer Science papers. I'd say your answer is misleading without some proper disclaimer.
Comment: Quoting from a bit further downstream of the article: "Ibid. may also be used in the Harvard (name-date) system for in-text references where there has been a close previous citation from the same source material.". So, since the OP seems to be using Harvard-style references, I guess the answer is yes.
Comment: As Oswald Veblen correctly points out, whether you actually do want to use "Ibid." depends on your academic discipline. Different academic fields use very different citation styles, and one should certainly stick with those conventions intrinsic to one's field of study. However, without knowing the field the OP is coming from, it's hard to give a definite answer. I was just stating that it is possible to use "Ibid." in such a case.
Comment: In the Wiki page you linked: _was cited in the preceding endnote or footnote_. Are you sure your answer is correct?
Comment: The style manual determines whether "ibid." can be used. APA parenthetical citations look identical, but do not allow "ibid." http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2014/07/does-apa-style-use-ibid.html
Comment: Following Blaisorblades valid argument, I've added a disclaimer to my answer.
Answer: What I would do in this case depends on whether you're citing two different claims/results or just two pieces of text within that paper related to the same claim/idea/point.

If it's two different results, definitely cite them separately, regardless of whether the citations are closeby or not; and I would make an effort to indicate, with each citation, the exact location of the specific claim/point, so it would be clear to the reader that these are two distinct claims. (If you're using LaTeX, it would look something like\cite[\S 1.2]{ThatXXXPaper} and \cite[Appendix B]{ThatXXXPaper}.)
If it's the same result/claim/point, and you're just citing the continuation of the text, take the advice in other answers, i.e.:

It may depend on the stylistic conventions in your field
It may depend on the stylistic conventions of the conference/journal to which you're submitting the paper, or your university's regulations if it's a thesis
You might want to use "ibid." (ibidem) instead of repeating the citation
You might be able to cite just once at the end of a paragraph (assuming that doesn't create ambiguity)
You might want to avoid the second citation by appropriate rephrasing as  @PeterJanson suggests.
Answer: APA - Documentation does not need to be repeated for every idea within a single paragraph.  For example, if you retrieved information for three consecutive sentences from the same source, you can put the information after the third sentence.
Answer: I think if you are writing something that refers to several sources repeatedly maybe you should use a different referencing system. Maybe use superscript numbers like the Vancouver referencing system.
I assume this is a problem more likely to be faced when writing a cohort / review paper.


Why is the fibonacci sequence generated in this "game"?

Question: Okay, lets say you choose a number N.How many possible sequences are there from 0 to N such as the next term is 1 or 2 more than the term before. For example, choose N=3 Than there are 3 possible sequences: 0,1,2,3 0,2,3 0,1,3. If N=4 than there are 5 possibilities: 01234 0134 0234 024 0124. If N=0 there there is 1 possibility 0, if N=1 P=1, if N=2 P=2 and so on.
The sequence of the number of possible sequences is: 112358... which is the Fibonacci sequence, but why is it generated here?
Answer: Let $A_n$ be the number of "good" sequences for a given $n$.  Any such sequence either contains $n$ or it does not.  If it does not then it is a contributor to $A_{n-1}$.  And clearly every contributor to $A_{n-1}$ is a contributor to $A_n$. If it does then the sequence with $n$ deleted must be a contributor to $A_{n-2}$. And, conversely, if you take any contributor to $A_{n-2}$ then you get a contributor to $A_n$ by adjoining $n$. Thus $$A_n=A_{n-1}+A_{n-2}$$ which is the defining recursion for the Fibonacci numbers.  To prove equality you need only check the initial conditions.
Answer: Let's look at the number of sequences that can end with, say, $5$, and see if we can recognize where the Fibonacci recurrence appears.
Any sequence that ends with $5$ will have the second-to-last term either $3$ or $4$. This partitions the set of sequences that end in $5$ into two sets: the ones that end in $35$ and the ones that end in $45$. How large are each of those? Well, the first set is just all sequences that end in $3$, with a $5$ at the end, while the second set is all sequences that end in $4$, with a $5$ at the end. So the number of sequences that end in $5$ is equal to the number of sequences that end in $3$ plus the number of sequences that end in $4$.
There is, of course, nothing special about $5$ here. For any $n\geq 2$, the number of sequences that end in $n$ is equal to the number of sequences that end in $n-2$ plus the number of sequences that end in $n-1$, since

You can take any such sequence and put an $n$ at the end of it
Those are all the sequences that end with $n$
There is no overlap between the two


How to play the piano softly and quietly

Question: I play the piano for a couple of months now, and so far so good. However, I am not able to play softly and quietly. Are there any good exercises or techniques that could be helpful?
Comment: Real piano or electric?
Comment: Is your piano touch sensitive? If you gently push a key down, is the volume lower like if you punsh it down? Does your piano have weighted keys? It's not impossible to play softly on not weighted keys, but i think especially for a beginner its could be very hard
Comment: Shouldn't we assume the OP is talking about an acoustic piano since there's no mention of digital pianos? Does "piano" by itself normally mean anything other than an acoustic piano? Definitions of piano are, e.g., "a musical instrument having steel wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated from a keyboard" (Merriam-Webster) and "an acoustic, stringed musical instrument" (Wikipedia). The word alone by itself implies acoustic.
Answer: Just one tip: keep your fingers touching they keys as much as possible. Before you start pressing down a key, your finger should already rest on the key, touching it. In other words, do not hit the keys at all. Push the keys down and give them a soft massage.
Answer: Volume comes from how slow of fast you play into the key.  I have a few suggestions.  The first is to make sure you play from gravity or the weight of your arm.  Your fingers' long flexors are not designed to play the piano but, your arm is (your fingers have no muscles). Your arm has greater control over the keys than your flexors do including playing slowly - even while playing fast.
Secondly, learn to play to the point of sound.  If you slowly depress a key without making a sound, at one point you will feel a little bump.  That is the point of sound.  Press a little harder and you will hit the key bed.  The space between the POS and KB is follow through.  Like swinging a bat or racquet or kicking a ball or throwing something.  Once you hit the ball or release the object you are throwing, it is just follow through.  You are no longer moving forward other than dissipating the energy. The piano is the same.  There is nothing between the POS and KB and if you continue pressing, you press into the key bed where you waste energy, time and can hurt yourself.  Remember Newton's third law of physics, if you press into the key bed, the key bed presses back with equal force and that will only hurt you and slow your speed.  Also, every action has an equal and opposite action.  In order to play down you must first play up.  If you are pressing down, you can't play up because you are pressing down.  You can't play in both directions at the same time.  The most important movement is up.  Like swinging that bat or kicking that ball or punching someone.  You MUST backswing first.  At the piano, you must have an up, even if it is minimized and imperceptible.  It must be there hidden in the arm.  Play a chord, you probably raised your arm.  You must do the same with the fingers through up/down, in/out and pronation/supination.  Some people call it graceful playing.
Get all that into your arms and you will not only be able to play fast, accurate and effortless but you will also be able to play softly.
Ask your question in the physics section for a better answer. Your body, after all, is a machine with rubber bands, pulleys and fulcrums.  Learn to use them rather than brow beating your fingers into injury and mediocrity.
Answer: Don't hit the keys so hard.
Get a teacher or a more experienced player to show you how to play with just finger action, with hand weight, with arm weight.   Check your seating position and height.
You need to play with precision, but not to HIT the keys.
It's also possible that the piano you're playing - you don't mention whether it's a real one or an electric - is not well-adjusted.
Demonstration is WAY better than words.   Attach a short video of you playing to your question perhaps?
Comment: The question is asking for exercises and techniques. This seems like more of a comment than an attempt to answer the question.


Freeze drying Yeast

Question: I have made and nurtured natural yeast for baking in the past. Problem is if you don't bake on a regular basis, the cost and effort of maintaining your live yeast culture is crazy. I recently purchased a freeze dryer (love it!!) and was wondering if I could freeze dry my live yeast culture and use it like dry yeast.
Comment: Yeast as in sourdough culture?
Comment: you can put your culture in the fridge and then you only need to feed it weekly, or if you bake very infrequently you can create a new culture each time (it takes 1-2 weeks until it's ready for baking)
Comment: yes. I think i've read that if you let your yeast dry and become flaky then you save it can reconstitute it later. I wanted to take it a step further and have a long lasting storage. The only other reference i've seen referred to is a bio control yeast candida Sake, whereby you add 10% skim milk to the yeast which changes its viability from .2% to 30-30% after freeze-drying.
Comment: I've never done it, but years ago I read that you could spread sourdough starter out thinly, then let it dry.  You can then break it into flakes and store it as a precaution against losing the rest of your starter.  So it might not require freeze drying.
Answer: I successfully freeze dried my kefir grains and sourdough starter by first adding in 20-25% (weight/weight) sugar and freezing it into small disks.  The sugar stabilizes it against the freeze drying process and I observed no significant drop in activity following reconstitution.
Comment: As it's currently written, your answer is unclear. Please [edit] to add additional details that will help others understand how this addresses the question asked. You can find more information on how to write good answers [in the help center](/help/how-to-answer).

Freeze drying Yeast


Distance from W(West) to vernal equinox

Question: I am pretty new to astronomy and the project I am currently working on requires some knowledge of equatorial coordinate system.
As long as I have been researching this question, I understood that vernal equinox is the origin of this system. At this moment I am stuck with task of finding distance on celestial sphere between west(on horizon) and vernal equinox.
So, how do you count this distance?
Comment: The position of the vernal equinox varies depending on where you are and what time it is.
Comment: I realize that and was hoping if there is any formula determining its distance depending on latitude and longitude.
Comment: Are you looking for the elevation and azimuth of the vernal equinox at a given time and place? https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/a/14508/21 has equations for that
Comment: Do you mean the vernal equinox or the First Point of Aries - ie the point at which the celestial equator and the ecliptic meet?
Comment: Oh, actually I am looking for a way of finding star's position(with given right ascension and declination) on sky for given latitude and longitude at a given time
Comment: I do actually mean this point.
Answer: The right ascension of the point on the horizon and due west is LST - 6 hours, where LST is the Local Sidereal Time. The LST can be calculated from knowing the date, time, and longitude. The declination of the west point is 0 degrees. So the angle between that right ascension and 0 hours right ascension (the vernal equinox) is just the difference between the two.
Answer: Unless you want to develop the answer from first principles, then I suggest you use formulas already published.  One source is "Astronomical Algorithms", by Jean Meeus.  http://www.willbell.com/math/mc1.htm
I don't have a copy of this boo, so I can't guarantee that it contains what you want.
I have no connection with the author or the publisher.

Distance from W(West) to vernal equinox


Blender scripting GPU acceleration

Question: Is there any possible way to accelerate the python's script execution inside of blender using GPU ?
Comment: I hate when questions like this are bumped
Comment: As in execute a CUDA or OpenCL program from Python?
Comment: Well you can install any module if im not mistaken so you could install Tensorflow-gpu therefore you could accelerate the script
Comment: Yes as an execute of cuda
Comment: Yes , you can install modules like pycuda , but is it possible to use the utilities of pycuda for example to accelerate the script
Answer: You should be able to using existing python libraries, such as pycuda, which can be installed into blender's built in python (for installing libs you could setup pip or whatever: How to install Pip for Blender's bundled Python?). You can also link an C/C++ program from your script and do it there.
You will always, however, be limited by the speed in which you can use python to transfer data too and from blender's internal format, so this may or may not provide much speedup depending on your use case.
Gpus can provide a speedup to some kinds of operations. In general, code for that operation needs to be specifically written for use on a gpu to take advantage of it. If you wanted to accelerate existing blender functionality you would have to rewrite it to run on the gpu, you can't just magically tell cpu code to run on the gpu instead.
In general, only tasks with many repetitive, independent, but similar math operations work well on GPUs. Because of these restrictions, GPU code and algorithms are generally more difficult to create than just for the CPU.
Comment: Yeah , I am already familiar with that .But can i use pycuda to speed up for example the split function in blender ?

Blender scripting GPU acceleration


Act Or Omission

Question: D lives in a Model Penal Code jurisdiction where general principles of criminal law fill the gaps in the statutes. D is driving down a road that's not a highway but allows people to go relatively fast (maybe 40 mph). His foot is on the gas pedal and his ankle is flexed, so his calf muscle is engaged to press the pedal. Intent on killing himself, V jumps on the road in front of D's car. D does not shift his foot off the gas, and D hits and kills V. There happens to have been a camera with a view, and the video and accident forensics prove that D could have hit the brake and stopped before reaching V, or swerved away from V. D claims he just froze with panic and couldn't think through what to do. The DA's office thinks that proving mens rea and getting around the intervening actor doctrine may be tough, but wants to go for it. D is charged with negligent homicide. Is D's actus reus an act, holding the gas pedal down, or an omission, the omission to brake or swerve?
Answer: The actus reas is striking V with the car
These concepts don't go into the sort of detail you seem to think they do.
Comment: @ColinLosey: Do you have a source/citable example for "these concepts...go into that sort of detail...in the US"), and that they do so in a "Model Penal Code jurisdiction where general principles of criminal law fill the gaps", as opposed to statue or regulation by an empowered body?
Comment: You can characterize it as that too, but the question is whether that's an act or omission. Maybe they don't go into that sort of detail where you are, but they definitely do in the US.
Comment: @sharur well, I think Dale's kind of generally saying that law doesn't split hairs as much as I think it does. That the practice of US law *does* involve splitting hairs very finely isn't something you can have a cite for. Specifically on the act/omission distinction: you can check out MPC 2.01, which, in a backwards way, defines a voluntary act as "a voluntary movement [that is] a product of the effort or determination of the actor, either conscious or habitual," and then says that an omission to act can't be the basis for liability unless the law has proscribed a duty to perform that act.
Answer: Arguably, between the two options presented, the actus reus needs be an omission of breaking or swerving, simply because merely taking one's one foot off the accelerator would have D rolling and hitting anything in a straight line for probably thousands of feet (Rolling friction alone on tires specifically designed to reduce said friction will take quite a while bleed off the momentum of an two tons of car (average car weight) going 40mph; as an anecdote, my car lost power on a highway going ~30 mph, and coasted more than a quarter of a mile before it came to a complete halt). In which case, D is failing to discharge the duty they accrued when their entrance onto the street at speed transformed a safe, if potentially highly volatile, area (an empty street) into a perilous one.
Alternatively, one could argue that it is an action of "driving in an unsafe manner, which resulted in a fatality".
Per the facts presented: If V "jumps out at D's car in order to kill themselves", D is driving at the legal speed limit (40 mph), and the camera analysis proves that D could have stopped in time, then V must be in excess of 140 feet away (per my old CA DMV booklet from when I got my license, expected breaking distance is 80 feet and distance to perceive and react an occurance is another 60 feet; A quick google search suggests that swerving would take 60 feet, for a total of 120 feet to swerve). If it is forensically "proven" that D could have stopped in time, but didn't, it would have required this "panic state" to have lasted several seconds (40 mph is ~58 feet/second), in which case this "vehicle" would have arguably been out of control for hundreds of feet in a populated area, which is inherently unsafe.
Note that the Model Penal Code defines negligence thusly:
"A person acts negligently with respect to a material element of an offense when he should be aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct. The risk must be of such a nature and degree that the actor's failure to perceive it, considering the nature and purpose of his conduct and the circumstances known to him, involves a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe in the actor's situation."
The prosecution would argue that not breaking creates a risk of injury to V, and that the "reasonable person" would break; D (or their lawyer) could assert that their panic state rendered them unable to break; I believe that this defense (inability) would be an affirmative defense that the defense would need to bear the burden of proof for.
Ultimately, I agree with DaleM: the actus reus is hitting V with the car. Legally it doesn't matter whether or not you take your foot of the accelerator, break or swerve on an empty road, so long as you don't hit anyone or anything (except for maybe it might be grounds to check your sobriety, etc.).
Comment: Excellent answer! This is a purely academic distinction, yes.
Answer: In england-and-wales this would probably fall under causing death by careless driving contrary to s.2B of the Road Traffic Act 1988

2B Causing death by careless, or inconsiderate, driving:
A person who causes the death of another person by driving a mechanically propelled vehicle on a road or other public place without due care and attention, or without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place, is guilty of an offence.

s.3ZA defines careless driving:

....
(2) A person is to be regarded as driving without due care and attention if (and only if) the way he drives falls below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver.
(3) In determining for the purposes of subsection (2) above what would be expected of a careful and competent driver in a particular case, regard shall be had not only to the circumstances of which he could be expected to be aware but also to any circumstances shown to have been within the knowledge of the accused.
...

Here, an assessment of the actus reus is not specifically focussed on whether the accelerator was, or was not, depressed but rather it takes holistic view of whether the driving fell below the standard expected by a competent and careful driver.
In the end, it will be a matter for the jury after considering the evidence:

...accident forensics prove that D could have hit the brake and stopped before reaching V, or swerved away from V.  D claims he just froze with panic and couldn't think through what to do...
Comment: @Colin It's not a case of there being a dichotomy: not taking one's foot off the accelerator pedal is, by definition, keeping it on - which is a physical and voluntary act, and one element that goes towards proving the stated offence.
Comment: Very interesting. Is the act/omission dichotomy not as important in UK criminal law?
Comment: That's a fascinating difference. In the US there's a relatively clear (though arguably arbitrary) distinction between the act--which must be a willed muscular contraction--and the omission, which is the lack thereof.
Comment: Although I'm wondering about where you said "an assessment of the actus reus is not specifically focussed on whether the accelerator was, or was not, depressed but rather it takes holistic view of whether the driving fell below the standard expected by a competent and careful driver." My question is whether this more holistic view means the UK simply doesn't make a big deal of the act omission dichotomy.

Act Or Omission


Unanswered question list in Collectives shows merged questions

Question: This is a bit of an edge case, but it does need some noting, as this is potentially confusing to users.
There was a flag on this question that read

This is the top unanswered question in the PHP Collective. I don't get why it hasn't been closed and is currently in a state that can't be answered.

I poked around for a bit and, sure enough, I was able to see what this user saw (link to view)

This is an unusual state. Normally a merge is done after a duplicate closure, but the system doesn't require a closure before a merge. A merged question, however, cannot be answered any more than a closed one can. While we could fix it by closing the question, this view should not include unclosed merged questions in a list of questions to potentially answer.
Answer: Thanks for pointing this out, we have filed a bug to fix this. Likely it won't be handled until we come back around to these lists in Collectives (there are a few things like this that we'd like to change/fix).


Would adding humor to my CV hurt me?

Question: I'm applying for an internship position as front-end engineer, and I'd like to make my résumé stand out a bit. I'm not going to add colors or drawings, I'm not even a designer, I'd just like to leave it light and not too formal. It's a Google-y type company in the sense that they provide video games for employees, free snacks and the like. It wouldn't be a CV filled with bad puns, I was just thinking of adding "If I could make this PDF responsive, I totally would" type of jokes. I would still list my qualifications formally and present all the usual data you see on a regular résumé.
Comment: @bengoesboom - Not to mention HR doesnt generally have a sense of humor.  When you say "A dog, a chicken and a rabbit walk into a bar" their first instinct is to fill out three written warnings.
Comment: Don't forget that the first person viewing you resume is likely an HR person with little knowledge of your actual profession. They will probably not think your joke is a joke.
Comment: Usually I limit my humour to a simple "!" in appropriate places on the CV. But I think in general the answer is no. However as you should be tailoring your CV to each job, then the wording could be lighter in some versions than others, dependant upon the target audience.
Comment: I advise against it. A resume is one of the most formal pieces of writing you'll ever produce - not one of the most difficult, just one of the most formal. And jokes are almost always informal.
Comment: Yes it will hurt you with some companies...but it can also help elsewhere.  If you need something to get your resume noticed, maybe because there are a lot of applicants, it might be worth it.  I had a bit of humor in my original CV...and both jobs I landed with it they mentioned that it had drawn them to call me.  That said, I don't have it in my current CV.  I guess that might say something, too.
Comment: It depends which company you are applying to and who will be reading your CV. I always prefer CVs with a little spark and personality. It depends what sort of company you want to work for.
Comment: I think that a safer bet would be to add something like this to cover letter / email.  And just a single one and strictly on subject.
Comment: I'd like to add this example of a graphics designerwho made a custom lego box as her resume: http://mashable.com/2014/03/27/lego-resume/ So, this depends on your industry. The startuppy hipster sort of dev jobs are usually ok with a bit of banter. You can usually judge from the job ad.
Answer: I personally put statements like that in the cover letter, which is customized for each company/position applied for. It's just a personal choice, based on my perception of what a cover letter does, and what a resume does. The cover letter summarizes the high points of your resume, but also mixes in a little bit about you. Your cover letter can be what gets your resume chosen to be read. Your resume lists off: this is what I can do, this is what I know, this is a more complete list of my skillset and past experience. Your resume can be what gets you interviewed.
(Also: if the company website has some humor/casual content, then you will definitely be putting yourself on their wavelength by including a comment like the one you mentioned. But if the company site, and in particular the careers/about section, tends to sound more formal...try and go closer to that voice.)
Comment: Unfortunately it's not part of my local culture to include cover letters, so people tend to tailor the CV to each job they apply. I get your main point, though, about a résumé not being the place for this.
Comment: I'll leverage the advice I got here with some localization in mind, maybe include some sort of cover letter even if it's not customary because it does seem like the best place to put some personal background I think would help my chances and wouldn't fit on my résumé. Anyway, thanks. I accepted your answer.
Answer: Humor is subjective and it is all about context: what one person considers funny, another will find dull, questionable, or an attempt to attract attention.
From that perspective I would not add humor to my resume; you cannot predict which person is on the receiving end.
Comment: That being said, job interviews are only objective in theory…
Comment: @corsiKa: I'm pretty sure that by "only objective in theory" (s)he means "objective only in theory", i.e. "not objective in practice". So you probably don't disagree with the *entire* statement: you actually seem to agree with the main thrust of the statement, just not with the details of how it was worded.
Comment: @corsiKa: You seem to be under the mistaken impression that "only objective in theory" necessarily means "in theory, only objective", and that Arlaud Pierre erred in using it to mean "objective only in theory" (and that everyone else erred in understanding him/her correctly). The reality is that the phrase is genuinely ambiguous between the two readings, and while I won't fault you for having misunderstood it, it's a bit over-the-top for you to complain that "someone means one thing and says another".
Comment: I would say always write every business communication, including cover letters and resumes, with the idea in mind that the person reading it just got done with a two hour argument with their boss/spouse.  Keep it short, to the point, and respectful.
Comment: @ArlaudPierre Have to disagree there. If job interviews were only objective in theory, there wouldn't be need for in person interviews, or even phone interviews. You could just send the questions and get them back as a response. But the reality of the world is that you have to factor in subjective things. "This guy seems shady." "This guy has a bad attitude." Do people abuse this subjectivity? Of course. But hiring is a lot better with subjectivity than without it.
Comment: @corsiKa in what part do you disagree with me here? You know what they say about theory ;)
Comment: I disagree with the entire statement. Job interviews have both objective and subjective components, *by design*.
Comment: Hmm, I suppose if someone means one thing and says another, and I disagree with what was actually said how that could be confused with what they actually meant. *shrug* If that's what happened, I suppose an "oops" is in order? I'd say "sorry" but as a Canadian I already am legally obligated to say that at least twenty times a day, rather not make it one more. =)
Answer: Choosing a very unconventional form for a resume is a very risky move. There are two possible outcomes:

"How unprofessional, not even worth reading"
"How interesting, I want to know who that guy is"

Which reaction you will get depends solely on the mindset of the person who reads it. I know that our staff manager hates to read a hundred applications which all look and sound exactly the same. Whenever she gets one which falls out of the norm, she invites that person just because they seem interesting. But I also met other staff managers who put high value on formality and professionalism and would immediately reject a candidate who violates conventions.
In the end it depends on what kind of person the company is looking for. Do they want a creative freethinker who comes up with new ideas, or formal professionals who make a good impression with customers and fall in line with company doctrine?
I would recommend a creative resume mostly for long-shot applications. When you think that you have a very low chance anyway because all other applicants likely have much better on-paper qualifications than you do, a creative application might be the only chance to get the opportunity for a personal impression.
Answer: I'd stay away from leavening my resume with humor, especially when every word counts. The only thing that matters is your work experience and your skills set and how relevant they are to your prospective employer's needs. And for whatever reason, my prospective employers are pretty humorless about their needs.
If a prospective employer is looking to fill a position, the prospective  employer is on a mission and the prospective employer most likely wants to be looking at a document - your resume - that they don't have to spend more than 20 seconds to read. And they will most probably not be too fond of distractions such as humor that increase their reading chore. So, work with your prospective employer and make sure at your end that it won't take a prospective employer more than 20 seconds to go through your resume.
I've put in plenty of humor in my own Linkedin profile and the humor has been well received. However, I had made a point to say in my Linkedin profile that my Linkedin profile was not a resume but my take on my work experience and that they should be asking for my resume.
If you don't want any humor in your Linkedin profile, you can put your humor into your own website page and provide a link to that page.
Answer: There is standing out in a good way and standing out in a bad way and this will fall into the latter category in most places.
If you want to truly stand out, then accomplish something that will make you stand out. Have an interesting personal project for instance. Double major in Programming and Finance.
Answer: In large part it depends on the organization's culture.
A large corporation, for which I have worked for two, won't get the humor and won't be able to apply the yardstick to it to decide if you're an appropriate candidate.  Once you get that phone screen, you may get a chance to reveal more personality.  In a face to face you'll know for sure if humor is appropriate.
However in startup culture there tends to be this desire to emulate other successful startups, and often times that involves a bit of quirkiness.  When I worked for a small tech company, the job posting itself made mention of the need for a candidate who cold "move mountains" and "dreams in code" and "wants to use C# as the hammer for every problem nail".  The Zappos and Google startup concepts have been emulated by many other small outfits and it might work.
Instead of using humor to distinguish yourself, you might make a slightly more persuasive plea for why you'd be a good fit in the culture of the place where you're applying.  Really zero in on what you know about the organization, how your skills align to its market / strategic / operational challenges, and that alignment of your abilities to their needs will serve you better.
I've only interviewed 3 times in the last 13 years.  But each time I got the job by selling myself as the candidate they need on the cover letter and in the resume.  You can sell your team alignment and good spirit in the face to face.
Best of luck.
Answer: I found that with all my own jobs and those around me, that how my behaviour is received reflects back on the atmosphere in the company (specifically the team) and lets both sides see how well they fit together.
Nowadays, I specifically include some tongue-in-cheek humor in every interview to check out how much I would want to work there, as I simply love joking around with colleagues from time to time.
I've sitten on the other side at the table as well and we actually preferred people with a decent amount of humor, because it's a great way to deal with stress and helping our team bond together.
Same with my girlfriend, she got her job because she showed some dry humor and in the end very much enjoyed working with her team.
Remember that there isn't the right job for everyone, but there's a right job for you and often times it's really worth checking out some more places before signing anything - that is, if you don't actually need a job as soon as possible or there are very few openings for your profession.
Still, I wouldn't ever do the mistake again of bending myself in an interview just to get the right position - in that case, it most likely simply isn't the right position. People with some interview training will also smell when you're pretending to be someone you're not and often prefer more "realistic" candidates.
Your mileage may vary - and be sure not to overdo it, especially if you're nervous.
Comment: Adding a drop of humour to one's talk in an interview where you can judge how things are going and change tack accordingly, which is what you appear to be talking about here, is a very different matter to adding humour to a CV/Resume, which many employers will expect to be a formal, and therefore serious, document.

Would adding humor to my CV hurt me?


Why won't this powered hopper stop running?

Question: My Goal here is to only allow one item in the bottom hopper at a time. When the furnace fills up and an item enters the bottom hopper, the top hopper becomes powered. In theory, this should stop the top hopper from dropping additional items, but it just keeps dropping them. What am I missing? Latest version of Minecraft Bedrock.
Answer: So it appears that two stacked hoppers will transfer 2 items at a time. This is because the top hopper "pushes" one item down and the bottom hopper "pulls" a second item down simultaneously. When the top hopper is powered, it stops pushing items down, but the bottom hopper continues to pull items down.


fsockopen php performance

Question: I was writing a program that will retrieve information about a particular IP or domain name from WHOIS servers establishing socket connection using php. I used fsockopen() function to establish the socket connection which actually creates a file. It's working perfectly. But this program was written for a particular purpose and had to make 15-20 connections at a time, which results in overhead of the server and also degrades the performance. Is there any alternative solution which can enhance the performance and moreover will not require the file storage as it is not necessary other than just accessing the data once? If anyone has some idea please share.
Answer: maybe asynchronous curl (eg rolling curl) is much better so you can handle many connections parallel or any ajax solution
Answer: Rolling curl is good or use the curl_multi_* funnctions:
http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.curl-multi-exec.php

fsockopen php performance


What is the magnetic effect on either of the charges moving parallel

Question: Consider two electrons moving parallel to each other in the same direction with same constant velocity. Will they experience any force due to either of them?
Answer: Yes, they will feel both electric and magnetic force. If you apply a Lorentz boost and get into the frame where they are at rest, they will simply feel the electric field of each other.
However if we stay in the lab frame we will notice that the force they experience goes down with $1/\beta \gamma^2$ (relativistic factors), approaching zero as they approach the speed of light. You can picture this also noticing that the time is flowing slower in their fast moving frame of reference and so you kinda see their radial movement in slow-motion.
This is a key point in accelerator physics where you want to get the beam of particles travel as fast as possible in the minimum amount of space thus reducing the radial defocusing effect due the so called "space charge".
Answer: Yes.  In their rest frame there is only the electric Coulomb force.
If the E field is Lorentz transformed to their moving frame, there will be a magnetic force and the electric force will be modified.
Answer: No. Each electron has zero velocity relative to the other. Their movement relative to something else contributes nothing to the magnetic force between them.
Comment: This is wrong. The magnetic force will be zero in their rest frame, but nonzero in the moving frame.
Comment: I'm often wrong. Are you saying the trajectories remain parallel in one inertial frame and not in another? Please explain.
Comment: No, they repel in every frame. The repulsive force is a frame dependent combination of a repulsive coulomb force minus a smaller attractive magnetic force, both of which increase in magnitude with velocity. But difference is the same in all inertial frames
Comment: Right, I phrased that carelessly, but I think I'm beginning to understand. Also, I have assumed that the electrons travel at the same velocity, which was not actually stated in the original question. The question becomes interesting, though, if their velocities are equal. I think you are saying that the trajectories appear to diverge at different rates in different reference frames, due to relativistic contraction of measured distances in the direction of their travel. That makes sense to me now.
Answer: If you consider two charges moving in the same direction, with same velocity, parallel to each other, due to the motion of charges, magnetic field will be produced around them along with their initial electric field.
Now, force between the charges depends on whether the charges are identical or  opposite.
If charges are identical, they repel each other.
If you consider opposite charges, there is two possibilities, one possibility is, they may attract each other, as they are oppositely charged, and another possibility is, they may not experience any force, as the net charge becomes zero, vector fields get cancelled.[frame of reference is chosen with respect to observer]
By the way, when would they attract and when would they feel no force, is another matter of question, which is currently not associated with the present one.
All the things even depend on the frame of reference. If you consider two trains ,moving with the same velocity in the same direction, and if you assume, you are in one of the train, and I am in one of the train.It seems as if, both of our trains were at rest, considering that, there was no reference for us, to notice the change in position of either of the trains (like tree moving backwards).In the frame of reference of the man standing outside, both the trains are moving.This clarifies you, how frame of reference matters.
If you choose frame of reference with respect to the observer above cases will be applicable, if you consider with respect to either of the charges as frame of reference, they are at rest, they would not produce any magnetic field. But, they do have electric field, again force acts or not, depends on type of charges, as explained above.


Ubuntu One does not sync: firewall settings?

Question: I'm new to Linux. I installed Ubuntu 11.04 on a partition and I love it, but Ubuntu One does not work. I created a free account and a directory Ubuntu One appeared automatically, as expected. I copied there some files and a couple of directories, just text files, therefore very light. U1 tries to sync, but fails and keeps on trying again. When I close the session I must force exit, because it is still trying. My router has a firewall: can it cause the failure? When I use Windows, on the other partiton, I have no problem with Dropbox.
Answer: Solved.
See Does Ubuntu One require administrator privileges?

Hi, Looks like you have switched users. If you log in to Ubuntu One and sync your >files, then log into Ubuntu One as a different user on your ocmputer and perform a >sync without clearing out the old metadata you will get errors. To fix this please >open a Terminal and run the following commands:
u1sdtool -q
rm -rf ~/.local/share/ubuntuone
u1sdtool -c
Let Ubuntu One run for a bit as it recreates your metadata.
Answer: Looks like it's using SSL. I launched Ubuntu One on my system and then ran tcpdump and egrepped on 'Ubuntu' and attached a screenshot of the output. It may be possible your firewall does not support SPI to remember the SSL state as Ubuntu One is making connections back to your machine over a different port. I would just add an exception rule for *.canonical.com and see if that works.
Comment: Thank you  for your answer. Unfortunately I'm not skilled enough, so I have some more questions:
Comment: Sorry, firefox suddenly closed while I was adding a comment (it does so, from time to time, and I have no idea why).
Here are the questions I wanted to pose:
1. Is Ubuntu One supposed to use SSL? In this case should I not install a digital certificate? How can I find it?
2. How can I know if my firewall supports SPI (I don't know what it is)?
3. Last, but most important: how can I add an exception rule? My router is a Siemens; I looked at the configuration, but I could not find anything like "exception rules"
Thank you for your patience.
Answer: It might also be the current lack of proxy support in the Ubuntu One client which could be causing you a problem, if you use a proxy to connect to the Internet that .
The developers are aware of this short coming , and have promised a fix shortly.
It would also explain why Dropbox is working, as it works perfectly through a proxy, when configured correctly.
Comment: Thank you for your answer, but I don't use any proxy.
Answer: I would suspect a DNS lookup fault. Simply change your DNS to Google's public DNS or OpenDNS. Both are free.
To answer your questions in the comment:
1) Yes, it is supposed to. No, you don't have to install anything. (There is a set of certificates your system 'knows' by default. Like you could identify 5 currencies. Let's say these are the biggest and most trusted, most used ones. So you are all fine. In case you would REALLY need an another currency (a new certificate), you have to install it. BUT, Ubuntu got a package for this, and the Canonical team updates that package every time you need a new certificate, or remove an old one. Just don't forget to update your system once in a while.)
2) Usually your router uses an SPI firewall. But that won't block such service, so I guess you can rule that one out ... too. (But in case, just go to your router's web interface, and disable the firewall.)
3) You don't have to. Read point 2.


A name for the lag time of memory when catching up to new developments

Question: Is there a name for the lag time of memory for when something in your environment or life changes, and you need to get accustomed to it? It's kind of a catch-up of memory for updated knowledge to stick.
Ex. Recently we had our kitchen cabinets redone, and for this most food items and even the microwave were moved to temporary places on the other side of the kitchen for 3 weeks while we waited for the re-installation. A week after they were installed, I still find myself turning the wrong direction when I am looking to use the microwave oven in its original place.
Another comedic trope example often employed by Hollywood screenwriters …An American (North or South)  transfers to Honkers or London and still finds themselves trying to get in the wrong driver-side of the car even after 3 or 4 days until finally it sticks, but then when they go back home after 6 months the same but opposite happens.
My research comes up with the 21-day rule
, but that does not describe the memory issue, and it is mostly discounted.

Maxwell Maltz was a plastic surgeon in the 1950s when he began noticing a strange pattern among his patients.
When Dr. Maltz would perform an operation — like a nose job, for example — he found that it would take the patient about 21 days to get used to seeing their new face. Similarly, when a patient had an arm or a leg amputated, Maxwell Maltz noticed that the patient would sense a phantom limb for about 21 days before adjusting to the new situation.

These experiences prompted Maltz to think about his own adjustment period to changes and new behaviors, and he noticed that it also took himself about 21 days to form a new habit. Maltz wrote about these experiences and said, "These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell (sic)."

-JamesClear.com
What is that phenomena of catch-up time for memory lag called?
Answer: Acclimatisation

the process or result of becoming accustomed to a new climate or to new conditions.

Lexico
This is a phenomenon studied in biological sciences, and covers a broad scope.  You could narrow it down with mnemonic acclimatisation to specify that it is memory-related.


Are DDR3 SDRAM's DQL and DQU pins different?

Question: Obviously they are, but I am using the Allwinner A20 and alliance memories AS4C128M16D3B-12BCN 2GB, it has DQU1,2,3,4 etc pins, but the Allwinner A20 does not, it only has the DQL, no DQU.  This memory is fully supported by the Soc, but for some reason appears to be missing pins? Am I correct in thinking that DQU is just a continuation of DQL? from what the data sheet says, they are both data strobes. Any help appreciated as I am well and truly confused.
Comment: I think that it is a bit confusing

Are you talking about data bits (DQ) or about mask bits (DMU and DML?)
Comment: sorry, on the ram component there are, pins labeled, DQLU and DQU. but I cannot find the corresponding pins for the latter on the SOC.
Answer: You cannot stop your efforts only because a minor difference in the names. OK, so Alliance calls its data pins DQU and DQL, and AllWinner calls them SDQ. But from analyzing the datasheet it should be obvious for you that they are all data pins, 8 DQU and 8 DQL for the memory, 32 SDQ for the processor. Similarly you can solve the case for all the pins, not by their names, but by their functionality. If still in doubt, try to find a reference design for the processor (and the memory).
Comment: Okay, so they can all be connected to SDQ?
Comment: Yes you can  ....


Send an email in the future, without notification

Question: Is it possible on iOS to send an email in the future, by setting a time and date, without notification? Can someone guide me?
Answer: YES it is possible. But for that you need to create a web service which will send mail on behalf of user with his/her notification.
Create web service, pass details for mail and send mail from there only is the only solution if you don't want to notify user or don't want to use MFMailComposeViewController for sending mails.
Answer: You can do this from an other server, you need a web server with php and mysql, you create a webservice, and send the "email" to the server, save it in the database with the subject, body and the date you want to send the email.
Than o the server you set up a cronjob that will run at specific intervals and check each email in the database to see if it's the time to send it, if so will send the email,
Basically this is the only solution you can have in this case, the user will think that he sent the mail, but the email will be sent later by the web server, not by the phone.
Answer: Use local Scheduling Local Notifications and using this you can send mail as per your requirements.
Scheduling Local Notifications
Hope, this will help you..


Do 待つ and 松 (matsu) have a shared etymology?

Question: I saw a tweet that mused on the fact that 'to pine for someone' and 'pine tree' have the same pronunciation in Japanese, as in English. Is there any shared etymology here? The radicals look pretty different.
Comment: But those two English words don't share an etymology, do they?
Comment: This is a non-question. The two senses of "pine" are homonyms. It's a pure accident that they are spelled the same.
Comment: I've removed the "radicals" category since the kanji radicals are actually completely irrelevant to the question about the etymologies of the words 松【まつ】 ("pine") and 待【ま】つ ("to wait").
Answer: Plagiarizing this chiebukuro answer, there do exist some theories that both are related etymologically, but it is more likely that 松 derived from 待つ, rather than the two words share some root word.
Copying from the answer:

■『新明解語源辞典』小松寿雄,鈴木英夫. 三省堂. 2011
語源について、門松を飾るように神を「待つ」ことからマツになったという説、葉がまつげに似ているところからという説など種々あるが、不明。

■『日本語源広辞苑 増補版』増井金典.ミネルバ書房.2012
まつ【松】
松の語源は、二説あります。説1は、松は「松(別項参照)」が、語源だとする説です。常緑樹なので、長寿、慶賀を表す木とされてきました。(中略)神の降りていらっしゃるところは、清浄な場所であり、そこに生えている木が、不思議に常緑の針葉樹でしたので、その木を、「神の待つ木」と呼んだのです。(中略)説2は、「保つ、モツの音韻変化」語源説です。松の緑が長くモツと言う説ですが、付会のようで疑問です

Roughly, the idea is that the evergreen nature of pine is connected to divinity and the tree is associated with 神が待つ/神を待つ, hence the word 松.

Also 松/待つ is a very common pun (e.g. this) in Japanese traditional poems.
Comment: @dungarian 待つ is a neutral word for *to wait for*, so that it could be used to translate *to pine for* (with enough context, as Eddie Kal says). Probably 待ち焦がれる would be closer.
Comment: The mystery still unsolved: can "to pine for someone" be translated as "待つ"?
Comment: @dungarian Why can't it be, with enough finesse and adeptness? I find that a non-question. After all, "to miss someone" can be (typically and most commonly) rendered as 「会いたい!」, but I don't think it's an interesting question to ask if it can be translated as 「お嬢」 or 「さん」. The two senses of "pine" are purely accidental. They are homonyms, just like the different meanings of "miss".
Answer: @sundowner's answer is a good one.  To add onto that, the entries over at the 語源【ごげん】由来【ゆらい】辞典【じてん】 ("Etymology Derivation Dictionary", formerly Gogen Allguide) and the 日本辞典 ("Japan Dictionary", particularly their 生物【せいぶつ】語源【ごげん】辞典【じてん】 or "Living Thing Etymology Dictionary" section) list some additional theories, to which I add my commentary.  I've ordered the theories roughly from least likely to most, based on my own understanding.

Shift from まつげ ("eyelash"), from the way that pine needles might look like eyelashes (EDD).

Problematic.  I personally think the analogy is a bit of a stretch -- I've never looked at pine needles and thought, "hmm, those look like eyelashes."
Moreover, the term まつげ is attested since at least 850, when the Old Japanese possessive particle つ was probably still recognized as a particle -- so the compound meaning of 目【ま】つ毛【げ】 or "eye's hair" would have still been fully recognized.  This makes it extremely unlikely that 目【ま】つ毛【げ】 would be shortened to 目【ま】つ or literally "eye's", but with a sense of "pine tree".

Shift from 真【ま】常【と】の木【き】 (literally "true eternal tree"), from the idea of the pine being an evergreen (JD).

Problematic.  In the oldest compounds, it is found with the possessive particle つ, not の, as in constructions like 常【とこ】つ国【くに】 or 常【とこ】つ御門【みかど】.  In addition, 常 appears as とこ or とき in compounds, not just as と: I can find no record of any 真【ま】常【と】 anywhere.  Even assuming the existence of 真【ま】常【と】, there is no clear phonological reason for と to shift to つ.

Shift from 祭【まつ】る ("to enshrine; to worship something holy") (EDD).

Problematic.  The //r// in matsuru is an integral part of this word, and that is unlikely to disappear.  Indeed, the noun form of this verb is 祭【まつ】り.
It would appear more likely for matsuru to derive somehow from matsu -- but the pitch accent patterns suggest they aren't related ([まつ]{HL} vs. [まつる]{LHH}), and at least some etymologists think the meanings are too divergent (see also the EDD entry for matsuru).

Shift from 保【たも】つ, since pines "keep" (i.e. live) for a long time (EDD, JD).

Problematic.  On the one hand, 保【たも】つ is a compound of た (old combining form of 手【て】 "hand") + 持【も】つ ("to hold, to keep"), and the morphophonemic (meaning + sound) sense of "have, hold" in the motsu portion is quite strong.  On the other hand, the phonology is all wrong.  There's no reason for that initial た to just vanish.  Also, I am not aware of any clear instances of //o// changing into //a// in Japanese verb roots in any way that produces a noun.  There do appear to be certain verb clusters in Japanese where we see what might be //o// ↔ //a// correspondence, like とむ・たむ (core idea of "stopping" or "accumulating") or なす・のす (core idea of "producing" or "putting"), but these are all verbs.

Shift from 叉【また】 ("split, branching, fork") from the way that certain pine species have split or doubled needles (EDD).

Problematic.  There's no clear reason for the sound shift required to go from また to まつ.
There's also no underlying root verb まつ with a meaning of "to split", from which また might be a derivation.

Perhaps related to the "keep" and "long life" idea, derived from 待【ま】つ from the idea of "waiting for the leaves to fall" (JD).  Or perhaps from the idea of "waiting for the future" (EDD, JD).

Interesting, but also problematic.  Both seem like a bit of a stretch in terms of the meaning.

From 「神【かみ】を待【ま】つ」 ("awaiting a kami"), from the idea that pine trees are holy and can be the abode of kami (EDD, JD).

This theory seems to have the fewest problems.  However, it is unusual for a noun to derive from a verb where both have the same form.

All that said, it might be just as (or even more?) likely that the verb "to wait" and the noun "pine tree" are similar only by accident.  Homophones happen.    Consider English see and sea, or bee and be, or (depending on dialect) worship and warship, knight and night, horse and hoarse, where and wear, here and hear, etc. etc.  Or, indeed, English pine (noun, derived from Latin pīnus) and pine (verb, derived from a Proto-Germanic root meaning "to be in pain" and ultimately cognate with pain; see also the Wiktionary entry).
Addendum
You mentioned in your question that "[t]he radicals look pretty different."
For completeness' sake, the radicals in the two kanji are indeed different: 彳 as a radical broadly refers to "going" (and was derived as half of the 行 character), while 木 as a radical refers broadly to "trees".
That said, the radicals in the kanji have nothing to do with the etymologies of the Japanese words.
The reading matsu for both words is regarded as 訓【くん】読【よ】み, literally "meaning reading", where the pronunciation (reading) is based on what the kanji means in native Japanese vocabulary.  This is in contrast to 音【おん】読【よ】み, literally "sound reading", where the pronunciation (reading) is based on what the kanji sounded like in Middle Chinese, the stage of development of the Chinese language when most kanji were borrowed.
Any time you're looking into the etymology of a kun'yomi word, the kanji are (usually) completely irrelevant.


How to add memory to an ARM Cortex Microcontroller

Question: I am looking into a design that would use the ARM Cortex M4F core but am just the software engineer for the project. The EE tells me that there will be an 64 MByte sdram memory module connected to the chip. After looking at the datasheets I don't understand how I am suppose to access that memory space. Does the EMC make that space globally available to the firmware without any modification? I'm not even really sure I'm asking the question correctly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Comment: What processor (mfg and part#)? What compiler are you using?
Comment: Did you read the EMC chapter of the user manual? (the datasheet contains general and electronic information, the user manual is what you need to program the chip.)
Comment: The processor is the NXP LPC4088 and we are still deciding on a compiler. It will either be GCC, ARM-CC, or IAR
Comment: AFAIK the LPC4088 is similar to the more popular LPC1788, which has a Cortex M3 core.  Which might help you to find more information/examples.
Answer: You should be able to find out where the EMC maps to in the memory map section of the datasheet/reference manual. Once you have the address range, you will need to setup your linker to use that space for either data memory or a specific section in which you can locate your data.
If you use IAR, this will be in your .icf file. You can specify the section to place a variable in by using #pragma location = "SectionName".


What happens when you put significant weight on the tail of a commercial airplane?

Question: I'm curious what happens if you put some extra weight in the back of the airplane (let's say a small GE turbine or something). I'm new to Stability and Control side of things and curious how the new moments can be counteracted and if we need to add extra weight to the airplane in order to counter-balance it. So far I'm of the understanding that if you add, let's say 1000lbs to the tail of the airplane, you'll probably need to add thrice as much weight close to the center of the airplane to balance it. I'd appreciate some info and help! Illustrations might help too :)
Comment: 1000lbs is five 200-pound guys.
Comment: The answers [to this question](https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/47306/does-static-longitudinal-stability-require-download-on-the-tail) should help your curiosity. If not, "longitudinal stability" is the keyword to be searched: you'll get a lot of useful and interesting answers.
Comment: Basically you seem to be asking "what is the effect of a major aft shift in the CG".  That's a pretty broad question, but the answer would usually be "not good".
Comment: If it's significant weight, you have problems on the ground: https://thepointsguy.com/news/airplanes-center-of-gravity/
Answer: If you put extra weight in the tail of the airplane, the pilot then has to add extra downforce on the controls to pull the tail up and push the nose down so the plane can fly level. In doing so, there is now less control authority remaining to make the plane descend on purpose and beyond a certain point, the plane becomes impossible to properly control and hence unsafe to fly.
There are several spectacular youtube videos of cargo planes in which the cargo comes loose during takeoff and all slides into the tail of the plane, tipping the nose of the plane violently up and causing the wing to stall. The plane then basically falls out of the air with its nose pointing up and crashes into the ground tail-first.
Mayhem ensues.
Answer: It's fairly simple. The airplane is certified to fly with a center of mass, or Center of Gravity, that is between point X and Y, or a Forward and Aft limit.  You have to load it so the C of G falls in that range.
If you add weight at the back, it shifts the C of G back toward the weight you added some amount, depending on the weight relative to the total mass, and the distance away the weight was added. If the weight you added didn't move the C of G out of the allowable range, and you don't exceed the maximum total weight of the plane, you are good to go.
If the weight you added did move the C of G out of the allowable range, you have to add compensating weight on the opposite side of the C of G until it's moved back into range.  How much and where you add that weight doesn't matter as long as you move the C of G forward into the allowable range, and you don't exceed the maximum all up weight.  1000 lbs added to the tail 50 ft from the C of G would require 1000 lbs added forward 50 ft from the C of G to keep the C of G where it was originally. Or some smaller amount if it can be added more forward than that.  You're just talking weights, levers and moments in the end, why it's called Weight and Balance.
As far as what the limits of the C of G are, the aft limit is a function of static stability margin. The center of mass, the rotation center of the body in a fluid, has to be forward of the aerodynamic center of the entire body as a whole, the Neutral Point, the distance between the two points being the static margin.  Think of a weathervane held sideways, with the pivot of the weathervane equivalent to the C of G. The weathervane "trails" into the wind with the aerodynamic center (the Neutral Point in the airplane's case) behind the pivot axis (the C of G in the plane's case). The airplane weathervanes about its C of G, as the Neutral Point wants to trail behind the C of G in the airstream. It's statically stable.
Moving the C of G too far aft moves it closer to, at, or beyond the Neutral Point. If you move the C of G to the Neutral Point, it simply loses its ability to point into wind. Move it aft of the Neutral Point, and it wants to flip around and point the other way, because its static margin, the C of G to Neutral Point relationship, is now in that direction.
Trimming forces generated by the elevator surfaces provide the ability to make the airplane more than a statically stable lawn dart when it moves through the air. Trimming forces allow the "weathervane" to align itself at angles to the flow off of zero, so that lift can be generated by the lifting surfaces (held at a positive Angle of Attack) to hole the whole thing up instead of just proceeding in a ballistic arc.  It's the same as bending the trailing edge of a weathervane to force the weathervane to point itself into wind with its axis offset from the airstream, that offset being its Angle of Attack.
The forward limit is a function of the ability of the tail to generate trimming downforce in the most extreme-demand case, which is usually raising the nose for takeoff and landing around the fulcrum of the landing gear's contact patch with most tricycle gear airplanes, or a just desirable minimum flying speed (maximum AOA) in the case of a taildragger.
So, too far aft and the thing becomes a handful to fly as it no longer wants to "point" into the airstream, or in the extreme case wants to point in the opposite direction if you let it. Too far forward and your minimum flying speed, or the takoff and landing speed, will be higher than the airplane's specification.
Because of this, exceeding forward limit (within reason) is less dangerous than exceeding the aft limit.


Can't reinsert jack headphone

Question: I was listening to some music with my headphone when suddenly the jack jumps out by itself. I try to put it in again but it seems something is blocking it, preventing it to be properly connected. What has possibly happened? And more importantly how do I fix it? Any ideas?
Comment: have you inspected the port visually ?
Comment: It seems like there's a red led in place.
Comment: I have never heard of something like this happening, you will have to open your cabinet to inspect it better
Answer: Inside the female jack there are flat metal connectors/tabs (cant think of the proper term) that are bent in a fashion that when a the male end of the jack is inserted, they press up against the male connector's pins with tension to make an electrical connection.
It is possible one of these connectors has broken under its own tension and popped the male end out and is preventing you from inserting it again.
Answer: Check that the jack is flush against the case bezel and/or there is a wide-enough hole around it (figure 1). In my experience, this tends to be a common cause of 3.5mm connectors popping out.
It is not uncommon for the jack of the front-panel module (figure 2) to be a recessed few millimeters behind the plastic of the case (figure 3), thus making it too deep for the connector to go in all the way. Even a few millimeters is enough to cause it to pop out from a little vibration (which computers provide in spades).
Also check the headphone connector itself. Some headphones have a lot of rubber around the connector which makes it difficult for it to go all the way in, especially with recessed jacks. (Interestingly enough, while looking for a photo of fat and thin earphone jacks, I found one with both (figure 4) because someone was specifically concerned about the difference.)

Figure 1: The left connectors are slightly recessed but have an indent in the case; the right connectors are flush against the case

Figure 2: A front-panel connector module with audio connectors

Figure 3: A front-panel with recessed connectors

Figure 4: Fat and thin headphone connectors

Can't reinsert jack headphone


What is the scriptural basis for eternal hell as Madhvas believes?

Question: Madhva doctrine believes in eternal hellish life for some souls.  If I am not wrong, they believe in creation and destruction of this worlds. Then, What exactly is 'eternal' here? What is scriptural basis for this belief?
Answer: The scriptural source is Gita 16.6-20. I am posting two of these verses.

These vicious men, oppressive, cruel and sinful as they are, - are
always hurled down by Me into demoniac wombs in life after life, in
the transmigratory cycle.

Gita 16.19

O son of Kunti! Falling into demoniac wombs, in life after life, they
go to still lower states of degradation, without attaining Me.

Gita 16.20

In these verses and those preceding them, a theory of two types of
souls with inherently opposite tendencies seems to be propounded.
Vivid description of both these types is given in verses 1 to 5 and 7
to 20. One type called Daivi or divine, is Godward-looking and is
receptive to ideas leading to liberation from the clutches of Prakrti.
The other type called Asuri is just the opposite. Those who are
included in it are steeped in worldliness and are anti-God and
anti-spiritual. According to the theory propounded here, the former
gradually evolve their higher faculties, and attain liberation from
Prakrti, while the latter become eternally involved in Samsara. It is
also said in verse 20 that they are repeatedly born in 'devilish
wombs' (asurim yonim) and without taking the Godward path, attain to
adhamam gatim - 'the most heinous destiny'.
On the basis of such texts, some schools of Vedanta like those of
Sri Madhva and Sri Vallabha have propounded the theory of taratamya or
inherent qualitative differences in Jivas, some being made for
salvation and others for degradation. There is no eternal
damnation in Hinduism, but this confinement to 'adhamam gatim' or
continued embodiments among the lowest creatures like insects, fish,
snakes etc., corresponds to it as the wages for confirmed evil doers.
There is a theoretical possibility of salvation even for such degraded
souls when Divine grace descends on them through Incarnations and
through very holy saints. Since Samsara or the transmigratory cycle is
a never-ending process, perpetual involvement in it is the attaining
to that most heinous destiny - yanti-adhamam-gatim.

Commentary on Gita 16.6-20 by Swami Tapasyananda
Comment: Where is *eternal* hell here? *Re-birth* into physical plane is NOT hell, neither continuous birth is considered *eternal*.
Comment: There is no eternal hell, the soul has free will. Some souls keep on degrading themselves to the point their atman is so blanketed by Darkness that it is nearly impossible to escape without divine intervention, in the same manner, some souls keep on elevating until they reach moksha. That being said, as per some philosophies Naraka and Swarga are states of the mind one happiness or pleasure and the other distress. One should ultimately pervade both.
Answer: The Following verses from various scriptures Are the Basis of the Madhva concept of eternal Hell.

इन्द्रा॑सोमा दु॒ष्कृतो॑ व॒व्रे अ॒न्तर॑नारम्भ॒णे तम॑सि॒ प्र वि॑ध्यतम् ।
यथा॒ नात॒: पुन॒रेक॑श्च॒नोदय॒त्तद्वा॑मस्तु॒ सह॑से मन्यु॒मच्छव॑: ॥
"Indra and Soma, chastise the malignant (rākṣasas), having plural
send them in surrounding and inextricable darkness, so that not one of
them may again issue from it; so may your wrathful might be triumphant
over them."

—Rgveda, Shaakala Samhita, Mandala 7, Sukta 104

यक्ष उवाच अक्षयोनरकः केन प्राप्यते भरतर्षभ । एतन्मे पृच्छतः प्रश्नं
तच्छीघ्रं वक्तुमर्हसि ॥ युधिष्ठिर उवाच रब्राह्मणं स्वयमाहूय
याचमानमकिंचनम् । पश्चान्नास्तीति योब्रूयात्सोक्षयंनरकं व्रजेत् ॥
वेदेषु धर्मशास्त्रेषु मिथ्या यो वै द्विजातिषु । देवेषु पितृध्रमेषु
सोऽक्षयंनरकं व्रजेत् ॥
The Yaksha said, "O bull of the Bharata race, who is condemned to
eternal naraka?" Yudhishthira replied, ''One who summons a poor
Braahmana promising to provide him a gift and then claims that he has
nothing to give, goes to the eternal naraka. One who imputes falsehood
to the Vedas, the scriptures, the Braahmaṇas, the devas and the
ceremonies in honour of the Pitrs, must also go to the eternal
naraka."

— Mahaabhaarata, Udyoga Parva, Adhyaaya 314, Shlokas 105-107

41 b-43a. And a man, a practised deceiver, who would approach (i.e.
cohabit with) a cāṇḍāla woman or a Mleccha woman or a Pulkasa woman,
having suffered there (i.e. in the hell) twice, thrice or four times
that period (is reborn), and having cohabited with his mother, his
preceptor's wife, a brāhmaṇa woman, a queen or someone else who is the
wife of a superior person, is not born again (i.e. eternally lives
in hell only).

—Padma Puraana Srishti Khanda , 52.41b-43a
Shri Madhvacharya also quoted the following shlokas from the Mahaabhaarata, in his Brahma Sutra bhaashya, Adhyaaya 3, Paada 1, Sutra 16:

रौरवोऽथ महांश्चैव वह्निर्वैतरणी तथा ।कुम्भीपाक इति
प्रोक्तान्यनित्यनरकाणि तु ॥ तामिस्रश्चान्धतामिस्रो द्वौ नित्यौ
सम्प्रकीर्तितौ ।इति सप्तप्रधानानि बलीयस्तूत्तरोत्तरम् । एतानि क्रमशो
गत्वैवारोहोऽथावरोहणम् ॥
"The temporary narakas are said to be Raurava, Maha-raurava, Vanhi,
Vaitarani, and Kumbheepaka; and the two eternal narakas are known as
tamas (darkness) and 'andhan tamas' (blinding darkness). These are the
seven chief narakas, in their ascending order of horribleness. By
regularly going through these only, ascent or descent takes place."
Answer: The Prakasha samhita (A Pancharatra Agama) mentions the existence of two eternal hells (nitya narakas) beside the non-eternal ones into which one goes one after the another.

शिरमर्मग्रन्थिकूटजलनीरोधनादयः । सन्त्येवाष्टोत्तरशतनरकाः पातकालयाः
॥३९॥
अनित्यनरका एते तामिश्रन्धतामिश्रकौ ।
नित्यौ द्वौ नरकौ तत्र गतायान्ति तमः क्रमाथ् ॥४०॥

~ प्रकाशसंहिता - द्वितीयपरिच्छेदः - पञ्चमोऽध्यायः
Garuda Purana also mentions permanent hell(s) from where there is no return.
Garuda Purana preta Khanda Ch 35

Garuda Purana Brahmakhanda Ch 4

Garuda Purana Preta khanda Ch 46


Is it possible to override radio buttons style with css?

Question: I need to make special radio buttons, is it possible to make my own images to cover default style of radio buttons? If it is not possible what is best way to do this with jQuery or is there good plugin for this?
Answer: you can control every aspect of the radio via CSS, using images or basic styling, like padding, color, backgorund, etc.
That said, I also recommend you use a framework, like jQuery Checkbox..
Alternatively, look at this blog entry for further suggestions
Answer: Yes I would also recommend using jQuery, a very nice plugin is the jqTransform plugin. Check out this video tutorial by Chris Coyier in which he uses the plugin from scratch in one of his css-tricks screen casts.
Answer: Some basic changes can be made via CSS, to the size etc, but they are fairly unreliably reproduced across different browsers (surprise, surprise).
Outside of CSS, I've had good results with jQuery Checkbox.


Do each of the races in Guild Wars 2 have their own starting location?

Question: Is the starting point for new chars the same for all races, or is it more like WOW where every race has their own spawn point?
Answer: Every race has its own starting area. Additionally, race is a factor in the personal story of a character, thus it affects not only your starting quests, but part of those that come later as well.
Edit: You can, however, travel to the other races' starting locations starting very early in your character's lifetime, and the questless paradigm GW2 is built on means you can accompany your friends anywhere you all want to go; only each character's personal story is going to be location specific.
Comment: Nice one, will probably go for the same race just to skip the travel to the other starting area :)
Comment: From the beta weekend not too long ago i remember it being quite easy to travel to the other areas, takes just a minute + some loading time. However, personal quests will still be in the other areas.
Comment: Your race will also affect which member of the 'Edge of Destiny' your story interacts with primarily.
Answer: It is not the same - the first choice in creating a character is choosing their race - and that also determines the starting location, which is different for each race.


"Ecosystem" or "eco-system" to describe something non-biological?

Question: If "ecosystem" (no hyphen) is defined as "a system formed by the interaction of a community of organisms within their environment," should "eco-system" (hyphenated) be used to describe a system formed by the interaction of a community of non-biological (say, electronic) elements within their environment? or does it matter?
Comment: Why would you think the hyphen changes the meaning in that way?
Comment: When an interesting doubt comes up, it helps to share the *how* *why* of it. OP should explain how the idea of hyphenating to redefine came up. As for the question itself, it's ***ecosystem*** in biology/ecology as well as in all other fields.
Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem#Etymology
Answer: Merriam-Webster defines ecosystem as:

ecosystem, noun : an ecological community considered together with the nonliving factors of its environment as a unit

However, ecosystem has been co-opted in the press in the past few years to describe, for example, the interrelationship between Apple's AppStore and its iDevices.
Consider this article from Businessweek regarding Apple's larger ecosystem, or the matter-of-fact use of ecosystem in this article comparing the Android Market to the "more mature iTunes ecosystem."
So, to answer the first part of your question, ecosystem has come to be used in the sense of the interaction of things (iPods, iPhones, iUsers) within their environment (iTunes, the AppStore), biological or not.
To answer the second part of your question, ecosystem is not hyphenated, and hyphenating it would not create a new word with a different meaning.
Comment: +1 for "and hyphenating it would not create a new word with a different meaning."
Answer: It would just be a system. The "eco" in "ecosystem" comes from ecology, which is a branch of biology, so it would not be appropriate to use it to describe non-biological systems (unless you are describing a system of artificially intelligent machines, and highlighting how life-like they are and how closely they resemble real, living beings).
From the freeonlinedictionary:

System

A group of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent elements forming a complex whole.
Comment: The word is generally written [without a hyphen](http://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=ecosystem%2C+eco-system&year_start=1900&year_end=2012&corpus=0&smoothing=3).
Comment: -1: Usage, evolution, more! See Gnawme below for current journalese. Also, the answer is unsure about the hyphen.
Comment: Thanks, Jim. So you think that if I were to use it to describe AI machines I could use it sans hyphen?


2006 macbook give me flashing folder with question mark without disk

Question: I am currently using a early 2006 macbook running on os x 10.5 and I am facing the flashing folder when turning it on. I have tried holding command & c and etc but nothing happens when I hold option after hearing the chime the arrow come up and i don't see no folder but it stays like this. I do not own any disks to put into my macbook because it was given to me. i do not want to take it to the shop because it will cost more than the laptop it self will cost. Is there any type of way to resolve this issue?
Comment: You need a disk to boot off and given what is happening a new hard disk as well
Comment: Can you say more clearly what the main issue is?  What initial steps might help you most?
Answer: The folder with question mark on start up means that the Mac is unable to locate your boot drive.

Many possible causes:

Corrupted boot disk.

You can try Disk Utility using a boot via external unit (CD-ROM, external HDD, USB) to repair the disk. If you are unable to see the primary disk via Disk Utility follow the two possibility below.

HDD broken.

Replace your HDD and install a fresh copy of OS X or try to extract your data form the broken HDD and move it to the new one.

HDD SATA cable disconnected / broken.

Your HDD is connected via SATA flat cable. Open your Mac, check this cable if it is disconnected or try to replace it.


How to transfer files from Galaxy s7

Question: I had a galaxy s7 until i dropped it and the LCD broke.  The screen is black but the phone is on.  To repair it is $250, Id rather not pay that.  But I need my files from my phone.  Any ideas???
Answer: Sorry to hear that. You can connect your phone to a pc or Mac to transfer files from your phone.
You can find it below.
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/2840804?hl=en
Hope this helps.
Comment: I tried that, everytime I plugged my phone into my computer, my computer couldnt find my phone.  My computer would say to plug my phone in using a USB cord.

How to transfer files from Galaxy s7


Is copying from How to Draw books copyright infringement?

Question: Suppose I want to draw a horse. I don't know how to draw a horse so I buy a How to Draw Animals book and follow the instructions of the book to draw a horse. Now can I use my drawing for commercial purposes?
Answer: The book teaches you how to draw horses. Once you learned how to do it, and you draw a really nice horse, you have drawn it yourself. You have the copyright. You use it any way you like.
Of course it's different if instead of drawing the horse yourself you just make a copy of an image in the book. That would be the author's copyrighted drawing.
Added since the question reappeared: One way to learn drawing horses is to start by making copies by hand of others' good drawings, practicing, practicing more, until eventually you can draw your own horses, which was the purpose of the book. So these copies made as part of the learning process might be treated differently. And the might not actually be copies, just your best attempt at making a copy.
On the other hand, taking this book, making ten copies using a scanner, framing and selling them, is obvious copyright infringement.
Comment: I would add that copying the author's copyrighted drawing for the purpose of learning how to draw pursuant to the book's instructional program is almost surely fair use.
Comment: @ohwilleke Couldn't you also argue that since the point of the book is teaching you to draw, the author implicitly granted you a license for that purpose?
Comment: @cpast Absolutely. The line between fair use and implied license is a fuzzy one at times. But, since the law of implied license is less well developed in the case law than fair use, it is often easier to argue persuasively the issue of fair use in the gray areas where they overlap.


Prompting for a chosen answer

Question: If I have answered a question and it has significantly more upvotes than any other answer, but the asker has not selected it as the chosen answer, is it ok after some time to respectfully (maybe by leaving a comment on the question) remind the asker to choose?
Comment: @ShmuelL, I'm pretty sure there is no way to get an answer accepted except by the will of the asker. (Unless, perhaps, you send someone with access to the servers — which is none of the community moderators — some homemade chocolate-chip cookies.)
Comment: What if (as in my case) the asker has a 0% acceptance rate, despite asking several dozen questions? Is there a way to automatically accept an answer?
Comment: @msh210, [would the mods accept the kashrut of those cookies](http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/11957/472)? :-)
Comment: @MonicaCellio `:-)` As I said, though, it's not the community mods who can be swayed. I don't know whether any of the mods who have access to the servers worry about _kashrus_ (though it's certainly possible).
Comment: @msh210, oh, oops, you're right; I misunderstood you.  Good thing it wasn't a serious question. :-)
Answer: I don't see anything wrong with leaving a polite comment to that effect, asking whether there's something missing from all answers to date. On the other hand, in my opinion, the community's opinions regarding the relative worth of answers (via voting) is more valuable in the long run than the asker's (via accepting one answer).
Answer: While there clearly isn't anything prohibited about leaving such comments, not everyone appreciates them, and being sensitive to what bothers other users seems to me a valid metric to take into consideration.
To quote Monica Cellio in chat:

Accepting an answer is not mandatory. I think there's a difference between reminding/educating new or low-rep users on the one hand, and leaving "please consider accepting" comments on questions from experienced users.
If an answer was heavily edited the OP might not have seen that, so a comment pointing out major edits seems fine.
The comments about accepting answers feel to me like "please vote for my stuff" even if that's not the intent. They leave a bad taste for me, and I imagine that's true for others too.

If a user has indicated that a given answer has fully answered their question, then it seems appropriate to prompt them to accept it, as was done here.

Prompting for a chosen answer