Does "ask and you shall receive" apply to all believers or just to the Apostles?

Question: In John 14:14 Jesus told the Apostles "And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son." Does this promise apply to anyone and everyone from that time forward or was it just for his Apostles?
Comment: Verse 12 reads *he that believeth on me*. The verbs of surrounding verses, both before and after the quoted paragraph, also seem to refer to believers in general.
Comment: Asking about the application of this verse to "a person today" is off topic here. We focus on the original context of the text, not its application to modern religious practitioners.
Answer: John uses the 2nd person plural form of the verb αἰτέω (aiteō).  The King James and other archaic versions correctly preserve the original Greek by using the pronoun "ye":

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

The last verse that explicitly states to whom Jesus was speaking is John 13:21-22:

When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples [μαθηται] looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake.

Disciples and apostles are two different words in Greek ("Apostle" is ἀπόστολος - apostolos), but we generally equate the two in the Gospels.  In the case of John 14:14 we usually assume that John is being consistent with Matthew (26:20), Mark (14:17), and Luke 22:14), who write that Jesus was dining with the twelve.  We assume that John is referring to the same dinner in 13:2ff as Matthew, Mark and Luke.
So John is literally giving the teaching to the twelve Apostles.
It is interesting to note, I think, that Matthew and Mark also recount the same teaching, but in different contexts.
In Matthew's account, Jesus is also speaking to the disciples (21:20), but at a much earlier time - just after the fig tree withered (21:18ff).  Mark recounts something similar, but interestingly Jesus seems to be alternating between speaking just to Peter and to some unnamed group:

And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God ... I say unto you [Gr. singular], What things soever ye [Gr. plural] desire, when ye [pl.] pray, believe that ye [pl.] receive them, and ye [pl.] shall have them (11:20-21,24)

One could argue, of course, that the Greek (or Aramaic) expression signified by "Whatever you ask ..." could be interpreted as we might in English - "you" meaning "whoever".
The reason that Jesus seems to direct this teaching directly to the Apostles and not to humanity in general at this particular instance in the Gospels probably has less to do with any doctrine of Apostolic authority and more to do with the fact that there was a need to specially fortify the Apostles at the time.  John Chrysostom, a 4th century Byzantine commentator (ca 349-407), writes:

For their sakes this was done, that He might train them to feel confidence, hear what He saith afterwards. But what saith He? "Ye also shall do greater things, if ye are willing to believe and to be confident in prayer." Seest thou that all is done for their sake, so that they might not be afraid and tremble at plots against them? Wherefore He saith this a second time also, to make them cleave to prayer and faith. "For not this only shall ye do, but also shall remove mountains; and many more things shall ye do, being confident in faith and prayer."1

1. Homily LXVII on Matthew
Answer: The passage begins back at John 13:1 and there are seven questions asked and answered :

13:6 (Peter) Lord, doth thou wash my feet ?
13:25 (John) Lord, is it I ?
13:36 (Peter) Lord, whither goest thou ?
13:37 (Peter) Lord, why cannot I follow thee now ?
14:5 (Thomas) Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way ?
14:8 (Philip) Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
14:22 (Jude) Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us ?

Every question is addressed to 'Lord'.
At the introduction of the passage, it is not said who is present or who is not present. John 13:1.
At the introduction of the passage, it is said only that :

having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Therefore, it must be the case that the promise in John 14:14 -'If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it' refers to his own, whom he loved, and who call him 'Lord'.
And therefore it must refer to all of them.
But there are many who call him 'Lord, Lord' and to whom he says, in that Great Day, 'I never knew you', Matthew 7:22. Only they who do the will of his Father in heaven shall enter the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 7:21.
He knows his own; and he loves them unto the end.
Answer: Jesus was talking to the apostles, but throughout this conversation over the Passover meal, he clarifies that he is speaking to those who believe in him, who know him, love him and keep his commands. So this promise can be seen to extend to anyone else who also does this. The potential is there for anyone, but not everyone is willing. And it's not as easy as it sounds.
I should point out that if a person asks for something that would bring worldly rewards, for instance, I don't think this qualifies. This kind of request would demonstrate that he/she does not obey the teachings of Jesus, nor follow his example. When he says 'in my name', he doesn't just mean saying the words 'in the name of Jesus' - he means in keeping with the example that Jesus himself has set. There are certain things many of us would ask for if we thought our every wish would be granted, that Jesus would never have asked for himself.
Comment: Upvoted +1... I agree with your caveat, that not everyone with a superficial profession can expect to appropriate such blessings and promises.
Answer: Ask and receive belong to those that can communicate with words that are verbally spoken, or words that are typed, or written, or sign, and body language. Money hinders this. People think that money helps, not helping anyone. More money in circulation will mean more debt. People end up giving what is worthless, money-wise.
That is not the giving God has in mind. God gave us the best that he can make. People who are made in god's image, are making things. God's image looks at them, wanting to have them. The more desirable they are, the higher the price.
What would we think of God had he done that to us? Jesus would have only fed and healed those that were financially well off. People would not be able to afford the prices of whatever is seen and unseen. We know Jesus did not charge a price, and yet act as if he did with how we are?
Money makes people say no to god's image. Prayer needs to be without ceasing. Does the church teach this? God's mind needs to be in our minds.
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Answer: In John 14:14 Jesus told the Apostles "And I will do whatever you ask in My name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
This conversation took place in the private party of the last suppers with the 12 disciples. So, the referent "you" referred to the selected disciples.
Does this promise apply to anyone and everyone from that time forward or was it just for his Apostles?
To answer this question, we need to look elsewhere in Matthew 7:

7
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

This was part of the public teachings that followed the Sermon on the Mount. It was a promise for all believers.


Sync Yahoo! calendar with Outlook calendar

Question: I'd like to sync my Yahoo! calendar with an Outlook calendar. I know how to do this, but after sync, I can't change the meetings anymore. How do I solve this problem?
Comment: How are you syncing them?
Answer: You may need a sync plugin which handles meetings or preserve the meeting structures properly. I have tried 2 plugins that work with yahoo and outlook, evo collaborator and caldav synchronizer, the 'evo collaborator' seems to handle meeting properly.


Encrypting files on Google Drive

Question: It's my understanding files kept on Google Drive are not protected. I would like to have them encrypted so that to be able to view or modify them one must enter a password. I foresee a potential dilemma: the computer must have the encryption/decryption tool to do this, thus defeating the portability of Google Drive. A scenario is I'm working on a library computer where I do not have permission to install software.
Are there any online solutions to encrypting Google Drive that are open source? Is anything online (I'm avoiding the word "cloud") ever open source? To me it seems absurd to arbitrarily trust another company online to encrypt/decrypt files more than one would trust Google in the first place.
I noticed new versions of Microsoft Office have the option to save to online storage services, such as Google Drive and Skydrive. If this is going to be my default choice to save files to, I would like to have them encrypted.
Comment: Do you trust that library computer more than Google's servers? I feel the argument you might not have the tools to decrypt is redundant because you should only be using trusted computers to read the content if you're genuinely worried about their contents.
Comment: @Celeritas You are wanting something illogical. You are saying you **don't want to trust a computer that you want to use sensitive files on.** Yes it's annoying when you can't have both convenience *and* confidentiality, but that is the way security works - it's a constant trade-off of these two elements. To be blunt, you simply have to get over it.
Comment: @deed02392: Question is which is worse, some kid in the library installing malware and reading your private love letters, holiday photos _and bomb plans_, or Google sending a copy of everything to the NSA as a standard process. But yeah, I agree... it's kind of pointless to worry who might be reading your stuff when you use a totally compromised computer :)
Comment: "It's my understanding that files kept on Google Drive are not protected?" is misleading.  Google does protect files on Google drive using a variety of organizational, network, and cryptographic methods to protect against rogue employees and third-party hackers.  They do not protect against government actors with subpoena power.  They also only encrypt stuff stored on their servers, not stuff on your local machine that is synced to drive.
Comment: You guys seem to be missing the point. I don't want to have to trust google or the library computers. @deed02392 you say I shouldn't have an untrusted school computer read sensitive data, that's different. I know when I upload a file to google drive it's being stored on their servers. When I use a USB device with my files on it, likely no data gets copied to the schools servers (it's not like the library computers keep copies of all data on all removable media inserted in them; I mean it is possibly but unlikely, you *know* google drive is keeping your files).
Comment: iMessage works like that. It's real end to end encryption, but it works seamlessly on multiple devices. I don't know of an encryption service that provides this but it's definitely doable. Basically every device you add as trusted shares its public key, and data is encrypted with all the public keys - one for each device - so each device can dencrypt the data.
Answer: In general: You need to trust the machine on which you are decrypting the files. This trust is usually only warranted if you have full control over this machine which also means that you can install software on it. So if you are really concerned about the contents of your files then use an offline encryption/decryption tool on a trusted machine and upload the encrypted data to Google Drive or any other cloud file sharing service.
Then how do you access encrypted data on the library computer? Well, you don't. That machine might have malware on it that sends copies of your data and/or your key to somebody who is not supposed to have them. Once this happens your entire encryption is useless.
This also explains why there are no "online solutions to encrypting Google Drive". I'm not really sure what you mean by "online" here but I am assuming you mean "transparent" i.e. the data is encrypted but you don't really have to care about how it is done and don't need to worry about installing software. Here's why this is so hard to do:
Encryption of data always requires two main ingredients:

The algorithm used to encrypt the data and
the key used to encrypt the data.

The key must never be known by an untrustworthy entity. But you need to supply the key to the algorithm and an untrustworthy algorithm might just send the key to an untrustworthy entity. So you want the algorithm to be trustworthy. This, however, means that you should not use an algorithm provided by an untrustworthy source.
Applying this to your Google Drive situation
Since you want to store data so that Google can't read it we are going to define Google as untrustworthy.
Transparent encryption without additional software on the client side would have to be done either on the Google servers or in your browser.

When it is done on the Google servers it is obvious that you need to supply Google with your encryption key so they can decrypt your data on their servers. So now they have your key which means they can decrypt which means you might as well have stored your data in plain text all along.
The other option would be decryption in your browser. This, however, would have to be implemented by Google so they can serve it to you on their page. Again, you would have to hand the key to an algorithm that is from Google and that algorithm might send the key back to Google.

A trusted third party
After all that talk about how it is impossible to do transparent Google Drive encryption here comes a way how it might be possible. However, this requires that you trust some other party to see your sensitive data.
Google Drive has an API that allows viewing and uploading of files. In theory it would be possible to build a website that accesses your Google Drive using that API and encrypts and decrypts data before it is written or read. This means that Google would never see your plain data and you would still be able to access it without installing additional software.
However, now you have a different website owner who provides the decryption algorithm and might therefore have your key. And you have also handed him your Google Drive login so now he is the one who will be able to download and decrypt everything in your Google Drive.
Addendum 2015-02-28: From having a quick look at the InstantCryptor website it seems that they have implemented exactly this scenario. From what I can tell, they provide a JavaScript-powered web-based interface to your Google Drive and Dropbox storage. This interface can encrypt and decrypt your files before saving them on your cloud storage.
The sad conclusion
If you really want to make sure that nobody sees unencrypted data, then you can't show your unencrypted data to anyone. This, however, means that you need to do the encryption on a trusted machine and that usually mandates that you install additional software. Also you can't decrypt data on untrustworthy machines such as library computers.
Comment: @didibus I assume that they employ Transport Layer Security, i.e. when transferring documents only Google and you can read them and not somebody eavesdropping on the conversation. I highly doubt that they would store anything in an encrypted format that they themselves can't read. Google's business model is knowing what you store on their server and analyzing it for advertisement purposes, so storing unreadable data just doesn't make any sense for them. I don't know if they encrypt it, but it seems that it would be a lot of work with no benefit to them.
Comment: @n13 They claim they do all the encryption in JS. http://cloudrail.com/instantcryptor/ I haven't verified it for myself, though.
Comment: Basically means you need to have some specific trustworthy 3rd party non-google app that can encrypt/decrypt. 7-zip can do it but it makes an archive and you'd have to delete the original I guess or just send google drive a 7-zip copy.
Comment: What if I trust Google enough to perform client-side encryption, but I don't trust them enough to perform server-side encryption. In other words, I don't trust that Google can protect my private data from hackers. I would be ok with Google encrypting and decrypting locally through their Drive app. do you know if Google does that?
Comment: Also, I could trust Google to protect my keys and their serer side encryption function, but not trust them with my word documents. Maybe I trust that more care will be taken in protecting my keys, while I worry less care is taken for my docs. So if they encrypted my docs on their servers before storing them, I would feel safer.
Comment: Very good info. Does InstantCryptor leave the private key on your computer? IMO all the encryption / decryption could be done locally in your browser, in JavaScript, without having to go to their servers. And then it would be secure (if your browser is trustworthy)
Answer: In Microsoft Office Word, Excel and PowerPoint it is possible to encrypt files with AES-128 encryption by setting a password. Note that encryption in Microsoft Office < 2003 is not secure, and in 2003 only if you manually pick a stronger encryption algorithm, because it defaults to the insecure Office 97/2000 Compatible encryption.
As others have suggested, you can use 7-Zip (Portable) for other files.
Answer: Just use 7-zip's password-protect feature.
Comment: Like the other person answered, use portable 7-zip
Comment: 1)computer may not have 7-zip
Comment: This requires trusting the machine on which 7-zip is being used to not have keyloggers, etc. installed.
Comment: Using portable 7-zip requires the ability to access the portable executable from local attached storage (thumb drive, floppy, cd, etc.) or from network sources (download from portableapps.com, Google Drive, dropbox, etc.). It also requires the ability to execute a non-native, non-standard installed, or non-approved executable. We get that you are trying to give a to-the-point answer to a problem, but it doesn't really answer the concept of the question @Celeritas is asking.
Comment: 7-zip portable isn't available for OS X
Comment: Also, not a good encryption algorithm unless it is using aes
Answer: One open source solution which I found should solve your problem is the Cryptsync. Website is - http://stefanstools.sourceforge.net/CryptSync.html
Also,
Another method which I can suggest is, how about you convert your files to an SFX (Self Extracting) Archive and set a password with a nice encryption on it? I guess for this method you do not need any Installed Software on the remote desktop or even on an Android phone (No idea, about iOS) to decrypt the files.
As far as encryption is considered without using any software, you can use the Iexpress utility built inside every copy of Windows since Windows XP to create an SFX archive and use the above open source tool for encryption. I did some googling and it seems that IExpress cannot encrypt the files with a password.
More about the usage of Iexpress can be read here - http://lifehacker.com/384658/use-a-built-in-windows-utility-to-create-self-extracting-archives
So, I would suggest is use 7Zip on a computer where there are no restrictions or use a portable version of the 7Zip to encrypt the SFX archive. Once the SFX archive is created you can directly upload to Google Drive and can access the files from anywhere.
Answer: There is a problem here: you are using a library computer which of all the computers in the world, is probably the type of system you can least trust. You should first be more worried about the library computer then about google.
But that's not your question, so let me answer your question:
I use Axcrypt on Dropbox. According to the Axcrypt website, it's a perfect tool for Google drive as well. The problem is you can't install it on your library computer. So you need a  way to access it remotely. The way to do this is to install it on a thumb drive, take the thumb drive with you to the library and run it off of that:
http://www.axantum.com/axcrypt/
Answer: You can encrypt by using the open source Truecrypt software to create an encrypted container.  An encrypted container is a file that Truecrypt uses and sort of pretends is a disk drive.  It is formatted like a drive, and everything that is written to it is totally encrypted.  When you mount it in Truecrypt, you get a drive letter on your computer and everything written to it is stored inside the container totally encrypted.
On the plus side, since everything written to the container is encrypted, this means that all the data going over the Internet to Google Drive is totally encrypted.  Also, Truecrypt is available in portable versions that fit on a USB stick.
On the down side, Google drive doesn't support synchronizing portions of a file.  This means every time you make a change to files in your container and dismount it, your computer has to send the whole container file to Google Drive, even if only a tiny part changed.  For large containers, this can take quite a long time.  For ease of use it's best to:

Use multiple smaller containers
Keep a container mounted, make all the changes you are going to make to the files in it, then unmount it.  You can even keep it mounted all the time, only dismounting it once a day for it to synchronize.

It's unfortunate that Google Drive does such primitive synchronization, but it may be in an effort to combat people doing just as I suggest.  Tools like rdiff have synchronized portions of a file over a network for 20 years now.  Incidentally, Dropbox does partial file synchronization - only synchronizing the part of a file that changes.  The technique of using an encrypted container on Dropbox works very well, and after the initial one, synchronization occurs very quickly and takes time in proportion to how many files are changed while the container is mounted.
Answer:
To me it seems absurd to arbitrarily trust another company online to encrypt/decrypt files more than one would trust Google in the first place.

Not sure I agree: Google simply does not encrypt, so performing an encryption with third party software provides very real, tangible security which Google does not offer out of the box.
There are many options to encrypt uploaded files such as Boxcrypt and Armor for Google Drive or even using classic 7zip encrypted files.
You could also try alternative services that provide encrypted cloud storage such as Wuala.
Comment: @PranavJituri Boxcryptor does not transfer the files trough their servers. That would be absurdly high bandwidth costs for them. But if you want to be sure, use OpenSource Software like [EncFS MP](http://encfsmp.sourceforge.net/) or [Safe](http://www.getsafe.org/)
Comment: @PranavJituri common sense and https://www.boxcryptor.com/en/technical-overview
Comment: But it stores the files on it's servers using very high grade encryption, right?
Comment: There was some mention of Google starting to store all data encrypted in the coming months somewhere after Snowden in 2013 (coincidental timing I'm sure) but I'm not sure what protection it offers: Google maintains the keys and as soon as you are logged into Google Drive decryption happens on the fly. In most scenarions a file on Google drive needs to be encrypted while have an "open" google drive itself. Not to mention possible governments access to Google Drive regardless of the encryption Google uses itself.
Comment: Good discussion. If you were to use one of those mentioned services such as Boxcrypt then your unencrypted files will be passing right through there servers. I see no reason to trust Boxcrypt anymore than Google?
Comment: @Celeritas :- I first included the Boxcrypt only but then changed it because I read later that Data will be passing through their servers.
Comment: I agree and would personally never use those services for truly confidential data, but for the scenario in the question it should suffice: files are encrypted on your Google Drive.
Comment: Didn't realize you were also the question asker so obviously I am wrong: your scenario does need better trust than Boxcrypt would give. Which leaves Google drive alternatives such as Wuala or encrypted zip files imo, no open source solutions available that would keep the auto save r similar Google Drive functions or not require specific encryption tools to be installed
Comment: @Josef - Source?
Comment: @Josef - +1 .You might be right that BoxCryptor does not transfer the data. How about this? https://www.boxcryptor.com/en/technical-overview#anc05

Although, there is a possibility that they might maintain a master key for everyone...
Comment: @PranavJituri every Closed-Source program can do that. If you don't trust them, use Open-Source software where you checked the source code yourself for backdoors!
Comment: This discussion is not necessary:  It's either zero-knowledge, or it's not secure. It's not how trusted a company is - companies can be hacked. The only way to secure your data is if no third party can actually access your data. That's the concept of zero knowledge. Your data is encrypted on the servers and the private key to unlock it lives on your personal computer and never goes out into the internet.
Comment: @n13 even if a company tells you it's zero-knowledge and you trust them and it is even true: If the software is closed, it could contain a function to mail all your data in plaintext to the mossad after the 20th of november 2015.
Answer: SpiderOak.com does what you want. It uses your login password to strongly encrypt all data before it's uploaded. So you get client side encryption and portability. As any client can access the data so as long as you enter the password.
Google Drive now provides encryption but it seems the keys lie with Google. So this is Google taking control of your data. Personally, I'd rather take control of my own data.
Comment: But if you use your browser to decrypt files, they get your key and it is not more secure than google drive (they warn you every time you try to access your files in the browser). And if you install the client on a library computer (if you even can), you just hand out your key to anyone who uses that library computer too.
Comment: Fair point. Don't log in with your browser. Logging in with the browser sends your password over the internet, destroying the zero knowledge promise.

Encrypting files on Google Drive


what does z subscript something mean

Question: Decide a positive integer $N \in\mathbb Z$. Generate a uniformly distributed random positive integer sequence:
$$v_1, v_2, \ldots,v_n\in\mathbb Z_N$$
My question is, what does $\mathbb Z_N$ really mean here?
Does it mean something like the set of integers up to $N$?
Comment: Is it $\mathbb Z_N$? Then it should better be written $\mathbb Z/N\mathbb Z$ to avoid confusion with certain other notations and refers to integers modulo $N$, which can be *represented* by the integers $0, 1, \ldots, N-1$.
Comment: It totally depends upon context, but often $\mathbb Z_n$ refers to the integers modulo n.
Comment: okay!yes thank you so much.Got it, it is indeed integers modulo N,which would me the same set as integers less than N
Answer: Most often, one sees $\mathbb Z_n$ used to denote the integers modulo $n$, represented by $\mathbb Z_n = \{0, 1, 2, \cdots, n-1\}$: the non-negative integers less than $n$.  So this correlates with the set you discuss, in that we have a set of $n$ elements, but here, we start at $n = 0$ and increment until we reach $n - 1$, where we stop, (since $n \equiv 0\pmod n$).

what does z subscript something mean


Does SQL Compact Edition Support Clustered Indexes?

Question: Does SQL CE support clustered indexes?
Answer: MSDN says about the NONCLUSTERED argument:
<code>This is the only supported index type
</code>
Answer: Judging by CREATE INDEX syntax for SQL Server Compact Edition, the only supported index type is NONCLUSTERED.
Answer: Most file based databases do not support clustered indexes.  It would require a rewrite of the entire index if you inserted a new row out of order.  Since this is expensive (and a blocking operation) most file databases do not allow it.
BUT, you do normally gain a notion of natural order.  The order you insert in is the order they are on disk.  This is something you do not have with full SQL Server which is always reclaiming free space from previous pages.
Comment: Modern file based databases also automatically reclaim space, so their tables fragment just like tables of a database server. Also you don't have to rewrite the whole index -- it's exactly the same as inserting a new entry into a normal index.


WagonR 4WD Shaft Removal

Question: My Suzuki WagonR Model 2013 is 4WD. My mechanic says to remove 4WD shaft. Because it will improve my car,s fuel economy and acceleration. Is it safe and plausible ?????,
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair!
Answer: Older Subaru models could be put into 2WD by removing (or adding; I forget) a jumper fuse in the fuse box.
I doubt that is still true in 2013.  In any case, I would not suggest you disable AWD in a Subaru by removing a mechanical shaft.
I honestly do not think your fuel economy and acceleration will be much improved.  Most of the torque is directed to the front wheels, so crippling the back half will not amount for much.  The mechanical stresses to the remaining transmission/drivetrain  components "freewheeling" are not easily predicted.
Subaru has one of the best AWD systems available, and the vehicle was designed to operate in this manner.
Comment: While the general content of your answer is still bang on the OP is driving a **Suzuki** not a Subaru
Comment: Oops.  Subaru on the brain I guess.

WagonR 4WD Shaft Removal


charging and discharging capacitors

Question: I'm wondering if it's possible to charge say a capacitor with a stepper motor (~12V DC after rectifying), which when it reaches its maximum capacity discharges. I'd like the discharged power to activate a solenoid?
Answer: You really asked two questions:
Can a stepper motor be used as a generator?
Can a charged capacitor activate a solenoid?

Yes and yes.
Stepper motors almost always have permanent magnets, so just spinning the shaft will cause each winding to produce a voltage.  Each winding should produce the same AC waveform, but at a different phase.  Each would have to be rectified separately onto the DC bus.  The stepper motor must also be turned at some minimum speed to get enough AC voltage out to overcome the diode forward drops.  Lower than that speed, there will be no DC output.  The unloaded AC output voltage will be proportional to speed, so at some level it should be possible to get a reasonable DC voltage.  The details depend on the stepper motor, and can vary greatly.  Note that while stepper motors are usually driven rather slowly in normal operation, there is no such restriction when running it backwards as a generator.  You should therfore be able to get substantial voltage from such a stepper.  The easiest way to get some idea what you can get out is to watch the voltage of one winding on a scope while twirling the shaft.
Obviously, the resulting DC voltage can be used to charge a cap.
If a capacitor holds enough energy at the right voltage, it can activate a solenoid for a short time.  You need the solenoid particulars to compute the capacitance required to activate it.  Find out how much current the solenoid draws at what voltage and for how long this needs to be held to activate it.
If you are asking about a trigger circuit to turn on the solenoid when the cap gets to a certain voltage, then that is possible too.  The simplest, but not most efficient, way is to use the capacitor voltage to fire a SCR, which in turn discharges the cap onto the solenoid.  You have to adjust the voltage divider from the cap to the SCR gate so that it fires as the desired cap voltage.  This requires only two resistors and the SCR.
I would probably use a tiny micro like the PIC 10F204.  It includes a fixed voltage reference, comparator, and internal oscillator.  These are all the elements you need to determine if the capacitor is at high enough voltage, and then to time the turning on of a low side FET switch to discharge the cap onto the solenoid.
Comment: Would a stepper motor be more efficient as a generator as compared to a regular brushed DC permanent magnet motor?
Comment: Awesome thanks Olin. I have the stepper generating power and it's rectifying nicely. I guess the trigger circuit is something I am interested in achieving. Thanks for the response!
Comment: @veryphatic: Note that the trigger circuit is independent of how the capacitor gets charged.  For testing the trigger, it will probably be easier to charge the cap thru a resistor from a fixed supply somewhat above the trigger level.

charging and discharging capacitors


In trello, ive unarchived my list but check list no longer displays

Question: I unarchived my list but check list no longer displays - despite on list view it indicates checklist with 0/4 being displayed
Answer: This is not normal as restoring an archived item should restore all of its content, including checklists with 0/x elements checked.
I noticed that, sometimes, after restoring an item and opening it, the content takes some time to load (comments, checklist, attached files,...) so you could wait a bit or reload the page.
Maybe this is a display problem, you could try with a different browser or device, but that would be weird.
If it's still not working you should contact the Trello Support from the contact page (not the Trello Community), they are in the best position to help in that case. Even if you start inspecting the code and see a problem in the console for instance, you'll probably need to contact them.


R-squared equivalent for Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) using a ordinal logistic regression model

Question: Is there a measure that shows how well GEE using a ordinal logistic regression model explains the amount of variance in the data?
Answer: Five years late, but yes (kind of). Zheng proposed two $R^2$ analogues for GEE in 2000 (citation at bottom of answer).
Option 1
For your ordinal logistic model, assume that there is an underlying continuous latent variable that, when thresholds are applied, results in your observed ordinal $Y$.  (Also assume that your software allows you to access that latent variable.)
Run a second GEE predicting that latent variable with the same predictors used in the ordinal model.  From there, you can use Zheng's marginal $R^2$:
$R_{marginal}^2 = 1- \frac{\sum_{c=1}^C \sum_{i=1}^N  (Y_{ic} - \widehat {Y_{it}})^2}  {\sum_{c=1}^C \sum_{i=1}^N  (Y_{ic} - \bar Y)^2}         $
where the numerator is the sum of the squares of the Y (your latent variable) minus the fitted values from this second GEE across each cluster ( $c_1, c_2, ... c_C$ ) and each observation ($i_1, i_2, ... i_N$ ), and the denominator is the sum of the squares of the Y (your latent variable) minus the marginal mean of that Y.
Option 2
Ignore the ordered nature of your outcome variable and use Zheng's $H_{marginal}$ as a measure of "proportional reduction in entropy due to the model" where your model becomes a multinomial logistic model.  $H_{marginal}$ is defined as
$H_{marginal} = 1 - \frac{\sum_{c=1}^C \sum_{i=1}^N  \sum_{k=1}^K \hat \pi_{cik}
 log(\hat \pi_{cik})  }  { nT\sum_{k=1}^K \hat \alpha_k  log(\hat \alpha_k) }         $
where $ \pi_{ck}  = P( Y_c = k | X) $ is the "model-based probability that a categorical response [in cluster $c$] equals $k$",  $\alpha_k = P(Y = k)$ is "the marginal probability of response $k$", and hats (^) indicate estimates.

Note that for both $R_{marginal}$ and $H_{marginal}$, you can obtain a "negative value when there is greater uncertainty in prediction under the model of than under the null model".

Zheng, B. (2000). Summarizing the goodness of fit of generalized linear models for longitudinal data. Statistics in Medicine, 19(10), 1265-1275. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0258(20000530)19:10<1265::AID-SIM486>3.0.CO;2-U
Comment: @gung a related approach is to evaluate the predictive ability of a GEE. I've created a new R package doing just that using proper scoring rules: https://drizopoulos.github.io/cvGEE/
Comment: @JRF1111 this isn't straight forward for me so I thought I'd try to write it out in R::geepack for a general & logistic (not at ordinal yet) GEE. Please tell me if I've understood you correctly. I'm kind of confused by the idea of running a second GEE to predict fitted values of the first. It seems like that should perform perfectly and in testing it has. Have I misunderstood something? I've posted the code @ https://github.com/bkellman/GEEreport/blob/master/reportFunctions.r
Comment: @DimitrisRizopoulos, it isn't my approach, that was a botched attempt to convert an answer to a comment.  Hopefully, it's correct now.
Comment: is it possible to use the second option for a continuse response variable?


I can't delete all photos at once from one drive.

Question: how to delete 100 pictures from one drive at one time i can delete one at a time but how to select all at once an delete all of them how do I do it?
Answer: You can use the OneDrive app for Windows Phone to select (there's a button in the app bar) multiple images and then delete them. Unfortunately there is no option to select all items, but you could just delete the folder.
Or you can log in to your account on OneDrive.com and delete the images from there.
Answer: To quickly mass-delete ALL photos at once, select "Files" (not "Pictures"). This will bring up all of your various folders. Select "Photos" and hit the "Delete" button. You can then select whatever other Folders you may want to delete the contents of as well. Then go back to the main page and "Empty Trash Folder". Now you can also see how much space you have in your Onedrive. Again, doing this wipes out everything in that File Folder.


Incoming chats per hour in a report

Question: I am looking for a way to capture the number of incoming chats we get per hour for a particular month. For example : The number of incoming chats per hour for the month of November. Is this achievable through the chat transcript report type or via any other way ? Business requirement : This is required for audit purposes.
Comment: Do you just care about hour in the day? Or the average hourly rate over that span?
Comment: Primarily, it would be per hour everyday in November. An average count would be an additional good to have metric !
Answer: So, I don't have firsthand experience of chats myself (assuming they're the ones described here), but if they have a "Created Date" field, that seems the most promising direction for reports.
You can group those in reports by setting up a "row level formula" like the following, which displays the day of the month and the hour of the day:

Note that if you're not looking for per-hour precision, you can also do this without a row-level formula, using "Group Date By..." when you have the date in question in one of the group rows.
Comment: Hey thank you for looking into this. I am actually using the Chat transcripts custom report type for this. It wouldn't allow me to create a row level formula due to this reason : https://salesforce.stackexchange.com/questions/389687/when-building-a-report-the-option-to-add-a-row-level-formula-is-missing. I'll attempt to create a formula field on the parent object using the formula you gave above.
Comment: Formula field should also work, yes; the field name will look like "CreatedDate" instead of CREATED_DATE there, and the function *names* might not match either exactly, but the underlying logic should be the same.
Comment: Hey, I tried creating a formula field with return type number using : (DAY(DATEVALUE(CreatedDate)) & (HOUR(TIMEVALUE(CreatedDate)) but i guess i am doing something incorrect here. Any ideas ?
Comment: The "&" is a concatenation: it works on text, not numbers. So you need to convert the "day" and "hour" function outputs to text, via the "TEXT(whatever-you're-converting)" function. And then if you really want the result as numbers instead of text *afterwards*, use the "VALUE(whatever-you're-converting)" function.

Incoming chats per hour in a report


AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell equivalent for "Launch More Like This"

Question: I am using the AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell to write a script. Part of what I would like to do is create a new instance using an existing instance as a template. I know I could just pull the metadata from the instance that I want to use as a template and pass it to New-EC2Instance, but I am looking for an easier way. Does anyone know if there is a AWS PowerShell cmdlet that will enable me to do this?
Answer: There is not. You need to explicitly provide your instance attributes.


Would a kids dua be accepted for 40 days after eating haraam

Question: i would like to ask whether there is anyway that my dua could be answered after eating haraam food. I have promised to allah that i will never eat it ever again. I have been eating for around a year at school in 6th grade, secretly. Would my dua ever be accepted as i heard of a hadith saying dua wont be accepted for 40 days if a morselis eaten. May allah reward the answerer of this question jannatul firdows.
Answer: Aslamualikum, I cannot tell you certainly if Allah is going to hear your dua or not, just like Allah said: { إن الله يسمع من يشاء } meaning Allah hears from who he wants. If you have not reached puberty yet, Allah will not give you sins. Even if you have sinned, ask Allah for forgiveness, and due can be heard, as we know he has many names and along them are : The most merciful, the all forgiving, the all loving and the all hearing.
Comment: Thanks, but could i also ask whether allah will forgjve me through dua if my dua is not accepted?
Comment: Of course you can ask Allah to forgive you
Comment: Jazakallahu cairan!!!


SharePoint 2013 SAML Claims Encoding

Question: We have implemented Custom SAML identity provider which is providing SAML claim in below foramt "i:0e.t|SAML|domain\user" while window authentication is accepting in "i:0#.w|domain\user" format,which leads to two parallel identity for same user.Please note we are pulling user data from same LDAP for both identity provider.How can we encode this identity either at SAML identity provider(Other than ADFS) or SharePoint side?
Any pointer will be highly appreciated
Answer: This is how it's supposed to work by design. If you need Windows authentication to be in same format as ADFS, you need to add your Windows Identity provider in ADFS.
Comment: I am aware of this but looking for a custom solution so that we can handle the claim based token and get users authorized using windows account .

SharePoint 2013 SAML Claims Encoding


Clustering Proof of Equation

Question:
Greetings! Could anyone enlighten me about the validity of this equation? I'm trying to prove it without success. $K$ is the number of clusters, $C_i$ is the $i$-th cluster, $m_i$ is the number of objects of $i$-th cluster and m is the total number of objects. Thanks in advance!
Comment: It's the sum of all objects (x) that belong to i-th cluster!
Comment: @IoannisTsirovasilis $m_i$ should be means, not counts; otherwise the equality doesn't hold. Let $x_1=1,x_2=-1$, and let they belong to different clusters, i.e. $m_1=1,m_2=1$. Apparently, the equation doesn't hold.
Comment: Thank you! You are absolutely right!
Comment: Please choose a more descriptive title, e.g., by including the meaning of the equation, so that others can more easily find this.
Comment: @Anony-Mousse-ReinstateMonica Thanks for the tip I will keep that in mind! Happy new year's eve!
Answer: Via a couple of algebraical tricks, you'll have your zero only if $\mu_i$ and $\mu$ are the means, not the counts:
$$\begin{align}S&=\sum_{i=1}^K\sum_{x\in C_i}(x-\mu_i)\cdot(\mu-\mu_i)\\&=\sum_{i=1}^K\overbrace{\left(\sum_{x\in C_i} (x-\mu_i)\right)}^0\cdot (\mu-\mu_i)\\&=0\end{align}$$
If it were the counts, letting $x_1=1\in C_1,x_2=-1\in C_2$ will cause invalidity of the equation shown. The equation is also shift-variant if $m$ are counts.

Clustering Proof of Equation


Can a kineticist use a wild talent while grappling?

Question: I'm looking at making a fire kineticist who grapples enemies to make the most of the Searing Flesh defense infusion. I noticed that as a part of the standard action to maintain the grapple it is possible to deal damage equal to your unarmed strike. Is it possible to increase this unarmed strike damage using Kinetic Fist while grappling an opponent?
Answer: Sort-of...
Kinetic fist says:

...You can use this form infusion as part of an attack action, a charge action, or a full-attack action...

Grapple says:

Damage: You can inflict damage to your target equal to your unarmed strike, a natural attack, or an attack made with armor spikes or a light or one-handed weapon. This damage can be either lethal or nonlethal.

This is not an attack, charge, or full-attack action, but a standard action, requiring a grapple check.
The grappled condition, which both grapplers have, causes

...a –2 penalty on all attack rolls [... and a] grappled character who attempts to cast a spell or use a spell-like ability must make a concentration check (DC 10 + grappler's CMB + spell level), or lose the spell...

So you can attack, but at a penalty, and you must successfully concentrate.


How to compute free energy for solvation using gaussian09?

Question: I'm trying to compute the free energy of solvation of a molecule in gaussian09 using the continuum solvation model, but I am haveing difficulties, I don't  know how to do it and gaussian manual does not help me. Someone has any input to me see the comand lines?
Answer: The $\delta G_\text{solv}$ can be computed as
$$\delta G_\text{solv}=E_\text{opt in solv} - E_\text{opt in GP}$$
where $E_\text{opt in solv}$ is the energy of the optimised geometry using the scrf=(METHOD,solvent=SOLVENT) keyword, and $E_\text{opt in GP}$ is the energy of the optimised geometry in gas-phase.
This requires the approximation that the thermochemical energy correction (arising from the hessian diagonalization) is equal in both geometries, which can be used for most of the cases.
There are different methods to simulate the electrostatic potential of the solvents: SMD, PCM (in two versions), ALPB (not present neither in G09 nor G16), and GBSA (not present neither in G09 nor G16).
To choose among them have a little benchmark to understand which one helps you describe at its best the system solvation energy.
Comment: I would add that the solvation energy often needs to be corrected to change between 1 atm and 1 M concentration. https://manual.q-chem.com/4.3/sect-solvent.html
Comment: the "vaccum" one you can ommit the keyword scrf, so it would be `#p opt freq MP2/6-31++G**`
Comment: Thank you so much, but let me see if I understand correctly. So I need to do two calculations, one using for exemple the following line #p opt freq MP2/6-31++G** SCRF=(SMD,solvent=acetonitrile) and another calculation like #p opt freq MP2/6-31++G** SCRF=(SMD, dovacuum), right?


Can I use a well pump cable to supply a sub-panel?

Question: I have a pump cable (red, yellow, black, green) going from my house (in buried conduit) to my garage. It comes from a 200 amp service box on a 240v 30amp breaker. Previous owner was going to put in new pump, but city did so and wired it. Wire from house is just sitting there. I have a new Square D Homeline 100 amp 12 circuit box. Can I use the 240v pump wire to power the new box? If so, how? I only need 120v in garage. This is a flat cable with four individually insulated conductors, these conductors are also separated within the casing itself. wire is 10/3 with ground USA.
THANKS IN ADVANCE.
Comment: What size conductors in the cable?
Comment: Presumably (or hopefully) 10 gauge at least, given the 30A breaker...
Comment: Is the yellow really white, but faded/yellowed?  That is, is it neon OMG yellow, or sort of a tepid off-white beige?
Comment: Take a picture of the labeling on one (or all would be better) of the wires and [edit] your post to include the images.
Comment: Yes, can you post photos of the labels on the wiring please?  We need to know *exactly* how this cable is labeled in order to give you useful advice here...
Answer: Assuming you are in North America somewhere based on your descriptions.
As a generalization without being able to see the cable, "pump cable" typically means a flat, rubber insulated type of multi-conductor submersible cable intended to drop from a control box at the top of a well to the pump that is submersed in the bottom. The extra conductors are usually because in those submersible single phase pumps, the starting capacitor is left at the top in that control box; it's not physically attached to the motor as it is on regular single phase motors, so the wires for the capacitor in the motor circuit have to travel in that cable. Submersible pump cable is considered "conditional use" cable and cannot be used for anything else, at least not per code. Running power to a garage is considered "permanent" wiring, so you have to follow all of the rules regarding that. If in conduit, the conduit must be buried at the correct depth for the type of conduit it is, then you have to make sure you do not over fill it (not likely in this case though).
What you could do is to use that existing cable to pull the correct cable back through that conduit. The rubber pump cable, if that's what it is, may not want to cooperate though. Good luck.
Comment: Note that the restriction that is mentioned here is not in the Code itself, it's actually lurking in [ZLGR.GuideInfo](https://iq.ulprospector.com/en/profile?e=212667)
Comment: Very good ThreePhaseEel., I had never read that before.
Answer: You already have the panel it is 240 and the breaker it is 240 with a 4 wire feed so  yes it can be done , your neutral the white wire that has yellowed over time is the neutral and this will require an isolated buss if your panes has it great put that wire on the isolated buss the green goes to the grounded buss this buss is usually directly bonded to the box , some boxes both busses are isolated in this case you will need a jumper from the isolated grounding buss to the case The smallest bonding jumper allowed is #8 many small panels have a built in lug to the box for this reason. Red is one hot black is the other hot , the last thing is an additional grounding electrode you said you had conduit but plastic? Still requires a 8' electrode connected by a #6 copper wire to the grounding buss, if metallic conduit you can use a grounding lock ring to connect the jumper to the buss.
If you only need 120v just use single pole breakers put your lights on 1 leg and receptacles on the other if you ever trip the breaker you won't be in the dark.
Remember all receptacles will require GFCI protection so GFCI breakers or the first receptacle in a string to be GFCI.
Comment: Thank you very much, you have helped me tremendously.
Comment: If answers are helpful upvote or accept that is the proper thanks for the site.
Good luck.


My 3 years old daughter doesn't talk to teacher

Question: My 3years old daughter, who is very talkative at home but silent when we meet others and at school. She has been going to playschool from 18 months old but hasn't spoke with her teachers atleast once. She play and talk with her friends. Enjoy going to school but doesn't talk to teachers and elders. She speaks well with her grandparents , Aunty and uncles but not with new people .
Seriously need help on this,
Comment: Why does this have the Autism tag? If you know she is autistic then please edit the question to say so. If you are concerned she might be, then that is something we can't diagnose here.
Comment: Hi, welcome to Parenting! Have you talked to your pediatrician or perhaps a speech therapist?  While it's great that she can talk to others her age and at home, if she doesn't talk at all to the other adults it's certainly something that should he brought to the pediatrician's attention.
Comment: Is she just responding verbally to them, or is she ignoring them entirely? If you are with her and encourage her, is she doing better? Is she willing to talk to you while unknown adults are part of the conversation?
Comment: Is there any Family Daycare (small groups of about 3 children per adult) where you live?  In France e.g. there is training and subsidies.  Also, have you observed her school? This can give you a clue into e.g. difficult acoustics, large number of people in a room -- some children are more sensitive to this.  It doesn't necessarily mean something's wrong with them.  If you want your child to stay in this setting, it might help to (a) clue a teacher in on her favorite toys, books and actitivies, (b) visit the playground on the weekend, (c) notice the popular toys and get a couple for home use.
Answer: This sounds like anxiety manifesting as situational mutism.
Formerly called "selective mutism," situational mutism is a stress response akin to freeze (as in fight, flight, freeze, fawn, flop, and brace). It's very common in autistic people. The important thing to remember is not to punish your child for not talking or to force them to speak when they aren't ready. In those moments of anxiety, they are likely feeling vulnerable and need assistance in feeling safe again.
To start, I recommend completing this assessment of lagging skills and unsolved problems worksheet. The bottom section titled "Unsolved Problems" is where you'll describe the most recent time your daughter struggled to talk to a teacher.
Even though she's 3, you mentioned she's rather talkative, so after completing the worksheet, I'd suggest trying Dr. Ross Greene's Plan B method for figuring out the underlying cause.
With my own daughter, we handled it with an occupational therapist that helped us learn emotional regulation techniques, including deep pressure therapy. For us specifically, we used deep belly breaths, big/tight hugs, hugging self, and hugging a lovey (favorite stuffed animal). This, coupled with some extra time to comfortably transition, allowed my daughter to come out of her anxious spiral sooner.
If we rush or skip these accommodations, it leads to a dysregulated and emotional kid.
Comment: Yes, this sounds like the experience my wife had as a child - mutism. I wouldn't stress out too much about the autism part, but I would encourage the girl being seen by a professional who could make such a diagnosis. If she is on the spectrum, she'll be much better off knowing this, than not knowing it.

My 3 years old daughter doesn’t talk to teacher


In the phrase "a button click", what are the parts of speech of each word?

Question: In technical writing, if we say something like "the user performed a button click, which took them to the next page," what part of speech is "click"? Is it a noun, since the click is an event, and the button is the thing which received the event? Or is it a verb, since a click is an action? Also, I am confused about what part of speech "button" is since it is "qualifying" the click, in a way.
Answer: "Button click" is a compound noun. Each can also be nouns on their own. Click can be a verb, such as in "Next you will click the button." I suppose one could debate whether the compound noun "button click" is made up of a noun and noun or a noun and verb, but I would say it is a noun and noun but that the distinction is irrelevant. When I perform a click [noun] on "Post", this answer will appear. As when I click [verb] on "Post".

Compound Nouns
  A compound noun is a noun that is made with two or more words. A compound noun is usually [noun + noun] or [adjective + noun], but there are other combinations (see below). It is important to understand and recognize compound nouns. Each compound noun acts as a single unit and can be modified by adjectives and other nouns.

From: https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-compound.htm
EDIT: Reread your specific question. If button were not there, click would definitely be a noun. It is the object of perform.
Comment: It is possible you are right, but I think it is a mere modifer+head pair rather than a compound noun. I gave reasons at the end of my own answer. Briefly, in compound nouns we cannot separately modify the constituent nouns, whereas we can do so in a modifier+head pair. So *London colleges* is not a compund noun because we can do things like this: *London theological colleges*. On the other hand, *ice cream* is a compound noun, because we can't say things like *ice and custard creams*. Now consider *a left-button click.* This tends to show that *button click* is a mere modifier+head pair.
Comment: For me, "click of a button" which becomes ""a button click" has become a compound noun. In the blink of an eye has probably already been expressed as: in an eye blink.
Answer: The word group
a button click
is a noun phrase (NP) whose head is the noun click. One way to see that click is a noun is to realize that it can be pluralized: two button clicks. Incidentally, this also shows that it is click that is the head of the NP (rather than button, which remains in the singular).
The word button is also a noun. It is clearly not a verb, or a preposition, of a determinative, or an adverb. The only thing it could plausibly be, apart from a noun, is an adjective. But it is not an adjective either, because it can be modified by an adjective: a large-button click. If it were an adjective, its modifier would have to be an adverb, so largely.
Finally, a is an article, which older sources classify as an adjective, while contemporary grammars would say it is a separate part of speech, a determinative. Its grammatical role in the NP is that of a determiner.
We say that button plays the role of a pre-head internal dependent in NP structure.
In general, internal dependents can be either modifiers or complements. The most important characteristic that distinguishes the two is that a complement must be licensed by the head noun (shortly it will become clear what this means). CGEL says (p. 439-443) that with pre-head complements, we

typically have close paraphrases involving post-head complements where a forced choice of preposition is observable. Compare, for example, an alcohol ban and a ban on alcohol, a wrist injury and an injury to the wrist. Similarly, corresponding to a legal adviser ([iii]) we have an adviser on legal matters.

It is the fact that we don't have a choice which proposition to use that makes it licensed (in the sense that other prepositions then aren't licensed).
In our case we would have a click of a button, where of cannot be replaced by any other preposition. Thus, it is licensed; thus, button is a complement of click.
Compound noun vs. modifier+head pair
A priori, there is a possibility that button click is a compound noun. The way to distinguish compound nouns from mere modifer+head pairs ('composite nominals', as CGEL calls them) is that in the latter case, the two nouns can enter separately into relations of coordination and modification (CGEL, p. 448-451). As an example, consider London colleges. Is it a compund noun, or a modifier+head pair? The acceptability of the following shows that it is the latter: various [London and Oxford] colleges; various London [schools and colleges]. In contrast, ice cream is a compound noun, because we can't have *[ice and custard] creams; we have to say ice creams and custard creams. Similarly, we can't say *crushed ice cream when we mean cream of crushed ice. In contrast, we may say London theological colleges, where colleges is separately modified by theological. There are other criteria that can be considered as well.
As for a button click, I believe the following shows that it is not a composite noun:
a left- button click (examples)
An additional consideration is this: compound nouns (like bus stop) tend to have separate entries in dictionaries (like this), whereas button click doesn't have one in any of the dictionaries I looked at, including the OED. Here they are: Merriam-Webster, Lexico (formerly Oxford), American Heritage, Collins, vocabulary.com, Macmillan, Cambridge, Wiktionary, Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fifth Ed. (via yourdictionary.com), Infoplease, dictionary.com, and freedictionary.org.
Comment: There are many examples in English of words that become, or function like, a compound noun in usage and that are not in a dictionary. Something can be a noun phrase and a noun, simultaneously.
Comment: @Lambie Right; that's why I said *tend* to have. It's not a decisive criterion.


Why do Hindu Gods have parents if they have no masters?

Question: Why do Hindu Gods like Lord Krishna and Lord Ganesh have parents, even though Upanishads (see Shvetashvatara 6.9) say that god has no master, lord, or even parent?
Answer: Lord Krishna don't have any parents. He is the eternal lord of Vaikhunta and Goloka. He just chose to descend on earth through Devaki -

"Vishnu himself, worshipped by all the worlds, appeared in Devaki
through Vasudeva, for the welfare of the world. He is of great fame,
the god without beginning and without end, the lord and creator of the universe, unmanifest, without decay, the brahman, the chief,
without any attributes, the great soul, eternal, nature, the lord
who controls, the prime being, the creator of the universe, the
source of the sattva quality, perennial, without deterioration,
infinite, incapable of being moved, the god who is the supreme soul, Lord Narayana, the upholder, perpetual, the supreme one
without decay. This prime being, with infinite wealth and the lord
and grandfather of all beings, took his birth in the lineage of the
Andhakas and the Vrishnis in order to increase righteousness in the
world."

Adivansavatarana Parva, chapter 57, Mahabharata.

The reason Krishna became the son of Devaki was to fullfill a boon he had given to them in a previous birth -

"Oh chaste lady! In your previous birth in the age of Svāyambhuva
Manu, you were Pṛśni and this sinless Vasudeva your husband, was then
a Prajāpati named Sutapas. When both of you were directed by god
Brahmā to create progeny, you subdued all your senses and performed a
very austere penance. Enduring in due course, all the inclemencies of
the seasons such as rains, storms, solar rays, snow-fall and heat, you
completely washed off the impurities of the mind by breathcontrol.
Subsisting on withered leaves and merely on air and actuated with the desire to obtain your cherished objects from me, you were
determined to propitiate Me with a serene mind. Thus rolled by
twelve thousand divine years, while both of you, with your heart fixed
on Me, were performing a very difficult and austere penance. Being
continuously contemplated upon in the heart with faith, devotion and
asceticism, I was highly pleased with you and manifested myself before
you in this very form with a desire to fulfil your cherished objects,
Oh sinless one, When I, the foremost bestower of boons, told you to ask Me for a boon, the boon for having a son like Me was sought by
you. Though both of you had not tasted the conjugal and other
pleasures of ordinary sensual objects and were childless, you did not
seek for Emancipation (from the world) as you were deluded by My
divine Māyā. When I disappeared from your view and you, having secured
the boon of getting a son like Me and thus accomplishing your
cherished desire, you indulged in enjoying sensual pleasures.
Finding that nobody else in this world is comparable to Me in goodness of nature, generosity and other virtues in this world, I
Myself was born as your son and became known as Pṛśni-garbha. And
again of you both (as Aditi and Kaśyapa) I was born of Aditi from
Kaśyapa and was famous as Upendra and also as Vāmana due to shortness
of stature. Now even in this third incarnation, I am verily born
with that very form again of you both (who are former Aditi and
Kaśyapa). In this way, my word has been kept, Oh pious lady."

Chapter 3, 10th Skandha, Srimad Bhagavatam
Answer: There are 2 types of Brahmana Nirguna and Saguna. And, There is only one Truth no second.
Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.7.:

Higher than this Personal Brahman is the infinite Supreme Brahman , who is concealed in all beings according to their bodies , and who , though remaining single , envelops the whole universe . Knowing Him to be the Lord , one becomes immortal .

Svet. Upa 3.02 and Atharvasiras Upanishad 5.2.:

"Rudra is truly One; for the knowers of Brahman do not admit the existence of a second, He is Ishana (Sun) and he alone rules all the worlds by His powers (as Indra). He dwells as the inner Self of every living being. After having created all the worlds (as Brahma), He, their Protector (as Vishnu), takes them back into Himself at the end of time (as Kala)."

Rig Veda 1.164.46.:

They have styled Him as Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni, and he is the celestial, well-winged Garutmat, for learned priests call the One Truth by many different names as they speak of Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan.

Brahma Purana 2 (88) Bibek Debroy.:

Shambhu alone is known by the names of Indra, Mitra, and Agni. For the sake of those who are confused , Brahmanas speak of them in different ways.

Atharva Veda 19:53:4.:

"He (Kāla) surely did bring hither all the beings (worlds), he surely did encompass all the beings (worlds). Being their father, he became their son; there is, verily, no other force, higher than he".

Shiva Purana 7:02:31:121-122.:

"His (Shiva's) works are said to be uncanny because he (alone) carries out creation, preservation and destruction. He is the one who cut brahma's head. He is the father of Brahma as well as his son. Similarly, He is the father of Vishnu as well as his son and he is also the controller of Vishnu. He confers knowledge on these two – Brahma and Vishnu and always showers his grace (upon them)".

Mahabharata. Harivamsa-Parva 2-74-34.:

"O the lord of lord! (Mahādeva) Myself (vishnu/krishna), brahma, kapila, ananta (sheSha), all the valiant sons of brahma who conquered over the internal enemies - all are created from you. Hence you are the lord of all. Hence you, the lord of all, and are only one worthy of praise and worship.

Swetasvatara Upanishad 4:10.:

"Know then Prakriti (nature) is Mâyâ (art), and the Maheshwara the Mâyin (maker); the whole world is filled with what are his members (forms)".

Rig Veda Khila. Shiva Sankalpa Shuktam 23.:

The one that is recited soundless in all the Vedas, that supreme lord (Ishwara), who is incorpeal (nirguna), non-pierceable self (atman), may such my mind be of beautiful and divine resolves, filled with Auspicious Shiva-thoughts.-23.

Mandukya Upanishad 7.:

"The Fourth (Turiya) is thought of as that which is not conscious of the internal world, nor conscious of the external world, nor conscious of both the worlds, nor dense with consciousness, nor simple consciousness, nor unconsciousness, which is unseen, actionless, incomprehensible, un-inferable, unthinkable, indescribable, whose proof consists in the identity of the Self (in all states), in which all phenomena come to a cessation, and which is unchanging fourth (Turiya), peaceful (Shanta), auspicious Shiva, and non-dual. That is the Self; that is to be known.

Avadhoota Gita of Sri Dattatreya 1.62.:

62 ) The world of form and the formless Void : Neither of these exists independently . In the One , there is neither separation nor union ; All is called no-no (not this-not that/neti-neti). Truly , there is nothing but Shiva alone freed from all these differences.

Dattatreya Upanishad.:

"Sarva Mantra Sarva Yantra Sarva Tantra Sarva Pallava Svaruupaya Iti Om Namah Shivaya. Om!"

Varaha Upanishad.:

4.32. Shiva alone is Guru; Shiva alone is Vedas; Shiva alone is Lord; Shiva alone is I (Varaha Vishnu); Shiva alone is All. There is none other than Shiva.

I hope this clarifies all your queries. Prd..
Comment: Burnol Prescribed for relief. ..


What version of linux supports rtl8723be?

Question: My laptop has this card, what should I do? What version of linux should I get?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [Wifi on HP Stream doesn't recognise any networks](http://askubuntu.com/questions/713542/wifi-on-hp-stream-doesnt-recognise-any-networks)
Answer: I think it is supported from linux 3.13 .... Install ubuntu 15.10 (which has kernel 4.2)
Comment: i did, didn't work
Comment: In that case, please [open a new question](/questions/ask) to ask for help with this particular problem, since it doesn't fit under the theme of your current question of "is it supported"? Please [run the WiFi diagnostics](/a/425205/175814) and include a link to the result in your new question.
Answer: According to this answer, the Linux kernel includes a driver for the RTL8723BE wireless network adapter chipset since (at least) version 3.13, which is included in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Alternatively the most recent release 15.10 has a newer kernel version that should work just as well.
Comment: If I upgrade to the newest kernel 4.3.3 will it work?
Comment: This is unlikely to make a difference.
Comment: I have 4.4.9 and RTL8723BE works but Bluetooth is displayed as unknown and scanning devices has problem finding device names.
Comment: @dashesy: If you have a question please [open a new question](/questions/ask). The comment section is not the right place for questions or extended discussion.
Answer: Actually there were/are problems with the Wifi chipset RTL8723BE. Here is a link to my blog post describing couple of my attempts to solve this with different kernels:
https://artofcode.wordpress.com/2017/08/29/problems-with-wifi-signal-under-linux/
One conclusion: newest kernel doesn't automatically mean better support for this chipset.
It's not that bad if you can use antenna selection configuration. If I recall correctly this was the case with some kernels in versions 4.15.0-X where X < 33. With the kernel 4.15.0-33 you need to compile a kernel module which may be not obvious for less advanced users.
In worst case it was like that: antenna selection configuration was ignored and source code of an alternative kernel module was not compatible with the kernel...
The best is to try different Linux kernels using live versions.


How do you get a Cronjob executing a PHP script to run longer than 30 seconds?

Question: How can I rewrite this into a cron that will run every day for longer than 30 seconds? Also, do I need to edit the .htaccess or php.ini file in the cron.php directory to say something? Over the browser it runs just fine for longer than 30 seconds; over the shell, it runs just fine too. But as a cron set task, it dies after 30 seconds. I'm on 1and1 share hosting.
0 12 * * * php5 /this/is/the/file/cron.php

Answer: There are several things that could be terminating your script. One could be the maximum execution time set in the php.ini file. If that's the case, you can override it in your script with set_time_limit(0); where zero means no limit and any number greater than zero is the number of seconds to allow the script to run for before being terminated. It's important to note that this time does NOT include the time it takes for the browser to make the request, so file upload time wouldn't count here.
If you're in a shared hosting environment (like Dreamhost), they have process watches that will kill off any PHP process after a set time limit. You cannot get around these. You would need to contact the hosting provider to see what you need to do to get access to run the script for longer (for Dreamhost, they want you to have a they're PS offering).
Answer: Use this syntax to start php:
php -c /path/to/another/php.ini /this/is/the/file/cron.php

Then you can specify a different timeout (or no timeout) in a different php.ini file.
Answer: ini_set('max_execution_time', 600);

Add this to the top of your php file and it will run for 600 seconds. Anything more is not recommended but you can have a go if you want.
Answer: You don't need to set a higher max_execution_time if you use PHP CLI:
CLI SAPI default value for "max_execution_time" is set to unlimited.
https://www.php.net/manual/en/features.commandline.differences.php
Answer: I would just use wget http://path.to.myscript.php
If it's dying after 30 you may need to set max_execution_time = 60 in your php.ini to allow the script to run longer than 30 seconds.
Answer: You could also use ini_set('max_execution_time', 60)
But as the manual page says, in some cases (i.e. running in safe mode) this will have no effect at all: http://uk.php.net/manual/en/info.configuration.php#ini.max-execution-time
It could also be possible that the php.ini for client line has different max execution values than for the browser. I have seen it sometimes.


ATL to MAD, 1 hour stop in PHL with terminal change - Do I have to go through security a second time?

Question: I have a flight on AA from Atlanta to Madrid.  My booking lists a "stop" in Philadelphia for approximately one hour and 15 minutes.  I'm concerned because my itinerary lists arrival in PHL at terminal A but departure from terminal B, and the airline switches to Iberia.  Will I need to go through security again before leaving PHL?  I'm worried about the short stop time.
Comment: All the terminals at PHL are connected airside, and on the outbound things will be no different from a domestic connection; however, on the return trip, you will need to clear immigration, customs, and security screening after arrival.
Answer: The airport's website says that "In the secure area past the security checkpoints, all terminals and gates are accessible," meaning you will not have to re-clear security. A map is available on their website and shows that the gates are connected by a short hallway. An hour and 15 minutes is plenty of time.


Dealing with nonstationarity and autocorrelation

Question: Relationship between interest rates and retail sales. I have a time series sample of quarterly data for 10 years.  My dependent variable is retail prices and independent variables are interest rates, wages, population, inflation, disposable income and consumer confidence index. The Durbin-Watson is 0.97. How do I deal with the autocorrelation?
Answer: Auto-correlation in the residuals can be masked/suppressed by Pulses/Seasonal Pulses or the resultant of omitted Level/Step shifts or Local Time Trends. Auto-correlation in the residuals may be the result of parameters changing over time. Auto-correlation in the residuals may be the result of omitted (important) lag structures in the user specified cause variables. Auto-correlation in the residuals may be the result of an omitted (lurking) cause variable either stochastic or deterministic. Correct strategies to deal with auto-correlation depend on finding/detecting which of the above is relevant. Simple approaches assuming the nature of the problem/opportunity often miss the boat.


What is the usage of repositories and interfaces in Laravel?

Question: After developing a few projects using Codeigniter since 2 years,  I stared to learn Laravel.
I downloaded a few projects lo learn how they are coded. As I understood, many of them are using only models, views and controllers which is same as Codeigniter.
But one project has used repositories and interfaces. It is really hard to understand whats going on that project. So what is the usage of repositories and interfaces in Laravel? When should I use them?
Comment: I personally do not agree on the repository thing. Repositories abstracts even the way you use Eloquent, making the controller super lightweight, highly maintainable and simple to understand also for non-backend developers if you're working with a medium team. Repositories also can facilitate the process of multi-version API for example.
Comment: Interfaces and/or repositories has different usage requirements, and they are not specific to Laravel. It's an architecture decision and you should to take this kind of decision within your team, if you have one. Aside that, in Laravel, you should not implement repositories if you're planning to stay with Eloquent, the Laravel ORM.
Answer: I will try to explain as clearly as possible the two concepts.
Interfaces\Contracts
In general OOP interfaces are used to describe which methods/functionalities the class that implements that interface is offering without caring about the actual implementation.
Laravel uses Contracts mainly to separate a service from the actual implementation. To be more clear let's make an example
<?php

namespace App\Orders;

class OrdersCache
{

    protected $cache;

    public function __construct(\SomePackage\Cache\Memcached $cache)
    {
        $this->cache = $cache;
    }

    public function find($id)
    {
        if ($this->cache->has($id))    {
            //
        }
    }
}

As you can see in this class the code is tightly coupled to a cache implementation (i.e. \SomePackage\Cache\Memcached) so if the API of that Cache class changes our code also must be changed accordingly. The same thing happens if we want to change the Cache implementation with another one (e.g. redis).
Instead of doing that, our code could depend on an interface that is agnostic from the implementation:
<?php

namespace App\Orders;

use Illuminate\Contracts\Cache\Repository as Cache;

class OrdersCache
{

    public function __construct(Cache $cache)
    {
        $this->cache = $cache;
    }

    public function find($id)
    {
        if ($this->cache->has($id))    {
            //
        }
    }
}

Now our code is not coupled with any specific implementation because Cache is actually an interface. So basically in our class we are requiring an instance of a class that behaves like described in the Cache interface, but we are not really interested in how it works internally. Doing that if we want to change the cache implementation we could write a class that implements the interface Cache without changing any line of code in our OrdersCache class. Doing that our code is easier to understand and maintain and your packages are a lot more reusable. See the section Loose Coupling in the Laravel documentation for further examples.
Interfaces and Service Container
One of the main features of Laravel is its Service Container, it is used to manage dependencies and performing dependency injection. Please take a look at Service Container definition from Laravel documentation.
Dependency Injection is widely used by Laravel also to bind interfaces to implementation. Let's make an example:
$app->bind('App\Contracts\EventPusher', 'App\Services\RedisEventPusher');

And let our class be
<?php

namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use App\Contracts\EventPusher;

class EventsController extends Controller
{

    protected $pusher;

    public function __construct(EventPusher $pusher)
    {

        $this->pusher = $pusher;

    }

}

Without declaring anything else we are basically saying everytime that someone need an EventPusher instance, please Laravel, provide an instance of RedisEventPusher class. In this case everytime that your controller is instantiated, Laravel will pass an instance of RedisEventPusher to your controller without specifying anything else.
You can dig into that by looking at Binding Interfaces to Implementation section on the Laravel documentation.
Repositories
Repositories is a concept applicable to the MVC pattern independently from any specific framework. Typically you have your Model that is the data layer (e.g. interacts with the database directly), your Controller that handles the access logic to the data layer and your View that shows the data provided by the Controller.
Repositories instead could be defined as follows:

To put it simply, Repository pattern is a kind of container where data access logic is stored. It hides the details of data access logic from business logic. In other words, we allow business logic to access the data object without having knowledge of underlying data access architecture.
Soruce: https://bosnadev.com/2015/03/07/using-repository-pattern-in-laravel-5

To know how to use them within Laravel please take a look at this great article.
That's all, i hope it helps to clear up your mind.
Answer: Interfaces are what any implementing class should call.

interface CanFlyInterface
{
    public function fly();
}

Think of it like programming without bothering with logic.
if ($object instanceof CanFlyInterface) {
    $obj->fly();
}

Now we could have passed a Bird object, or an Aeroplane object! PHP DOESN'T CARE, so long as it implements the interface!
class Bird implements CanFlyInterface
{
    public function fly()
    {
        return 'flap flap!';
    }
}

class Aeroplane implements CanFlyInterface
{
    public function fly()
    {
        return 'roar! whoosh!';
    }
}

Your other question, what a Repository class is. It's just a class that keeps all your DB queries in the one place. Check this interface as an example:
interface RepositoryInterface
{
    public function insert(array $data);
    public function update(array $data);
    public function findById($id);
    public function deleteById($id);
}

Hopefully this should clear things up for you! Good luck with all your PHP coding :-D
Comment: I, sadly, still don't understand the reason behind Interfaces. Why would we need additional file, that is an Interface, with the same method as Bird and Aeroplane classes have. We could just not have the interface and it's one file less. The method is basically empty in the interface, so why just not have Bird and Aeroplance classes without Interface?
Comment: Well, in the example above, `if ($object instanceof CanFlyInterface) { $object->fly() }`, we don't  need to check which class it is, we  know it  is a  class that has a  `fly()` method, and we know it  will work. Imagine a `Saveable` interface that saves whatever array.  now you could be saving to the db or a json  file, or making an api  call, we dont care! so long as that class implements the interface it will have that method :-)
Answer: Let's start with the easier one, the interface:
You normally use interfaces to implement classes with required methods:
http://php.net/manual/en/language.oop5.interfaces.php

Laravel's Contracts are a set of interfaces that define the core services provided by the framework. For example, a Illuminate\Contracts\Queue\Queue contract defines the methods needed for queueing jobs, while the Illuminate\Contracts\Mail\Mailer contract defines the methods needed for sending e-mail.
  https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/contracts#introduction

When Laravel is running it can check if a class implements a special interface:
if ($cls instanceof IInterface) {
    $cls->interfaceFunction();
}

Since Laravel is able to work with queues it will check if the event should be queued or not by checking for an exiting interface.

To inform Laravel that a given event should be broadcast, implement the  Illuminate\Contracts\Broadcasting\ShouldBroadcast interface on the event class.
  https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/broadcasting#defining-broadcast-events

Repository:
I didn't found that much about this:

Our repository should not have so much knowledge regarding who is providing them data or how they are providing it. https://laravel.com/docs/5.4/contracts#loose-coupling

But I found some other information on a webpage:

a Repository will connect Factories with Gateways
  https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/the-repository-design-pattern--net-35804

The link will give you more information about the the details.
Hope I could help you :)
Answer: First of all, using Repository and Interface in larger application is not only beneficiary in Laravel but in all technology for coding standard as well as for separation of concern.
According to Microsoft (I found best explanation here)
Why to use Repository:

Use a repository to separate the logic that retrieves the data and
  maps it to the entity model from the business logic that acts on the
  model. The business logic should be agnostic to the type of data that
  comprises the data source layer. The repository mediates between the
  data source layer and the business layers of the application. It
  queries the data source for the data, maps the data from the data
  source to a business entity, and persists changes in the business
  entity to the data source.
  A repository separates the business logic
  from the interactions with the underlying data source or Web service.
  The separation between the data and business tiers has three benefits:
  It centralizes the data logic or Web service access logic. It provides
  a substitution point for the unit tests. It provides a flexible
  architecture that can be adapted as the overall design of the
  application evolves. There are two ways that the repository can query
  business entities. It can submit a query object to the client's
  business logic or it can use methods that specify the business
  criteria. In the latter case, the repository forms the query on the
  client's behalf. The repository returns a matching set of entities
  that satisfy the query.

For Interface, you have a lot of answers above, hope you have understand.
Answer: First of all, repositories and interfaces are not specific to Laravel but common coding standards in most of the languages.
Below Laracasts videos will be useful to understand the basics if you don't mind spend few dollars.
https://laracasts.com/lessons/repositories-and-inheritance
https://laracasts.com/series/object-oriented-bootcamp-in-php


Normalization of predictors

Question: Does normalization (ex: log or sqrt) of skewed features help to reduce model's bias? or it is better to leave the skewed distribution of predictors as it is?
Answer: The most common use of the word normalization is to rescale the feature set such that all features have a common range of values. This is the kind of normalization supported by something like sklearn's MinMaxScaler().
If this is what you mean by normalization then weither or not you should do it depends on the algorithm you're using. In general it's a good prepocessing step but models using metrics which aren't normalized (e.g. K-Means clustering) will be negatively impacted by normalization.
But from the context of your question what you seem to mean is something like:
"If I have a feature X with a lognormal distribution, should I replace it with log(X) since log(X) will be normally distributed?"
I can't recall ever seeing an example of someone engineering features to enforce a normal distribution on the feature set. And I think there are some examples of why you wouldn't want to do this.
For example, say your training a linear regression model between a target variable Y and a single feature X, where Y is normally distributed and X has a lognormal distribution. If X and Y appear to have a linear relationship then you wouldn't replace X with log(X) since log(X) wouldn't have a linear relationship with Y and thus the performance of your linear model would deteriorate.
Hope this helps
Answer: If you mean preprocessing methods involving BoxCox/YJ transforms, they do reduce the outlier effects and thus can (potentially) reduce bias.
They do much more than that however (like distorting linear relationships) so whether it's actually helpful depends on many factors.
In practice, if you use gridsearch-like routines for cross-validation of your models, you can search for the optimal preprocessing function in a pipeline as well. Sklearn PowerTransformer() and QuantileTransfomer() (including the uniform transformation for the latter) are able to yield better overall metrics compared to StandardScaler()/MinMaxScaler()/RobustScaler() in many cases, however there doesn't seem to be any rule of thumb here, except maybe for neural networks which tend to prefer quantile transformations.

Normalization of predictors


How can I refresh Chrysanthemum's in the garden?

Question: My plants will flower in a month or two but they have dead leaves on the stems already.
Comment: Hello Rosalie,  Please share with us some pictures.   I would love to see your plant, to easier diagnosis the problem.   Can you also tell me a little more about your care.  Like what type of lighting.  Is this an indoor 'florist mum' or outdoor plant.  How long have you had it?  Any information you can share will be appreciated.  Cheers.
Comment: They should not have dead leaves up the stems if they've not yet flowered - are your plants in pots? If not, when did you plant them out (assuming they are outdoors)? Otherwise, a photo would be helpful...
Answer: The leaves are easy to remove.   The plant is putting all of it's energy in to making flowers. These plants have been bred to be prolific bloomers.  This process is very energy consuming.   You can help it by fertilising.  Use a balance fertiliser that contains macro & micro nutrients.  The macro nutrients are normally located on the front of the package as three numbers like 10-10-10.  On the side or back of the package it will list all the nutrients available for your plants.  It should have a list that includes the macro nutrients, Nitrogen, Phosphorous & Potassium and should include other nutrients like manganese & iron.   Good Luck.


electrical lightng earth wire and neutral wire the same colour

Question: i'm in the uk, and I've taken the wall lights off and the earth wire and the neutral are both black, how do I tell which is which. thank you john
Comment: Can you post a photo of this situation?
Comment: If you're able to figure this out, label the wires for next time.
Answer: Most domestic fixed wiring in the UK is done with what is known as "twin and earth" cable. Normal twin and earth cable has two insulated conductors colored brown and blue* on cable produced today and colored red and black on earlier cables. In addition it has an uninsulated earth conductor.
Unlike the americans, we brits place sleeving over bare earth conductors inside boxes. This sleeving would normally be green/yellow striped, but on very old installations it may be plain green**.
Some properties are also wired with single wires in conduit, in the case of single wires in conduit there may not be a dedicated earth wire as the conduit can be used as the earth path.
If the light is fed with a cable, then what has most likely happened is that someone ran out of the proper earth sleeving, so they used a bit of black insulation stripped off another wire to sleeve the earth conductor. If this has happened it should be visible on a careful visual inspection, it's almost impossible to push tightly fitting insulation back onto a wire, so if this has been done then the insulation will likely have been taken from a large size of wire and will be a loose fit on the conductor.
If the wiring is in conduit then things get much more complicated. It's possible that someone used the wrong color wire, but it's equally possible that neither of the wires is in-fact a ground. For example one could be an incoming neutral and the other could be a neutral going out to the next light.
To test earths, I would suggest the following. First turn off power at the main switch, do not use the MCB for this as MCBs normally only provide single pole isolation***.
Then attach a long lead to the earthing system. I would suggest wiring it to the earth terminal of a plug and plugging it in is the easiest way.
You can then use your multimeter on continuity mode to find stuff that is connected to the earthing system.
P.S. It is always good practice to look carefully and label stuff before disconnection to avoid confution later.
* Normally live and neutral, but twin and earth cable is also used for switch drops with live and switched live. In this case the blue/black conductor should be marked with red/brown sleeving, but that does not always actually happen.
** In UK fixed wiring green/yellow replaced plain green for Earth long before brown/blue replaced red/black for live and neutral.
*** This advice on how to isolate both live and neutral applies specifically to the UK, n some countries even the main switch does not disconnect neutral and the only way to disconnect it would be to remove wires.
Answer: Make a test lamp ( a simple bulb connected to two wires). Connect one wire of the test lamp to the live wire and then using the other wire touch the black wires one by one. The bulb will turn on normally and brightly when joined to the neutral wire. It will be dim when you touch the ground wire. Or there are chances that the bulb will not turn on in case the ground has been disconnected in your house.
Comment: If the circuit is protected by RCD, when the light is connected between line and ground the RCD will trip.
Comment: Sorry this answer is just plain wrong, in the absense of a RCD unless the earth is terrible then you are likely to get the same results testing with a bulb between live and earth as between live and neutral. If the earth *is* terrible then merely doing this test could create a severe hazard. If there is a RCD then connecting a lamp between live and earth will trip it, but unless the CU has been changed relatively recently an installation old enough to have red/black wiring probablly will not have a RCD on the lights.
Comment: Don't bypass it. If the RCD trips, then you know the wire you are testing is the earth ground.
Comment: Hmm okay after reading the answer you have posted I realised I shouldn't have written an answer since I don't know about the wiring in UK. I apologise for that. Apart from that if I would have known that a multimeter is common in every household and that the original poster would be having it, then I would have also given him somewhat same suggestion that you have. Anyway thanks increasing my knowledge.


Lipschitz continuous and Jacobian matrix

Question: Consider a function $f:\mathbb{R}^n\longrightarrow\mathbb{R}^m$ with partial derivatives everywhere so that the Jacobian matrix is well-defined. Let $L>0$ be a real number. Is it true that:
$$|f(x)-f(y)|\leq L|x-y|,\forall x,y \Longleftrightarrow |J_f(x)|_2\leq L,\forall x$$
where $|\cdot|$ denotes the euclidean vector norm and $|\cdot|_2$ the spectral matrix norm.
Comment: Consider the inequality $|f(x) - f(y)| \leq L|x-y|$. We can rewrite it as $\frac{|f(x)-f(y)|}{|x-y|} \leq L$. Is there any equation/formula from calculus you recall that you can relate to the left-hand side of this inequality? In particular, can you think of a formula that involves a derivative?
Comment: The result is indeed trivial for $n=m=1$ by using the definition of derivative for one implication and by using the mean value theorem for the other one. The question is about extending this result to multidimension.
Answer: Fix $\delta > 0$, let's take $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$ where the derivatives exist, then prove that $f$ is $(L+\delta)$-lipschitz.
for that let $v$ of norm $1$ and consider the quantity : $$ \frac{|f(x)-f(x+tv)|}{t}$$ Where $t\in\mathbb{R}$, we know that the limit equals : $J_{f}(x)(v)$ namely  the derivative in the direction of $v$, so there exist an $\epsilon_{v}$ such that: $\frac{|f(x)-f(x+tv)|}{t}<L+\delta, \text{for} |t|<\epsilon_{v}$, by the compactness of the shpere one may choose a common $\epsilon$ which gives : $$ \frac{|f(x)-f(z)|}{|x-z|}<L+\delta, \text{if} |x-z|<\epsilon. $$
Now take the segment which link $x$ to $y$, cover it by balls where $f$ is $(L+\delta)$-Lipschitz on each ball, and use the triangle inequality on the centers of the balls and the intersections ( we can manage to have finite number of balls, each ball is centered on a point on the segment and intersect only two other balls, with intersection points on the segment, except for the ball centered on $x$ and the one centered on $y$).
It suffices now to take $\delta$ to $0$ to get the result.
Now for the other direction, we see that $J_{f}(x)(v) = \lim \frac{|f(x)-f(x+tv)|}{t}≤L$, hence : $|J_{f}(x)|≤L$.
PS: there is a surprising theorem on Lipschitz functions ( also locally Lipschitz functions ) which says that they are differentiable almost everywhere, it's called Rademacher's theorem, note also that differentiable  is more strong than only admitting directional derivatives.


Viewing my objects in the default 3d (iso) view

Question: I'm brand new to blender so please go easy me! This question is asked a lot yet I can't seem to find the answer. When you start up Blender, the default includes a cube mesh shown in 3 point perspective/ Isometric view. How can I return exactly to that view (same angle, distance, etc) even after I change the object. I know can change the viewpoint to top, right, left, bottom, front and back but there seems to be no viewpoint that returns me to that isometric, 3 point perspective view that I started out with. Viewpoint camera gets me there but when I toggle out of the camera viewpoint back to the last, orthographic view.
Any tips? A shortcut perhaps?
Thanks,
Greg
Comment: did you try moving the default camera to the startup viewing angle using Ctrl+Alt+Numpad 0, then saving the startup file that way you can get back to it using the Numpad 0 shortcut. you can then have other camera to render out different angles.
Answer: This is the default view Blender starts at. There is nothing special about it, so there naturally is not hotkey. However, you can restore this view by assuming its position by rotating the interface.
I am unsure from your question whether or not you are actually able to rotate the viewport. If you cannot, simply hold down the middle mouse button on your mouse and move around. If you do not have a middle mouse button/ are using a touchpad, then you can go to user preferences, and enable "Emulate three button mouse". This allows you to rotate the viewport by holding the left mouse button, and pressing the Alt key on your keyboard.
If you, however, can rotate the interface and I am mistaken, you can, immediately after opening Blender, press Ctrl+Alt+0 on your keyboard to align the camera to that default view. Make sure you have not already moved the interface around.
As I said previously, there is no "default" key to this view, so you must align your camera to the view if you want to get it again. If you don't want to do this, you can try to achieve the same view by rotating your viewport.
I hope this helps.