What are the arguments against responsibility?

Question: I am not asking what the arguments are for immoralism, but what arguments there are for not doing the valuable thing, when there is clearly an opportunity to right wrongs or be virtuous or impede disaster, etc.. Does Heidegger talk about this in context of 'inauthenticity'? Just a guess.
Comment: Responsibility is the obverse side of freewill. If the universe is **100%** predetermined there's no such of either. [ Do note 100% ≠ 99% not even 99.99%]
Comment: Are you asking what arguments there are to not do the moral thing in a given moral framework? I'm afraid it's not a question that makes sense. If a moral framework gives you arguments to ignore its own conclusion, it's a self contradictory moral framework ("A is the most moral action in your situation, but here is the argument why you *should* prefer not-A, and therefore not-A is the most moral action")
Comment: *It* suggests something that might come out of Pandora's box, but what a tragedy!
Comment: pandora's [box](https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/dp/original/DP812748.jpg) earlier @AgentSmith
Comment: i might well agree with that, even-though i was being futural about it @Rushi
Comment: i can't take it very seriously, determinism, and probably no those grounds @Rushi not on a personal level. maybe animals can act without caring about how they are acting at all. i differ from nietzsche in that respect: i don't think instinct is all that
Comment: Yeah ... you're christian.
Comment: i don't think so @Rushi i don't believe in God and i don't think Christ made the right decisions by being crucified. indeed, i am offended by being called christian. there are things to learn from christ, you got me there at least
Comment: You can't have sin hell and all that good stuff without a mechanism of blame. The modern secular Christians are more christian than the old fashioned ones. As Douglas Murray points out, in the classic model there at least can be redemption. The modern variant: one strike **You're Out** — Cancel culture. The physicality may not be as brutal as the Stake. The intent is the same — reifying our propensity to blame, to hate as Good n Evil. In short if you believe in good n evil you're christian. Actually Christ taught forgive over blame. The secular Christians sadly keep only the blame
Comment: i didn't mention blaming anyone! i mean like @Rushi "take responsibility: be good" not "you have been bad: i should be bad too"
Comment: Sure you may not be doing it individually but the propensity inexorably follows from objectifying Good n Evil
Answer: Your question delves into the core of ethical and moral philosophy. It seems you're asking about arguments that might justify or explain a lack of action or responsibility in the face of clear opportunities to do good or prevent harm. While there are many ways to approach this question, I'll focus on a few philosophical concepts and theories that might be relevant.

Moral Relativism: This is the belief that moral judgments and values are culture-specific and personal. In this perspective, what may seem like a clear opportunity to do good or prevent harm may not be perceived as such by everyone, because their cultural or personal values differ.

Nihilism: This philosophical belief asserts that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value. In extreme forms of nihilism, moral principles are viewed as arbitrary, and so there may be no inherent value or obligation in doing good or preventing harm.

Psychological Egoism: This is the view that individuals are always motivated by self-interest, even in what seem to be acts of altruism. A person subscribing to this view might argue that they are not obligated to act unless there is a clear benefit to themselves.

Determinism: This is the philosophical concept that all events, including moral choices, are determined completely by previously existing causes. In a deterministic view, the concept of responsibility is fundamentally flawed because people don't truly have free will to make different choices.

Existentialism/Heidegger's Inauthenticity: In Heidegger's existential philosophy, 'inauthenticity' refers to living unreflectively or conforming to societal norms without questioning. An 'inauthentic' individual might not take responsibility because they are not fully engaged with their own existence or the consequences of their actions.

Remember, these are not necessarily "arguments against responsibility," but rather perspectives that might lead someone to avoid action in situations where others might see a clear moral imperative. These views are widely debated in philosophical and ethical discussions, and they don't represent the only ways to approach the question of moral responsibility.
Comment: Your view of determinism would be fundamentally flawed for personal responsibility, because it's impossible to account for determinism when any attempt to make to do so would itself be subject to determinism, and this doesn't change the fact that your actions have consequences regardless of whether they're subject to determinism or not.
Comment: Determinism does not, as you suggest, absolve us of responsibility for our actions. On the contrary, it offers a framework for better understanding the complex web of factors that lead individuals to act in certain ways.

You argue that the concept of determinism itself is subject to determinism, and you're absolutely correct. But this doesn't invalidate the concept; rather, it strengthens it. It shows the extent to which all things, including our own thoughts and understandings, are interconnected and shaped by a multitude of factors beyond our control.
Comment: As for the consequences of our actions, determinism doesn't dispute this. Each action, whether determined or not, results in a consequence, which then becomes a causative factor for subsequent events. This unbroken chain of cause and effect is a fundamental premise of determinism.

In essence, determinism doesn't undermine the concept of personal responsibility; rather, it compels us to view it through a broader lens. It encourages us to seek a deeper understanding of the myriad factors that shape human behavior, instead of resorting to simplistic notions of blame and punishment
Comment: "Determinism does not, as you suggest, absolve us of responsibility for our actions" - I mean, I was trying to say the exact opposite (because it seemed like you were trying to make that point when you said "the concept of responsibility is fundamentally flawed"), but okay.


Tools to easily navigate references in research papers

Question: Often times while reading academic papers, I need to check the citations referred to in the text, and so I naturally end up scrolling to the last page of the paper, finding the appropriate citation, and looking it up on the web. And then scroll all the way back up.
Is there any tool where in I can see the citations of a paper in the sidebar, so I can quickly refer to them while reading the paper.
Comment: Different PDF tools have different options. One way is just to have multiple windows open, with one down in the reference section and one where you are reading...
Comment: Why not just open up the pdf in an additional window, where it is scrolled down to the reference list?
Comment: Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
Comment: A PDF viewer like Skim on MacOS has a split screen feature that you can use for this.
Comment: I currently do what others have suggested -- have two windows open, one with the paper and one with references. Was wondering if there is a better way than that?
For e.g., a PDF tool where the citations can be shown with a mouse hover, or if I click on it, the citation gets displayed in the sidebar etc.
Answer: If your field uses the arXiv, the arXiv Bibliographic Explorer from arXivLabs may be useful. It is a browser extension that allows you to view the references and citations for a paper on the arXiv without having to e.g. search for the title of the paper on Google. If you have the PDF opened in one tab and the arXiv page in another, then you can quickly find hyperlinks to relevant papers through the search functionality.


stay online on whatsapp web and offline in mobile

Question: I want to stay online on whatsapp web whenever i want after scanning the qr code but with mobile data being off on mobile. so is it possible? I have search a lot but didn't get a possible solution!! please help if there is!!
Comment: Not possible with WhatsApp. Maybe some hacked WhatsApp can do that and you can experiment at your own risk
Answer: Simply it is not possible.
WhatsApp Web is a computer based extension of the WhatsApp account on your phone.
The messages you send and receive are fully synced between your phone and your computer.
The first requirement to being able to use WhatsApp Web is an active WhatsApp account on your smartphone.
If you cannot connect to WhatsApp on your phone to send and receive messages, then you will not be able to use WhatsApp Web.
- According to the WhatsApp FAQ
So basically, it just access your phone to sync data.
And this on Quora discuss the details.


What are some easy methods to cook a top blade steak without stock or wine?

Question: I would like to ask about cooking a top blade steak. I am currently out of stock and wine, and am curious about slow cooking it in an oven, although not really familiar with slow cooking. Any input would be appreciated, thanks.
Comment: Have you got any beer? Fruit juice?
Answer: water, seasonings, aromatics vegetables (carrots, celery, onions garlic... ), tomato paste and/or canned tomatoes
Brown the meat in oil in a dutch oven type pan, remove and set aside.
Brown the vegetables in oil, when good you have coloring (not burning), add tomato paste, mix and cook well for a few minutes.
Add meat back to the pot, add water and canned tomatoes to nearly cover the meat.
Reduce heat, cover with a lid and cook until meat is tender, adjust water level so it does not dry out during cooking
You can do it on the cooktop or in the oven.
Answer: You don't have to have stock or wine, meat becomes tender with slow cooking in the presence of water as the water helps to break down the connective tissue that makes meat tough. Stock or wine is just water with flavor, but you can add flavor in any number of ways through spices, herbs, vegetables and other ingredients.
You can slow cook in the oven or on a burner, the key is to have a lid on the pot or dish to keep the moisture sealed in. I personally prefer the oven as it gives me better control over heat, and I don't have to worry about the bottom burning as in the oven the heating is even across the entire dish.


twisted module: I can't work my program from the ip of raspberry pi

Question: I was trying to make a program with the twisted module so as to control a led from the ip of my raspberry pi. I'm new in this and now im trying to learn. I have called my program "lights.py" and in the same folder with this file, i have a folder called "lampwww" in which there is a index.html file with this code inside:
Lights
a href="http://ip of raspberry pi/API?light=on"> Turn On  | a href="http://ip of raspberry pi/API?light=off"> Turn Off
So when i open index.html and click turn on or turn off it doesn't work, also when i just open the ip of raspberry pi at the browser (i have seen the ip using ifconfig), it doesn't show me what i have writen inside the index.html, it just show me the text "it works"...
Here is the code of my program. What am i doing wrong? what am i missing? thanks in advance!
from twisted.web.server import Site
from twisted.web.resource import Resource
from twisted.internet import reactor
from twisted.web.static import File
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BCM)
pin = 17
GPIO.setup(pin, GPIO.OUT)

class lampAPI(Resource):

   def render_GET(self, request):
        if 'light' in request.args:
            if request.args['light'][0] == "off":
                GPIO.output(pin, False)
                return " light off "
            if request.args['light'][0] == "on":
                GPIO.output(pin, True)
                return " light on "

root = File("/lampwww")
root.putChild("API", lampAPI())
factory = Site(root)
reactor.listenTCP(8080, factory)
reactor.run()

Answer: The HTTP server you wrote listens on port 8080.  You need to use http://raspberrypi:8080/ as the beginning of any URL.


Convert non-convex function (norm of a norm) to convex

Question: The optimization problem is
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
&\text{minimize} \quad ||Ax|_1-c| \\
&\text{subject to} \quad |x|_2 \leq b,
\end{split}
\end{equation}
where $x\in \mathbb{C}^N$, $A$ is a known $M\times N$ complex matrix, $c$ and $b$ are constant. Since the objective function is non-convex, it cannot be solved using the standard tool, e.g., cvx. Is there any way to convert the objective function to be convex?
Comment: By $|A x|_1$ I presume you mean the $\ell_1$ norm of $Ax$.  But that's a number, so what does the outer $| \cdot |_1$ mean?  Should it just be $|\cdot|$?
Comment: You're right. Fixed it.
Answer: I do not think that this can be converted to a convex problem: There are  multiple solutions in general and these do not form a convex set: If $c>0$ and $x^*$ is a solution, then $-x^*$ is also one. However, $0$ is convex combination of these solutions, but not optimal. In principle there is the convex relaxation of the problem, which means to replace the objective function by the largest convex function below the objective, but usually this is even more difficult to compute than solving the original problem.
Note that $c\leq 0$ leads to the trivial solution $x^*=0$, so you can assume that $c>0$
If you could solve
$$
\max\{|Ax|_1\mid |x|_2\leq b\}
$$
with some solution $\bar x$ and observe that the objective $|A\bar x|$ is smaller than $c$, then any solution $\bar x$ of the above problem would be also a solution of the original problem. If $|A\bar x|_2>c$, then find $0<\lambda<1$ such that  $c = |A\lambda\bar x|_1 = \lambda|A\bar x|_1$, to get an optimal solution.
It remains to solve the maximization problem (convex function over a convex domain, so the maximum is assumed at the boundary) and this is essentially the computation of the matrix norm of $A$ as a mapping from a space with $\ell^2$-norm to a space with $\ell^1$-norm, denoted
$$
\|A\|_{2\to1} = \max\{|Ax|_1\mid |x|_2\leq 1\}.
$$
I vaguely remember that this norm (as well as most other mixed induced norms) is hard to compute but can't find a reference right now.
Comment: I think this is the reference you mention http://www2.isye.gatech.edu/~nemirovs/Daureen.pdf
Specifically Section 1.3
Comment: I haven't seen that previously, but it's a great reference.


Do the rules of wudu apply for online reading?

Question: For example: if I commit a major impurity, is it ok for me to read online? How about minor impurities?
Comment: How should the rules for wudu' apply when ghusl is necessary? They wouldn't be sufficient... Your wording is a bit misleading.
Answer: Always having youself and your soul clean through Wudu is encouraged. But while reading Quran in online, it is not probably necessary.


What is a dual / cotangent space?

Question: Dual spaces are home to bras in quantum mechanics; cotangent spaces are home to linear maps in the tensor formalism of general relativity. After taking courses in these two subjects, I've still never really understood the physical significance of these "dual spaces," or why they should need to exist. What is a dual / cotangent space? Could someone explain why they are necessary, and what their physical significance is?
Comment: This is one of those rare questions that isn't about a particular physical application of mathematics (i.e. a particular theory) but still arguably belongs here instead of on math.SE.
Comment: It's hard to motivate this concept sufficiently if you're always working with spaces that have a metric, since a metric always allows you to convert back and forth freely between vectors and their duals, and that can make the distinction seem pointless. Some possibly relevant discussion: http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/62505/forces-as-one-forms-and-magnetism/62564#62564
Answer: I'd like to add something about dual spaces in relation to quantum mechanics since you mentioned "bras."  You might ask why we need to consider dual spaces in quantum mechanics and how this relates to bras.
Every pure (as opposed to mixed) state of a quantum system can be represented by an element of a Hilbert space $\mathcal H$.  In physics we commonly denote such elements with a symbol like $|\psi\rangle $, a "ket."  Every Hilbert space, by definition, is equipped with an inner product.  Let's use the notation $(\cdot, \cdot)$ for this inner product, so that the inner product of two kets $|\psi\rangle$ and $|\phi\rangle$ is denoted
$$
  (|\psi\rangle, |\phi\rangle)
$$
and is some complex number.  The issue is that this expression looks unwieldy to us physicists, and we might as well abbreviate it in some way, so instead, we define a "bra-ket" as follows:
$$
  \langle \psi|\phi\rangle = (|\psi\rangle, |\phi\rangle).
$$
Much cleaner isn't it?  Ok, but how does this relate to dual spaces?  Well, suppose that given any ket $|\psi\rangle$, we were to define a function $B_{|\psi\rangle}$ on $\mathcal H$ by
$$
  B_{|\psi\rangle}(|\phi\rangle) =   \langle \psi|\phi\rangle
$$
Notice that this function takes in an element of the Hilbert space and outputs a complex number; the value of an inner product.  Moreover, notice that by linearity of the inner product in its second slot, for all $|\psi\rangle, |\phi_1\rangle, |\phi_2\rangle\in\mathcal H$, and for all $a_1,a_2\in\mathbb C$ we have
\begin{align}
  B_{|\psi\rangle}(a_1|\phi_1\rangle + a_2|\phi_2\rangle)
&= \Big(|\psi\rangle,a_1|\phi_1\rangle + a_2|\phi_2\rangle\Big) \\
&= a_1\langle\psi|\phi_1\rangle + a_2\langle\psi|\phi_2\rangle \\
&= a_1 B_{|\psi\rangle}(|\phi_1\rangle) +a_2 B_{|\psi\rangle}(|\phi_2\rangle)
\end{align}
In other words, for each $|\psi\rangle\in\mathcal H$, the function $B_{|\psi\rangle}$ constructed in this way is a dual vector.
In order to shorten the notation again, we physicists simply make the definition
$$
  B_{|\psi\rangle} = \langle\psi|.
$$
and we call this dual vector corresponding to $|\psi\rangle$ the bra of $|\psi\rangle$ since the definition of $B_{|\psi\rangle}$ allows us to write
$$
  \langle{\psi|}(|\phi\rangle) = \langle \psi|\phi\rangle
$$
in which case we see that acting on a ket with a bra gives a "bra-ket" (where "bra-ket" is just another way of saying inner product).
So we see that bras are in fact dual vectors!  Why is this all necessary?  Well, it's not actually.  We could have simply done away with bras and kets altogether, which mathematicians do, and we could have written all expressions in quantum mechanics that we care about with no problems.  In fact, Weinberg's quantum mechanics and quantum field theory texts don't use bra-ket notation, and as you can see for yourself, nothing breaks.
However, most physicists, myself included, feel that bra-ket notation is intuitive and computationally useful, and we can see from the discussion above that a natural way to formalize the notation is in terms of dual spaces and dual vectors, so that's why we introduce them in this context.
Comment: @Hunter Firstly, never feel embarrassed to ask a question (easier said than done I know).  I agree with everything you wrote except "implies that..."  Notice that in bra-ket notation $|\psi\rangle$ is itself the vector and $\psi$ is just a label, so to take an inner product, it helps to have another notation like $(|\psi\rangle, |\phi\rangle)$.  Then we *define* the symbol $\langle \psi|$ as the function $(\langle\psi|, \cdot):V\to\mathbb C$, so it is a dual vector.  We can then notice that $\langle\psi\rangle(|\phi\rangle) = (|\psi\rangle, |\phi\rangle)$.
Comment: (contd.) Or, if we additionally *define* the notation $\langle\psi|\phi\rangle := (|\psi\rangle, |\phi\rangle)$, then we can also write $\langle\psi|(|\phi\rangle) = \langle\psi|\phi\rangle$ as I tried to make clear in the above answer, but perhaps wasn't.
Comment: The clifford algebraic reprentations of, for example, the wavefunctions in the Pauli and Dirac algebra make me question whether viewing bras as dual vectors is really the right thing to do.  We could see all wavefunctions as "spinors" (whether they are bras or kets) and as such, distinguishing between the two is rather artificial.
Comment: What precisely are you referring to when you say "wavefunctions in the Pauli and Dirac algebra?"  I don't quite see in what sense all wavefunctions can be viewed as spinors.
Comment: Pauli and Dirac wavefunctions are spinors, and using clifford algebra representations of those spinors, the only difference between a "bra" and a "ket" is that one is a reversion of matrix products.  Similarly, the Schrodinger equation can be derived by considering a spinor-based rotation on a 2d probability plane and looking at the time-evolution of that spinor in a Fourier decomposition.
Comment: @joshphysics I'm a bit embaressed to ask this since I should know this, but here it goes. The inner product is $\langle \;\; | \;\; \rangle : V \times V \to \mathbb{C}$ where $V$ is a complex vector space, right? In other words, the inner product is defined to be between vectors of the *same* vector space? Then  $\langle \psi |  \phi \rangle$ being the inner product implies that $\langle \psi |$ *cannot* be the dual of $| \phi \rangle \rangle$, right? Where am I going wrong with this reasoning?
Answer: As you probably know, the Dual Space of a Vector Space $V$ is the space of all linear functions on the space $V$. This is one abstract mathematical concept, however it can give to us very nice ways of representing things on physics.
In the context of differential geometry, the dual space is where the objects called cotangent vectors, or more briefly covectors, live. A function that assigns a linear functional at each point is a one-form, and they are very natural to integrate over paths. Indeed, remember that if $M$ is a smooth manifold (in other words, some general space which can be curved or not) for each point we can think of the set of all vectors. In symbols, if $p \in M$ is a point of this space, $T_pM$ is the set of all vectors at $p$. The dual space to $T_pM$ is the cotangent space $T^\ast_pM$ which is the vector space of linear functionals at $p$.
If then $x^i$ is the $i$-th coordinate assigned by some chart around $p$, the most natural basis for $T^\ast_pM$ is the set of differentials $\left\{dx^i\right\}$. So that we have any one-form $\omega(p) = \omega_i(p) dx^i$.
With all of this in mind, let's see how this allows us to better describe things in physics. Think of a force field, we usually think of forces as vectors because they need direction to be described, however, given a displacement a force gives us the work done to move some particle along the displacement. Well, displacements are really naturally vectors, so we can think of forces as linear functionals on vectors and force fields as one-forms. Think about it, a force field would be then $F(p)=F_i(p)dx^i$ and given a vector at $p$ we would have $F(p)(v)=F_i(p)v^i$ since $dx^i(v)=v^i$. It's obvious that this is giving the work.
Also, remember that I've said that it's natural to integrate one-forms over paths. Imagine $\gamma : I \subset \mathbb{R} \to M$ is path, then the work done moving a particle from the starting point to the end point would be:
$$W=\int_\gamma F$$
Which is very natural. So, we can think of forces as one-forms that given vectors gives us work. If we think on electric field for instance, then we could think of it as the one-form that given vectors gives us the change in electric potential. Also, one-forms are normally thought geometrically as $n-1$ surfaces in $n$-space whose value when integrated along a curve is the number of surfaces pierced. Think a little of how this relate to electric fields and potentials.
In other words: mathematically the element of the dual space is a linear functional and an assignment of one such function at each point is a one-form. This is just general and abstract. You should just think then: in which moments some object used to describe some phenomenon will be well described using such abstract entities? You find forces, fields and so on. After you see the power of those objects in different places you're going to understand that the "meaning" of a dual space really depends on what you're trying to describe.
Answer: It's difficult to figure out an answer to this fairly mathematical seeming question without reciting the wikipedia article which already explains what it is. If you have functions with an abelian group as codomain (e.g. numbers which can be added), then the function space inherits that propery and becomes an abelian group itself:
$\psi(v)=a,\ \phi(v)=b,\ \text{with}\ \ a+b=b+a,$
$(\psi+\phi)(v):=\psi(v)+\phi(v)\ \ \ \longrightarrow\ \ \ \psi+\phi=\phi+\psi.$
The dual space consists of linear functions from the vector space to numbers. The domain of these functions (the vector space) has stuff like bases and similar to the above argument, the dual space becomes a vector space itself. Beyond this sketch, I see not much point in explaining why dual spaces exist, mathematically.
If you describe something by some object, then you can consider functions on this object to other objects, mathematically. In model building of physics, you use mathematical structures, sometimes wild kinds of objects, but since experiment is about comparing things with each other, you always need to map these objects to numbers, eventually. Vectors are nice to work with, linear relations are among the simlest ones, and lengths and angles can be expressed via the dual space construction, the linear functionals of the vector space. I think from this stance, it's not surprising they pop up.
There are also nonlinear maps, determiniants or whatever. The total energy of the electric field $\vec E(x)$ is a number associated with a vector, but depends on it in a more complicated way.

What is a dual / cotangent space?


Can you inject carbon dioxide/nitrogen into a dough/batter to provide leavening? Or use dry ice/liquid nitrogen?

Question: Can you use carbon dioxide/nitrogen directly to provide leavening? It's known that vegetable shortening is actually pumped with nitrogen bubbles to aerate it, so maybe there's a way you could use them like this in baking? The two options I see are either injecting them in or using them as solids or liquids.   Thoughts on this please, thanks.
Answer: It is not uncommon to use an ISI whipper for this purpose.  For example, tempura batter can be placed in a whipper, and it can be charged with CO2.  I'm not sure if that is more advantageous than simply mixing rice flour with seltzer water, but it is done.  Liquid nitrogen would freeze your batter, as would dry ice.  Dry ice would leave your batter somewhat carbonated upon thawing.  Your approach likely depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  I don't think this would be an effective approach dough, and for baking.  It might make sense for some batters.
Comment: Ah so if you used dry ice or liquid nitrogen, the gas would escape before it got unfrozen?
Comment: If you are talking about a dough that will bake, yes...probably.  CO2 will take longer than N2, but I doubt it would be useful as leavening in a baking application.
Comment: @CrackerJacked - well, the dry ice or liquid nitrogen would either be too hard to get into a dough (or even most batters) or too easy to get out.  If it mixes in easily and quickly, the gas will likely separate and escape a loose batter more easily... if the dough or batter has got enough strength to hold in gas bubbles, it'll be too stiff to mix dry ice or liquid nitrogen in evenly before it starts evaporating out, and with uneven mixing, well, its easier for large bubbles to escape than small ones.
Comment: Thanks for the explanation.   So it seems that using dry ice/liquid nitrogen is out of the question,  but what if you injected the gases into the dough/batter instead? Would that work?


Live Paint work for a responsive website?

Question: Do vector drawings colored in with Illustrator's Live Paint work as expected for use in a responsive website?
Answer: Yes, but you probably need to Expand the objects in order for proper compatibility.

You can use Live Paint to color everything in.

Now go to Object → Live Paint → Expand in order to expand the paths into regular paths that are independent of the Live Ppaint group.
(You can also use Object → Expand and only select Objects - it seems to produce the same results)

Read: Adobe Illustrator; Live Paint groups
Answer: You can test it like this.

Export your work as an SVG.
Upload it to SVGshare(dot)com

If you can see it as intended, then it will work on any website, whether responsive or not. Check the svgshare link in other browsers, and on your phone/tablet, etc.
Here's a live paint object exported as an SVG, and it works as expected.
Note: I have no affiliation with svgshare.


How to clean rust spots of an antique fan

Question: I have a beautiful heavy old electric fan.  It works brilliantly but has rust spots on the blades and the cage around the blades. How can I clean these without causing damage to the surface coating?
Comment: This was a popular model before we had lawyers.
Comment: Rust is usually a sign of surface damage.  Can try cleaning, but usual to remove rust and some of the surface and refinish/repaint.
Comment: A good old finger-chopper...
Comment: Try with WD40 as rust remover
Answer: Try rubbing vinegar on the rust spots, let it soak in for 10 minutes and then wipe/wash it off. The fact that you see rust means the surface has already been damaged down to the bare metal so all you can do is remove all the rust and then repaint with a rust preventer paint like Rustoleum.
Caution: This is an old fan. You can tell by the large openings in the fan guard. This is an accident waiting to happen especially if you have children. Be careful.
Answer: There are commercial rust removers, q.v. A thick paste type might e useful to cling to the curved surfaces. That said, a proper job will also include sanding or sand-blasting and repainting.
N.B. This fan obviously does not meet modern safety standards.

The heavy metal blades, combined with wide openings in the wire guard, make this a fine finger guillotine.
Easy access to the internal wiring through the switch or rheostat opening invites electrocution.
In addition, the fan is almost certainly not double insulated, likely has no ground, and has deteriorated insulation, further increasing the chances of frying one coming into contact with the device.

If you want to keep it as an * objet d'art*, I suggest removing the mains plug to avoid accidental use.
If you want to use it as a fan, have a qualified repair person make it as safe as possible. Don't trust that keeping it in a out-of-the-way location will prevent the curious from handling it.
Comment: This reminds me of the [classic Sunbeam toaster "upgrades"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vcdbtAca0Y). The difference though is that while you can replace the switch and add proper grounding, etc. for a fan just like for a toaster, that doesn't solve the basic "finger chop" problem. Solving that means adding a whole new custom fit wire grid - just not worth it and it changes the look (but also, fortunately, the feel). Not terribly practical when new fans are commodity items.


Unable to fetch Web reference in CSOM while calling Method from Asp.net Core

Question: I am looking for DLL or NuGet Package which is Compatible with Asp.net core 2.1
I create one solution using Asp.net core 2.1 I also added one existing project which is in the .Net framework where the SharePoint code exists. When I added it to the solution and compiled it and it's perfectly built. I added reference in my Asp.Net core MVC Project And after building a solution, it's perfectly fine. I also added app for Sharepoint Nuget Package and generated a token helper class in my asp.net project.
Till now everything is fine. But when I called a method of Sharepoint Which I created in an Asp.net solution It giving me 400 bad requests error and ExecuteQuery is giving me an error. But when I called it from .Net console application it's perfectly executing.
Can you all please suggest me something.
Answer: There is currently no solution available, but you can listen to Microsoft's roadmap on this in the Microsoft 365 PnP – General M365 Developer SIG community call – 28th of May 2020 call. As you can see, they are targeted .NET Core 3.1 and not the 2.x branch.


How to write DOD (definition of done) or definition of ready for ML tasks?

Question: As a non technical product owner I realized so far that the nature of ML tasks is a bit different than front or backend tasks. I've been struggling to write a definition of done for ML tasks. so far we separated the research/prototype phase from implementation on the product. even though it helped a bit to understand if something is feasible at all or how it is going to get implemented one problem which remained unsolved was how long the implementation is going to take. and we have a necessity on time to market and cant afford to have forever ongoing tasks. How can I write appropriate definition of done for ML tasks which will consider the nature of its work and doesn't have a open ending?
Comment: Why are you, as a Product Owner, trying to write the Definition of Done? The first place to look is an organizational standard for what it means to be Done. Beyond this, it is the responsibility of the whole Scrum Team. Where are the Developers and Scrum Master in helping to define what makes sense for a Definition of Done today?
Comment: @ThomasOwens thank you for your response. maybe I didn't deliver what I wanted in my question. what I'm really looking for is to find a practice to recommend to them so they can write it themselves. I know I don't have enough expertise to help them but I'm sure there must be a way to empower them. if you have any recommendation that can help specifically an ML specialist or a ML base team to define definition of done or definition of ready for their technical task id be more than thankful to hear from you.
Comment: What problems is the team having in crafting a Definition of Done? Does everyone understand what a Definition of Done is and what value it adds? I've never had a team that struggled to craft a Definition of Done once everyone understood what it was and why having one helps.
Comment: Currently, you likely lack sufficiently-thin vertical slices for your Increments. Without that, it will be hard to define a meaningful Definition of Done or perform proper dependency planning.
Answer: What a "Definition of Done" Should Accomplish
Ideally, a good Definition of Done has three related goals:

Encapsulate the baseline criteria and routine activities required for each Increment to be successfully delivered.
A clear description of how each specific Increment will be evaluated, allowing the team to plan against the evaluation criteria during Sprint Planning, and continuously assess their progress towards the Sprint Goal throughout the remainder of the Sprint.
Ensure the Scrum Team remains aligned on delivering a potentially-shippable Increment at the end of each Sprint.

If the team isn't planning with testable criteria in mind then they are unlikely to deliver a coherent Increment that is fit for purpose. Even if you aren't practicing test-first development, you should at least be practicing test-first planning by having a set of invariant requirements that will apply to all Increments.
Breaking Down the DoD Goals
Baseline Criteria
The first item is typical quality control stuff. As generic examples, most Definitions of Done will include variations on things like:

The Increment will have unit tests for all new code.
The Increment will have executable documentation in the form of behavioral tests written in clear Business language,
The Increment will be successfully tested in the QA environment.
The Increment will exhibit no regressions.
The Increment will meet the Sprint Goal defined during Sprint Planning.

In other words, these elements will be the same regardless of the current Sprint Goal or the Increment being developed. They are the minimum, invariant success criteria for all work.
Evaluation Criteria
The second goal of the Definition of Done will be more specific to each particular Increment. Since an Increment should be a thin vertical slice, the Sprint Goal should reflect a measurable objective that can be tested.
For example, if the current Sprint Goal is to deliver a data set for use in modeling during a future Sprint, then the Definitin of Done for the Increment might include:

Determining the optimum size of the data set.
Defining how the data will be stored and retrieved.
Documenting the procedures for loading the data set, including data cleansing and any ETL work that may be required.
Developing executable tests to validate each of the items above.

Unless the whole team is working together with a clear definition of success for the current Iteration, the Sprint will lack coherence and the Increment will likely be untestable or unshippable at the end of the Sprint.
Maintaining Alignment
Each Sprint must have a singular Sprint Goal that provides a central coherence for the Increment. The success criteria for the current Increment (above and beyond the generic "doneness" required for all Increments) must be clearly articulated as part of Sprint Planning.
The whole team must agree on what "done" means for the current Increment. This enables them to collaborate on the testable Definitions of Done for the potentially-shippable elements that collectively comprise the current Increment. It also helps the team align on what needs to be done to ensure the functionality of the Increment is testable, and that all planning is based on passing the tests defined within the Definition of Done.
Without this alignment, and without all team members thinking about dependencies and tests before work on the Increment begins, the ability of the team to synchronize during the Sprint will be compromised. The Definition of Done is not only there for quality control, but is also an essential part of helping the team to decompose work and communicate effectively about how to track the effectiveness of the Sprint and the suitability of the Increment during both planning and development.
Comment: the Evaluation Criteria part really helped me thank you.


how project onto itself works?(snap)

Question: I cant think of projections that how it works own my own I don't know why projection needed in snapping I want to know how projection works in snapping.
Answer: When Project onto Self is disabled, you can only snap to geometry of other objects.
It's useful when you go to Edit mode with multiple objects at once.
Notice I can only snap to the other object's vertices unless I enable Project onto Self.
Answer: ...Why 'Projection'? Because sometimes that's what it is.. (actually, internally, it always is). Here, the move is ShiftZ constrained to XY, so the snap is in X and Y only, projected down Z.

how project onto itself works?(snap)


Are particles of the same type identical in string theory?

Question: Things that oscillate have a phase. Does it allow two electrons in string theory to be different from each other (different phases, while everything else except position is the same)? Would that translate into something experimentally measurable?
Answer: I think this is a good question but it isn't unique to string theory. A classical harmonic oscillator also has a phase. Think about how this is represented in quantum mechanics. We usually consider energy eigenstates of the harmonic oscillator. These eigenstates do not change in time even though the classical harmonic oscillator does. If we want a quantum mechanical object that describes the classical phase, we need to consider something called coherent states, which are a sum of all different energy eigenstates.
Now the quantum harmonic oscillator has more of a connection to string theory than you might think. A relativistic version of the ordinary loop of string you have in mind in your question is the bosonic string. To talk about fermions we would need to make it supersymmetric, which is an unnecessary complication for your question. The bosonic string is closely related to a theory of free fields in two spacetime dimensions, and free fields are closely related to a harmonic oscillator.
The problem is the energy eigenstates of the bosonic string are what we are thinking of as distinct particles. The analogue of the ground state of a harmonic oscillator is the tachyon in bosonic string theory. The analogue of the first exicited state is the graviton (and some other massless particles with different spin like the dilaton). But to see something like a classical phase of a mode on a string we would need to consider a superposition of different energy eigenvalues and that would correspond to a superposition of different particle types.
So no, the phase of oscillation on a string doesn't give a new quantum number to any given particle, but yes, it is something you can talk about in quantum mechanics.


Understanding a algebraic formula

Question: I have a equation related Burnside's Lemma $|X/G|=\frac{1}{|G|}\sum_{g\in G}|X^g|$.
Can anyone give me intuitive explanation of the equation?Since I'm a novice learner of Burnside's Lemma I need explanation of each term of the above equation.
Answer: Here a group $G$ acts on a set $X$. $X/G$ is the quotient of $X$ by $G$; that is, the set of orbits $\{G\cdot x\mid x\in X\}$, or equivalently the set of equivalence classes of $X$ where the equivalence relation is that $x\sim y$ if there is an element $g\in G$ so that $g\cdot x=y$. $X^g$ is the set of fixed points of a group element $g\in G$; i.e. $X^g=\{x\in X\mid g\cdot x=x\}$. So what the equation is saying that the umber of orbits is equal to the average number of fixed points.

Understanding a algebraic formula


Are self-grounding outlets appropriate for use in metal boxes with BX cable?

Question: Would self grounding outlets (15/20 amp) be useable in metal boxes fed by BX? The house was built in 1959 and all original wiring is BX! Any new wiring (Romex/style) has the appropriate ground wire!
Answer: If the BX is properly installed, the cable's metal jacket should provide a ground path. BX should always be connected into metal boxes with the appropriate clamps so that the box itself is grounded. You can test for this using a voltage tester - the box should test at 120V to hot and 0V to neutral.
If that's the case, a self-grounding outlet receptacle installed in the box will be grounded. The ground terminal on the receptacle is connected to the box mounting hardware, so you're just having the box provide the ground path instead, and connecting it via the existing mounting hardware. Note that this method of grounding (relying on the BX jacket) is no longer code compliant, but it is functional and safe as long as there is a reliable grounding path.
If the jacket is not properly grounded, you can use a GFI to provide some ground fault protection. You can also run a new ground conductor in some cases.
Comment: First -- you are *incorrect* that a ground conductor must be a dedicated wire in new wiring.  Metal conduit hasn't suddenly not become a ground conductor, and certain cable types (modern AC with a bonding strip, and type MCI-A cable that uses a bonding wire integrated with the armor) do not require a dedicated ground wire either.
Comment: Second, a loose fastener makes for a lousy connection between the yoke and the box in your scheme, which is why self-grounding receptacles exist -- their clip system provides a positive connection between yoke and box.
Comment: @ThreePhaseEel I think your comments warrant an answer. Comments can disappear and your warnings would be lost.
Comment: GFI does not provide a ground.
Comment: Good points. Corrected.
Answer: Properly installed BX cable armor does provide a path back to the main panel.  While in older BX this path is no longer Code-suitable as an equipment grounding conductor, the installation of self-grounding type receptacles would not actively harm anything, and would be at least somewhat useful in case of a hard fault.
However, a non-self-grounding type receptacle will not provide a satisfactory ground path, as it depends critically on the tightness of the fasteners holding the yoke to the box in order for the yoke to be grounded in that case.  The spring-loaded clips in a self-grounding receptacle are designed to maintain this ground path, even if the fasteners work loose.


Anybody experiencing full system lockups with LUKS?

Question: I've recently setup a couple of new servers. This time I'm encrypting most of my partitions using dmcrypt+LUKS. However these new servers crash very often, every few days. Full lockups, kernel does not respond to keyboard, system does not ping. According to Munin graphs and atop records, there has been no increase in resource usage. There are no relevant log records in the local syslog logs. There are no relevant records on our remote log host (which the new servers forward syslog to). There are no relevant netconsole messages (the new servers forward all kernel messages using netconsole to a log host). The kernel didn't even print anything to the TTY. I asked the hosting company to perform a full hardware test, and they found nothing. I'm suspecting LUKS. Does anybody else also experience full lock ups with LUKS? The only reference I could find is http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2125287.
Comment: Full lockup, meaning once we are booted up. So, luks has already encrypted the disk. Now, what fs? Recently, I saw an issue with wrong partition alignment in hdd and dmcrypt trying hard to write that data on edge of disk, resulting in lock up. Is there nothing in logs? Any soft lockup message, hung task, some stack trace? Does the server respond to sysrq key combo.
Comment: Yes, the lockup happens hours or days after booting. The filesystem depends on the partition. Some are ext4, some are xfs. The latest crash resulted in absolutely no logs. It's as if the server suddenly powered off. A last crash resulted in multiple soft lockup messages, all showing dmcrypt in the stack trace. But during most crashes, there are no messages. The system doesn't respond to sysrq.
Comment: Pastebin the soft lock up messages if possible please? Don't leave a stuff, from bottom to top, the entire traces.
Comment: Here are all the messages for the crash that did result in messages.  This crash happened on server C. Newlines are bit strange because these came from netconsole, but the messages are otherwise readable. At the time, we were running kernel 3.2.0. We've since upgraded server A to kernel 3.8.0, server B and server C to 3.5.0. Despite the kernel upgrades, servers A and B crashed yesterday, but with no messages. https://gist.github.com/FooBarWidget/6028587
Answer: I had similar problems when trying to set up an Arch and Debian system on a dmcrypt+LUKS partition. The issue always surfaced while secure-erasing the LUKS partition using the dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mapper/crypt1 command, after around overwriting 6-7GB of data. It turned out to be faulty memory module, one out of 4x4GB.
Point 4.3 on the cryptsetup FAQ page describes how faulty memory can cause drastic corruption while writing to encrypted devices, and related symptoms like freezing and lock-ups, which lead me to suspect a faulty memory.
If I were you I would be suspicious about how that hosting company checked their systems. Tell them to forward you the results of at least one cycle of Memtest86+ and Memtester.
NOTES
Just for reference I am listing some of the posts/discussions describing similar issues I went through while searching for hints and solution:

This guy had some CPU lock-ups reported by the watchdog processes. Though it seems his issue is not related to encryption or faulty memory, rather a faulty CPU fan, this was when I started to suspect hardware problems.
These guys seem to have similar sympthoms, and the last sentence in the thread mentions "large amount of RAM".
This thread (also here) describes a soft lock-up issue with kernel version 2.6.24, a long time ago, for which a patch was submitted back then. The sympthoms seem similar, but the root cause for me was different. This post seem to describe the same issue too.


Can intersection of two manifolds be $xy=0$

Question: I know that if two manifolds intersect transversally then their intersection is a manifold. But I was trying to construct an example where the intersection is not a manifold. But I still do not see how intersection of two manifolds cannot be a manifold. It would be great, if any one has any counterexample giving intersection as $xy=0$ or any other set which is not a manifold .
Comment: I think there's an example like this in Guillemin and Pollack. Let one of the manifolds be the $xy$-plane and the other something which lies entirely in the upper half-space, such that the points where $z=0$ is precisely $xy=0$.
Answer: Let $M_1 \subset \Bbb R^3$ be the $xy$-plane and $M_2 = \{(x,y,z) | (xy)^2 = z\}$. Then $M_2 \cap M_1 = \{(x,y,z) | xy = 0, z = 0\}$, as you desire. $M_2$ is a manifold by the regular value theorem, because the map $f: \Bbb R^3 \to \Bbb R$, $f(x,y,z) = z-(xy)^2$ is a submersion.
Transversality breaks rather wildly, as you notice: in fact, the tangent planes of $M_2$ at points where $z=0$ are the $xy$-plane.
Guillemin and Pollack have some nice pictures of non-transverse intersections in their book. Something with this result is probably in there.
You can see a picture of $M_2$ on WolframAlpha here.
E: In fact, let $X = f^{-1}(0)$ be the zero set of a smooth function $\Bbb R^2 \to \Bbb R$. Then the exact same construction works to build $X$ as the intersection of two submanifolds of $\Bbb R^3$; let $M_2 = \{(x,y,z) | z = f(x,y)^2\}$; the map $f(x,y) - z$ is still a submersion.
And, in fact, any closed subset of $\Bbb R^n$ is the zero set of a smooth function, in particular, say, the Cantor set or the Koch snowflake. So you can make these intersections pretty wild!
Comment: This is really nice this simple construction seems to yield a lot of counterexamples. But I am wondering if $z=xy$ is also a counter example
Comment: thanks a lot for the nice example
Comment: @happymath: I added some extra comments that might be worth reading.
Comment: @happymath: Yeah, that works too. I dunno why I squared, didn't really matter.


Using Spring Console Extension in WebLogic 10.3.4.0 with Spring 3.0.3

Question: I've a Spring 3.0.3-based EAR+WAR which I'm deploying to WebLogic 10.3.4.0. I want to be able to see my the various framework Spring Beans at runtime via JMX and ideally in the WebLogic console.  (Note, these are NOT bean's we've written but the ones which come by default with Spring.)
Ideally we'd have been able to get it working with the WebLogic Spring Console Extension as described here.  However after following all these steps (plus adding the weblogic-spring.jar to our WAR after we saw ClassNotFoundException errors in our WebLogic log when trying to navigate to the Spring tab in the WL Admin UI) we still see the following message in the WL console "This application does not use the Spring Framework or Spring MBean integration is not enabled." and no errors or messages in the log.
Does anyone know if it is possible to get Spring 3 apps working with the WebLogic 10.3.4.0 Spring Console Extension or should I try another route?
Answer: Weblogic family 10.3.X supports only Spring Framework 2.5.X


IOTA Whitepaper: What is δ?

Question: In Section 3.1 of the IOTA Whitepaper it refers to small delta (δ) but does not actually define what it does.  Can you help define δ and explain what the equation is trying to tell me?
Comment: A general technique when proving or deducing limits or differentials is to derive what happens if you add a small value (delta > 0, often you also use epsilon if not used in the proof so far) to a large one (t). That is also where the maths joke "let epsilon be less than zero" comes from. I don't know what the exact part of the whitepaper tries to prove since usually when some limits or derivatives are involved I first try to skip over it and try if I can understand the rest without it.
Comment: @mihi I agree delta is small, but I think *t* doesn't have to be big necessarily. Similar to when you look at f'(t) ≈ ( f(t+delta) - f(t) ) / delta, where *t* just has to be in the domain of f.
Answer: H(t) represent the expected cumulative weight at time t.
∂ is a way to note a very small delta time.
The first equation explicit the value the H function relatively to the value of the H function a very small time before.
The second equation is the differential of the first one. In other words, dH(t)/dt is the slope of the function H(t)

IOTA Whitepaper: What is δ?


How to fix this coloring problem?

Question: I have a question that have 5 tags, and c is not one of them. Without c tag, the code block is colorless and harder to read. Other 5 tags are way more important than c tag, therefore I cannot replace any of them with c tag. But I also want the code to be colored. What must I do in this situation?
Comment: The C tag is the most important one; it will get you the most number of views by qualified users.  Drop one of the other tags.
Comment: If it doesn't have a major language tag, hardly anybody will even see your question.
Answer: Add  before the code block.
That said, I find it highly unlikely that the other 5 tags are more important.  Having an appropriate language tag is virtually always the most important tag for a question, as that's the window through which you'll get the majority of your potential answerers.
Answer: Just force the language by adding this before the code block:

Remember to have one blank line before that.

How to fix this coloring problem?


How to find a new PhD advisor by my research interest?

Question: Currently I do not have advisor because of some problems and I can not get my PhD degree with out advisor. So I am looking for a new advisor. How can I find another advisor without the influence of my former advisor. Do you think my former advisor can have a power not to accept me by another advisor? What am I going to do in order to not to make happen this interruption? I totally do not agree with the opinion of my former advisor.
Comment: Advisors are people, and people can influence each others' opinions.  But your former advisor cannot **make** anyone refuse to be your new advisor.
Comment: Do you want to find a new advisor in the *same institution*?
Comment: Yes,the university is same but the department is little bit different. It's like turning your face to the left since I can not change university @ÉbeIsaac
Answer: For the first part of the question on how to find a PhD advisor, you will find quite a few ways on a standard lookup. The most standard way is to go through professors' research profile and bios and see which one fits to your interests and mail them to see if you interest them.
This post ought to be of help:
How can I find a second supervisor?
If your actual question is on whether your current supervisor influence your prospective supervisor, then there are two cases you ought to look into depending on your intentions.

A new institution/department. @JeffE's comment would come into play here. As long as the new professor is in no positive relation with respect to your former advisor, the former advisor's opinions shall not interfere with your prospective advisor's decision.
The same department. This is something you might have to worry about. There would be a greater chance of interaction between the prospective advisor and the former one. This might not always be the case, but this has happened before.

Although not directly related, the following post ought to help you: Changing PhD programs: should I submit a recommendation letter from my old advisor if it's not purely positive?
Comment: I really appreciate your answer@EbeIsaac


Find all the related tables

Question: I have a database with around 1000 tables and I need to find all tables that relate to a specific one, let's say the customer table. How do I proceed?
Comment: Information schema views are helpfull: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186778.aspx
Answer: When you ask to find all tables that relate to a specific one, I assume you are asking for all tables that have a foreign key reference to your "customer" table.  This is closely related to a previous Stack Overflow question.  The following query that uses the system catalog views should do the trick:
<code>select t.name as TableWithForeignKey, fk.constraint_column_id as FK_columns , c.name as ForeignKeyColumn
    from sys.foreign_key_columns as fk
        inner join sys.tables as t on fk.parent_object_id = t.object_id
        inner join sys.columns as c on fk.parent_object_id = c.object_id and fk.parent_column_id = c.column_id
    where fk.referenced_object_id = (select object_id from sys.tables where name = 'customers')
    order by TableWithForeignKey, ForeignKeyColumn
</code>
MSDN sys.foreign_key_columns
Comment: Apparently my database didn't contain any foreign keys so I had to use like 'name%'. Your code worked when I tried with another database so thanks for your help :)

Find all the related tables


What is the difference between "Rabb" رب (Lord) and Ilah اله(God) in Qur'an?

Question: What is the difference between "Rabb" رب (Lord) and Ilah اله(God)  in Qur'an  ?
Answer: In the Quran, "Rabb" (رب) and "Ilah" (اله) are two distinct terms that are often used to refer to different aspects of the divine and have specific meanings:
Rabb (رب):
"Rabb" is typically translated as "Lord" or "Sustainer" in English.
It refers to God in His role as the Creator, Sustainer, Nurturer, and Provider of all that exists.
When "Rabb" is used, it emphasizes God's attributes related to His care, guidance, and nurturing of His creation.
For example, when Muslims say "Rabb al-'Alamin" (رب العالمين), it means "Lord of the worlds" and highlights God's authority and providence over all of creation.
Ilah (اله):
"Ilah" is typically translated as "God" or "Deity" in English.
It refers to the concept of divinity or an object of worship, which could be a deity or anything that people may associate with divinity.
In the Islamic context, "Ilah" is often used to emphasize the oneness of God (Tawhid) and to reject the worship of any other deities or false gods.
When the term "Ilah" is used in the Quran, it is often to assert that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah (Allah being the name of God in Islam).
Comment: The sole name of Allah in the book of Qur'an is "Al-Rahman". The first part of the name is "Al rahem" that is The womb. Therefore, we can accept calling Him The Mother/Father/God ONE.


Play soundcloud in Unity 3d

Question: I'm trying to make a game with cool soundtracks from a bunch of artists. I've made a few playlists in Soundcloud (soundcloud.com) and am trying to get those to play inside of Unity 3d. Is it possible to do that? I can get a mp3 url from the api but then how do I play it? I'm planning to mac and windows. Please help, thanks! <3
Comment: Can't help on technical side but PLEASE make sure you have legal right to play these songs in your game.
Comment: Can u please more elaborate....What have u tried..?
Answer: I see you know how to get songs from the API, so i'll skip that part.
If your game is on mobile, you can just get the song with the WWW and use the .GetAudioClip method:
WWW www = new WWW (musicUrl);
while(!www.isDone){
    yield return 0;
}
GetComponent<AudioSource> ().clip = www.GetAudioClip(false, true);

However, if you run your game on PC (and that includes the Unity Editor), you'll get an error:

Streaming of 'mp3' is not supported on this platform.

Apparently, mp3 isn't supported on Desktop, and since SoundCloud's API only serves mp3 files, you'll have to use an external library to decode the mp3 file.
You can download NAudio (documentation here) and follow these steps:

In the Unity Editor, select Edit>Project Settings>Player and set the Api Compatibility Level (near the end) to .NET 2.0
Add NAudio.dll to your Project's Plugins folder
Create a new C# file with the following:
using UnityEngine;
using System.IO;
using System;
using NAudio;
using NAudio.Wave;

public static class NAudioPlayer {
    public static AudioClip FromMp3Data(byte[] data)
    {
        // Load the data into a stream
        MemoryStream mp3stream = new MemoryStream(data);
        // Convert the data in the stream to WAV format
        Mp3FileReader mp3audio = new Mp3FileReader(mp3stream);
        WaveStream waveStream = WaveFormatConversionStream.CreatePcmStream(mp3audio);
        // Convert to WAV data
        WAV wav = new WAV(AudioMemStream(waveStream).ToArray());
        Debug.Log(wav);
        AudioClip audioClip = AudioClip.Create("testSound", wav.SampleCount, 1,wav.Frequency, false);
        audioClip.SetData(wav.LeftChannel, 0);
        // Return the clip
        return audioClip;
    }

    private static MemoryStream AudioMemStream(WaveStream waveStream)
    {
        MemoryStream outputStream = new MemoryStream();
        using (WaveFileWriter waveFileWriter = new WaveFileWriter(outputStream, waveStream.WaveFormat))
        {
            byte[] bytes = new byte[waveStream.Length];
            waveStream.Position = 0;
            waveStream.Read(bytes, 0, Convert.ToInt32(waveStream.Length));
            waveFileWriter.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
            waveFileWriter.Flush();
        }
        return outputStream;
    }
}

/* From http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/737002/wav-byte-to-audioclip.html */
public class WAV  {

    // convert two bytes to one float in the range -1 to 1
    static float bytesToFloat(byte firstByte, byte secondByte) {
        // convert two bytes to one short (little endian)
        short s = (short)((secondByte << 8) | firstByte);
        // convert to range from -1 to (just below) 1
        return s / 32768.0F;
    }

    static int bytesToInt(byte[] bytes,int offset=0){
        int value=0;
        for(int i=0;i<4;i++){
            value |= ((int)bytes[offset+i])<<(i*8);
        }
        return value;
    }
    // properties
    public float[] LeftChannel{get; internal set;}
    public float[] RightChannel{get; internal set;}
    public int ChannelCount {get;internal set;}
    public int SampleCount {get;internal set;}
    public int Frequency {get;internal set;}

    public WAV(byte[] wav){

        // Determine if mono or stereo
        ChannelCount = wav[22];     // Forget byte 23 as 99.999% of WAVs are 1 or 2 channels

        // Get the frequency
        Frequency = bytesToInt(wav,24);

        // Get past all the other sub chunks to get to the data subchunk:
        int pos = 12;   // First Subchunk ID from 12 to 16

        // Keep iterating until we find the data chunk (i.e. 64 61 74 61 ...... (i.e. 100 97 116 97 in decimal))
        while(!(wav[pos]==100 && wav[pos+1]==97 && wav[pos+2]==116 && wav[pos+3]==97)) {
            pos += 4;
            int chunkSize = wav[pos] + wav[pos + 1] * 256 + wav[pos + 2] * 65536 + wav[pos + 3] * 16777216;
            pos += 4 + chunkSize;
        }
        pos += 8;

        // Pos is now positioned to start of actual sound data.
        SampleCount = (wav.Length - pos)/2;     // 2 bytes per sample (16 bit sound mono)
        if (ChannelCount == 2) SampleCount /= 2;        // 4 bytes per sample (16 bit stereo)

        // Allocate memory (right will be null if only mono sound)
        LeftChannel = new float[SampleCount];
        if (ChannelCount == 2) RightChannel = new float[SampleCount];
        else RightChannel = null;

        // Write to double array/s:
        int i=0;
        while (pos < wav.Length) {
            LeftChannel[i] = bytesToFloat(wav[pos], wav[pos + 1]);
            pos += 2;
            if (ChannelCount == 2) {
                RightChannel[i] = bytesToFloat(wav[pos], wav[pos + 1]);
                pos += 2;
            }
            i++;
        }
    }

    public override string ToString ()
    {
        return string.Format ("[WAV: LeftChannel={0}, RightChannel={1}, ChannelCount={2}, SampleCount={3}, Frequency={4}]", LeftChannel, RightChannel, ChannelCount, SampleCount, Frequency);
    }
}

Use it like this
WWW www = new WWW (musicUrl);
while(!www.isDone){
    yield return 0;
}
GetComponent<AudioSource> ().clip = NAudioPlayer.FromMp3Data(www.bytes);

Answer: I don't think you'd like that. As for today SoundCloud does not have an API for Unity or mobile platforms. I'm not sure but to include their sdk you'd first have to build a library first and experiment A LOT (SO LOT, MUCH LOT, WOW!). Secondly, SoundCloud API's Streaming Sound Docs state you must follow strict guidelines to include their player in your app (or stream it in the app).
In a word - it's tedious. It would be much simpler to create your own server with a bunch of mp3 files in there and download them on request. Advantage of this is that you can keep growing your database even after you launch your game (that's what you need right?). And as @Steven said, make sure it's legal

Play soundcloud in Unity 3d


Is cloud hosting, computing, server etcetra a buzz phrase?

Question: I want an unbiased approach towards cloud term that is being hyped today. Is this really a new term, new dimension or is it just a buzz phrase to re-market existing technologies. Personally I think that the term is just being used to create a new in the market and nothing else. The technologies have been existed since so long. Isn't the cloud the virtualization of exiting resources? I would really appreciate if anyone has a good answer and can change my opinion :)
Comment: I asked a similar question at http://webapps.stackexchange.com/questions/301/what-is-cloud-vs-saas-vs-asp
Comment: a new dimension*
Comment: To begin with something, they should call it A CLOUD/THE CLOUDS, as every service company has it's own cloud.
Answer: There is no way to tell whether Cloud Computing is a revolution or just a fad right now. It could be either. It is absolutely a buzzword right now, and as such suits often misuse it totally. But that doesn't preclude it from being important.
If you've read Clayton Christensen's "The Innovators Dilemma", you know how new technologies may be inferior to existing solutions at first, and then reach a tipping point where they become 'good enough' and overthrow the old.
Cloud computing might be on the way to replace traditional on-premises, self-hosted software in a lot of places. Not completely replace, mind you, but take a large or possibly dominating market share. As all past revolutions, if this change happens then it will take decades to complete.
For a quick overview of the arguments in favor of Cloud Computing, I would encourage you to read "Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing". It may be a little fanboy'ish, but it pretty much covers the economies of scale for large datacenters and business benefits in Cloud Computing.
In short, some of the common arguments given for Cloud Computing are (and I'm not going to debate them individually, that would take too long):

Large economies of scale in operating large datacenters lead to lower cost per unit for storage, CPU hours etc on Cloud Computing.
Cloud datacenters have predictable growth, seasonal demand differences between cloud customers, and different peaks in demand amongst different customers. This should lead cloud providers to operate their DCs at higher average utilization than on-premise DCs. This is pretty big, as most on-premise DCs run at only ~12% average utilization. This again should make Cloud Computing more cost-effective.
For Cloud customers scaling out can be near-immediate, as opposed to, say, a 1-2 months lead time for purchasing new colo space and new servers. This is in itself a pretty big business benefit.
For cloud customers, computing moves from being CAPEX-heavy (buying servers etc) to be more OPEX. Some large businesses like this a lot better, as it 'improves' their balance sheet. Small startups like this a lot, as it reduces and defers liquid cash needs, and startups are always short on cash..
For cloud customers, Cloud Computing does (at least in theory) offer the advantage of closely matching resources to actual proven load, instead of anticipated load. Potential cost savings again.

The proponents of Cloud Computing believe that IT may see a change very similar to what happened to electricity. At first electricity was created using on-premises generators. Then the distribution technology (high voltage long-haul wiring) improved, and ultimately almost everyone switched to centralized production of electricity.
So the proponents believe that as Internet capacity and speed improve, centralized 'production' of CPU time and storage will be more desirable than on-premises production. Time will tell if they're right. But some smart people at Amazon, Google and Microsoft and other companies have crunched the numbers, and at least find Cloud Computing important enough to bet large investments in Google App Engine, Microsoft Azure etc on it.
Answer: The Cloud is lots of things.  It basically means you don't care where your computing/storage/hosting is - just that it works as specified and can be accessed on the internet.  Because you don't really care where it is, you can move it (whatever it is) anywhere else that offers better service/price/legal status.  The supplier typically offers flexibility, expandability and hopefully comaptibility with competitors, and you don't worry at all about hardware or infrastructure issues (beyond assessing whether the supplier can do the job).
So the Cloud could mean:
You pay for Virtual Private Servers to host websites - as you need more processing power, you spawn extra virtual machines.  When you need more bandwidth, you migrate all your VPS to a different supplier with lower bandwidth prices or a faster pipe.
or
You pay for 2Tb of storage accessible over the internet via tunneled iSCSI, which is used by your web servers.  You then realise that the servers hosting this are in the US, but your data is from EU citizens, so you hastily move the storage to a EU based supplier - if you do it right, your site visitors don't notice.
or
You hire processing time on a botnet to carry out cracking attempts on a banking network.  You don't care where the attacks come from as long as they can't be tracked back to you.
There are many other examples that might be called cloud computing.  Sure it is hyped and a buzz word, but there is a lot of it going on, and a specific example may be exactly what you need.
Comment: Yeah - I think it comes from network diagrams where you don't know or care how the connections over the internet are made, so you just put a cloud to show internet and then link the parts of the link you do care about to the cloud.  It's vapour, but that doesn't mean it is worthless.
Comment: These technologies just needed a generic term which is CLOUD.
Comment: Really interesting article on potential cloud meltdown, similar to the banking crisis: http://blog.gardeviance.org/2010/09/run-on-your-cloud.html
Answer: I would say it is basically a repackage of many existing technologies, with many improvements to target the mass market.
At the end of the day, all that "cloud" really is, is a scalable, fault tolerant, high uptime, web hosting package.
In most scenarios, it is still cheaper to buy your own hardware and "go it alone" (this website is co-located!), but for many ventures starting up without any backing, it can be a big investment.
To get any sort of fault tolerant webspace can cost hundreds a month (if not more), very few hosts offer this sort of service - usually it is bespoke and they have scripts/people monitoring the environments, setting up additional servers when you need it etc.
With "cloud" all that has happened is that many of the processes in high end hosting have been highly automated to make it cheaper and affordable, but in all essence, you are not really getting anything special that you couldn't get a few years ago if you looked hard enough.
Comment: Great! 10/10 :)
Answer: I have to admit that I'm purposely not going into the "cloud", at least not until I have the time and inclination to do the research required to understand all the implications (ROI, TCO, etc) but it seems to me that cloud computing is somewhat of a throwback to the timesharing days of mainframe computers. Timesharing (even though it's well before my time) was a way for entities (mostly corporations) to lease time on some other entity's mainframe in order to process data, print reports, etc., etc. At some point, computing resources got cheaper and corporations wanted more control over their computing needs and started to build their own in house systems. Several years ago companies (like Amazon) caught on to the idea that they could "lease" or "sell" some of their spare computing power to consumers and voila, a new revenue stream was created and "cloud" computing was born. At this point I'm not convinced that in a decade or two the cycle won't repeat and corporations will bring their systems back in house. What I really think will happen is that corporations will use some mix of in house systems (for those systems where they want fine grained control) and cloud computing for systems they don't want to internally manage (like email).
Answer: For what it's worth, the "internet" (or really anything once it leaves your building) was always represented as a "cloud" on any diagram I've ever seen.  But what I've always gathered about that was it was purposefully drawn that way because people didn't really understand (or want to know) what happened in the cloud.
So to answer your question, yes it's a buzz word.  That "cloud" has always existed.
Answer: It is a billion dollar worth of buzz phrase. So it is the matter who are you asking. I am pretty happy to work in the cloud if they pay me. Phrases don't create any new market. It is demand what does. And if there is demand there is supply as well. This is how economy works. And just because they have to name something somehow it won't be wrong. They call the high-scalability and distributed computing "cloud", live with it. You can call as you want, just make sure everybody know what are you talking about. :)
Comment: So which means in turn to create new opportunities we come up with the re-tweaking of the existing technologies. That's great for innovation. Start something that has already been existed and make it upto the expectation of the market and you are a billionaire :)
Answer: it is buzz phrase in my opinion, it is here since beginning of IT:

based on functionality

mainframes with dumb terminals, mainframes with X-terminals, servers with thin clients, lately apps running on the webserver and partially in the browser

based on location

offsite/3rd party hosting, in-house hosting still clouds.
If you open your network/servers to internet (say through VPN) it becomes also cloud

you can choose different level of client devices' "dumbness" (CPU power, storage, ports, etc.)

Probably cloudy or not depends of whether have local storage of data or not.
today there are more business models to buy/sell such services


FATA disk performance for VMware

Question: We are moving to the dataceneter and planning to have  tiered storage on EVA4400 - FC RAID 10 for SQL databases and RAID5 across 24 FATA 1TB disks form VMware ESX guests.HP is describing FATA disks as suitable for near online storage, however I am not convinced that 24 spindles will not be enough for running VMWare for 3 ESX servers.
Does anyone has opinion on why this could be a such a bad idea?
Comment: how many guests? 3 esx servers could mean a whole lot of guests
Comment: What's a FATA disk, out of curiosity?
Comment: FATA is ATA-based disk that can plug into a FC-backed enclosure...where supported, a cost-effective way to add relatively cheap disk to an enterprise disk array.
Comment: I believe the total guests number will be about 40 to 50
Answer: Honestly, the root partition of modern OSs has very low IOP requirements. Most libraries and executables are cached in RAM and the needs of services like logging, etc are very light.
The only way to tell for sure though is to calculate the IOP requirements of your guests and see if the disk can handle it. But from my gut feeling 24 spindles even seems overkill for 3 guests.
Comment: Hmm, yes it seems that I misread that, and his later comment about 40-50 hosts puts my final sentence on shaky ground.
Comment: 3 hosts, not 3 guests.
Answer: I'm a big EVA customer and fan, and I have a lot of those exact 1TB FATA disks and think they're great BUT there's something you need to know. The first box we had with those in saw an enormous number if drive 'failures' within it's first year, some were real requiring new disks, many just eject/reseats - the root cause of the problems were that we run out data centers at a steady 19C and we were told that this was too cold and also that the disk, being a mid/near-line model was specifically not capable of a >30% duty cycle and we'd been using them 24/7. The 450/600GB 15krpm disks are perfect but these 1TB ones were the bain of our lives until we started treating them as they were meant to be treated. Hope thus helps somehow.
Answer: 24x1TB in a single RAID5 set strikes me as very risky due to rebuild times and the high probability of another disk failing during that rebuild (and you losing your entire set).
RAID6 is a much, much safer alternative in this case, although you will lose a bit of write performance. All the more reason to measure your I/O as well as I/O patterns. You need read IOPS, write IOPS, and the percentage of sequential to random I/O.
As for where to get this data, I assume you are not buying direct - leverage your reseller to get you a copy of HP's sizing tools (they MUST have something for pre-sales use) which will gather this data for you and aggregate it into some actionable recommendations.
Comment: Hi Jeremy,EVA has 'protection levels' that define how many disks can fail.For double protection we have on our vraid5  it means 4 disks.
Comment: Ah, I am not familiar with EVA's particular data protection schemes. Thanks for the information! So is it really a RAID-5 then?
Answer: They are covering their bases I would imagine.  They want you to buy FC for a couple reasons...one is price...they want to sell a costlier product of course.
However, they also know that if you can afford it and you buy it, FC disk has the least chance of dissatisfaction from a customer based on performance issues.  This is especially true of virtualized environments where iops are in effect consolidated (i.e., disk i/o for how many dozens or hundreds of servers running against relatively few disks).  The "bad idea" part comes in when there's a customer that spent good money but didn't get the performance they needed either for whatever reason.
As you're guessing, 24 spindles of non-FC disk may well be more than fine for your workloads.  For regular/moderate workloads of heterogeneous iops, it wouldn't surprise me to find that this would be adequate for 3 ESX hosts' worth of guests (especially if we're not talking really high numbers of guests per host).
As joshperry says, it's really a matter of working out your iops...once you know that, you can make an informed choice about whether or not the value-proposition of the FATA spindles works for you.
Comment: Thank you,

I should have more details on IOPS..
Currently our VI is connected to CX3-10 EMC array and most logical way to measure IOPs would be to get stats from this array.Unfortunately enabling stats requires additional licensing.I believe my only choice here is running perfmon for windows and something similiar for linux, then aggregate the data.
But I believe that perfmon data can be pretty different from array data due to the caches?

Sergei
Comment: You have to use what you've got available.

You're right that guest VM-based stats may not tell the whole story performance-wise as opposed to array stats.

It isn't uncommon at all to measure performance using Windows and Linux OS-based tools and roll it up as you are thinking about doing.  It is not a bad method...done carefully, it should represent fairly well what your environment's workload looks like.

Ideally, array stats would offer another "whole system" view to keep in mind.  Any chance of temp/eval licenses to look at thos array stats? ;)

FATA disk performance for VMware


LVM encryption with manual partitioning for Ubuntu 23.04

Question: Is there a way to LVM encrypt a volume when choosing manual partitioning in Ubuntu 23.04? I only see an encrypted volume if I let Ubuntu decide my partition tables for me:

If I select manual partitioning, there does not appear to be a way to achieve encryption. Screenshots in the installer:

In the old installer there would be an option to add to encrypted volume, this doesn't exist in 23.04:

Editing a proposed partition shows new options, but not encryption:

Summary of proposed partitions again shows no option for encryption. I can only go back or Install.

I'd strongly prefer doing this with GUI rather than encrypting things after the fact.
Apples and oranges, but in RHEL I'm able to check a box with the manual partition method and it encrypts the partitions with one step:
Answer: Ubuntu maintains a version of 23.04 with the old installer. As of today (September 7th, 2023) you can find that installer listed on their download page, or download it directly at this link.
I hope this helps!


My clan participated in the last clan wars, now we are locked in and can't war with individual clans how can I change that

Question: We participated in clan wars, now we are locked in.  We cannot war clan on clan.  How can I change that
Answer: I'm going to assume you mean Clan War League. Once a clan enters the queue for a Clan War League, that clan cannot do any other war types. Also, during the sign-up period for the Clan War League, only this Clan War mode is available.
If you don't want to participate in the Clan War League and instead do the regular Clan Wars, then you will have to wait until the sign up period for Clan War League season is over (the sign-up period lasts 2 days, and the Clan War button will revert from the golden icon to the regular one).

My clan participated in the last clan wars, now we are locked in and can’t war with individual clans how can I change that


Would you ride with this tire with cuts in the sidewall?

Question: I have a next to unused GP5000 road tire, 25mm, which unfortunately has three cuts in the sidewall. I would like to ask, if it these constitutes a safety problem - or if they rather are to be looked upon like regular cuts in the tread.
What is the verdict: dead or not dead?
Thanks,
Morten
Comment: Sliding the sidewall against sharp rock or curb does that kind of damage. Don't ask how I know.
Comment: It might get you ten miles, but I wouldn't bet on 100.
Comment: I don't think it is a fake. I bought it second hand from a trustworthy person, who has gone tubeless. He also reimbursed me. So no harm done in that respect.
Comment: @Jensen any chance you can post a picture from the top angle, I am interested to see the tread pattern, Grand Prix Continentals have a distinct pattern.
Comment: People - answers in answers please.  Comments bypass the up/down vote process.
Comment: I would not use that or trust that to hold at 90psi. I'm not sure how that's happened unless it's been ridden while flat or it's a fake continental tire, that's certainly been used
Comment: It could be a fake (see the irregular red yellow stripes) that has been made unusable, but somehow 'salvaged' and sold.
Comment: It is inflated to 90psi as photographed, btw. I don't know how it ended up in this poor condition, but would like to get opinions on, if it is safe to use for training
Comment: If you reinforce the cut and use the tire on the rear wheel only it could be okay. But ride carefully and expect to be stranded somewhere.
Comment: Really, Michael? Really, anyone else? Would you say the same if you thought you could be held to account?

Never having actually seen that tyre, you'd stake your professional reputation as some kind of tyre specialist on "… reinforce the cut and use the tire on the rear wheel only it could be okay. But ride carefully…"? Really?

Professional or not, you'd be happy if a court awarded damages based against that advice? Really?
Comment: First two, borderline, have fixed and ridden a tyre to death (via tread loss) with cuts like that. Third one: nope, my face is worth more than even the cost of a new GP5000  :D
Answer: I would not ride that tyre.  Pretty sure I can see tube in the second photo, and that's asking for a sudden blowout.
You might choose to put a boot/patch on the inside of the tyre, JUST TO GET HOME.
You might boot it and use on an indoor trainer tyre only.   Might be okay on rollers, would make a great front-wheel tyre for a direct-drive trainer (ie, the wheel that doesn't turn at all.)
I certainly would not choose to ride on the road with that ever.
It is dead, buy a new tyre.
Comment: It does look a lot like tube in the 2nd picture, but in that case there's no pressure in it.  I've caused similar damage and the tube was bulging out (a boot got me home then I retired the almost new tyre)
Answer: Yes, but only to the nearest tire shop. While doing so, put the tire boots in your emergency tire repair kit to the inside of the tire, at the areas where the cuts are. Tire boots weigh next to nothing (three Park Tool TB-2 boots weigh 8 grams), and are also reasonably cheap, in fact so cheap that you shouldn't consider reusing them.
Tire boots are marvelous items, they can turn a tire with a full cut causing the tube to burst, into a tire that is able to contain an inflated tube inside. It's extremely rare to destroy your tire in such a manner that a boot wouldn't at least temporarily fix it.
If you find the tire contains the tube without boots, don't take your chances, use boots nevertheless. It's possible the situation worsens during the trip to the nearest tire shop, and that the tire would suddenly finally cut, and the tube would suddenly explode, causing rapid deflation.
Comment: @Criggie curious what you used for the boot. I have had good (luck?) forgetting about boots made from US paper currency and others from Cliff Bar wrappers.
Comment: Booting a cut is a great get-home fix.  I have several times tried to ride on with a boot, and they fail within a couple hundred kilometres as the boot and tube get pushed through the ever-enlarging hole, thought this is at road-tyre pressures of 80-90 PSI.  The cut/tear just slowly grows till the tube and boot is hearneating through
Comment: @PaulH I generally have a plastic coin bag in my toolkit, with USB cables in it.  They work well.  I've also used gel pouches, but they tend to be messy... you can never get them completely empty so they leak some in side the tyre.
Answer: I'd say it is a simple as that:
If there is any kind of deformation (as clearly shown on the groove above the cut): The tire is structurally impaired and ready to go into the bin. Same for any kind of damage that makes the tube shine through or bulge out. It will eventually fail and you're just waiting for it to do so.
I've been there and finished rides on damaged tires, but as soon as you are starting to think about whether your tires make it through the next ride, don't overthink and replace it.
Even a high-spec racing tire isn't worth waiting for it to fail big time, we're talking about replacement in the range or 50€/$/£, a fatal crash will cost far more if you just scratch your derailleur and bar tape. Therapies and job loss not included...
Answer: Of course not.
Why are you risking your life on the word of a bunch of internet strangers you're never going to meet or be able to hold accountable?
Go to a qualified specialist and have the suspect tyre examined…
Whatever else, please remember that if it does fail and any kind of law-enforcement finds out you Posted this query, you will have no weakest wheel to stand on.
Comment: What are you talking about? You do realize that this is a bicycle tire, not a car or motorcycle tire, right? Taking a spill from a bike is very rarely life-threatening, there wouldn't be any passengers, and law enforcement is not going to know or care that some bicyclist somewhere had a blow-out.
Comment: @HiddenWindshield I will point out that this is a top-quality racing tire. There's a very real possibility the OP will be riding at speeds high enough to cause severe injuries in the event of a crash.
Comment: Yeah I messed that comment up, got all excited. Rubbie I was actually trying to bridge the gap and bring the focus back to the good point I think you are trying to make, that we should think about others and not only ourselves. Do note that the other answer very clearly says not to use the tyre, it has had a lot of upvotes and has been accepted by the asker - indicating they will be heeding this advice.
Comment: @Swifty yes, that's not the sort of tyre you'd be likely to use on a kid-carrying bike
Comment: @Swiftly Cool; thanks
Answer: Not hard workaround repair. Had similar with very long cut (whole side) on my loved Conti.
1st tried to glue from inside, but after some time or increasing pressure (often over 6 bar) tube went out again...
Then found way better method - used plastic foil (peas package) around tube and tyre is reliable again ;-)

Also similar problem after 2 simultaneous ~3-5 mm long punctures / cuts of old Schwalbe - yellow puncture strip and tube was visible and soon went flat again - placed next tread cut from an old tyre inside and seems to work fine too, tire has a bit wider shape now, but would tell there is no noticable riding difference (front wheel).

Few thousand km later, still no problems except 1 puncture, top speeds 55-59km/h (downhill), front wheel.

After another 400km big holes and strange shape, but still working ;-)

Was curious how much longer it can run, 2 weeks/300km and then hole extended, finished last 15km ride, it was knocking fender a bit and jumping in slower speed, but arrived complete ;-)

Anyway it looks like hard broken tread is problem, but side with good tube support inside may not be at all - 3 years from fix / 12t km and no problems still.
Still riding the Conti (cut almost new 12/2019); daily commuting at least 12t km sum and no big problems, best fix was a thin flat piece cut from low resistance mountain tyre, inflating to 7-8 bars still and sometimes 50-68km/h downhill top speeds, back wheel for some time yet.
Comment: Remember tyres are wear items - they are consumable.  When they're this bad, its time to start shopping for new ones.
Comment: I have one boring 26" tube in my rotation.  At last count it has 15 patches on it and they all work fine.  Patching tubes is a normal activity for any cyclists, and more-so for high distance riders.   I would not be riding that tyre at 50+ km/h.
Comment: Sure, but would tell better tyre with additional layer may still work better than average or cheap one and there is low load on front wheel and point is you can do miracles with tube ex. and do not worry about cut in sidewall for example. It is kind of demonstration tyre with bit of tube support can easily stand way more you can imagine (would tell questioned one for sure). Also any bigger puncture will break tyre too and can quickly lead to next one - is anyone interested in ex. replacing both tyre and tube after each puncture ?


Faster than Time Machine for Backup

Question: I want to do a full backup of my Mac to an external disk AS FAST AS POSSIBLE.  Does that mean I should use something other than Time Machine or set some settings?
Answer: It depends on what your full usage scenario is. For a one-off full image Time Machine is not very well suited, you are better of with using

the disk imaging functionality in Disk Utility
SuperDuper
Carbon Copy Cloner

If you are looking for having a full image of your drive updated regularly, fast and hassle-free, Time Machine is a good way to do that. The initial backup will just take a while longer, the incremental ones will be rather fast.
Comment: and rsync? is there any compelling reason to use SuperDuper or CCC over rsync?
Comment: AIUI CCC's sync feature actually uses a specially updated & patched version of rsync -- see [CCC author Mike Bombich's rsync notes](http://afp548.com/static/mactips/rsync.html). I'm not sure about speed, but I think it does a slightly better job of preserving file attributes than the Apple-supplied rsync version.

Faster than Time Machine for Backup


IPv4, IPv6 and IPTables

Question: I have just recently learned that even if I block all traffic to my webserver using iptables it is still vulnerable to external attacks via IPv6. In my understanding, this renders iptables-only firewalling useless (or am I wrong?)... That being, What security measures should I take into account to protect a webserver from attacks conducted through IPv6?
Answer: Two basic options:

Disable ipv6
Create  a firewall configuration for ipv6 using ip6tables.

A basic guide to disabling ipv6 is here, although I'm betting a rmmod ipv6 will do the trick.
You could use any existing iptables scripts you have as a basis for an "ip6tables" script.  The following should tell ip6tables to lockdown all ipv6 (nothing in, out, or routed):
ip6tables -F
ip6tables -P INPUT DROP
ip6tables -P OUTPUT DROP
ip6tables -P FORWARD DROP

Comment: Disabling IPv6 doesn't seem like a good option now that it is becoming the Internet's standard way of addressing... Anyway, is there any simple way of achieving that in Ubuntu 12.04?
Comment: Sounds like you basically need to mirror your ipv4 configuration to ipv6.
Comment: `rmmod ipv6` won't do the trick; Linux will automatically load it again when a program attempts to create an IPv6 socket. (That's even assuming `ipv6` is a module, and not compiled into kernel.)
Comment: @NetStudent: There is... but what's wrong with `ip6tables`?
Comment: @ultrasawblade: Yes, I think that is what I need then...
Comment: Does disabling IPv6 address guarantees it against IPv6 attacks?

IPv4, IPv6 and IPTables


Automatic Layout

Question: I have a number of maps to generate. Only one shapefile is used where the Z-value is only the variable in differing maps. Is it possible to auto-generate maps using ArcGIS 10.0?
Answer: Yes.

Data Driven Pages were introduced at ArcGIS Desktop 10.0:

Data Driven Pages allow you to quickly and easily create a series of
  layout pages from a single map document. A feature layer, or index
  layer, divides the map into sections based on each index feature in
  the layer and generates one page per index feature.

arcpy.mapping was also introduced at ArcGIS Desktop 10.0:

Arcpy.mapping is a Python scripting module that is part of the ArcPy
  site package. It gets installed with ArcGIS Desktop and is available
  to all licenses. It was designed primarily to manipulate the contents
  of existing map documents (.mxd) and layer files (.lyr). It also
  provides functions to automate exporting and printing.
Comment: I have read about Data Driven Pages yesterday. My problem is it is not easy to create an index in my area of interest. I am interested in Indonesia, which is archipelagic. It is quite hard to create an index here given many islands so I have different region boundaries which is irregular compared to index layer. Can you suggest ways to go around this?
Comment: @user2543 Without having clearer details of what you are trying to accomplish, it is not possible for me to do so.  Please use the **edit** button beneath your question to revise it with additional details, or ask a new more detailed question.

Automatic Layout


Is the Tango project dead?

Question: Is the Tango Desktop Project dead? It looks totally abandoned to me...
Comment: Is there something you need that isn't there? If not, why do you care? Something that hasn't been updated in a while isn't intrinsically worse than something that was updated recently (in fact, I'd say often the opposite can be true).
Answer: Last time the site was updated was 2009, but that doesn't mean it's dead. Infrequent updates don't men a project is dead just that it doesn't have a recent update.
Tango Desktop is quite far reaching, and has in fact influenced many things on today's DEs.
Remember Tango Desktop is more of an initiative then it is a piece of software. So you kind of asking if html 4 is dead. It might not have been updated in a long time, but it's far from dead.
Many, many (matter of fact most) modern projects follow the goals of the Tango Desktop Project. As do "most" DEs and modern UI guidelines.
The project is still important, still relevant, but just doesn't need a bunch of updates to keep it so.
Answer: Looks alive to me. Go into Bugzilla and search for tickets/issues related to the Tango project and you'll see that people are still working issues. That and code check-ins are usually the best 2 indicators if a project is alive or dead.

bugs related to Tango Project

The mailing lists and IRC are probably the other best 2 indicators. I looked through the mailing lists and they're ghost towns but this isn't something that requires a lot of chatter either, so as others have said in comments and the other answer, lack of updates and low frequency don't mean a lot on a project that's providing foundation layers for GNOME.

Is the Tango project dead?


SIP -> XMPP calls problem

Question: I am trying to make a gateway between SIP and XMPP domain. I have an environment with FreeSWITCH (with dingaling module) and OpenFire (FreeSWITCH is registered as a component in OF). Calls from XMPP to SIP are working fine. The problem appears for calls from SIP to XMPP. The caller (SIP) has a ringing tone, the callee (XMPP) has a 'connecting...' message after answering the call. The connection (voice channel) is never established.
Do you have any experience in making calls between SIP and XMPP users and have an idea, why it is not working?
Thanks in advance,
Maciek
Answer: Enable debug in mod_dingaling and mod_sofia and look for XMPP/Jingle errors.
However I suspect NAT/Firewall/Connections issues for this half-working behaviour.

SIP -> XMPP calls problem