How did Dukat contact the founders about joining the Dominion?

Question: As far as I know Dukat never traveled to the gamma quadrant through the wormhole, so how did he reach them to present his offer for Cardassia to join the Dominion?
Comment: Its been awhile, but isn't it implied that the shapeshifters have spies in the Alpha Quadrant.
Comment: yeah, the founders have already infiltrated many countries before the dominion wars even start. I believe they sent emissaries to countries they felt would side with them from the start, aka the cardassians.
Comment: Yeah but wouldn't the founders still in the Gamma Quadrant have to be consulted as well? I don't doubt their agents had ways to reach them, I'm just not sure what those methods are.
Answer: Although the two parties are never shown making their deal on-screen, the fourth and final story in The Badlands duology does discuss the arrangement with some minor detail.
Apparently, Dukat had initially contacted the Dominion via subspace, thus initiating the talks. After several communications via subspace, Weyoun 5 secretly met with Dukat in person to finalize the agreement. The finalization occurred during the time between episode S5E13 "For the Uniform" and S5E14 "In Purgatory's Shadow". The signing of the alliance was successful, but ended on a sour note when the USS Defiant pursued a Romulan vessel into the section of The Badlands where Dukat and Weyoun's ships were hidden.
From dialogue in later episodes, it's apparent that Dukat promised not only Cardassia as an ally, but also the re-capture of Deep Space Nine - a major strategic goal of The Dominion. Conversely, The Dominion promised that Dukat would be installed as head of the new Cardassian government and that they would help Cardassia regain its lost territory (including Bajor). All of these events/promises were discussed & played out on-screen over the next three seasons.
Comment: @MyCodeSucks There was a beacon sending coded signals to make it open/close, to trick the Federation into thinking a fleet of cloaked ships were going through the wormhole.  The signals were meaningless, it was just meant to trick them
Comment: It's also worth noting there was that episode where the wormhole kept opening and closing. Off the top of my head, I believe it was because there was a ship there relaying messages, but I am about 95% sure I could be wrong.
Comment: Izkata- Doesn't mean the founders didn't get wind of the beacon and take advantage of it.


Xcode Storyboard Organization and Duplication of Effort

Question:
You can see that the segues are a mess of spaghetti.  To make sense of it, here are some possible paths that a user could take:

Tap a row in TopPlacesTVC --> Tap a row in PhotoSelectorTVC --> PhotoViewerVC
Tap a row in TopPlacesTVC --> Tap Map button in PhotoSelectorTVC --> Tap a pin in MapVC --> PhotoViewerVC
Tap Map button in TopPlacesTVC --> Tap a pin in MapVC --> Tap map button in PhotoSelectorTVC --> Tap a pin in MapVC --> Tap a row in PhotoSelectorTVC --> PhotoViewerVC

To make the segues cleaner, I could break it up into more view controllers so that each view controller has only 1 segue going into it.  However, this will introduce massive duplication of effort.  Currently, all of the above routes are achieved with 4 view controllers in the storyboard.  Breaking it up as proposed will require 5 new view controllers where each one is an exact duplicate of an existing VC.
Both options seem poor.  A spaghetti factory of segues defeats one of the main reasons for using a storyboard: The flow of the app is no longer clear.  On the other hand, introducing huge duplication of effort is not good, either.  Are there any ideas on keeping storyboards organized without duplicated view controllers?
Please no answers along the lines of "Don't use interface crappy builder."  If you don't like it, that's fine.  This question isn't for you.
Answer: You may create one duplicate of MapVC for the third case and put it between the TopPlacesTVC and PhotoSelectorTVC.


In Pokemon X, can you delete a HM move and still use it on the world map?

Question: Okay, so I have just gotten back into Pokemon, just managed to evolve my Charmeleon into a Charizard. It wants to learn Wing Attack and I was just wondering if you can delete that move but still keep the skill? Is it possible to delete a HM move like Cut, but still be able to use the ability it grants? (cut down trees)
Answer: No, once you get rid of a move you can't use it battle sense or out of battle. It's gone and it can't be used. To get rid of a HM move you can go to a "Move Delete Tutor" in Dendemille town, in a House, up and right from the Pokemon Center (next to some stairs), is the Move Deleter and the Move Reminder. The Move Deleter is to the left side of the house after entering, and the reminder is in the right side of the house. Dendemille town is after the 6th badge I believe.
So until then anything you teach to your Pokemon you keep, so just be careful
Comment: Oh okay, so if I manage to get to this move deleter and remove the HM, will that become usable again with the same pokemon with the move reminder? Also, can the Move reminder be used to gain moves you turned down when the pokemon were leveling up?
Comment: @Aurora-Spark No, the move reminder only teachers Pokemons moves they have had the chance to learn before, but were either passed over or overwritten. You could just use the HM to teach them the moves again, though
Comment: Oh okay, well that makes it a whole lot simpler. So just to clarify, if I delete one of my charizard's existing moves, say, Fire Fang, and I get to the Move deleter, have him remove Cut, would I then be able to get back the move Fire Fang to fill the Empty Slot? (provided a better move doesnt come along)
Comment: Yes, and if you want cut back just use the HM again, it's good to have a "HM Slave" Pokemon, these are Pokemons that can learn most of the HM's and are used when needed just to use the HM
Comment: Brilliant, that's taken a lot off my mind, you guys are the best, props to you helping out a newbie so quickly and effectively :)


Is there no relief from 'relieving letters' questions?

Question: As I write this, the entire 'unanswered' page is 'relieving letter' questions, two of them authored by 'Community'. Are there really so many distinct, non-duplicate, questions on this subject?
Comment: well relieving letter questions are generally [officially on-topic](http://meta.workplace.stackexchange.com/a/2595/168 "as stated here"). On the other hand, there was an attempt for canonical dupe-target which was hoped to cover most annoying repetitions of this theme: [What is a relieving letter? What are the consequences of not having one?](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/20945/168) Maybe we need to expand this canon to cover some more...
Comment: Since you brought this to meta, you could also edit this post and include some of the worst of the worst duplicates. That will get them more attention and direct the higher rep users to those examples.
Comment: @jmort253 that would be definitely [safer](http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/204311/165773 "to let meta effect do work for you"). But flags wise, this reminded me that closes from under 3K contributed to large extent to two marshal badges I've got (one at MSE went almost without declines at all, another one, here, had pretty low rate of declines)
Comment: @gnat, the meta effect is a great tool lower rep users can use to draw attention to trouble spots. I think of this as voting via proxy. With your knowledge and experience with the meta effect, I think you could write a great [faq-style post](http://meta.workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/faq) on how community members can use that to their advantage in terms of helping to keep the site clean and on-topic.
Comment: I got that they are on-topic, I only wondered if some fraction of the 8 or so of them were dups of some others. Obviously, I can't VTC here.
Comment: with rep over 15 [you can flag](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/help/privileges/flag-posts) to close, and this will work almost as good... give or take a risk of occasional decline if it happens that both 1) your dupe-guess is wrong and 2) it happens to get through to moderator before close voters resolve it into painless [disputed](http://meta.stackexchange.com/tags/disputed-flags/info) :)
Comment: @jmort253 [already drafted it at MSO](http://meta.stackoverflow.com/a/268115/839601) "most powerful moderation tool is given at really modest rep 5..." :)
Answer: I'd never heard of relieving letters before the topic started showing up here.  But that's westerner's bias, I think; in some parts of the world this is apparently a very big deal, such that people cannot legally start a new job without being able to produce these letters from prior employers.  Think of it as a reference check with a really, really big stick attached (backed by law, even).
I took a quick look at the eight unanswered questions, and none jumped out as duplicates to me.  I haven't read them closely; if you think there are duplicates there, please link to them here on this meta post so we can get input from people who are more experienced with this topic.
Stack Exchange supports what are called "long tail" questions, ones that are hard or obscure that might take a while to get answers.  Naturally, such questions will hang out on the "unanswered" list.  I suspect that we have relatively few users here who know this topic, and that's probably why the list is so skewed.  If a question is unanswerable it should be closed, but if it's merely unanswered because the right person hasn't come along yet to answer it, that's not a problem.
Answer: If you're feeling overwhelmed by the "relieving letter" questions, you could apply the same solution I have: Adjust your interest filters to suppress anything tagged "relieving-letter" (or maybe "india").
I've done that with a number of tags which suggest that the question is going to be one I really can't respond usefully to, and it does help. The questions aren't hidden completely, but they're greyed out so you know you'll probably want to avoid them.
Comment: Good point on using tag filters to filter out unwanted content. I forget those are there, and I suspect others do as well. With that said, tag filters are best for people like you, who just don't really want to see the content as a member of the community who answers questions. But we'll still want to be sure that actual duplicates do in fact get closed as duplicates. The silent majority (all the people hitting our site from google searches) should be able to find their answer in one spot.
Comment: +1. In fact, we actually have a more specific [relieving-letter](http://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/relieving-letter) tag.
Comment: "The questions aren't hidden completely, but they're greyed out" - actually, depending on your per-user preferences, they *can* be hidden completely. From your user page click 'preferences'; the switch is then at the bottom.


How do I cut a circle with "stepped" edge in a countertop?

Question: How do I cut out a circle  in exsisting wooden counter top and use the cut out piece as a lid (flush) so it doesnt fall through? e.g. a "stepped edge? Obviously I am not using the correct terminologly, hopefully someone knows what I am trying to say. Thanks in advance to all replies, much appreciate
Comment: Does it have to be a stepped edge? Is it ok if it's straight but tapered like a cone? You're not really going to be able to just cut a step shape like that. if you do do a cone shape keep in mind it'll be slightly smaller than the hole because of the saw blade thickness, so you'd still want to maybe line it with rubber or something to recover the space so it sits flush.
Comment: You could also cut a straight circle out then perhaps make a lip for underneath out of a different piece of wood, and attach that to the underside of the countertop. Either way the tool you probably want is a jigsaw.
Comment: Hi, welcome to StackExchange. You can't do this and use the cutout. The removable portion must be another piece of wood, shaped separately. So begin with that info and consider if you want to proceed.
Comment: @JasonC In order to use a jig saw you need to drill a starter hole.  This will create a an indent on the perimeter profile.
Comment: @Ashlar I usually start this kind of thing with a slot from a 1/8" cutting bit in a dremel, only leaves about 1/32" indents. Or 1/32 hole + a coping saw if it's accessible. But yeah. Even trickier with a beveled cut.
Answer: You can't do exactly what you want.  The problem is that however you cut round the lid, there will be some thickness which you turn into sawdust (the kerf).  If we ignore the difficulty of cutting a stepped edge, it will end up like:
<code>|:
 --------
 _____  :
      | :
</code>
where the solid lines represent the edge of the hole, and the dotted lines the kerf.  The horizontal kerf will cause the lid to drop - so it won't be flush, and the vertical kerf will cause the lid to slip from side to side.
What you could do, is to cut a cylindrical hole (either with a jig saw, or with a large hole saw), line the hole with a contrasting material (aluminium, stainless steel, a contrasting wood, rubber, etc), and fit a lip under the worktop so that the lid fits snugly into the hole.
Alternatively, as Graphus suggests in a comment, use a different piece of wood to make the lid.
Either way, you will need to put a handle in the lid.
Answer: I have 2 possibilities for you.

just cut out your piece like you normally would, then add a 'lip' around the edge of the hole underneath it, you would then be able to set the cut out piece back in the hole and it would sit flush with the rest of the counter top.

Cut at an angle all the way around, where the angle is toward the center of the piece.  (I'd say 30 degrees, maybe more).  When you are done, the 'angle' can hold the cutoff kind of like your 'step' cut, but can be done with 1 step.

So those may answer how, but we still have a couple problems.  it all depends on what you want it to look like.  the first method will leave a small gap all the way around the piece from the curf of blade you use. there will also likely be the hole from the pilot hole you might need to drill to start the cutting.
Option 2 has similar issues, where option 1 will be even with the rest of the countertop, but have a visible gap, option 2 will hide the gap but will be obviously sunk a little below the rest of the counter, once again because of the curf of the blade.
and with both of them, the edges will be dependent on the quality of the equipment you are using to make the cuts and the person using said equipement.


Village running on bitcoin tech

Question: I would like to find out if anybody knows or has experience using Bitcoins to run the internal finances for a community ?
Answer: Liberland: Europe's Newly Formed Country to Use Bitcoin
Read Full article
http://insidebitcoins.com/news/liberland-europes-newly-formed-country-to-use-bitcoin/31979
On April 13, 2015 the Free Republic of Liberland was officially formed by a group of Czech citizens. The newly formed country of Liberland is a three square mile plot of land between Serbia and Croatia. The President of Liberland, Vit Jedlicka, has confirmed that Liberland will not have an official currency nor a printed currency. The country will however, accept all currencies, both bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The Free Republic of Liberland, or "Liberland", is only the size of three square miles, situated between Serbia and Croatia. The west bank of the Danube river runs alongside its border. This area between Croatia and Serbia had previously been declared terra nullius or a no man's land. On April 13, 2015 the land was officially claimed and given its name after the Preparatory Committee declared the new state and raised a flag on location.

Village running on bitcoin tech


Audio Input into A0?

Question: I saw a YouTube Video of someone who used an aux cord input into pin A0 on their Arduino to control a strip of LEDs. I have a strip of Adafruit's RGB NeoPixel LEDs, but I'm not sure how to input my audio into pin A0. If there is a way to do this without a separate shield or board, that'd be great because I'm on a tight budget, but if not possible it'll have to do. Also, would it be possible to send this audio to another Arduino via wifi or bluetooth using a different shield? Thanks.
Answer: Depending on how loud your audio signal is, you may be able to do it with just one capacitor and two resistors:

If your signal is quite quiet, though, you may need to amplify it using an op-amp. For instance:

That arrangement would double the volume of the audio. It also has the effect of inverting it, so you will need to invert your readings in software.
Also note that both of these methods will give you an AC waveform centred around 2.5V, so silence will be a reading of around 512, and it will go up and down from there. You can sample that audio waveform and do some basic (though quite slow on an Arduino) analysis of it, such as FFT to get the frequency content of the audio - great for visual effects...
Comment: Okay. I have [these cheapy water speakers](http://t.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=42253186). You're suppose to plug the second speaker into the main one via mini usb, but I figured out that if you actually plug the Arduino into it, it has a constant green status led and the RX and TX LEDs glow to the beat of the music. Would it be possible to feed this to the code that was provided in the description of the video I linked in my main post above? I'm not quite sure how to analyze the connection. Since I'm kinda newly, I figured this he'd easier than the method you listed above.

Audio Input into A0?


Does anybody manufacture extra-wide (3E/4E or EEE/EEEE ) wide road or mountain biking shoes?

Question: I have mutant-wide feet and it's generally impossible to find comfortable shoes for any occasion. For the most part my only options in life are New Balance. I'm cycling a lot lately and would like to take advantage of cleats. So, does anybody actually manufacture 4E shoes? I'd rather not try stretching them out with mink oil/boiling water/wooden shoe stretchers and the pain from narrow shoes can be pretty excruciating. My google-fu is coming up with a few dozen forum discussions with no real solutions.
Comment: I also mostly wear NB 4E. Didn't try that hard, but pretty much gave up on finding cycling shoes. I seem to recall hearing that some people have had good luck with cycling sandals, since sandals tend to be a bit more forgiving on sizing.
Answer: Sidi make a wide fitting version of their shoes.
I have a pair of Sidi's and they have been the best fitting, most comfortable shoes I've ever found. From their website:

Mega sizes are cut with more material throughout, and a larger-volume heelcup. Mega sizes roughly correspond to a EE/EEE width on the Brannock sizing scale.

Possibly still not wide enough for your needs but they're worth checking out.
Comment: I picked up the Shimano M087GEs from [Sports Basement](http://sportsbasement.com) in San Francisco tonight, they feel flimsier than the Sidis but wider and more comfortable.  I'll have a better idea as to their fit after a few days of wear.
Comment: Thanks for the info on Sidi. I just bought new shoes recently and totally discounted Sidi, never even looking them because of past experiences with them being narrower then other brands. I will have to try on some of these.
Comment: I'm going down to Sports Basement to try out the Shimano M087GEs and Northwave Lizzard Pros today. I tried to buy a pair of Sidi Megas but apparently the customers of the high-end bike stores never have feet longer than 42s, which made me feel like even more of a mutant.
Comment: @mhalligan I had to order my Sidi's as I couldn't find any shops that stocked them. I got them from a specialised cycling shop, not just a standard LBS.
Answer: I have 4E feet and the only shoes that I have found that fit are Lake
Comment: user8186, May you please help here? https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/3893399/understanding-meromorphic-holomorphic-forms-on-riemann-surface (i also commented in one of your bicycle se posts)
Answer: Yes, D2 Shoes will make you a custom extra-wide shoe.
Good info on the D2 Shoes website. 41 sizes, 9 widths available. $975 price tag is tough, but looks like D2 Shoes will manufacture you an extra wide road or mountain shoe.
The widest off the shelf bicycle shoe I could find is the Shimano SH-M087GE Mountain Bike Shoes. The GE version is a wide version of the regular SH-M087G.
Comment: On that note, the [Lake MX400s](http://www.bicycleapparel.com/shoelakecustom.html) might also be an option, at 1/2 the price of the D2's .. $975 for a pair of shoes is pretty obscene. But man those Lakes are fugly!
Comment: I have not tried heat molded shoes (Shimano makes a shoe you heat up too) but even the $480 on those Lakes is too much in my opinion. I don't know how much the material will stretch with the heat molding.
Answer: Once met a guy who had had his shattered foot "reconstructed" with screws, etc, and it was about half-again as wide as his other foot.  He was riding in custom-reconstructed cycling shoes.  He told me that the cobbler took two regular bike shoes, cut them apart, and sewed them back together as one.
As I recall (it's been maybe eight years), the shoes had cleats, probably SPDs.
(Of course, I have no idea who did the work for him, but probably an outfit that does "orthopedic" shoes.)
Answer: I found a cheap pair of shoes from Specialized that are awesome for wide feet. The Tahoe From Specialized.  Note: this isn't a 'competitive' shoe; it's classified as recreational. I ride a hybrid for fitness, and I wear 10.5 US 4E New Balances when I buy athletic shoes.  I paid $85 from a retailer but I think you can get them cheaper.
The shoe works because of the construction. They're built like Keen or Merrell sandals, meaning they wrap around your foot in a basket-like construction. It's not a sandal though, in that the sides of the shoe have strips of leather and nylon that flex around the toe box.(don't know if I'm using the right terms) Again, I'm a fitness rider, and I need a versatile shoe for commutes and long rides. And I've been wearing them on long rides for two weeks without any pain. These have a pop-out section on the forefoot to accomodate a clip if you want to install one.
Answer: You may also want to check out custom=made shoes from BONT. They aren't cheap though!
Answer: It's also possible, if you have the tools and the inclination, to make your own from a pair of non-cycling shoes that already fit correctly. Ideally these should have a flattish outsole (so they don't catch on the pedals) which is also thick enough to recess the cleats.
You'll still ideally want the stiff insole from a cycling shoe (as here) to spread the pressure from the plate the cleats bolt onto.  So, you need a donor cycling shoe whose sole isn't too narrow, but at least it doesn't need to fit around your feet for this to work.


How do I make certain web addresses use a specific network adapter on Mac OS X?

Question: I have two Internet connections at work, my wired Ethernet connection (which is heavily filtered behind a firewall, can't connect to Apple Updates, etc.) and a wireless connection that is unfiltered. I use my wireless connection as my primary connection so that things generally work. However, I have some intranet resources that I need to access via the wired connection only. How can I set it up so that when I visit something like "intranet.mycompany.com" - it will automatically route to the wired network adapter?
Answer: You need to add a route manually to cover all the corporate networks. Find the smallest net block that will cover all the corporate IP addresses. For example, the corporate net might be entirely within the range 172.16.22.XXX—172.16.25.XXX. Thus your net block would be 172.16.16.0/20:
<code>/sbin/route add -net 172.16.16.0/20 -interface en0
</code>
Note that on my machine, en0 is the Ethernet, en1 is the AirPort.
I have a script which sets up a bunch of routes for my local situation which is a corporate network for all corporatey stuff (time sheets, leave applications, workplace health & safety reporting, etc), with WiFi for the useful stuff (Bing, O'Reilly Safari, etc). I still haven't figured out where I need to put this script to have Mac OS X automatically add the arcane routes I need when the interface comes up though.
Comment: Another note: if you boneheadedly screw up your routing table like I did (and can't access anything anymore), run `route -n flush` a few times, then switch your network location to something else and back to get back your normal routing information.
Comment: I also have this issue, but need to do the opposite, and route only traffic to *.apple.com through wifi, and everything else through ethernet.  Can the route tool be used for this as well?
Comment: How do I do that bit "Find the smallest net block that will cover all the corporate IP addresses." please?
Comment: The net block is defined by the number of leading bits. In the example above the 172.16.16.0/20 net block means "the first 20 bits of the IP address must match 172.16.16" — the 20 means that you are "AND"ing the IP address with '11111111.11111111.11110000.0000000' to get the 20 leading bits and then comparing that result with '10101100.00010000.00010000.00000000'. If you know that there is a certain range for your corporate network, you need to find the longest string of binary digits that is common between the two.
Comment: I cant thank you enough for this! I tried many other suggestion it didnt work. This saved me so much hassle to switch between interface while work in enterprise environment! :D
Answer: You can setup your Network Service Order to pass most traffic through Wi-fi or Ethernet.
This makes the preferred connection be whatever service you put at the top of the list. Unfortunately, if you want most information to go through Wi-fi except for very specific items, this won't do that. If the Ethernet connection uses a different IP network range than the Wi-fi then it will automatically pass the required resources through Ethernet.
So, let's say you have the wolfing network.
Wi-fi:
    192.168.1.0-192.168.1.255
Ethernet:
    192.168.5.0-192.168.5.255
Any services you need to access that have a DNS record pointing to 192.168.5.x will automatically go through Ethernet, but your DNS query WILL still go to 192.168.1.x
Any other websites that you services you visit will go through Wi-fi if Wi-fi as at the top.
To change the service order go to System Preferences->Network. Click on the Action menu (the gear at the bottom of the Services list) and choose "Set Service Order" Then drag the service you want to have precedence to the top of the list.
Comment: Yeah, I already have the service order set, but I'm looking for a way to modify the routing tables for specific items. In Windows I would use the "route add" console command. I'm looking for something similar on the Mac.
Comment: I know that it is possible to add routing tables into OS X, since it is built on top of Unix, and I've heard of people doing it. But I do not know how. Try googling OpenBSD Routing Table CLI. This should tell you how to manage the routing tables through the command-line. If you can't find anything let me know, and I'll take a look.


What package includes AB the Apache Server Benchmarking Tool in Ubuntu

Question: I'm trying to find ab - Apache HTTP server benchmarking tool for Ubuntu, I'm hoping there's a package I can install for it. I decided I need to do some simple load testing on my applications.
Answer: % sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
The command-not-found package in Ubuntu provides some slick functionality where if you type a command that can't be resolved to an executable (or bash function or whatever) it will query your apt sources and find a package that contains the binary you tried to execute.  So, in this case, I typed ab at the command prompt:

% ab
The program 'ab' is currently not installed.  You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install apache2-utils
bash: ab: command not found

Comment: Perfect! Thank you, my aptitude searches were coming up empty.
Comment: same [instructions for ubuntu 13.10](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-apachebench-to-do-load-testing-on-an-ubuntu-13-10-vps),  confirmed on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS.  See also [`apt-get siege`](https://www.joedog.org/siege-home/)
Answer: Another way to search for missing files, e.g. if you use zsh, want to disable command-not-found (slows things down when you misstype commandnames), or are looking for a file that is not an executable:
$ sudo aptitude install apt-file
$ sudo apt-file update
$ apt-file search bin/ab


Anyone know the air dates of tokyo ghoul season 3

Question: Does anyone know the air dates of tokyo ghoul re season 3
I have tried searching it up but no results from the websites I tried
Answer: According to Comicbook/Anime

Tokyo Ghoul is preparing to launch a very important anime comeback. After its ill-met second season, the franchise will release its next series after a lengthy hiatus. So, fans better open up their calendars because Tokyo Ghoul just announced the premiere date of its third season.
According to new reports from Japan, Tokyo Ghoul:re will begin airing on April 3, 2018. The anime is set to broadcast on Tokyo MX, the same channel which hosted the anime's last two installments (via Reddit). Season three will be taking over the spot which A Place Further Than The Universe occupies on Tuesdays at 11 p.m.

this is backed up on AniList

as for English release, currently Chrunchyroll has a link however currently i am seeing

Availability Information
Sorry, due to licensing limitations, videos are unavailable in your region.

which seems not to be just an Australian thing according to some reviews having conflicting comments. eg

Not available in my region?!? Why?!? Why even advertise it with a "watch now" link?
WHY THE FCK THIS IS NOT AVAILABLE IN US?
I think it's unreasonable that some users are rating the series 1 star due to not having it in their region, since it's Crunchyroll's issue, not the series itself.

this is because, according to Anime News Network Crunchyroll only has the rights for Ireland and the United Kingdom

Internet Streaming:
AnimeLab (Australia and New Zealand)
Crunchyroll (United Kingdom and Ireland)
FUNimation Entertainment (Subtitled and Dubbed)
Hulu (Subtitled)
Wakanim.tv (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden)

we can assume that FUNimation Entertainment, being one of the main US Localization and Distribution companies for anime, has the rights for US Streaming however they do employ geoblocking for Australian as such i can not verify this
Comment: Thanks that helped but im looking for li ke pacific dates
Comment: @Gamer57 pacific dates? as in airing dates in the pacific region? because japan is one of the bordering countries. if you mean specific dates i gave it, April 3, 2018 and Tuesdays at 11 p.m which means new episodes come out in japan every tuesday
Comment: Us. for me   if u know the dates


Can I get split screen in Notepad++ like Emacs?

Question: One of the good points with Emacs is that you can have split the screen so you get two or more views of the same file which allows you to browse around and have a clearer overview of the file. Are there are some plugins or is the same functionality already is built into Notepad++?
Comment: possible duplicate of [How can I view two files side by side in Notepad++](http://superuser.com/q/215917/241386)
Answer: It is built into Notepad++. All you have to do is right-click the tab of the file and say "Clone to Other View" and it will split the workspace into two scrollable views of the file, similar to how Emacs does multiple windows. You can also open up two different files in the different views.
Comment: Under the View menu, you can check/uncheck "Synchronize vertical scrolling" and "Synchronize horizontal scrolling" and that should get it doing the behavior you want.
Comment: can I make so it only scrolls when I scroll one of the side? As of now they will scroll at the same time when I do so.
Comment: Currently NP++ seems limited to two windows. In previous versions of there was the possibility to have a real tile-oriented GUI, but it disappeared.
Comment: Having two windows showing with the same content works ok, but the double-click highlighting only works for the window you do the double-clicking in. The other window will not have the highlighting applied.
Comment: In the current version of Notepad++, "Clone to Other View" is under the "Move Document" sub-menu
Answer: You can also "rotate" your split view from vertical to horizontal by making :

a right click on the separation line  (cursor will change to a double arrow)
and choose from "Rotate to the left" or "Rotate to the right"
Comment: Good one to mention -- this is one of the least discoverable features!
Comment: Some programs do mention features which are not useable, but Notepad++ hides the best features. What a noble reserve :)
Thank You for the mention, user232301!
Answer: Just as @Ben Richards as mentioned you should right-click the tab of the file and click "clone to other view".
Initially this would be vertical, you can rotate or "flip" it horizontal by right clicking the dotted line and choose then click "Rotate to the left" or "Rotate to the right"
A point of note it that you can do this for multiple windows
bug a bug i found is that if you originally have multiple tabs open, say A B C. and you cloned A say to AA, if you click tab B or C, AA would still be shown for all of the tabs without a clone. I find this inconvenient.
If you however clone B and or C, you will also have multiple tabs in the cloned windows
Answer: If you right-click on the current tab, or go to View > Move/Clone Current Document, then click "Clone to Other View", it will clone it to the other half of the screen.
Answer:
Just to point out, there is a detailed description of the built in functionality on the Notepad++ website with pictures and steps for newbies:
http://docs.notepad-plus-plus.org/index.php/Multiple_Views
For more than two views the only current option seems to be two instances each with split views (perhaps one snapped to the left side and the other snapped to the right). Would be good if this could be expanded to allow Emacs like functionality... embedded command-line running python on the right, source code on the left.


finding 20th Century marriage records

Question: Trying to find a marriage record for my ex father in law and ex mother in law, for my kids family tree. I know they were married in Missouri. I also know it was before 1962, they had a son that year. I am not sure when he divorced his first wife. I don't have a range to go by. I have check all the censes reports, both Ancestry and FamilySearch. The last child of ex father in law as born in 1957 and was divorced from 1st wife after that and married my ex mother in law before 1962 when their son was born.
Comment: Are these people still living?
Comment: As per our Privacy Policy in the [help/on-topic] please include links to evidence (e.g. obituaries, death notices, funeral notices) for each of them so that we do not need to redact their names.
Comment: Hi, welcome to G&FH.SE! I have taken the names out of the title of your question to make it more general. Unlike message boards and forums where users are encouraged to put names in titles, we focus on the problem or task that you need to do.  Please use the [edit] function under the question to tell us what you have already tried (like in your comment where you say you can't find your ex-MIL's obit in the Bay county papers).  You can learn more about how the site works in the [help].
Comment: no they have both died.
Comment: https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1657912:61260?tid=183767189&pid=212390608334&hid=1042672408297&_phsrc=wqt2522&_phstart=default                                                  I can not find a link for Harriet Himmer Howard
Comment: I do know that Harriet Howard passed in 2018 in Panama City, Bay, FL. My kids don't have any notice of her death other then there father called to say so. I can't find any place were he put that in the paper.
Comment: Also, for the times you need to link to Ancestry to show us a record, please use the 'sharing' link since not all of our users will have access to Ancestry worldwide records.
Comment: [link]  (https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1657912:61260?tid=183767189&pid=212390608334&hid=1042672408297&_phsrc=wqt2536&_phstart=default)
Answer: Start a document about your search for the marriage record.  At the top put the names of your ex-in-laws and the task you want to do, which is to find information about their marriage.
You can do this by using a paper journal, a Research Log form (free forms are available via FamilySearch and at many other places on the web), a document in ordinary office software like Word or Pages. Use what works for you.  Write down what you have looked for, where you have search, and how you searched. It sounds silly to write everything out as if you won't remember it tomorrow, but writing things out in full is helpful. It helps you find gaps and to think of other things you could try to search.  It also helps during those times when we have to leave our research behind and come back to it later.
Another tool that you can use as you search is a family timeline.  Make a table (on paper, in a spreadsheet, or make a table in a document) and list the events of a person's life in chronological order. It helps to make a list of sources and to put the sources in chronological order as well.  This helps you when you see that the information you have about an event is recorded in a document created long after the event took place.
You said:

I know they were married in Missouri. I also know it was before 1962, they had a son that year.

When we make statements like this, it helps to ask: How do I know? It's natural to assume that people married before their child was born, but sometimes that's not what happens, or the marriage may take place less than 9 months before the birth.
We may hear information through family members. Suppose my cousin tells me that his parents married in South Carolina and he was born the next year.  He wasn't born yet, so he couldn't have been a witness to his parents' marriage.  He knows what someone has told him, and he may have passed that information to us in good faith, but the person who told him may have made a mistake or he might have misunderstood what he was told.
Couples sometimes cross state lines because they have a shorter waiting period in the state next door, or for other reasons.
Another reason you may not have found a marriage in indexes like Ancestry's  Missouri, U.S., Marriage Records, 1805-2002 is that the names could have been misread or badly transcribed, or been spelled in the original index in a different way than you expected.  Women who have been married multiple times can appear in a second marriage record with the surname of their first husband.
Be systematic and record:

What places you have searched, how you searched, and any wildcards you used. Don't just say the name of the website. Record the specific collections or databases you searched. It's okay to start with a general or 'global' search, and to record that you started with a global search, but you'll have more control over your results if you go to the search page for a specific collection and search from there.
Record any strategies you used, like switching the first and last names in the fields (I had to do this once to find my husband's people in the census)
Record your negative findings as well as noting what records you find.

You may have to widen your search beyond the time and places you've already tried.  Let's say your kids' folks married in 1961. If an index was entered into the computer and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) was used, it may have mis-read the date and the index might say another year, or have the year of the entry above or below the line associated with their names. On Ancestry, look on the right-hand sides of a collection's search pages and look for Browse this collection to read the index pages directly, as if you were reading the paper printouts.
Sometimes we can find things by browsing and reading historical newspapers instead of searching. Does the local paper have a Year in Review article in early January? I've found obituaries by getting an exact date of death from the January 1 paper and then reading the papers from that week in the previous year to find the obituary.
Resources:

FamilySearch Wiki: Prepare a Research Log
FamilySearch Wiki: Research Logs
FamilySearch Wiki: Missouri Online Genealogy Records
FamilySearch Wiki: Missouri Genealogy
Joe Beine's Online Searchable Death Indexes and Records
Joe Beine's Online Birth & Marriage Records Indexes for the USA includes some divorce records
FamilySearch Wiki: Gretna Greens in the United States
FamilySearch Wiki: United States Record Finder a table with suggestions of records to search for information and events
Cyndi's List: Timelines - General Resources
The Ancestor Hunt has links to onliine newspapers and many other types of records

finding 20th Century marriage records


Samsung SMG900S applications

Question:
how to uninstall android device manager to samsung SM G900S.
how to remove applications under administrator.
Answer: Unless the phone is rooted, you cant typically remove apps that are labeled system apps. You can try disable them, preventing them from running. And some apps that are labeled as system apps cant even be disabled.
But anyways to check and see if you can remove them. Settings > App Manager, then scroll til you find Android Device Manager. Press on it. See if it will let you uninstall it or disable it. If you cant uninstall/disable it. You will have to root the device to remove it.
If you are rooted, You might still need a 3rd party app to remove the app. Such as Titanium Backup, which can be found in the play store. Then that will allow you to freeze/disable the app, back up the app, or fully uninstall it.
Edit If you are rooted, When you are wanting to remove apps and if they were system apps. I would suggest freezing or making a back up of the app just in case the phone starts acting up. That way you can reinstall them without having to go hunt for the apk. Cause some apps rely on each other to function right. Especially when dealing with Samsung/Touch Wiz.
Comment: thank you so much, but i don't know how to root my device i tried supersu and towel root but prompt always that there is no su binary installed or not updated. how will i fix that command?
Comment: i want to use my device like before without having a system applications which is not usefull to me and i don't know how this applications appeared on my device. i used to disable and force stop those applications but it keeps on running so stressfull to me. i wanr my device back to normal.
Comment: In the settings for SuperSU you can tell it to install the binary. I haven't ever used towel root, so I cant help you there. How did you install supersu?  Through a custom recovery/odin? Or just downloaded through the play store? Cause normally you have to flash it, via recovery/odin to root the device. Not 100% on what towel root does. But this will help you install supersu if that's what you are wanting to do. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2696537

Samsung SMG900S applications


Does OpenZeppelin make security audits?

Question: Does the OpenZeppelin project offer security audit services for other projects and companies?
Comment: I don't think this is customer support, it's precisely the opposite. We want people to understand that OpenZeppelin is free for everybody to use, and that there's an ecosystem of companies that can offer services, not just the one that started OpenZeppelin. This is the most common misconception when people want to use OpenZeppelin. We are not trying to sell our services on stackoverflow.
Answer: No, OpenZeppelin doesn't make security audits. OpenZeppelin is a community project that builds a framework of reusable smart contracts. The project doesn't offer any auditing services for things not related to the development this framework.
The confusion arises because OpenZeppelin was started by the Zeppelin company. Zeppelin is the main supporter of the project and most of the OpenZeppelin maintainers are also Zeppelin employees. Zeppelin offers audit services, but as a complete separate branch from the work they do to support the OpenZeppelin framework.
OpenZeppelin has contributions from many different companies and individuals, some of which also provide auditing services. The OpenZeppelin slack has a #jobs channel where people can get in contact with members of this community that provide these auditing services.
Comment: Well, this is embarrassing :)
We have renamed the company from Zeppelin to OpenZeppelin, so now the answer should be yes, OpenZeppelin makes security audits.
Now I would have to agree that this could be seen as customer support, and off-topic. Sorry about that.
More info about the rename: https://blog.openzeppelin.com/openzeppelin-rebranding/

Does OpenZeppelin make security audits?


Content Types not linked to Product Variations

Question: I am working with Commerce Kickstart 2.0.  I have created 9 content types and when I went to add the variations for each "product type" I noticed that none of them were showing up.  My content types had a large amount of fields in them so I cloned each one of them from the previous created content type, and I think this may be what caused the issue.  Is there a way for me to manually point each content type to another variation type or do I have to create all new content types from scratch?
Answer: I'm a bit of a newb to Commerce kickstart but I'm pretty sure that for the built in plumbing to work as expected, you need to begin adding a new product by starting with a new product variation type (a bit counter-inuitive). This should create a product and product view automatically. You can then assign attributes common to all variations to the 'Product' and those unique to the variations to the 'Product variation'.


Net.exe and Net1.exe

Question: Why there is a net.exe and net1.exe on Windows?  They look the same.
Answer: According to the following link:
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/commandlinereference/p/net-command.htm
the difference between net and net1 is:

Only in Windows NT and Windows 2000 was there a difference in the net
  command and the net1 command. The net1 command was made available in
  these two operating systems as a temporary fix for a Y2K issue the net
  command experienced.
This Y2K issue with the net command was corrected before Windows XP
  was even released but you'll still find net1 in Windows XP, Vista, 7,
  8, and 10 to maintain compatibility with older programs and scripts
  that used net1 when it was necessary to do so.
Answer: I have got Windows 2000 installed on a virtual machine and can confirm that it has both net.exe and net1.exe and I just installed Windows 95 and can see it only has net.exe
I would like to install Windows NT 4, but can't find the media anywhere.
As Windows 95 only has net.exe and it is a lot larger, I am just going to guess that the reason it is how it is, is simply just compatibility issues e.g. Microsoft thinks that a lot of third party tools use it and do not want to get rid of the tools.
I would guess that net.exe is the newest version and when a old feature is called, it passes it to net1.exe - however, this is just a guess based on the way Microsoft does compatibility in some other tools.
Comment: net1.exe was implemented as hotfix to the Y2K bug for windows NT 4,(some problems with the NET /TIME command) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/240195 and http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319913 think y're right, this is all what the "old feature" could be, but why they haven't just updated the old one ? and whey they keep net1.exe on new Windows releases ?
Comment: well done - good find! Knowing Microsoft, they probably just thought it would be safer this way, and they don't want to break it now in case anyone specifically refers to net1.exe by name in a third party program...
Comment: In Windows 10, the net.exe and net1.exe is launched simultaniously when you execute a cmd-file for instance. This would indicate that the two are linked somehow.
Answer: Examining the two files in Windows 7, I can only tell you that net1.exe has more dependencies that don't appear in net.exe:

dsrole.dll
logoncli.dll
netapi32.dll
samlib.dll
ntdsapi.dll

On the other hand net.exe has some unique dependences not appearing in net1.exe:

mpr.dll
iphlpapi.dll
credui.dll

I hope that helps somehow.
Comment: are the two files linked somehow ?
Comment: Doesn't seem so.
Answer: A quick google search came up with these results. I'm sure if you spent 5 minutes you could get even more details. Please try that next time
http://www.liutilities.com/products/wintaskspro/processlibrary/net/
http://www.processlibrary.com/directory/files/net1/
Comment: No need to be hostile RE: Google. Your answer does not say what the difference is between the two... I also know "what" net and net1 do, but I don't have a clue what the difference is (other than file size!).
Comment: ... RE: My comment, Rohit has edited his answer since I wrote that.
Comment: Google net.exe vs net1.exe and the top result is ... this page, so it makes sense to collect  this kind of information in a place with good systems to keep the best answers at top.

Net.exe and Net1.exe


How to calculate the torque constant for a BLDC motor

Question: I am designing a 12lb hobby robot with a 1000Kv BLDC motor at 14.8V nominal voltage and stall torque of 30A. How do I solve for the torque constant. I have seen equations where Kt(torque constant) = 1/Kv. And also equations where Kt = 30/pi(Kv). Which is the most accurate equation? Thank you,
Comment: Kt = 1/Kv. If you are using SI units throughout.  (As it must be : Torque * Speed = power = Voltage * Current). The other equation differs only in a constant factor : therefore it is equally accurate, if you can figure out which system of units it is in.
Comment: A word of caution on Kv. These equations work when Kv is measured correctly, which means that the actual back EMF is measured when the motor is being rotated by an external force. Sometimes people measure it other ways, such as by running the motor no-load with an ESC. In this method you divide no load speed in RPM/Battery voltage. That may be useful but it is not correct for calculating torque.
Answer: The equation for the torque constant of a BLDC motor: \$K_{\tau} = \frac{60}{2{\pi}K_{v(RPM)}} = \frac{1}{K_{v(SI)}} \$, where \$K_{\tau}\$ is the torque constant in \$\frac{N \cdot m}{A}\$, and \$K_v\$ is the speed constant, in either rpm or rad/s.
The speed constant given to you is almost certainly in rpm, not rad/s, so you would use the first equation with the unit conversion factor. You can verify the speed constant with an encoder/resolver, another motor, and an oscilloscope. Spin the test motor up to a constant velocity using the other motor (applying a constant voltage/duty cycle to the drive motor likely sufficient). Measure the induced backemf voltage from test motor with your oscilloscope, and the steady-state velocity of the test motor with the encoder/sensor (or by using frequency detection on your oscilloscope and scaling it based on the number of pole pairs). The steady state speed divided by the induced backemf will be the the Kv value of the motor (and will likely be more accurate than the one provided by the motor manufacturer/seller).
EDIT: The answer above is guilty of a common misconception regarding the measurement of the motor torque constant. The Kv rating commonly provided by motor sellers is obtained with this method, but it differs from the true value by a factor of \$ \sqrt{2}\$ for Wye wound motors, and \$
\sqrt{\frac{2}{3}} \$ for delta wound motors. See this video for further details.
Comment: Kv should be measured with no current flowing in the windings.
Comment: i've obtained Kv with this method and compared the calculated Kt result against the one published in the motor datasheet, and they're consistent
Comment: That is because the motor manufacturers use the same process as you.
Comment: so you're suggesting that a superior method for obtaining Kv might be to spin the motor to a constant velocity using, say, another motor, and measure the induced backemf no load?
Comment: Yeah. Just to avoid the voltage drop in the winding due to no load current.
Comment: I am mostly arguing from a theory perspective here. Not challenging your experiences that you have seen with your own eyes.
Comment: seems both tests are about equally difficult to implement, but one will yield better results in theory. i'll update my answer to reflect this
Comment: The underlying equation is torque * speed = volts * amps. The theoretical idea is that the "volts" should be actual back EMF, not back EMF + voltage drop in the series resistance of the winding.


Is AES/CBC/NoPadding vulnerable to padding oracle?

Question: If we used Cipher.getInstance("AES/CBC/NoPadding"), will it be vulnerable to padding oracle attacks?
Comment: Usually, the plaintexts are not 128-bit oriented. the NoPadding usually means that I'll handle the padding. Do you really have 128-byte oriented plaintexts or do you have something else in your mind?
Answer: If there is no padding then the cipher is not vulnerable to padding oracle attacks that originate from the cipher implementation. The cipher expects full blocks of ciphertext and simply decrypts them to whatever information, even if that seems random.
However, padding oracle attacks are part of a larger set of attacks called plaintext oracles. Plaintext oracles react to information that is released by an implementation when the plaintext is altered. As CBC doesn't provide message integrity the attacker can perform any kind of change.
The most simple example is if the code itself pads / unpads the message using e.g. PKCS#7 padding. In that case, the padding oracle is not present in the cipher, but present in the code surrounding the cipher. It would be just as bad as a padding oracle attack that was created by using the cipher implementation.
Another, less obvious examples of plaintext oracles are the attacks on the XML-encryption standard. Those are at least as efficient as padding oracle attacks.

Of course, as always, the plaintext oracle must need to be present; for instance, local file encryption may not expose an online oracle. And as always, plaintext oracles are best avoided by adding a message authentication tag for message integrity (such as a HMAC calculation over the IV and  message, or by using an authenticated / AEAD cipher such as GCM).
Comment: So does it means "AES/CBC/NoPadding" is weak and we should change it to "AES/GCM/NoPadding"? What about for "AES/CBC/PKCS5Padding"?
Comment: If it is weak or not depends on the context and how it is deployed - generally you'd prefer GCM, yes.
Comment: What about using  "AES/CBC/NoPadding" with CTS (Cipher Text Stealing)? Does it still be vulnerable for padding oracle? Should we change to GCM mode?
Comment: No, CTS is not vulnerable, but it has it's own drawbacks; it is not always available, has 3 schemes to choose from. It is not used much, mainly because most cryptographers would probably choose a stream cipher or stream cipher mode - such as counter mode) over CTS.
Comment: Thanks for your explanation.


App works fine on 4S, but crashes on 3G, because of SIGABRT

Question: When the user starts the app for the first time he gets a pop up and has to save an image. It works on the simulator and on the 4S. But when I start it with my 3G it gives me a SIGABRT error as soon as I chose a picture. I assume its because of the size of the picture which is too pick and therefore claiming all of the ram - But that is rather weird, because I make it much smaller. Here is the code:
- (void)viewDidLoad
{
    [super viewDidLoad];
    if ([[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] objectForKey:@"bild"] == nil) {
        picker = [[UIImagePickerController alloc] init];
        picker.delegate = self;
        picker.sourceType = UIImagePickerControllerSourceTypePhotoLibrary;
        [self presentModalViewController:picker animated:YES];
    }
}

- (void)imagePickerController:(UIImagePickerController *) Picker didFinishPickingMediaWithInfo:(NSDictionary *)info {
    double compressionRatio=1;
    NSData *imageData=UIImageJPEGRepresentation([info objectForKey:@"bild"],compressionRatio);
    while ([imageData length]>5000) {
        compressionRatio=compressionRatio*0.20;
        imageData=UIImageJPEGRepresentation([info objectForKey:@"bild"],compressionRatio);
    }

    UIImage *yourUIImage;
    yourUIImage = [info objectForKey:UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage];
    imageData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:yourUIImage];
    [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] setObject:imageData forKey:@"bild"];
    [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] synchronize];

    [self dismissModalViewControllerAnimated:YES];
}

I get the SIGABRT error at this line     imageData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:yourUIImage];
Should I use another method to resize the image? Or should I save it as a local file and retrieve it everytime the app starts? (If its possible)
Answer: You are using NSCoding to archive an UIImage into a NSData object.
Before iOS5 UIImage didn't implement the methods for NSCoding. You simply can't use archivedDataWithRootObject: with UIImages before iOS5.
That's why you get an exception on the iPhone 3G.
This is just a very educated guess because I can't confirm that with documentation or a test on a device but there are a lot of questions and forum posts around that ask how to implement NSCoding on UIImage.

and this whole block of code isn't called at all because [info objectForKey:@"bild"] will return nil. The info dictionary does not contain an object for the key bild.
Documentation for UIImagePickerControllerDelegate_Protocol contains a List of valid keys
NSData *imageData=UIImageJPEGRepresentation([info objectForKey:@"bild"],compressionRatio);
while ([imageData length]>5000) {
    compressionRatio=compressionRatio*0.20;
    imageData=UIImageJPEGRepresentation([info objectForKey:@"bild"],compressionRatio);
}

you probably want to use something like that:
NSData *data;
if ([[UIImage class] conformsToProtocol:@protocol(NSCoding)]) {
    // >= iOS5
    data = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:image];
    // save so you know it's an archived UIImage object
}
else {
    // < iOS5
    data = /* your UIImageJPEGRepresentation method but this time with the key UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage instead of "bild" */
    // save so you know it's raw JPEG data
}

Comment: Thanks for your answer. I tried it like this, but it doesnt seem to work atm. He doesnt dismiss the picker. But that maybe, because I might have implemented it wrong?
Answer: Edit: Another error is probably that you're looking for an object for the key "bild" within the info dictionary you're passed from the image picker controller. It will have no such key. You should pass the key UIImagePickerControllerOriginalImage to get at the image instead.
--
You're not throwing away the old imageData. If your problem is high memory consumption, you'll have to do away with the image data as you progressively shrink the image.
Additionally, an image may be too big anyway to fit within 5000 bytes. Your current code doesn't handle this gracefully. Eventually, the compression ratio will grow beyond 1.0 at which point the function will probably throw an exception.
I'd suggest resizing the image before trying to compress it heavily.
No matter how you make the image data smaller, your current code keeps all the old copies around until the next time the autorelease pool is drained. Since the data returned from UIImageJPEGRepresentation is autoreleased, you may try using an inline autorelease pool around every loop iteration to drain the data immediately.
Comment: Hey, thanks for your quick response. I'm using ARC. So how can I use drain the data immediately as autorelease, release and so on do not work with ARC?
Comment: Change the while loop to a do-while loop and change imageData to a block local variable in `@autoreleasepool { ... }`. When you've found something you intend to keep, assign it to the real imageData.
Answer: If the SIGABRT is consistently happening at imageData = [NSKeyedArchiver archivedDataWithRootObject:yourUIImage]; then my feeling would be that it is likely to be that specific line, rather than a memory issue.
UIImage never used to conform to NSCoding, but the current docs say that it does. It could be that the 3G, which will be limited to iOS 4.2.1 is using a non-conformant version and so crashes when you try to archive, whereas the 4S on iOS 5 uses the new conformant version.
Try adding a category for NSCoding to UIImage and then rerun on the 3G. Example at http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/03/uiimage-and-nscoding.html


To what extent has the US government legal claims to the assets of the Federal Reserve?

Question: My question concerns the total assets of the Federal Reserve. To what extent does the government have control over, or own these assets?
Answer: The U.S. government only owns the assets deposited in its own accounts in Federal Reserve banks and profits from portions of its operations amounting to about $100 billion a year.
Federal Reserve member banks are owned by private commercial banks in their region and are partially controlled by these shareholders (who have some say in electing regional Federal Reserve bank boards but not in the manner of a typical privately held company), but certain national economic policy issues delegated to the Federal Reserve's policy making entities are controlled by a Presidentially appointed (and U.S. Senate approved) Board of Directors which is really what people are talking about when they refer to the "Fed".
The overall structure is a complex public-private hybrid organization and this brief answer oversimplifies the matter which has many nuances and unique features.
Most notably, the Federal Reserve's policy making board sets some key interest rates, sets the reserve requirements for commercial banks (together with and in coordination with the FDIC) and as a matter of practical reality, is the primary entity that regulates the money supply. The Federal Reserve's policy making arm can also authorize loans of U.S. funds to private business in certain circumstances (most prominently in recent times during the Financial Crisis).
The Federal Reserve is also the primary administrator of the U.S. payments systems used for checks and similar negotiable instruments, and for wire transfers between financial institutions.
Comment: Could you give a source to show that the Federal Reserve member banks are owned by private commercial banks in their region?
Comment: @Riemann This is discussed at the link in the post, specifically at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve#Member_banks


Minimum Order Spend

Question: Currently we are having our website built and the CMS is ExpressionEngine. I have requested to condition the site that no orders can be processed unless the order amounts to $50 or more. However, I have been advised that setting up a minimum order spend is difficult. Can someone please confirm if there is plug in or rule that can be applied to have this requirement in the store settings?
Answer: I don't believe there is a fumction within the module but this seems like a solid logical work-around:

Minimum Order Spend


finding mean and variance

Question: Suppose that the weight of a person selected at random from some
population is normally distributed with parameters $\mu$ (mean) and $\sigma$ (variance). Suppose also that $P(X \le  160) = 1/2$ and $P(X \le 140) = 1/4.$ Find $\mu$ and $\sigma,$
and find $P(X \ge 200).$ Of all the people in the population weighing at
least 200 pounds, what percentage will weigh over 220 pounds?
Comment: I  formatted your question. I'm thinking you may have intended to say that $\sigma$ is the standard deviation, not the variance. If so, please edit.
Answer: HINTS

If $X \sim \mathcal{N}(0, 1)$ what are the values of $a,b$ such that $\mathbb{P}[X \le a] = 1/2$ and $\mathbb{P}[X\le b] = 1/4$?
How do you convert $Y \sim \mathcal{N}(\mu, \sigma)$ to $X \sim \mathcal{N}(0, 1)$?
Answer: From $P(X \le 160) = 1/2,$ you can infer that $\mu = 160.$
Then from
$$P(X \le 140) = \left(\frac{X-\mu}{\sigma}\le \frac{140 - 160}{\sigma} \right)
= P\left(Z \le \frac{-20}{\sigma} \right) = 1/4,$$
You can find $-20/\sigma$ and thus $\sigma.$
Then, knowing both $\mu$ and $\sigma,$ you are ready to find
$P(X \ge 200).$
Note: In principle, if you are given values of any two probabilities
of the type $P(X \le a)$ and $P(X \le b),$ where $a \ne b$ are both
known, then you can solve two equations in two unknowns to get $\mu$ and
$\sigma.$

finding mean and variance


how i can draw these shapes in adobe illustrator CS6

Question: This is a screenshot of a drawing from youtube and the designer was using Illustrator.
Comment: Welcome to **GD.SE** - *Please* look through **[tour]** to get a sense of our community – who we are and what we're about. *Then* look over **[ask]** and **[answer]** a question to see what makes a good query here, *and* how best to frame it. We ***do*** ask that your question shows some *effort*: tell us what you already know and understood; show us what you tried and failed; document what you found when searching the manual - illustrate your question with sketches, screenshots or examples of what you have accomplished trying so far. Please read [ask] and revise your question - thanks!
Answer: GDSE is not a tutorial on request site, but since you are obviously new to Illustrator, I will attempt to give you an idea on how you might proceed. The following is a simple method that could be used in Illustrator CC, not sure about CS6 since I no longer have a copy I can check to see if it has corner widget functionality. However there are many ways this could be done even if you are using an old version of Illustrator*. I'll let you decide if you think it's worth the upgrade.
You can begin by using the Pen tool to create straight sided shapes. Holding down Shift as you use the Pen tool constrains the angles. Also, switching on Smart Guides will also help you line things up.

Next, select the shapes using the Direct Selection tool (A). And select each corner widget in turn, and bend as required by clicking and dragging the corner widget.

*In older versions of Illustrator without the corner widget functionality, you will probably need to add additional curve anchor points and bend the Béziers manually.

Other possibilities include using rounded rectangles and the pathfinder Minus Front/Unite, or Shape Builder tool to combine shapes.
Here's an example using a regular rectangle, and some rounded rectangles and the Shape Builder tool
Comment: Maybe someone who uses CS6 will know if corner widgets are available in that version.
Comment: Should be its the primary addition of CS6
Comment: @joojaa - yeah, I just couldn't remember. 2012 is such a long time ago. Anyway, I updated the answer to include older verisions without corner widgets.
Comment: There's no corner widget in CS6, Billy. Joojaa is mistaken. It was introduced in CC2014 I believe. So.. VectorScribe, or circles and pathfinder/shapebuilder are CS6's best bet. (I still use CS6 daily and prefer it over CC versions).
Answer: Try using pathfinder in windows menu...where you can combine or subtract 2 rectangles to get these shapes.
(or)
You can draw these using pen tool
(or)
even trace the image.


Wrong Flash in Odin

Question: My question is I accidentally put the firmware in BL and AP in Odin My phone is Samsung J1. It says success but my phone is like having dead battery and I cant open it . the (power button + volume down + home button) download screen didn't appear whenever I tried to access. what to do ?
Comment: Please specify which file you used.
Comment: in the firmware , there is a file with and extension of BL and another file with an Extension of AP.
I put them together in AP and BL slot in Odin at the same time. and that's what happened
Comment: I mean, what file you actually used for flashing? Where did you get it?
Comment: https://samdb.org/download/GALAXY__J1__/1z34/GLB/J100MLDXU0AOC1/J100MLOLC0AOC1/
here
It worked on my first time and btw it's my second time around .
on my first, I only used AP but on my second time, I accidentally put BL and AP together .
Comment: Have you tried again? for the 3rd time?
Answer: A somewhat late answer, but it could warn others even if it is too late to help OP.
BL is the bootloader partition, which is the first software that loads when you power on your device, before even the Download and Recovery modes. It looks like you flashed a wrong file for the bootloader, and if that is the case unfortunately your phone will not boot again unless you swap out the whole eMMC. (Internal Storage) You could try taking it for an authorized Samsung repair store as they might have debug software but I highly doubt they could interact with the hardware which comes before the bootloader.
TL;DR: Odin is an extremely powerful tool, and even though OP's device is not very expensive, use it with extreme care or you may end up with a paperweight worth $1200.

Wrong Flash in Odin


How is kama one of the four aims of life (purusharth) and also one of the known vices (shadaripu)?

Question: Kāma is one of the vices(Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsarya) and also one of the four aims of life (Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha). Can someone explain why and how it is so and also is there a difference between Kāma as a purusharth and as a vice?
Comment: Congratulations. Excellent question!
Comment: Brilliant question. I wish I could give you two votes!
Comment: @PradipGangopadhyay Thank You!
Comment: @AmritenduMukhopadhyay Thank You!
Comment: kAma (procreation) is purusharth whereas kama (pleasure, romance, etc.) is vice.
Answer:
Dharma, artha, kama and moksa are the four purusarthas, the four aims
of life. The first of them, dharma, is a lifelong objective. The pursuit of
artha (material welfare) and kama (desire, love) must be given up at a
certain stage in a man's life. But so long as such a pursuit lasts, it must be
based on dharma. When a man renounces the world and becomes an
ascetic, he transcends dharma, but he does not go contrary to it nor
speak against it. Indeed, his life is governed by the dharma of sannyasa
Hindu Dharma The Universal Way of Life (18.1) Pujyasri Chandrashekara Saraswati Swami

In Purushartha(human pursuit -where purusha connotes human, artha - sought after), if the kama is not in accordance with dharma , it becomes  the ripu(enemy) of the purusha(human)., hence  finds its place in shadripu aka arishadvarga
This can be better understood through chapter 16
Daivāsura Sampad Vibhāg Yogaha, of Bhagavad Gita.
But before that , BG 15.2 sets the context for chapter 16

adhash chordhvam prasritas ...
The branches of the tree extend upward and downward, nourished by the three guṇas, with the objects of the senses as tender buds. The roots of the tree hang downward, causing the flow of karma in the human form. Below, its roots branch out (secondary roots) causing (karmic) actions in the world of humans.
Here secondary roots (karmic actions) generates mental impressions ,(known as vasanaas) that manifests in the Jiva. These vaasanas are the one that determines Jivas innate nature,which truly has stake over it's later actions.(15.2)

This is related  to Brihadaaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.1 which talks about two classes of Prajapathis son Devas and Asuras.
The whole of Chapter 16 expounds broadly on two types of Jivas (based on innate nature - vaasanas.) namely daivī sampatti (Noble Natured ) and Aasuri sampatti(Demoniac Natured)
Only first 3 shlokas 16.1 to 16.3 pertain to daivi sampatti.
rest of the shlokas 16.4 to 16.24 pertain to Asuri sampatti
Asuri sampatti is the ripu(enemy) of pursha(here human), that drifts one away from the path of shreyas(attainment of highest good -spiritual progress)

prasaktāḥ kāma-bhogeṣhu patanti narake 'śhuchau
addicted to the gratification of sensuous pleasures, they descend to the murkiest hell. (BG 16.16)

ahankāraṁ balaṁ darpaṁ kāmaṁ krodhaṁ cha sanśhritāḥ
mām ātma-para-deheṣhu pradviṣhanto 'bhyasūyakāḥ
Blinded by egotism, strength, arrogance, desire, and anger, the demonic abuse Me, who am present in their own body and in the bodies of others.(BG 16.18)

tri-vidhaṁ narakasyedaṁ dvāraṁ nāśhanam ātmanaḥ
kāmaḥ krodhas tathā lobhas tasmād etat trayaṁ tyajet
There are three gates leading to the hell of self-destruction for the soul—lust, anger, and greed. Therefore, one should abandon all three.(BG 16.21)

Translation Swami Mukundananda
Comment: @YOuwillnotknow yes in theory renunciation is for every one. In practice very few people have the capability to give up the material world. Kama guided by dharma is for those people.
Comment: Very good answer. The only thing I will add is that complete renunciation is not for every person and for such persons kama guided by dharma is recommended.  Of course, that person will also ultimately have to give up kama.
Comment: @PradipGangopadhyay renunciation is for everyone
Comment: @PradipGangopadhyay , True.
Answer:
He should pursue Pleasure (Kāma) without transgressing Law (Dharma) or Success (Artha); he should not deprive himself of enjoyments (Kāma). Or, he should pursue the Triple Set (Trivarga- Dharma, Artha, Kāma) equally, each intimately linked to the others. For, among Law (Dharma), Success (Artha), and Pleasure (kāma), when one is pursued excessively, it harms itself as well as the other two. - Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya 1.7.3-5

त्रिवर्गे त्रिविधा पीडा ह्यनुबन्धस्तथैव च ।
अनुबन्धाः शुभा ज्ञेयाः पीडास्तु परिवर्जयेत् ।।
धर्मं विचरतः पीडा सापि द्वाभ्यां नियच्छति ।
अर्थं चाप्यर्थलुब्धस्य कामं चातिप्रवर्तिनः ।। - Mahabharata 1.139.69-70

Virtue, wealth and pleasure have both their evil and good effects closely knit together. While extracting the effects that are good, those that are evil should be avoided. Those that practise virtue (incessantly) are made unhappy for want of wealth and the neglect of pleasure. Those again in pursuit of wealth are made unhappy for the neglect of two others. And so those who pursue pleasure suffer for their inattention to virtue and wealth. Therefore, thou shouldst pursue virtue, wealth and pleasure, in such a way that thou mayest not have to suffer therefrom. [translation]

So, basically, it tells, in life, a person should pursue Trivargas, i.e., Dharma, Artha and Kāma in a balanced way. So, when one is maintaining the balance, and pursuing Kāma, then it is a Purushartha. But the same Purushartha (Kāma) can become a vice, if one follows it excessively while ignoring the other two.
By the way, in earlier texts, such as Mahabharata, sometimes, you will find Trivargas, instead of Caturvargas. Scholars opine that Moksha was added later.
Source -

King, Governance and Law in Ancient India Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra - a new annotated translation by Patrick Olivelle
Srimat Maharshi Vedavyas Pranit Mahabharat sachitra Hindi Anuvad sahit, Gita press, Gorakhpur
Mahabharata of Krishna Dvaipayana Vyasa by Kisari Mohan Ganguly [English]


How can I display custom post types on a page?

Question: What is the code i have to put in the page to show the posts from custom post type?
Comment: It would be helpful if you could offer more details in your question.
Comment: There's an example here: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages#A_Page_of_Posts_for_a_Custom_Post_Type
Answer: Easy: modify the query... (and add some comment on top to make a template out of this...)
$query_default = new WP_Query( array(
     'orderby'      => 'menu_order'
    ,'order'        => 'ASC'
    ,'post_type'    => 'custompost' // THIS IS WHAT YOU'RE SEARCHING FOR
    ,'post_status'  => 'publish'
) );
    if ( $query_default->have_posts() ) :

        while ( $query_default->have_posts() ) : $query_default->the_post();

        endwhile;

    else : // else; no posts
        _e( 'Nothing published so far.', TEXTDOMAIN_CONSTANT );
    endif; // endif; have_posts();

    wp_reset_query();

Answer: If you look at the Custom Fields page on WordPress codex, you can see the functions for Custom fields.
The "Template Tags" are the functions you generally use on your template:

get_post_custom() - Returns a multidimensional array with all custom fields of a particular post or page.
get_post_custom_values() - This function is useful if you wish to access a custom field that is not unique, i.e. has more than 1 value associated with it
get_post_custom_keys() - Returns an array containing the keys of all custom fields of a particular post or page.

Follow the links to each function to see examples on how to use them.
UPDATE: Ok, now I understand. You should try to add as many details as possible in your question for us to understand. As kaiser says, you should create a loopand add 'post_type' => 'custompost' to get the posts from that custom type. You can use the get_posts() function for this too.
Comment: i'm afraid you don't understand me... i have a custom post type called "custompost" and i want to display them on a wordpress page named "examplename"... how should i edit the page.php template to show the posts from "custompost" custom post type the same way as index.php shows normal posts?


Photoshop Composite: Glass Reflection

Question: I'm trying to make a composite where the camera is facing the glass but focused on the reflection of the city or what is behind the camera. Are there any ways to make this more realistic?
Answer: You might want to add the environment where your subject is standing. It may add realism to your work.
Comment: +1 for seeing the most obvious problem.. The image is ambiquous - impossible to decide is the camera outdoors or indoors.  A  camera with short focal range can can have enough field of depth to make all sharp.  A small part of window frame would solve the ambiquity.
Answer: A real photograph taken in such dark conditions would have a wide aperture, which means less depth of field. This implies that the window (and the raindrops) would definitely be unfocused, and possibly also the subject in the reflection. You can play with the focus of the subject so it at least suggests who we should see.
Another option would be to have the subject in focus, but the window again unfocused, and the city somewhat defocused.
There is water on the window, but the city isn't glistening wet.
There are some flares that don't quite make sense here. Are they reflections of the scene behind the camera? Were they part of the "wet window" image? There isn't any light source in the city image that would warrant these flares.
Comment: Clearly the girl sneezed and that's why the window is wet. :) KIDDING!

Photoshop Composite: Glass Reflection


Mixture and Ratio

Question: A container has two liquids $A$ and $B$ in certain ratio. $10\%$ of the mixture is taken out and replaced with liquid $B$. Now , the ratio of $A$ and $B$ become $2:3$. What was the initial ratio of $A$ and $B$ in the mixture?
Answer: Let us assume there is 2 units of A and 3 units of B. If 10% of A was there previously, then there was $\frac1{1-0.1}\cdot2$ units of A (We take the inverse of the percentage of how much there is now compared to originally). This comes to $2\frac29$. So $2\frac29-2=\frac29$ of liquid B was added to replace the $\frac29$ units of A missing. That means there were originally $3-\frac29=2\frac79$ units of liquid B. Therefore, the ratio between A and B is $2\frac29:2\frac79=20:25=4:5$
Comment: Thanks for answering. Could you elaborate it in a little detail?

Mixture and Ratio


How can I fix Ubuntu Minecraft constantly turning off fullscreen?

Question: While playing Minecraft on Ubuntu, I have to repeatedly tap F11 to make the game go fullscreen, and when it finally does go, if I press Ctrl + space + W (to sprint jump) or just Ctrl + space, it goes back to window mode. How can I fix this?
Comment: Hi there. It might help if you were a bit more specific on what exact problems you are running into. Why do you have to tap F11, and what do you mean when you say it 'goes'?
Comment: That's something for superuser, since it's a problem with Ubuntu, not the game itself. Other than that a few more details would help. Like Ubuntu version, virtual or real installation, graphic card/driver, command line parameters,..
Comment: It might be the way to switch input languages. [See here.](https://makandracards.com/makandra/32615-ubuntu-make-ctrl-space-work-in-rubymine-emacs-or-other-tools)
Answer: I use Ubuntu also, and I experienced similar problems. Generally, I found that full screen mode flickered a lot in Ubuntu, and although I didn't have your same problems, I was having a generally bad time.
I'd recommend going into compiz-config (It should be installed by default, if it isn't, install it), going into OpenGL settings, and make sure that OpenGL is actually on. I know, you didn't ask this question specifically, but I'm telling you, you will experience this issue later on :D.
As for your specific problem, you have two options really. The first, simpler one is to rebind your keys. I have my sprint key set to X not CTRL, because CTRL will often disrupt me XD.
The harder way is to go into Settings Manager > Keyboard > Shortcuts and looking for & disabling the CTRL-Space shortcut, whatever that does.
I'm guessing what's going on is CTRL-Space is opening some window or doing some thing the sets the window focus to the desktop, and when that happens, Minecraft will automatically exit full screen mode (This is an actual feature of Minecraft, not Ubuntu).
Hope this helps!


What is the purpose of the Queen's Speech?

Question: It has been reported Theresa May is cancelling next year's queen speech, which made me wonder what significance the queen's speech actually has, what is the purpose of it, if the prime minister can just cancel anyway?
Comment: Will they be replacing it with a Lord Buckethead speech?   (please please please please please.....)
Comment: The Queens Speech lays out the government legistlative program for the year as such if the government refuses to lay out the program they are well within their righta to do so
Answer: It's a speech delivered from the throne in the House of Lords chamber that outlines the government's proposed policies and laws that they want to get passed for the new parliamentary session.
From the official UK Parliament's site:

The Queen's Speech
The Queen's Speech is delivered by the Queen from the Throne in the House of Lords. Although the Queen reads the Speech, it is written by the government. It contains an outline of its policies and proposed legislation for the new parliamentary session.

Despite the name, it's not actually written by the Queen but rather by government ministers and civil servants, and approved by the Prime Minister.

As for the reason why it can be cancelled, basically, Prime Minister Theresa May announced that the next parliamentary session, starting on June 21, is doubled to 2 years, instead of the usual 1 year.
So, the government will not put forward a new legislative programme in 2018 and there's basically no state opening of parliament next year which means there's won't be a Queen's speech.

It means the Government will not put forward a new legislative programme next year and extends the next session until after the March 2019 leave date.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-cancels-2018-queens-speech-push-through-brexit-laws-a7795541.html

Cancelling the speech is unusual but not unprecedented as it was also cancelled under the Tory-Lib Dem coalition government in 2011.

It's also worth noting that there needs to be a vote on the Queen's speech in the House of Commons before it'll take place.
Since the Conservatives formed a minority government now, they have to rely on the DUP to get legislations passed and should the Queen's speech fail to pass, the Prime Minister must resign.
So, by cancelling the 2018 Queen's speech, the parliamentary session will be extended to 2019, which is after the Brexit talks conclude.
As seen, the Queen's speech has been defeated before in the past:

The Queen's Speech is thought of as the first test of a minority or coalition government. If any amendments to the Queen's Speech are passed by the House of Commons, or if the vote on the speech itself is lost, the Prime Minister must resign.
Tory Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's 1924 King's Speech was defeated by 72 votes - he resigned the next morning and Ramsay MacDonald formed the first Labour government...which itself only lasted nine months.
(emphasis mine)
Source: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/what-confidence-supply-mean-how-5344481
Answer: The Queen's Speech marks the start of a session of Parliament, which usually lasts one year. Any legislation which has not completed its passage through Parliament within a session is lost at the end (though there is now an occasionally-used procedure for carrying over a bill from one session to the next).
Because of the complexity of the proposed Brexit legislation, and the loss of the Government's majority, the Government feels that extra time will be needed to properly scrutinise these new laws while also seeking cross-party consensus (since the Government doesn't have the numbers in the House of Commons to force changes through).
Hence it is having a double-length session in order to avoid running out of time. Since the Queen's Speech only occurs at the start of a session, and the next session will start in 2 years' time, there will be no Queen's Speech next year.


Rolling back custom field change

Question: Is there a way to get the prior values of a custom field for which history tracking was not setup for and neither was a PRIORVALUE field update field created for it. Thanks.
Comment: Do you backup your data?
Comment: Hi Chale, yeah I have the back-up in SQL. Much of what I am trying to achieve is minimize the amount of manual work that may be involved by going through the SQL route. Any ideas are welcome.
Comment: Do you have full sandboxes related to the PRD org and were they refreshed in the recent time, if so you can pull some data as of the refresh date. If not you may be out of luck/contact SF and see what they can do
Comment: @Rao - unfortunately the sandbox is not full copy. I will contact salesforce and see what they say - if that doesn't work, I will use the backup in SQL to restore to an earlier date. thanks
Answer: After opening a case with Salesforce and speaking with one of their support, this is what I gathered:
Salesforce can not rollback a field update for which the set history tracking was not setup for (however you can pay $10,000 for data recovery).
But overall, my suggestions as preventative measures are:
1.Set up field tracking history for your frequently or "more important fields". (You have about 40 field limits).
2. If it's a workflow, you can setup up PRIORVALUE field to be updated with the oldvalue of the changed field.
3.Have a backup - e.g full copy sandbox or backup in a db.
Thanks guys!

Rolling back custom field change


How does weapon color grade affect weapon quality?

Question: I believe the order of gun colors is: White, Green, Blue, Purple, Magenta, Orange, and I get that those basically increase in quality from left to right.  What I'm interested in is what exactly improves as you move up through the color grades.  Does each added grade add more minimum affixes, similar to Diablo?  Are damage minimums adjusted?  Do some affixes only occur in certain quality grades?  etc...
Answer: Weapon grade is a measure of the rarity of all combined parts, unless radical departures have been made from Borderlands 1's rarity system. From my in-game experience the general system is the same, though minor tweaks to how rarity is counted may well have occured.
The way it works is guns are made of parts. The unique stats of each gun at the same level are due to their parts. Parts have different stats; rarer parts have a higher rarity and generally better stats or special effects.
The total rarity of all parts determines the color. Guns with crap, common parts are White. Guns with good, non-unique parts are green or blue, or sometimes even Purple. Legendary parts, the parts that turn a good gun into a recognizable, named gun, have extremely high rarity values which force them into the Orange category. Unique parts (like named, unique quest rewards) always push a gun into at least blue rarity.
Rarer parts are stronger in general, but may have other weaknesses. You should always compare the actual stats of the items. (Note: Level requirement always plays a role in how powerful an item is and, as always, actually give the new gun a try before ditching the old one. So a purple weapon for level 8 may not be as good as a green weapon for level 11.)  You can also generally disregard White weapons after a certain level as they have no particularly special parts.
Also Class Mods (COMs) have an explicit rarity function; white COMs boost stats but not skills, green COMs boost one skill, blue COMs boost two, and Purple COMs boost three. I don't believe there are legendary COMs (there weren't in Borderlands 1). There aren't identifiable "parts" for COMs (there are for Shields and Grenades however), but you can tell all you need to know from their stats alone. There are Legendary class mods, but they have preset boosts (within randomly generated ranges)
Comment: This is unfortunately incorrect. Rarity is no longer calculated as a sum of gun parts, but chosen first. Recent updates have also re-added Pearlescent guns as well as Seraph (pink) guns.
Comment: Also there are legendary COMs. Legendary Assassin/Mechromancer/etc.  for each class and another one which I can't remember at the moment.
Comment: Are there no longer any pearlescent guns?
Comment: @Fambida I don't believe so, I've never seen reference to them (no challenge for them). They were DLC-exclusive in BL1 so that may still be the case, or they may have been removed as it seems Orange is almost as rare as Pearlescent (unless you farm bosses)
Comment: @Katustrawfic added a note about those. Legendary class mods are a bit different, they're always the same boosts (with different %s)
Answer: The Borderlands 2 loot system does take a large step away from that of Borderlands 1.
First, rarity is not determined by the sum of the parts like in the first game. The only parts that are rarity specific are barrels. This includes legendary, unique, and e-tech loot.
While E-tech is purple, unique is blue, legendary is its own specific rarity.... sort of.
To elaborate a bit more, unlike the first game, guns do not spawn with random bodies (or mags, those have been integrated into the body) or materials. Both are locked to a specific rarity. For ease of explanation, we will consider white through purple to be 1 through 4 respectively, though the internal names do not follow a straight numerical order. So basically, a white gun spawns with body 1 and material 1 and so on. A unique will always spawn with body 3 (blue) with a unique material, an E-tech will always spawn with body 4 (purple) and a legendary will also spawn with body 4, with a unique material.
Now we have to look at prefixes and titles. Prefixes are mostly determined by the accessory part the gun spawns with, if no accessory is spawned, the element, and if no accessory or element, (like with whites) the prefix is determined by the grip. The title of the gun is set by the barrel it spawns with (i.e. an assault rifle that spawns with a Vladof minigun barrel will be XXXXX minigun, etc.).
At this point my best guess is that rarity is chosen before all else. This makes the most sense because there are a few parts dependent on it (body, material) then a manufacture is chosen, then a barrel would be chosen, setting its title (or maybe vice versa, it chooses a title, setting the appropriate barrel). From there you probably get the grip, then the accessory/element, then stock/sights/handle. (Shotguns don't have a separate grip and stock, so the grip is the stock, and the handle is the bit up front under the barrel. Pistols don't have a stock, but a stock accessory.)
Rarity does matter as far as stats are concerned. I have not studied in detail the exact stats per rarity, but I have tested it a bit and there is a somewhat linear progression from white to purple in terms of quality of stats, as I have illustrated with a series of Vladof pistols.
In the above example you can clearly see the linear progression from white to orange as the barrel, grip and accessory are the same. The parts shown are the Vladof barrel, grip, sight, and the fire rate accessory. this is the same for each spawn except for the white gun. because the Vladof pistol barrel will not spawn at the white rarity, I opted for Tediore, which is pretty common. with this in mind, when you start mixing up the parts you will see more varied results as they change the stats from one gun to the next. You may have a blue with a high damage from a particular part and/or accessory, and a purple right next to it (at the same level) that has similar damage, if not less from the effects of other parts or accessories.
Answer: Somehow the better the color doesn't always mean better weapon than previous color.  I had a lvl 9 Blue Shotgun (sorry forgot the name) with my lvl 7 Green Shotgun.  From the looks of the stat, the Blue one is definitely more powerful.  But it turned out the weapon didn't have a good projectile shots and it takes 2 ammo per shot which is really not my playstyle.  So in conclusion,  better color then better stats but that doesn't guarantee to suit with your playstyle.
Answer: Ive had a purple pistol that was better than my orange sniper so color doesnt matter. Color only matters in rarity, effects, and worth. Hope this helped
Comment: Hi @BL2Rux, welcome to Arqade!  The format here is a little different than some sites, and your answer looks more like a comment, but thanks for the feedback.  In the future, if you want to reinforce one of the other answers (such as RedFux227) you can just add a comment.
Answer: I'd try to explain it myself, but Gearbox recently released an Inside the Box that goes over the loot system in pretty much the most complete way you could ask for:
http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/community/articles/1087


Can radiant foil act as insulation baffles in an attic?

Question: We're planning to put R60 cellulose insulation and a radiant barrier foil. We will staple those barriers into the roof framing. Will the radiant barrier foil withhold an R60 insulation to prevent it from going to the soffits or we will still need to install PVC baffles?
Comment: PVC baffles? Most I've seen are Expanded PolyStyrene, or eXtruded PolyStyrene (EPS or XPS) and the (mostly older) cardboard ones. Is this a stright-triangle attic, or do you have a high-heel truss or equivalent framing to provide space for full insulation at the edges? That makes a difference as to whether you're holding back insulation for a couple of feet at the edges, or much more than that.
Comment: A drawing of the proposed design, as well as specifying which radiant foil you're using would probably be helpful. Whether the foil will work as a baffle may depend on how thick it is (will it tear when you push the insulation up against it). Of course, installing the baffles (which aren't all that expensive) seems like cheap insurance.
Comment: Fair point, unfortunately, we already ordered a thin radiant foil. However, we may order a thicker one or a foam base if it's enough to hold the insulation or if others already tried it and can share how it goes. I also believe that installing the baffles will be safer but wanted to hear others thought first.
Comment: I've seen Styrofoam (XPS) baffles, but would _not_ recommend them. the plastic ones I got (not sure exactly what kind of plastic) were very flexible and needed to be. The XPS ones were more rigid and I can only imagine that they'd have broken many times based on the handling it took to get them into the roof. The thin plastic ones I used just flexed right into place.
Comment: We have different attics for different STR properties that we have and planning to improve insulation so I'm not sure yet but I think it is mostly straight-triangle. We only saw PVC baffles from HD but I think we can order cardboard from Amazon.
Answer: As was implied by the clarifying questions posed in comments, this depends entirely on what the product you mentioned actually is. Mylar and similar films tear very easily, so if it doesn't have reinforcing strands or a more robust backing it's likely to fail as an insulation support where small tears exist from fastening. I would consider installing the baffles upside down so that the flat panel supports the foil.
That said, once insulation is blown it doesn't move much, and all weight is away from the baffles. Gusty winds can shift the top layer a bit, but eventually it settles in and stays put due to additives and the binding nature of insulation fibers. So you don't need a lot of strength to do the job.
Comment: Mylar is so flimsy that it tears from staples under its own flapping about.  My main insulation is glass fibre in the attic floor, but I've lined the roof with aluminised mylar (to reflect light when working up there, reduce summer solar gain, and keep a tiny bit of heat in - in roughly that order, with the latter two mainly about making conditions nicer for the contents of the loft).  Where it's stapled, I had to reinforce with clear tape to prevent tearing