Can Romulans initiate a mind meld?

Question: Given the common ancestry of the Romulans and the Vulcans, and that the Romulans emigrated only about 2,000 years ago (in the TNG era: a drop in the bucket in terms of evolutionary biology), should there be a number of Romulans capable of initiating a mind meld? Is it ever explicitly shown that they can mind meld or that they specifically can't mind meld?
Comment: It's also a major plot point in ENT that Vulcans only *just* started using mind melds again in the 22nd century.
Comment: I don't have the episode on hand to check, but I _think_ ENT 4x14 "The Aenar" mentions or hints that Romulans do have extremely weak telepathic ability.  If it was there, it was an offhand comment and not in the episode summary.
Comment: **Spoiler alert**.
Recent episode in Star Trek: Picard (S01E07) shows commodore Oh mind melds with Jurati to get her spying on Picard's mission.

Commodore Oh is the federation's head of security, and is probably imposing as a Vulcan though she's part of the Zhat Vash/Tak Shiar, hence, most likely Romulan.
Comment: Spoiler: Picard S01E08 wasn't Oh revealed to be half Vulcan/half Romulan?
Answer: They used to have telepathic abilities, but not anymore. Expanded universe reference on Memory Alpha states:

It is explained in Vulcan's Soul that the Romulans rejected the
  telepathy of the Vulcans and slaughtered or enslaved the telepathic
  ones among them during their exodus to the Romulan system: the
  telepaths became the Remans.
Comment: Aha.  The Reman article references the ENT episodes I was thinking of in the question's comments.  They must have been mentioned, but it was before I knew the difference between a Reman and a Romulan (I'd watched ENT before any other series)
Answer: Also the Romulans missed out on the spiritual/social Renaissance that the Vulcans underwent where they tamed their emotions and mastered their minds.  Where Vulcans began a process of reflection and mental discipline, the Romulans focused on conquest and empire building.  Not only that but, as mentioned by @HNL, they rejected the meditative lifestyle entirely, going out of their way to excise those with telepathic potential from their society.
Answer: The Romulans demonstrate some latent telepathic ability in the two-part episode TNG: Gambit where a Romulan uses the Vulcan psionic resonator that "focuses and amplifies telepathic energy" Thus they demonstrably have similar telepathic capabilities to Vulcans.
Comment: The "Romulan" in question was [actually a Vulcan posing as a Romulan](http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/T%27Paal_%28isolationist%29).
Comment: Skimming over the transcripts, it's true, it's not explicitly stated that she's *Vulcan*. On the other hand, I *think* it is made to look like she is indeed Vulcan. What we know is: Toward the mercenaries, she poses as a Romulan. Toward Picard, she poses as a Vulcan V'Shar operative. Also, there is a group of Vulcan isolationists trying to get hold of the artifact. It does not seem like the Romulans have any part in this; toward the mercenaries, a criminal Romulan might just appear as less suspicious than a criminal Vulcan. Instead, it seems reasonable that Tallera belongs to one of the ...
Comment: ... groups that we know are involved with the incident (if only due to Chekhov's gun principle). As she is not with the V'Shar, only the Vulcan isolationists remain, as they wouldn't otherwise have had any other role in the story. (A red herring would be pointless: She's not an isolationist, but actually a ... criminal from an unrelated faction! No, that doesn't work.) Of course, she *might* be a Romulan working with the Vulcan isolationists, but that seems somewhat far-fetched, in particular if we want to use it as evidence for Romulan telepathic abilities.
Comment: Just to be clear: I didn't have the reputation to add the information as a comment, or I would have done so.
Comment: It's a rather strange isolationist that seeks help from outside the group she wishes to isolate.  Also, the talk page seems to indicate that the claim of her being an isolationist may not come from a canon source.
Comment: Grrr . . I meant to say her being a *Vulcan* isolationist may have come from a non-canon source.  I'll have to watch that episode again sometime with this in mind.

Can Romulans initiate a mind meld?


About archive tables in same schema or different

Question: I am working on a Java project with Oracle as backend. We have some tables - with a large volume of data. The data is to be archived after 6 months to archive tables.
I have 2 options:

Main tables and Archive tables to be in same schema.
Main Tables in one schema and archive tables in another schema.

Based on individual users options, I sometimes need to fetch data from both the main and archive tables.
Which of the two options is the better design? What are advantages of each?
Thanks
Answer: I've just done something like this and to counter Jim's answer actually prefer the different schema route.
There are a few reasons...
You can call your tables the same name. It's useful and it's easy to see what's happening. I called the schema archive so all selects are from archive.my_table. If you want to union the two tables together you, for example,
select * from prod.my_table
 union
select *  from archive.my_table

, which reads very well and is unambiguous.
You can take all your table definitions including grants etc and just execute them. No need to bother creating a load of new definitions with a different name. The only difference is that your original schema must  be able to select from your archive schema.
I do agree with Jim on the different tablespaces, and different index tablespaces as well ( you'll have to index them if you're using them). If you're using spinning discs though you can put the archive tablespaces on any slower discs you have as it doesn't matter if queries on them go a little bit slower.
Answer: I work with a similar scenario in two different products.  The best thing in my opinion is to keep them in the same schema, but for performance you probably want to have them in different tablespaces, with datafiles for each tablespace on different physical disks (i.e. different LUNs on the SAN for each tablespace).  That's what we do in our data warehousing software; we have tables where active data goes, and a move history procedure that moves the data to a HIST table at the end of the day.
The only real benefit to different schemas, other than organization of like-tables, is if you would like the schemas to be able to be run from different servers/instances.  Since it sounds like you'd like to be able to join the tables in certain scenarios, you wouldn't be able to have them in different instances (not without a DBLink, and those are to be avoided).  So there's not much benefit of having a different schema.


Engineers/Scientists to break into management consulting

Question: Engineers and Scientists are probably not the kind of people management consulting companies look for. But I think many of such would be highly qualified and a good fit for management consulting positions, especially where vision and strategy are needed.
What would you suggest for a scientist or an engineer to succeed in getting a job, considering that the hardest part is to even get a phone call?
Answer: I'm afraid I've got to say that many of the things that one might consider an asset, are in reality going to be a hindrance.
Rigour, consistency, reason, domain knowledge, ability to describe uncertainty, always prepared to put appropriate caveats on findings: these are all encumbrances in almost all management consulting.
What you need to cultivate is the ability to form strategy on the basis of a fairly superficial understanding of a business; and the ability to persuade people to pay you lots for you to borrow their watch and then tell them the time.
Oh, and do watch House of Lies through, end to end, a couple of times, to get a feel for it.
Having said that, there is a tiny niche in management consulting available for the skilled technician who's prepared to say no to clients who want "regular" management consulting, and only take on clients who want a thorough, rational, informed job done. There aren't many of those clients, whch is why it's a tiny niche. And it's more likely to be a boutique subject-specific consultancy. But if you find one (or found one, i.e. you are the founder), and it gets the right kind of clients, you'll be very happy (and completely exhausted much of the time), and financially very comfortable while the clients are there.
Answer: Your most likely bet is to sell yourself as an operations management specialist. There's an entire field called Industrial Engineering, which is essentially business optimization techniques. There are many aspects of this field that you've likely covered in your coursework, such as optimization methods and probability theory. Emphasizing this in your portfolio can help land you positions in a vast array of fields, ranging from broadly-defined operations management to process engineering to personnel management.
Comment: +1. Any form of Operations Research, Financial Engineering and Industrial Engineering fall into that list.
Comment: I guess the problem is to even get a call from them, since I have no background in business, and it won't be sufficient to say I believe I'm the right person for them. Do you think reading books about management consulting and mentioning them on the CV would help?
Answer: Looking at the current set of responses, they seem to be heavily biased. As someone having spoken to several PhDs in management consulting, let me try to clarify some of the nuances.
First, it is not true that you have to let go of rigor, but rather need to be time-sensitive. This is because the management consulting model works on an hourly-basis and therefore, while consulting on a project, your time determines your payment. Most companies, have several reasons to hire external consultants. At times for the expertise, sometimes for an external perspective, and at other times for helping them communicate capabilities and constraints to their superiors. Regardless, one thing is sure that the time-sensitive nature of the field leads to shorter project life-cycles and at times lack of implementation, which is a stark contrast from a PhD experience where the candidate is the sole worker and implementor.
Second, it is completely false that consulting firms consider PhDs as overqualified. In fact, in top-tier management consulting, advanced degree holders (PhDs) enter at the 'associate' level rather than the 'analyst' level, and generally speaking, move up faster.
Third, and logically following the last point, it is a misconception that consulting firms do not entertain advanced degree holders. In fact, the last I checked, ~10%+ of Mckinsey & Co's total employees were PhDs (as listed on their website). Further, most top management consulting firms have a special set of recruiters meant to be hiring advanced degree holders. You may find them on the company websites.
Finally, I admit that as a field, management consulting has its lows such as those mentioned in the answers thus far, but it would be naive to think that other fields (specially academia) do not have their own shortcomings. Overall, I think that the world needs more PhDs and the management consulting world needs more PhDs working to make corporations better, especially since corporations affect several aspects of our lives.
Answer: A management consulting company once tried to recruit me (I have a PhD in computer science). They said they wanted me for my brain and they didn't care so much about my background. That said, I didn't have a PhD at the time, so maybe my brain is now spoiled.
Comment: I have a PhD in ECE from an Ivy League school, and yet, noby ever called me for a phone interview...
Answer: Other than Sheth's answer, all the responses (including the green checkmarked one) are misleading.  25+ years out of date and written by people hypothesizing versus having experience.  I recommend to any students looking into this avenue to talk to your college career center and to just read some recruiting websites (start with McKinsey).

In the late 90s, McKinsey was bringing in 1/3 (real number) of US associates as APDs (alternate professional degree, non MBA).  And the global percent was higher.  They had a well established recruiting and training process.  Other firms were slower but starting to do the same (more the top firms than the lower tiers).
Even for top tier MBA students (HBS, etc.) the odds are hard to get consulting jobs, especially at premier firms.  Same applies to Ph.D.s, perhaps made more difficult that they have less option to go to lower rung firms (that just bring in MBAs).  Note, there's a 2012 comment about "I had a Ph.D. and no phone interview".  So?  Just having the union card itself is not distinctive.  Most ballplayers don't get a combine invite either.  It's just odds, just numbers.  If you don't get it, you don't have the case interview solving analytical instinct they are looking for
They're just looking for willing, trainable brains and the ability to do the work.  Figure something out from a blank slate.  Problem-solve, etc.  Specific technical or field training is irrelevant.  They will put the English major into a fab or the material scientist into a film studio in a heartbeat.  After all most of the MBAs are generalists without specific industry focus also.
Sameness:  Job is the exact same gig as what an HBS MBA gets.  Same salary and bonus.  Same assignments.  Same offices.  Learning curve is fast so after a gig or two, there's no difference.  Plus the case interview selection process has already screened for candidates with qualitative analytical ability within the Ph.D. pool.
Slight differences:  They do/did have a 3-week training program to give the MBAs the basic toolkit (learn some micro, learn how to do DCF and what goes into the WACC).  Good deal.  There's maybe a slight disadvantage in not having the MBA for some post consulting interviewing (just dependent on HR departments), but still plenty of options where they just look at people post consulting, not worrying about the MBA.  Also, maybe the MBA students sort of "want it more" as their dream job.  That was Marvin Bower's observation. One other small difference is that most MBAs have pre-MBA working experience (often at the sort of client you serve) so at least they've had a "real job".  Plus, you can consider the argument that it's a waste of a Ph.D. (the actual subject matter technical training).  And that you ought to be "curing cancer", not analyzing merger synergies.
Note that consulting has its good/bad aspects, including for the MBAs.  Sure, read House of Lies book.  Author was a Booz associate so he'd seen the sausage get made.  (He was also the popup video show producer for MTV, which explains the zany writing style.)  It's an OK expose and anyone who has been there will read parts that ring true to them.  But I also wouldn't assume you know what it's like from a book versus from doing it.  Like all the 23 year olds who think they know what an I-bank is like because they read some Michael Lewis.  If anything we need a trenchant expose of academia.  It's not like it's all daisies there either...


Windows Vista not booting after deleting a partition

Question: My cousin just deleted his Linux partition and another smaller partitio nand now Windows is not booting, no he does not have the recovery disc. When Windows tries to boot it goes to "GRUB" and says "partition not loaded". What are some GRUB commands? And is it possible to fix this without using the recovery CD? Thank you in advance.
Answer: It sounds to me like he has deleted the 100Mb boot partition, or deleted and messed up the Windows boot loader.
If he doesn't have a recovery disk, the best thing you can do is simply download a trial disk and burn it then boot from it.
Windows PE should load (The installation environment) then choose the option to repair your machine.
It should detect the problem and either (I am not to sure which), recreate the partition and copy the boot files or simply copy the boot loader and files to the active/primary partition.
This will most likely delete GRUB, but next time you load, everything should be fine.
The trial link is for Windows 7 Enterprise as that is all I could quickly find. Windows Vista and 7 bootloaders are compatible with each other.
If however it does not automatically fix the problem, you can choose Command Prompt as a repair option, then manually rebuild the boot sector.
Go in to Diskpart and make sure the main Windows drive is active (or recreate the 100Mb partition and set that to active).
Next, type the following:

bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

This should, scan for errors, fix and rebuild the boot sector and repopulate the menu.
(If you want to read more about Bootrec, click here)
Comment: It looks more like GRUB is referring to files on the Linux Partition which are no longer there.
Comment: Running those bootrec commands that Wil mentioned should replace the grub bootloader with the windows bootloader and fix Vista.


Would an abortion invalidate the first living son as a Bechor?

Question: If someone had an abortion prior to giving birth to her first living child, a son, is that son not a Bechor which would require a redemption? My assumption is that he's not since the Bechor is supposed to be the opener of the womb.
Comment: Quick answer - yes, he's not a Bechor.  Source - a friend's uncle who fits the question's exact situation.
Answer: Whether to concider a stillborn as the firstborn or not would depend on the stage of developement of the fetus and other variables, See Shulchan Aruch, Yoreh De'ah 305:22 & 23, with various commentaries and their opinions.  But if you are discussing an early term abortion, before the fetus has human form than all would agree that the next child would be the bechor.
Answer: You are correct.
Mishna Chullin 4:2:

המבכרת המקשה לילד, מחתך אבר אבר ומשליך לכלבים.יצא רבו, הרי זה יקבר ,
  ונפטרה מן הבכורה.
An animal that has a difficult time birthing its first offspring, the
  fetus can be cut into pieces and thrown to the dogs (Bartenura -- it
  is not holy). If most of it came out, it should be buried (Bartenura
  -- it becomes holy as a firstborn when most of it comes out). The mother is exempt from בכורה (first born).

The last Bartenura on that mishna explains:

שהבא אחריו אינו בכור. בין שיצא ראשון אבר אבר ובין שיצא רוב כאחד, דהא
  שני לאו פטר רחם הוא.
The one that comes after it is not a בכור (firstborn); whether it [the
  firstborn] came out most at once (and became holy) or whether it came
  out in pieces (and was never holy), the next one is not the פטר רחם
  (one that opened the womb).

( all translations are mine )


Why do DFT calculations output molecular orbitals?

Question: My understanding is that DFT finds the electron density which minimizes some energy functional. How does it make the connection from this optimized density to molecular orbitals?
Comment: IIRC, most implementations of DFT and TD-DFT use Kohn-Sham orbitals, and the density is expressed in terms of those orbitals. So, the program always deals with orbitals, the density is calculated from the orbitals.
Comment: Do you know how this works in time independent DFT? I'm worried you are confusing the two.
Comment: @IanBush No, I wasn't aware there was a qualitative difference in how the connection was made in TD vs TI. Based on S R Maiti's answer though I'm under the impression that there isn't. What did you have in mind?
Comment: As long as you know there is no difference that is fine - I was just concerned you keep mentioning  the time dependent part when that has been totally irrelevant for your last two questions.
Comment: Oh I see what you mean. I was pretty sure that distinction wasn't necessary but included it just in case.
Answer: The short answer is they do not.
We can identify two distinct ways of doing DFT calculations, OF-DFT (orbital-free DFT) and KS-DFT (Kohn-Sham DFT).
Let us start with the OF-DFT formalism, as it is the formalism that is more in the 'spirit' of DFT.
In OF-DFT the energy is given as:
$$E\left[\rho\right]=\int_{\Omega}\phi_{\mathrm{ext}}\left(\boldsymbol{r}\right)\rho\left(\boldsymbol{r}\right)\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}
+
\frac{1}{2}\int_{\Omega}\frac{\rho\left(\boldsymbol{r}_{1}\right)\rho\left(\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\right)}{\left|\boldsymbol{r}_{1}-\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\right|}\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}_{1}
+
T\left[\rho\right]+E_{\mathrm{x}}\left[\rho\right]+E_{\mathrm{c}}\left[\rho\right]
$$
The first term is the external potential, the second term is the Coloumb interaction of the electronic density with the electronic density (electron-electron repulsion including self-repulsion), the third term is the kinetic energy functional, and the last two terms are the exchange- and correlation-contributions.
As can be seen in the above equation, there is no dependency on orbitals anywhere.
Now let us examine the KS-DFT formalism:
$$ E\left[\rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}}\right] = \int_{\Omega}\phi_{\mathrm{ext}}\left(\boldsymbol{r}\right)\rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}}\left(\boldsymbol{r}\right)\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}
+
\frac{1}{2}\int_{\Omega}\frac{\rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}}\left(\boldsymbol{r}_{1}\right)\rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}}\left(\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\right)}{\left|\boldsymbol{r}_{1}-\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\right|}\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}_{2}\mathrm{d}\boldsymbol{r}_{1}+
\left< {\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}} \left| \hat{T} \right| {\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}} \right> + E_\mathrm{x}\left[ \rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}} \right] + E_\mathrm{c}\left[ \rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}} \right] $$
We can see that in the KS-DFT formalism all of the terms, except for the kinetic energy, are the same as in OF-DFT formlism. Note, that the density here is contructed from the KS-orbitals.
In the KS-DFT formalism we get the kinetic energy contribution from the application of the kinetic energy operator on the KS-orbitals, whereas, in the OF-DFT formalism the kinetic energy is a functional of the density.
Now to address your question directly. In (KS)-DFT we do not construct the orbitals from the optimized density. Instead we construct the density from the orbitals. I.e. the density is:
$$ \rho_{\Phi^{\mathrm{KS}}} = \sum_{i=1}^N \left|\phi^\mathrm{KS}_i\right|^2 $$
However, this raises the question, why do we bother with KS-orbitals? Here, the unsatisfying answer is: Because we do not know any sufficiently accurate kinetic energy functionals.


What does nirguna stand for in SB 10.88.5?

Question: The verse from Bhagavata 10.88.5 reads as :

harir hi nirguṇaḥ sākṣāt puruṣaḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ
  sa sarva-dṛg upadraṣṭā taṁ bhajan nirguṇo bhavet

What does the word nirguna stand here and what is the justification?
Answer: First, the context of the verses makes it clear that it is talking about modes of material natures(3 gunas)
See for eg:

SB 10.88.3: Śrī Śukadeva said: Lord Śiva is always united with his
  personal energy, the material nature. Manifesting himself in three
  features in response to the entreaties of nature's three modes, he
  thus embodies the threefold principle of material ego in goodness,
  passion and ignorance.
SB 10.88.4: The sixteen elements have evolved as transformations of
  that ego. When a devotee of Lord Śiva worships his manifestation in
  any one of these elements, the devotee obtains all sorts of
  corresponding enjoyable opulences.

Now, occurs the verse

harir hi nirguṇaḥ sākṣāt puruṣaḥ prakṛteḥ paraḥ sa sarva-dṛg upadraṣṭā
  taṁ bhajan nirguṇo bhavet

Since, it is already described in Bhagavatam that Hari has many qualities.
For eg:

ete cānye ca bhagavan nityā yatra mahā-guṇāḥ prārthyā mahattvam
  icchadbhir na viyanti sma karhicit
SB 1.16.29: The Lord possesses many other transcendental qualities
  which are eternally present and never separated from Him.

Considering the context in which 10.88.5 occurs and the previous descriptions of transcendental qualities of Lord, nirguna can mean above material gunas.
Therefore 10.88.5 can be aptly translated as:

Lord Hari however, the primeval purusa, is transcendental to material
  nature and absolutely untouched by the modes. He is the [inner]
  witness seeing everything. By worshiping Him one is freed from [the
  influence of] the gunas.

Chaitanya Mahprabhu says this in 20th Chapter of madhya lila, Chaitanya Charitamrta
'śiva' — māyā-śakti-saṅgī, tamo-guṇāveśa
māyātīta, guṇātīta 'viṣṇu' — parameśa
and then quotes the 10.88.5.
Nirguna is interpreted in the same manner by Jiva Goswami, Sanatan Goswami, Viraraghavacharya in the commentary to this verse.
I highly doubt if any advaitin commentator on BHAGAVATAM would have interpreted nirguna to mean 'devoid of qualities' in this straight forward verse.
So, thinking dispassionately,fitting the definition that nirguna means 'quality-less' or 'devoid of qualities' makes no sense and is self contradictory in this context, nirguna translated as 'untouched by three material modes/material qualities' seems apt.
Comment: @Sarvabhouma Maybe Sridhara swami
Comment: "So, thinking dispassionately, Advaitic nirguna makes no sense and is self contradictory" Advaitic nirguna may not make sense in this context, but it certainly makes sense in the upanishadic context. Moreover, you need to show whether any advaitin takes the word nirguna incorrectly in this context.
Comment: @LazyLubber yes in this context only. No advaitin commentator would have misinterpreted it.
Comment: Who is the advaitic commentator who wrote commentary to this verse?
Answer: This verse from Srimad-Bhagavatam has to be understood remembering the context, the commentaries of Sridhara Swami, and what Sri Krishna Himself says about His 'Nirguna Swarupa'.
Context
King Parikshit asked Sukdeva: Lord Shiva is a yogi devoid of any luxuaries and Lord Hari is the Husband of Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth.Then why do the devotees of Lord Shiva become wealthier while the devotees of Lord Hari get poorer? (10.88.1)
In reply, Sri Sukadeva said: Lord Shiva is ever associated with His Shakti Uma. By three gunas, He is expressed by  three types of egos : Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika. When a devotee worships Shiva as embodiment of any of the three gunas, he receives the fruits accordingly and becomes wealthier and luxurious.
While Lord Hari is devoid of these three material gunas and is beyond all gunas.He is Purna, Purushottama, Omniscient and Ever-Witness. Those who worship Him becomes free from all the gunas and goes beyond the gunas.
Sridhara  Swami's commentary
Sridhara Swami mentions in this context that the worshippers of Shiva and Brahma get bhoga and slowly proceeds to Mukti (shanair moksha).While the worshippers of Vishnu gets Mukti quickly.
Then Sridhara Swami points out that the quarrel between the devotees of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in this regard is just delusion (tadbhaktAnam tu kalaho mohamatram iti).
How Sri krishna explains 'Nirguna'
Now what does 'Nirguna' mean? Sri Krishna says to Yudhisthira:

The person on whom I shower my grace (will become poorer)  as I shall remove all  his wealth slowly. He tries first to regain the lost wealth, but fails by my grace.He  then becomes totally dispassionate and gradually mixes with my devotees and remains in their company and serves them. Therefore I become more graceful to him and liberate him from the world.(10.88.8-9).

What happens to the devotee then? Sri Krishna says:

tad (that) brahma(Brahman) paramam (Absolute) sukshmam (Subtle) chinmatram (as only Pure Consciousness) sad (Eternal)anantakam (Endless).Vijnaya (By knowing)AtmatayA (by the Self) dhirah (Wise Ones) sansArad (from the worldliness) parimuchchyate (is liberated). Meaning: By knowing Absolute Brahman that is Very Subtle,Eternal, Endless, and Just Pure Consciousness by his Self, the wise ones are liberated from worldliness.(10.88.10)

Here Sri Krishna Himself explains what is meant by the word 'Nirguna'. Nirguna means the very Subtle form which is Existence, and Pure Consciousness.
We see that there is no fundamental difference between Sri Krishna's description of 'Nirguna' and Adi Sankara's concept of 'Nirguna'.
Sri Krishna then says that many devotees find it difficult to attain Him like this and start worshipping the deities for material gain.
Adi Sankara would not object to this at all!
Sri Jiva Goswami in His Sri Vaishnava Toshini Commentary and Sri Radhavinoda Goswami in his Bhagavatamrita Subcommentary do not use a siingle word that denigrates Shiva or any other deity. Moreover, its mentioned that Lord Shiva has a 'Tatpurusha' Form Who grants Self-Knowledge.

Lord Shiva has one such form while all the Forms of Lord Hari are beyond worldly qualities and are beyond all qualities."All of them correspond to the KEVALA and NIRGNA svarupas mentioned in the Upanishads".

(Reference : Srimad-Bhagavatam, Canto 10, Chapter 12, Commentary by Sridhara Swami and Sri Jiva Goswami and subcommentary by Radhavinoda Goswami, Mahesh Library Kolkata, 1st Ed.,pages 255-263.)
Comment: What is that one tatpurusha form? It is start worshipping other deities.
Comment: @KrishnaVarna Tatpurusha is a form well known among the devotees of Shiva and It is One of the Five Forms worshipped on the Shivaratri Festival.
Comment: I know for sure that there is one from Sadashiva that Jiva Goswami mentions which is direct avatar of Krishna and in same category of Vishnu. He may be referring to that. That form can grant moksha as well..
Comment: @KrishnaVarna Yes.Tantra also says the same thing.
Comment: "King Parikshit asked Sukdeva: Lord Shiva is a yogi devoid of any luxuaries and Lord Hari is the Husband of Lakshmi" Exactly how nirguna brahman can become husband of Lakshmi, when nirguna brahman is a non-dual state?
Comment: @Lazy Lubber That you could ask Sri Sukadeva.But I think it was your answer that described Sri Vishnu's Form as symbolical folliwing the Vishnu-Purana? I personally think for the devotees He is always with Form BTW.
Comment: We already discussed about this. Giving a symbolic interpretation of the form does not imply suggesting that the form is non-existent. In any case, the issue here is not about form, but the presence of two entities.
Comment: @LazyLubber I do not think Ice and Water are two entities, but you better study Bhagavatam yourself and get the answer.
Comment: But neither is ice the husband of water


Entropy and the uncertainty principle

Question: According to the second law of thermodynamics, the total entropy of the Universe must always increase after any interaction (as I understand).  So in the hydrogen atom, the electron has a high probability of being found in some region around the nucleus specified by its quantum number.  My question is, if the hydrogen electron is probed, does this action increase the entropy of the atom's surroundings?  If so, does this mean that the process of narrowing down the position of the electron (within the possible limits) increases the region over which one or more of the particles in the environment is likely to be found (i.e. does the increase in entropy imply that the 'probability cloud' of a particle expands over a larger region?)
Comment: *"According to the second law of thermodynamics, the total entropy of the Universe must always increase after any interaction (as I understand)"* This is not true. This statement is very often heard, probably since Clausius used similar words, but it is an unfounded extrapolation of the second law of thermodynamics. "Total entropy of the Universe" is problematic notion to begin with, because in thermodynamics, entropy refers to a system in a state of thermodynamic equilibrium defined by few variables. The Universe is hardly such a system.
Comment: From your "uncertainty", it seems that you know the answer.
Comment: Like this, check [this](http://physics.stackexchange.com/q/115026/44176) also.
Answer: To begin with, entropy is a classical thermodynamics concept. Different statistical frameworks , assuming some postulates, can define an entropy.
The basic formulation of entropy defined by statistical mechanics

where kB is the Boltzmann constant, equal to 1.38065×10^−23 J K−1. The summation is over all the possible microstates of the system, and p_i is the probability that the system is in the ith microstate.

where rho is the density matrix and ln is the matrix logarithm. This density matrix formulation is not needed in cases of thermal equilibrium so long as the basis states are chosen to be energy eigenstates. For most practical purposes, this can be taken as the fundamental definition of entropy since all other formulas for S can be mathematically derived from it, but not vice versa.

Your question:

if the hydrogen electron is probed, does this action increase the entropy of the atom's surroundings?

The hydrogen electron can be probed with a photon of an appropriate energy for a transition to a higher level, or for ionizing the atom.  The entropy of the whole sample is increased by these interactions, as different microstates are created which will add to the count. The probability cloud, the orbital, will change,  the whole atom will have a different momentum etc. In the image, a higher energy level will have a larger space occupation for the probability.
On the other hand when the electron falls back to its ground state emitting one or more photons, again the entropy will increase because the number of microstates will go up, even though the lower orbital will occupy a smaller volume in space. Thus the increase in entropy does not depend on the spatial distribution of the electron orbitals, but on the number of microstates , so there is no one to one correspondence of entropy and the spatial probability "cloud"/orbital.
Answer: Yes. Any process that creates or changes information involves a local change in entropy, and requires energy to accomplish.
See Wikipedia's article on entropy & information.
Answer: In quantum statistical mechanics entropy is not defined via the probability density of a single state but through the density matrix which talks about the "non-quantum uncertainty" over the states. This is the "probability density" over which all the entropy theorems are proven in the quantum world.
That is, if we know the system to be in a sharp quantum state, it's thermodynamical entropy is undefined (as is fittingly stated in the comment by Ján Lalinský), and it's quantum information entropy (defined by a certain trace of the density matrix) is zero. And this is true even after the action of measurement collapses the state to a different one. Entropy in the sense of thermodynamics is thus eliminated from this discussion.
But, to answer your question in a different way, we can talk about the growth of true uncertainty in observables. In this sense, by the collapse you either increase or decrease uncertainty with the lower bound set by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. However, it is pretty clear from the linearity of quantum mechanics that e.g. for a superposition of two energy levels, the uncertainty will remain the same after collapsing a large ensemble. (Yeah, there's the bit on probability being quadratic, but this is no problem as long as we use quadratic uncertainties.)
To conclude, as long as we consider large ensembles, quantum mechanics doesn't really need a treatment of the measurement as any kind of physical action rather than as a curious information process. So the answer is no, the surroundings of a hydrogen atom need not in principle increase it's entropy in a measurement.

Entropy and the uncertainty principle


Is it possible to restrict access to Sharepoint online for download and sync but allow printing?

Question: My users has unmanaged devices. I want to restrict online access only to Sharepont Online.
So they cannot download documents and upload again, they should view and edit online.
But these users should be able to print on their local printer.
When it is restricted they stil can use printscreen so it is bad for users to restrict printing.
Is it possible to allow printing while it is not allowed to download and to documents locally??
Answer: You can do it by applying the Azure Information right management (IRM) policy. If in your environment Azure IRM policy is enabled in the Office 365 admin center, you will get the below configuration option in library settings:

Set additional IRM library settings
Configure document access rights
Set group protection and credentials interval

There, you need to configure the Configure document access rights.
For details refer to the below article:
Enable and configure information rights management (IRM) in SharePoint Online
And also, if we go to the document link settings, under the Other Settings, the following options will be available.

Allow Editing
Set expiration date
Block Download

So, using the link setting also we can control the document downloading.
For details refer to the below article:
Block Downloading For View-Only Links In SharePoint Online And OneDrive
OR
You can create a custom access level for the view-only document, like below:

Source:
How to Restrict Download & Print Option for SharePoint Online Document library


What's a circuit to compute the expectation value of an observable?

Question: Apologies if the question is naive. I want to compute the expectation value of some operator for a particular model. It seems I can do that with Hadamard test. I have the circuit for the ground state of the Hamiltonian. Is there any other methods to compute expectation values in a straightforward manner?
Answer: It all depends on the observable you care to measure. On the quantum computer, you only have access to single qubit Pauli-Z measurements. You may, for example be interested in computing the expectation value of a Pauli-X operator, how can we do this with only single qubit Pauli-Z measurements?
Since we don't get to change our measurements, we will have to change our state. To figure out what rotation we need to perform, we seek a unitary $U$ satisfying $X = U Z U^\dagger$ where $X$ and $Z$ are the Pauli-X and Pauli-Z operators respectively. Since these are $2\times2$ matrices is quite straight forward to show that in this case $U=H$, where $H$ is the Hadamard operator.
Ok, so now that we've found $U$ for transforming between $Z$ and $X$ measurements. Let's compute an expectation value! Let $|\psi\rangle$ be a single qubit state. We want
$$\langle\psi|X|\psi\rangle$$
But we know that $X = UZU^\dagger \equiv HZH$. Therefore,
$$\langle\psi|X|\psi\rangle = \langle\psi|HZH|\psi\rangle$$
Therefore, the circuit you need to perform to perform an $X$ measurement is just the circuit you used to prepare $|\psi\rangle$ with an $H$ gate applied on it at the end, right before measurement! i.e. if $U_\psi:|0\rangle \mapsto |\psi\rangle$, then we just need to run the circuit $HU_{\psi}$ and perform the standard Z measurement multiple times and collect samples to compute the expectation value of $\langle\psi|HZH|\psi\rangle = \langle\psi|X|\psi\rangle$.
This procedure generalizes for more exotic operators. In general, you can find the measurement circuit you need to append by finding the unitary satisfying $U^\dagger Z U = \mathcal{O}$, for the operator $\mathcal{O}$ who's expected value you care about. It gets only slightly more complicated for simultaneous measurement of multiple (commuting) observables.
As a side note, computing expectation values of $Z$ operator is quite easy. Because it's eigenvalues are just $\pm 1$ and we always get an eigenstate of $Z$ (i.e. a bitstring) on measurement, so
$$\langle Z\rangle \approx \frac{N_0 - N_1}{N_{exp}} \equiv P(0)-P(1)$$
Where we've used $N_i$ to refer to the number of observations of the $i^{th}$ eigenstate.
You can see more general identities for measuring more complicated sets of Pauli Operators on Microsoft's website explaining Pauli measurements: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/quantum/concepts-pauli-measurements.
I also really like a lot of the features for dealing with expectation values in Pennylane, they automatically compile circuits depending on the set of observables you are trying to compute the expectation of. You can find some examples of that functionality here: https://pennylane.readthedocs.io/en/stable/code/qml_grouping.html.
Comment: BTW, thanks for the reference of Azure document on how to perform measurements for the multi-qubit observables.
Answer: Just prepare the groud state and then do measurement in the basis of eigenvectors of the observable. For example, if you want to calculate $\langle \sigma_x\rangle$, then just measure in $|+\rangle$ and $|-\rangle$ basis, and assign $+1$ to measurement result $|+\rangle$, assign $-1$ to measurement result $|-\rangle$, then you can calculate $\langle \sigma_x\rangle$ as $\sum_i{\frac{X_i}{N}}$ where $N$ is repetition number of measurements and $X_i=\pm 1$ is the result for $i$-th measurement.
Comment: I agree if we know the eigenvectors of the operators, we can compute the observables this way. However, I am a bit puzzled that why we should assume that we know the eigenvectors of the operators. In a general case, we won't know the eigenvectors beforehand.
Comment: @Anyon Quoted from Nielsen and Chuang's book, chap 2.2.5:

Projective measurements: A projective measurement is described by an observable, $M$, a Hermitian operator on the state space of the system being observed. The observable has a spectral decomposition,
$$
M=\sum_{m} m P_{m}
$$
where $P_{m}$ is the projector onto the eigenspace of $M$ with eigenvalue $m$.
Comment: From my perspective, an observable is an object to describe measurement, we know it so we can measure it. If we don't know it, there's no way to measure it.


Set up iCloud Keychain without phone?

Question: Is it possible to set up iCloud Keychain without a mobile phone? If it is possible then how can I do it?
Answer: On your Mac:

Open System Preferences > iCloud
Check the box next to "Keychain"

On an iPad:
Settings > iCloud > Turn Keychain On
If you don't have any phone that can receive SMS it looks like you will need to call Apple Support to activate iCloud Keychain.
Comment: (oops, didn't notice the ipad tag)
Comment: When I try to set up iCloud Keychain by turning it on it always asks for a mobile phone number. Is there another way to setup the keychain without having to send a SMS to a phone?
Comment: From: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5813 "If you don't have access to any of your other devices that are using iCloud Keychain, you can still set up iCloud Keychain on another device if you have these items:

Your iCloud Security Code
The device that is using the SMS-capable phone number you provided when you first set up iCloud Keychain. A verification code is sent via SMS to this phone number. If you don't have access to this number, contact Apple Support, who can verify your identity so that you can complete setup on your new device."
Comment: It doesn't seem to say anything about the original setup, but it looks like you can contact apple support to get set up without the SMS step.

Set up iCloud Keychain without phone?


Do I need to take the TOEFL Exam?

Question: I studied in the US up until the 6th grade, came back to India, completed high school here and finished a bachelor degree in computer science here in India. All my education in India was completed in English only. I am also a US citizen. I want to pursue a masters degree in the US. Do I need to take the TOEFL exam or not?
Comment: Yes, it is a good option, to prevent academic hassles.
Comment: I know a guy that was asked to take the exam for a Postdoc after he completed a Masters and a PhD in a British university with 4 journal publications. Sometimes the "need" is not for proving your English skill, its  just some legal paperwork you need to go trough. Just take it.
Answer: The safest course of action would just be to take it.
Each department at each university has its own policy on the TOEFL.  Usually international students from non-English speaking countries are required to take it, but there may be exceptions.  It is common for there to be an exception for students who have attended a university in the US, but that does not apply to you.
So you'd have to check the policies of each department where you want to apply, to see if they have an exception that does apply to you.  Or, if there is no written exception that applies, you could contact them directly, explain your situation, and ask them to waive the requirement (of course there is no guarantee that they will agree).
So unless you can verify that every department you care about will accept you without a TOEFL score, you had better take the exam.
Answer: Most schools will say that they don't require the TOEFL if the language of instruction in your previous institution was English.
In reality, if you're applying from outside USA/England/Australia/New Zealand, then it's a very good idea to have TOEFLs (unless your GRE verbal scores are very high - top 10 percentile).
You want to extinguish any possible doubt about your English-speaking ability.
Comment: English is one of the official languages of the Union of India, along with 22 others.... Given that most people don't know that, it's safe to take the TOEFL without pushing the issue too much.
Comment: The first few programs I checked had wording like "we don't require the TOEFL if you previously attended an English-speaking university *in an English-speaking country*".
Comment: Absolutely concur: take it, ace it, and remove a possible hassle from your future.  And if you can't easily ace it... well... you shouldn't try to wish that away either.

Do I need to take the TOEFL Exam?


Can't handle convmv

Question: Description:    Ubuntu 11.10
Release:    11.10
Codename:   oneiric

I have a lot of folders and files with ??? ???? ??.txt - like file names when I do
$ sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /media/some/folder

My external HDD is really fat32. Following a couple of suggestions, I need to
$ convmv -f cp1251 -t utf-8 -r --notest folder/

but enca can't define encoding of the file(s). So, I've tried several encodings by try-and-check and it didn't work. I need to decide which files to delete and which to leave. So,
1) how to mount external HDD fat32 to show filenames correctly? 2) How to convert filenames encoding if I do not know encoding?
Update
$ sudo dosfsck -a -v /dev/sdc1
dosfsck 3.0.9 (31 Jan 2010)
dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN
open: No such file or directory

Rebooting the system and remounting it solved this magic. But now I face a problem of
rm: cannot remove `somefilehere': Read-only file system

As I understand, the filesystem on external HDD is corrupted. Also dd_rescue is probably my choice but if I could repair safely, I'd like to.
update2
Solved problem partly by
$ sudo mount -0 remount,rw /path/to/mountpoint

But still can't remove some files.
sudo chmod 777 -R /path/to/par

causes : Input/output error
Answer: It shows the file names that way, where ? is the Unix convention for "unknown/non-displayable character". You could:

You can specify mount codepage=... for VFAT
ls > somefile, and then look at the file to try to identify the character coding, perhaps file helps
od -c can help too

Can't handle convmv


Resize multiple images to fit canvas

Question: I imported multiple images to make a GIF. The problem is, that the images have multiple resolutions. How can I automatically scale all images to fit the canvas?
Answer: This is a case where you want to use a script to read the size & position of each layer's bounds so that it can dynamically transform them.
To use this script, copy the code into a plain text document, save, then rename the extension .txt -> .jsx
You can then drag the jsx into Photoshop to run it.
Notes:

What you're asking for may noticeably stretch some layers if they differ a lot from the canvas size.
This script is untested. Backup your files before trying it on them just in case.

<code>var doc = activeDocument

preferences.rulerUnits = Units.PIXELS

var layers = doc.artLayers
var lenLayers = layers.length

for( var i=0; i<lenLayers; i++ ) {  // Loop thru each layer

  var layer = layers[i]

  var bounds = layer.bounds // Bounds is a rectangle [x1,y1,x2,y2]

  // Move to top-left corner
  layer.translate( -bounds[0], -bounds[1] )

  // Calculate percent scaling from layer bounds to document (canvas)
  var resizePercentWidth = doc.width / ( bounds[2] - bounds[0] ) * 100
  var resizePercentHeight = doc.height / ( bounds[3] - bounds[1] ) * 100

  layer.resize( resizePercentWidth, resizePercentHeight, AnchorPosition.TOPLEFT )
}

</code>
If you're interested in learning scripts like this, here are resources to start with:

https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/photoshop/pdfs/photoshop-cc-scripting-guide-2019.pdf
https://www.adobe.com/content/dam/acom/en/devnet/photoshop/pdfs/photoshop-cc-javascript-ref-2019.pdf
https://www.w3schools.com/jsref/default.asp
Comment: don't forget to multiply `resizePercentWidth` and `resizePercentHeight` by 100 (you're getting ratio, not percents) and restore user's `rulerUnits`
Comment: Thanks Sergey, I've edited the post.
Comment: I also found a script. I used the script Fit Layer To Canvas from jawinn. Since the script is only for the active layer I tried to change it to apply to all layers.

The script from jawinn: https://gist.github.com/jawinn/ab4df1c33d0743e41fd3

yours seems to do the trick on all layers. Thanks a lot!

Best regards

Resize multiple images to fit canvas


WordPress or Community Server or N2?

Question: I am starting a website where i would like to post technical articles. I am looking for a system that helps me post code easily, is optimized for Search engines and is easy to use and operate.
For now, I don't have any plan of having a forum in there, maybe in the future.
Any suggestions?
Answer: If you want to stay with a .Net back end, rather than full Community Server you could try BlogEngine.Net.  Source is available in c#, and there is a code formatting addin included.
If you are not hosting on a Microsoft server then I would probably second Darth's suggestion and go with WordPress.
Answer: WordPress is good to start with. It has convenient administration and is easy to setup and use. And there's whole bunch of plugins for almost everything.
Answer: Now, you could also have a look at DotNetNuke (Codeplex Download). Install is straight forward, with a community to help you with any issues.
Just add a page and paste your code into the text/html module and voila, done.
Granted it will not format your code in pwerty colours but it will do what you require. This is VB.NET code so will require IIS/SQL Server combination if that is within your system preferences.
Answer: Wordpress with the "wp-syntax" plugin makes for some nice code highlighting.
It uses GeSHi highlighting, so you simply need to do something like the below:

    // code

As it's based upon GeSHi, it supports a lot more and is nicer to copy and paste than Google Code Prettify.
In regards to the "dated" nature of Wordpress, this can be changed relevant to theme (that is, how important you make the date) and through changing the permalinks. For example "http://example.com/article/" is possible.
Answer: I'm a fan of Mediawiki for posting code (there are some nice source highlighting plugins), especially as code articles generally aren't date specific like blog posts on WordPress migh tbe.

WordPress or Community Server or N2?


Mounting NAS on system start

Question: I know this is a question that has been asked many, many, many times but I can't find a solution that fits all my criteria.  And I apologise if there is a duplicate for this problem, if there is I can't find it.
I'm using a Raspberry running Rasbian, totally up to date.
It's connected on wifi, it cannot be cabled.
My network storage is a Synology DiskSation with SMB and NFS running.
My users all have access to the NAS.
I need the mount to be created when the desktop loads/user logs in.
I've tried the fstab route, with cifs I get a protocol error, I don't think then as understands cifs, with nfs I cannot get passed a security problem, but I know my users are setup correctly, they work with every manual mount.  However, I have read somewhere that 'fstsb' runs way before any wifi will be running, so it won't work anyway.
I've tried going the 'rc.local' route, but I can't get any script to run.
I've tried the '.bashrc' route, this works perfectly but only when a user opens the terminal window.
I've tried the System Service route, but there are either problems with the [unit] or What/Where syntax and I can't find specific raspbian options.
At this point I've run out of unix knowledge and blue google results!
if anyone has achieved this specific mounting issue, could you please put me out of my misery and let me know the right way to go?
Many thanks.
Answer: Assuming you do not need access to NAS at boot time, you could use autofs. It will automatically mount the target on demand when the mount point is accessed.
Ubuntu wiki article contains examples for both NFS and CIFS.

Mounting NAS on system start


Determine which function was called

Question: def f():
   return

g=f

g.func_name is "f"
How do I get "g"?
Comment: Independently of wether there is or isn't a solution, why do you need this in the first place?
Comment: Short answer: you can't.
Comment: Also in the case of `lambda`s, they will have no name except `''`. (Lambdas share types with normal functions, at least in CPython: `types.FunctionType==types.LambdaType`)
Answer: You can't.
EDIT: gc.get_referrers exists, but will not tell you which reference to a function object was used to call it, so it doesn't help you. In addition, there are certain caveats when using that function and I don't know whether it works under implementations other than CPython. Its use in production code is discouraged.
As a final note, while the FAQ may not be entirely correct about whether you can determine an object's name, its insights as to whether you should are dead-on.
Comment: Nice answer, except that it isn't really a correct answer.  You actually can.  Whether you *should* is a different matter ;-)
Comment: Re-edited answer to reflect this. I didn't know about `gc.get_referrers`, but I think you still can't tell _which_ reference to a function was used to call it.
Comment: "Can't" is a dangerous word to use when talking about Python ;-)  Take a look at ``sys._getframe`` and think about how tracing, profiling, and pdb work.  Python has **A LOT** of ways to do introspection.  Accordlingly, you should be hesitant to use the word **CAN'T** when talking about a **CAN DO** language like Python.  Just say-in ;-)
Answer: When f is created by def, the __name__ attributed is created at the same time.  That attribute is assigned to the function object and it persists no matter what you subsequently assign the function to.
In general, an object doesn't know which variables it points to.
However, we do have tools like gc.get_referrers() than use implementation specific logic to find all the references to an object:
>>> def f(x):
    return x**2

>>> g = f

>>> import gc
>>> gc.get_referrers(f)[0].keys()
['g', 'f', '__builtins__', '__package__', 'gc', '__name__', '__doc__']

Another technique is to scan a namespace for all instances of a particular object:
>>> [key for key, value in globals().items() if value == f]
['g', 'f']

Comment: That finds all the names for the function, rather than "find under what name a function was called" as stated in the question title (or am I missing something?).  May still be useful for the OP, of course.
Answer: You may be able to do it by inspecting the source code using inspect module, and only then with some limitations (at the very least, you'll need to be able to obtain the line where the name in question is mentioned).
You absolutely shouldn't do that unless you really know why you need it.
Answer: a = 1
b = 1
c = 1

What is the name of 1? Does that question even make sense?
A function is an object like any other, such as 1 or "cats". It has a __name__ attribute that tells you what name it was originally defined as, but other names can be assigned to it, and no record is kept on the object of these assignments.
You can search all local and global variables for it, but this won't find every possible reference; references to the function can be held in containers such as dictionaries or lists, as object attributes, as globals in other modules, and probably other places I'm not thinking of right now. Oh! Closures. Still, this is the gist:
def f():
    pass

g = f

allvars = dict(globals())
allvars.update(locals())
funcnames = [key for (key, value) in allvars.iteritems() if value is f]
# returns ['g', 'f']

Determine which function was called


What happened to Pandavas and Shri Krishna after Mahabharata?

Question: After Mahabharata, there is no major presence mark made by Pandava and Krishna. What happened to them after that?
Answer: After Mahabharat they return to their respective kingdoms, rule for few decades (around 35 years) and then leave this world for ever having served their purpose of life. The Mausala Parva and the Mahaprasthanika Parva of Mahabharat has the detailed description about it. The major events in breif are:

After Mahabharat war is over, Gandahari struck with grief on the death of  his sons curses Shri Krishna that the Yadavas will also die a same death. Shri Krishna accepts the curse.

After around 35 years the sons of Shri Krishna playfully misbehaved some rishis and got cursed in return. Samba dressed as a pregnant woman, along with other Yadavas, went on asking rishis to predict the gender of her future child. One rishi gets angry and curses he will give birth to an iron piece which will destroy their entire race.

Dwarika witnesses bad omens and sinful activites increase. Shri Krishna instructs others to go on a pilgrimage to Prabhasa.

At Prabhasa, the Yadavas drink wine and get intoxicated. A fight ensues among them and every Yadava kills one another. Only Shri Krishna, Daruka, Vabhru and Balarama survive. But later on Vabhru and Balarama leave this world too.

Shri Krishna sends Daruka to inform Arjuna and bring help. Meanwhile, a hunter mistakenly shoots an arrow that strikes at Shri Krishna's foot and leaves Him wounded. Shri Krishna consoles the hunter and then merges in the image of Vishnu and leaves this mortal world for His own abode.

Arjuna reaches there. Tries to save widowed queens of Shri Krishna but loses in fight against the barbarians. Vedavyasa instructs Arjuna that the Pandavas' purpose of life has been over.

Yudhisthira coronates Parikshit and the 5 Pandavas along with Draupadi set out for their journey towards heaven by climbing the mountain Himalaya. A dog follows them on their way up to the mountain.

Along their way while climbing the mountain one after another in the order of Draupadi, Sahadeva, Nakula, Arjuna and Bhima fall down and die.

Yudhisthira alone survives and Indra comes to welcome to heaven him with his chariot. Indra asks Yudhisthira to leave the dog behind and enter into the chariot and go to heaven.

Yudhisthira declines the offer to enter into heaven unless the dog also goes with him as the dog has befriended him. The dog then becomes Yama and tells Yudhisthira that he has passed the test. After that Yudhisthira enters into heaven.

Thus, after many such series of events Shri Krishna and the Pandavas leave this mortal world. The city of Dwaraka submerges into the ocean and eventually the present age of Kali begins.

Reasons for which the Pandavas fell down from the mountain
As per Ankit's suggestion (with reference to the point 8 above) below are the reasons, as given by Yudhisthira to Bhima, for which the Pandava brothers and Draupadi except Yudhisthira fell down from the mountain:
Draupadi
O best of men, though we were all equal unto her she had great partiality for Dhananjaya. She obtains the fruit of that conduct today. [MB - 17.2.6]
Sahadeva
He never thought anybody his equal in wisdom. It is for that fault that this prince has fallen down. [MB - 17.2.10]
Nakula
He was of righteous soul and the foremost of all persons endued with intelligence. He, however, thought that there was nobody that equalled him in beauty of person. Indeed, he regarded himself as superior to all in that respect. It is for this that Nakula has fallen down. [MB - 17.2.16]
Arjuna
Arjuna had said that he would consume all our foes in a single day. Proud of his heroism, he did not, however, accomplish what he had said. Hence has he fallen down. This Phalguna disregarded all wielders of bows. One desirous of prosperity should never indulge in such sentiments. [MB - 17.2.21,22]
Bhima
You were a great eater, and you used to boast of your strength. You never attended, O Bhima, to the wants of others while eating. It is for that, O Bhima, that you have fallen down. [MB - 17.2.25]
Comment: Is there any evidence that Arjuna and other panda as were present when krishna died? Is there any evidence of krishna was unable to repeat the Gita to arjun at a later date? Kabir panthi have said that krishna who all the time tried to avert war, asked Arjuna to fight when he himself was against it in the beginning .
Comment: @nikhara Are you asking out of skepticism, i mean for real evidence? If not, then in Mahabharat Krishna had called in for Arjuna and not all the Pandavas before getting shot by the arrow. And after the war Arjuna asked Krishna to repeat the Gita again as he had forgotten it due to involvement in the war. But Krishna said that was a spontaneous narration and he couldn't recall it in detail exactly as he had said in the battlefield. So he narrated another Gita known as the Anugita.
Comment: #6 - How can Arjuna lose in fight against barbarians who were not even considered Maharathis?
Comment: @ChinmaySarupria yeah, Arjuna was even shocked and thought his divinity was lost. It could be due to two reasons.One, Krishna left earth and Arjuna (as devotee) lost his lord and two, in Kaliyuga whatever prowess a person have, they would some times face defeat.
Answer:
Bhisma attained to the status of the Vasus.
Drona entered into Brihaspati
Kritavarma entered the Maruts.
Pradyumna entered Sanatkumara
Dhritarashtra and Gandhari obtained the regions,that belong to the Lord of treasures
Pandu proceeded to the abode of the great Indra
Virata and Drupada, the king Dhrishtaketu, as also Nishatha, Akrura, Samva, Bhanukampa, and Viduratha, and Bhurishrava and Sala and king Bhuri, and Kansa, and Ugrasena, and Vasudeva, and Uttara, that foremost of men, with his brother Sankha  entered into deities
Abhimanyu entered soma
Karna entered Surya
Shakuni obtained absorption into Dwapara
Dhrishtadyumna into the deity of fire
The sons of Dhritarashtra were all Rakshasas of fierce might obtained heaven.
Both Kshattri and king Yudhishthira entered into the god of Righteousness(Yama?)
16,000 women had been married to Vasudeva  transformed into apsaras
Ghatotkaca and others, who were slain in the great battle, attained to the status, some of gods and some of Yakshas.


What causes the death of the Sun?

Question: In a previous question I learned that in  each second only a miniscule portion of the total hydrogen in the Sun is converted to helium and that the number is 1/10^18 of its mass converted each second.    Since it takes billions of years to run out of hydrogen what is the event(s) that causes the Sun to eventually stop using the hydrogen for the nuclear reaction?   (and about how long for this to happen.)
Comment: This link describes the final 140 million years of the Sun's life: http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~infocom/The%20Website/end.html.  Scroll down to the graph of luminosity vs. time for a chart of the life history of a large star.
Answer: The core of the Sun is radiative. That means that energy is transported outwards primarily by photons and is stable to convection. This means, to first-order, that the centre of the Sun is not mixed up by convection.
As the hydrogen in the core is burned, it forms helium, which has a larger atomic mass. The helium sinks towards the middle and the core fills with "ash". The parts of the Sun well away from the core still have plenty of unburned hydrogen, but because there is no mixing it cannot get to the centre where it is hot enough to sustain hydrogen burning. As the hydrogen burning continues, the helium content of the core grows and the mean mass per particle increases. This causes the core to contract and get a little hotter to maintain pressure, and increases the rate at which the remaining core hydrogen is burned.
However, as the supply of fresh hydrogen peters out (in about 5 billion years time according to Pietrinferni et al. 2004 or 5.5 billion years accordng to Schroder & Connon Smith 2008) the contraction speeds up markedly. The helium core becomes inert (temperatures are too low yet to initiate helium burning), but lots of fresh hydrogen is brought into a shell-like region that can burn hydrogen and it is this that marks the beginning of the growth of the Sun towards a red giant.
Answer: In about four billion years the sun will have used up most of the hydrogen in its core and fuse helium into heavier elements. The fusion of helium releases more energy than the fusion of hydrogen. This will cause the sun to expand to, at least, the orbit of Venus and likely the Earth. Both planets will, of course, be vaporized.There was  a similar question on SE answered here.
Comment: Timescale and sequence of events is incorrect. Shell H-burning commences smoothly after core H-burning ends and before core He-burning begins. The Sun expands to a red giant *before* core He-burning begins.

What causes the death of the Sun?


Can I use my Windows 7 license to install the latest Windows 10?

Question: I have a retail Windows 7 Home Premium license and installation CDs. I'd like to do a fresh install of Windows 10 on an old PC that's currently running Windows 10. If I wipe the machine and reinstall from scratch, will I be able to install Windows 10 and activate with my Windows 7 license, or can I somehow get my activation key out of my existing Wicked 10 installation? Or is it better to just use "Reset this PC"?
Comment: If you have a current install of Windows 10 which has a valid key then you don't need to enter any key at all for it to reactivate. If you are doing a clean install then simply skip entering a key and it should retrieve your key from Microsoft and activate as necessary.  I'm sure this has already been asked but I can't find a duplicate right now.
Answer: If you already have Windows 10 installed, your Windows key is stored on that system. I suggest you take it down before reinstalling windows.
Go to command prompt of your Windows 10 PC and type the following:
<code>wmic path softwarelicensingservice get OA3xOriginalProductKey
</code>
This will return you the product key.
I am unsure if your Windows 7 installation will give you an option to upgrade to Windows 10. For good measure, you should go to the Windows website and download Windows 10 installation onto an 8GB USB stick. You should then go to BIOS (F2) and choose to boot from the USB stick to reinstall windows.


In Reincarnated as a Slime, could Rimuru create a large number of golems?

Question: In season 1 episode 23 of the anime, at the end Rimuru creates a golem and summons a demon to possess it. It's his way of repaying Ramiris for her golem that he destroyed. Could he make a large number of those golems, even mass produce them as workers to fuel an industrial revolution?
Comment: in theory he can becuse he can mass produce anything if he has raw meterials using great sage power, he produced 25 baldes in dwarwen kingdom.
Answer: Yes. He needs magicules to summon the demon, materials to make the body (for Beretta he made it out of pure magisteel), and the demon needs to agree to the contract. If all those requirements are fulfilled, he can make as many as he wants. Both Beretta and Diablo he paid generously one way or another and they both wanted to serve him permanently.


Graphics Card Upgrade

Question: I built a PC not very long ago. Here are the specs (I have a different case, but I couldn't find the one I own, so I chose a similar one). My 1050Ti is a really good graphics card. It seems to be a great overclocker as well. However, as a huge surprise to no one, it can't get 60FPS in 1080p in ultra settings in AAA titles like GTA 5 as it's a budjet card. I'm looking for a graphics card which will be able to achieve that and maintain it for as long as possible. The 1070Ti looks like an attractive option, however I think it would be better for me to wait for the next generation NVidia cards. An 1160 and an 1170 have been rumored, however the 1160 especially needs to be taken with a grain of salt along with the rumored spcs. Lastly, it is said that NVidia currently are stuck with a large number of graphics cards because of the plummeting demand from miners. Should/Can I take advantage of this? I don't know anything about AMD cards, but that doesn't mean I won't accept an AMD card suggestion. My budjet is around 600-700$
Thanks!
Comment: If they are so overstocked the prices don't reflect it.
Answer: I would wait. FINALLY, it is more than a rumor that a new gaming architecture is coming. nVidia has a talk titled 'NVIDIA's Next Generation Mainstream GPU' at the HotChips conference next month. Also, they are sending out invites to GamesCon on August 21 for a 'PC related event'. Yes that is a gaming conference. Read about it at The Verge here.
Other than that, if you really cannot wait or think you want to spend the money on the next generation, I would keep a hawk eye out for a 1080 Ti. I have already seen a couple of deals around $750 that disappear quickly. If new hardware really does come out and you keep looking, jump on one that is below your $700 threshold. It will happen
1080 Ti would be future proof for you. It will do 60 FPS with all setting on high and 1080P and you can even get 45-60 FPS with most setting high at 4K if you ever go there.
Comment: Thanks for your answer! I was talking about the 1160 (ik it isn't really clear). I read the article you linked. I'll probably wait for the new cards to be released and then decide depending on what happens to the prices of current generation cards and the prices of the new ones. I won't get a 4K monitor for at least a few years, so you covered it.

Graphics Card Upgrade


Why anonymity is important in blockchain, what are the core reasons?

Question: I have searched a lot about this topic, but couldn't get a perfect answer. Why is anonymity is important in blockchain if the transactions are legit, What are the core reasons for importance of anonymity in blockchain?
Comment: Bitcoin is not anonymous, it is pseudonymous. Privacy is what is important here.
Answer: I think this is really a question about data protection rights.
For example see https://www.forbes.com/advisor/banking/digital-banking-consumer-data-privacy-concerns/

But the transfer of personal and financial information through digital channels raises an important question: How much of your personal data is protected and kept private?

...

Europe set a precedent for consumer privacy protections in 2018 with the passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This sweeping privacy law expanded consumer control over data access and use, including the right to request that personal data be destroyed by the agency collecting it.

In short, many people do not want it to be made public how much money they have saved up or the details of products and services they purchase.
To take an extreme example, a person who has been raped may not want their financial transactions to reveal to their neighbours, their employers and busybodies around the world that they received rape counselling, medical treatment from a venereal diseases clinic and other paid for services relating to the event.
Even most ordinary people leading ordinary lives, who never purchase legal but taboo or controversial products, like to keep their finances and purchasing history private. Anonymity is part of that privacy.
The creator of Bitcoin used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and took great care when registering the bitcoin.org domain to avoid that being used to identify them. Privacy and anonymity were obviously of great importance to them.
Answer: Your question boils down to why privacy is important if you aren't doing anything wrong (not-"legit"). I'll only answer in the scope of Bitcoin, but there's a more principled answer to the broader question.
First, the Bitcoin protocol allows any transaction into the blockchain so long as the inputs are properly unlocked and the outputs are validly formed and do not sum to greater than the inputs. A few other rules apply, but basically, any mathematically valid transaction is "legit" vis-a-vis the blockchain.
This definition of legit is quite different from a legal definition. Many mathematically valid transactions are considered illicit by financial and legal authorities.
As a universally open protocol, Bitcoin does not enforce these legal or financial definitions, which vary greatly by jurisdiction. Therefore, there are likely transactions being executed on the Bitcoin blockchain which are illegal in some areas.
Without anonymity, many people would be unable to use Bitcoin due to local laws.
Second, there are social/security problems with having one's full balance and financial history publicly available and tied to one's identity. Bitcoin would be unattractive to most people if it was easily discoverable how much coin you had, a list of anyone who has ever sent to you, and a list of anyone to whom you ever sent money.
Thirdly, anonymity makes Bitcoin more resilient against censorship and state-level attacks. Early on, there were few Bitcoiners. If their identities were publicly known, governments or other groups could have targeted those individuals and de facto shut the project down. Or today, they could compile a list and punish/tax/jail all current holders of bitcoin. Bitcoin is designed as a safe haven against the harms of legacy financial systems: inflation, censorship, taxation, and confiscation.


When can 'the' be used before a name?

Question:
"And, Dick, all kinds of queer folk live in the trunk of the Faraway Tree," said Jo."

The is not capital here, which means it is not the part of the name?
Why is the used here?
Comment: Which *the*? Second, *the* is only used before nouns or noun phrases (*the chocolate cake*)....
Comment: Are you asking why it wasn't **T**he Faraway Tree?
Comment: @pazzo I thought it would be obvious. I am talking about the in front of faraway tree. That is the name of the tree, isn't it?
Comment: 1. The can be as definite article for "rivers" but not with "lakes".
2. "Unique" is only superlative adjective which comes after "a" .
Answer: Offhand, I can think of a number of proper names that seem to include the definite article.   At least, they regularly appear with the article firmly attached:  the Amazon, the Nile, the Bronx, the United States, the United Nations, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty -- the list does go on.   None of these proper names require the article to be capitalized, but they do require it to be present.
Some categories of properly named things allow a rule-of-thumb interpretation.   For instance, rivers generally take the article, but lakes generally don't.   Overall, each name needs to be considered on a case by case basis.   Even where you can find rules of thumb, you may also find exceptions.
Should we consider the definite article to be a part of these proper names?   Why not?   Whether we claim that it's a part of the name or we claim that the name simply requires it, the result is much the same.

There is a difference between proper names in general and the titles of written and filmed works.   When referring to Edgar Allan Poe's immortal "The Raven", we should capitalize the article.   You might have internalized the rule as "because it's part of the name".   However, this rule applies specifically to these titles, not to proper names in general.   We can be this specific about writing and film because the titles are included in those works -- on a title page or title card, for instance.
Other artistic works don't include their titles in the works themselves.   I don't capitalize the article for the Statue of Liberty, the Mona Lisa, the Thinker, or the Treachery of Images.   In fact, I will drop the article if I choose to use a genitive determiner:  Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, da Vinci's Mona Lisa, Rodin's Thinker, Magritte's Treachery of Images.
I would do the same thing with the proper names listed above.   On its own, "the United States" always begins with "the".   If I contrast Carl Greenberg's United States with Carl Bernstein's United States, there isn't a definite article in sight.

We now have an answer to the casual "why not?" that I asked earlier.   Since we can replace the definite article with some other determiner, we shouldn't consider the determiner to be a part of the name.   We should simply consider that name to require a determiner.
Answer: Rarely, you may see examples of Irish or Scottish clan heads referred to as "the X", where X is the clan name, so you could see "the O'Halloran" or "the MacNeil", but this usage seems to be disappearing and probably derives from gaelic origins.  In those cases, the name is also the role.  In Australia, the town of Alice Springs is often referred to as "the Alice", but this is a one-off.
Of course, where the name is intended as an adjective, we use the definite article, as in "the Obama administration".
Answer: Because there is only one (of such thing).
Other common examples include

the sun, the moon, the earth.

And even things we generally consider there is only one of (near us).

the hospital, the library

And in terms of place names

the Caribbean, the Cook Islands
Comment: I would definitely say the Paras hospital.
Comment: So, can I say - chocolates are for the kuki. Here kuki is the name of the child.
Comment: No, because we don't use articles for people's names.
Comment: Re place names, unless a capitalized "The" is part of the name of the place or entity, e.g. The Gambia, The Bahamas, The Woodlands (unincorporated place in Texas), The University of Texas at Austin.
Comment: So can I say - have you been to the Paras hospital?
Paras is the name of the hospital.

Or should I say - have you been to Paras hospital?
Answer: You don't use the before names or proper nouns that identify a person.
If you do this with a proper name it sounds like you are trying to depersonalize someone (i.e. consider them a mere thing) and can be considered rude, condescending, and awkward.

Give it to John.

Never Give it to the John - especially not with the name John as john is a colloquial/slang term for a toilet.
If the name or proper noun identifies a thing or place, the is used.  It's an article and not part of the name.

I'm going to the Magical Park.
The sword Arthur pulled from the stone was called the Excalibur.
Comment: No, it is/was called Excalibur.
Comment: I think whether to use a definite article with a place or thing is a little trickier than you make it out to be. You wouldn't say "I'm going to the Disneyland." but you might say "I'm going to the Disneyland amusement park.". You might say "I'm going to the Philippines." but not "I'm going to the Easter Island".
Answer: Generally speaking, singular things take the definite article.  So it's the earth and the sun.  Until we name them, when we generally dispense with the article.  Thus it's Sol that shines, and the movie is 20 Million Miles to Earth.  Names of political divisions are harder to classify.  Many country names don't use an article -- no one says "the Japan" -- and neither do cities, except the one in the Netherlands, which is always "The Hague."  Other countries are almost always used with the article, but uncapitalized:  the United Kingdom.  When the highest court in America issues an opinion on an issue of federal governance, it will do so under the name "The Supreme Court of the United States," but the title of case will appear a few lines below as something like "McFadden v United States."  Go figure.
People's proper names don't take an article unless the person has taken on a figurative role ("He's a Judas.")  Or we wish to distinguish between two people with the same name:  "Is that the John Smith you went to high school with?"  Or to indicate a famous (or infamous) distinction:  "Are you talking about the George Bush?"
"Hospital" differs across the Pond.  No matter how close the institution, a Brit goes to hospital; an American, to the hospital.  The same with "university," although with a different reason for attendance.
Comment: "The same with "university," although with a different reason for attendance." Plenty of brain-dead people get put into both, though.

When can 'the' be used before a name?


Are the Dr. Who episodes intended to be in chronological order?

Question: Aside from any two parters, are the Dr. Who episodes intended to represent a consistent beginning-to-end timeline for The Doctor, or do they bounce around willy nilly, or rather, timey whimey?
Comment: It does seem that earlier episodes happen earlier for the Doctor than later ones (our main Doctor, let's just ignore complications like the 200 year later No. 11). Eg, The Master makes reference to the Lazarus incident in one of the last episodes of the series, indicating that the Doctor dealt with Lazarus earlier in his timeline than dealing with Saxon. I would say episodes happen for him in order, just as they do for us the Viewer, but I'm interested in seeing someone destroy my theory with well-founded evidence :-)
Comment: In the strictest sense, it's hard to see how they *could* be in chronological order...even the episodes aren't...
Comment: @MacCooper There is not really a complication with the 200 years later 11th Doctor, because we never saw that one, we saw the Tesselecta :P When we finally see him (we do it as River does through the eye), but later on.
Answer: Yes, in general, the shows are intended to follow The Doctor's own personal timeline. In addition, the show tends to follow a chronological progression of the companion(s) lifetime, at least while they are with The Doctor. In general, The Doctor does not bounce around back and forth within a companion's life.
There have been a few exceptions to those two rules, though they're clearly called out when they happen:

Father's Day: The Doctor and Rose traveled back along Rose's personal timeline, causing bad things to happen.
The Big Bang: The Doctor traveled into Amy Pond's past (as did Rory and Amy, technically, though they took the really long way).
The Impossible Astronaut: The Doctor that was present in the beginning of the episode was from hundreds of years later in his own timeline than The Doctor that appeared in act II. (Specifically, the initial Doctor was from the same point as in future episode The Wedding of River Song).
Any of the The XXX Doctors; The Day of The Doctor: Obviously, any episode that includes more than one Doctor on-screen at a time will be a violation of this rule, if nothing else than for practical reasons: the "future" Doctor would not have been cast yet at the point in the "past" Doctor's timelines where that episode occurs, so we must be seeing it from the timeline perspective of the most recent Doctor in the episode.

Note that River Song is the huge huge exception to this rule: for most of her tenure as a recurring character, River's past experiences were always The Doctor's future, working roughly backwards. The two of them met, technically in The Impossible Astronaut, but more "officially" in Let's Kill Hitler; from there things seemed to progress roughly forward for the two of them, but in a much more haphazard way.
Also, while we are meant to assume that the adventures with The Doctor and Clara are both progressing in the same direction, there was at least one throwaway line of dialog that went like this:

Clara: See you next Wednesday
The Doctor: Well, a Wednesday

However, we haven't seen any indication that he might travel back to a previous Wednesday and retrieve her; she generally remembers everything that happened in previous episodes and does not ever mention things that will happen in future episodes.
Comment: Also, the two Brigadiers in Mawdryn Undead. And City of Death.
Answer: It's a show about time travel. They visited the formation of the universe in the first Doctor story The Edge of Destruction and the Tenth Doctor story New Earth is set at some huge number of years into the future (beyond the destruction of Earth) as is the First Doctor story The Ark - so no, I don't think they're in any kind of externally consistent chronological order. or yes, but time isn't a strictly linear progression of events.
Comment: Obviously, they travel all over the timeline in the episodes, but that wasn't the question. The question is, do we see the episodes in roughly the same order as the Doctor experiences them?
Comment: Also Smith and Jones, *like this*; with the tie.
Comment: @Martha in the impossible astronaut definitely not. Other examples don't occur off the top of my head.
Comment: @ElliottFrisch But that is strictly forbidden, except for cheap tricks, of course ;)
Comment: @BMWurm And *Father's Day*, when Rose saved her dad (and *seemingly* erased a time-line). And *The Name of the Doctor*, *The Time of the Doctor*, *The Two Doctors*, *The Three Doctors* and *The Five Doctors* (and *Time Crash*). It's done a lot for something that's forbidden.
Comment: @ElliottFrisch Exactly!! And _Father's Day_ proved there were really bad things happening if it is done anyways... but no reapers (?) ever appeared again....
Answer: There was a theory in season 7 that the Doctors timeline was in reverse to the episodes (while Amy + Rory were forward). This is based on props from later episodes showing up in another.
Also some of the Doctors dialogue in earlier episodes makes more sense if you realise that the doctor knows the outcome of his travelling companions.
There is another theory that because his companions become locked in time when he meets them, that he knows that his companions are immortal until a certain time/location (like the Doctor going to Trenzalore)
It also appears to be hinted at in Season 8. Episode 2 the doctor does the following:

 After realising the Doctor has to heal the Darlek, he instead time travels back to England to pick up a school teacher, and tells her to solve the situation (but doesn't know how she should do it). It is possible the Doctor is aware when Clara will die, so in doing this he knew that she could not be stopped in recovering the Darleks memory.
Comment: sounds kinda flimsy.
Answer: Generally it seems that the episodes chronologically follow the events the doctor experiences, except in a handful of cases but the masses of these all are meant for story telling. Watching them in order is the overall best way to watch them because it is the way the creators intended.
Comment: Hi, welcome to SF&F.  This doesn't seem to say anything that's not already better described in the existing answers; please don't post duplicate answers unless you have something new to add.
Comment: Thank you  David, I am just getting use to how this works so I will remember  not to repeat any answers too similar to other ones. Thank you.


Construct External Link to Sharepoint Document by GUID

Question: I'm looking to render a large list of links to documents that reside in SharePoint and would like to do so by using the GUID attribute.  I'm trying to avoid additional queries to the SharePoint REST API and cannot use CSOM or JSOM.  Is it possible to construct links to sharepoint documents via the GUID?  If so, how are they constructed?
Comment: what do you mean by External links? Does it mean that these links to be be available anonymously by anyone with these links? or it simply means "Direct link to the document". Also, do you only need links to Word, Excel, PowerPoint? Or there are all sorts of document types?
Answer: If GUID is all you have and you want to avoid extra requests via REST, then the only way to construct the links is this.
You need to construct a URL using the following parts:

https://TENANT.sharepoint.com/
:w:/r/sites/SITE_COLLECTION/
_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc={DOCUMENT_GUID}

Sample link:

https://contoso.sharepoint.com/:w:/r/sites/SITE_COLLECTION/_layouts/15/Doc.aspx?sourcedoc={BBF53FD3-4E3B-428D-9AC5-AE98E99E25CE}

Limitations

This method will work only with Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It might work with PDF, but I didn't test it yet.
Other types of documents won't open with this link.
It will open the document in the browser.
Users must already have access to these documents.
Comment: worth noting that the "DOCUMENT_GUID" is the item.File.UniqueId property (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/sharepoint-csom/dn760926(v=office.15)) and that each office app has its own letter (w for work, x for excel, p for powerpoint)


How to stop a screen process in linux?

Question: I am running a script on a remote server. I ran the script in screen, however I need to stop it before it completes since I need to update the script. I can easily detach from screen, however, is there a way to kill a screen process?
Comment: Belongs on superuser.com
Comment: Do you really want to kill `screen(1)`? Or would you rather kill the process you started inside `screen(1)`?
Comment: I would like to kill the process that I started in `screen`.
Answer: CTRL+a and then 'k' will kill a screen session.
Comment: Thank you! I just added a Terminal Hotkey that goes "\001ky" (Ctrl-A, k and y for "yes"). On a far note, I have a hotkey bound to the "Home" key that goes "cd ~/ Enter"  There's no place like cd ~/
Answer: There are a couple of 'screen' ways to kill a specific screen session from the command line (non-interactively).
1) send a 'quit' command:
screen -X -S "sessionname" quit

2) send a Ctrl-C to a screen session running a script:
screen -X -S "sessionname" stuff "^C"

In both cases, you would need to use 'screen -ls' to find the session name of the screen session you want to kill ... if there is only one screen session running, you won't need to specify the -S "sessionname" parameter.
Answer: I used this to quit hundreds of erroneous screen sessions created by a buggy command:
for s in $(screen -ls|grep -o -P "1\d+.tty"); do screen -X -S $s quit; done;
where: the grep -o -P "1\d+.tty" is the command to get session names with Perl-like name regex "1\d+.tty" which captures all sessions start with number 1, has some other numbers (\d) and end with .tty
Warning:
You should test with this command first to see you get the exact list of sessions you want before apply the above command. This is to avoid quitting unwanted sessions:
for s in $(screen -ls|grep -o -P "1\d+.tty"); do echo $s; done;
I always to this echo test whenever the list in for loop is not clear, for example, the one generated by sub-command in $() expansion.
Answer: previous answers didn't work for me on a winputty terminal and amazon ssh server connection.. but this one does work:
screen -S yourscreentitlehere -X stuff $'\003'

references:

Sending ctrl-c to specific screen session
$'\003' is ctrl+c http://donsnotes.com/tech/charsets/ascii.html
stuff is https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html#Paste
Comment: Awesome! This is what I was looking for! None of the other solutions would stop the screen session if it was currently running an active process.
Answer: I am using putty, and it seems I am already in the screen and couldn't open and close. Every time I do "exit", I just close the putty window. Here is the termimal print
>>screen -r
    21063.unlimited (11/08/20 15:45:19)     (Attached)
    24054.cure6     (11/08/20 09:46:13)     (Attached)

There is no screen to be resumed.
and
screen -S 21063.unlimited -X stuff $'\003'
does not do anything.
I found that as simple as the following line works perfect
screen -x 21063.unlimited
it sends me back into the screen and from there "exit" works.
Note that it is lower-case -x

How to stop a screen process in linux?


Should mail servers avoid sharing /64 ipv6 with others for reputation?

Question: I've set up Mailcow on a server that has dedicated ipv4 but not /64 ipv6. I'm not quite sure how the reputation of the mail server is calculated. But I know that usually a device should get a /64 block, and cloudflare's ratelimit is also treating the /64 block as an single ipv4. Mailcow seems to be encouraging to use ipv6, from Disable IPv6 doc "This is ONLY recommended if you do not have an IPv6 enabled network on your host!"  Should mail servers avoid sharing /64 ipv6 with others for reputation?
Comment: "_But I know that usually a device should get a /64 block_" No, a standard IPv6 _network_ is `/64`. Each device is assigned an address in the network, the way a device gets an IPv4 address in a network. IPv6 makes it much easier to have multiple networks on a single device interface. Typically, you get a `/48` prefix (or smaller) from which you get 65,536 standard `/64` networks. It is very easy for a business to get such a prefix from the RIR (`/48` is the longest IPv6 prefix that can be advertised on the public Internet).
Comment: I don't see why they should or shouldn't share /64. After all it is easy to get your hands on a /48 subnet - like say through for instance Tunnelbroker.net. If anything the same argument for or against sharing /64 subnet, can be said for /48 subnet.
Comment: @LasseMichaelMølgaard If the tech giant treats /64 as one's own, others sending spam mail on a shared /64 block will cause my mail to be unreachable. tunnelbroker blocks the mail port
Comment: Well personally I will not make rules to block out a single /64, since getting a /48 is easy and my list with blocked subnets would get rather long. Instead I would summarize and block the entire /48 or at least the /56 subnet containing said offending /64 subnet. Which is why I am currently blocking 50% of all available ipv4 addresses for 2 Chinese, 1 iranian, and 1 russian ISP. Simply because my server has logged that many login attempts or received that many spam mails from hosts belonging to those networks.
Answer: No, you should not go out of your way to make servers controlled by the same entity look less so. If systems can automatically make the connection that you are responsible for multiple addresses, that is a good thing.
Yes, many organisations will aggregate IPv6 addresses and treat all addresses with certain prefixes (very commonly <=64, often 56) as controlled by the same entity. This works to your advantage:

If one already received high volumes from some block of addresses, one has to be less suspicious of a sudden increase in volume, because it is not as much in relative terms.
If one has already logged a reasonable past resolution to an abuse complaint for a block, one does not need to apply the less nice mitigations otherwise reserved for unresponsive senders.

The fact that some of the less side-effect-free ways of dealing with rampant spam may lead to loss of communication for related servers should not worry you, because if you do not spam and do not associate with those enabling them, such actions will only affect you with extremely wrong configuration or compromised hosts.

Also yes, IPv6 should definitely be enabled now that the older protocol is increasingly broken by operating it beyond its design limitations. I tend to extend a higher credit of trust towards mail coming in via IPv6 because my experience so far is that many of the worst (in terms of allowing people to be bad netizens) providers simply do not offer IPv6 connectivity yet. Incidentally, Google has the reputation to do the opposite. YMMV.
Comment: Not sure how to put it in proper words, but there is a bit of a comparison with history that goes into my reasoning here. There used to be a time when the median mail was not *utter garbage*, so there once *was* a point in worrying about the consequences of standing out negatively. This is simply not among the important considerations for most internet mail servers any more: Now that you would have to make an effort to achieve a worse than average performance.


Garageband - Remove Dead Space at End of Track

Question: I was sidetracked while recording something off of the internet into Garageband. How do I cut off all of the dead space at the end of my recording?
Comment: Did you try selecting the recorded content, copying it, and then pasting into a new track?
Comment: You can't just click at the end of the track and drag backwards until you get to actual recording? Are you asking about deleting that space in GarageBand or iTunes?
Answer: By saying cut off all of the dead space, I assume you wanna crop the track to remove silence at the end of the track? If I'm right, here is 1 solution:

Add the track to your iTunes
Right click on track and Get Info (or just cmd+i)
Select Options tab
Tick stop, and select time you want track to end and press ok
Go to iTunes Preferences: cmd+, (comma)
In General tab, click on Import Settings and select your output format, eg. MP3, then ok
Click on your song, go File > Convert > Create MP3/AAC version
When this is complete you can find this track by right clicking on it and say Show in Finder

Hope this is what you wanted? If not, it might help someone else as this option has been silently removed from the right-click context menu. :) Let us know.