Is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophilia a word?

Question: I'd like to know if hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophilia, my proposed opposite of hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is a real word or condition.  I know -philia is the opposite of -phobia and -phile is the opposite of -phobic, so I was wondering if there is an opposite to every -phobia word.
Comment: There is no authority that decides what is and isn't a word in English at all. There's no authority that says _hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia_ (a recent, humorous, and deliberately unetymological coinage) is a word to begin with, but the fact that so many people know and use it is good evidence that it is. What kind of authority are you looking for?
Comment: If _hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia_ is a real word (which it arguably is), then surely so is its logical _-philia_ counterpart. At least, anyone who can be expected to know the former can also be expected to immediately understand the latter.
Comment: But is there an authoritative opposite to every -phobia word?
Answer: What's a word?
Is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobic a word?  Is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobe a word?  Is anti-hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobic a word?  Is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious a word?
There's no official board of English language authorities who make judgements about what is and isn't a word. If a combination of letters, or a combination of sounds can be understood by people, then it should probably count as a word.
In English, you can produce new words by adding prefixes or suffixes to them. The new word you produce may not represent anything than exists, but that doesn't mean it's not a word.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophilia is a real word, whether or not it's a real condition.
So, to answer your question, is there an opposite to every -phobia word, yes there is a word that means the opposite, but that word may not describe a real thing.


Is book review service expenses declarable under Schedule E for royalties?

Question: I have books that generate royalties. I am using the QBI since I do for profit and it is what I do. I have included ads as part of expenses but I am also having a book review service where aside from a monthly fee, I buy books of other authors in order to receive credit and request reviews for my books. I think the monthly fee is an expense but buying other people's books, could it be seen also as an expense given that without it I cant get credit to have my book reviewed?
Answer: The tax law is all about facts and circumstances. The IRC Sec. 162, which is the legal basis for deducting expenses related to the income-producing activity, doesn't enumerate every possible expense. Instead, it says this:

There shall be allowed as a deduction all the ordinary and necessary expenses paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business

So, the question boils down to "ordinary and necessary". Is it ordinary? Is it necessary? If you can convince the IRS that the answer to both the questions is "yes" then you can take the deduction.
Can you convince the IRS? You'd probably want to discuss this with an experienced tax professional/attorney who's familiar with your specific trade and the rules and precedents around it.
Comment: Thank you, this is great!


Why is my video playing limited to a couple seconds when i add it to VSE?

Question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCsPmzrwXG0
AS you can see it is limited to the black line. Im sure theres a way to make it view the WHOLE of your video, but i dont know how and i cant find a tutorial to do it. thanks, Bye
Comment: In Matt's screenshot there is a preview button at #1. Is it checked?
Comment: Here is the fix which I have found in YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56EyYeaF24
[![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZeOWv.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ZeOWv.jpg)
Answer: I'd be willing to bet that you need to set the frame range. The length of your video is pretty close to 250 frames, which is the default.
Check out #2.

The length of the video is also controlled by frame RATE. Make sure this is set to the same frame rate as the original video.
Check out "Frame Rate" set to 24fps below.
Comment: Actually, I tried that. Didnt work.
Comment: I think it has something to do with the settings
Answer: At the bottom left of the 3D window, click on the view icon and choose "Timeline".  At it's low edge can be found the frame range settings. it usually starts at 1, the next to the right being it's max.  It's probably set at the default 250 frames.
Change this to whatever the loaded video is in length.  If you're not sure, put in 1,000 and see what happens.  Re-select the 3D window (Bottom left icon) and choose "3D Window again), then ALT-A to make it play.
I struck this problem myself when first using Blender.  Hope this helps
PS: You can drag the 3D window down from it's top right (triangular hatch pattern) so you have 2 windows.  Set the bottom one to the Timeline view.  Leave the cursor in that and press the "HOME" key to adjust it to cover the current frame range.
Answer: Even I was facing the same issue and as suggested I did check the frame rate, which unfortunately didn't work out.
But then I closed the current window and reopened Blender and this time instead of drag and drop (which I did before) I used the dropdown add, above the sequencer, and imported my movie from the options... You won't believe, somehow this solved the issue.
This does seem to be a bug coz I tried this so many times, if you drag and drop then the video sometimes plays and sometimes not. I have tried opening videos by using this 'add' dropdown and it works everytime.
(However if it doesn't play after drag and drop then just change the (AV) Sync option, from the playback menu at the bottom left of the sequencer, to any of two except 'sync to audio'. This somehow fixed the issue for me, I was only able to play the video in reverse when this option was selected, but after changing it there were no issues)
I am quite new at all this and I had installed Blender using snap on my Ubuntu 20.04. For some reason I am not facing the issue right now (I tested the drag and drop again and for 10/10 times it worked without any problem), but I was facing it 2 weeks ago.
Comment: this option does not work for me on blender 3.1.2, it still sticks with the original 250 frames even with Add > Movie
Answer: Once you stretch out the content, you'll need to input that number that's on the project AFTER you stretch it if you need to. In frame range in the end box
Answer: Add your video as a Background or Reference (In Object Mode, press Shift+A, select Image, and in the open popup, turn off the filter to see videos). When video is added, click on the video in the Outliner (it might be collapsed under an Empty), and go to the Image submenu and change the value under Frames to something greater than the default value of 100.


Selenium/Chromedriver: Turn off location for a single site

Question: When I run chromedriver, due to my system preferences it turns off "Location" as shown in this image.
The problem is an individual site still think my location is allowed. As shown in this image:

When I manually set this drop-down to "block" then I achieve the desired behavior. Any way to do this programmatically? Here is what I've tried adding in the capabilities/preferences from various posts around the internet, none have worked:
--disable-geolocation
--enable-strict-powerful-feature-restrictions
profile.default_content_settings.geolocation: 2
geolocation: 1
Comment: please add an example website and language binding you are using ( like java , python etc)
Answer:
--deny-permission-prompts

Prevents permission prompts from appearing by denying instead of showing prompts. ↪
https://peter.sh/experiments/chromium-command-line-switches/
COuld you try adding this as argument example :7
python ;
options.add_argument('--deny-permission-prompts')

Comment: This sort of works! But with an exception. Previously I was trying to navigate to problemURL right after creating the webdriver. However, if I navigated to "chrome://settings/content/location" FIRST then navigated to my desired URL the location pop-up will come up (and get denied because of the cli switch). Weirdly enough, this doesnt occur if I go to some other url first (like Google.com) and note I am not toggling any of the chrome setting switches, just visiting the page.
Comment: Works as it should (location = blocked)
Comment: What happened when u visit Google then settings then your desired url. I don't have an example websit to try out


PumpStreamHandler can capture the process output in realtime

Question: I try to capture a python process output via apache-commons-exec. But it looks like it won't print the output, the output is only displayed after I the python process is finished.
Here's my java code
CommandLine cmd = CommandLine.parse("/Users/jzhang/anaconda/bin/python");
cmd.addArgument("/Users/jzhang/a.py");
DefaultExecutor executor = new DefaultExecutor();
ExecuteWatchdog watchDog = new ExecuteWatchdog(ExecuteWatchdog.INFINITE_TIMEOUT);
executor.setWatchdog(watchDog);

executor.execute(cmd);

And this is the python code I want to execute (I only get the output after the python process is exited, but what I want is to get the output in real time)
for i in range(1,10):
  print(i)

import time

time.sleep(10)

Answer: I find the answner, I should use set flush to true. E.g.
print('hello world', flush=True)


Can't reflash esp8266 - 12E after many attemptions

Question: I have the following circuit for updating custom firmware to my esp8266-12e module. I've tried many variations for GPIO0, GPIO2, but none of them works. I use the Arduino IDE to make hex files, and then I upload the binary using esptool.py with the following command: python esptool.py --baud 115200 -p /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART write_flash 0x00 /Users/blahblah/Documents/ArduinoBinary/WiFiWebServer.cpp.bin
Comment: I was unable to get mine to flash with resistors either, and had to connect the GPIOs directly to the source. My board does look quite a bit different though.
Answer: Try following ESP8266: flash module firmware post. I've used those steps on ESP-07 and ESP-01 module several times. There should be no need for resistors unless specifically required by ESP-12 module. If it still fails try to eliminate software issues as the problem by using windows flasher as per the post as that is known to work. Also do not use a breadboard as it can cause issues.
Here's a working schematic for ESP-07 module and by the looks of it it should be the same for ESP-12:


Why is there a diode on the RX pin of the Adafruit Ultimate GPS board?

Question: I can't seem to understand why there is a diode at the Rx pin on this Adafruit Ultimate GPS board. If we are sending data to the GPS, why put a diode that prevents current flow into this pin?
Comment: Are you referring to D1? Did you read the note in the schematic telling you what it's for?
Answer: The pull-up resistor to 3.3V and the diode means that even if you feed the circuit with 5V logic (most Arduino boards use 5V logic) the GPS chipset will see a maximum of 3.3v. The MT3339 device may be damaged or operate incorrectly if any of its pins go above its 3.3V supply rail.
If the signal RX_5V goes to a logic low the diode will conduct and pull the MT3339 RX pin to ~0.7V that it will treat as a logic low.
If RX_5V goes to 5V resistor R3 will pull the MT3339 RX up to 3.3V and the diode will be reverse biased.
Comment: and that sir is the answer!!!
Answer: The purpose of the diode is documented in a line of text near it on the schematic. The diode and resistor protect the RX input.
Comment: I should have elaborated. Yes, I see the note on the schematic and see that if a voltage higher than 3.3V is at RX_5V then current will be blocked by D1. But I do not understand how this allows any data to be transferred to the Rx pin if D1 is blocking all current flow from RX_5V. Could it be that if RX_5V is grounded/low/off, then RX will read 0 and if RX_5V is high (~3.3V or greater), RX will read 1 while being protected from any signal >3.3V? EDIT: Just saw @Kevin White's follow-up. Thanks!


Mongoose Server callback loop

Question: After looking for a C library that implemented a web server, I was taught about Mongoose. I have actually made it work through several examples that make the call to the callback function that actually treats the incoming and outgoing data. I am using on Windows, compiling and debugging with Visual Studio 2008.
I called it session and it follows:
int CHttpsCom::Session( void )
{

  struct mg_context *ctx;

  const char *options[] = {
    "listening_ports", "443s",
#ifdef _DEBUG
    "ssl_certificate", "c:\\temp\\cert.pem",
#else
    "ssl_certificate", "cert.pem",
#endif
    NULL
  };

  ctx = mg_start( &callback, NULL, options );

  if( !ctx )
    return 1;

  //getchar();  // Wait until user hits "enter"
  while ( LeaveIt == false );

  Sleep(3500);// without this it won't work

  mg_stop( ctx );

  return 0;

}

100% of the examples I have noticed most examples use getchar to synchronize the end of the session with the ending if the callback execution. I have this LeaveIt flag that is set after I get a post message. If I don't use the Sleep above, I get a deadlock internal to the library. Is there any better way of handling this wait for the the callback ending ?
Thanks.
Answer: Replace
while ( LeaveIt == false );

Sleep(3500);// without this it won't work

By this (at worst you'll save CPU consumption):
while (!LeaveIt)
{
    Sleep(500);
}

Comment: I second this answer.

Mongoose Server callback loop


What is Atomic Relation in First Normal Form

Question: I have read the definition of 1NF which is, "If each attribute of relation is atomic". Please tell me what is Atomic.
Comment: [Of relevance](http://dba.stackexchange.com/a/162111/63644).
Answer: 1NF requires that every attribute position in every tuple in every relation contains a single value of the appropriate type. The types can be arbitrarily complex. In fact, the types can be relations. (CJ Date's book Database in depth: relational theory for practitioners treats this issue in a way that's pretty easy to understand.)
"Atomic" has never really meant "indivisible", which is why that term is finally falling out of favor. Loosely speaking, "atomic" means if a value has component parts, the dbms either ignores the existence of those parts, or it provides functions to manipulate them. For example, a timestamp value has these parts.

Year
Month
Day
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Milliseconds

That kind of value is obviously divisible, and all database management systems provide functions to manipulate those parts. They also provide a way to select a timestamp as a single value. (Which, of course, it is.)
Comment: Well, atomic means indivisible. That's why atom was called atom in the first place, because they thought it was indivisible.
Answer: "Atomic" refers to Codd's original notion from 1969 that each attribute in each tuple within a relation should consist of a single value and not allow multivalued structures of the kind supported in databases like the CODASYL model.
In modern SQL DBMSs atomicity isn't really an issue. SQL tables do not allow multivalued columns and values are always "atomic".
Comment: Technically true, but SQL tables do allow big strings as values, which is a loophole in practice. A string field that holds several comma-separate decimal integers, ASCII dates, etc., would certainly seem to violate the intent of atomicity, whether it follows the letter or not....
Comment: @TextGeek: 1NF refers to domains, i.e. column types, not to individual values. A string type is atomic with regard to the relational model, it doesn't matter what you put into it. Putting comma separated integers into a single string means the the list is now atomic with regard to the relational operators. I don't know why you would do that, but it is not in violation of 1NF.
Answer: Codd originally appears to have meant that no value is itself a set.  This is a useful starting point but "atomic" has no ontological meaning when it comes to databases (something C. J. Date is right to point out).   Codd tried to formalize the definition as something that could not be further decomposed outside of special database operations (i.e. a timestamp is atomic because extracting the year is a special database operation).  In other words, if the database can break out sub-values, that is ok.  But you should not have sets (unordered lists) or objects which require application logic to break down.
Over time and struggling with this issue in operational environments I would propose an intermediate definition of atomicity, one stricter than Codd and without the rabbit hole that Date discusses:
A value is atomic for purposes of first normal form if and only if:

The value is not a set (yes, I know Date disagrees) and
There are no foreign key references to any sub-portion of the field.

In particular, the representation of a value cannot determine its atomicity.  Representing an IP address as "10.0.0.1" vs ARRAY[10,0,0,1] vs 167772161 does not matter for 1NF analysis since all three refer to the same atomic value.
In particular, common (and sometimes useful!) 1NF violations regarding atomicity include:

Storing an array of tags to a blog post or comment.
Storing tables within tables, where the inner table has a referential integrity requirement against another relation elsewhere.

These problems generate, more or less, the same data anomalies.
Answer: Atomic means data which cannot be divided further.
Rule of atomicity:

rule 1: a column with atomic data can't have several values of the same type of data in the same column.
rule2: a table with atomic data can't have several columns with the same datatype.

Like fullname column can't say that it could be atomic because it can be further divded into lastname, firstname. A column with interest could also be divided further, so a column which can't be divided is known as atomic.
Comment: rule2 is wrong, a table can certainly have multiple columns which the same data type. The full name example is also wrong: 1NF is a constraint on domains (i.e. data types) not on individual values. A full name is still a single string so does not violate 1NF, but a columns which allowed a set of strings as value would be a violation.
Answer: It means that the key cannot be decomposed. Let's say that you have a table with three columns, forename, surname, and telephone_number. You declare a compound primary key on (forename, surname). That primary key is not atomic because it is actually composed of two columns. Now let's say you change your table to two columns, full_name and telephone_number, with a primary key on full_name. Is the key now atomic? No, because in your application you could split it into forename and surname still, on the space. Now let's make our table id, full_name and telephone_number, primary key on id (which is an integer). That is atomic, because the integer cannot be meaningfully decomposed.
Comment: your example however begins with the statament that atomicity "means that the key cannot be decomposed". That's not what it means. It means *attribuites* consist of a single value. There is nothing "non-atomic" about a key consisting of multiple attributes.
Answer: Consider a location on Earth. I can find it with (longitude, latitude) pairs or with the HTM (Hierarchical Triangular Mesh) code. Since they both measure the same data. This is a physical fact, which we can measure with a cell phone; it translates a grid number into [longitude, latitude] for you), they must both be either atomic or compound in your model.
Do not confuse the scale used for measurement and notation used to display the data with the nature of the data.
Comment: I edited this post for a couple of typos. I don't believe that this user is the real Joe Celko, but I searched for impersonation on meta.stackexchange.com and found this [thread](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/13039/is-it-ok-to-impersonate-a-public-figure). Check out the responses of Messrs. Atwood and Spolsky, the founders of stackexchange. It appears to be permissible.
Answer: "Atomic" means a value that is not itself a relation. In SQL terminology, 1NF forbids tables with field values which are themselves tables. (As defined by E.F.Codd)
E.F.Codds use of the term "atomic" has caused some confusion, since taken out of context, you wouldn't intuitively consider a string or date value atomic - they can clearly be decomposed into parts. But in the context Codd uses the term, it refers to values that cannot be decomposed using only the relational operators. If a date is stored as a single value, you cannot use project or filter to pick only the month, so the value is atomic wrt relational operators.
Since SQL is (roughly) based on Codd's ideas, SQL does not allow nested tables, so a SQL database is always in first normal form. (One caveat is that SQL allows tables containing duplicate rows. Such a table is technically not a valid relation and therefore can't be said to be in 1NF either.)
Answer: Atomic key is that kind of Primary key which cannot decomposed.which means that this key is not divided further,like Student_ID,Employee_ID.


Wubi Install for Mac OS X

Question: I just installed Ubuntu 10.10 on my Windows 7 box using Wubi and I'm loving it so far. One feature that I love is the fact that because I used Wubi it doesn't seem to create a separate partition. Through what I can only imagine is some VM magic Windows and Ubuntu live together on the same hard drive without a partition and you can even access Windows files from within Ubuntu and visa versa. I also have a MacBook and I would love to be able to install Ubuntu on the MacBook as well but I don't want to surrender a portion of my disk space to a different operating system. Is there currently a way to do the whole Wubi VM "virtual partition" on a Mac?
Comment: http://askubuntu.com/questions/89643/ubuntu-on-mac-for-dummies
Answer: The development of a Mac Ubuntu installer is currently blocked by the lack of journalling write support in the HFS+ filesystem driver.
As Mubi obviously needs to write to the Mac filesystem, and most Macs come with HFS+ journalling turned on, this functionality needs to be present in the Linux kernel before development work on Mubi can begin in earnest.
Answer: This was originally planned as 'Mubi' , but I haven't seen any evidence it is being worked on.
If your Mac is reasonably fast you could try a virtualisation solution, for instance using VirtualBox - but this is unlikely to run as fast as with Wubi.
Comment: Thanks! I did a quick look up of VirtualBox and based on the screenshots it looks like it's running OS X with a VM window displaying the other OS (i.e. Ubuntu). Is it safe to assume that this approach won't give up any partitioned HD space to the VM operating system? If I understand it right, if I'm running the VM from within OS X then I'm within the OS X partition so I wouldn't need an extra partition for Ubuntu, right? If that's the case then it's just a matter of speed.
Comment: You are completely correct in saying you won't need an extra partition. Virtualbox will create a 'virtual hard disc' that it stores as a file within your current (mac) filesystem.
Comment: Do you know if you can boot to Ubuntu instead of running it from within Mac OS X to make it run faster?
Comment: Not without partitioning I'm afraid (as far as I know)
Comment: Just installed it and it is running a little slow on my machine (2 GHz Dual Core). I think I'm going to end up partitioning to make it faster but I'm marking this as the correct answer since it provided a way to install Ubuntu on a Mac without surrendering HD space to a partition (which was in fact the question). Thanks! Until Mubi...
Answer: You can certainly run Ubuntu on the Virtualbox if you have it installed on Mac or Windows. you can allow sharing of files via "virtual networking" between the host and the VM.
Answer: You can always boot to a Live CD to try it out before investing time and effort with using Boot Camp Assistant. I've used it to install before and it worked just fine. Getting rid of the partitions wasn't fun. Luckily I had Time Machine so just erased all partitions and restored from Time Machine instead of finding a resolution :)
Answer: Unfortunately, there is no Mac version as yet, but developers are still working on Mubi
wubi faq says

Wubi will run on on all Windows versions from Windows 98 to Windows
  Vista except Windows ME. More platforms to come soon. Linux/*nix/*BSD
  are supported through Lubi, and Mac OSX
  will eventually be supported through Mubi (developers still needed).

Launchpad says

I'll try to reuse as much code as possible, while making things as
  mac-like as I can and use as much stuff available natively on the mac
  as possible. Please note however that due to lack of proper write
  support for journalized hfs+ in the linux kernel (which is the default
  file system on all new macs for some time now) it will try to use os x
  online resizing to make a partition that can be used for installation
  and set everything up to boot from a .iso and install. Failing that
  (because of low disk space or fragmentation (which for example can
  oocur if you have too low disk space and osx/hfs+' "auto-organization"
  doesn't work anymore) it won't work.

Means the project is not simple ,so try to install ubuntu as a dual boot or in vitualbox
Comment: any timelines for its release.
Comment: https://code.launchpad.net/~step22/wubi/mubi
Answer: I don't think there is a Wubi on Mac OS X.  I have Ubuntu 11.10 on my 24" iMac and runs great.  I burnt an Ubuntu CD.  I installed rEFIt.
I used 'Disk Utility' on my Mac to resize partition on HD.  I shrunk Mac OS X to 100 gigs and made the other partition 399 gigs (type MSDOS and named LINUX) with a 1 gig swap. Or you can just resize the Mac OS X to 100 gigs and do the rest with the Ubuntu installer.  I rebooted my Mac and at rEFIt menu I chose the disk to boot from. Once Ubuntu was at desktop, I did a normal install.  At partition part, make sure to select your 399 gig partition, set it as '/' and continue.  Don't do or change anything on any other partition. You are warned!  After install, reboot into your new Ubuntu.  The only problem I had was with sound and that was easily fixed here.
Enjoy!

Wubi Install for Mac OS X


Does it take less pulling force to unplug cable if the "length" increases?

Question: Why/Does it take less force to unplug the cable if you pull it at a bigger lengths?
I've tried many times and it seems so.
Comment: Friendly advice: Never pull the cable like this; it will damage the fragile junction between the wire and tip. You are supposed to pull it by the tip, not the wire.  I have seen numerous cases where the junction is broken, and people end up cello-taping it. Why all those complications? Just pull it the right way.
Comment: Have you done the experiment using a force gauge?
Comment: @AlphaLife: The garbage USB micro or C connector always wears out far before any damage from pulling becomes relevant.
Comment: No, just by feeling.
Comment: I know about never pulling cable like this:) This was just an example pic.
Answer: This is the same reason why longer screwdrivers are said to "produce more torque" when driving a screw. For the same angular deviation from the optimal axis, the longer the wire/screwdriver is, the more the deviation in distance from that optimal line.
That means with a longer screwdriver/wire, angular alignment is less sensitive to hand position while misalignment is also easier to detect. Pay very close attention to the exact motion, angles, and directions of your arm, hands, and fingers when pulling the cable out. Also, remember that the laptop port sits closer to the surface of the table than your hand is thick, and both your eyes and arms high above. Your misalignment is probably  more up than sideways. Sideways misalignment is not the only misalignment possible; It's just the most visible from your eyes above.
At 2cm length, you might be pulling at 30 degrees and not notice. You would never do that when pulling at 30cm.
Comment: I've thought for many years that a long screwdriver seems to do the job better than a short one. And I'm not sure it's down to angles. Too much of an angle with either will cause cam-out, which doesn't do/undo any screw. Even directly in line, the longer, the better. Not sure why though. Pulling a long wire: the plug will inevitably pull out straighter, even if the wire is at an angle to the port.
Comment: @Tim It's essentially impossible for a human hand to turn a screwdriver in line so even if you can't perceive the difference in a long handle it should still be there. The only real way to test your hypothesis is to use a fixed stand that holds the screwdriver in line and remove angles from the equation. This becomes really obvious in things like test dial indicators when you are screwing in a new lever probe. it's impossible to tighten the probe in concentrically so that the indicator dial doesn't move.
Answer: Another contributing cause is that the longer cable length results in a longer motion, if the cable is not taut when you start pulling - the hand, and the end of the cable have more time to accelerate. That is also why it is harder to put force in a short punch.
As Amit mentioned in their comment, depending on the proportion of the cable+connector assembly that is rigid - shorter rigid part decreases the contribution of pulling at an angle as the moment becomes smaller - the cable pulling at an angle creates a sideways force on the connector, which is larger the longer cable is as well as this effectively becomes a system of two levers once the cable is pulled taut.
There may also be an extra side effect, as the connector being pulled sideways causes it to jam against the socket, with more friction to overcome to pull this out. If the rigid part is short or nonexistent, both of those angle-based effects are a lot less pronounced, the angle still likely plays a part though, as determined by the vector math (which I am not good at) of forces involved.
Comment: I think that the correct answer is actually a combination of what DKNguyen pointed out and this answer. What determines the contribution of each I think, is the length of the connector's head which is *rigid*. Since it is rigid, the shorter this part is, perhaps the effect due to the additional acceleration becomes even more important than that of the misalignment... (suppose no rigid connector at all, I think the tension at the end of the cable will be determined only be the force/acceleration applied, regardless of where along the cable it was applied at)
Comment: @Amit thanks for your comment, I agree there are multiple things at work here and I have edited my answer a bit to reflect on that, adding some more thoughts as well.
Comment: Same way a hammer works.
Comment: Very interesting first point. With a sufficiently long cable, it's possible to unplug it using *arbitrarily little applied force* simply by accelerating your arm very gently over a long distance, and letting your arm's own momentum pull it out. There's a sudden jerk when the cable goes taut, not sure if that would be characterized as a "pulling" force, though.
Comment: @NuclearHoagie somewhat different mechanics, but, again, with a sufficiently long (and heavy) cable you can yank it with a short but swift movement perpendicularly to the direction of the cable, which causes a wave to travel up the cable towards the other end and then that wave will apply the same force and pull the plug out as the wave starts reflecting back from the end of the cable. Oh, obviously, don't do that, lol
Answer: I would suggest that the difference in force is just an illusion. If your hand grabs the cord from close up to the laptop, you're probably using minor muscles to pull the cord out. But if your hand grabs the cord from farther out and you pull, you're probably using major muscles to pull the cord out.
Comment: Hey Matt, your point is very interesting and what muscles are being used to pull the cable definitely have an impact on the perception of effort. However, there's a bit too much speculation on the first sentence. Let me show why I think it's speculation: We could do an experiment to see if OP's claim is valid. Measure the pull force at several lengths, plot a nice graph, etc. I don't think anyone did. So why do you believe it's an illusion?
Comment: Hi @MindwinRememberMonica, of course it's speculation. In fact every answer here is going to be speculation because we don't have any evidence for how it is actually being pulled out. We don't know if there is a difference in the angle of pull, the grip, or if OP might even be holding it upside down when pulling. However, if I imagine myself pulling the cable from close up, I would use my fingers to pull. But if I were to pull from farther out, I would use more of my shoulder.
Answer: It will actually take slightly more force to unplug a cable when the length is longer.
This is because the cable will stretch to some extent as it is pulled, even if that stretch is very minimal. The longer the cable, the more material there is to be stretched.
Note: This same stretch may make it feel like it takes less force to unplug a longer cable than a shorter one. As force is applied to the cable, it stretches, and then contracts. Thus the cable itself is "helping" to unplug the end from the socket.
If a force gauge were applied consistently to this question, I believe we would find that it takes more force to unplug a longer cable than a shorter one.
This is assuming a steady pull. If we're talking about a quick "yank" instead, then the stretch mentioned above might cause the longer cable to unplug with less force, due to the contraction of the cable after the yank. But some energy is going to be lost to friction, so even taking this into account the longer cable should still require more force to be unplugged.


electrical voltage drop

Question: I have a volt meter gadget plugged into the cigarette lighter socket. It used to read at 14.3 volts when the car is running. Suddenly it dropped to 11.2 volts without any accessories or lights on. I decided to disconnect the negative cable from the battery and the engine stopped running. Is it the alternator that's bad or just the carbon brush?
Comment: @SolarMike  The rectifier just moves the negative cycle of the AC into a positive cycle.  You end up with pulsed 'DC' waveform.  See for example - https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/power/single-phase-rectification.html  The battery acts like a capacitor to smooth out the pulses.  Because the alternator has 3 phases, the voltage doesn't go down to zero volts though.
Comment: @HandyHowie **This** is much more relevant especially further down as it shows the ripple https://www.electronics-tutorials.ws/power/three-phase-rectification.html  Have you measured the pulses from an alternator with an oscilloscope? If not, it is worth doing just so you know...
Comment: The brushes are usually very difficult to get to so it will be difficult to check the brushes unless you remove the alternator. Brushes generally last over 100,000 miles. Do you know how many miles your alternator has done?
Comment: Disconnecting the battery with the engine running can sometimes destroy the alternator. I used to like customers like that - a quick and easy job : fit new alternator... Don't believe the people who say "it is how to test an alternator", wrong although it is fine for a dynamo...
Comment: Disconnecting the battery with the engine running can also destroy the car electronics, since the battery smooths the rectified AC from the alternator.
Comment: @HandyHowie isn't that the function of the rectifier ie diode pack?
Comment: @HandyHowie and the frequency of the pulses?  ie the ripple?
Comment: @SolarMike  Depends on the speed of the engine.
Comment: @SolarMike and HandyHowie: this is an interesting discussion that has left the original question far behind. I'm sure that the [chatroom](https://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/340/the-pitstop) would enjoy it, though!
Answer: There could be a number of reasons for the failure -

Snapped belt.
Disconnected cables to the alternator
Broken fuseable link in the fusebox
Faulty rectifier in the alternator
Worn brushes in the alternator
Broken coil in the alternator
Faulty regulator in the alternator

After checking the cables and belt, you would need to dismantle the alternator to diagnose further.

electrical voltage drop


Would you store the Makefile for later uninstallation?

Question:
After installing a package/library from a Makefile, do you keep the Makefile, which contains uninstall target somewhere, for later uninstallation if any?

If yes: Do you store it at some "standard" directory, like /usr/local?
If no: How do you uninstall then?
Comment: You can use stow to manage each application stored in a separate location. It then sym-links them all into a common location.
Comment: You could, if it has a `make uninstall` target. Not all software does. If possible, use a binary package. Then uninstallation is not an issue. In generally keep all software sources in `/usr/local/src/pkgname`. I think it's a reasonable location.
Comment: @richard, that's exactly what I was going to recommend. You should make it an answer.
Answer: Like goldilocks, I keep the installation files around in a folder designated src -- in my case sometimes it's /usr/local/src, but often it's /opt/src.  I take it a step further -- I use 'script' to record a typescript all the way through the process, and I rename those typescript files to help me remember what they were for later.  I keep them in the same folder as the source.  Then, when I'm satisfied that the build and installation were good, I wrap the whole thing up into a compressed tarball and keep it basically forever under /opt/src.
I do this because invariably if something is useful enough to install from source and keep around for a year, I'm going to need to repeat the process again in order to get bugfixes and security updates from upstream.  When that time comes, I want to go back to one spot, unpack the original file, and quickly remember exactly what I did the last time, along with what the resulting output was.
You can even take this further -- remember, the goal should be to make it as easy as possible for you or the person who comes after you to reliably upgrade the software in the future, so every clue you can leave your future-self is good, and the less you do this the more likely you are to end up frustrated and burning time later.
Here are other suggestions for clues to leave your future self and ways to avoid problems:

Use 'script' to record installations and their output; then rename the resulting typescript files so that you don't accidentally overwrite them later.  Keep them in the build folder.
Collect before-and-after info and keep it in the build directory.  For example, you can do "ls -lR / >before.ls-lr; ...install software...; ls -lR / >after.ls-lr".  Most package management tools also have a verify option which will dump out all kinds of detail about your system -- having a before-and-after of this is helpful.  Sometimes it's also worth doing a full md5sum of all files or using a tool like tripwire or aide.
Be suspicious of the installer -- are you sure it doesn't change permissions to mode 777 on /var or do something similarly nefarious?  Comparing the before and after output of a recursive file listing with a tool like vimdiff can help you spot problems before you forget how to fix them.
If you need to leave yourself notes, put them in the build directory -- e.g. a file like "README.bob" would go a long way towards helping "Bob" with any little gotchas you detect the first time through that you might forget next time.

All this effort pays off once you start distributing the software to a bunch of systems, or in an environment where you really care about the system/data.
You can take things a step further and use any of hundreds of package managers to build a package that you can distribute to your own systems.  With a tool like FPM, that's easy.
Comment: +1 for the idea of using script.  It seems obvious now, but I never thought to do it myself.
Comment: thanks. I am learning fpm http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/143830/not-suceed-in-installing-a-self-built-package-using-fpm
Answer: I wouldn't store just the makefile. While the uninstall target may not (or perhap, should not) need anything else to succeed, that's not a guarantee.
So that means keeping a copy of the original package.  There's not much point, though, if there's a public archive of old versions and you aren't worried about it going away.  You can just download it again later anyway.  The only issue with this is that for autotooled stuff you need to run ./configure first, and if you use different options uninstall may miss something -- but that's not such a big worry, I think.  Occasionally I've kept notes about the particular configuration of something.
I keep independent source packages in /usr/local/src, but it as long as you can find it when you need it, it doesn't matter.
Comment: "I keep independent source packages in /usr/local/src", (1) are the files you keep there exactly all the files you download? (2)does `make install` often not copy the files to ` /usr/local/src`? and do you do the copy manually by `cp`?
Comment: Unless there's some special reason not to, I delete the build directory (I've added a line or two regarding autotools configured stuff in this regard), but I leave a copy of the tarball around. Many of the things I install from source I keep upgraded, so I'm concerned about stuff being cleanly *replaced*, which ideally starts with an uninstall of the old version.  Then I might still keep the old tarball (i.e., so two versions), but if it's something reasonably established (of which I know I can download a copy of any version at any point) I wouldn't bother.
Comment: *Does make not copy to /usr/local/src?* -> No, not that I've ever observed. *Do you do the copy manually by cp?* -> that or a file browser.


I can't play 60fps videos on youtube (720p/1080p) on chrome . They are laggy always stopping and shows the loading animation

Question: I can't play 60fps videos on youtube (720p/1080p) on chrome(or firefox) . They are laggy always stopping and shows the loading animation but my internet connection is fast ! My ultrabook is hp stream 13 and on windows 10 I can play them perfectly 100% an smooth while on Linux they can't be played at all , they lag , freeze etc . Is it a problem with Linux and intel graphics drivers ? I did everything I could do .
On chrome I have enabled video acceleration on chrome:flags installed the newest drivers etc from padoka ppa , tried a light destop environment without compositor tried everything but nothing worked, too shame on 2017 and problems like these haven't been fixed yet, I wonder if they would be solved some day in the distant future ..... very disappointed ! I'm using Linux from 1999-2000 and i have never imagined that 17 years later Linux would still have problems like these. Of course i'm not gonna install Linux on my ultrabook cause i don't appreciate an operating system that can't drive my hardware to the max performance that's the point of the operating system anyway to utilize the hardware to the max possible.
Comment: Do you want help, or do you want to complain?
Answer: Ubuntu is a light weight os. All linux distros are. And it really isn't supposed to be used for high end gaming. And also, watching at 60fps videos is great but why not try 30fps or lower.
Also your drivers might not have the right updates. Mabe try updating using windows device manager.
Ok, I'm not an expert so I'm just guessing what might be good because these are the things I did and Ubuntu works great. I'm sorry that you may be dissapinted in Ubuntu, but the fact that you say Ubuntu hasn't solved these problems doesn't really make sense to me. For me, I'm using a crappy laptop and Ubuntu runs extremely fast despite me dual booting it alongside windows 10. Personally I think ubuntu has changed and improved a lot to speed things up. Sorry if I offended you or anything and thanks :)
Comment: There much work to be done on graphics drivers.
Comment: The strange is that if I play it with smplayer (it has an extension for youtube) the videos are played smoothly ! So it has something to do with the  html5 player on chrome. Can I change this on chrome or chromium ? chromium is opensource


Modern SharePoint webpart trouble

Question: In Modern SharePoint there is no more HTML webpart.
Reason i am on the lookout for a HTML like webpart is:
i have tried inserting "Quickparts", "Button" "Hero", "Text" (with a table id edit mode), etc
None of theese can satisfy the need of my focus group.
They would like to have Buttons but they very much dislike all the options shown. Partly because of how much space a Button webpart takes up an partly because if i just insert a plain old Table they say it looks like its 1995.
So is there any way open for me where i can model a webpart, infuse it with buttons where it doesnt take all of my screen.
What I need is  3 columns x 4 rows table where i can cram my buttons and on top of my columns space enough to write the categories (That respesent the columns)
---------- EDIT  ------------
so i tred looking at that script editor but im a total beginner and have no idea what it takes to get that file and permission from GitHub that you suggesed Adam.
Instead i found this
I got pretty much to the end of the steps but when i tried doing the @htmlToInsert part with my code Powershell starter crapping out on me saying:
The term '<' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct and try again.
and
The ampersand (&) character is not allowed. The & operator is reserved for future use; wrap an ampersand in double quotation marks ("&") to pass it as part of a string.
+ CategoryInfo          : ParserError: (:) [], ParentContainsErrorRecordException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : UnexpectedToken
and stuff like that so i am completely stuck.
Only other way for me to continue is to somehow figure out if i can read from a HTML file that also contains some CSS and then pass it along in powershell as an argument using a variation of the following:
<code>Add-PnPClientSideText -Page home.aspx -Text $htmlToInject -Section 1 -Column 1 -Order 1
</code>
where i somehow can substitute $htmlToInject wih a html document path.
Anybody got any solutions now?
Comment: You can develop your own custom [SPfx webpart](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/spfx/web-parts/get-started/build-a-hello-world-web-part) which will fulfill all your requirements.
Answer: Maybe you could try to use react-script-editor. It would seem that you may use any kind of html with style and scripts in this webpart so you may create any kind of view that will meet your needs

Modern SharePoint webpart trouble


Can I install and use Windows on an external USB 3 drive in Boot Camp

Question: I'd like to try Windows 10 Technical Preview before it is released for purchase.
I am curious and have never used a windows based machine before.
Question: Is it possible to install and run Windows 10 Technical Preview under BootCamp
Comment: You can install Windows 10  in a Virtual Machine
Comment: Ok then I'm stuck using Parallels, Virtual Box or the other one, the name escapes me.
Comment: Is it possible to use any version of windows on an external with BootCamp then?
Answer: You can install windows via BootCamp on an external drive. However to install a newer version of windows that BootCamp doesn't support you need to first install a supported version then upgrade inside of windows to a newer version. My best suggestion though is to install via a virtual machine.
Comment: Thanks I'll first have to purchase a windows license key and install virtual box
Comment: Installing a supported version first may not be required. I say this from my own experience, I did a clean install of windows 8 upgrade on my Mid 2007 iMac. I then installed the windows 7 drivers provided by apple. Windows has had a history of being able to use drivers from previous versions to run the current version.
Yes, when I followed apple's instructions for installing the drivers, I did get a message saying windows 8 was not compatible with my iMac. I then had to open a command window as an administrator and type BootCamp\Drivers\Apple\BootCamp.msi. The drivers then installed perfectly.
Answer: I will offer the following link for to the drivers needed to install windows for your machine.
You will need to download the zip file found at Boot Camp Support Software 5.1.5621
Comment: The correct way to comment is to gain enough rep to leave comments. Leaving comments as answers on questions will result in those comments being deleted. This is not a discussion site. For more information on how Ask Different and the StackExchange Q&A format works please see our [FAQ](http://apple.stackexchange.com/faq).
Answer: So it can take a bit of work but it is possible, you don't need to use bootcamp.  I followed this guide and have had Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 running from a USB3 SSD in the past.  I am going to attempt to use this guide to install Windows 10 in the coming days.
Pasted directly from link below......
What you'll need
An external hard drive with a USB3 and/or Thunderbolt connector. This drive will be formatted so ensure you saved your files before going further. You can use either an SSD drive or a classic hard drive.
A Windows 7 or 8 install DVD or ISO (check whether to install 32 or 64 bits versions based on your Bootcamp drivers) and the corresponding Windows serial number.
One of the following:
Mac OS X with a Windows 7 or 8 Virtual Machine (use VMWare Fusion or Parallels Desktop for example. Note: VMWare Fusion seems to have some issues with Thunderbolt and USB3. Plug your drive to a USB2 enclosure or hub to work around this -it worked for me-, or use another VM software) → Read the important note below
A PC running Windows 7 or 8 → Read the important note below
Windows AIK (free) running on your Virtual Machine or on your PC, or just the imagex.exe file (the rest of the Windows AIK package is not needed)
Download imagex.exe
Download Windows AIK (this download and installation is not required if you have already downloaded imagex.exe)
Bootcamp drivers for your Mac. You can get these either by running bootcamp from your Mac (Applications > Utilities > Bootcamp) or, if like me you have a 3TB drive and can't run bootcamp at all, use the direct download links here.
A USB stick to store your bootcamp drivers
IMPORTANT: If your Mac has a 64 bits processor, your Windows Virtual Machine on OSX, your Windows installation on your PC and your Windows DVD/ISO must also be in 64 bits!
Step by Step guide
Step 1: Get the install.wim file
If you have a Windows ISO file:
Mount the ISO
If you're on OS X: double click on the ISO file
If you're on on Windows 7: Use a software like Virtual Clone Drive (free)
If you're on Windows 8: double click on the ISO file
Open the mounted drive, then go to the "sources" folder and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
If you have a Windows DVD: open the "sources" folder on the DVD and locate the "install.wim" file. Save this file to C:\wim\ on your Windows installation or virtual machine.
IMPORTANT: If instead of a "install.wim" file, you have "install.esd", you can not continue this step by step guide. And an ESD file can not be converted into a WIM file. So you must get a version of the Windows installation DVD/ISO that has an install.wim file.
Step 2: Clean, partition and format your external hard drive
On your Windows installation or virtual machine, plug in your external hard drive (can be plugged using USB2, USB3 or Thunderbolt at this stage)
Open the command prompt in administrator mode (cmd.exe). To run it in administrator mode, right click on cmd.exe > Run as admin.
Type the following and hit enter to open the disk partitioner utility:
diskpart
Type the following and hit enter to list your drives:
list disk
This will display a list of disks mounted on your computer or virtual machine. Make sure your drive is listed here before you continue.
Identify the disk ID of your external hard drive. Replace # by your real external disk ID in the command below:
select disk #
Clean all partitions by typing the following (warning: this will erase all data from your external drive!):
clean
Type the following to use MBR as partitioning format:
convert mbr
Create the boot partition by typing the following followed by the enter key:
create partition primary size=350
This will create a 350MB partition on your external drive
Format the partition in FAT32 by typing the following:
format fs=fat32 quick
Set this partition to active by typing:
active
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter B in our example. If B is already used on your PC, replace B by any other available letter:
assign letter=b
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.
Create the Windows installation partition using all the remaining space available on the external drive by typing the following:
create partition primary
Format the new partition in NTFS:
format fs=ntfs quick
Assign a letter to mount this partition. We will use letter O in our example. If O is already used on your PC, replace O by any other available letter:
assign letter=o
Windows will detect a new drive and probably display a pop-up. Ignore that.
Exit the disk partitioner utility by typing:
exit
Step 3: Deploy the Windows installation image
Still using the command prompt in admin mode (you didn't close it, did you? ;) ), locate the imagex.exe file mentioned in the "What you'll need" section and access its folder. In our example, we have put this file in C:\imagex\imagex.exe
Your Windows installation ISO has probably several installation options in it. So in order to identify the right one, type in the following:
imagex.exe /info C:\wim\install.wim
Now identify the INDEX number of the installation that you wish to deploy. You will use it in the next step.
Type the following and hit enter. Replace 1 with the INDEX you identified in the previous step. Also remember to replace o: with the letter you have chosen in the previous step:
imagex.exe /apply C:\wim\install.wim 1 o:
This will take some time. The Windows installation image is being deployed to your external drive
Once done, type the following to create the boot section (remember to replace o: and b: with the letters you've chosen in the previous step):
o:\windows\system32\bcdboot o:\windows /f ALL /s b:
If you get an error message saying that you can't run this program on your PC, then most probably you are running on a 32 bits installation of windows and you're trying to deploy a 64 bits install. This means you did not read the important notes in the beginning of this guide ;)
If you get an error message on the options that can be used with the BCDBOOT command, then it's because you're installing Windows 7, and the /f option is not supported. If that is the case, remove /f ALL from the command and retry.
Step 4: Boot from your external drive and install Windows
Plug in your external drive:
If you've done all the previous steps from a Windows PC, unplug your external drive from your PC and plug it to your Mac, either on a USB3 or a Thunderbolt port.
If you've done all the previous steps from your Mac using a Virtual Machine, ensure the external drive is plugged in to a USB3 or Thunderbolt port. Using USB2 should also work but you'll get very poor performance so I don't recommend doing that.
Reboot your Mac and once the bootup sound is over, immediately press the ALT (option) key and release it only when the boot drives selection screen appears. If you did not get the boot drives selection screen, reboot and try again. The timing to press the ALT (option) key is quite short. It must not be too early or too late.
On the boot selection screen, choose "Windows" using the arrow keys on your keyboard, then press enter.
The Windows installation starts. Follow the on-screen instructions as normal. The installation program will restart your computer one or 2 times. Don't forget to press ALT (option) right after the bootup sound, and boot on Windows again each time to continue the installation.
Step 5: Install bootcamp drivers
Once the Windows installation is complete, plug in the USB stick where you stored the bootcamp drivers (see "what you'll need" section), open it and right click on "setup.exe" and select "Run as admin". Follow the on-screen instructions.
If you have an error saying that you can't run this program on this PC, obviously you have installed a 32 bits version of Windows and the bootcamp drivers for your Mac are made for a 64 bits version. You have to restart the whole guide and make sure to get a 64 bits version of Windows this time!
Once the bootcamp drivers are all installed, reboot and press ALT (option) after the bootup sound to boot on Windows again. And Voilà, you have Windows installed on your USB3/Thunderbolt drive running on your Mac.
Now each time you want to boot on Windows, press and hold the ALT (option) key after the startup sound and select "Windows", then press Enter. You can now play your favortie PC games :)
http://bleeptobleep.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/mac-install-windows-7-or-8-on-external.html
Comment: Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](//meta.stackoverflow.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.


All SSO's got affected by changing Self Signed Certificate. What do I need to share with Vendors?

Question: Recently, I got an email from Salesforce, notifying that one of my self-signed certificates is going to expire soon. As a solution to this, I created a new self-signed certificate and replaced the references of old certificate with the new one in all the connected apps, installed packages. I had shared the new certificate with the vendors that are having SSO enabled for Salesforce. However, none of my SSO's are working as they were previously. How do I fix that? Have I missed something really important? Please help.
Comment: Better to connect with Salesforce support.
Comment: @itzmukeshy7 this is usually slow and long, unless it's something basic
Answer: okay, this is rather old post, I would share what I know so far.
In SSO, we have 2 certificates to select:
One: Identity Provider Certificate.
As name suggests, it is the certificate issued by your Identity provider, Salesforce is the service provider. This should not be touched and changed at all.
Azure for instance:
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/resources/videos/integrating-salesforce-with-azure-ad-how-to-enable-single-sign-on/
Second: Request Signing Certificate
Based on the doc, The certificate used to generate the signature on a SAML request to the
identity provider. This signing certificate is used when Salesforce is the
service provider for a service provider-initiated SAML login. You save the
signing certificate from the Certificate and Key Management Set up page.
If you haven't saved one, Salesforce uses the global proxy certificate. But
a signing certificate is preferred because it provides more control over
events, such as certificate expiration.
In other words, simply create new request signing certificate and replace the old one in your existing SSO should resolve the issue. There is nothing needs to be done from Identity provider end at all in terms of this scenario.
So why you SSO is not working? I would guess you asked Identity provider to create new SSO instance to salesforce so sth else is changed. If it is just SSO self signed certificate, no need for Identity provider to update anything at all.
Feel free to correct if wrong, thanks
Answer: The article from Salesforce for this is here: https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000182059&type=1
Make sure to install the new cert.


JtR with Excel 2013

Question: I need to recover a PW for an Excel 2013 workbook. I am using Kali. When I try to run the workbook or any individual tab through Office2John, I get "Invalid OLE file".  So I renamed to .zip, extracted files, and found the hash value and salt value in the XML.  I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get JtR to read this information so that I can recover the password.  Am I missing something simple?  Is there a specific format I need to create in the hash.txt file for JtR to read?  Any help is very much appreciated!
Answer: Yes, you have to convert the hash into a format that the password-cracking suite is expecting.
The best collection of such tools is from the John the Ripper project, and the one that is probably what you're looking for is office2john.
Comment: Downvoting without leaving a comment makes it hard to improve my answer. Unless there's context that's not included in the question, my answer above is indeed exactly how you would extract a JtR-ready hash.

JtR with Excel 2013


When to use Gaussian mixture model?

Question: I am new to using GMMs. I was not able to find any appropriate help online. Could anyone please provide me right resource on "How to decide if using GMM fits to my problem?" or in case of classification problems "How to decide if I have to use SVM classification or GMM classification?"
Comment: what is ur data set and what is your exact problem? It's used when data follows ( is a mixture of) more than 1 normal distribution. See another question -http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/236295/what-is-mixture-in-a-gaussian-mixture-model?rq=1
Comment: You can think of it as a form of clustering where you don't have labeled data & believe the latent groupings are perfectly multivariate normal.
Comment: @arpit-sisodia,
We are working on feasibility of a hardware keyboard setup which seem to have specific features and we are planning to model it using GMM. We dont know the underlying process clearly and hence we are trying to model using machine learning methods. So, we are not sure if there is actually a mixture of gaussians in the underlying process. Moreover, it is multi-dimensional and we cannot visualize  it to see if it is mixture of gaussians
Comment: @arpit-sisodia, Link you have provided suggests more of trial and error method to see if GMM fits to my data. Is there a conclusive way/Thumb rule to decide up on the models to use. Trial-and-error method of playing with more mixtures can fit my data. But is there a certain way of deciding up on? Like we need to have Linear separability of data for SVM classification
Answer: In my opinion, you can perform GMM when you know that the data points are mixtures of a gaussian distribution. Basically forming clusters with different mean and standard deviation. There's a nice diagram on scikit-learn website. L
GMM classification
An approach is to find the clusters using soft clustering methods and then see if they are gaussian. If they are then you can apply a GMM model which represents the whole dataset.
Comment: As per my experience you do need to find the pattern in data that its a Mixture model. A nice paper to read would be this: https://www.stat.cmu.edu/~cshalizi/uADA/12/lectures/ch20.pdf
Comment: often we don't know if data points are Mixture of Gaussians. So, this is more of play-around with Gaussian and MoG and see if it fits. But there are no directions/thumb rules to go about in using GMM right
Answer: GMMs are usually a good place to start if your goal is to either (1) cluster observations, (2) specify a generative model, or (3) estimate densities. In fact, for clustering, GMMs are a superset of k-means.

When to use Gaussian mixture model?


CentOS eth0 not starting

Question: Why would my new CentOS Virtual Machine not start the interface eth0 on startup?
I have to start it manually every time.
How can I fix this?
Answer: Make sure ONBOOT="yes" is in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.  If you're using NetworkManager, make sure that service starts on boot (chkconfig NetworkManager on), otherwise, if you're using the old network service, make sure it starts on boot (chkconfig network on).
Answer: Regarding CentOS6 not enabling the network interface by default: it (in the GUI installer, at least) does its very best to prevent the interface from being set up properly, but this can be defeated via a checkbox that's hidden a couple dialogs deep from the main flow.
On the screen where you enter the hostname, the "Configure Network" button at the bottom takes you to a "Network Connections" dialog. Select eth0, then the "Edit" button takes you to an "Editing System eth0" dialog, which has a "Connect automatically" checkbox. If you leave this box unchecked, you get ONBOOT="no" in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0; if you check it, you get ONBOOT="yes". I don't know if the checkbox affects any other configs, but I've yet to notice any different behavior. Why the box isn't checked by default, I can't begin to imagine.
Comment: *"it (in the GUI installer, at least) does its very best to prevent the interface from being set up properly"* I laugh because this is painfully true
Answer: I don't know if it could help but I just created the file /etc/sysconfig/network with
NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=myhostname.mydomain
NETWORKING_IPV6=yes

And it seems that now my scripts in /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-* seem to work.

CentOS eth0 not starting


Absolute magnitudes of stars

Question: Where to find comprehensive list of absolute magnitudes for stars of different spectral types?  I need published paper or web page with data and reference to the source.
Comment: Third entry on a google search: http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1935ApJ....81..187A/0000197.000.html
Comment: No, I need something like this http://www.uni.edu/morgans/astro/course/Notes/section2/spectraltemps.html but with reference to the source.
Comment: everything you need to know about different spectral types: http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Gray/frames.html but maybe thats a bit too much info?
Comment: Thanks! But this is more useful for me: http://www.astro.lu.se/~lennart/MVstars.html
Answer: VizieR is an online source for all sorts of astronomical data published in scientific papers. As you mentioned, The HIPPARCOS catalogue contains visual magnitude data.

Open the query page for the main HIPPARCOS catalogue
Select the fields you want (defaults are ok for you)
Hit submit to see the results
You can limit the number of results and format under Preferences on the left

This table gives you the measured visual magnitude, i.e. the Apparent Magnitude ($m_V$, V column). To convert that into Absolute Magnitude ($M_V$) you need to know the distance to the star. This can be calculated using the Parallax field (Plx column).
Here's the formula for you:
$$M_V = m_V + 5 * log_{10}( Plx / 100 )$$
You can easily dump the data into Excel or something, put a formula into an extra column and calculate the Absolute Magnitude.
Comment: You might also check out the Extended Hipparcos catalog ([XHIP](http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/Cat?V/137D)). The main.dat file contains luminosities, spectral types, and temperatures, and the photo.dat file contains absolute magnitudes in Johnson bands. References are at the top of the linked page.
Answer: I have found next list based on HIPPARCOS data:
http://www.astro.lu.se/~lennart/MVstars.html
Answer: For me, the best and most reliable source of absolute magnitudes and spectral types is the book Allen's astrophysical quantities.
Chapter 15, called Normal Stars, contains spectral types, absolute magnitudes, colors and effective temperatures for main sequence, giant and supergiant stars. The references are at the end of the chapter.
HTH,
Germán.
Comment: Sure! But this is old data (as I remember around 1970). I tried to find new.
Comment: 4th edition of the book is from 2000. If you know anything newer than that, please make me know :)
Comment: 4th edition of the book (2000) also uses old data. It's easy to check.
Comment: How do you check then?
Comment: Just read the book )
Comment: I _use_ that book for my scientific research :)

Absolute magnitudes of stars


Does a straight line in flat space become a geodesic in curved space when the space becomes curved?

Question:
Flexible foam has shortest path from Point-A to Point-B.  When the foam is not curved (space-time is not curved), the shortest path is Path-1 (straight line - before curving the foam). But if the foam is curved, the shortest path is Path-2. If I think of the foam as space - should the shortest path (or geodesic) remain Path-1?  Or is this analogy for space incorrect?   I think what I am trying to ask is that if in flat space, the shortest path is Path 1 (before the space is curved), if we add a large mass which causes the space around the mass to curve - as in the diagram, is the shortest path (geodesic) still Path 1?  That is... does the scale for the metric tensor change along the inner radius of the curvature so that when we calculate the distance along Path 1 vs Path 2, Path 1 remains the shortest distance (because the metric tensor along Path 1 is different than the metric tensor along Path 2)?
Comment: Path 2 is a geodesic.
Answer: A better analogy is the surface of the Earth. Actually it's not an analogy, it's exactly the same math. The shortest path (OR longest path, i.e. extremal paths) between any two points on the surface is along a great circle. Yes you can bore through the Earth and find a shorter path, but not without escaping the surface and into a larger dimensional space around it. This mechanism is how a wormhole would work in 3D or 4D space (if wormholes turn out to be possible).
Comment: So if the earth is deformed into a non spherical shape, do great circles remain geodesics?
Comment: @JohnR.   No.  See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodesics_on_an_ellipsoid
Comment: Thank you BowlOfRed!  Maybe this is a slightly different question?  Does a geodesic on a sphere remain a geodesic under some deformations of the sphere into a ellipsoid?
Answer: If you think that bending the foam changes the relative lengths of the two paths, then you are not thinking of the foam as space. If you were thinking of the foam as space, you would imagine a coordinate grid embedded in it; and when you bend the foam block, the grid would bend along with it.
As the grid bends, and as the two paths bend with it, the coordinates of the points along either path—foam-space coordinates—do not change. The foam-space lengths of the paths don't change. The foam-space shapes of the paths don't change. If path 1 was straight and path 2 was curved in foam-space before you bent the block, path 1 remains straight and path 2 remains curved.

Maybe more to the point: If the foam-space was flat before you bent the block, then it still is flat after you bend it. It doesn't matter that it no longer looks flat to your eyes. What matters in defining whether the space is curved or flat is the geometry as measured within the coordinate system.
In order to visualize a curved space, you have to visualize it as being "bent" in a higher dimension that is not contained within the space itself. E.g., as RC_23 said about the Earth. A 2D space defined by the surface of a sphere is curved in three dimensions. If you could visualize a curved 3D space (Hint: You can't) You would have to visualize it as being embedded in a higher-dimensional space—four or more dimensions.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manifold


How many Strongholds are there in Minecraft Xbox One?

Question: A previous question (How many Strongholds are spawned in an Minecraft XBox map?) states that there is only one Stronghold per map on the Xbox 360 edition. However the Xbox One edition supports much larger worlds; (5120×5120 as opposed to 864×864) does this mean there are more Strongholds on Xbox One Large maps, or is the limit still 1?
Answer: It is still one.  The Wiki states that for console versions there are only one:

There is a limit of 128 strongholds per world (1 per world in Console Edition).

Another forum confirms this (although the asker on that forum seems to not believe the person who answered despite their evidence).
Answer: I was looking for a new stronghold on the most recent Xbox One Edition update and I found 4 different strongholds. So the wiki is incorrect at the time. (I don't believe it's been updated in a while.) So yes, not for large maps but on infinite size there are multiple. I believe the same as in Java.
Comment: You say you don't believe its been updated in a while, but why would it be? The game has not been updated for like 2-3 years.


Set up vim, latex for AGU template

Question: On a Mac, I have been using vim-latex for a while and had set it up a while ago to output pdfs via the :ll command in vim (using pdflatex if I'm correct) and viewing the output via the :lv command (using skim which refreshes automatically on change). This was very convenient for me to work with. Important detail: all my external figures were pdf.
However hopefully I will soon publish some article(s) in an AGU journal, and started working with their template. They require eps format figures, which is not an issue in itself. But now obviously they do not render through the (probable) pdflatex compiling rule that I have been using so far.
I would like to keep the same workflow capability (view output right away by typing :lv or a single command, and have the output refresh on change) while working with the AGU template, and the required eps figures. Which means (I think) I need to either set the right compilation rule, or to switch to another way of working. The vim-latex documentation for setting those compiling rules is quite complicated in my opinion, so any advice would be most welcome!
Comment: We'd like to keep answers separate from questions, so you should write a separate answer instead of editing your answer into the question. Self-answers are perfectly admissible, and a well-written answer may earn you additional reputation.
Comment: I should also say, an alternative workflow could be to use [`epstopdf`](https://www.ctan.org/pkg/epstopdf-pkg) package and sticking with `pdflatex`
Answer: I solved my problem by adding this in my .vimrc so that the compiling rule is dvi -> ps -> pdf and I have no issues with eps figures now :
let g:Tex_DefaultTargetFormat = 'pdf'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_pdf = 'ps2pdf $*.ps'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_dvi = 'latex --interaction=nonstopmode $*'
let g:Tex_CompileRule_ps = 'dvips -Ppdf -o $*.ps $*.dvi'
let g:Tex_FormatDependency_pdf = 'dvi,ps,pdf'

Set up vim, latex for AGU template


Flat tagging in sharepoint

Question: By default sharepoint has an hierarchy when tags are used. Is there a way we can make it as a flat taxonomy.
Answer: SharePoint has by default a flat tagging system, if you mean in the sense of allowing user to add their own keyword to a document or a page. All of these keywords end up in the Managed Metadata Service Application's System > Keywords Term Set. All user added keyword will end up in that specific Term Set.

As for Organization controlled metadata such as organization tags, document type tags, project tags and everything else which is governed by Dedicated Super Users or Admins, they too can be in a flat non-hierarchical structure. It wouldn't be very useful since your mixing projects with organizations and processes in a very un-useful way. As an example, you may want to use organizational tags for support of navigation. But it can be done in a flat manner, if you wish.

Flat tagging in sharepoint


What is the story of the Tarakeshwar Temple in West Bengal?

Question: A man told me that the Shiva Linga of Tarakeshwar had grown automatically; what is the real story? And why is the Linga's name Taraknath?
Answer: The Tarakeshwar temple was built in 1729 AD. In the temple, there is a tank named Dudhpukur which is believed to fulfill the prayers of those who taking a dip in it.
As per local legends, this temple was built after knowing about it in a dream. This dream led the mendicant brother of Raja Vishnu Das to a Linga in the jungles near Tarakeshwar which is located in Hooghly, West Bengal. This temple was later built around a Swayambhu Linga, referred as Baba Taraknath in 1729 AD.
Nowadays, in the Shravan month, people go to Tarakeshwar by walking from Kolkata which is the capital of West Bengal and did abhishek of Baba Taraknath in Tarakeshwar.


Converting ARGB surface to NV12 surface

Question: I'm trying to use NVENC to encode some frames that I'm capturing from a game. I've hooked EndScene() and I can get the data from the backbuffer, which is in ARGB format.
Unfortunately, NVENC only supports NV12 buffers ("resources") as input. I checked the SDK demo source and I've found that they create their NV12 surfaces using the fourcc code like so:
<code>IDirectXVideoProcessorService * directx_services;
DXVA2CreateVideoService(d3ddev, IID_PPV_ARGS(&directx_services));
directx_services->CreateSurface(desc.Width, desc.Height, 0, (D3DFORMAT)MAKEFOURCC('N', 'V', '1', '2'), D3DPOOL_DEFAULT, 0, DXVA2_VideoProcessorRenderTarget, &NV12_surface[0], NULL);
</code>
This works. The problem now is that i need to convert my ARGB buffer into NV12. StretchRect() does not work, and CheckDeviceFormatConversion() returns D3DERR_NOTAVAILABLE, so it doesn't seem like this is possible using high-level API's.
One idea I had was to copy the backbuffer to a texture surface, and then use that texture as an input to a pixel shader when doing some dummy draw operation, and then inside the shader i can do some math to do the conversion from ARGB to NV12. But then i would have NV12 formatted data inside an ARGB render target again. Would i be able to "cast" that to a NV12 buffer, or just use it as an input to my encoder even though the format technically doesn't match, but the data does?
Any ideas?
Answer: The latest NVENC SDK  (7.1) allows ARGB input directly.
See here.

Converting ARGB surface to NV12 surface


What does "You shake my nerves" and "Shake off the nerves" mean?

Question: Yesterday,I was having conversation with my friend and i told him something about someone which was really surprising and he replied to me "You really shake my nerves" and i didn't get him but later i was trying to search online the meaning but i didn't find any pleasing answer instead i get more confused because i found some new phrase like "shake off the nerves" which i also don't know what it means? I also found some questions on internet where people have asked like "How to shake nerves before interview?" so i also want to know difference if there is any between "shake off the nerves" and "shake nerves".
Comment: It's not a natural saying in English that I've ever heard (in American English). Sure, when you are nervous, it is natural to say "I need to calm my nerves". It's also natural to say "I need to shake off this feeling", but really you just don't put those two together.
Comment: Jerry Lee Lewis had an issue with someone *shaking his nerves*. (Also, *rattling his brain*)
Answer: Saad, in my home dialect (Appalachian), if I found myself in an agitated emotional state, I would say that I need to "shake off my nerves" (that is, I need to calm my overwrought emotional state).  We have several related "shake" idioms specific to various emotions:  shake off this feeling, shake off my anger, shake off this depression, and so on.  We don't have an idiom comparable to "You shake my nerves", but I understand your friend's meaning in context:  He seems to have said that your surprising story put him in a bit of an emotional tizzy (that is, the story shook his nerves).


Transitive group action and meaning of "The usual action of $S_n$"

Question: I ran into an example of a transitive group action. It stated: For $n$ $\ge$ $1$, the usual action of $S_n$ on $\{1, 2, . . . , n\}$ is transitive since there is a permutation sending $1$ to any number.
$$\\$$ My questions are basic - firstly, what does "the usual action of $S_n$ on $\{1, 2, . . . , n\}$" mean? Secondly, I know the definition of transitive group action but I'm pretty sure I do not totally understand it. I would like to understand why the above example is an example of a transitive group action (rigorous explanation of what ties the definition of transitive action with this action).
$$\\$$ Thank you.
Comment: $S_n$ is by definition the group of permutations of $\{1,2,\dots,n\}$, so the usual action means each $\sigma\in S_n$ acts by $\sigma\cdot i=\sigma(i)$.
Comment: I know what $S_n$ is, Guess I forgot to mention it. And - OK got it (this answers my first question). Thanks.
Answer: Isomorphic groups can act differently on different sets. For instance the dihedral group of order 8 $D_8$ can act on eight points (a flat square box) giving as generators the elements $(1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)$ (a 90* rotation) and $(1,5)(2,6)(3,7)(4,8)$ (flippping the box inside out). It also has an action on a square with rotation $(1,2,3,4)$ and a front-back swap $(1,2)(3,4)$. The number of points do not even have to differ. The Klein Vierergruppe ($C_2 \times C_2$) has an action on four points with even permutations : $\{(), (1,2)(3,4), (1,3)(2,4), (1,4)(2,3)\}$ and another one containing odd permutations : $\{ (), (1,2), (3,4), (1,2)(3,4)\}$. While some groups can have transitive actions they also can have non transitive ones. The dihedral action on the square is transitive but its action on pairs of points is not, adjacent pairs are never mapped to opposite ones.
Comment: First off, thanks. Let's take the box inside out example. According to the definition of the transitive action, for every $x,y$ there exists a group element $g$ such that $g.x=y$. But if we take $x=1$, $y=6$ we don't have any $g \in G$ such that $g.x=y$. (What am I missing?)
Comment: Let  $r = (1,2,3,4)(5,6,7,8)$ and $s=(1,5)(2,6)(3,7)(4,8)$  then $rs=(1,6,3,8)(2,7,4,5)$ clearly maps $1$ to $6$, where is the problem?
Comment: OK just one more thing - Does this, by definition of orbit, mean $rn$ $\in$ $G.1$ (the orbit of $1$) and $|G.1|$ $=$ $8$? I'm literally crossing my fingers.
Comment: This is entirely correct. The action is transitive iff the group has only one orbit. But the size of the orbit is not necessarily equal to the size of the group, see the [orbit-stabilizer theorem](https://www.artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/Orbit-stabilizer_theorem).
Comment: YAS! Thank you very much. According to the site, the upvote will only be visible once I cross the 15 points line.


How to compare two unsupervised anomaly detection algorithms on the same data-set?

Question: I want to solve an anomaly detection problem on an unlabeled data-set. The only information about this problem is that the anomalies population is lower than 0.1%. It should be notice that the size of the feature vector for each sample is 40. Is there any clear way to compare the performance of unsupervised algorithms?
Comment: @mikalai It is exactly what I have asked
Answer: For unlabeled data-sets, unsupervised anomaly detectors can be compared either subjectively or objectively.

Subjective comparison: based on our domain-knowledge and by using some visualizations and statistics, we can compare two detectors and select the one that outputs better anomalies subjectively.

Here is a well-cited survey on unsupervised anomaly detectors that compares the algorithms on labeled data-sets (with known, domain-specific outliers) using AUC, and concludes that local detectors (such as LOF,
COF, INFLO and LoOP) are not good candidates for global anomaly detection:
2016 A Comparative Evaluation of Unsupervised Anomaly Detection Algorithms for Multivariate Data

Objective comparison: possible in theory, impossible in practice.

Requirements for objective comparison:

Anomaly definition: $x$ is an anomaly if $P(x)< t$ for some threshold $t$,
Anomaly detector requirement: $D$ is an anomaly detector if for every detected $x$, $P(x)< t$,
Comparing anomalies: $x_1$ is more anomalous than $x_2$ if $P(x_1)<P(x_2)$ or equivalently $r(x_1, x_2) = P(x_1) / P(x_2) < 1$,
Comparing anomaly detectors: proposal $x_1$ from detector $D_1$ is better than $x_2$ from $D_2$ if $r(x_1, x_2) < 1$,

As you can see, for qualification and comparison of two detectors we need to know the underlying $P(x)$ or at least $r(x_1, x_2)$. But if we know these quantities (which act as a  judge $J$) or at least a close enough estimation of them, we have a better anomaly detector $J$ and can throw $D_1$ and $D_2$ away! We plug any observation $x$ or pair of observations $x_1$ and $x_2$ into $J$ and check which one is an anomaly or which one is more anomalous, done! So it is impossible to compare two anomaly detectors objectively unless we have a better anomaly detector (judge). So we should use a subjective comparison.
Comment: Please check the question update. Each sample has about 40 features and subjective comparison is not very practical.


Publishing a book based on long journal article

Question: Recently my article has been accepted for future issue in a prestigious journal published by Jhon Wiley and sons. After accceptance of article I received an email from an other publisher based in Germany that they are interested to publish my work in a form of a chapter of a book. They also offer to get roylity money once the book start selling.  The copy right statement of the journal, where my article is going to appear, states that  the author can publish a pre-print version on public libraries and can self archive on own website. Moreover, it has a 12 months of emborgo period.In given circumstances can I publish my work as a chapter of book as well?
Comment: Why don't you ask Wiley?
Comment: Apart from the things mentioned in the answers: Is this sort of thing common in your field? In my field (math), this would almost certainly be just one more in a long line of almost-scams designed to make some money off other peoples academic work.
Comment: @TobiasKildetoft my intention is to increase readership of my work. The journal where article is going to appear has much more prestige compare to book publisher. Moreover it will stated in book that this work was published in xyz journal same way we do for the arXiv submission.
Comment: @aparente001 before asking wiley I wanted to if this is a usual case and what are the basic things I may need to settle with them.
Comment: I understand your intention. But if it is not common in your field to be contacted by a publisher (and not for example the author of the book) with requests like this, then one needs to be wary of the deal. This might be completely standard in your field, but at least in mine, it is not.
Answer: I am not a lawyer, but John Wiley owns the copyright of your current article, and if you just copy larger parts of it into the book chapter, the german publisher will need to obtain permission from John Wiley (that would already be the case for individual figures) and this can well involve transfer of money. That they allow you to publish a pre-print or put it on your personal website is a concession made to you as a person, but not to other (commercial) publishers.
To avoid any of that you would need to re-write (and ideally expand) the article significantly.
Answer: Apart from the legal concerns, publishing the same article twice (even when rewritten) is also obviously considered bad academic practice and self plagiarism, unless the book is conceived as a collection of works published elsewhere. In the latter case however the publisher of the book may legally obtain republication rights from the publisher of the journal. Many publishers have a policy which allows issuing republication rights to third parties for a certain fee.
Comment: It's not self-plagirsm the work will be cited as it is originally published in xyz journal same way we do for the arXiv submission.
Comment: This is strongly discipline dependent. In the disciplines where books and book chapters have much weight on a researcher's cv, it's very uncommon to republish earlier published material as book chapters (in my field - archaeology - only very esteemed professors sometimes publish collections of earlier published articles as books late in their career). However this may be different in your field (in this case you'd better specify that in your original question).


stuck in maintenance mode - unable to log into admin panel

Question: While preforming a backup, I got hung up and had to refresh page (after an hour) "Put the site in maintenance mode" was checked. Now my admin log in is redirecting to the site itself. I deleted maintenance.flag through ftp but I'm still unable to log into my admin panel. I added some "allow IP code" to my index.php file but again, no go. Any other suggestions?
Answer: Look in your Magento root folder for a file called maintenance.flag and rename or delete it. You should then be out of maintenace mode
Comment: I did that first - it must not have worked because I still can't log into admin panel. Also, I added some "allow IP" code to index.php without success.
Comment: have you tried taking a fresh index.php file and lobbing in that? (rename/backup you current index.php file)
Comment: Yes, I have replaced the index.php with a fresh file - still locked out.
Answer: If you get redirected to the site, but not to the installer and you don't get a 503 maintenance mode page, then your admin URL has changed. Look in your local.xml.
If you get the 503 template and IP exceptions don't help, check for an alternate maintenance mode extension (BalkeTechnologies StoreMaintenance is one I frequently see). Another possibility is that there's a reverse proxy in the chain and it's hard-caching error messages. In that case request the admin with a query string, triggering a refresh (normally).
Finally, Redis_Session module also throws a 503 if it can't connect to Redis.
Answer: Deleted the maintenance.flag file and the site is back to normal.


Anime/Cartoon where the protagonist finds a lost gem which awakens a red, gold and white lion

Question: I watched this anime/cartoon show on Nickelodeon Sonic, Disney XD or Jetix. There's this boy in some faraway land who discovers a lost gem and awakens a big, ancient beast, which looks like a red, gold and white colored lion. Further, the boy encounters several other such beasts whom he duels with his lion, using a variety of different colored gems.
Comment: Possibly a dupe of https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/221348/anime-tv-show-with-gems-that-summon-beasts
Answer: It might be Zinba, a Vietnamese show.

The juvenile Kan from the earth is summoned to the Kingdom of Toria , where he encounters attack from the giant creature Zinba, and he's rescued by the linker Shibuki and Uranus. Later, he accidentally gets on the linker squad DUX truck to the maze valley, finding in a cave a golden Zinba.
Comment: Hi, welcome to the site. You could improve this answer by [edit]ing it to explain why you think this might be the correct show, i.e. the ways in which it matches the one described in the question. It'd help the rest of us to decide how likely this answer is to be correct, and whether we should therefore upvote it or not.


How to completely, dynamically disable IPv4 stack from Linux?

Question: How can I disable IPv4 stack from Linux ? I want to do that dynamically, i.e. sometimes I want it enabled and sometimes I want only IPv6 stack. Is there any portable way to do that ? If you know how to do that in any distribution, it will also help me a lot.
Comment: @kasperd Nothing has changed since 2011.
Answer: Well after a little chat on the IRC the general opinion is that the linux kernel shares some code between ipv4 and ipv6, and that may make completely disabling ipv4 entirely impossible. You can try to compile the kernel without the ipv4 parts but ipv6 may not compile in this case (but nothing keeps you from trying!).
You can remove the ipv4 addresses from interfaces, AFAIK, but I don't think it's possible at this time to completely disable ipv4.
EDIT: After a quick check on make menuconfig on kernel 2.6.36 I could not find a way of disabling ipv4 without disabling the entire TCP/IP stack (and so, ipv6).
Answer: If this is for developers, then "library interposition" could be used, with LD_PRELOAD some doctored library with stub functions that simply return errors (or that call the real ones depending on the day of the week or some other external criterion).
Answer: I don't think it is possible to disable IPv4 completely, but depending on your goal, dropping all IPv4 traffic using iptables might be enough, no?
Something like this should work. I haven't tested it on any machine, as I am accessing them through IPv4.
sudo iptables -I INPUT -j DROP
sudo iptables -O OUTPUT -j DROP

Comment: This will block traffic, which may sometimes be useful. but it will not stop programs from binding an IPv4 socket. This is necessary to completely disable IPv4.
Comment: What I did on a machine where I needed to run IPv6-only was to disable the DHCP client in `/etc/network/interfaces.d`. It's not quite the same as disabling IPv4 since `systemd-resolved` is still listening on `127.0.0.53:53`. But it was sufficient to address my immediate needs and much preferred to messing with `iptables`.
Answer: Mostly you should recompile yours kernel without ipv4 modules. fedora
You can't disable it completely because the system uses 127.0.0.1 loopback interface.
But you can disable some ipv4 functions with if-cfg command.
Comment: You can even remove 127.0.0.1 from the loopback interface and only live with ::1. But you have to do that manually after every reboot.


Can't join any Minecraft servers (including realms)

Question: A friend of mine owns a minecraft realms server and I can't join.   It says:Minecraft authetication servers are down for maintenance".
But the weird thing is that some friends are on the server ,playing.
Is that normal? Do I have to wait out?
Comment: You should bookmark http://xpaw.ru/mcstatus/ for starters, and second none of us are Mojang engineers. Sometimes the minecraft architecture does strange things that defies logic :)
Comment: If a player is already in a game when the servers go down, then they can stay in, essentially is what's happening here. The authentication servers going down doesn't kick anybody off servers
Answer: As the comments say there are several possibilities:

You were already in, then crashed: You will need to wait for the server to kick you out, because to the server you are still logged into the server and the same player can't be logged in more then once.
There is a whitelist on the server: Your friend will need to add you to the whitelist file. For your friend to add you, he need to go to the options of his Realms, then go to the options for whitelisting people and add your username.
You have an issue with your port configuration: Try connecting to another server/Realm. If you cannot connect to any other servers, then you have an issue connecting into multiplayer. See the official forum and if you find nothing contact Mojang support, they will help you as it is a technical issue.

Note: Minecraft Realms needs an official version of Minecraft, not a pirated one.


Hard drive free space discrepency between System Profiler and Finder

Question: System Profiler says the amount of space used on my hard drive is different than what Finder Get Info says. Why are they not the same?
Comment: How big of a difference are you looking and what version OS do you have? There is a different explanation from 10.5 and earlier and 10.6 and later.
Answer: If you have Time Machine Local Snapshots enabled (and I'm fairly sure it's enabled by default), then it's going to use some of your free space for creating these local snapshots. However, Finder doesn't take the space used by this feature into account, pretending it is actually free, because if the user starts filling up the disk, then the local snapshots get deleted -- it will only use `idle' free space, so to speak. See this other question for more details.
So, don't worry, if you actually need the extra space reported by Finder, then it will be made available to you when the need arises.


New induction CB tripping

Question: Just moved into a house that has Hager CB's all labelled. Brilliant. The one that is currently causing me problems is the one for what is labelled 'gas hob' with 6A Hager circuit breaker. I fitted a Neff Induction hob rated at 4600w and works ok with 1 hob on. Try any more and it trips. Quite prepared to upgrade it to 20w CB, but how do I know what rating the wire is between the hob and CB?
Comment: Absolutely correct, that is why you think *before* changing the breaker.  Generally wires and breakers are matched pairs, if the breaker is 6A the wire is probably that little 1,0mm angel hair stuff Brits use on lighting circuits.  Just right for a *gas* hob.
Comment: Where are you on this planet? Also, can you turn off the breaker and get us photos of the wiring at the socket the hob plugs into?
Comment: Harper, thanks for the conformation. It's only roughly 15 feet to circuit board from the hob, but I'll get a sparks in to re-wire...ThreePhaseEel...can do without idiotic responses...
Comment: ThreePhasEel..afterthought..maybe you meant, where are you in the world..bit more apt. Anyway UK based..apologies if you weren't being sarcastic.
Answer: Given it's a hob, I'll guess UK or related, 240VAC countries. Doesn't really matter much, the answer holds for wherever you are.
Basically, a gas "hob" or cooktop or stove or range does not use much electrical power. So it will tend to have a small breaker and small, low capacity wiring. The heat comes from burning gas, not electricity.
Changing a gas hob to an electrical induction hob will require a complete refit from the breaker panel to the hob in order to have properly sized wire and breaker for the vastly larger electrical load, as you are now trying to make heat with electricity.
Comment: Many thanks, I'll get a 'sparks' friend to come and look at it Inthink...

New induction CB tripping


Get an error message "invalid file extension"

Question: I always get the error message: "Invalid file extension" when I'm trying to upload a PDF file? Does anyone know how to solve that problem?
Answer: When you create the field file, you need to definy the extention.
You have already created the field but you can always modify it.
Go on your content type, edit the field file adding pdf on "Allowed file extensions *"
You can add all the extensions you want. Separate extensions with a space or comma and do not include the leading dot.
Answer: In your content type definition, you must define file extensions. Have you added pdf extension?