Should I trash Copper or Silver with Mine?

Question:
Assuming I've got both Copper and Silver in my hand, which is better to trash in general and why?
Answer: I'm going to have to disagree with Pat; I hate having Copper in my deck, and rather have a consistent deck of Silvers.  Yes, it's nice if you get Gold - Copper - Copper in your hand, but Silver - Silver - Copper will buy the same amount.  Once you start running out of Coppers (or if you only have a Silver in your hand along with the mine), then you can start upgrading to Golds.
It's kind of hard to answer this question in vacuum, because there are so many different possibilities that could make one answer better than the other; for example:

If you're running an early Moneylender, upgrade the Silver to Gold, and use Moneylender on the Coppers to really ramp up.
If someone is playing multiple Thiefs, I may not even bother with the Mine.  Or if I do get a mine, I'll upgrade Copper to Silver since losing a Silver isn't as bad as losing a Gold.
Comment: I think you're right to point out that other opportunities to trash Copper make the Silver->Gold strategy more appealing, and ultimately the _best_ option is determined by context.
Comment: With thief in play, if you upgrade copper -> silver, you throw away a rare opportunity for your opponent to help your deck (by trashing your coppper).
Comment: I would like to add that upgrading silvers to gold can put you in a situation where you have a mine+gold in your hand instead of having mine+silver leading to mine being a dead card more often.
Comment: Another argument in favor of mining copper to silver first is that you will be less likely to see a hand where the mine is useless due to gold being the only treasure(s) in the hand.
Comment: Hating copper isn't a good justification for a strategy. I understand the copper-hate, but this answer doesn't give any objective reasons to prefer one strategy to another.
Answer: In general, my preference is to favor upgrading the silver to gold.
My rationale is that I am trying to scale the value pyramid to get to the useful values of coins (5,6,8 typically).  With one gold I am likely to reach a good total coin value when the gold is drawn.  With the two silver, I'm more likely to have two mediocre hands instead of one good one (if the two silver come in the same hand).
Comment: However, if you draw your mine again and you have only gold, you can't upgrade. Draw the mine again and have a silver, you can use it. This is why I generally choose to upgrade the lowest value.
Comment: +1: I think your answer essentially describes the flaw in LittleBobbyTables' answer, even though it was posted first.
Comment: @PatLudwig, true! But I meant, in the current hand. Your next hand will contain the copper you didn't upgrade ;]
Comment: This is my preference as well, and if there happens to be Platinum in the supply, all the better.
Comment: @Konerak if you are stuck with "only" gold, you're doing pretty good :-)
Answer: If you have Platinum cards in play, your best bet is to mine Gold ($3) to Platinum ($5).  This also applies to mining Silver to Gold so you have the Golds to mine to Platinums.
However, with Prosperity, you may also have other options, such as Silver to Royal Seal or Hoard. Like Gold, Hoard can be mined directly to Platinum, but it also gives you the opportunity to get golds by buying Victory cards.
For the others, most of the time you'll want to mine Silvers to Golds first.  Here are just a few cards this applies to:
Trash Coppers:

Moneylender
Trading Post
Mint (to purchase)
Spice Merchant

Give Coppers to other players:

Masquerade
Ambassador

Play specific actions related to Coppers:

Coppersmith
Apothecary
Counting House

Silver/Gold work better with:

Mint (to play)
Herbalist

You'll want to mine Copper to Silver first if these cards are in play:

Saboteur (Silvers prevent other cards from being trashed)
Swindler (avoid gaining Curses)
Cutpurse (only discards Copper)
Forge (Copper is worth 0 for Forging)
Jester (Enemy gains a Silver instead of you gaining a Copper)

Don't bother with a Mine at all and concentrate more on action cards that give you money if one of these is in play with no defense cards:

Thief (Trashes up to 1 treasure, opponent has option to gain)
Pirate Ship (Trashes up to 1 treasure)
Noble Brigand (Trashes up to 1 Silver or Gold, opponent gains)

Noble Brigand can only steal Silvers and Golds, so mining to non-standard treasures or Platinums is OK.
Comment: Even if you don't have the opportunity to Mine a Gold into a Platinum, you want to Mine Silvers into Gold rather than Copper into Silver any time Platinums are in the Supply. The Gold->Platinum leap is the equivalent of getting to play your Mine twice on other cards.
Comment: Updated this with a few new cards from Cornucopia and Hinterlands.
Comment: Right. The counting house *does* make the Chancellor a little less useless :)
Comment: @shujaa Way back when I first posted this, there were only 6 cards listed... but it kinda ballooned since then.  That and it was the current rage back then to post images of the Dominion cards.
Comment: This answer is a "go-to" for copper FAQ! Upvoted long ago.
Comment: Stables should be under its own category since it doesn't trash the treasure but rather discard it. Of course it's still better to use it with a copper instead of a silver, but not as it would have been had it trashed it.
Other than that, good answer and a great list.
Comment: Exactly the right answer: **depending on the kingdom**. You might also add for the Jester that it's better for the opponent to hit a silver, instead of hitting either a copper or gold . Furthermore, there are situations where **deck homogeneity** is more desirable: Duke/Duchy games, as you need to consistently reach $5, games where Advisor is used to draw (much better to reveal Estate-Silver-Silver than Estate-Copper-Gold); on the contrary, if going for diversity (Menagerie, Horn of Plenty, Fairgrounds) or an Engine (a few strong treasures are more desirable) then it's the other way around.
Answer: Statistically, the difference is in the variance of how much money will be in your hand. Assuming no other cards swaying you one way or another (and no Platinum), as other answers have pointed out, regardless of whether you upgrade Copper to Silver or Silver to Gold

the total money in your deck is increased by 1
the number of treasure cards in your deck is unchanged
therefore the average amount of money you'll have in your hand is the same in both cases.

However, the variance of your hands will be different. If you upgrade all your coppers to silvers, the money you draw in hand will be much more consistent than if you upgrade all the way to gold when possible. Keeping some coppers in your deck increases the chances that you won't draw any higher-value treasures -- and increases the chances that you'll draw 2 or 3 golds at once. If all your treasures are silvers, you'll only draw silvers.
It boils down to what distribution of hand values you want. If you want consistent 3-4-5 hands, do copper to silver first, but if you're okay with some 2 hands to also get more 5-6-7-8 hands, go all the way to gold. I'm sure we can all imagine card pools where you'd want to go one way or the other. If you're trying to get a Province or other expensive card (Witch, Goons...) ASAP, go for Golds. If there's 4-cost cards you want to buy several of (maybe Caravan, Bridge, etc.), go for Silvers.
In the realm of unlikely but possible, if you go to Gold first, you run a risk of drawing your Mine with a Gold or two, but no Copper or Silver to trash, but this is a pretty small risk, and you probably won't be unhappy with nothing but Gold in hand anyway.
Comment: In Dominion, you almost always want a more varied money distribution.  The desire for a 5-2 split, a before second shuffle gold, and the steep utility increase from 4 to 5, and from 5 to 6 are more evidence.  Further, the Tactician card even gains from this idea.
Comment: @RobRenaud Why do you want a 5-2 split?
Comment: @Pureferret you don't *always* want a 5-2 split, but a lot of 5-cost actions are quite a bit better than 4-cost actions (what Rob calls the steep utility increase from 4 to 5), and especially with some of the stronger attacks you want one ASAP.
Answer: The decision boils down to a few things, at least for me...

extant gold, silver and copper ratio
number of remodels in the deck

If I have a lot of copper, I mine the copper into silver.
If I have a lot of silver, I mine the silver into gold.
If I have a remodel, and am near the top of the VP race, having the gold to remodel into a province trumps having more silver.
Another consideration is whether or not there's platinum in play. If platinum is available, moving the silver to gold is more valuable in that it gives me gold to mine into platinum.
Answer: If there's the Swindler around, then getting rid of the coppers is of first priority!
Comment: @Casebash: This is exactly what I wrote. It is even more useful to thrash the coppers when there's a Swindler.
Comment: A swindler has problems with the police?  I never would have guessed...
Comment: Not really. Trashing coppers will often help you by thinning your deck
Comment: Actually, you are right. They can change your copper into curses
Answer: In a vacuum, I will always mine Copper to Silver before Silver to Gold. My reasoning is simple: if I have Mines, Silvers can be further Mined and Golds cannot. Since the short-term gain is one coin for that turn either way, I'd rather not dead-end myself by having a Mine with no actionable treasures later on.
Needless to say, the preference is so slight as to be a tie-breaker. Many other circumstances may change my strategy. E.g.:

I'll always Mine Gold to Platinum if the option is available, since the two-coin gain can have very useful short- and long-term benefits
Money Lender benefits from having Coppers linger a bit, so if I'm using them, I'll favour Silvers for Mining
Various other circumstances which other people have already commented on, and which there's no point me rehashing here
Answer: I like to trade my coppers to silvers early in the game so I have a more consistent set of resources.  Later in the game, I prefer exchanging my silver for gold.
Answer: I'd do copper to silver, but I also don't usually buy mine if there aren't any other treasure cards available.
Answer: I would argue copper to silver before silver to gold.  The copper to silver trade doubles the value of that card, while silver to gold is only a 50% increase.
Comment: I think your math might be statistically misleading. Either operation increases your total money in deck by the same amount. It could further argued that when you draw them later the copper will be a 100% increase in value whilst the gold 150%, meaning you break even if you redraw the mined card only once, but profit if you draw it twice. Of course my math there is just as spurious as yours.
Comment: Perhaps more directly, thinking in terms of ratios leads to the conclusion that copper to silver (x2) is better than gold to platinum (x1.67). But I think everyone here can agree that if you draw Copper Gold Mine, trashing Gold for Platinum is the only reasonable choice (it it's available).
Comment: I'm with aslum on this. Here's why: ignoring all other cards in the deck, I end up either with (A) a mine, a copper, and a gold, or (B) a mine and two silvers. So I have the same amount to spend, total, when I next draw those cards.


Why do different terminals have different values for keys in the .inputrc file?

Question: This question really started from here. I would like to know why different terminals like rxvt and xterm use different values when mapping key combinations? Whilst I am in rxvt or xterm how can I find out the value of a key sequence and easily add this to the .inputrc file?
Answer: For hysterical historical reasons. Hardware manufacturers didn't always standardize on common single control sequence for the same key, and neither did software writers when glass terminals were replaced by terminal emulators.
You can find out what control sequence a key generates in a particular terminal by typing Ctrl+V then the key (in most shells, or in the input of a command such as cat or hexdump). Most keys generate a control sequence consisting of the escape character followed by printable characters; the Ctrl+V causes the escape character to be inserted literally.
Fortunately, there are almost no conflicts among the control sequences sent by various terminals. The main exception is that some terminals send ^H for Backspace and ^? for Delete while others send ^? for Backspace and ^[[3~ for Delete. Many terminals have an option to switch between the two backspace/delete modes.
Comment: The correct spelling is "hystorical". ;)
Answer: What Gilles said. As for the particular case being referred to, the VT100 and VT220 terminals (which is what today's terminal emulators try to emulate) didn't have keycodes for modifier+arrow key combinations, hence emulators introduced their own.
Not sure exactly why xterm and rxvt have different ones, but perhaps they were introduced independently at the same time. Actually xterm originally used shorter codes than it does today, but those caused problems so were changed eventually.
These days most terminal emulators, in particular the ones for the various desktop environments (including OS X), try to emulate xterm. Rxvt-unicode still carries on the rxvt tradition though.
Answer: The keys of interest in .inputrc are generally control characters, particularly strings beginning with the escape character, usually shown as ^[, but also \e, \E, \033, etc.
How to find the keys sent by your keyboard is well-known: using the lnext (literal-next) character (usually ^V).  Press the lnext character to suppress interpretation of the next character, and then your special key.  This allows the terminal driver to echo the characters in readable form.
Why they differ from one terminal type to another is less well-known.  xterm and rxvt are both terminal emulators, nominally based on the same family of hardware terminals from DEC (Digital Equipment).  There were many other types of hardware terminals produced during the 1970s and 1980s, but the VT100 and its descendants were among the most popular.
The VT100, it is generally accepted, had no function keys.  It had a keypad about the same size as the IBM PC keyboard's numeric keypad.  The top row was labeled PF1 through PF4.  The usual notion of a function key lies outside that area, in other areas of the keyboard, e.g., a bank of numbered keys at the top or left of the main QWERTY keyboard.
The VT220 extended the VT100 design, adding numbered function keys F6 through F20.  It did have F1-F5, but those were used for local functions and generally not usable for programming.  The ones that were useful for programming sent escape sequences assigned by DEC.  Although there is some standardization of escape sequences sent to a terminal (ECMA-48), there was never a corresponding standard for sequences sent from a terminal.  There is only convention, and a sense that special keys which are the "same" as a host-to-terminal function should send the same escape sequence.  That especially helped if the terminal were setup in local echo mode.
When xterm was first developed in the later 1980s or early 1990s, someone extended the notion of the VT220's function keys, assigning similar escape sequences to F1-F5.  The assignment for keys F21-F24 came later (in 2002), using a similar scheme.
During the mid-1990s, there was no defined scheme in xterm for modified keys, e.g., using control, shift, etc.  Rxvt's developer chose to extend rxvt using a scheme using different final characters on the strings sent for special keys.  This was problematic, since it introduced keys which did not correspond to the host-to-terminal functions, and did not necessarily end with a conventional final character ($ for example).
In extending xterm, I chose to add numbered keys, using shift and control to extend the numbering range.  That worked well enough, but a better scheme was later suggested (patch #94, 1999) by Jeffrey Altman which is implemented in the last series of DEC VTxxx terminals (VT525).  That encodes the modifiers as a number, passed along as a parameter to the escape sequence.  A few years later (patch #167 in 2002), someone pointed out a problem where those could be confused with other host-to-terminal escapes, and I changed the scheme to avoid that problem.
The developers for Konsole and VTE (GNOME Terminal) copied the scheme used in xterm from 1999, and stayed there, while the terminal description for xterm was updated.  This resulted in a number of bug reports.
For reference:

terminfo for xterm
terminal database for ncurses


How to sanitize php input without mysql

Question: I am trying to figure out a way to sanitize input going into sqlite from php. I cannot use mysql. Is it enough to simply use sqlite_escape_string or do I need to do anything else? Also I can only use sqlite2.
Comment: Take a look at http://stackoverflow.com/questions/60174/best-way-to-stop-sql-injection-in-php
Answer: The best way to avoid SQL injection is to enforce the use of parametric queries, and never ever manually assemble SQL statements by string concatenation or variable interpolation.
On PHP 5+, you may use PDO, which is a multi-database abstraction layer supporting (among others) SQLite, and parametric queries.
Answer: Escape functions make sure that the special characters (quotes mainly) that are used by the SQL dialect are escaped, so that your inserts/updates etc work.  All sqlite_escape_string does is escape single quotes.
Then there is the substantial concern that someone can craft an SQL injection.  Because you're using v2, you can't use the prepare and _bind() functions that would protect you.
SQLite lets you chain commands seperated by ';' so there is an issue there.  I would suggest you start by carefully crafting your parameters using either helper functions you write or using sprintf and insure that you are typing your ints, floats, and strings appropriately.
You should be able to create your own escape function that "escapes" things you want to watch out for... most specifically the semicolon, using the ... ESCAPE '\' at the end of your queries, assuming you utilize the backslash as your escape character.
Then you have the issue of someone intentionally inserting malicious content (XSS).  Grigor provided one solution -- use htmlentities() on your strings.
Answer: There are ways, but it depends on the target of your input, Please refer to this question to understand it better: What's the best method for sanitizing user input with PHP?
Answer: sqlite_escape_string() should do all the sanitizing you need to input the string. As for outputting it, if it's being outputted into HTML, then use htmlspecialcharts() on it before outputting it.
Answer: SQLite offers sqlite_escape_string() for that. It's only available for PHP 5, though.
Solely relying on these methods will not save you from injections, though. An imperative measure is to always validate user-provided input first, before subjecting it to methods, you have to rely on  - but actually haven't authored.

How to sanitize php input without mysql


Why would hexacyanidocobaltate(II) be uncommon while pentacyanidoaquacobaltate(II) is common?

Question: In Huheey's Inorganic Chemistry it is written that hexacyanidocobaltate(II) is uncommon but pentacyanidoaquacobaltate(II) is common. Something is mentioned about Jahn-Teller distortion, but I don't understand how it applies here.
Comment: We use it in the lab all the time, I don't think it's uncommon.
Comment: that is artificial. i think huheey said not common in nature
Answer: In Inorganic Syntheses (1946), a synthesis of $\ce{K3[Co(CN)6]}$ is described, which boils down to the following three equations:[1]

$$\begin{align}\ce{CoCl2 (aq) + 2 KCN (aq) &-> Co(CN)2 v + 2 KCl (aq)}\tag{1}\\
\ce{Co(CN)2 + 4 KCN (aq) &-> K4[Co(CN)6] (aq)}\tag{2}\\
\ce{2 K4[Co(CN)6] (aq) + H2O &-> 2 K3[Co(CN)6] (aq) + 2 KOH (aq) + H2}\tag{3}\end{align}$$

The procedure requires precipitation of the cobalt(II) cyanide by carefully adding a $\ce{KCN}$ solution to a cobalt(II) solution. This precipitate is filtrated and washed, then redissolved in excess cyanide solution giving a deep-red solution. This in turn is heated to reflux for some 15 minutes, whereupon the colour changes to yellow indicating the formation of the hexacyanidocobaltate(III).[1]
I personally doubt equation $(3)$. Instead, I would assume that the oxidation of hexacyanidocobaltate(II) to the corresponding cobaltate(III) proceeds unter oxygen consumption, not hydrogen liberation. That would give equation $(\text{3'})$:
$$\ce{4 K4[Co(CN)6] + O2 + 2 H2O -> 4 K3[Co(CN)6] + 4 KOH}\tag{3'}$$
In any case, however, the presence of $\ce{[Co(CN)6]^4-}$ or hexacyanidocobaltate(II) as a stable intermediate in solution suggests to me that your premise is false and thus the book you cite from incorrect.

Reference:
J. H. Bigelow and J. C. Bailar (1946) Potassium Hexacyanocobaltate(III), in: Inorganic Syntheses, Volume 2 (ed W. C. Fernelius), John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, NJ, USA. DOI: 10.1002/9780470132333.ch72.


Try out OData/External Object/Lightning Connect

Question: We're designing a system for a client that involves quite a bit of data. The regular data storage limits in Salesforce will definitely be exceeded by a factor of 10 or more. So one technology that seems like it might be cost effective is to store large static sections of data remotely and access it using External Objects/OData/Lightning Connector.
Is there a way that the connector can be turned on in a sandbox or dev org so that functionality can be tested and verified before purchasing the Lightning connector?
Comment: I'm guessing "yes," but why don't you just call your account executive and ask?
Comment: Simply put - this is being investigated for a client that hasn't signed yet. If it's easily turned on, I'd like to experiment in my dev org. If there's a whole procedure around it, I'd wait till they sign and try it out in the client's sandbox instead. Plus I figured other people here might well be interested in the answer.
Answer: Developer Edition orgs provide a single OData External Data Source. It has lower limits than a production data source (1,000 OData queries per hour rather than 10,000 - see docs for more), but works just fine for proof-of-concept.
Comment: Great! I was hoping for that. Thanks for the info!
Answer: Good luck getting an account executive to turn on the OData for an existing developer org if you don't have it. I've checked two of my existing orgs, one from 2007 and another from 2012, and they both have this feature enabled. One has three Lightning Connects (Salesforce, OAuth2.0, and Simple URL), while another only has two (OAuth2.0 and Simple URL). I would think that you should at least have access to Simple URL and/or OAuth2.0 available for testing in your Developer Org. If not, you should be able to create a new org and have it available (all new orgs should get it, from what I can tell).
Answer: The Social Foundry has a similar product. You may want to check them out and see if it is a good fit.
Full disclosure I work for the Social Foundry.


Manhwa where an orphaned woman is reincarnated into a story as a saintess candidate who is mistreated by others

Question: The manhwa is about a woman who grew up  as an orphan, and did archery up until she hurt her wrist. She then reincarnates into a story she read. She gets reincarnated into the body of a saintess candidate who is mistreated by others. She quickly stirred up a ruckus and left to go to her family's home. Her sister is deathly ill and her father was being drugged by her stepmother. I forgot to mention that during her journey to her family's house, she runs into a man who I believe is an emperor.
Comment: Hi, welcome to the site. Do you recall the hair colour of the female lead?
Answer: Is this Behold the True Villainess...?

A girl from the modern world slips into the body of Niveia Aerber, the main character of the fantasy novel she was reading. To survive in Erathil, a world full of betrayal and monsters where she was destined to meet an early death, the new Niveia embarks on an adventure to escape from her fate. The old Niveia was set to become the next Priestess to serve the Grand Temple, but not the new Niveia. Instead, she runs away from the temple, from her archrival, Rosanna, and her fiancé, Duke Aetius Timothero. Along the way, she enlists the help of Prince Caeles, who is also on a mission of his own - to find out which noble families are planning an uprising against his kingdom, including Niveia's family. In this chaotic turmoil of love, loyalty, and treason, can Niveia create a better future for herself, and more importantly, can she ever return to the real world?

The female lead was a world champion in archery who fell into a slump after suffering an injury, and was subsequently reincarnated as a priestess character within a novel she'd been reading.


Is it possible to wield a weapon similar to Lubbock's?

Question: In "Akame Ga Kill!",Lubbock is wielding a very complex weapon (a Teigu actually) named Cross Tail,Infinite Possibilities I think...He used it in countless ways,as the name implies,so I was wondering if it would be at least theoretically possible to use such a weapon in an actual fight,with the enemy knowing about your presence and intentions.
I know that such a weapon could only be used for suffocation (stealthily,from the back) or by setting traps,and I'm not very sure about the second one anyway.
Now,I'd like to hear some opinions!
Comment: Erm... Are you asking if one could use a thread-based weapon in ***real life***, or are you asking if Lubbock is capable of wielding his Teigu in an actual (non-stealthy) fight? If it's the latter, Lubbock *did* use his Teigu in actual combat several times, most notably when he confronted and killed 2 Rakshasa Demons single-handedly.
Comment: I'm asking if one could efficiently use a thread-based weapon in real life,sorry if I wasn't clear enough...
Answer: Purely theoretical? Yes, you would be able to apply it in real combat. The usage of the weapon would probably be similar to that of a whip or Kusarigama. Yet allot harder, due to the lack of weights. This would mean that the user requires the whiplash effect for this weapon to be even have the slightest effect. And this is not even taking armored opponents into account. And in case you were wondering, it would be possible to create such a wire. WorldBuilding.stackexchange seems to deem it possible.
Realistically speaking, it would be highly unlikely that a weapon such as this would be used in real life combat, as it would require a tremendous amount of skill to effectively use it as a weapon. And most likely wouldn't be feasible against armored opponents.
Finally, with the above said it is save to conclude that the way Lubbock wields the wires would not be realistically possible. With the exception of a few moves.


How to overcome a fear of seeming intrusive when asking even mildly personal questions?

Question: I am not shy or introverted when it comes to discussing the majority of topics. However, I tend to dislike questions that relate to my friends and family. I don't like giving out information about someone without their consent.
For example, if a friend asked me what a mutual, but distant, friend was doing for a living nowadays, I would find that awkward. It would strike me that the mutual friend might wish to keep that information private. Especially if I knew it to have an aspect that could be judged - say they were retraining to do a job they loved, but which paid a low salary.
This in itself isn't a problem for me. I'm long used to making judgement calls and swatting away any queries I don't want to answer.
The issue is that I find it very difficult not to apply the same logic when asking questions of other people. Many (most) people enjoy gossip and they especially love to talk about their families. However, I worry a lot that if I ask any kind of personal question, it may be perceived as intrusive and make them uncomfortable.
As a result, it takes me a long time to really get to know people. I'm social enough, but I tend to know almost nothing beyond the surface about those I meet through work or hobby activity. That's not a good thing.
How can I best overcome my fear of being intrusive, and approach conversations with people on more personal questions?
EDIT: I am a native of the UK. Culturally, we have a well-known predication toward being private and reserved. But it doesn't seem to stop people loving to gossip :)
Answer: Think of topics of conversation as different layers. The top layer is small talk: superficial stuff like the weather or sports. As you go deeper, it gets more and more personal. You have to dig through the first layers before you get to the very personal stuff - people typically react poorly if you try to skip straight to "So, how's your relationship with your father"! It's a process to get to know people.
Things you can do:

Ask open-ended questions
Open-ended questions, like "How was your weekend?" gives the recipient plenty of discretion on how much they want to share. They could say "It was really interesting, I went on a blind date", or they could say "Oh, nothing much going on, how about you?"
Recognize invitations to ask questions
When an acquaintance hints at something personal, without going into details, they may be testing the waters to see if you want to talk about it. (I do this when I'm not sure if the other person is interested in my personal life - if they don't inquire further, I don't feel foolish for over-sharing, and if they do I feel "safe" and that they actually care.) This is more likely when you've asked them an open-ended question. In the above example, the blind-date-haver might be hoping you'll follow up. "Really! How do you mean, 'interesting?' Who set you up?"
Open up about your own life
It's all about building trust in the relationship. If you're willing to share personal stuff with them, they will feel more comfortable sharing personal stuff back. Again, I am often on the other side of this thanks to social anxiety. For example, with a new person, I might worry that it's out of place to mention my boyfriend. But if they start waxing poetic about their partner, that signals to me it's an acceptable topic of conversation with them. This is also common with touchy subjects like politics - both parties are afraid to mention it, but once one breaks the ice (in a respectful way!) there is a sense of relief, and we can talk about it freely. Level up! (er, down? mixed metaphors are hard..)
Display genuine caring for their personal life
This is the most important one! Learning more about someone's life is a natural consequence of caring about them, so questions won't seem out of place. Plus, most people love to talk about themselves and will be happy someone wants to listen.

After they have shared things with you, follow up. This lets them know the information wasn't "wasted" and shows you are still interested. For example, if a coworker mentioned visiting her parents for the weekend, you could ask if they went to any fun events together. Or if that still feels too personal, you could ask how the drive was. This gives her an opportunity to share more, or just as easily say "Oh, it was fine" and not go into detail.
Start off slow and pay attention to people's reactions. If they start responding with short, non-committal answers or look uncomfortable, back off and apologize if warranted. "Sorry, I didn't mean to intrude! Back to the potluck -
where did you get that recipe for potato salad?" This lets them know you recognize their boundaries, and are happy to continue a friendly conversation within those bounds.
Answer: The first thing to remember is that how you approach a subject will depend entirely on the person. People who are willing to share their personal information will do so quite easily with a probing question such as 'Oh and why did that happen?' or 'How is it going with [insert boyfriend's name etc.]'?
Other people will be less willing but before I go into how to approach that, I wanted to comment that it seems you are putting a lot of pressure on yourself in these situations which probably makes you feel more uncomforatble. It might help you relax if you stop and think that these people are just like you and they will deflect any questions they do not want to answer. Once you've asked something and someone deflects it, take that as your cue to avoid that subject (only approach it again if your relationship deepens). People in general will not be annoyed if you ask a question, they will only be annoyed if you ignore their dismissal.
As for people who do not openly speak about themselves (but not necessarily are avoiding the topic -  maybe they are just shy), it comes down to asking more questions.
For example, say I have an aquintance called Lee who is very outgoing, all I might have to say to him is,
'Hey Lee, still loved up?" And I will get the whole story of the great romance and the break up and the new love interest.
However I might then approach a friend called Joanne who is quiet and it might take me many questions to get the details eg. '"Hey Joanne, still loved up?"
Joanne: "No, not anymore."
Me: "Oh that sucks, you okay?"
Joanne: "Yeah I'm fine."
Me: "Are you guys still going out? What happened?" etc etc.
If Joanne doesn't want to talk about it she'll give signals such as changing the subject or not answering. Otherwise if she keeps answering she is probably okay with talking about it, just shy about talking about herself. If you can I would also suggest injecting snippets about your own experiences into the conversation as people will find it easier to connect with you and let their guard down. eg.
Joanne: "We broke up because he wanted to move to Canada."
Me: "Oh I'm sorry to hear that, I had an ex who moved to New Zealand and we tried to make it work but it didn't, it really sucks. Why is he moving, did he get a new job?" etc.
Getting to know people can be really quick or really slow depending on the person but as long as you stay interested in them and show you are willing to listen and respond, your relationships should get to a deeper level.


How would I calculate the resulting orbit of Dimorphos around Didymos A after the DART mission?

Question: I have been trying to find a way to calculate how the DART mission affected Didymos A, independent of NASA's findings. I found one answer to this question, but it was as if they ignored Didymos A and treated the whole system from a sun perspective. I don't want this, and would prefer an answer that is from the perspective of Didymos A.
What I need to calculate is the resulting orbital period, as a way to calculate the error of my calculations from NASA's.
When I do this myself, the numbers don't line up. Any ideas?
Comment: Did you take into account the huge amount of debris that was ejected in every direction?
Comment: Which calculation from NASA are you comparing to? Note that the calculated success criteria of a change in orbital period by 73 seconds, the calculated expected change of about 10 minutes and the ultimately observed change of 32 minutes differ by a factor of up to a whopping 26.3, or almost 1.5 orders of magnitude.
Comment: @JörgWMittag The success criteria almost certainly set a low bar for success on the basis of "always underpromise and then overdeliver."
Answer: I think you're asking how the orbit of the moon Dimorphus was affected from the perspective of the astroid Didimos. From orbital mechanics, the proportionalities between period, mean velocity, and orbital energy are $T \propto v^{-1/3} \propto -E^{-2/3}$.  So, for small changes, $ \Delta T/T = -(1/3) \Delta v/v = (2/3) \Delta E/E  $.  The smallest change occurs if DART deposits just its momentum into Dimorphus $\Delta v/v = (v_{dart}/v)(M_{dart}/M_{dimorphus})$. The maximum possible change occurs if DART somehow transfers all its energy into raising the orbit $\Delta E/E = (v_{dart}/v)^2(M_{dart}/M_{dimorphus})$. The former occurs if the spacecraft is absorbed without any ejecta. If there is a lot of ejecta, then much more energy can get transferred.
Comment: +1 but 1) Is there some way we can know that your conclusions are correct? For example, are you using mathematics to get there? Did you invoke conservation of momentum perhaps? Can you explain why more ejecta means more energy transfer? 2) " The maximum possible change occurs if DART somehow transfers all its energy into raising the orbit..." is that physically/kinematically possible? 3) At this speed, how much energy goes into heat? There must be some estimates out there.
Comment: Note that the OP asks "*How would I calculate* the resulting orbit..." and that needs more than a few unsupported expressions for upper and lower bounds. Certainly there will be papers out there related to the mission that can be cited here.


How can an object float on the surface of a fluid?

Question: According to Archimedes Principle,
 We know that buoyant force on object ${F_{buoy}}$ is given by,
$F_{buoy} = V_{immersed} * {\rho}_{fluid} * g $  where, $V_{immersed}$ is the volume of object that is immersed in the fluid.
Now, let us consider an object that completely floats and is in static equilibrium  on the fluid surface (more precisely a liquid)
then $V_{immersed} = 0$
$ \implies F_{buoy} = 0$.
But , we know from given situation that it is in static equilibrium,

Then, is it apt to say that,
$ F_{buoy} = F_{normal}$. where $ F_{normal} =$ normal force on the object in equlibrium
Comment: It is not possible for no part of the object to be immersed when it is floating -- even a baloon..
Comment: I may not understand completely, but what makes you think such a situation is possible?
Comment: @KristofferSjöö I think you did not understand the problem fully . Try imagining a balloon floating on water, and assume not a slightest part of its volume is immersed.
Answer: I think it's true that this is not a realistic description of how fluids behave. But it's an interesting limiting situation nonetheless. The key to it is that Archimedes' principle completely ignores surface tension. Surface tension is always there, but when buoyancy is the most important feature, it can be safely ignored.
Not so in the case you're picturing, in which we would have a fluid with enormous surface tension. So much so that it would completely stop the body from affecting its internal molecular cohesion, and override any other hydrostatic effect. In fact, your fluid would be a solid, and Archimedes' principle no longer holds. The normal force that holds the body in place is not buoyancy; it's surface tension.
Answer: It may appear that a body floats completely in water but there must be at least a  very small part of the body submerged in water that provides buoyant force.This is mostly observed in case of baddies with large volumes and low densities.
Answer: Whenever you operate in a transition zone, you will find other things messing up your expectations. In the set up you suggest, there is more going on than just buoyancy, which starts to matter, the closer you get to zero buoyancy. You could even have an object actually pull a liquid up, instead of pushing it down. Your objective then gets lost somewhere in the middle between that and ordinary buoyancy, without any particularly interesting results.
Therefore the equation you are trying to put into practice, doesn't have a reality equivalent. Reality doesn't allow you to ignore anything. On your test bench, you will never ever find a truly static equilibrium the way they exist in theory.
But yes, on paper it looks great.
If there is any particular practical problem you need to solve, please get more specific.
Answer: If the object (with non-zero mass) is just touching the fluid's surface, then the fluid doesn't coerce any buoyancy force on the object, meaning that the object's non-zero weight must be compensated by some other force, and that can be (e.g. for a helium balloon) the buoyancy in air.
If there is no other source of upward force besides the fluid buoyancy, then the object will get immersed into the fluid, at least to a tiny degree, just enough to compensate its weight.
P.S. With real-world fluids, there are effects like surface tension that can exert upward as well as downward forces on objects touching the surface, but I deliberately ignored that effect and stayed within the Archimedes model.


"Hence", "therefore" and "so" in mathematical proofs

Question: It seems to me that "so" is seldom used in math proofs. Instead, "hence" and "therefore" are used very often, even repeatedly appearing in several sentences in a row. So I wonder if my feeling is correct? What do you think is proper use of these words or similar ones in math proofs? Thanks!
Comment: So, you don't agree with those pedants who insist not to begin a sentence with *So*.
Comment: @Kris: I agree that sentences should not begin with "and", but as far as I know beginning with "so" is okay/fine.
Comment: @Kris: I've no objection to *your* starting a sentence with "so" there, since it "obliquely references" Tim's question. What I find lamentable is the number of ***OP's*** who start their question text with "So". Doubtless some people just think *"So what?"*, but it really does strike me as an ignorant way to open a dialogue.
Comment: I always avoided using "so" in proofs when studying maths, because it could be too easily confused with "50".
Answer: The computer scientist Donald Knuth, who is essentially a mathematician, has written quite a lot about how to write mathematics in a clear and intelligible style. In his book, "Mathematical Writing", co-authored with Tracy Larrabee and Paul Roberts, Knuth uses the word "so" quite a lot. In 118 pages of text, "So ..." (i.e., as the opening word of a sentence) appears 26 times. I think that one of his best pieces of advice is, "Don't get hung up on one or two styles of sentences." At other places in the book he seems to press the idea that good mathematical writing has both consistency (so that the same concept does not appear, ambiguously, as if it were some other concept) and variety of expression.
Of course, none of this specifically addresses your comment about the appearance of the word "so" in proofs, but it does give an idea of the way a person who is a clear expositor of mathematics uses it.
Comment: The use of *so* as the opening word of a sentence is one thing and *So* as part of a formal proof of theorem is quite another. Which may actually be another reason we should avoid it there.
Comment: Btw, I find your reference interesting, any online links possibly? Reviews/ extracts even?
Answer: There is a school of thought that a sentence may not begin with So. Therefore, it is seldom so in formal writing.
Hence and therefore may be considered synonyms, or at least interchangeable.
I suspect that hence is preferred where the inference derives from the immediately preceding statement, though not necessarily.
Therefore shows a broader scope and appears after a long descriptive 'method' leading to the proof.
QED.
Comment: @ArmenԾիրունյան I meant that interchangeables need not be synonyms.
Comment: Hmm... I thought that synonyms need not be interchangeable, but interchangeables are synonyms.
Comment: "Hence and therefore may be considered synonyms, or at least interchangeable." Don't you mean "Hence and therefore may be considered interchangeable, or at least synonyms." ? :)
Comment: @ArmenԾիրունյան http://english.stackexchange.com/q/88199/14666 Interesting.


What happens if polarized light passes through calcite or some other birefringent material?

Question: every explanation of birefringence I find talks about unpolarized light entering Calcite, but what if I use a polarized light? Will that mean that as I rotate the crystal the light will disappear then reappear, etc?
Answer: If you put unpolarized light in your Calcite crystal, then the beam will be divided into two beams, one for each polarization, with equal intensity.
It you put polarized light (say, linearly), then the two beams will have an intensity that depends on the angle between the axis of polarization of the light and the crystal, following Malus' law. If the entering light is polarized along one of the axis of the crystal, then only one beam will emerge.
To answer your last question, if you rotate the crystal, then there will be two beams of varying intensity, the sum of the intensities being constantly equal to the incoming intensity. Periodically one of the beams disappears.


How do i eliminate render blocking css and js in magento 2

Question: In google page-speed test it shows best opportunity to speed up is eliminate blocking resource. So is there anyone who can guide me to do this?
Answer: You can try this:
Merge js files.
Minify js files.
Enable Javascript bundling.
Merge CSS files.
Minify CSS files.
Optimise CSS delivery by enabling LoadCSS js library.
Minify the critical CSS.
Move JS to the bottom.
Review above-the-fold (AF) content. Do you see any parts that are rendered by javascript? Get that javascript placed in head section so that your AF is not distorted initially.
Identify critical CSS - ie. CSS that is needed to render AF content.
Place critical CSS in head section.
Place all the other CSS at bottom of a page.
Answer: You can try the following points:
1. Minify JavaScript
Minification can help reduce JavaScript file sizes by removing comments, white spaces, and redundant code, and in some cases, also makes the code more efficient by using shorter variable and function names.
Technically Magento2 Backend setting:

If your store is in developer Mode
Go to Stores > Configuration > Advanced > Developer > Javascript settings
Set minify javascript files yes
Cache clean and cache flush

2. Use the defer and async attributes
Instead of the < head > section, place the < script > tags just before the closing < /body > tag to remove them from the critical rendering path.
Async – You should use async if your script contains the following conditions:

The DOM you need is already present (or the script doesn't need the DOM)
The script doesn't depend on other scripts.

< script async src="test.js" > < /script >
Defer – Scripts with the defer attribute will prevent the DOMContentLoaded event from firing until the script has loaded and finished evaluating.
< script defer src="test.js" > < /script >
3 Use Advanced JavaScript Bundling
Bundling JavaScript modules for better performance is about reducing two things

The number of server requests.
The size of those server requests.

This is the inbuilt feature of Magento 2, enabling this setting from the Magento backend.
Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > Developer > JavaScript Settings > Enable JavaScript Bundling.

Test cases :
i) Backend > store > Configuration > Advanced > Developer > Javascript
settings

Merge javascript file: No
Enable js bundling: Yes
Minify js files: No
Move js code to bottom: Yes

ii) From CLI

Set store mode as production
Run full deployment
Clear all cache and set all permissions

After Bundle –
i) Looks like most of the js code is missing in the newly created bundle js files
ii) Along with newly created bundle js files. All js files present in the request queue
iii) Observed that the Merge JavaScript Files option automatically set as "Yes" but was not before.
4. How to eliminate render-blocking CSS
CSS files can include characters like space, indentation, and comments to make them simpler to read . Unused CSS block time and block resources.
5. Minify CSS
CSS files can include characters like space, indentation, and comments to make them simpler to read. All of these characters are superfluous for the browser, and by minifying these files, they will be deleted. At the end of the day, lowering the amount of blocking CSS will always improve the time it takes to fully render the page's core content (LCP).
To improve: Remove any unneeded CSS from your site or relocate it to a different stylesheet if it's needed on a different page.
Use loadCSS to load files asynchronously for any CSS that isn't required for initial rendering, leveraging rel="preload" and onload.
Example,
< link rel="preload" as="style" href="https://static.sooqr.com/custom/117844/1/combined.css" >


One document version of truth but needs to be accessed from multiple locations

Question: I have a need sometimes for one document to be referenced in several subsite document library locations. Any ideas what the best approach for this is?
Answer: There are several other ways of doing this.

Use a Link To Document content type. This is used whenever you have a library, and you want the document to appear in several libraries. I usually pick the most general library to house the document in and then enable the "Allow management of content types" in the Advanced Settings of the Library Settings. Then add the "Link to Document" content type and add that content type in the menu to link to the URL of the desired document.
You can also use Link Lists. Post the document in a library, somewhere public, that everyone that can get to the links of the document can get to the referenced document as well. Copy the URL of the document, and paste it as a link in another site or subsite, in a "Link List" of your choosing or create a new Link List.
Answer: You could use the 'Send To' feature found on the context menu of your document. If you set 'Other Location' to another document library, SharePoint creates a symbolic link to that original document. When the original document is updated, SharePoint can update all 'copies' of that document as well.


Where do I get more mannequins?

Question: I got a mannequin in the latest for putting clothes on it and such. Can you get another one? If so how? I tried to check if you can get another one by asking Sable but I got nothing.
Answer: There are 4 mannequins that you can get in the game and the requirements are as follows:

Purchase 51 items of clothing at Able Sisters and Mabel will give this to you
Befriend Sable and she'll give you this after talking to her frequently
Purchase at least one item on 31 different days from Labelle
Receive from Gracie

Note that if you accidentally sell one of these, you can never get it back! Each character gets 4, so you'd presumably be able to start another resident to unlock another should you accidentally sell one.
However, you cannot trade mannequins between players in any way, so if you were indeed to accidentally delete one, you'd only have access to the mannequin on your other resident. Mannequins cannot be dropped and when attempting to attach one to a letter, I could not, as you can see below:
Comment: Can you get more from other players?
Comment: @OrigamiRobot No, they're not tradeable at all. I've edited my answer to reflect this.
Answer: Grase will give you one when its your first time there in the t and t emporium after spending 100000 at the super t and t
Bells then after you spent 70000 you have to pass at least four fashion items, then buy 1 clothing from her. Then she will say "we have a discount". That's how you earn a maniqun
Comment: I think this might be from an older game.

Where do I get more mannequins?


What does it mean with the ask price is below the last price?

Question: Typically, I am accustomed to seeing things like {"ask":1.0123, "last":1.0118, "bid":1.0113} but every now and then I'll catch something doing {"ask":1.0118, "last":1.0123, "bid":1.0113}, what, if anything is this a sign of? My best guess is that you have less ground to cover in order to meet your sell goal.
Answer: It means that the market has dropped and someone is willing to sell below the last traded price. So there is some level of selling pressure that is driving prices down.

could the beneath last ask be an indication of a currency that is, or about to, enter some sort of down fall?

Not necessarily. Certainly it means that there is some downward pressure, but it's not such a strong signal that I would panic. It could just mean that there was recently a spike and the market is cooling back down.
Comment: I am looking specifically at cryptocurrency markets. If I purchase something I am looking to sell it at a certain rate above what I bought it at. The closer that ask is to the bid the less of a journey I have to make my profit, which is one way to look at it, however, could the beneath last ask be an indication of a currency that is, or about to, enter some sort of down fall? Thanks again.
Comment: Well, technically, it does indicate a decrease in price ... of 5 basis points.
Answer: A locked market is where a buy order at one exchange isthe same price as a sell order at another exchange.
A crossed market is when the bid price of a security exceeds the ask price.
These can happen for several reasons.

There are multiple exchanges operating at different speeds and proper bid/ask matching fails.
It's a fast market where there's a high influx of orders, occurring most often on the Nasdaq during after market hours
It's a stale quote that market makers failed to remove
Comment: *Locked* and *crossed* markets are terms defined in the *order protection* rules of US securities exchanges (*protected markets*).  For equity markets they should generally not occur at all.  For the reasons: (1) Exchange speeds generally operate now in the sub millisecond level now, so should not be an issue. (2) The after hours markets are not *protected* so locks and crosses are allowed.  (3) Stale quotes are usually market data issues rather than real quotes (sometimes on the exchange side).
Comment: Perhaps locked and crossed markets "should generally not occur at all" but I occasionally see locked markets  during regular trading hours, despite exchange speeds operating now in the sub millisecond level now.   Crossed markets are much rarer but they too pop up once in awhile.  I think that observance is directly proportional the amount of screen time.
Comment: The exchanges are generally required to not to lock the markets under the order protection rules, though some allow members to submit orders in such a way that they can lock markets (certain order types may allow it).  Those members are subject to regulatory penalties if they do it too much without reasonable explanation (it is a minor rule violation).  There are some circumstances where they can occur naturally (e.g. two participants submitting opposite orders to different exchanges at the same time), but usually the locking participant should remedy the lock and correct it promptly.
Answer: The difference between the bid and the ask is called the spread.   It just shows the price difference between the best priced buy order, and the best priced sell order.
If someone submits a better priced buy order that does not yet reach the price of the best sell order, the bid price will update to reflect that new buy order, and the spread will narrow.
Similarly, if someone submits a better (lower) priced sell order that does not reach the price of the best buy order, the ask price will update to reflect that new order and the spread will narrow.
If someone submits a buy order that matches (or is priced higher) than the best (lowest) priced sell order, a trade will occur and the price of that trade will be displayed as the 'last' price - i.e. the price of the last trade.  If the order was big enough to fill the best priced sell order, then the next best priced sell order will be displayed.
This is how the order book operates on most continuous auction trading markets.   To get the hang of it, try using a paper trading account to see how the order book works.
The bid, ask and last price don't provide much information about what the market is going to do next, but rather just the state of the market at a given point in time.  Some would argue that the market is usually driven by principles of supply and demand while others could argue that it moves randomly.


Forgot Username and Password on Linux Mint

Question: I have Linux Mint 17.3 on VM Virtual Box. Unfortunately, I forgot my username and password. Can someone tell me the steps on how to reset my username and password?
Answer: You could boot it into single user mode (if you don't know how to do it, just Google it) then enter this command:
mount -uw /

(In some cases, this command varies from system to system, so you may have to try some other command to make the filesystem writeable.)
Then type passwd then type what you want 'the root password' to be (just make sure it's a very secure password!) Then 'the root user' will be enabled, then log into 'root' then you'll have admin privileges and you can then reset your password, but while logged in as root, be careful, because while you're root, you have infinite privilege on the computer and you could easily accidentally delete an important system file without it even asking 'are you sure'.
Answer: On Arch Linux, you could boot a live image of the OS, arch-chroot and then run passwd.
Maybe you could do something similar on Linux Mint.
Answer: Reboot your guest OS and press F12 or ESC key to load boot menu
Step 1. Select Recovery Menu
Step 2. In Recovery Menu select below option

Step 3. You are now logged in as root, change any user credentials using passwd command


How to get past account lock information in oracle database?

Question: Is it possible to query the history of previously locked/unlocked Oracle database user accounts? I've tried dba_user but there is no option to get history.
Answer: You can't. The database stores the actual status of an account and the time since it is expired or locked, but no history. The only history it stores is the password history, for enforcing password policies.
Comment: A more fundamental question seems to by "why?"  Of what real use could be made of this history information?  What business decision is determined by it?
Comment: Any other options to get these results?
Comment: @ree Sure. With some custom script, periodically collect and store the required information.
Comment: Dear Balazs,can you please share,if you have
Comment: @ree This question was about "past history", Balazs his comment would log future changes. Logging future changes seems a new question to me.
Comment: dear all,if any one have script to capture these in future,kindly share
Answer: Going forward, you could implement auditing of alter user commands which would capture when a user ID is unlocked, but would not capture when it got locked due to number of unsuccessful login attempts.  Take a look at http://docs.oracle.com/database/121/DBSEG/audit_config.htm#DBSEG1115 for details.  If you really need to know when it was locked, etc. as Balazs suggests, you could invoke SQL every hour/day/week that would insert into a table a copy of the columns of interest from dba_users:
create table my_log (as_of date,
                 username varchar2(128),
                 account_status varchar2(32),
                 lock_date date);

Then every so often, do this:
insert into my_log (select sysdate,
          a.username, a.account_status, a.lock_date from dba_users a);

Answer: Once the account is open and you want to know when it was locked, you can use user$ view.
 select NAME,LTIME
 from user$
 where NAME='abc';


3d printer recommendations that can print fidgets?

Question: I am looking for a cheap 3d printer that can print this: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1307100 and is hopefully under US $200, such as the Creality Ender 3, Monoprice Select Mini Pro and V2, the Wanhao Duplicator i3 mini, the Anet A8, or the tronxy p802ma.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is a shopping question.
Comment: Try looking for secondhand printers on kijiji or craigslist. I got one all assembled, and calibrated for less than half the retail price. It was used so little that it had the original filament that came with the printer. The previous owner basically bought it, set it up,  got bored, and sold it.
Answer: Pretty much any recent commercially available 3D printer should be able to print that model. Only really old stuff, or poorly built DIY machines, might have trouble. It may take some tuning of slicing settings to avoid problems with the rings bonding together during printing, but a more expensive printer is unlikely to make the tuning any easier.
The printers you listed in the question are probably all decent choices. I have an Ender 3 and like it but it's a little over \$200. There are some printers well under \$200, like the Monoprice Mini Delta, but I don't have any experience with them and product recommendations are off-topic here anyway. Also keep in mind that you'll have to spend a little bit on consumables, at least one spool of filament that's typically around \$20 (slightly cheaper for no-name brands, much higher for fancy color/shine/etc. or special materials, but simple PLA should be fine for what you want).


What part of speech is "semblant" in?

Question: "Elle fait semblant de boire."
Is semblant a noun or an adjective here?
Answer: There is no adjective semblant although it existed as such in old French.
Here, semblant is part of the idiom faire semblant which means "to simulate", "pretend", "feign".
Semblant alone is the participe présent (present participle) of the verb sembler or the noun derived from it.
Answer: Semblant is the present continuous form of the verb sembler. The usual adjective would be semblable. The present continuous form can be substantivised, as in le prétendant (and indeed, le semblant) and it can be adjectival, café chantant, place payante...
Idiomatic constructions with faire can take either a noun or an adjective, as in faire le con (noun, as evident from le), faire partie (noun, even though there is no article present) cela fait drôle (adjective, but idioms in the class are viewed as low-brow); cela fait chic
On fait semblant de chanter, for instance. This de might make one lean toward semblant being adjectival in this context, as we also say things like cela fait chic d'arriver légèrement en retard.
Comment: Not to be confused with the noun "prétendant(e)" which is mostly used to qualify a lover.

What part of speech is "semblant" in?


Exercise asking what a gate-level circuit output signify

Question:
This exercise from Introduction to Computing Systems from Bits and Gates to C/C++ & Beyond by Yale N. Patt and Sanjay J. Pattel asks what the value of OUT signifies in this circuit. If it's 0, then there are many cases that give 0, same for 1. So, am I supposed to study all these cases (which is a LOT of work that I don't think is the goal of the exercise)? And if I did so and found out what combinations give 0 and those that give 1, how will this help me find the significance of OUT. Moreover, they didn't even tell what the circuit does, nor what IR, P, Z and N on the top of the circuit are, probably registers but they also didn't tell what they are meant for, so how am I supposed to know the significance of OUT without knowing all of what I mentioned?
Comment: I wouldn't know, of course. Anyway, ignorant as I truly am about the circumstances, what I wrote is what I'd guess. Luckily, you have the materials. So you are in the better position to figure it out.
Comment: P, Z, and N are likely ALU status: parity, zero, and negative. The IR is likely an instruction register, by the looks of which is longer than 8 bits and perhaps 16 bits or longer. Don't have and never read that book/exercise. So I can only give a wild guess. If I had to guess about the meaning of that, I'd say that there is an instruction type that needs to output a control bit (out) that controls something in the execution phase that we don't know about but where controlling it relies upon some fields in the instruction as well as sampling those three status bits. Maybe a conditional JMP?
Comment: @oabdullae I looked at that book. It's very, very poorly written, and leaves out a lot of explanation and description that it'd need to make sense to a non-expert. I'd say that book is a waste of paper it's printed on. If you don't have to use that book, throw it away and get something better. With a well-written book you wouldn't be asking questions here so often.
Comment: *the book didn't talk about such things before at all so this shouldn't be an exercise at this point of the book* You're assuming that the book was done by competent people. It wasn't. The answer to the question is rather simple to someone with knowledge in the field, but even then the question is somewhat pointless, since it's more of a "can you recognize this from what you've seen before". You'd be surprised at how much knowledge is needed to get this question answered. The book is not much help with it.
Comment: @periblepsis maybe but the book didn't talk about such things before at all so this shouldn't be an exercise at this point of the book
Answer: With a background in many processors and their instruction sets, my conclusions are:

IR commonly means "instruction register".
P usually designates the parity flag in a processor's status set.
Z usually designates the zero flag in a processor's status set.
N usually designates the sign flag in a processor's status set (n for "negative").

The logic circuitry NORs the left 4 bits of the IR together, so that the output of the NOR is true only if all 4 bits are zero.
Each of the 3 next bits to the right is individually ANDed with one of the mentioned flags of the status set. Thus such a bit gates the flag. The outputs of the 3 ANDs are ORed together, which means that any of them can to be true to drive the last AND.
This last AND outputs true only, if the instruction in the IR has its 4 leftmost bits at zero and at least one of the next 3 bits is true and the respective flag is also true. Else the output is false.
One could now try to find some existing instruction set, but I don't see the necessity.
We can safely assume that this is the first part of the instruction decoder for condition jumps or branches or skips or a group of other conditional operations. For example:

binary opcode
mnemonic
meaning

0000 000 ...
jn
jump never (yes, there are such instructions sets!)

0000 100 ...
jm
jump on minus

0000 010 ...
jz
jump on zero

0000 110 ...
jnp
jump on not positive (negative or zero)

0000 001 ...
jpe(or jpo)
jump on parity even(could also be jump on parity odd, depending on the definition of P)

For simplicity they designed this simple mask scheme, which might allow only one of set mask bit. Combinations are possible, but some are ... hrm ... strange.
Final line: So OUT signifies the condition of a conditional command. It does not have to be an operation to change the flow of control, though!
Note: If the book really does not prepare you for this question (I didn't read it), you should consider to drop it and read another one.
Comment: Thanks so much! Though I don't exactly know what condition jumps are (probably while loops in programming I guess) nor branches or skips. Anyways, what I understood is that this circuit does what a row in your table does. Am I right? Also what book can you recommend for me that treats the same topic as this. Thanks again :)
Comment: @oabdullae If you don't know what conditional jumps are, either you did not read the book or it is worse than assumed. -- You should do your own extensive web research. Recommendations are off-topic here. However, years ago I stumbled over "NAND2Tetris", it might be a start.
Comment: I read the first 3 chapters of the book and still going on. ok I will look for this one, thanks
Answer: Observations:

IR is the instruction register.
P, Z, N are bits in the status register.
P, Z, N are each and-ed with a dedicated mask bit in the IR.
The left 4 bits of the IR are AND-ed together.

The output is true when:

the left 4 bits of the IR are zero, since only then the 4-input NOR will output 1, and
any of the flags gated by the 3 right bits in the IR are set.

The output is false otherwise.
As for what does the output signify: nothing useful. The flag "masking" scheme as shown is useless. This is not, for example, how you'd decode a conditional jump, even though the authors probably had that intention.
The circuit's function can be exactly described, as above, but it is a useless circuit. Make your own conclusions from that.
Comment: Your analysis on the book seems correct. However, since you used your apparent experience in machine code, you might want to go one more step. The output signifies the **condition** of a group of conditional jumps/branches/skips (execute if status bit X is set). These opcodes have the leftmost 4 bits at zero, and the next 3 bits define the status bit that needs to be set. For simplicity they design this simple mask scheme, which might allow only one of set mask bit. One _could_ try to find some existing instruction set, but I don't see the necessity.
Comment: I don't know if it's an error or a misunderstanding from me, but you said that "the left 4 bits of IR are ANDed together", which is not true because they are NORed. thanks for your answer though it was helpful :)
Comment: @thebusybee Can you please write a detailed answer explaining what you mentioned in your comment. Thanks!
Comment: @thebusybee A conditional jump predicated on an AND of masked condition codes is pretty useless...


Why is "yeah" considered unprofessional?

Question: I have read in many places on the Internet that "yeah" is considered unprofessional. And that using "yes" is preferred and considered more formal. What is the reason behind it?
Comment: possible duplicate of [When is it appropriate to use "Yeah" and "Yep" as variants of the word "Yes"?](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/1954/when-is-it-appropriate-to-use-yeah-and-yep-as-variants-of-the-word-yes)
Comment: Doesn't your own language have an equivalent meaning in ways to say yes?
Answer: Because it is informal and colloquial.

yeah adv. Informal Yes.
yeah American English, colloquial, by 1863, from drawling pronunciation of yes.

You can check this similar question as well:
When is it appropriate to use "Yeah" and "Yep" as variants of the word "Yes"?
Answer: Because "yeah" is an informal and almost lazy way of saying yes. In yeah,you are not pronouncing the word yes correctly.


How to test an Angular SPA for DOM XSS with OWASP ZAP?

Question: I want to test an Angular SPA for any DOM-based XSS. How do I do that with OWASP ZAP?
Answer: Same as any other modern web app. The key thing it to explore it effectively - proxying unit tests is good if you have them but you will also need to use the Ajax spider to drive the UI. If your app has authentication then you'll need to configure it to handle that.
All of which is too much to answer in full here. There are loads of videos on https://www.zaproxy.org/videos-list/ which go into a lot more detail and the User Group is the best place for more detailed assistance: https://groups.google.com/group/zaproxy-users


What is the Story behind Niradri Bije?

Question: Niradri Bije is a Post Ritual of Jagannath Rath Yatra .What is the mythological Significance of this ritual and how is it celebrated ?
What is the Story behind Niradri Bije ?
Answer: 'Niladri' suggests Lord Jagannath and 'Bije' means to enter. This is really interesting as it is all about the continuation of the fight between Lord Jagannath and Goddess Laxmi. Lord Balabhadra and Subhadra entered the temple after they return from the vacation but Lord Jagannath was not allowed to enter.
A fight happened between Lord Jagannath and Laxmi in front of the temple. Goddess Laxmi was angry on him as he had not taken her along for the vacation to his aunt's place. He had also closed the door when the Goddess had come to meet him. The angry Goddess Laxmi didn't want him to enter the temple as he had disrespected her.
Even after a lot of requests, Lord Jagannath was not allowed to enter the temple premises.  It was only after he offered 'Rasgullas' an Oriya sweet made of curd and cheese to Goddess Laxmi, she calmed down. She then accepted his apology and allowed him to enter the temple.
Comment: You can cite some source.

What is the Story behind Niradri Bije?


how to stop a starting windows service?

Question: Is there a way to stop a windows service that its status is "Starting"?
I'm working on Windows 7/Server 2008 and the service is running under an admin user.
Answer: You can use Taskkill
for example to kill the w32Time service
<code> Taskkill /F /FI "SERVICES EQ W32Time"
</code>
Answer: You can try right clicking on it from the Services tab in Task Manager.  If there is the option to "Go To Process" (note that you should "Show Processes from All Users" on the Processes tab beforehand) then ending the highlighted process may stop it if all else has failed.

how to stop a starting windows service?


Showing remainder of taylor polynomial goes to $0$

Question: To show the remainder of the taylor polynomial for $e^x$ about $x=0$, goes to $0$, is all I need to do suggest there is some $c \in (0,x)$ such that $r_n(x)=\frac{e^cx^n}{n!}$, where $r_n$ is the remainder term of the taylor polynomial, then note that this approaches $0$ as $n \rightarrow \infty$?
Answer: This is essentially correct but observe that $c$ can depend on $n$. But for any fixed $x$ you can bound $e^c$ by $\max\{1,e^x\}$ and then take the limit of $|r_n(x)|$ as $n\to\infty$.
Comment: If I know the remainder term goes to zero for any function can I bound the term $f^{(n)}(c)$ by $\text{max}\{1,f(x)\}$?
Comment: No. This works here because $f^{n}(x)=e^x$ And this function is increasing. So for any $x>0$ you have $f^n(c)=e^c\le e^x$ and for $x<0$ $f^n(c)<e^0=1$. The bounds depend on the particular function and its derivatives.


Difference between GClock and Clock Buffer Replacement Policies?

Question: What is the difference between GClock and Clock replacement policies?
Answer: GENERALIZED CLOCK PAGE REPLACEMENT ALGORITHM.
With each page frame in memory we associate a count field and we arrange these count fields in a circular list. Whenever a page is referenced, the associated count field is set to i. When a page fault occurs, a pointer that circles around this circular list of page frames is observed. If the count field pointed to is zero, then the page is removed and the new page is placed in that frame. Otherwise, the count is
decremented by 1, the pointer is advanced to the next count field, and the process is repeated. When a new page is placed in the page frame, the count field is set to i if the page is to be referenced (demand fetch) and it is set to j if the page has been prepaged and is not immediately referenced. We abbreviate this algorithm by writing CLOCKP(j, i). The "P" indicates that this is a prepaging algorithm (the prepaging strategy has not been specified). When no prepaging is involved, the algorithm is abbreviated CLOCK(i) . The algorithm used in MULTICS and CP-67 is CLOCK(1).
Sequentiality and prefetching in database systems
So, CLOCK is GCLOCK(1).


Node js with apache or nginx?

Question: I want to use apache/nginx to load static content and use php then use node js to do some real-time application in the same page, Which one is the better choice to combine with?
Answer: Both will do fine. Anything other than that will veer into opinion.
Saying that here's my (brief) opinion:
Apache has been round longer and to some it's more established, with more features and support. Any new module or software you want will almost certainly work with Apache. To others it's staid and stuck in the past.
Nginx is quicker (though honestly you'll struggle to see the difference except for very high volume sites) and has quickly become the web server of choice for a lot of people if you don't have any specific need for Apache for your code. So a lot more newer projects seem to choose Nginx.
Ultimately both with allow proxying to Node so either will do.
Answer: If you want to use PHP just to load the stuff from the database for Node, I strongly recommend to instead use the mysql module for Node.js. I installed it and wrote all the code my project needed in about an hour. You simply make all the queries from inside Node, which is awesome.
As for the server, I use Apache (XAMPP) and it works perfectly.

Node js with apache or nginx?


How to Switch Startup Partition without entering password

Question: For testing purposes I frequently want to restart my iMac in El Capitan, Sierra, or High Sierra which I have on separate disk partitions.  When using System Preferences/Startup Disk, I have to enter my password to do that.  Is there any way to avoid this requirement?
Answer: You can press the Alt-Key on startup to choose from the different booting devices... So you can just restart the Mac and when it "chimes" hold down the alt-key until you can see the partitions.
If you were searching another way, ask again... maybe you could turn off the password protection via System Preferences>Security>More Options>Systemwide... but I can't test it right now, I am sorry
Answer:
Restart and press the Option-Key during startup
Choose your Startup disk from where you want to make it as startup disk
Hold down the Control-Key the Arrow on the chosen disk turns in a Circle.
Click on the Circle to make this startup disk permanent.

Note:This Option not work on all Systems and Configurations. I've tested this with Sierra on iMac Late 2015.


Can I set up Paypal recurring payments on Commerce Kickstart?

Question: Like the title suggests,
I am using Paypal for provide an apparent 'Trustworthy' service to my customers.
I offer a flat-price cleaning service.
I would like to offer a weekly, fortnightly and monthly service to my current 'products' at different discount rates on the original product.
can someone help me perform this?
Answer: The only existing module-based solution is Commerce SP plus Commerce SP PayPal.
The latter is in dev at the moment, but I've found it to work pretty well, albeit with a few minor business-specific alterations.
Answer: This can be done by adding a product pricing rule, checkout this video http://vimeo.com/22625018, nothing to do with recurring payments here :)


Dana, Dhamma Talk or Retreat

Question: Was just curious, can doing dana helps in accumulating good karma?
What about attending dhamma talk or those retreat?
Thanks and sadhu x 3!
Comment: Tq all for the sharing! Sadhu x 3
Answer: Merits, through 'Daana', 'Sila' & 'Bhavana' bring you joy. But Bhavana (Meditation) is not so important at the start. So leave the retreats for a later date.   As the Buddha preached:

"Don't ignore even a small merit thinking that it will not come to you! It is in fact with each drop of water that a pot is filled. Therefore, a wise person will collect all merits even if it is by bit by bit. In this way, his life will full with merits at the end."

It is important to know that no degree of generosity can cover up the lack of virtue in personal life. This karmic law cannot be deceived. This is why it has been laid down that "give dana with confidence and always be virtuous" (daanam dadantu saddhaaya - seelam rakkhantu sabbadaa). The two aspects should be complementary to each other.
So cultivate the five 'Sēkha Bala Dhamma' – Saddhā (faith), Sīla (virtue), Sutha (Dhamma knowledge), Thyāga (generosity), and Paññā (wisdom of the Dhamma). Also religiously go through the stages of listening, remembering, constant reciting, mental observation and ideologically understanding the Dhamma (Sutha, dhata, vacasa paricita, manasanupekkhita, ditthiya suppatividdha). An interesting fact that very few know of is, nowhere in the Doctrine (Sutta) it is mentioned that one becomes a stream entrant (Sotapanna) through meditation. So to your next question, listening to dhamma is more important than practicing meditation. Meditation comes only when one strives to go beyond the stage of Sotapanna.
Answer: Dana, generosity, is considered the first of the 10 perfections (paramitas). A very comprehensive text about dana can be found here.
A sutta underlining the potential of dana: MN 142

There are these fourteen offerings to an individual. What fourteen? [...]

Here, Ānanda, having given a gift to an animal a hundred-fold offering is to be expected (in return),

having given a gift to an unvirtuous ordinary person a thousand-fold offering is to be expected (in return),

having given a gift to a virtuous ordinary person a hundred-thousand-fold offering is to be expected (in return),

having given a gift to an outsider who is without passion for sensual desires a hundred-thousand times a hundred-thousand-fold offering is to be expected (in return),

having given a gift to one who has entered upon the way to experiencing the fruit of Stream-Entry an immeasurable, unlimited offering is to be expected (in return).

What to say about a Stream-Enterer?

What to say about one who has entered upon the way to experiencing the fruit of Once-Returning?

What to say about a Once-Returner?

What to say about one who has entered upon the way to experiencing the fruit of Non-Returning?

What to say about a Non-Returner?

What to say about one who has entered upon the way to experiencing the fruit of Worthiness?

What to say about a Worthy One?

What to say about an Independent Sambuddha?

What to say about a Realised One, a Worthy One, a Perfect Sambuddha?

While dana mostly seems to fall under the training of morality, practicing the dhamma and listening to dhamma would be more on the side of concentration and wisdom. These three aspects, the cultivation of morality, concentration and wisdom sum up the Noble Eightfold Path. So practicing as much as you can according to this path in any way is the best choice.
Answer: Dana has more power than many people think.  From Giving Sutta

Then there is the case of a person who gives a gift not seeking his
  own profit, not with a mind attached [to the reward], not seeking to
  store up for himself, nor [with the thought], 'I'll enjoy this after
  death....—but with the thought, 'This is an ornament for the mind,(cittālaṅkāracittaparikkhāraṃ)
  a support for the mind'—on the break-up of the body, after death, he
  reappears in the company of Brahma's Retinue. Then, having exhausted
  that action, that power, that status, that sovereignty, he is a
  non-returner.

I tried to find where else Buddha used "ornament of mind" to clearify the meaning but I couldn't find anything. So I searched what type of people who would be reborn in Brahma's world and after that, a non-returner.  I found out that  The noble disciple who are expert in entering any Jhanas or arupa sanna, like (take pleasure in, satisfy) in that state, and maintain such ability by time of death (not exactly as dying in that state) they would enter Brahma's world according to his meditation level reach final nirvana after that.
this is strictly my conclusion: one of the characteristics of Jhana is abandoning five hindrances, and maintaining perception in giving, (Danna sanna) can also do the same as medition.
So IMO, giving as ornament of mind = perception of charity or giving in such a way that it abandons 5 hindrances of mind.
noble disciples are stream enterers or higher.

Dana, Dhamma Talk or Retreat


Override CSS settings of plugins

Question: I want to override my plugin CSS settings, but I can't do that in  my style.css file, because the plugin CSS gets loaded after.
Is there a way of getting style to be applied to override plugin CSS?
Comment: what plugin? have you checked all the 'related' links on the right here on the page?
Answer: Will be interesting know which answer developers think is 'better', so as an alternative to Johanne's answer (which can present difficulties if the plug-in loads scripts late, or starts moving them around without warning)
Prevent the stylesheet from loading
If you've included all necessary styling in your style.css then you can prevent the plug-in's stylesheet from loading:
add_filter( 'style_loader_tag', 'wpse106104_disable_stylesheet', 10, 2 );
function wpse106104_disable_stylesheet( $link_tag, $handle ){

    if( 'plugin-script-handle' == $handle ){
         $link_tag = false;
    }
    return $link_tag;
}

This has the advantage of not requiring additional stylesheets to be loaded - but the plug-in's CSS is then included in all page loads, so this may not be desirable.
Replacing the stylesheet
Otherwise, you can copy the stylesheet into your theme, edit and then ensure WordPress uses it instead:
add_filter( 'style_loader_src', 'wpse106104_replace_stylesheet', 10, 2 );
function wpse106104_replace_stylesheet( $stylesheet_src, $handle ){

    if( 'plugin-script-handle' == $handle ){
         $stylesheet_src = get_template_directory_uri() . '/css/themes-copy-of-plugin.css';
    }
    return $stylesheet_src;
}

Answer: Include overrides after wp_head / wp_footer actions
The plugin's stylesheet(s) are most likely inserted into the page using WordPress' enqueue functions.
If so, scripts and stylesheets will be added either where wp_head() is located (usually a theme's header.php file, the default location) or where wp_footer() is (usually a theme's footer.php file, if so specified in the enqueue parameters), respectively.
Hence, if you want to override plugin css, the stylesheet responsible should be loaded at a later point.
Going with the default option of the sheet being inserted into the header, a mock-up snippet of header code could look like this:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/css/reset.css?ver=1.0" />
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<?php bloginfo('stylesheet_url'); ?>?ver=1.0" />
<link rel="pingback" href="<?php bloginfo( 'pingback_url' ); ?>" />

<?php wp_head(); ?>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="all" href="<?php bloginfo('template_url'); ?>/css/plugin-override.css?ver=1.0" />

Proper Enqueueing with dependencies
Alternatively, you could (should) properly enqueue the stylesheet with the overrides yourself and make it dependent (WP will then load it after the dependency) on the plugin's stylesheet.
In order to be able to do so, you'd have to examine the plugin code, and find the handle of the stylesheet to reference it as a dependency when registering your own.
cd /path/to/plugin && grep -r wp_enqueue_style . from a *nix shell should help you out.
Then, in your theme's functions.php file, you'd add the following:
add_action( 'wp_enqueue_scripts', 'wpse_register_plugin_override' );

function wpse_register_plugin_override() {
    wp_register_style(
        'wpse-plugin-override', /* your handle */
        get_template_directory_uri() . '/css/plugin-override.css', /* the file */
        array( 'the-plugins-stylesheet-handle' ), /* dependency */
        1.0 /* version of your stylesheet */
    );
    wp_enqueue_style( 'wpse-plugin-override' );
}

Answer: If you just want to override one class, for example .plugin-class {width: 100px;}, you can just add the same class to your style.css file and add !important to it and that will override it.
.plugin-class { width:200px !important;}

Override CSS settings of plugins


Hidden fasteners for 1/2" spacing between decking boards?

Question: I want to build a screen out of 5/4 x 4 ipe boards with 1/2" spacing, using some sort of hidden fasteners. All the hidden fastener systems that I was able to find so far are designed for decking, and offer the maximum spacing of 1/4"... Is it possible to use one of these systems, but set the boards wider apart?
Answer: Most of the deck brackets are installed board at a time, and the last bracket holds the next board.
The Shadoe Track however is a continuous rail, with conventional screws from below.  It can be set at any spacing.
Comment: That's interesting, thanks! In my case this screen is on the wall, so there is no easy access from behind. I wonder, how feasible would it be to build sections of it on the ground and then attach to the wall...


Search WooCommerce Products in WordPress

Question: I've noticed that my WooCommerce products are not searched by the default WordPress search function. Any idea how to modify the function to ensure that products and product tabs are searched?
Answer: Just extend your search form with a hidden input: (notice the last input field)
<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="<?php echo home_url( '/' ); ?>">

        <?php echo _x( 'Search for:', 'label' ) ?>
        <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="<?php echo esc_attr_x( 'Search …', 'placeholder' ) ?>" value="<?php echo get_search_query() ?>" name="s" title="<?php echo esc_attr_x( 'Search for:', 'label' ) ?>" />

    <input type="submit" class="search-submit" value="<?php echo esc_attr_x( 'Search', 'submit button' ) ?>" />
    <input type="hidden" value="product" name="post_type" id="post_type" />
</form>

Answer: I'm running several WooCommerce sites, and the WordPress search does include products along with posts/pages. Do you have a custom search.php file or any custom functions that would alter the products taxonomy to exclude it from search? WooCommerce also has a product widget that can be used as well.
Comment: I'll check out the search.php file. The theme is sentient by WooThemes. I know for a fact that it's not searching the products but is searching pages and posts as I've tested it extensively. I have another site that runs the theme Mystile (again by WooThemes) and I noticed that the product search bar only seems to search products, not pages or posts.
Comment: This may be a bug withing WooCommerce then. If you contact woothemes, their support is amazing and they may be able to help you if it is a but with WC or their themes.
Answer: You can usually specify the post type in WP_Query.

Woocommerce is product
Wordpress posts is post
Comment: Some example with explanation would be great.
Comment: Given that the original poster did not post source code, I didn't feel the need to make an effort either.
Comment: Down-voted for...


Can "couldn't have done" be used in subjunctive mood?

Question:
We couldn't have finished the work ahead of time without your help.

Does the sentence make sense to you? Can "couldn't have done" be used in subjunctive mood?
Answer: Yes, the sentence makes perfect sense. It is quite conventional.
Strictly speaking, it's in the "conditional mood", not the "subjunctive mood", although grammatical distinctions like moods are rather sloppy in English and terminology is not well standardized. The reason it's conditional is because it depends on "without your help". "Without your help" describes the imaginary hypothesis; "we couldn't have…" describes the consequence of that hypothesis.
You could also just say that it's the "indicative mood", and couldn't is just the past tense of can't. Well, I said that moods are sloppy in English grammar.
I think that for purposes of learning English, the most important thing to know is that people choose the word could because the -ould words seem to mean a condition that results from something else that you're imagining. The same -ould words also suggest the past tense, which also fits this sentence. The terminology doesn't really matter.
Comment: Good summary.  Grammatical accounts of English verbs suffer desperately from being pressed into the mold of Romance languages.
Comment: I don't really undertand why it doesn't follow the 3rd conditional structure (if + past perfect, would + have + past participle), what rule does it follow? Is it an exception? Thanks
Comment: @silvia I (native AmE) don't see it as an exception to anything. What rule would it break?


Does a Nigerian need a transit visa for a 14-hour layover in Panama, traveling from Camaroon to Barbados?

Question: I am traveling from Camaroon to Barbados.  I am Nigerian.  There is a 14 hour layover in Panama.  Can I bypass the transit visa requirement and stay in the airport terminal or the Copa Lounge?
Answer: According to the IATA a transit  greater than 12 hours requires a transit visa for Nigerian citizens (see below for screenshot). HOWEVER, you are exempt from this requirement if you have any of the multiple entry visas from the countries mentioned below (and in picture):

Australia
Canada
Japan
Korea (aka South Korea)
Singapore
USA
UK
any EU member state
Comment: There is an additional factor which is whether it is feasible to spend 14 hours in Panama airport. It may close overnight.
Comment: @DJClayworth PTY does not close. There are departures until 22:30 ish at night, with a pause until 2am. But arrivals continue coming between those hours.


How to avoid error messages in form validation?

Question: Too many error messages will confuse the user. Is there any simple method to overcome validation?
Comment: Hi Pradeep. This is a very broad question which will probably not give you any useful answers. Can you further clarify the problem?
Comment: Ideally with screenshots of how you're seeing "too many errors" with your example.
Comment: Why do you think they will confuse the user? Sounds like an idle assumption stemming from dangerous generalizations like "users don't like clutter". If the user got 5 fields wrong, it is possible that 5 highlights with a text describing *what* went wrong with each is the best solution, which in my book counts as 5 error messages. Do you have any evidence that your users are confused? And that the confusion is based on the *number* of error messages as opposed to, say, ambiguity in the error text?
Answer: Instead of dumping a long list of errors on the user, you should attach each error to it's corresponding field - write the error next to the field or color the field in red and show the error in the hover text or whatever way you like to make the error visually attached to the field.
That way, instead of having to deal with a long list of errors and matching it to a long list of fields, the user can easily treat each field with error separately without being confused.
Comment: Additionally, you could provide a summary of the errors at the top of the form (like "There are 5 required fields which are empty"). If the only type of validation error you have in your form are required-fields-are-blank then you can skip repeating the error message on each invalid field and simply display the summary at the top (and maybe list the fields by name, and definitely indicate the invalid fields by colour/markers).
Comment: This is so true. I might be venting a little bit, but our school's course registration system is a UX nightmare. I wouldn't even call it UX -- it's the utter lack of UX. `Code 1ET8ZJG8 was not matched to 9EJ8X9RB because of error code W99DHE8` -- what am I reading?! Who designed this? Who allowed this to be used? Did anyone ever test it?
Answer: If you mean how to avoid as much as possible some errors message due to errors of the user, you could use a placeholder to give the user the example.
Answer: There's no simple method to overcome validation, but validation can be designed in good or bad ways. If you search this forum you'll find a lot of questions regarding that!
Answer: This is one flow I've seen before:

Form loads with light coloured pre-fill to describe the syntax that should be used to set expectation. This disappears on focus.
User enters in information.
Next page contains a message requesting the user to double check their form entry and ONLY shows the fields that were in error.
Error messages appear on each field on hover.

User cycles through step 3 and 4 until the form is filled correctly.
Apologies, as I can't seem to find the link to this sample but I think that's one approach you  could try.


Get a list of apps in a salesforce Organization

Question: We can get the list of items in the Force.com app menu or App Launcher from the 'AppMenuItem' sobject. This cotains a field 'ApplicationId'. If this is the Id of the application for the item in Force.com, there might be an sobject which contains a row with id as this value. My purpose is to get the list of apps installed from appexchange or created in a salesforce organization. The records in 'AppMenuItem' sobject doesn't contain any field indicating the category of app, for example, Standard or Custom or Console. The value of 'Type' field indicates if the app is a connected or ServiceProvider or TabSet app.
There is another sobject 'PackageLicense' represents licenses for installed managed packages. This sobject also doesn't have enough details.
Any help is highly appreciated.
Answer: You can query on PackageLicense to know all the packages from your org.

PackageLicense
Represents a license for an installed managed package.  This object is
  available in API version 31.0 and later.

<code>SELECT  Id, AllowedLicenses, NamespacePrefix, Status, CreatedDate,ExpirationDate,
IsProvisioned,LastModifiedDate
FROM PackageLicense
</code>