What channels do people use to challenge or provide criticism for newly developed theories?

Question: I currently not in academia, but I am an undergraduate alumnus with no graduate experience.
What are the normal processes for academics to challenge each other's theories or findings, or to support them.
Answer: The primary way to refute a theory is to do the research necessary and publish a paper (or papers) with a (more) correct theory. the primary way to support a theory is to (positively) cite it in future work that embraces it, especially to extend it.
The theory of the aether was refuted when Einstein published the theory of relativity. But it took years for confirmation of Einstein's ideas to become firm - it is still happening, actually.
Every paper that cites another is supporting the earlier work.
It isn't my field, but I've heard that the ideas of Freud are slowly being replaced in psychiatry.
This is the normal process of science, actually. Old ideas are replaced by newer and more supportable ideas. Think Galileo.

Minor channels, are discussion groups and arguments at conferences. But the "refutations" need to be backed up, not just claimed.
Comment: I'm not sure about "every paper that cites another is supporting the earlier work". There are plenty of citations that say "In this work our findings contradict A. Author 2019".
Comment: @astronat I made a small change, but I'm surprised you missed the clear implication of the sentence as a whole.
Comment: Specifically, try to find a point of divergence, such as the observed orbit of Mercury.
Comment: I imagine if a theory is already widely contradicted by existing work (and/or if it's based on flawed data or research methods), then the primary way to refute it would be through public discourse (and maybe an eventual retraction) instead of by publishing yet another paper.
Comment: I have the same objection to Buffy's response as @astronat . You have to cite things you disagree with in order to refute them.
Answer: If the theory has not been published, usually one does not bother challenging it.
If the theory was published, most journals allow other authors to submit a "comment" or "matters arising" which can criticise it.  This rarely occurs.  Usually the comment is peer reviewed.
Answer: As stated in the answer by Buffy, the major road to criticise published results is to publish something yourself. There is a problem with this, which is that the academic publication process is slow, and may be held up even further if supporters of the criticised work recommend rejection when they are reviewers of critical papers. In particular, reviewers and editors often demand a better original theory or results than the one criticised. This can be counterproductive, as this requires new research which may be more difficult and harder to do than correctly finding problems in somebody's work. There is a handfull of journals publishing plain but well justified criticism; the majority, according to my experience, will demand additional original work, which obviously is a problem if the criticised work is wrong and will be used and cited as if true in the meantime! (I have occasionally criticised related work as a side remark in a published paper the main aim of which wasn't to criticise that work.)
Another major avenue for criticism is open to only a few, which is being a peer reviewer. You need to be invited, so this is not a way to criticise whatever you find wrong, but rather to criticise something specific you were asked to assess. However, if you establish yourself in science, you will be asked to do more peer reviews than you can do, and also young and relatively unknown scientists are asked (because much peer review is needed), so being a peer reviewer isn't very exclusive, also it is often effective as you can ask the authors to repair certain issue or recommend to reject the paper, but of course it's not a path to criticise stuff you are not invited to review. (Occasionally journals also publish discussion papers where either a chosen view or everyone interested is invited to write discussions.)
It is important to have in mind that human psychology is important also in science, and hardly anybody likes to be criticised in public. One should think that scientifically minded people are actually happy to learn from having errors pointed out by others, but careers and funding depend on this, so it is often not that easy.
My first channel for criticism will always be to contact the criticised authors directly. Most journals allow the authors to publish correction notes if they themselves realise that something is wrong in their work. Also, rather than straight away accepting that they were wrong, they may be happy to collaborate and come out with something that corrects the original issue but can be sold as an extension or at least as inspired by their earlier work rather than just admitting openly that "we were wrong". Chances to have an effect are probably better before work is finally published in a journal, as long as it is still only on preprint servers such as arxiv, privately circulated, or presented in preliminary stages at conferences.
I have pointed out issues at conferences but mostly this didn't have much effect. Authors may defend their point, or even agree with me, but may not change it anyway. Maybe the odd author learnt something and changed their approach at least in their next work, but this is rather the exception than the rule. (Obviously we also need to take into account that when criticising others we may be wrong ourselves, or the issue may have potential for genuine controversy, so we shouldn't expect anyway that everyone criticised by us says "you are right and I was wrong".) Obviously one can always criticise work by talking to others, and quite a bit of this is going on, but it is hard to know whether and how much of an effect this has.
On top of that there are more or less well visited blogs and open forums where stuff is discussed, probably also things like facebook groups (which I don't do). Chances are for criticism in such places to have any effect, the blog needs to be popular and the writer a "big name". However there is a number of such places where it is at least possible to write criticism without going through the peer review process, and some of this is read and even responded to by the authors.
In my field, statistics, Andrew Gelman has a very popular blog, which he uses to criticise work, and also to reflect about how difficult it is to criticise work effectively in science. Unfortunately it is very normal that criticised work continues to be cited and used and taken as "true". Searching for "criticism" and related terms on his blog brings up lots of stuff.
Gelman's blog on Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science, example entry on "A ladder of responses to criticism, from the most responsible to the most destructive"
Comment: Gelman's blog is not peer reviewed. He often uses it for angry personal rants as well. It's really not a model of how criticisms should take place. Gelman is often the poster child for the "proof by twitter follower count" activists as opposed to the "proof by peer review" practice.
Comment: You don't like it, fair enough. It still has a number of interesting postings on how criticism in academia works or doesn't work. I haven't cited it as a "model" (everyone interested can read stuff there to make up their own mind), and sure it's not peer reviewed, but the question wasn't for peer reviewed channels only.
Answer: Intro
One way to look at a theory is to treat it like a model. Models are simplified versions of reality allowing analysis and making predictions about reality. However, no model or theory is perfect, thus the limitations of a model are as important as the model itself.
Some time ago, the theory of a flat earth was good enough. People did not travel very far, there was no need for precise time measurements, movement of celestial objects was explained with divine intervention. Indeed, if all you want is to measure your own small crop field, it does not matter if on a grand scale surface of the earth is not flat.
A globe is a model of the earth and shows that the shortest path from Europe to the US is actually over the north pole. Something that is not evident from a flat map. However, a globe is a really poor model to say anything about earth's composition, core, and atmosphere.
Back to critiquing a theory.

You can present a better theory in some way outperforming the earlier one. However, there is nothing to say that the earlier theory was bad. Merely, your theory is slightly more complete. Round earth orbiting around the sun explains the day/night cycle, seasons, lunar and solar eclipses, and enables much more precise distance measurements over long distances. Thus it outperformed the flat earth theory.

You can demonstrate the constraints of an existing theory, or identify a contradiction suggested by the theory. Here is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_XuFkVdAYU Doing so invites more research into the area.

A good start to evaluate any theory, especially yours if you aim to propose one, is to use the 7 criteria:

scope - what does the theory can predict and what it cannot?

logical consistency - does it makes sense, is not self-contradicting?

parsimony - is it simple and elegant? This is connected to the Occam's Razor, "The simplest explanation is almost always the correct one"

utility - is it useful?

testability - can we demonstrate it, and more importantly, can we disprove it? This is an important one in the light of fake news. There is no way to prove (or disprove) that the world is governed by a large pipe-smoking rabbit or lizard people. Luckily, this theory fails at logical consistency.

heurism - does it provide a good basis for extension and further research?

test of time - Do the above criteria hold true over time. Einstein's theory of relativity was criticized at the time. However, it turned out to be one of the most elegant and useful theories ever.

In academia, the accepted way to disseminate results is to publish them in journals and conferences proceedings.
Outside academia, you can make use of a new theory by creating a new product and bringing it to the market. It is somewhat common that companies do their own in-house research to advance their products and business.


Did Aristotle say "The more you know..."

Question: One finds all over the web the words attributed to Aristotle "The more you know, the more you know you don't know." Can that be right? It sounds a bit adorable for Aristotle, and the citations are always simply to Aristotle, with no work cited.
Did he say something close to this? Where?
Comment: Sounds more like a restatement of what Plato's Socrates says in *Apology* but ...
Answer: If you view Aristotle's "Metaphysics" at http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.mb.txt and search for the word "know" (including words with "know" n them), you will see that he strongly suggests it several times, though not as a direct quote, at least not in this translation. Perhaps the most relevant paragraph:

"Some of the sensible substances are generally admitted to be
  substances, so that we must look first among these. For it is an
  advantage to advance to that which is more knowable. For learning
  proceeds for all in this way-through that which is less knowable by
  nature to that which is more knowable; and just as in conduct our task
  is to start from what is good for each and make what is without
  qualification good good for each, so it is our task to start from what
  is more knowable to oneself and make what is knowable by nature
  knowable to oneself. Now what is knowable and primary for particular
  sets of people is often knowable to a very small extent, and has
  little or nothing of reality. But yet one must start from that which
  is barely knowable but knowable to oneself, and try to know what is
  knowable without qualification, passing, as has been said, by way of
  those very things which one does know."

The point he's making is the opposite of what the quotation suggests: Aristotle believes that all things are knowable, but, in a specific individual's journey towards complete knowledge, there will be times that new knowledge shows there are more things to learn.
The last instance of 'know' occurs in a somewhat weak sentence "But evidently in a sense knowledge is universal, and in a sense it is not."
Answer: I found cites, though nothing specific, to Socrates, Lao-Tse, George Bernard Shaw, and Aristotle. I did some word searches in the works reprinted at Project Gutenberg. But nothing helpful.
My best guess: the original quote has become so corrupted over time that searches for a source will produce everyone and no one.
Answer: Isn't this quote atributed to Einstein? Probably derived from Socrates quote: I know that all I know is that I do not know anything.
Comment: I think that message is supposed to come from the Oracle at Delphi, but said about Socrates. I'm not sure it's the same message that I asked about, though. It depends, of course, on what words we fill in at the ellipsis, but I thought the original quote meant that as we learn more we realize better our shortcomings, not that we know nothing at all.
Answer: I find that there is no such thing as originality because all wise ideas and adages may have been thought about already by not only one person but also by many over a period of time. Because insights could ring a loud bell for the universality of certain truths embodied in them, scholars would tend to work out on them on a more structured and popular mode than for those who may have thought about them originally.
The issue here is who may have succeeded in popularizing a certain quote or who may have constructed a certain profound insight in an intellectually terse but most striking formulation?
Since Socrates came ahead of Plato and Aristotle, the quote at issue here may have really begun with Socrates.
Comment: The question is whether Aristotle said it or not, not who said it first, but I agree that it may have been said by many people.
Answer: The complete quote is here: "The more you learn, the more you know - The more you know, the more you forget - The More you forget, the less you know - The less you know, the more you study - The more you study, the more you learn - so, why study?" and is very old, but is basically anonymous in it's complete form... Ian Gordon


Why do people create web server on a microcontroller?

Question: I have come across people creating web servers using microcontrollers, why would someone do that? What are its applications? What skill set besides C language does one need in order to create such servers? I am quite curious about these tiny servers having such small RAM.
Comment: Voting to reopen. This question is good enough.
Comment: This questions is very broad, please try to focus in on a specific technical question.
Comment: "We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion."
Comment: I am glad that finally I can see how this concept is use in the industry. But from this a new question is generated, seeing that implementing a server on a uC and than creating user interface that runs in an internet browser makes things so easy, why do many people still resort to harder ways like USB?
Comment: @quantum231 Please ask a fresh question if you have a fresh question. :-)
Answer: I have done this in a few products.  So far the reason has been to allow for simple field configuration.  Each time the product already needed to be connected to ethernet for reason of its main operation.  The web server was therefore merely added code in the microcontroller.
The big advantage of a HTTP server is that no special hardware or software is required to present a reasonable user interface to the end user.  Everyone already has a web browser, so this is no bother for the customer.  Think about other alternatives.  You could provide a RS-232 port, but then you either have to provide a custom app or explain to someone how to set up a terminal program with the right baud rate, start bits, stop bits, and parity.  You also either have to supply a cable or hope the customer has one, and someone has to go to the unit and physically connect to it.  USB doesn't have the same configuration problem, but would generally mean a whole separate micro in the product and there you need a custom program to run on whatever platform the customer might have.
As for RAM, that's not much of a issue for a HTTP server.  A TCP protocol stack needs some RAM, but the HTTP server not really, except for the extra resources it may require from the network stack.  A web server mostly needs ROM space, since most of every page is constant, usually with a few values converted to text and inserted on the fly.  Web servers for small micros work with ROM file systems and escape sequences in those files that cause your application code to be called to produce customizable strings for insertion at a few pre-defined places.
So far I have used a PIC 18 in all these cases.  While the less then 4 kbytes of RAM is a limitation, there is still a lot you can do.  ROM space hasn't even been close to a issue.  My network stack for the PIC 18 (available in my PIC Development Tools release at www.embedinc.com/pic/dload.htm) takes only a small fraction of the ROM space of a 18F67J60, which is a nice part for such things since it has a complete ethernet MAC/PHY built in.  In one case I have that PIC being a server for 6 simultaneous TCP connections.  It's really not as heavyweight as people seem to think.
Comment: It's worth noting that many simple web servers, when they receive a request, will immediately send out everything they're ever going to send in response to the request, close the connection, and forget about it.  This reduces the TCP RAM requirements, but puts some severe limits on web-page complexity.  It's possible to design a stateless TCP server which can keep an unlimited number of connections open (I've done it), but such a thing would require a custom client-side front-end.  It's simplest to keep things small enough to allow stateless HTTP operation.
Comment: NOTICE: I tried downloading "install_picdev.exe" but Firefox (or Windows Security Essentials) said it is malware. Not going to open it.
Answer: A key contributor to the recent rise in popularity of web servers on microcontrollers is the desire to access physical sensor information (temperature, humidity, light level, presence of carbon monoxide etc) remotely, as well as make things happen in the physical world (switch on an LED, trigger an alarm, switch on an emergency exhaust fan, turn on a coolant pump) also remotely. Those are the applications.
What better way to achieve generic, consistent, device independent, designer-independent remote access than the ubiquitous HTTP protocol, over the even more ubiquitous IP network? The physical layer of communication could be WiFi, wired Ethernet, or any other convenient option that supports IP networking. That is why web servers on embedded devices are being done.
For further insight, one could search for the "Internet of Things" and see the wide range of thought processes that brings up.
Regarding the "tiny servers having such small RAM", it is worth noting that the HTTP protocol is simple enough to be implementable on very little RAM, with very little processing power. Also, today's microcontrollers are comparable to, or in some cases more powerful than, the processors on the early personal computers on which people have implemented not only the web, but also carried out a variety of interactive tasks, even played games.
Comment: Good answer. Regarding applications i miss the mentioning of some common consumer electronics that often can also be accessed and configured using a browser. Printers, TV sets, home cinema audio receivers, routers... I bet there are even remotely accessible coffee machines :) EDIT: Granted, some of those have the processing power of a modern PC and are not micro controller based.
Comment: I would add that the choice between having something like an appliance communicate via HTTP versus something else is generally a choice between making the appliance itself slightly more complicated, versus requiring the user to buy or install some dedicated hardware or software to communicate with it.  It may be cheaper and more energy-efficient to build a temperature sensor that uses a proprietary RF scheme to communicate wirelessly with a USB dongle than to include a WiFi adapter in the temperature sensor, but the latter approach avoids the need for the dongle.
Answer: Many networked devices provide a web server for examining and setting configuration parameters, checking status of the device, etc. For example, I can configure the router in my system by pointing my browser at http:///192.168.0.254 (if I remember correctly...).
Answer:
Because they can.
Because they can be very low power. Like under 1W with some peak draws. Under half an amp. Battery and solar power is practical, unlike bigger computers.
Physical size. A microcontroller + wifi or ethernet chip can be the size of a thumb drive.
Cost. A microcontroller suitable for this could be in the single dollar range. The networking parts almost as cheap.
Disposable. You can put them in one off projects and if they die, it's not as bad as if an expensive computer does.
Just cause.

With the advent of full blown computers for tens of dollars (free to $100) (shrevaplugs, raspberry pi, smartphones, linux thumb drives, android sticks, ROUTERS), you will probably see less of microcontroller web servers in the future, because there is no longer COST and Size as a driving factor. A 35 dollar Raspberry Pi or 45 dollar Beaglebone can outperform an Arduino + Ethernet or Wifi shield in cost, performance, ease of setup. It's barely bigger than the arduino. Only thing the arduino can do over it is power efficiency 0.1W (0.5mA to 50 mA sleep to full computing power [5v, 16mhz, 100% cpu] by the ATMEGA alone) vs 4W for the RPI with no ethernet/hdmi/usb usage at idle.
So microcontroller webservers can be battery powered due to low current consumption. Even then, some of the newer linux SoC like a pocket router with a webserver can be close to them.
Comment: @Anshul You need to code to the http server specification, and you need a network stack (ip/tcp/udp) or similar, depending on which network IC you choose.
Comment: Consider also the Texas Instruments MSP430 family of microcontrollers: Insanely low power consumption and ample capability for web serving. 16 bit processing. Some options include wireless networking out of the box. Size: A complete board with wireless connectivity can fit into a thumb drive.
Comment: These answers just answer one part of the question. Why do we do it?

What about the next part; How do we do it? What skill sets are required?
Answer: One of the reasons is for the challenge. More so if you develop the microcontroller board and/or write your own software.
Comment: It's hardly much of a challenge.  You can download demos that have a web server built in.
Comment: It would be a challenge if you'd write your own TCP/IP stack from scratch..
Answer: Olin's answer pretty much hits on every reason I've used an embedded web server. I work developing industrial controls and almost every product we produce has an embedded web server.
Most customers will have all of their equipment on their network already for various reasons. So being able to configure and/or control it through a web browser instead of installing dozens of custom programs is highly desirable.
Even if they are using an industrial protocol like PROFINET, the physical layer is the same as the rest of their Ethernet and then they only need one piece of software (a PROFINET IO supervisor) to control dozens of machines. In my experience, this set up is fairly standard across many industries.
With regards to resources (processing power, RAM, ROM), when chopped down to the bear essentials, incredibly minimal hardware is needed to successfully serve up a web page. webACE I think holds the record for tiniest web server. It's a shame you can no longer visit the page it hosted.

The Software
Some code statistics for the original software. I had originally
  forgotten to include the on-chip 64 byte "data eeprom" in the totals,
  which led to the 1010 bytes figure quoted on TBTF.
Startup       36 bytes
Serial       179
SLIP          91
IP           144
ICMP          47
TCP          188
Checksum     132
Application  257
Total       1074 bytes

Comprising:
  454 instructions
  912 instruction bytes
  162 data bytes
 2.01 bytes/instruction average

As for other skills needed, a deep understanding of networking is not really necessary. I've never written a stack for any protocol because there are a plethora of libraries available to be linked in and used for every conceivable architecture. Knowing some basic raw HTML is useful for designing and writing the actual page.
Aside from that being able to read and understand a log from Wireshark or Fiddler (network analyzers) will probably be the most useful skill as it will greatly aid in debugging any issues you have. A little reading on the packet structure of whatever protocol you're using (TCP, IP, HTTP, UDP, PROFINET, etc.) will tell you where to look in the packet for whatever information you need. You can even fire up one of those analyzers right now and look at the traffic coming and going to your computer to get a feel for it.


Travel in Schengen after Swedish Temporary Residence Permit has expired

Question: I am a US citizen and have been granted a temporary residence permit in Sweden on the grounds of visiting my father who lives there. I first stayed in the Schengen area for the full 90 day period which is allowed on the free US travel visa, and received the temporary residence permit on the last day of this period. It extended my stay in Sweden by 5 1/2 months and only allows me to stay in Sweden. When this extension expires in March, I would like to take some time to travel in the rest of Europe. I want to know if I am legally allowed to do so. I know that US citizens are allowed 90 days in 180 day period, and my 180 days are up in Jan, but I will stay in Sweden until March. Would it be best for me to exit Schengen from Sweden and then reenter through another country? Or do I have to go home?
Comment: I would ask the Swedish authorities first, whether, and if, under which circumstances (hotel/flight bookings, income statements, your father acting as a sponsor?), they would issue a Schengen tourist visa in March. If they say that they won't because you stayed in Schengen for >90 days, I guess that SIS will tell all other countries to turn you down as well.
Comment: @Alexander There would only be an entry in the SIS if you have been banned for some violation. Otherwise, it's the entry/exit stamps that would be an issue.
Comment: @Relaxed So it would be no problem if I had two passports? Stay 90 days out of 180 on each of them, leaving Schengen only for the stamps? Can't believe that...
Comment: @Alexander It would be a problem in the sense that it would be illegal and potentially expose you to prosecution but it's possibly difficult to enforce, yes. Neither the SIS nor the VIS or any other database presently include a full Schengen-wide record of entries and exits as far as I know. And I am not sure it's a big problem either because it only ever comes up for people who have several passports from countries whose citizens don't need a visa.
Comment: In practice you could still be found out because unless you can fly back to your country of residence before reentering the Schengen area, you would present a fresh passport without entry stamps from the country you are coming from (e.g. if you do a visa run to the UK, UK border guards would expect a Schengen exit stamp and Schengen border guards would expect a UK entry stamp and could ask you about the other passport). Furthermore, some countries might have national databases of entries and exits or use APIS data from airlines.
Answer: Time spent under a residence permit does not count towards the short-stay limit so in principle it should be possible to get another 90 days when it expires (see Does tourist visa (90 days) apply after a long-term visa ends in Schengen countries?).
In any case, leaving and reentering the Schengen area or going back home would not in itself open any right to stay longer. Unlike other countries, the Schengen area has no notion of 'resetting the clock', being admitted for a new period of stay or anything like that. Getting a regular short-stay visa is not an option either. If you have exhausted your 90 days, the only solutions to stay longer is waiting the cooling off period out or getting a national visa/permit like your current Swedish residence permit.
But see also Staying in Europe (Schengen and non-Schengen) for one year.
Comment: "Unlike other countries, the Schengen area has no notion of 'resetting the clock', being admitted for a new period of stay or anything like that."  Huh, I didn't actually know that.  Man, it must suck not having a euro passport. :/


If I use a waterproof membrane, do I have to use tile?

Question: if I use Aqua Defense or Redguard to waterproof my shower can I just paint a natural color on the floor, or do I have to put tile down.  What kind of paint could I use that would not peel up
Comment: I don't think those roll-on membranes are going to be durable enough without a protective coating other than paint. It also depends what type of surface you're planning on coating with the Redguard or Aqua Defense.
Answer: You cannot use redgard or aqua defense as the final coat.  (says this in their product info)  Over time standing on them, dropping things or whatever would cause weak points or holes.  They are meant to have some type of hard surface on top of them for protection - stone, tile, plastic, and so on.
Paint would not help at all.  Any type of paint that got wet would eventually lose binding to the material.  Also paint wouldn't help with the above issues.
Answer: 2 part Epoxy is water proof. Um, what type of shower enclosure? Is it a hand made mortar bed? Normally a shower would have tiles. In this case it would have a rubber basin or like long long ago, some heavy tar paper then the build up.
Red and Aqua, not water proof for continuous direct exposure. Ie, I wouldn't make a bath tub out of either. Tile is best because they (all liners) need protection. If you wear them you will get leaks.


What does it mean that the status of a submitted major revision is simultaneously 'awaiting reviewer scores' and 'awaiting decision'?

Question: A major revision was submitted to a journal. After some days, the status changed to 'awaiting reviewer scores', but there is also the status 'awaiting decision' right next to it. How should this double status be interpreted? Is the revised manuscript with the editor or reviewers, or both?
Comment: First time I've heard of a manuscript with two concurrent statuses. Can you share a screenshot of the EMS?
Comment: What would you do with the answer to this question?
Comment: Not an answer to your question: Why does it matter?
Comment: It's the first time I have seen it as well. I cannot share a screenshot unfortunately. No obvious way to do that and also I would not feel comfortable. For those who ask why it matters and what I would do with the answer: Fair questions. This paper is extremely important for my career and it is difficult to not obsess about trying to second-guess what happens. The rational thing would be to just wait. But this status is mind boggling and I cannot help trying to interpret what it means.
Answer: Here is a possible interpretation: the paper might have received the comments of all of its reviewers. So, its status is "Awaiting Decision". But the editor, for some reason, e.g., conflicting opinions in those comments, has sent the paper to another reviewer. Thus, the status also reflects "Awaiting Reviewer Scores".
Comment: Thanks for sharing your interpretation, it sounds plausible - generally speaking. In this particular case, I believe it is not so likely since the statuses seem to have appeared only a few days after submission and both at the same time.
Answer: Nobody here can tell you what is happening with your paper. However, I will give a possible interpretation that is slightly different to @Robotocist:
Often people decline invitations to review papers. If an editor wants, say, two reviews for a paper, they may initially invite four or five referees. Once two have accepted they will typically cancel the other invitations. However, if they are too late to do so, they can end up with more reviewers than they really need. The system will continue to show "Awaiting reviewer scores" until all reviewers have submitted their reports.
Meanwhile, the editorial management system will be configured to automatically mark the paper as 'ready for decision' once the minimum number of reviews has been submitted. However, it will still recognise that not all the reviewers who accepted have submitted a report. It is up to the editor to decide what to do - they may choose to make a decision based on the information they have, or wait for the additional report(s).
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do except wait, and you should not take this as providing any information (positive or negative) about the eventual outcome of the review process.
Comment: Thanks for this suggestion! The paper is a 'revise and resubmit' (major revision) so I think it would only go back to the reviewers that already read it (max 3). Also, the statuses appeared very shortly after submission so I would be surprised if the reviewers had time to read and comment so fast. But maybe you are on to something with indicating that both statuses can be chosen to make the administration more easy. For example, maybe this gives the editor more flexibility in deciding whether to send the paper out again or whether to make the decision without sending back to reviewers...?


Failed to install vertica client 9.1.1 windows server 2012

Question: The Vertica Client Drivers 9.1.1 finishes with the message "installation failed".
No additional data about the error, no logs and no messages in the windows system event log.
I'm using Windows server 2012
How to understand the problem?
Answer: This is a known issue with Windows Server 2012.
First you need to manually install and enable the .NET Framework 3.5. Then you will be able to install the client drivers.
You can follow this link for instructions on how to install the .NET Framework 3.5 (https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/50892.windows-server-2012-r2-install-net-framework-3-5-feature-offlineonline.aspx). Follow the "Install .NET 3.5 Framework Features on Windows Server 2012 R2 (Online)" instructions.


What information do Hebrew pronouns carry/express?

Question: (inspired by this question)

Does the nominal pronoun in a Hebrew sentence with a conjugated verb
i) add information or ii) deserve to be translated?

Conversely, exactly how muchi) information does a stand-alone conjugated Hebrew verb contain andii) of a stand-alone conjugated Hebrew verb deserves to be translated?

E.g.: Does "אמרתי" properly mean "I said" or "said" and is it properly translated as "I said" or "said"?
Answer: Not 100% certain I understand the question. In Tanach, such verbs are often found without a separate pronoun (e.g., אמרתי, not אני אמרתי), and then they do need to be translated as, e.g., "I said" for the sentence to make any sense. The cases where we have pronoun + verb + suffix (אני אמרתי) are usually for emphasis: "I said."
Of course, for second- and third-person forms, when a noun is needed to identify the speaker, you'll have that (אנשי המקום אמרו), and then I suppose a hyper-literal translation might be "The men of the place, they said." I have never seen such a translation, though.
In modern Hebrew (colloquial, and sometimes formal too) you find the form אני אמרתי much more often, not necessarily with any intent at emphasis. My guess is that these are influenced by European languages, where the verb suffix (if any) doesn't encode pronominal information.
Comment: The question isn't phrased as well as it could be. Thanks for jumping in anyway! You are addressing the pragmatic needs of a translation - accuracy and expressiveness. But the other half of my question is exactly how much of the meaning "I said" is encoded in the word "אמרתי". Does the verb really include the pronoun "I" or does it only agree with it?
Comment: I see what you mean. Still, though, to judge by examples like אמרתי, I'd think that we necessarily have to say that the verb includes the pronoun, otherwise the sentence is missing a subject.
Answer: If you are asking for an educational-practical purpose then here is what I have concluded:
Based on exmples in Tanach of these verbs appearing as stand-alones I would tend to agree with Alex that the pronoun is included in the conjugated verb. However, as with all translation from language to language one must deal with the (pardon the term) idiosyncrasies of the language being translated from. In the case of Lashon HaKodesh we (us English speakers) perceive the redundancy of the pronoun as such.
Therefore, if your goal is for the students to first be aware of the individual words' translations have them translate the individual words as such, including the pronouns. Then have them descramble these single-word translations into their proper phrases, dropping the now redundant pronouns when necessary.


export c4d mesh

Question: I am trying to export a mesh and his textures out of c4d. The mesh is a car that have multiple materials and multiple objects. It looks like this :

For straightforwardness reasons I would like to have only 1 mesh file, and 1 texture file after the export. Export the mesh is the easy part, I just have to connect every objects that compose the mesh and export is in the format I want. But I have problems with textures. After some research I found that I had to use the "Bake Object" tool. So after setting the texture size ( 2048x2048 ) and file format, I get this result with the single texture :

I'm not a big user of c4d. I just use it to convert objects and reduce objects numbers/merge textures, so I have no idea where the problem can be... I tried options like "keep uvs", that didn't worked. Since the connected object looks like the first image, the problem should be in the second part.
Is there a simpler way of doing that?
Comment: Looks like a problem with normals to me. I don't know anything at all about c4d, but if there's a button to recalculate normals or something similar, I recommend trying that.
Answer: Adjust the phong angle on the model, optimize points(Mesh -> Commands -> Optimize) and increase resolution of texture on material using the editor tag.

export c4d mesh


What are known portals to the Hells in the Forgotten Realms?

Question: I know that there is (or at least, used to be) one portal in the dungeons under Dragonspear Castle that linked the castle to Avernus, the first level of the Nine Hells. Are there other such fixed portals documented in the Forgotten Realms that connect to the Nine Hells?
(Sources can be from any Edition of D&D, or from other official publications like Dragon Magazine or novels).
Comment: Point of clarification - are you only looking for portals directly from Abeir-Toril in the Material Plane to one of the Nine Hells, or any connection to the Nine Hells from anywhere in the Forgotten Realms cosmology?
Comment: Just to Abeir-Toril. Especially to the Sword Coast, but other areas are also OK.
Comment: @samuei I am fine with the edit in the title to "the Hells", just be aware that as far as I know, there are NO portals to any other layer of the Hells than the first, Avernus. So technically (unless someone comes up with such a protal), there are only portals to a single hell, the first one. With your edit, it's consistent with the body of the question, and maybe such a portal exists...
Comment: @NobodytheHobgoblin The official name of the plane that Avernus is a part of is 'The Nine Hells', and as such, "The Hells" is simply a truncation of that full name. IMO, The Hells is a more accurate name for the plane than merely 'hell'...as the later is a location in Christian mythology while the former is a place in 5e.
Comment: @aaron9eee Good point, in that case I should have just asked if there is a portal to Avernus. But who knows, maybe somewhere in an adventure someone made a portal to another layer, so in this form the question is not only correct, but also covers that. Thanks for the note.
Answer:
Fields of the Dead

According to Elminster's Candlekeep Companion (p46-48):

the best way to enter Avernus is via the original gate the Hellriders used

and that the hellgate is

on the Fields of the Dead.

Descent into Avernus also mentions a gate in the Fields of the Dead, but doesn't provide any more specifics.

Dragonspear Castle

The castle was infamous for the inter-planar portal located in the dungeon beneath its keep. This portal linked the castle to Avernus, the first level of the Nine Hells, allowing passageway for baatezu and other devils into Toril.

Myth Drannor

A portal to Avernus was erected in the spring of the Year of the Bloodbird, 1346 DR in the Burial Glen of Myth Drannor (...) interference from Malkizid caused it to become permanent. The portal was eventually closed by the Knights of Myth Drannor in 1357 DR (...) [Dragon 359 pp.102-103]


360 Video Environment

Question: I am making an animation in which I need to have a 360 video in the background as the environment texture in World panel instead of an HDRi. Is there any way to so this?
Thanks.
Answer: Yep. Just convert the video into an image sequence and load it into an Environment Texture node as usual. Make sure you have 'Auto Refresh' enabled.

360 Video Environment


How to write a philosophical work? As a beginner

Question: How does one identify the points for discussion in that paper? And how do I make a skeleton paper work of the topic to present infront of your mentor? What is the structure of a philosophical paper? How do I write a criticism?
Comment: The most straightforward way for a College Student, would be to ask one of your professors for assistence. The easiest way to learn about the format/expectations for a research paper is to read research papers related to what you would like to research.
Comment: I put this to Google bard (like chatgpt) *Please instruct me as a beginner how to write a 4 page philosophy paper*. I think you'll find it useful
Answer: In academic philosophical writing, you start by identifying a topic of interest to you, and a philosopher who has written on that topic. In general, the academic expectation is to make your focus narrow. Examples of topics might be Plato's "Theory of Recollection," Kierkegaard's idea of "Repetition" or Peter Singer's statements on the rights of animals (although those might all still be considered too broad, and in need of further focus and refinement).
In your paper you would examine what the person actually said, and what some of the best-known secondary commentary is on their writing. You would finish by offering your own critique of the original writing, and potentially on the commentary as well. If you have your own independent thoughts on the subject, the expectation is that you will outline that as part of the critique (rather than separately).
Answer: Welcome, Ankita,
A philosophy paper isn't fundamentally different than other forms of papers such as research papers and essays depending on your goals. The topic of course is different. For instance, if you are doing research into a topic, like Kant's categorical imperative, you would start with a tertiary source, and begin to shape your thesis and potential sources for the paper. Some tertiary sources for philosophy are:

The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP), online)
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP), online
The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Then you go about tracking down primary sources through the usual means. Google Books and PhilPapers.org are online resources.
When you have your thesis and you have done your work, then you draft it just any other, eventually submitting for peer review in one form or another. After refinements, you are free to move on an select another thesis.


Is there any way to install MySQL 5.1 and PHP 5.3 on Centos 7

Question: Is there any way to install MySQL 5.1 and PHP 5.3 on Centos 7. I researched a lot but could not find any link which gives step by step procedure.  Can someone please give me steps to be followed to install these .
Comment: If you are running not just one, but 2 unsupported packages with known vulnerabilities then why run them on centos7? Setup a centos 5 VM/container
Answer: There are no RPMs of MySQL 5.1 for CentOS 7.
Your only chance is to take the "generic tar-ball", its installation is described in the manual.
At the top of my head, I see two potential points of trouble:
1) You may need to disable SElinux.
2) Some system library may have had an API change between the build platform of the binaries and CentOS 7.
I have no info on PHP.
Answer: Try using  IUS Community Project repositories:
<code>yum -y update
yum -y install epel-release
wget https://centos7.iuscommunity.org/ius-release.rpm
rpm -Uvh ius-release*.rpm
yum -y update
yum -y install php56u php56u-opcache php56u-xml php56u-mcrypt php56u-gd php56u-devel php56u-mysql php56u-intl php56u-mbstring php56u-bcmath
</code>
You can change php5X or 7x for versions you want.
Another way to run ANY PHP version over any linux distribution is compiling it from sources.  Its simple.   Look this manual that explain how to run any version of PHP:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WSJ0LMIJW5syLCekyYTZALe4X_t_RI9umKwpM_2sO7g/preview
Regards.


Has anyone yet figured out how sensory signals for eyes and ears are encoded by our organ into electrical signals?

Question: The most obvious way to give sight to blind and hearing to deaf is to give them a replacement organ for these. In order to do that we would need to understand how our eyes and ears encode sensory information into electrical signals which then go into the brain. My question is, how close are to understand this mechanism at this time?
Comment: I don't understand your question -- My confusion is reflected in the responses to your post; Bryan Krause's quite excellent comment below delves into implant world, while some answers allude to normal physiology. I think this is because the post's body and title don't match -- they reflect the ambiguity in the question. In other words, like Bryan suggests -- current prosthetics don't treat hearing loss or blindness by reproducing normal physiological processes.
Comment: See what I want to know is, do we understand exactly how the vision is converted into electrical signals and how to interpret those signals? I am an electronic engineer myself and have studied a few communication protocols. My question arose during my contemplation of how we encode information in electronic systems.
Comment: Well, do we know it 'exactly'... no. But we do know a lot. But the visual system is large and complex. From physical stimulus to 'interpretation', as you say you wish to learn, is a lot to ask for. It spans the full range from sensation to perception to association - impossible to capture in a single answer. Dependent on your background knowledge, it may take a full uni course to even just understand the very basics I reckon.
Comment: I am only curious to know to what extent we can create an artificial eye that behaves like the real one at the present time
Comment: That answer to that Q is very simple - we can't :) Bryan has abstracted that below. I've worked with folks with retinal implants - while promising, it's not even close to normal vision.
Answer: I think the encoding is quite well understood, and in fact there are artifical cochleas available for deaf people: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochlear_implant
For retina replacements, I think the hurdle is establishing the connections from any device to the nerve.  There are roughly 120 million rods and 6 million cones in the human eye. (Per Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photoreceptor_cell )  These connect to about 1.2 million optic nerves, so making the proper connections would seem to be a non-trivial matter.
Comment: Cochlear implants work by stimulating the nerves that normally innervate the hair cells. They give very low resolution - only about 20 total sites over the entire frequency spectrum. It would be just as much a hurdle to connect to the 30,000 auditory nerve fibers. However, there is enough redundancy in speech that the 30,000 -> 20 mapping is enough to resolve some speech from one talker (some other cues for direction and resolving multiple talkers are much more difficult). You can do the same thing in the retina, the problem is that you don't get much useful vision out of that low resolution.
Comment: See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_prosthesis
Comment: @Bryan Krause: I'd disagree that it's just as much of a hurdle. 20 into 30,000 nerves is rather easier than 20 into a million.  The problem is that hearing is linear, while sight is two dimensional, so for equivalent resolution you need to square the number of sensors/connections.
Comment: Even 20x20 pixels isn't much. It's less about 2D and more about temporal vs spatial resolution; it's a lot easier to put temporal information into one channel than it is for spatial. Paul Bach-y-Rita did make a tongue stimulation device for vision ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brainport ) that gives about that 20x20 resolution. It's enough to help not bump into stuff but you aren't going to read. The rest of the information is conveyed with pre-processing rather than trying to render an actual image.
Answer: In general I would say a lot is known:
Seeing starts with the photo-receptors. See "signal transduction" section of the Wiki:
Signal transduction works though rhodopsin and subsequent closing and opening of ion channels.
Then the signal is transferred from the optic nerve to the brain.
Hearing works though hair cells and mechanotransduction.


How to use Zwift workouts with stationary bike

Question: What's the best way to use Zwift with a stationary bike? I have a Bowflex C6, which reports power and RPM over Bluetooth. However this doesn't seem to work well because zwift can't control the resistance. I can manually change the resistance on the bike to meet the target wattage of the workout but I have no idea if that's the "right" resistance. How do I determine if I'm using the bike and the app in the most correct way?
Comment: "I can ... meet the target wattage of the workout" - that's really most of what all smart trainers do, just automatically. That is doing it the correct way.
Comment: Is it accurate? Like if I'm pedaling at 85 rpm at a resistance level of X and my output is 100w, is that roughly equivalent to the same wattage I'd be outputting on a road against the same resistance?  Most sites say "no".
Answer:
"I can manually change the resistance on the bike to meet the target wattage of the workout"

Well, that's the right resistance then. The only difference between that and a smart trainer is the smart trainer does it upon computer control instead of you shifting gears or adjusting a dial on a resistance unit. That's really all there is to it.

Is it accurate? Like if I'm pedaling at 85 rpm at a resistance level of X and my output is 100w, is that roughly equivalent to the same wattage I'd be outputting on a road against the same resistance? Most sites say "no".

Ignoring the aspect of instrumentation errors and small difference in measured output from aspects such as how it's being measured, then the answer to that question is basically yes. If you are claiming "most sites" say no then you are likely reading answers to different questions.
Reading into this question, I think you might be confusing what 100w into the pedals will do in real life vs how your in-game avatar rides, with regards to speeds or climbing, etc. That relationship is very loose, but Zwift is a video game, it doesn't need to, nor will it ever match reality exactly. Please comment if that is what you are referring to.
However, for workouts, watts are watts. 100w on the trainer is no different than 100w on the real world. If you are riding at 100w at 85 RPM at resistance X on the trainer, you'll do that. If you are on the road, and are putting 100w in at 85 RPM, you'll accelerate until air resistance, gravity on a slope, or other rolling resistance equals 100w at which point you'll then maintain a constant speed.
So, in short: if Zwift says to ride at X watts, and your bike says you are riding at X watts, then you are good to go, simple as that. (assuming your trainer is reasonably accurate and calibrated).
Comment: This is how Zwift works with "dumb" trainers, but X watts generated at higher crank torque and lower cadence is not always the same as X watts generated at lower crank torque and higher cadence: you can often see this by differences in heart rate and breaths per minute. But, in general, yes, X watts is *nearly* the same as X watts no matter how it's generated, which is what should matter to the OP.
Answer: You're right - this is fundamentally impossible to make perfectly "right"
The correct answer is to have a fancy trainer that measures your power output in watts, and increase/decreases the resistance automatically based on what the software tells it, which is derived from the gradient and wind/weather conditions for your current virtual location, by the software.
To be "fair" you should wind up the resistance when going up a hill, and set it back to "normal" for the flats.  However gauging and calibrating these settings is hard.
If you have a road bike with a power meter, try an FTP test for real outside, to get an idea of your true wattage on the flat.  This is a horrible test and even the short versions will leave you exhausted.   Try and "memorise" that level of physical effort.
Then ride your indoor bike and aim for the same input effort, then adjust the resistance until it shows the right power output.  That is your new base resistance setting - mark it somehow.
For uphills, its a bit more guesswork.  Find another rider who is about your speed  and power while on the flat.  When you both hit a climb, increase your resistance knob setting so that your speed and power matches your target rider's stats.  This value will only work for this gradient, so mark your resistance control with this gradient.
Now if that slope was 6%, you can reasonably double the resistance increase to equal a 12% slope, or halve it for a 3%.

If that's too hard, just remember zwift etc is all fake riding, and that you're only really competing with yourself.  So work on improving your own times and ignore everyone else's.

ON SECOND THOUGHT*   Do you need to make any changes at all?  Your bike returns "power in watts" to the app.  If you're riding up a virtual climb, does your forward speed drop compared to a flat ride at the same power?
If yes, then you don't need to change anything for the app to read you right.  The only downside here is that it doesn't accurately represent any form of realistic training for climbs.  Sure its a lot nicer than riding in the rain, but remember it's gamified, not real.
Comment: @RibaldEddie: sure, 2.4w/kg isn't great by pro-racing standards, but you're close to being in C category, and remember that most of Zwift users are pretty hardcore, so don't get too caught up comparing yourself to them.
Comment: It might be the last thing. The bike has its own resistance knob and digital representation of that resistance (a numerical scale between 0-100) and the bike reports RPM and power in watts to the app. When I change the resistance, the watts immediately changes at the same RPM.
Comment: @RibaldEddie: can you feel the resistance change immediately too?
Comment: @whatsisname yeah
Comment: @RibaldEddie: then it makes sense what the bike is reporting. Keep in mind, Zwift by default shows an average over the last 3 seconds, which may explain some discrepancy in what you are expecting vs what you are observing? You can change that in the zwift settings.
Comment: @whatsisname thanks. I did the full FTP test today. It came out as 162 which, at my weight of 68kg, isn't very good. So that sounds right.
Comment: @whatsisname then that can't be right. I'm insanely out of shape. I spend most of my time sitting around.
Comment: @RibaldEddie: 2.4 is still a ways away from being "in shape".
Comment: @whatsisname good because the only way I'm gonna believe this is working is if it tells me I'm out of shape.
Comment: @RibaldEddie hey - this comment section is diverging away from the purpose of comments.  Can I suggest you try the [chat] instead?  That's way-less structured compared to this more formalised Q&A main area.


real-time decorator for functions and generators

Question: I have a situation in which I need to hook certain functions so that I can inspect the return values and track them. This is useful for tracking for example running averages of values returned by methods/functions. However, these methods/function can also be generators.
However, if i'm not wrong, python detects generators when parsing and when the function is called at runtime it always returns a generator. Thus I can't simply do something like:
import types
def decorator(func):
    average = None # assume average can be accessed by other means
    def wrap(*args, **kwargs):
        nonlocal average
        ret_value = func(*args, **kwargs)
        #if False wrap is still a generator
        if isinstance(ret_value, types.GeneratorType):
           for value in ret_value:
              # update average
              yield value
        else:
            # update average
            return ret_value # ret_value can't ever be fetched
    return wrap

And yielding in this decorator is necessary, since I need to track the values as the caller iterates this decorated generator (i.e. "real-time"). Meaning, I can't simply replace the for and yield with values = list(ret_value), and return values. (i.e.) If the func is a generator it needs to remain a generator once decorated. But if func is a pure function/method, even if the else is executed, wrap still remains a generator. Meaning, the ret_value can't ever be fetched.
A toy example of using such a generator would be:
@decorated
def some_gen(some_list):
    for _ in range(10):
       if some_list[0] % 2 == 0:
           yield 1
       else:
           yield 0
def caller():
   some_list = [0]
   for i in some_gen(some_list):
      print(i)
      some_list[0] += 1 # changes what some_gen yields

For the toy example, there may be simpler solutions, but it's just to prove a point.
Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but I did some research and didn't find anything. The closest thing I found was this. However, that still doesn't let the decorator inspect every value returned by the wrapped generator (just the first). Does this have a solution, or are two types of decorators (one for functions and one for decorators) necessary?
Answer: Once solution I realized is:
def as_generator(gen, avg_update):
     for i in gen:
         avg_update(i)
         yield i

import types
def decorator(func):
    average = None # assume average can be accessed by other means
    def wrap(*args, **kwargs):
        def avg_update(ret_value):
            nonlocal average
            #update average
            pass

        ret_value = func(*args, **kwargs)
        #if False wrap is still a generator
        if isinstance(ret_value, types.GeneratorType):
           return as_generator(ret_value, avg_update)
        else:
            avg_update(ret_value)
            return ret_value # ret_value can't ever be fetched
    return wrap

I don't know if this is the only one, or if there exists one without making a separate function for the generator case.


How do you protect your cob cannons in Survival Endless?

Question: So I've been playing survival endless for awhile and it just doesn't seem possible to get past wave 10. The gargantuars and giga-gargantuars are just too much for my defenses to handle. I know most players use cob-cannons for damage, but the problem is if I put my cob-cannons too far back imps and diggers get to them and if I put them towards the front they get crushed or eaten. Is there a way to get them right in that "spot" where they are protected from imps, diggers, and just the zombies in general? P.S. I play on android so I only have 9 seed slots instead of 10.
Answer: For this particular issue the Split Pea (which shoots two peas backwards) could help. Position it in front of the Cob Cannon so it can cover rear attacks.
The PvZ fandom wiki contains a lot of useful strategies for Survival: Endless btw, give it a read: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Survival:_Endless/Strategies
Also check the 'tips' section: https://plantsvszombies.fandom.com/wiki/Survival:_Endless?so=search#Tips
Comment: +1 - welcome to the site! this answers how to handle diggers well, could you add a note about handling gargantuans though?
Comment: It's been a while since I played PvZ and PvZ2 I'm afraid... But the key is dpm, if you can do enough they might even die before they can throw their imp.
Comment: Split Peas are generally considered ineffecitve in later rounds of Survival Endless, as single-target plants cannot keep up with the large number of zombies unlike AoE plants. Cattails are a possible exception since they can attack thrown Imps and Diggers towards the back and reduce the reliance on Cob Cannons.
Answer: I recommend looking at some of the online guides for survival, for example this one. There is more than one way to get past this issue. General tips for your question include:

Do not place the Cob Cannons at the back four lanes on land, where an Imp can be thrown at them or can be attacked Digger. Either place them on on the pool water or in the 5th or 6th columns on land (doing them on the 7th or closer up also works, though they may then be vulnerable to zombies at the front).
Pumpkin zombies at the back so that they are protected from Diggers. Multiple Gloom-shrooms can be effective at killing Diggers quickly when Pumpkined. Alternatively, two columns of Spikerocks at the back will kill Diggers before they reach the 3rd column
Frost Melons on each row can slow zombies at the front. This gives the Cob Cannons more time to recharge before Gargantuans can reach your plants in front.
You won't plant all the plants you want in one round, even with 10 slots. Priotise which plants you want at each round, with a larger focus on upgrade plants including Cob Cannons later in the game.
Spikerocks being the closest plants to the far right on the land is helpful against Gargantuans since they take 3 hits to be destroyed, a luxury that other plants do not have.
As a late-game goal, Pumpkin every plant that can be Pumpkined
Do not use Peas or other single-target plants late-game, Split-Pea included. They will not keep up with the huge number of zombies. Cattails are a possible exception as they can kill at least some Imps that get past your defences to minimise the reliance on Cob Cannons regardless of the lane they're in.
Try to time Cob Cannon shots so that you kill the Gargantuans before they throw their Imps. In the case of Gargantuans, firing two Cobs one shortly after another at them will accomplish this. (Note Gargantuans may still appear between the two shots, meaning they only take one shot and will then ready their Imp). However, this is considerably harder to achieve with Giga-Gargantuans (need to hit them with two Cobs when they're ready to throw Imps).

An example end-goal layout of endless with 8 Cob Cannons is below (by no means is this exact layout necessary).


How to measure fuel level from uneven tank?

Question: If you measure the fuel level with a dipstick on the C172 I fly, you can get two different readings. This is because directly under the filler cap opening there is a cuboid-shaped sensor. Obviously, measured from the top of the sensor, you get a much smaller value than if you lower the dipstick to the side of the sensor. (4 USGal difference)
Which value is correct?
Answer: The bottom of the tank is flat so you want to make sure the dipstick is touching the bottom. In any case, if you want accurate readings, it's not sufficient to just dip the fuel and estimate the level between the bottom and top of the opening, because if the tank is sloping, or is tapered, or is irregular, it doesn't give you an accurate reading.
Absent a commercial dipstick that is custom graduated for that tank, your best bet is to mark off your own dipstick by draining the tank through the gascolator, then filling it in 1 or 2 gallon increments and marking off the levels yourself. I've always done that with the airplanes I've flown regularly.


Beyond scope( Master thesis)

Question: I'm master student and I'm working on my thesis that includes lab work. I was written my proposal last semester and I've done lot of research about instruments that I'm going to use according to the instruction that my supervisor gave it to me. Now he comping up with new experiments and instruments every day that he didn't mentioned. He expect me to make chemical solutions that I'm going to use but I didn't prepared myself for that and now I'm confused and stressful.Now I don't know if it is right to complain about this or I have to do that part anyway. I appreciate it if somebody can tell me what to do?!
Answer: First off, take a deep breadth and relax.
It's hard for Random Internet People (tm) to really know what's in scope and what's out of scope for your work. You should bring up your concerns with you adviser. He exists to advise, direct, and guide you. He's not the enemy.
If you feel like the work your adviser is suggesting is too much or unrelated to your thesis, you should say so. He might not realize how much effort/time the experiments he's suggesting will take. Or maybe he knows some way to make then take up less effort.
If you're worried about talking to your adviser, you can try to approach a more senior student in his group or another professor. They probably know you, your adviser, and your work better than we do and can help suggest specif strategies to talk to you adviser about the situation and offer advice on how to accomplish your work.

Beyond scope( Master thesis)


Deploy Angular 2 with Azure Webapp

Question: How can can I deploy an angular 2 webapp to azure? I guess I need some type of final compilation script.
Thanks in advance.
Comment: Hi , did you make the deploy ? i'm stuck there .. I'm working on `Webstorm` and the angular2 app is working smoothly , i didnt come up to know how can i deploy it on azure ...
Comment: @Selem I called Azure support, and they're currently investigating how to make the deployment. I'll update when they will give me a solution.
Comment: thank you very much indeed !
Answer: In order to run angular2 app in azure follow these steps:

create a new ng app (with ng cli) : ng new testApp and push to some github repo.
create Azure deployment files for Kudu :

npm install azure-cli -g
azure site deploymentscript --node

this will create 2 files .deployment and deploy.cmd

edit the deploy.cmd remove the --production from the line

:: 3. Install npm packages

so that all dependencies will be installed (including ng cli)

add under the section of :: 3. Install npm packages

this snippet:
echo Handling Angular build
    :: 4. Build ng app
    IF EXIST "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%\package.json" (
      pushd "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%"
      call :ExecuteCmd "!NODE_EXE!" ./node_modules/@angular/cli/bin/ng build --prod --env=prod --aot
      IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error
      :: the next line is optional to fix 404 error see section #8
      call :ExecuteCmd cp "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%"/web.config "%DEPLOYMENT_TARGET%"/dist/
      IF !ERRORLEVEL! NEQ 0 goto error
      popd
    )

create a new webapp in azure and bind it to your github repository
now just change the root of the app in the  Azure "Application Settings"
under "Virtual applications and directories"from

site\wwwroot

to

site\wwwroot\dist

 7. trigger a deployment. (by pushing to github or manually from the azure portal)
 8. (optional) for fixing the 404 when refreshing, you need to add a web.config on the root with this content:
   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <configuration>
      <system.webServer>
        <rewrite>
          <rules>
            <rule name="AngularJS" stopProcessing="true">
              <match url=".*" />
              <conditions logicalGrouping="MatchAll">
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsFile" negate="true" />
                <add input="{REQUEST_FILENAME}" matchType="IsDirectory" negate="true" />
              </conditions>
              <action type="Rewrite" url="index.html" />
            </rule>
          </rules>
        </rewrite>
      </system.webServer>
    </configuration>

open your app .. BOOM!
Comment: azure site deploymentscript --node doesn't work anymore.
I used this instead: https://github.com/projectkudu/kudu/wiki/Custom-Deployment-Script
Comment: @sander a hint is enabled when running this command in ARM Mode, switching to ASM Mode and rerunning the command works now
Comment: @Amir Sasson What about Build definitions?
Comment: @Lobato you mean TFS build Defination?
Comment: Yes sir, or are these files automatically runned by Kudu?
Comment: @Lobato run by Kudo directly. in case of TFS, you might need ng-cli to build your angular application and copy the output dir to the Azure webapp.
then you might need section #6 to #9
Answer: I know this is a bit late but none of the other answers give
explicit instructions. Hopefully this can help someone.
I'm assuming you are using Angular-CLI.
Run:
npm install
ng build (depending on your setup you might be able to run npm build)
This creates a folder called ./dist that contains the necessary files for your working website. Then use a script-able FTP client to push all of the content inside of ./dist to the ./site/wwwroot folder of the Azure webapp.
You'll need to use the FTP credentials of the wabapp, as found in the Publish Profile, from your Azure Portal.
This Stackoverflow question will hep you with that.
Where is "download publish profile" in the new Azure Portal?
Comment: Thanks. I deployed successfully.
Answer: If you need this for Continuous deployment purposes, and you are using git repo, than it's very simple, just follow instructions here Continuous deployment using GIT in Azure App Service.
But, in general, it's not directly related to angular2. Try also this Using Windows PowerShell scripts to publish to dev and test environments capabilities.
angular-cli, which is (or will became) main tool for angular building, testing, deploying, at this time do not have such function, nor requirement (as i know so far). You can request feature on their github.
Comment: Well on my computer I just run `npm start` and it boots up the app.
On Azure auto deployment, if I try to run the same deployment script, it fails (because some global npm script dependencies are not installed).
Any suggestion?
Comment: I hope you have figured out the solution already. For other people who have same issues, basically you just need include those dependencies in your package.json file. For example, you need express, run "npm install express --save"
Answer: I managed to do it successfully without actually doing too much. Here are the steps :

I used GitHub as my source control. So, after taking a build of my Angular 4 project with the command ng build on the VS Code terminal, I pushed the entire dist folder (which is generated in the project directory/folder after you run  ng build) also to GitHub. If somehow the IDE can't detect the dist folder as changes, you can also manually upload the folder into your GitHub repository. Use the Drag & Drop feature to upload the entire folder.
Now get a new App Service created in your Azure Subscription.
Go to Deployment Options and choose GitHub, provide credentials, and give the name of the repository you'd be using.

Go to Application Settings ,then to Virtual Applications and Directories, and change the root directory to site\wwwroot\dist

Now everything is set. Go back to Deployment Options again, and you shall see that a Build is in progress. After updating the code at GitHub repository through check-in, you could just Sync in order to take a fresh build. (P.S : In my case, the new build was automatically triggered after a new check-in to GitHub)
Bingo! Now you can access your website on azure. :D
Comment: Easiest explanation.
Answer: I can move you part of the way to a solution, but I cannot fully answer your question. So, if the SO monitors want to delete this response, please feel free.
I am trying to get an Angular CLI application to deploy to Azure from Bitbucket. You have two options:
1) Pre-build your application for deployment using a service like Jenkins or Codeship. Shane Boyer has a working solution using Github and Codeship here: http://tattoocoder.com/angular2-azure-codeship-angularcli/
This option seems most desirable b/c you only have compiled code on your server. I am trying to figure out how to work with Jenkins to accomplish this with angular-cli.
2) Copy your code to the server and run the build there. This seems undesirable b/c it will leave source code on your server. I have this option 90% done.
My build was/is failing b/c of missing npm packages.
First, I changed my environment so that it was using a more recent version of Node and this helped. You can do this by opening settings on your Web App and going to Application Settings. In the App settings section of the Application settings tab, you should have a set of key/value pairs. One of those should be for WEBSITE_NODE_DEFAULT_VERSION. On my app, I have access up to version 6.1.0 which I am using. Set yours to the appropriate version. You can also set this in your packages.json file following the instructions here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/nodejs-specify-node-version-azure-apps/ . Changing it in App settings allows you to use that version in you command line window which I needed to get npm packages installed.
Next, go to your command line and try to install your missing packages. I have had mixed success here. Initially, my build was failing b/c typings was not installed. I was able to install it globally once I had updated Node.
I ran into problems installing angular-cli. I have not gotten a good log of that failure, even using -dd. Essentially, it copies all the files then fails returning a 'bad request' error and no log regardless of the switches I use. I believe it is failing while trying to modify the npm environment to add ng.cmd. I am currently investigating this.
Hopefully, this will move you a little farther along.
Good luck.
Comment: Hi any update on this? Im also trying to deploying angular-cli from bitbucket to azure. trying to setup continous deployment with azure and bitbucket. But yeah in kudo - i can't seem to install angular-cli (Ng serve is failling)
Comment: We are using Jenkins to build on a separate server and then deploy. Couldn't get kudu to work.
Comment: Just started this today. Ran into the exact same issue as you did. Sad to see you couldn't work it out.
Comment: We ended up completing the process in Jenkins and the just pushing out the finished website. I cannot delineate that process as our Ops guy did all the Jenkins work and I am on a different project in another company. Needless to say, running the build on Azure was a non-starter.
Answer: To achieve deploying angular application on azure webapps using bitbucket, create bitbucket-pipelines.yml in root directory. Create environment variables for FTP access for your webapps slot (environment variables are referred using $ in script below).
Enable the pipelines from Bitbucket settings.
That's it. Whenever you check-in the code in specific branch ( master branch in script below), it will deploy the application to azure webapps slot using FTP.
# registry for your build environment.
image: node:8.9.0

pipelines:
  branches:
    master:
     - step:
        script: # Modify the commands below to build your repository.
          - npm install -g @angular/cli
          - npm install
          - ng build --prod
          - apt-get update # Now run the FTP bash script to deploy dist folder to UAT
          - apt-get install ncftp
          - ncftpput -v -u "$FTP_USERNAME" -p $FTP_PASSWORD -R $FTP_HOST $FTP_SITE_ROOT dist/ROOT
          - echo Finished uploading files to $FTP_HOST$FTP_SITE_ROOT

Deploy Angular 2 with Azure Webapp


Why Cloud texture has square cell pattern?

Question: When I am using Cloud texture as bump map in Blender Render, this cells appear. How can I make them go away?
Answer: You might consider settings like this.

Influence [Color] and No influence [Normal]
It is not clear that the User can use all clouds as a Normal Map.  Normal Map and Bump Map are different.
Any one can paint a bump map manually.  That is not true of Normal map.
Normal Maps can baked.
You may also want to see the Displacement Modifier which uses textures.
Short answer, rather than a complete technical answer.


Can dogs *actually* kiss? Not lick, but kiss

Question: Do dogs (or only specific breeds) have the physiology - both muscular and neural - to be able to to kiss? I don't mean contact of the lips or "kissing" that is actually licking - I meas creating negative air pressure in the mouth that pulls the lips shut against each under pressure other and releasing it (usually after contact with some surface e.g lips or skin, and usually also while pushing them against that surface).
Answer: No. Same reason they can't drink by sucking and have to inefficiently lap water up with their tongues: the lips can't get an adequate seal. Muzzles mostly just don't work that way.


Shed Sub Panel Wire Thickness 150 ft

Question: What is the recommended wire thickness to run between 125-150ft to a detached shed (home office)?
I was thinking 60 amp breaker, 4/3 thwn-2 (2 hot, 1 neutral, 1 ground). Do I need more?
Comment: How many square feet is said shed, and how is it heated/cooled? What size is the service you're trying to run this off of?
Comment: Stating 4/3 with ground ? But then thwn-2 would require conduit a 4 wire feed will be needed unless in metallic conduit allowed to be used as the ground. you don't provide a load so providing the correct wire size other than the feeder breaker that you have. Check out south wire and there voltage drop calculator.
Comment: @ThreePhaseEel - 120 sqft, 200amp main, no heating or cooling.
Comment: What are you running the THWN in, by the way?
Answer: #4 THWN aluminum is exactly what I'd use.
As far as voltage drop, 150' isn't far enough for voltage drop to become a concern.  I don't even run the numbers until 180' :)
#4 THWN aluminum breakers at 70A (it's rated for 65A but you round up to the next breaker size which exists).
Because it's capable of 70A, you need a 70A ground wire, which is #8 copper or #6 aluminum.   If aluminum, it must be insulated.  You're allowed to use #4 aluminum, and the benefit is that you get to use black wire and mark it green with phase tape.  #8 or #6 ground would need to be actually green or bare.

Shed Sub Panel Wire Thickness 150 ft


Mechanical work to required battery power

Question: I have a very practical question where I've calculated the mechanical work needed by a simple mechanical system by solving the line integral $W = \int_C \ F \ dx$. However, since I have a black spot in my brain for electrical calculations I figured I could just (considering a 1.5V 2700mAh Alkaline battery) calculate the current required by $I = P / V$ and using that calculate how many batteries I need or how long my mechanical system could work. Is this correct or am I missing something crucial here?
Answer: From the specifications of your battery, that is 1.5V and 2700mAh, you can compute that there is $14580$ Joules of energy stored in your batteries.
The formula $P=U\cdot I$ relates power to voltage and current. You battery specs give voltage and capacity (that is total charge stored). The former is in Volt, the latter in milli-Ampère-hour. The product is therefore not a power but an energy. And that corresponds to the $14580$ Joules I mentioned. Of course, you should also factor in possible losses, so in practice, you'll never draw that much work from the batteries.
Comment: So I can safely go from the Jouls needed to the ones generated by the battery. I factored in losses due to friction, but a general efficiency rule regarding batteries is hard to find.
Comment: Problem is that as you use a battery, the current and voltage will not be steady and therefore the power will not be either. The current in particular will depend on the electrical resistance of your system. I don't think much can be said with the little information you gave.
Comment: If the specs are honest (and not marketting lies), and the use is within a reasonable range, the draw current is low enough that internal resistance within the battery isn't import etc. It should be a reasonable approximation. Small sized electric motors are probably not close to 100% efficient, so you need to include a substantial safety factor.
Answer: You have (1.5V)(2.7A)(3600s) = 14580 Watt-seconds = 14580 Joules of energy in the battery.
BUT you can only get that much energy out if you extract it the same way the manufacturer did it during their optimized tests, which is typically at a much lower amperage than what you want to drive your motor.  Also, remember that there are friction and other losses.
If you parallel enough batteries to keep the draw from any one battery to somewhere near a value that would result in total discharge at 100 hours (27mA in your case), and factor in a total system efficiency rate of 50%, my guess is that you will be close.
So, with batteries properly arranged and sized (quantity of batteries) for your system, you should expect to get (14580J)(50%) = 7290J of actual work out of EACH battery.  That is about 5368 ft.lb. of work (lift 100 pounds a height of 53.7 feet).


Single word for 'cloying empathy'

Question: Most often heard in radio and television interviews. On hearing someone stubbed their toe on a bathroom door, interviewer asks "Really, that must have been terrible, how did you cope with that?" - not sarcasm though.
Comment: I would use "out of politeness" since I don't feel like the question you gave as the example to be cloying, more like the interviewer was trying to be polite. If you want to describe something more negative, how about just using "cloyingly/overly empathetic/concerned"?
Answer: This sounds like the 'Sammy Maudlin Show', the 1970's SCTV ongoing sketch satirizing maudlin talk show hosts of that time (The target was clear: Merv Griffin). Maudlin is defined as 'weakly and effusively sentimental' (I translate this as a phony display of emotion.) This was the era, you remember, of the ascendancy of the Vulnerable Male (perhaps incarnated in the form of Allan Alda).

Single word for 'cloying empathy'


Beautiful novels

Question: Putting aside the wonderful realm of Middle-Earth and many other values, The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien's other works are written in a very beautiful English. What are other novels/stories that you find exciting because of its language?
Comment: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   PLenty of folk, even Tolkien fans. would disagree that his prose is spectacular.  Others might argue that James Joyce's style is beautiful.  Personally, I found the writing in Neuromancer to be starkly, post-modernistically, overwhelmingly beautiful.
Comment: Beauty is in my opinion one of the least well-defined terms in the English language, as it is very subjective and varies widely in definition from person to person.
Comment: @CarlWitthoft: I like it, except that every product or thing is *always* qualified by an arbitrary adjective of a country; it's always *a Japanese gun, Argentine gears, a Dutch poison* etc. And it's generally just a bit too slangy (in an unnecessary, lower-class-mafia sort of way). Otherwise, I love it. // As to this question, it's very interesting, but probably not a good fit for this site, because it mainly asks for very general opinions.
Answer: I wouldn't know where to start and once started where to stop. But if Britain be a 'land without music', as one German once pithily observed, and we lack the composers of Russia, Germany, Austria, Hungary etc and notwithstanding our Turners, Constables etc we have nothing like the number of grand masters as Italy, Flanders, Spain, France etc, there is no doubt where the artistic glory of Britain does lie. It is in her literature. No other nation on earth possesses the same volume and depth of the written word.
Start with the complete works of Milton, Shakespeare (not forgetting his sonnets); the romantic poets of the 18th & 19th centuries, (Wordsworth, Coleridge, Tennyson, Keats etc); the whole of the Authorised (King James 1) version of the Bible; the Book of Common Prayer; the works of Jane Austen, Dickens, Burns, Thackeray, Hardy,  the Brontes; Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (recommend Neville Coghill's translation); and when you have finished, start on the 100 best novels of the 20th century, per the attached list, http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/ (we will allow the Americans a look-in at this point). And when you have finished all that lot, get back to me and I will suggest some more.
My daughter's then boyfriend, after he had been accepted to read English at Cambridge, had the temerity to ask for a summer reading list. He was given one about three times as long as that.
Comment: Today I learned that Russia or China are not on British maps.
Comment: Simply because he didn't mention something from a certain country does not necessarily mean it was a bad answer, nor does it mean you have a right to downvote.
Comment: Do you think there is the wealth of literature in Russian or Chinese that exists in English? You may be right, I'm in no position to argue, but it would surprise me, especially with Russian. I say this since the elite class, until the 19th century spoke French. And Chinese did not begin to have a universal dialect until 1949. I am wondering if Greek or Arabic might be more likely contenders, but I think not.
Comment: @RegDwigнt How much of the Russian and Chinese national literature have you read?

Beautiful novels


Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana rather than Romaji?

Question: Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana, or is this dependent on the type or writing, and the target audience? For example, this Japanese Wikipedia entry on Steven Bradbury uses katakana, while this Wikipedia entry on JRuby uses romaji for the contributors.
Answer: As you guessed, it depends on the type of writing and the target audience, and also on the style.  In text written for general public, such as newspaper articles, foreign personal names are usually written in katakana.  In academic books and papers, it is more common to see names in the Latin script (at least in mathematics and computer science).
As for Wikipedia, a guideline of the Japanese Wikipedia states that foreign names other than Korean and Chinese names should be usually written in katakana.  I do not know how strongly this guideline is enforced.
Comment: Just anecdotes for consideration: I was recently involved in a law suit. On all legal documents pertaining to the court case, my name was written in romaji. I think however, this was because that was how my lawyer originally submitted my name. I believe that for a court of civil law, they don't impose a rule on how your name is presented, they just insist on consistency. On the other hand, I've started a few companies, and in each case, I was required to provide an official katakana spelling of my name, along with a registered seal using that name.
Comment: As for Korean, it should be written in katakana rather than kanji, and Chinese names should be written in kanji rather than katakana and read by the Japanese pronounciation. For example, 金大中 is キムデジュン, not きんだいちゅう, but 毛沢東 is もうたくとう, not マオジードン. This is due to a policy called mutalism. You treat back the way the other country treats you. In Korean, Japanese proper nouns are read close to the Japanese pronounciation, whereas in Chinese, they are read according to the Chinese reading of the character.
Comment: +1 on academic writing often (but not always) using romaji. I have yet to see a popular magazine or news website using anything but kana for Western names.
Comment: This is the best possible answer I could hope for! It means I was correct in using romaji in my RubyKaigi talk, but that a schoolkid I was talking to wasn't wasting his time learning his name in romaji.
Comment: For Korean, a colleague of mine writes his name in Kanji but reads as the the Katakana reading like Korean. Whereas another Chinese friend writes the furigana for her name close to the Chinese reading


Office UI fabric react Commandbar 3rd level menu rendering issue

Question: I am using Office UI fabric react commmandbar in Office 365 - SharePoint to display 3 level navigation.It's showing 1st level then click on it user can see 2nd level and onmouseovercof 2nd level,3rd level is populating. I am having the problem when I am adding href to 2nd level then 3rd level is not getting populated and If I remove the href value then 3rd level menu is populating. Is there any way we can overcome this problem or any alternate setting we can apply to commandbar.
Answer: I had a similar issue. I use spfx extension for rendering navigation (starting point was Starter kit). My issue was that when the commandbar becoming less during the browser width minimizing (actually in mobile view), the hovering submenu becoming not clickable.
I fixed it just removing the itemType value (itemType: ContextualMenuItemType) for declaring the "IContextualMenuItem" object for commandbar items.
Answer: This could happen if ICommandBarProps.items doesn't have unique ids. Ensure you have code as below,


Unable to show page in iframe in Ektron CMS

Question: I am working on Ektron 8.6.0.060 CMS, on admin dashboard I add an custom widget in which I call an iframe for content page, on picking URL from iframe, 404 page not found error occurs. All URL and signs are using correctly still error occurs.
Answer: Be sure that you are entering a fully qualified domain name in your IFrame. Unless you are very careful about your paths, relative locations will likely be incorrect. Rather than "/page/item.aspx" or "www.site.com/page/item.aspx" make sure you include your protocol, e.g. "http://www.site.com/page/item.aspx" . This is particularly easy to forget if you are generating this url dynamically.
Also, if you are pointing to ektron content, make sure the content is published and public.