Should I finish high school or teach myself?

Question: I want to become a game developer, I am an A student in 11th grade and feel like I am wasting my time in High School. I'm thinking of switching to homeschooling so that I have more time to focus on learning game development on my own while finishing high school at home. Some people I spoke to about this say its better to stay in school and go to college, some say I can get my diploma through homeschooling and this way I can get a head start on what I love to do, and get hands on experience. I am not sure what to do and was wondering if there are any experienced programmers out there that can give me advice on what route I should take??
Comment: This really seems like a "personal advice" sort of question.  How many people in the future are going to be searching for an Internet resource which will tell them whether or not dandami should finish high school?  Probably better asked in chat, or on a discussion forum.  There's no objective "expert knowledge" which can be archived for this question.
Comment: I was homeschooled up through (and including) high school. It worked very well for me; however, I would not recommend switching for your last year. It takes time and practice to do homeschooling well. There are lots of areas and ideologies in homeschooling and IMHO your last year of high school is not the place to experiment with it, it takes time to get it right and do it well. Especially if your main justification is you are wasting time in high school everyone feels that way! I also went to college for a computer science degree after high school.
Comment: [I think this is relevant](http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/778/should-i-stay-in-school).
Comment: Do both, you can create games and still graduate. In case game development doesn't work out, you'll have a backup plan
Comment: finish high school than master the world
Comment: What skills do you have in game development? Do you apps out, are you making money off your skills, or are you just starting off and have high hopes for game development. Programming is one thing, game development is another thing.
Comment: I want to go to college and I want to get my high school degree and do my SATs but just not within the school system. While you say that there is a lot of knowledge and people with the same interests, that is just not happening where I go to school. One thing I forgot to say is that I live in Sweden, however I wanna move to America and that's possible, since my mom lives there. The school I am going to is the best english IT school in Stockholm, so it's not just my school.
Comment: As a self taught game programmer with a college degree I REALLY wish I had done something related to computers while in university.
Comment: A computer science guy (Scott): "Interestingly, HR recruiters also responded to the thread and they told a different story. Many of them claimed that, contrary to the students' expectations, they were very interested in hiring someone who was aggressively self-educated. One from a large firm even offered to set me up with a job interview."
http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2012/12/05/interview-method/
Answer: You're in 11th grade. I'd advocate finishing high school and attending a college or university with a decent program related to the specialization you'd like to have in the games industry -- that means computer science if you want to be a programmer, for example.
I don't see a lot of advantages to being "homeschooled" for your last year-and-change of high school. Everybody feels like they are wasting their time in high school -- you'll probably have bouts of that exact same feeling in college (and you'll probably be just as wrong then as you are now).
Sure, you can devote more time to focusing on your immediate interests if you don't finish high school, but it might be harder to get into the best college you're otherwise capable of with only a GED, because those factors sometimes matter (regardless of whether or not they should matter). The danger is that by self-directing your education you are running, potentially, a much larger risk of misguiding your education. More so, I feel, should you choose to eschew college as well. You also narrow your focus, potentially prematurely, which might make you less desirable than others who are more generally educated.
I strongly and repeatedly advocate making games and practicing the craft you intend as a career to students, interns, and potential hires. You should do that regardless of the educational path you are on -- with that in mind, the fact that the strongest candidates for a job are usually those who practice game development to some extent as a hobby, the "head start" you get won't really be that terribly advantageous and it certainly won't count as applicable work experience to a potential employer.
If you feel that not finishing high school is the right thing for you to do for other reasons, then I encourage you to consider those. But my professional opinion is that it's not as advantageous for your future career as you might be assuming.
Comment: There is a lot to be said about accidentally misguiding your own education. Stick with high school and go to college if not anything except to learn from people who are not you or google search. There are certain things that you will not be exposed to if you self teach that are insanely necessary to developing games. A lot of the stuff will seem unnecessary (I almost got a minor in literature because the way my CS degree was structured), but there will be even more that you gain from the experience of those around you.
Comment: there is also a lot to be said about potentially leading yourself astray by focusing so much on one goal that you might overlook something you might actually want to do that you just haven't found yet. there are quite a few people who have discover a life ambition while in college that they never actually considered before that point.

homeschooling, and a GED have nothing directly related to one another.
Answer: First I will admit to some bias, I am a PhD student in computer science at a large research institution (Clemson University), so I'm all about getting some education :-)
Short answer, if you want to have a good chance of becoming a game developer (and by this I assume you mean working for a AAA company like Blizzard?), you need to finish strong in high school (take the AP computer science exam), go to college for a degree in computer science, and try to specialize in some aspect of the game development process (game engine design and architecture, resource management, tooling, particle systems and FX, physics engines, simulation etc).
The value of your education is not in learning the tricks of the trade or preparing for a specific career, its learning the underlying concepts and understanding how to make good decisions based on thoughtful analysis and critical thinking; your confusing two things your education and your career. Your education can never be taken from you, while you can always lose your job.
In a practical sense, being self taught will definitely hinder your development as a programmer, you wont have the resources available to your average college student such as computer labs, high powered clusters, an army of people with similar interests, and professors hired to help you, there is a wealth of information on the internet, but it never beats hearing it straight from the mouth of an expert.
Another angle of this is the amount of stuff you need to know to be an effective programmer. Modern game development is extremely technical no matter how you approach it, knowledge of advanced data structures, a keen understanding of the inner workings of   C++, and a strong grasp of linear algebra and physics is nearly universally required for a industry job. This is why the majority of entry level and lead software engineer jobs on Blizzard's jobs website require a bachelors degree. These concepts are hard to learn well unless you're forced to learn them.
In short, why get in the way of yourself? If you are making straight A's then you will definitely get in the college of your choice and probably get some merit scholarships. The game industry will still be here after taking the time to get a four year degree, and if you pursue attending a school with good connections to the game industry, then summer internships and job offers are a definite possibility. As a last good read, I would highly recommend this treatise on becoming an expert. It has some good insights into why computer science is not to be taken lightly.
Comment: … and it is why I upvoted it. You got your whole life for experience, not for schooling. Don't miss your chance.
Comment: What you're talking about is schooling, not education. And putting schooling above experience is why I downvoted this answer.
Comment: @Mr.Beast Are you in the industry?  Having participated in numerous interviews from both sides I can guarantee you that the lack of a degree _is_ both noted and held against applicants to any given position.  It's a handicap that can be overcome without too much difficulty, but it _has_ been considered a bad sign in virtually every interview process I've been a part of.
Comment: @snake5 I see where your coming from, but I was not just talking about *school* itself, I was talking about the opportunities attending  a university affords you such as meeting and interacting with people with similar interests, getting help directly from the experts, and having access to the most cutting edge technology. Yes, maybe your job will have this too, but going to university (especially for computer science) will allow you do explore without the possibility of getting fired.
Comment: @JosiahHester "cutting edge"? My home PC was quite cheap and also sufficient in providing a testing platform for my projects, which I made to learn things. So I wasn't talking about "experience" as in "job experience". Just doing things can get anyone quite far.
Comment: Just no, to be hired what you need experience, not schooling. Nobody in the game industry will prefer you because you have some kind of diploma or something. It all comes down on what kind of person you are and how much experience you have.
Comment: Yes I agree with you both, thats not my point as I've already stated, obviously it all comes down to how competent of a developer , a communicator, and a collaborator you are. But one of the best places to learn how to become all three (and get more of this vague thing called *experience*) is at a University, especially if you *already* have the grades which the asker does.
Answer: My advice:  Finish High School for sure, but don't waste your time on a CS degree.  It will get you very little that you'll need to get a job.  I say this having interviewed many CS grads who know little or nothing about what they need to know about:  Software development.
Instead, I'd spend my time writing the exact kind of code that you want to get paid to write.  Do that via:

Your own imagination and ideas
Read every book on game development you can find.
Study all the gaming code you can get your hands on.
Participate in an open source gaming project.
Any other way that you can develop a body of gaming code.

Once you have a body of code that you can show (much like a photographer's portfolio) then use that to apply for jobs.  Don't be afraid of the fact that you don't have a degree (even if they ask for one).  Let your code do the talking.  Ultimately, whether you can code or not is what potential employers want to see.  If they care that you've got a CS degree, then you probably don't want to work there.
"Stay in School" is all great and good -- do finish High School --  but CS degrees are way, way overblown.  Many famous developers don't have them.
ADDED:  If you want to see why CS degrees are dubious at best, read the part about "Take programming-intensive courses" in this article (http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CollegeAdvice.html) by the great Joel Spolsky.
Comment: I have to disagree about a CS degree being a waste. There are a number of concepts that are important and can only be taught and not discovered. That said, as a recruiter I look for experience outside of the classroom mostly. If a person has participated in major extracurricular programming projects or has a fairly active github account it is a major plus.
Comment: +1 - for how true this is. But you can still do all this while attending university. Summer internships!
Comment: I disagree that you can't teach yourself 100% of the value that a CS degree does give you.  I know this because I've done it.  ;-)  I have a degree in Classical Languages.
Answer: I agree with everyone else about not switching to home schooling in the last year, I only see it either doing noting at all or hurting your chances in the long run.
On the topic of going to collage, be aware that MANY "game schools" are scams to just rip people off for money. Think the tighten up the graphics on level 3 kind of guys.
The guys over at Extra-Credits did a very good presentation on Game Schools, showing you what to look for in a good school and what warning signs to look for in a bad school.
Answer: Should I finish high school or teach myself? - those two aren't mutually exclusive. I'm both finishing school and teaching myself.
And there's not much "game development knowledge" that is exclusive to game development. It's mostly just mathematics, computer science and physics, all of which you learn about in school.
I know it's a very unpopular opinion around people of our age, but school has actually been quite beneficial to me.
If you have to sacrifice anything in order to get more time for your own hobbies, there are much better candidates than education: sports, social life, TV (didn't watch it in years), procrastination...
The definitive answer is that you should definitely stay in school. It will give you knowledge that is not only applicable to game development, but other fields too, because you cannot predict your future.
Answer: Financial
When I went to college the surveys indicated that after four years the experience you gained working made you as valuable as a new college grad. After that the college grad got raises faster and surpassed the non graduate. This may not be true any longer but I suspect it still is.
Personal
You will meet a lot of great people at college. It's important to learn about, and from, them.
My recommendation
It worked out better for one guy (zuckerberg). It didn't work out better for the other 89,999,999 drop outs.
Answer: For sure finish High School. However, I'm going to differ on what everyone else says, because I'm a bit biased.
While a CS/equivalent degree can help you get your foot in the door at companies, it may or may not teach you a lot, depending on the college. I'm sure everyone learns a lot that goes to MIT.. but also pays >$10K a semester, if they can even get in.
I have to ask you a few things though.

Have you made any projects/games before to the point that you can call them "complete"? (and something beyond the basic hello-world)
Are you constantly learning about game development via the appropriate mediums(stackoverflow, forums, blogs, books etc)
Do you enjoy creating games, even if you don't get paid for it?
Do you feel comfortable teaching yourself and learning through the internet?

If you answered no to any of those questions, you're probably better off getting a degree because you're not experienced enough. However, if you answered yes to all of those, then a degree will only serve one purpose: getting your foot in the door.
That being said, I'm a (non game) programmer. I graduated high school, and took a few college courses, but never got a degree. I'm now 21(with almost no debt to my name!) and working in an entry level(ie, junior) position at a respectable, though small company. Here's how I did it and what you need to be doing:

Contribute to and create open source projects! This is the absolute best way to get real-life experience working in a team
Graduate high school. If you don't, many companies will see this and think "he has no discipline", because it takes quite a bit of discipline to finish. If you don't finish something tedious like high school, how will you deal with getting a game to complete when all the "fun" stuff is already done?
Create a project. It can be open source, or not. But, this project needs to be the most polished game you can possibly make. If it's an app-store game, publish it. This will be the key part of your resume to future employers. Because you have no degree, you have to really wow them to get them to consider you. They have to know, without a doubt, that you know what you are doing.
Create a nice resume and start applying for entry level or internship jobs! Make sure your resume points out that you are motivated enough to be self-taught, shows off all of your previous projects and contributions, etc.

Now, the hardest part about this path, is getting that first job, and leaving a good impression. Your first job probably won't be anything exciting, and you'll probably be underpaid and god knows what else. But, get the job! Make sure to be completely honest about what you lack though. If they're a Java shop and you know C# make sure to say something like "I've learned many languages and can pick them up easily. It'll take me a little while to get up to speed with Java, but I also know C# which is quite similar". The number one thing you don't want to do is get the first job and then they figure out that you don't know anything they expected of you.
After the first job, things are significantly easier. Most companies care much more for prior work experience than a college degree. Make sure to stick out your first job though for at least 2 years, maybe longer. When you feel comfortable, start sending out applications to other "better" entry level jobs. Basically, your first job will serve as your replacement for a degree. It'll be bad, but the next job will know that you have the know how and won't worry so much about lacking a degree.
This worked for me, and hopefully it works for you. Of course no guarantees, but I'm speaking from real-world experience. I got a programming job literally 2 months after graduating from High School. It wasn't the best job and it was practically slave wages, but 2 years later, here I am at a much better job, getting paid decently, and I wake up every morning and actually enjoy what I do. And many people have left this company to work at Microsoft and other big names.
In summary:

Make personal games
Get (any) game-dev related job
Profit!

Note: You may still want to take a few college courses depending on what you want to be doing(graphic designer, programmer, modeller, etc). For instance, having a thorough understanding of geometry can help you program 3D games. Also, if you're a bit of an introvert, you may want to take a public speaking class, just to pick up that skill. That's one of the classes I plan on taking sometime because I suck at public speaking, yet it's useful even for programmers.
Also, I began programming very young. In 7th grade, and got to a point that I could learn just about any new language and had a few "good" projects by my senior year. If you started later, this path may be more difficult.
Answer: That's good to hear that you are in grade 11 with an ambition to do great things.  I started out learning C programming in grade 11 as well.  I would highly suggest finishing off High School and during your spare time learn a programming language and start building console games and read up as much about the game industry as you can.  Of course, play a lot of games.
Jumping the gun to college or university doesn't actually help in my opinion, I have done that and I got burn.  Because the video game industry looks for people beyond academic background, they need people that are on top of things in the industry.  If you are aiming for giant game developers like Blizzard, Capcom or SquareEnix.  You need to know quite a few things and they expect you to know it well.  Simply having a degree would not get you in their door, but the combination of experience and academic credential can increases your chances significantly.
Of course, there is a lot more to consider than simply going to school and getting the job.  You have to factor into the educational cost, supplies and living expense while you are taking this road.  Lifestyle also plays a big part within the gaming business, because they are not your typical 9-5 jobs, if family comes first, then perhaps video gaming might not be the best suit.
Degrees are great, they reinforces your knowledge and make you more competent and what not.  They are great and make you more versatile and open for any type of programming job.  As your knowledge grows in development, you'll realize how much school doesn't teach you and those are the things that you needed the most.
My golden rules for the new age of student is to work first, get hands on experience, then go to school.  Because if you really don't like it, at least you haven't spend a dollar in it.  But if you do take the road to school first and graduate just to find that you hated your job.  Then you are in the world of pain.
Hope you find your answer!


Disable clipping in CALayer

Question: How do I disable clipping in a CALayer? I am overriding drawInContext, but I want to be able to draw lines that extend outside the bounds of the CALayer and I do not want to do a separate drawing pass on the parent layer to make this happen.
Answer: You can't draw using Quartz outside of the bounds of a CALayer or UIView.  As Noah suggests, you'll need to expand the bounds of the layer by a set amount in order to draw this.
You can still do this without having to do some drawing in the parent layer, as long as your parent layer's masksToBounds property is set to NO.  That way, even if your sublayer extends out past the edge of the parent, it will still be drawn properly.
Comment: Do you know what kind of performance hit this would have? (if any). I have between 100 and 200 layers, and this would add another 100 to 200 layers...
Comment: @JJC - This approach wouldn't add any layers, just require an expansion of the bounds of existing ones.  It is slower to draw over larger areas, but hopefully that would be a one-time operation.  Larger layers do use more memory, but it sounds like you'd just want to extend things out a little bit.
Comment: I see, and then I would just have to change my drawing code to draw in the center of the layer and then draw the line appropriately. I think this is probably the best solution, thanks!
Answer: Well, CALayer has a masksToBounds property (which, set to NO, disables the default clipping to the layer's boundaries) but I don't think it affects the drawing of the layer itself—just the clipping of its sublayers. If you can't expand the frame of the layer itself for some reason, you'll need to set that property on the layer, add a bigger sublayer that has the dimensions you want to draw within, and move your drawing code to that sublayer.

Disable clipping in CALayer


Non-existing Limit of $\sin x$

Question: How do I prove from definition of limit that $\lim_{x \to \infty}\sin x$ is non-existant? I tried to negate said definition:
$$\lnot ((\exists L)(\forall\epsilon)(\exists \delta):(\forall x)(|x|\gt \delta)\Rightarrow(|\sin x-L|\lt\epsilon)) = ((\forall L)(\exists\epsilon)(\forall \delta):(\exists x)(|x|\gt \delta)\land(|\sin x-L|\ge\epsilon))$$ , but I am not sure I negate it right, and I have little idea how to prove that statement.
Comment: by $sinx$ did you mean $\sin(x)$?
Comment: Yes, you have the right negation.
Comment: As you want it, the only way I can see (and I'm not sayin there could be some short cuts) is to do several cases...and it is going to be quite lengthy and boring. Of course, the easiest way is to show two sequences converging to infinity such that sine on each of them converges to something different.
Answer: Your formal negation seems fine, but it probably requires some verbal elaboration in order for the proof idea to come naturally.
Saying that such a limit exists means that there is some value $L$ such that by going suitably far along the real line, forces the values of $\sin(x)$ to become close to that $L$.  Intuitively, it is clear that $\sin(x)$ does not have a horizontal asymptote, and that its values perpetually bounce between $-1 $ and $1$.
I'm going to leave formalizing all that to you, but I will note that you can take advantage of periodicity to note that $\sin(2\pi k + \pi/2) = 1, \sin(2\pi k + 3\pi/2) = -1$ for all integers $k$, and that both sets $\{2\pi k + \pi/2\}, \{2\pi k + 3\pi/2\}$ are unbounded.
Answer: We know that there is a sequence of points $x_n \rightarrow \infty $ with $ \sin (x_n) = (-1)^n $, eg take $x_n = \frac{2n+1}{2}\pi $.  If $\exists L$ such that $\sin (x) \rightarrow L$ as $x \rightarrow \infty$ we need to have that $\forall \epsilon > 0 ~ ~ \exists R \in \mathbb{R}$ such that $x>R \Rightarrow |\sin(x) - L | < \epsilon $.
A necessary condition for this would be that $\forall \epsilon > 0 ~ \exists N \in \mathbb{N}$ with $ n>N \Rightarrow |\sin(x_n)-L|<\epsilon$.
Well, observe that taking $\epsilon < 1 $ we find that for all guesses of $L$ and all $ n \in \mathbb{N}$ at least one of $| \sin(x_n) - L|$ and $|\sin(x_{n+1})-L|$ is greater than $\epsilon$: but if $L$ were a limit this would have to not be the case for $n$ sufficiently large.  Thus no such $L$ can exist.
I hope this isn't too wordy.  Your negation of the statement is correct, $\delta$ is usually suggestive of a small number but that's a matter of taste and doesn't affect the correctness of what you've written.
Answer: $\lim_{x\to\infty}\sin x$, if exists, it would be $\lim_{n\to\infty}\sin x_n$ for any sequence $x_n$ tending to infinity.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limit_of_a_function look for Heine's definition)
A classical result is that $\{\sin n : n\in\mathbb{N}\}$ is dense in $[-1,1]$, hence for $x_n=n$ the limit doesn't exist, so $\lim_{x\to\infty}\sin x$ doesn't exist.

Non-existing Limit of $\sin x$


What do you call the end of a dock or pier that touches land?

Question: As in, "They stepped off the boat and ambled toward the ___ [of the dock]."
Comment: Docks usually have a *Gangway* to the shore. Piers are often connected to quays. "They stepped off the boat and ambled toward the quay."
Answer: shore end

They stepped off the boat and ambled toward the shore end of the dock.

Here's an example of it in literary use:

Rejoicing in Quork's continued good luck, his neighbors helped him unload his catch. There were trout, flounder, bluefish, and mullet. There were spot, croaker, redfish, and drum, but not a single trash fish in the lot. When they were loaded onto the shore end of the dock, they made a great pile. You could almost see the wheels turning in Quork's head as he tried to compute his profit on this one haul.

Source: "Old Quork" by Charles Harry Whedbee
And here's an example of it in technical use:

Conspicuous signage shall be located at the fire apparatus access road termination point and the shore end of piers, wharves and floats.

Alternatively, you could just say:

They stepped off the boat and ambled along the dock toward dry land.
Comment: Apologies for the late accept. I forgot I asked this!


USB Drive Size Lost After Formatting on OS X El Capitan

Question: This is strange. I formatted my 16 GB USB drive on OS X El Capitan with FAT file system and it worked fine. However, same drive on Windows 7 PC shows only 200 MB of size. Where the heck other drive size gone? I reformatted it with EXFAT this time and no problem of size on El Capitan but again it shows only 200 MB size available on PC. Tried to format it again with Windows this time but no help. Where all of my USB size  gone? I had no issues formatting and using it properly on Yosemite or Mavericks. Any suggestions??
Comment: You formatted the drive using a GUID partition scheme. Your probably should have used a MBR scheme.
Answer: By default, Macs format all drives with the GUID partition scheme (GPT).  A particular feature of GPT is the EFI system partition, which on a Mac defaults to 200 MB in size.  The EFI partition is also FAT32.
Windows supports GPT just fine, but it does not support multiple partitions on a USB flash drive.  Windows will only see the first partition, which is the 200MB EFI partition. It is the only operating system that has this limitation.
To reformat this drive, you will need to select the Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning scheme in Disk Utility in order for Windows to use it.  You must also ensure that you create only a single partition that spans the whole drive.
Comment: Resolved. I booted into my Yosemite disk and with its Disk Utility formatted the USB with FAT file system. The USB size is now 14.2 GB on Windows OS. Thanks for your Support.


How do people learn a totally foreign language that has not been studied at all?

Question: In modern times, there are countless ways of learning foreign languages, for example, through the Internet. But those languages are mostly well studied and understood, and a guideline on how to learn it has already been established. When I learn English, I work with dictionaries, textbooks, audio CD, etc. that are available everywhere.
I wonder how the Portuguese missionaries learned Japanese without knowing anything about it beforehand; they didn't know Japanese, and they didn't have such things as textbooks or dictionaries to learn Japanese with; if anything they would have been the first people to write such textbooks and dictionaries; how did they take in totally strange words, especially those abstract concepts such as "intelligence" or "virtues"?
In other words, how is an completely strange language is first learned and studied?
Answer: Here is a demonstration of a rather analytical approach to this learning about a completely foreign language when there is no common language to guide one.  It is by Dan Everett, a student of Kenneth Pike, who was a master of the technique.  Pike taught many students at the SIL, one of whose interests is translating the Bible into every language.
The introducer, Sally Thomason, has been editor of Language for a number of years.
Daniel Everett's monolingual demonstration
Answer: Second language acquisition is closely connected to first language acquistion, so let me go a little back.
Actually, acquiring a language without explicit instruction is the natrual way to learn a language. When kids aquire their first language, no one would hand them grammar books or a dictionary either - they just learn it by constantly being exposed to spoken natural language and active interaction with their environment, and still they do pretty well.
Although this seems such a normal thing to us, it is still amazing how well children do at this enormously complexe task (there are periods in childhood with rapid growth of vocabulary, sometimes several new words each day, as well comparatively fast acquisition of rather complex syntactic constructions, and only at a very late stage, usually not until they are 5 years old, they will begin to understand pragmatic issues such as irony).
Since the mere situation of being to exposed to rather unstructered and often even false input can not satisfactorily explain how children accomplish to learn languages that well without any explicit instruction (this is also called the "poverty of the stimulus argument"), one can, I think, see some point in Chomsky's proposal of a "universal grammar" that was supposed to be interior to every human and already include all of the linguistic structure, where the individual then only has to set certain parameters in order to fully acquire a language.
Then there were theories which stated more or less the exact opposite of Chomsky's assumption, mostly behaviourism, which essentialy claimed that there is no such thing as linguistic intuition at all, but that language is just behaviour and all human behaviour is acquired by simple imitation of what the environment (for children, most importantly the parents) do.
Recent theories of language acquisition usually don't accept neither of those view in their most radical interpretation and assume both that not all grammar is already in our heads and we simply have to find out how to use it in a specific language, but that there most be some more to learning a language, but at the same time not that using language is just mimicry of what other people do too; rather, most researches assume that humans are born with some intuitive understanding of natural language which makes it possible to acquire a language without being explicitly told the rules, but that it might, to some extend, help or even be crucial to also have some active knowledge of how a language works - it must be a bit of both.
Obviously, there are quite some differences between children acquiring a languages and adults learning a second langauge.
Amongst others, children will be introuced to language in a more step-by-step way, e.g. parents teaching them simple words rather than talking to them about politics, the latter of which is more likely to happen to adults who come to a foreign country without haveing learned the language beforehand.
Additionally, there are some biological conditions which promote the ability to acquire a language in early childhood way havilier than is possible in adulthood.
Also, humans will, and in this point children and adults are not very different, learn a language in an order that is relatively universal and to some extend even very predictable.
For example, they will both start out with simple words and phrases, mostly concrete (such as "ball", "table", "go", "hungry") or very frequent ones ("Hello", "stop it"), which they than use in one-, two-, three-word sentences, building up slightly complex syntactic constructions, expanding their knowledge (which is, at the beginning, highly erroneous) to more difficult grammatical structures, more fine-grained semantic differences and eventually pragmatic, often culturally influenced subtleties.
The most apparent reason for this is simplicity: It is easier to get the connection between "ball" and someone kicking a round object than it is to fully coping with the more advanced concepts of e.g. wh-movement or passive contructions, so the former will be learned at an earlier stage than the latter.
What adds to this are practical factors: Having expert knowledge in what a language can theoretically distinguish between by making subtle changes to a sentence won't get you very far if you don't know how to use those feature because you can not even deal with the most basic vocabularly or how to form simple declarative sentences. On the other hand, people will roughly understand you if you are at least able to from three-word sentences with a vocabulary of maybe 200-1000 words, even if those sentences lack perfect grammaticality or the most powerful lexical distinctions. And you will, after some time, certainly be able to pick out some buzzwords that are frequently used and important for everyday life ("I", "you", "go", "money", "toilet"), even if you might not understand yet why the word was inflected in that very way or what that preposition expresses excactly.
This is why it is possible for humans to learn how to speak a language even if it is in total a highly complex system of lexical items, grammatic rules and pragmatic usage conditions: because they start out with the most simple and essential features and continuously expand their knowledge to more sophisticated expressions.
Despite the enormous complexity of this task, acquiring a language just by being exposed to it IS possible, this is what children do all the time, and acutally learning a language by explicitly making oneself aware of grammatical rules or meanings of words is the unnatural way to do it.
There is even a recent tendency in second language teaching design towards making second language learning more inutitive, i.e. focussing less on instruction and more on intuitive learning by hearing and using the language as it naturally occurs in everyday life, some even approach to completely do away with any explicit learning and rely solely on intuitive acquisition, as some researches argue that this is even more effective than reading grammar books and studying vocabularly lists.
Fore the reasons mentioned above, this is by far not as simple for adults as it is for children, and personally I doubt I could learn a foreign language easilier by just being exposed to it; if you don't acquire it under the conditions you are in as a child learning their first language, it makes things way simpler to have some explicit knowledge about the language works, rather than having to find it out all by yourself with some vague intuition.
This doesn't prevent the general human ability though, and if you are being exposed to sufficient and qualitatively appropriate input while also being attentive to the structures it might be involved and the meanings that certain expressions might denote, then it is indeed possible to acquire a langueage (rather than actively learning it) just by hearing and using it, even if you have never known those constructions before; simply because the human brain is made to understand language without actively being aware of specific grammar rules or word-meaning relations - in fact, this is even the more normal way to do it.


Publish only iOS app with sdk 3.1?

Question: I want my app to just be able to let users post a message on Facebook. Seems like with the new requirement in sdk 3.1 that apps open a session first with read only permissions and then re-authorize for write permissions this becomes impossible or extremely ugly as it forces two app switches.
My scenario is I have a post-to-Facebook button in my app, I want the user to be able to post a message to Facebook. He is not logged in yet at this time.
If I use the new +openSessionWithPublishPermissions:... Method I get an sdk error stating apps are required to login with read only permissions.
If I use the +openSessionsWithReadPermissions:... I get an app switch to authorize, then I use the reauthoruzeSessionWithPublishPermissions I get another app switch. So pressing the button results in two app switches, which is the extremely ugly case.
This new restrictions on permissions would break a number of the apps in the Facebook sdk demo, which continue to work only because they use old deprecated methods.
I can achieve this using the new ios6 Facebook API with two short falls, it doesn't work for iOS 5 users and it only works if the user is logged in at the system level but doesn't allow the user to be logged in just to my app.
Answer: I guess in that case you'll need to use deprecated method openActiveSessionWithPermissions to disable the native Auth Dialog.
See Tip 5 at Facebook developer "howto"

Publish only iOS app with sdk 3.1?


wrong answers in comments section

Question: I notice sometimes that people add wrong answers in comments section. Is there any way to down vote them or commenting again with their name tagged is the only option.
Comment: @CoolGuy: "Don't flag those comments" Why on earth not? Proposed solutions don't belong in comments.
Comment: "_Is there any way to down vote them_" -- Nope. "_commenting again with their name tagged is the only option_" -- Yes. Correct them. Not all people are experts. All make mistakes. We learn through mistakes. Stack Overflow helps people to learn a lot. And **Don't flag those comments**.
Comment: Yes, we are somewhat obsessed on meta, as explained [here](http://stackoverflow.com/help/whats-meta). A best guess for the down votes is probably that users don't think there are wrong answers in comments and don't like comment down voting. That last bit is proposed earlier so *lack of research* could also be a reason.
Comment: @JoshCaswell IMO, if there is an answer posted with the contents of the comment, then the comment can be flagged for deletion, giving relevant details. Otherwise, I don't think the comments should be flagged for moderator attention (or any other option).
Comment: @JoshCaswell: I think rene's answer explains "why not" pretty well.
Comment: I am not sure why this discussion got 4 down votes in an hour. Can someone explain the reason behind this? Are people really obsessed by this discussion?
Comment: *"I notice sometimes that people add wrong answers in comments section"* that isn't possible, comments are comments, not answers.
Answer: I constantly add wrong answers as comments. That is by design.
I leave comments if the question is unclear. Due to its unclearness you are more prone to leave a comment that is at best a good guess. Based on assumptions other users leave different best guesses. In the end one comment deemed to be the right one. That comment should be promoted to an answer by inviting the poster of that comment to submit his answer. That comment is also the signpost for future visitors that the other suggestions in the comments are noise.
In an ideal world Stack Overflow wouldn't need comments (if I recall correctly in the early design stages it was considered to not have comments at all). Questions that are asked correctly in the first place don't need comments, they can be answered after reading.
Too many noisy comments are often a sign that the question is of poor quality. Using the existing moderation options like down voting, flagging, close voting on the question is more effective. Visitors see the close notice and/or down votes and wouldn't bother going over the comments while the comments help the OP in improving the post because they understand how much context they need to add to prevent readers go down the wrong route. If the post was improved, invalidating all comments you can use a custom flag and ask the moderator to remove all comments because they are now stale.
Answer: Many people leave wild guesses in comments, like "try this, it might just work" and many problems are solved that way. Mostly unless the Answer is immedeatly obvious to me I engage in discussion with the Asker in comments, which also includes suggestions as to potential Answers. If any of these suceed, I make them into an actual Answer, but not before. I think that is not that bad of a practice.

wrong answers in comments section


Bootstrap 3 only for mobile

Question: I have a site 1600px wide and I want to make that fit nicely on mobile only. How can I do with Bootstrap 3. I tried to use col-sm-*. but also effects on larges screens because existing site is not coded as per Bootstrap grid. Is there any way I can use Bootstrap without effecting large screen?
Answer: If you're looking to make the elements be 33.3% only on small devices and lower:
This is backwards from what Bootstrap is designed for, but you can do this:

.col-xs-4 .col-md-12

.col-xs-4 .col-md-12

.col-xs-4 .col-md-12

This will make each element 33.3% wide on small and extra small devices but 100% wide on medium and larger devices.
JSFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/jdwire/sggt8/embedded/result/
If you're only looking to hide elements for smaller devices:
I think you're looking for the visible-xs and/or visible-sm classes. These will let you make certain elements only visible to small screen devices.
For example, if you want a element to only be visible to small and extra-small devices, do this:

You're using a fairly small device.

To show it only for larger screens, use this:

You're probably not using a phone.

See http://getbootstrap.com/css/#responsive-utilities-classes for more information.
Comment: @Monkviper Bootstrap isn't designed to work like that. The `col-sm-4` class is designed to make it 33.3% only at small and above, not small and below.
Comment: no Joshua. I am not looking for these kind of classes. Let me give me a example: Like I have 3 divs in the markup with sm class.    the with of each div would be 33.3 as per BS on small screen. but on the larger screen i do not want these 33.3 width. means col-sm-4 should work onl for small screes not large screens like above 678.
Comment: you can include all of the classes that apply if you want it to be 33% at small size you do col-sm-4, but if you want it to be say 66% at medium size you would do col-md-8. In the same class like so: class="col-sm-4 col-md-8"
Answer: I found a solution wich is to do:
 your code without col
 your code with col

It's not very optimized but it works. Did you find something better? It really miss a class like col-sm-0 to apply colons just to the xs size...
Answer: You can create a jQuery function to unload Bootstrap CSS files at the size of 768px, and load it back when resized to lower width. This way you can design a mobile website without touching the desktop version, by using col-xs-* only
function resize() {
if ($(window).width() > 767) {
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap.min.css"]').prop('disabled', true);
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap-theme.min.css"]').prop('disabled', true);
}
else {
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap.min.css"]').prop('disabled', false);
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap-theme.min.css"]').prop('disabled', false);
}
}

and
$(document).ready(function() {
$(window).resize(resize);
resize();

if ($(window).width() > 767) {
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap.min.css"]').prop('disabled', true);
$('link[rel=stylesheet][href~="bootstrap-theme.min.css"]').prop('disabled', true);
}
});

Comment: This is very complicated and unusual way. You can use a simple mediaquery (https://mediaqueri.es) to do the job to you ;)

Bootstrap 3 only for mobile


jboss wildcard cert import

Question: I have a wildcard Cert from godaddy that is installed in our network on  a 2008 R2 server running IIS. I have several windows servers now using this wildcard cert and importing into IIS was very straight forward.
My Issue is that I now have a windows 2008 R2 server running JBoss as its webserver and i need to import this wildcard cert into this webserver. I am unclear which steps to take next.
Can someone provide help in importing my wildcard cert into my  5.X JBoss server
Answer: Well, for one thing, the biggest difference is that JBoss reads the cert from a JKS keystore.  So, for your first step you probably need to import your certs into a JKS keystore.  See the JBOSS server.xml and there is a config section for the keystore in the SSL connector.
Now that I think about it, you'll need to import the signed cert into the very same keystore (forming a chain) that you used to generate a CSR from when you initially bought your certificate.
There might be another way to do it but that is my experience.
Comment: No.  The command "keytool genkey" is for initially creating the pub and priv key within a keystore.  From that you generate a .CSR that you use to buy your certs.  Then, when you get the signed reply, you import it into the JKS keystore on top of the private key and it creates a chain.  Then, jboss can read that chain from the keystore if you tell jboss the keystore password.  Thats it.
Comment: So I assume I use the "keytool genkey" command?  I am unsure of the values  or exactly what I am combining. Do I run the command once and point to the .crt and then again and point to the .pfx file building a .keystore file. And then run the import command and point to the .keystore?  Thank you for your help.
Answer: If you have an existing wildcard cert (the csr was generated from another host) you will need to download or generate the wildcard cert in pfx format.  From here you need to change your server.xml connector node to keystoreType="PKCS12" and point keystoreFile="myCert.pfx" you will also need your keystorePass="mypassword"  with that updated restart jBoss and it should be working.
Comment: I spent hours on the phone with the software vendor that couldnt seem to hear me when i said "its a wildacrd cert thus there is no CSR from this server as I am not requesting the cert I already own it and want to use it on multiple Servers thats why I bought a WILDCARD cert.
Comment: Exactly what I needed! A whole lot easier than what I thought it would be.  Thanks for the knowledge.

jboss wildcard cert import


Which would be better to control a 1 hp, 6 A water pump motor? Time relay or magnetic contactor?

Question: Usually to control our water pump motor, we have to turn the switch on, wait for 15-20 minutes and then turn the switch off. Often times someone forgets to turn the motor off. I want the motor to turn on for 15 minutes and turn off automatically. I am comfortable programming with Arduino and first considered using a 5 V relay module to control the motor. After looking at the datasheet of my relay module, I found out that the 10 A 250 VAC rating of the relay is only for resistive loads. For inductive loads the rating drops to 6 A for the relay module I have. Which I am not comfortable with, but the problem is the starting current of motor which is around 7-8 times the rated current. So around 42-48 A of starting current, which could damage the relay module. I did some research and found out that the magnetic contactor can be used to control the motor. I could use an Arduino and the relay module to control the magnetic contactor which would control the motor. I also heard about time relays. Can time relays handle the starting current of the motor or should I use a magnetic contactor instead?
Comment: Do you have a datasheet for the relay?
Comment: I do have the datasheet of SRD-05VDC-SL-C relay module. But I don't know how to read a time relay datasheet to look for how much transient current it can handle.
Answer: It's standard practice to use a motor contactor, along with a thermal overload relay, to protect the motor.
The timer contact could be used to energise the contactor coil.
Answer:
Can time relays handle the starting current of the motor or should I
use a magnetic contactor instead?

You can use both. Use a timer relay to power the operating coil of the contactor. Check in the contactor datasheet that the coil operating current is compatible with your timer relay rating. Also check that the operating coil of the contactor is compatible with your supply voltage. (Operating coils can come with different voltage ratings so make sure you get one to suit your application.)
Answer: You can use a spring-wound timer to control the coil of a contactor. These are simple mechanical timers with no electronics inside, and are very reliable. They come in many different time scales from about 10 minutes to 12 hours. (Photo credit: Amazon.in)


How to trigger Facebook photo verification?

Question: I would like to trigger photo verification for my own account. It is said that Facebook gives you a bunch of photos to identify if you log in from an unknown or new location. I have already tried to use proxies, VPNs and Tor but despite the fact that I use my Facebook from only 2 locations/networks regularly I did not manage to trigger verification.
Comment: It may not have rolled out to you or your country. That's my best guess. Or they got too many complaints and killed the feature.
Answer: There is no way to trigger photo verification apart from actually use case where the scenario is necessary such as
2500 miles Montreal,Qc,Canada to Trinidad and Tobago,Caribbean
I was helping my sibling (in Trinidad and Tobago) with a problem on Facebook from Montreal,QC by logging into his account.
2300 miles approx Montreal,Qc,Canada to Portland,OR USA
Visited a friend and logged in via his computer.
So with these two cases I believe its based on time/distance between places. If I log in at place X but then log in to place Y only Z minutes after (first case) miles away (second case) then I receive the verification process. This only works on the initial log in. Any activity that follows seems to be okay for me.
These two cases happened in 2010. The algorithm may have changed since then.
Summary: If there was a way to trigger it manually then that just increases the number of false positives for this security feature


Javascript client fails to connect to SignalR end point

Question: Dear Programming Gurus,
I am working of signalr project using .NET CORE on the backend and ReactJS on the front end.
It works on my local machine, but when i tried them on development server somehow the font end
site giving me an issue. If you look at the first picture, we can see the signalr end point response perfectly via https on the web browser.

But when the front end script try to connect it gives connection error as shown below. It seems the client script instead of use https , it uses wss.

The client code is simple.

I just wondering what else need to be checked to ensure the client wss can find the endpoint and start working.
Any help will be appreciated.
Comment: Have you investigated any of the potential problems described in the error? The error was put there to give you a pointer to what the common problems are.
Answer: At last, i found the answer by my self. My gut feeling leads to the setup on windows server setup to enable the web socket protocol.
This is what i did to solve the issues:
(1) On my server , windows start, i typed Server Manager

(2) Then i select (2) Add Roles and features.

(3) A pop up window will appear, click next

(4) Click Next

(5) On "Select server roles", expand Web Server (IIS). Expand the next Web Server check box again, then expand Application Development. Now, make sure you check the check box for WebSocket Protocol. Then click next.

(6) Click Next and then click Install.


Script to Automatically Advance to the Next Page of a Paginated Post

Question: I have a custom post type that is just a paginated post and acts as a slideshow.  How can I make it so that the reader can choose an option to have the slideshow advance automatically to the next page after some preset interval (like 10 seconds)?
Comment: This is done with javascript so what slideshow are you using.
Comment: It's not a slideshow in the traditional sense.  It's just a paginated custom post type. So its just paging through the different pages of the post.  So the main permalink would be `http://mysite.com/post-title/` then the second page (or slide) would be `http://mysite.com/post-title/2/`
Comment: Hey @matt, just curious it my answer helped?
Answer: Hi @matt:
To achieve what you are asking you need to add some code to queue up a Javascript file and then the Javascript file itself.
You can put the code that follows in your theme's functions.php file. You'll note it uses is_admin() to avoid loading the Javascript code in your /wp-admin/ console; you should also add a criteria to avoid loaded it except on the pages where you need (however I wasn't sure how to limit it since your question didn't explain enough specifics to do so):
add_action('init','action_init_page_auto_advance');
function action_init_page_auto_advance() {
  if (!is_admin()) { // Make this if() limited to just the pages you need.
    $ss_url = get_stylesheet_directory_uri();
    wp_enqueue_script('jquery');
    wp_enqueue_script('page-auto-advance',
      "{$ss_url}/js/page-auto-advance.js",
      array("jquery")
    );
  }
}

The prior code loads a file called page-auto-advance.js that you'll place in a subdirectory of your theme named /js/ and here's that file. Note it assumes you have "next" links on your site in the format of ...:
jQuery(document).ready(function($){
  var href = $("a[rel='next']").attr("href");
  if (href!=undefined)
    setTimeout('window.location.href = jQuery("a[rel=\'next\']").attr("href");',5000);
});

The prior Javascript will advance the page every five seconds (5000 = 5 x 1000 milliseconds) if it finds a link with a rel="next" on the page.
One thing to be aware of is you might find that it advances when you don't want it to but with this code hopefully you'll have a starting point that will let you fine-tune it.
Comment: Sorry about that I got behind with the holidays and then this got put on hold.  I still haven't gotten it to work but your code looks good and should get me to where I need to be.
Comment: @matt - What's it not doing?


Permission denied (publickey) on Amazon EC2

Question: Here is my problem.

I created a new instance, use the same key pair of another instance.
SSH to the new instance, running ok.
I terminate the old instance.

And when I SSH to my new instance with the key, it got problem.
OpenSSH_5.6p1, OpenSSL 0.9.8r 8 Feb 2011
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh_config
debug1: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to ec2-176-34-8-64.ap-northeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com [184.108.40.206]         port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file foobar.pem type -1
debug1: identity file foobar.pem-cert type -1
debug1: Remote protocol version 2.0, remote software version OpenSSH_5.3
debug1: match: OpenSSH_5.3 pat OpenSSH*
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_5.6
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEXINIT received
debug1: kex: server->client aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: kex: client->server aes128-ctr hmac-md5 none
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REQUEST(1024<1024<8192) sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_GROUP
debug1: SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_INIT sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_KEX_DH_GEX_REPLY
debug1: Host 'ec2-176-34-8-64.ap-northeast-1.compute.amazonaws.com' is known and matches the RSA host key.
debug1: Found key in /Users/xudannie/.ssh/known_hosts:12
debug1: ssh_rsa_verify: signature correct
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS sent
debug1: expecting SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS
debug1: SSH2_MSG_NEWKEYS received
debug1: Roaming not allowed by server
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_REQUEST sent
debug1: SSH2_MSG_SERVICE_ACCEPT received
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Next authentication method: publickey
debug1: Offering RSA public key: /Users/xudannie/.ssh/id_rsa
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: Trying private key: foobar.pem
debug1: read PEM private key done: type RSA
debug1: Authentications that can continue: publickey
debug1: No more authentication methods to try.
Permission denied (publickey).

So I checked other answers, maybe I should create a new instance and mount this one to add public keys. Is this the only way to solve the problem?
Thanks for help.
Comment: Please note that instances are independent of each other. If you are implying that new instance got corrupted because you killed older one. It's probably a wrong direction to think of.
Comment: Thanks, I mean the way provided here[http://alestic.com/2011/02/ec2-fix-ebs-root](http://alestic.com/2011/02/ec2-fix-ebs-root). Maybe I create a new one and setup the environment will be more quickly.
Comment: Yeah, just fireup a new instance. Looks like you lost access to this one anyway.
Answer: Not sure if you got it sorted or not but permissions on your private key may give that error without any further specification. I´m aware that you in this specific case probably didn´t change the file permissions though.
However, if thats the case, just sudo chmod 600 ~/.ssh/your_private_key
Especially putty in windows enviroments seems to just deny access, linux usually tells you to change the permission.


How to remove neutral background in photoshop?

Question: I have found that so many photographers use a grey backdrop or grey background for most of their portait photographs. I assume that it's because grey is easy to remove and replace with any desired background during the post processing. If so , which is the easiest method to deal with removing the background of such kind of photographs ?
I tried the following
Made a selection with pentool , then made a mask to remove the background.
However it is a bit time consuming if I have to work on lots of similar images.
So can anyone help me with an easier method to remove the grey background ?
Thanks in advance
PS : I'm working on Photoshop CS6
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How would I remove all the white from this image? I just want the image to be the red parts](https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/36450/how-would-i-remove-all-the-white-from-this-image-i-just-want-the-image-to-be-th)
Comment: @Shayan if anything this question has a more complete solution, but the other one deals with a solid color background.
Answer: One of the most accurate, yet reasonably easy one is by using one of the (modified) RGB channels of the image as a mask:

Load your image (I'll be using one I found here) into PS, click on channels tab in color panel or if you don't see it, window > channels
Select the channel with most contrast - we ar going to use it as a mask, so focus on the edges (toggle their visibility to find one) and ctrl-click on it, which will make a selection of it quite precisely

Go back to layers tab (again window > layers if you don't see it), alt-click the make mask button at the very bottom of layer tab, which will automatically apply our selection as a mask to our image. But hold on! We're not finished yet, as its all a bit transparent, we're going to fix it. But first alt-click to our mask, so we could see just it.

Now keep in mind, that since it's a mask, the more white all areas are the more we'll see them (and other way round). So let's increase the contrast by selecting image > adjustments > curves (or ctrl+m) and play with them, until we get desired result.

Now since it also blacked-out some other areas inside what we want to see (part of her face for example), we can grab a brush tool and paint over them with white color. Analogically so for undesired white areas out of our focus (white something on the left edge for example). After a couple of seconds, I ended up with this:

Click back to the normal view (thumbnail on the left of mask thumbnail). We're quite finished - we also retained many details and even semi-transparency on her scarf:

Proof:

Feel free to play with it until satisfied.
Hope this helps.
All image credits go to Apsara-Stock
Comment: In my case, `Image > Adjustments > Curves` made borders noisy so I used `Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast...` instead.
Answer: What I do to remove a solid background is to go to Select>Color range. Here I pick the color of the background, make adjustments like adding new shades of the color from the background (in case background has different shades of the same color), or removing extra selections outside the background (in case there are objects of the same color as the background). After selecting the background (as in any case when I deal with a selection) I usually refine the edges(Select>Refine Edge). After you can delete/edit the background you have selected.
Answer:
Select pen tool from tool box
From pen tool bar (below menu bar), beside star icon, click on down arrow, and choose "Rubber band". It will make selection smooth.
Zoom the image. Select the area on image using pen tool.
Right click on selected area, choose "Make selection", change feather radius to 1, so that image will not look like cut.
Copy (Ctrl + c) and Paste (Ctrl + v). It will make a new layer.
Now hide original layer and create new layer give a color to it. Re-order croped layer to up side.

Here is video guide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL-BxFn1kaM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdDYvbx6SC0


Can you resolve Google Docs' comments by email?

Question: In Asana, you can complete a todo by sending a reply to an email about it with the email contents "complete". Can you do something similar to resolve a comment in a Google Doc?
Answer: There is no such option in the received email which would allow resolving comments on the spot, so the answer is no, you can't. All you can do is to Reply or Open the document and resolve it there:


Can an HVAC air filter be installed on the return?

Question: My HVAC air filters are of an odd size, hard to find and very expensive.  Can I stop using them altogether and substitute an adequate standard size filter on the return?
Sorry, I wasn't clear enough. My HVAC is in the garage and has an air filter located at its base, just before the fan. Can I remove said filter, stop using it altogether, and replace it with a larger, better filter at the 20" x 30" return grille located inside the house?
Comment: Many forced-air systems are designed with a *return air grill* that accommodates a filter; others have the filter housing incorporated into the air path elsewhere, often at the unit itself. Would you please edit your question to clarify your existing filter setup?
Comment: Pictures of your current filter installation and your return where you'd like to put the filter would be very helpful.  Where is your HVAC filter located now?  It seems unusual that it's not already at the furnace return, as that's the typical location for it.  If your return has more than one location, the filter is usually located at the furnace.
Comment: My filter has been on the return side of the furnace for the last 30 years. Are you talking about putting a filter at the return air inlet?
Answer: The air filter must be on the return side.  Aside from providing you with cleaner air, it also reduces dust buildup in the heat exchanger, evaporator, and whatever other air treatment gubbins you have.
Sometimes it is installed in the air handler cabinet just before or just inside the entry point, or just outside the blower housing.  That's a convenient place to put it but it's even better to put it in the frame of the return air grille.  Then it also keeps your return air ducts cleaner, and depending on the location it may be even more convenient for you to change the filters, and this can result in your doing that more faithfully, which will improve your air quality and the life of your system.
The only caveat is that if you have more than one return air grille, you must install filters on all of them, and you may need to replace the grille housings or improvise something to do that.    If you have more than 2 or 3 (eg in every bedroom) that isn't practical.  You will then not change the filters more faithfully, and when you do it will be expensive.
Answer: The point of the air filter is to protect the air handler. It's not to increase air quality, that's just a side effect. The way an air conditioner works (at least in the context of removing an air filter) is that it pushes/pulls air through narrow channels of metal fins. If dust is allowed to pass through, they become clogged and the AC will become ineffective.
To be clear, the narrow channels I'm referring to are on the air handler's coils which look like this:

The air has to go through those fins which can very easily accumulate dust. Keeping dust off of this is the reason you need an air filter on the intake side.
Comment: Thank you for your answers.  From what you tell me I can only draw the conclusion that the answer is NO because there isn't a single air return grille, but several.  At least one in each room, and installing a filter on each is highly impractical.  In conclusion, I am stuck with my odd sizes, hard to find, expensive filter...
Comment: @GabeGozzoli see my edit. The return air grills aren't the narrow channels I'm referring to. Those are quite wide channels by comparison.
Comment: Gotcha, and thank you.  Now I understand that keeping those fins clean is job 1.  I'm glad I got your input before doing something stupid.  Sometimes the best answer to a question is simply, NO.


How to make token for exchange such as bittrex? I'm interested only in technical side of this question

Question: Should I set a starting price for the token?
Is there a source code for the token for trading on the exchange?
Comment: There is a lot of tutorials and guides in the web, have you tried something?
Comment: @Зелёный yeah, a lot of guides, templates and others... but i can not understand some basics. so, on the offical website of the ethereum there are token templates, but they do not include the initial price of each token. I get a lot of source code of smart-contracts of the tokens on exchanges and they don't include the initial price too. There is no need for setting the initial price?
Answer:
Should I set a starting price for the token?

It's depends what are you trying to achive with your token.

There is no need for setting the initial price?

The initial price must be setted on contract creation.
Then with time it might adjusted while the token sale period.
Answer: You can use standard ERC20 code - https://github.com/OpenZeppelin/openzeppelin-solidity/blob/master/contracts/token/ERC20/ERC20.sol


How to stop unwanted harmonic in violin E-string

Question: I play the violin, and for some reason, especially when I go from the A-string to the E-string, the E string squeaks a really high-pitched note that sounds like a harmonic, even when I take all my fingers off the fingerboard. Is there any way to stop this from happening?
Comment: You mean, _instead_ of sounding the fundamental, it sound a harmonic? Or in addition? And what transition exactly do you mean – d on the A-string to open E, or any note on A-string to open E, or d to any note on E, or any note on A to any note on E? It would be clearest if you could add a recording.
Comment: Right, that could well be. It's hard to diagnose without having the violin at hand. You should try around with damping various spots, strings behind the bridge and other open strings, with tissue, tape or something and see if something can stop the squeak from happening.
Comment: It sounds like a really ugly high-pitched squeak, similar to the sound of an incorrectly-played harmonic. it isn't a real harmonic of course, because  then it wouldn't happen even if I have all my fingers off the strings.
Comment: It _can_ be a harmonic even without fingers. On my old cello I could get the D-string to break into the second or third harmonic just by playing _sul ponticello_ with low pressure and high bow speed. But I'm not convinced in your situation it's a harmonic at all you're talking about. Thus it would be good to _hear_ the sound you're talking about.
Comment: No I'm not sure it's a harmonic but it sounds kinda like one. adding to that, I can play really loudly and put a ton of pressure on my bow and it'll still make the squeak sound. when the squeaking sound occurs, there is literally no way for me to stop it except stop moving my bow. I can literally put my fingers on the E-string and play a part of Csardas and the squeak doesn't stop, and it doesn't even change pitch (which leads me to believe the sound is coming from the small section of string at the bottom of the scroll.)
Answer: Speaking as a fellow violinist, this is a common problem. It only happens on the open E string and it often comes when low bow pressure is used usually combined with a shallow angle between bow and string.
The standard solution is to play 4th finger on the A string, particularly for intermediates on up. If you are a beginner use it as an excuse to get practice using your 4th finger. In other words, try and work around it.
There are times, though, when the open E string can't be avoided. A double stop would be a very obvious example. In that case use a bit of extra bow pressure to snuff it out.
In general playing if you feel you need the sound of the E string for an open E then make sure you approach the stroke with a good bow angle and reasonable pressure.
Frustration often leads violinists to try different brands of E string to try and find one which doesn't do this. When violinists get together for a chat they will often compare notes about which strings they use and say things like "I use brand B for my G, D and A and brand C for the E".
I've never found a violinist who has found the secret of which brand of strings guarantees no whistle on the open E but feel free to join in the game. Meanwhile try a bit more bow pressure and a steeper bow angle.
Edit: Augustin Hadelich has a YouTube video talking about this problem and showing that even top soloists have this problem:

His diagnosis of the problem is that it can arise when the bow doesn't "catch" the string well enough.
Comment: thank you for your advice. I have been playing violin for over 6 years, and it seems like using the 4th finger would be quite tedious but it's worth stopping the ugly squeaking noise.
Comment: Classical violinist Augustin Hadelich has an interesting YouTube video on this very problem here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5tC27fDjw. Maybe I should edit it in to my answer.
Comment: Searching for "e string whistling" on YouTube returned some more videos, so I guess it's a well-known issue. Perhaps mentioning that "*This is known as 'whistling E string'*" at the beginning of the answer might help to summarize the issue?
Answer: Augustin Hadelich's video in Brian Towers' answer is useful. I would expand on it a little:

The most sure-fire way to eliminate this problem is to use an E string designed to eliminate whistling. I've used this "Kaplan Solutions" E (https://www.sharmusic.com/Strings/Violin-Strings/Kaplan-Violin-E-String---4-4-size---Medium-Gauge.axd) at various times of my life and whistled maybe a couple of times per year. The tradeoff is that other brands offer a more "brilliant," incisive E tone, especially desirable for a soloist to project above an orchestra. But if you're in a place where avoiding E whistles is more important than being a connoisseur of string tones, then it's a miracle cure.
If you have to use an E that whistles, there are still a few bow-hand tricks you can use. The important thing is to let the bow hair get a good "grip" on the string before setting it in motion. This is key to good articulation at any time, but especially important here.

If you're simply going from an A string note to an E string note, you can get a good articulation by engaging the fingers of the bow hand;

 does a good job of showing off the "squeeze/extend" motion that can give a cleanly articulated start to any up-bow or down-bow.
If you're playing a chord that has open E on top, your options are more limited. Try to roll across the strings in such a way that your transition from A to E is less gradual and more assertive; don't slowly "fade" your bow weight from A to E. Finally, there's less danger of whistling when your bow is slightly closer to the bridge, so you can intentionally angle your bow so that it doesn't form a 90-degree angle with the strings, but rather is farther from the bridge on G string and closer to it on E (

). Go easy on that one, since it's then harder to set the string in motion when you're closer to the bridge (and you definitely don't want to get close enough for a real ponticello sound). You can "drift" back into a normal placement after the E has been set in motion.


VGA monitor blinks with KVM

Question: Tried using several computers with a KVM switch that uses the 25th port on the VGA connection for USB (for the keyboard and mouse - StarTech.com SV1631DUSBUK). Manufacture says the cable they use to connect the PC is proprietary and it allows them to eliminate having an external USB cable. For PC's that only have HDMI I am using a HDMI to VGA converter. That works fine so long as the USB part of the cable is plugged in. Once thats plugged in the screen keeps refreshing. This happens both in BIOS and once Linux boots. On systems where there is HDMI and VGA ports it only happens when connecting via the HDMI port. When the USB cable gets plugged in the kernel throws EDID errors. It's strange since I would expect that from the HDMI and not when the USB cable is plugged in. Any ideas what I could possibly disable in BIOS or put in between the USB cable and PC to eliminate the issue or just get a new dumb KVM switch?
Comment: I think I would consider getting a _less_ dumb KVM switch.
Answer: If they are saying the cable is proprietary its a 15 pin cable and USB is the 4 pin plus shield so what I am guessing they have done like manufactures before them is hooked the USB onto cables note used by the KVM. For Examples the Vesa monitor ID bits are not needed. One of few things could be happening.

You converter has linked or grounded one of the unused pins that is still connected in the cable causing the refresh.
Pins are sharing a common ground which the converter does not like causing the refresh.
The manufacturer has been really slap dash and the unused pins are still connected in VGA end as well as the USB, although i would hope this is not the case.
The converter is picking up interference from the closely packed cables.

First thing I would do is get the multi meter and check all the pins, draw yourself a little pin out diagram.
Pin 9 used causes a few issues with high end AV gear it used to be a +5V to power the ID Chip for Display Data Channel information but is missing. It used to cause a spliter some issues so we ended up removing the pin everything that connected to it.
VGA Pinout
Comment: I was thinking the same but the common denominator is HDMI + USB. If I just have the HDMI connected it works fine. If #1 was the case I would have issues with VGA as well. #2 seems plausible. #4 thats possible again but why only when the USB is connected.
Comment: Ok so for #1. your Kvm doesn't care about monitor identification so say its using those pins, you HDMI converter might be using them or have them connected and thus causing your problem. #4 because the interference is coming from the USB using the unused cables in the 15pin cable, in my experience HDMI to VGA converters can be very flaky.

VGA monitor blinks with KVM


Salesforce, Unable to create new apex class in Enterprise

Question: My account type is Enterprise Edition, i want to create new apex class, but when i try to create new apex from developer console, it shows the error "Cannot create apex class in active organization".
I can login to 'developer.salesforce.com', but when i go to "My Developer Account", and try to create new apex class, still showing error.
Answer: You can't create or edit Apex or Visualforce in production organizations. You need to create your work in a sandbox and migrate it with a change set, or use an IDE like Eclipse, Illuminated Cloud, etc., to perform a deployment. Keep in mind that when deploying Apex, you will be required to include unit tests for your code to achieve the standard 75% code coverage metrics.
While you can write code in a Developer Edition, you will need an IDE or some other deployment tool to move it to Production, as Developer Editions cannot establish a change set deployment connection. Note that you login to a Developer Edition of Salesforce with your Developer Edition credentials at login.salesforce.com. That's not the same as a Developer Forum or Trailblazer Community account.
If you're not familiar with sandboxes or change sets, I would recommend completing the Change Management module on Trailhead.
Comment: @uzman, try searching "create sandbox salesforce".  You'll probably find this Salesforce doc:  [Create a Developer or Sandbox Org](https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_intro_get_dev_account.htm)
Comment: thanks for reply,
From where i can access sandbox ?


Trying to understand Kol Hanearim

Question: Where does the custom of Kol Hanearim, were all children stand near the person getting an aliah and are covered with a tallis-canopy, come from? What, if anything, is it a segulah for? Why is it done on shmini atzeret/simchas torah?
Comment: Nice question, +1 ......you have a lot of rep for an unregistered user! You may want to consider consider [registering](http://judaism.stackexchange.com/users/login) your account, which will [give you access](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/44557/why-should-i-register-my-account) to more of the site's features (including all your points, as well as [control over your questions](http://meta.stackexchange.com/a/44562/266359), so you won't be able to edit them, nor accept answers for them) ....just a suggestion.
Answer: During Simchas Torah we have the minhag of giving everybody an aliyah. Most shuls will call up boys under bar mitzvah who are old enough to know what thay are doing/ The final aliyah is considered a zechus because the person says the bracha with all of the children around him to show that they too are included in the mitzvah.
By this, I mean that he is introducing the children to the Torah and impressing them with importance of the Torah. He is showing them that they are part of the kahal and that they too can be part of the inheritence of the Jewish people. That is also part of the reason that we repeat the bracha of Yaakov (Hamal'ach hagoel ... ) The person who brings them to the Torah and the bracha of Yaakov can be considered to have a segulah of meriting children and grandchildren just as Yaakov Avinu did (as shown in the quote below).
Another reason is that there are statements that someone who brings bracha on someone else can then receive that bracha. For example, someone who arranges shidduchim for others merits his (or her) own children finding shidduchim. Someone davening for refuah of someone else receives a refuah. Here bringing the children under the "chupah" of Torah merits his own children and grandchildren being brought under the "chupah" of Torah (and of course he has to have some for this to happen).
In Kol Hanearim under the Talis, he actually shows them that they are as dear to him as his own children.
Another point is that it is similar to the mitzvah of Hakhel in which the children who are too young to understand are brought as well. This last is a point that I thought of myself as I have not seen it mentioned. The similarity just struck me.
The following is an exerpt that illustrates this point. Follow the link for the whole article.
All the Children

One year, however, the auction for Kol Hanearim in my synagogue was
  unusually competitive. When finally over, I asked the man who fiercely
  bid the highest, why he vied for this honor.
Surprised by my question, he replied as if it were self-evident: "The
  one who supervises scores of little children crowded under the tallit,
  reciting the same blessing Jacob uttered over his grandchildren, is
  himself guaranteed Jewish grandchildren. Could I want less for
  myself?"
These words come to me again and again, whenever I contemplate the
  unique Torah portion, Vezot Haberakha, the only parasha not identified
  with a specific Shabbat. Rather, it is reserved for the joyous Simchat
  Torah holiday, with its unique Kol Hanearim ceremony, and as such
  deserves close analysis.
The Talmud, in Sukkah 42a, referring to Vezot Haberakha, provides a
  provocative comment: "Our rabbis taught: A minor who is able to speak,
  his father must teach him Torah.... What could be meant by Torah? Rav
  Hamnuna replied, the Scriptural verse [Deuteronomy 33:4], 'Moses
  commanded us a law, an inheritance of the congregation of Jacob.'"
Certainly these lessons are themes that the beautiful Kol Hanearim
  ceremony emphasizes. First, each child has a right to Torah, an
  inheritance that comes with birth.
Second, Kol Hanearim suggests that Torah requires effort. Neither
  children nor adults will acquire knowledge unless they work at
  studying Torah. If they put in the effort, they will be rewarded with
  the greatest gift: the Torah itself.
And, finally, we must appreciate that a Jewish life must include the
  community of fellow Jews. The little children are blessed as part of
  an entire group -- part of a future community -- because Torah can't
  be lived in isolation. Instead, our blessing emphasizes the need for
  everyone to be involved with the Jewish community, for only together
  do we comprise the congregation that both Vezot Haberakha and Simchat
  Torah celebrate.
Comment: Why is saying a bracha in the proximity of children a zechus?
Comment: Do you have any reason to suspect saying something someone else did is a Segulah for having similar amounts of progeny as they did? (Or some other reason for asserting that this is a _bona fide_ Segulah?)
Comment: @DoubleAA I expanded on the subject of the zechus as shown in the exerpt that I quoted. I hope that it explains what I meant.
Comment: @DoubleAA see the quote and I have seen other references which I do not have available. Also it is like giving a bracha to the children that they should grow up in the Torah.
Comment: Is "giving a bracha to the children that they should grow up in the Torah" a Segulah for having grandchildren? Whence do you know this?
Comment: @DoubleAA My comment was based on having learned that someone who acts to cause a bracha on someone else (such as setting up shidduchim) will receive that bracha himself. One of the cases that I saw was a someone who had been having trouble finding a shidduch for her daughter. When she got involved in finding shidduchim for others, her daughter became engaged. Other cases involved having children, and so forth. This concept forms the basis of many stories of this type such as are written by Pesach Krohn.
Comment: The תורה צוה לנו משה connection would be stronger if we used rishon, or a later iteration of rishon, for kol hanearim.  I've only seen that done once, and it was because we were getting too close to the naar's naptime.

Trying to understand Kol Hanearim


The continous of a function in the Sobolev class

Question: Let $f\in S$ with $S= \left\{ {f:\mathbb{R} \to \left[ {0, + \infty } \right):\int_{ - \infty }^{+\infty}  {{{\left| {\hat f\left( t \right)} \right|}^2}{{\left( {1 + {{\left| t \right|}^2}} \right)}^s}dt \leqslant C} } \right\}$, where $a>\frac{1}{2}$, $C>0$, and $\hat f$ is the Fourier transform of $f$ as usual. In a paper which I have read, the authors said that any function $f\in S$ is bounded continuous on $\mathbb{R}$. I am trying to prove this statement. I see that the boundness of $f$ from the class $S$ can be deduced from the fact that
$$\left| {f\left( x \right)} \right| = \left| {\frac{1}{{2\pi }}\int_{ - \infty }^\infty  {{e^{itx}}\hat f\left( t \right)dt} } \right| \leqslant \int_{ - \infty }^\infty  {\left| {\hat f\left( t \right)} \right|dt}  = {\left\| {\hat f} \right\|_{{L^1}\left( \mathbb{R} \right)}}\leqslant const.$$
However, the equality ${f\left( x \right) = \frac{1}{{2\pi }}\int_{ - \infty }^\infty  {{e^{itx}}\hat f\left( t \right)dt} }$ is just hold if $x$ is a continuity point of $f$. Therefore, I focused on proving the continuity of $f$ when $f\in S$.
So far I have not found a proof for the statement. My question: How to prove $f$ is continous on $\mathbb{R}$ when $f\in S$? Can someone help me?
Comment: Look at [Sobolev spaces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobolev_space) and [Sobolev imbedding theorems](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sobolev_inequality).
Answer: By the way, you have a typo, but I know what you mean: You have an exponent $s$ on $(1+|s|^{2})$, but then you refer to $\alpha > 1/2$. I assume $\alpha=s$ was meant.
If $f=g$ a.e. on $\mathbb{R}$, then $f\in S$ iff $g \in S$, even though one may be unbounded and the other not. What they mean is that there is a continuous function $g$ such that $g=f$ a.e.. If that's not what they mean, then the statement of the problem is wrong because changing $f$ arbitrarily on a set of measure $0$ does not affect the Fourier transform.
You have basically proved the result because $\hat{f} \in L^{1}$ implies $g(t)=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}e^{itx}\hat{f}(t)\,dt$ is continuous by the Lebesgue dominated convergence theorem, and $g=f$ a.e..
Comment: In my question, $s>\frac{1}{2}$. I understood your hint. Thank you so much.


Uninstall Tornado Web Server?

Question: I'm new to installing server frameworks but I don't see anywhere in the documentation of http://www.tornadoweb.org/ of how to uninstall this. Do I just remove the build folder?
Answer: You can just remove tornado's source code folder, which is probably located in ../python2.x/dist-packages. Keep in mind that Tornado is pure python.
Answer: Try uninstalling using python package manager pip.
First find the version of tornado installed
pip list | grep tornado

and then uninstall it,
pip uninstall tornado==<version-number>

Uninstall Tornado Web Server?


Can insulation foam expand around window framing and cause warping?

Question: I was just wondering if insulation foam (I used regular Great Stuff from HD) can expand in dry conditions around a window (frame) and cause warping and damage to the window up to and including breakage.
Answer: I have personally seen it bow "trimmer" studs in a framed window opening. It could easily warp, bow, or move a window frame itself. Breakage would likely be caused by users messing with/forcing the out of plumb/square/true window?
Note: you can buy "low expansion" foam specifically designed to avoid this issue.
Comment: ...but you still should apply it in layers. Problems tend to occur when folks fill it up while spraying, not realizing (as is written in the instructions most people don't read) that the foam (even low-ex) expands for a while after it's been sprayed.
Answer: From experience, yes it can cause windows, doors, etc. to stick because the pressure pushes the frame closer to the door or sash. I just completed the finish work in a house and had to use my sawzall like a rasp around window frames to relieve the pressure before I could put the trim on them. I am not sure if the stuff can generate enough force to actually do damage though.
Answer: I have seen it warp a window frame to the point that makes it difficult to operate, but, I have not seen it expand to the point it breaks a window.
Answer: Indeed it can, aggressively. So if you are using it to install door frames, for example, wedge a piece of wood the required size in the doorway while it expands. Several pieces of wood. You need helpers.
Answer: I came across a YouTuber a while back who had some filler foam damage a door of his, so he did some back yard pressure tests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j33cbyXUVs
He ended up with 90lbs of pressure against his bathroom scale after 5 days of the foam setting.  It's not exactly the most refined experiment, but 90lbs is pretty startling.
Answer: Yes, definitely. As others have stated some detail oriented builders will actually use wood blocking in windows with deep integral jambs to prevent warping of the jambs as the foam sets up. I had issues with some settling and had the marvin reps out for a set of sliders,they basically told me that they have so many issues with it that they see that they recommend installing a bead of foam as a vapor barrier toward the exterior of the space between the jamb and the framing, and then stuffing the remainder of the space with scraps of loose fiberglass batts.