How to make this color gradient effect in Photoshop

Question: How Can I apply this Effect :

on This picture

I Tried but it doesn't quite look the same :
Comment: Either you get an image with a different color range (for example in the top image it could be that the shirt was the only detail in a blue tone) or you use masks, I don't think it's a one-click job.
Answer: The problem is that there's many clearly artificial (=edited) tricks in your image. I try to add a few:

colored to brown, can be made with Image > Adjustments > Hue&Saturation > Colorize
painted the road with green and pink, can be done with a layer which has got the road area as mask, random spraying of color and blending mode hard light to keep the original shading
heavy vinjetting, can be made with levels adjustment layer and sprayed layer mask or simply spraying black with reduced opacity and brush blending mode =hard light
a couple of blueish objects left well visible (here colored ones)
some text which can be a name of a pop group in year 1960.
Answer: Here's one method.

Apply an Exposure adjustment layer, reduce the exposure slider to around -6.3, and adjust the Gamma slider to around 1.07, or to the point at which the photo becomes very dark, but the detail is still visible.
In the layers panel, select the layer mask thumbnail for the Adjustment layer.
Choose a large soft edged brush, foreground colour black, set the opacity and flow settings to about 27%.
Paint on the image to reveal the areas you wish to lighten. Paint more around the subject or part of the photo you want to focus on.

This method is non-destructive, so you can repaint the mask, or change the exposure adjustment settings.

Note: my screen recorder didn't capture the proper size or position of the brush tool, in reality it was much larger, around 500px.
Answer: Desaturate Color Range
Looks like the image had a colour range selected then inverted. This would select all areas of the image other than the colour range so that the colour could be toned down/desaturate and leave the colour you selected untouched.

Here is one way of doing it.

Create a Hue/Saturation Layer Style
Click on the Mask icon
Select Color Range
Use the eyedropper tool to select the colour to target
Click on your Layer Mast Thumbnail and press Ctrl/Cmd+i
Click out of the Layer Mast Thumbnail back on to the Hue/Saturation Layer Style thumb
Take the Saturation down and adjust to your preferences

Play around until you get the effect your after:

Look Up Tables (LUT) - Vintage Effect
The other effect on your image is a Vintage LUT.
What are LUTs

3D LUTs or Look Up Tables are nothing more than a table of numbers
  that apply a color transform to an image.  What makes color grading
  LUTs unique however is their ability to apply complex color grades
  that can imitate the look of major motion picture films.

Most people use a good plugin such as Alien Skin Eposure to achieve these types of effects.


Is it a bad idea to reveal to a boss that you had applied for another position in the same company and didn't get it?

Question: I had applied for a position in a very large company and did not get it. Years latter I was hired by the same company, but in a different branch. I once mentioned to my boss that I had an interview with the company years ago (but as he knows I hadn't worked for them before). Was this a bad thing to reveal? Does it depend on the boss? I know mine has a philosophy of "avoiding turning heads" and may see it as a negative thing that he hired someone that another colleague didn't.
Comment: Relevant (not duplicate): [What is the purpose of a company asking "Have you interviewed with us before?"](https://workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/3499)
Comment: You're on the right track. It totally depends on your boss, who you know better than we do. So we can't give you a 'right' answer, unfortunately.
Comment: I had a boss who after 3 years of working for him, I casually mentioned in passing that he had interviewed me for the same role about 4 years before I got the job (the project that the role was attached to changed slightly) - he could not remember me at all (and in fact could not remember actually interviewing anyone!). Not sure if that says more about me or my boss!
Answer: You are not a "turning head", you have never worked for this company. They just couldn't hire you at the first time. Which doesn't necessarily mean they didn't like you. Even if so, you may got better. Time passes, people change.
I know a lot of people trying to get work in big companies and they had more than 2 interviews at different times. Lot of them finally got there.
I have personal experience when the interviewer from the company where i failed to get a job, 2 years later asked me to come again for the interview for the same position.
So, I don't think your first interview should make any sense here.
Answer: I can't imagine how this could affect your boss's perception of you in a negative way.  He obviously thought enough of you to hire you in your current role, and your performance should certainly be a more important aspect of his perception than anything that happened previously.  That's especially true if your previous attempt at landing a job with the company happened years ago.
Being turned down for a particular position does not necessarily mean that you have any personal or professional deficiencies.  Maybe the previous hiring manager found a better fit based upon specific skills, internal considerations, or team personality. A perceptive manager would realize this and would not hold your previous experience against you.


Door handedness

Question: I have read contradictory explanations on determining door handedness so need a little help.  If with the exterior door open I stand with my back against the hinges and the door knob is closest to my left hand, then is the door left handed and in-swing?  If not, then what is it?
Answer: Door handing descriptions vary, so my best advice is to draw a picture for your door supplier and let them decide what they call it.
From Schlage.com (https://www.schlage.com/blog/categories/2017/01/understanding-lever-door-handing.html): you'll need to stand on the outside of your door. Notice where the hinges are.

If the hinges are on the left, you have a left handed door. You will
need a left handed (LH) lock.
If the hinges are on the right, you have a right handed door. You
will need a right handed (RH) lock.

(follow the link for useful pictures)
So, assuming that your exterior door swings into the house (which is a pretty safe bet, I'd say), when you stand outside, if the hinges are on the left, it's a LH door; if the hinges are on the right, it's a RH door.
Comment: In the U. S., the word "inswing" is usually used to clarify this, so a "Left-hand In-swing" front door or simply "left in-swing" door.

Door handedness


Underlayment question

Question: Question..I have a 3/4" wafer board?..Particle board? sub floor..which is laying on laminated joists that are 24" apart..my thoughts were to lay a 1/2" sanded underlayment to that perpendicular to sub floor..staggering any joints,now this is a very small floor just around 106 in length by 53 in width and with the 17.5 tile that's only a 3 tile by 6 tile job and not a single tile cut has to be made ..not a single one..first question with the new 1/2" underlayment it should be glued? not glued? and not screwed to the joists through the sub floor? 3/4" + 1/2" + 1-1/4 inches which is sufficient thickness if the the joists are spaced 16"..but what about if they are like mine 24" apart..I also purchased a Hardie 1/4" backer board the would give me 1-1/2" thickness..is this two much? need to know about not nailing 1/2" underlay to joists...and do I really need the Hardie Backer Board for such a small project? basically it is a kitchenette with a large fridge and an commercial grade ice cream stand that will just sit there and probably never be moved again...please help me with this thank you...SM.
Answer: Beef up the floor while you can
With 24's and chip board I would consider cutting the floor and adding purlins in between the joists and replace the floor with plywood. Then I'd go with Schluter underlayment.
you wouldn't need to add this many

www.stratco.com
This is a steel shed floor in the picture but the concept is the same, just with wood.
Then go with double 5/8 offset seams and Schluter. The floor will be thinner and stronger.
If you want to stick with what you have proposed I would glue and screw everything and hope it's not you taking it up down the road.
Really not a single cut? That's amazing.
Comment: Yes..amazing isn't it..it's just a fridge and a commercial grade stainless steel 50'
Comment: Yes..amazing isn't it..it's just a fridge and a commercial grade stainless steel 50" in length x 32" in width cabinet with a small compressor and the fridge is an LG 3 door and this sits on one hell of a laminated beam that is 18" in height and that rests on a 2x6 support wall right below it...I layed the tile out for a width of (3) 17.5 x length of..(6) 17.5 tiles straight with no cuts to be made..as the fridge and the hot spigot and hot and cold water and drain will go through an attic wall with full access to everything..only the outer row of tiles will see any foot travel.

Underlayment question


Notation for non-empty subset

Question: To denote non-empty subsets, I repeatedly find myself writing $A\subset S, A\neq \emptyset$. Is there any established shorthand for this, you know, like $A\subset S$ can be seen as a shorthand for $A\subseteq S, A\neq S$?
Comment: But it's not the same?!
Comment: I agree, it is certainly related (see goblin's answer), but not exactly the same thing.
Answer: Try $\emptyset \neq A \subset S$.
Comment: Actually I agree. Personally whenever possible I prefer sentences: "Let $A$ be a nonempty subset of $S$."
Comment: I don't like this kind of thing (not downvoting or anything, just expressing my opinion). There's nothing more confusing than reading: "Now consider $\emptyset \neq A \subset S$."
Answer: If I recall correctly, $A \in \mathcal{P}_{\geq 1}(S)$ is somewhat standard notation for "$A$ is a non-empty subset of $S$."
More generally, I think that $\mathcal{P}_{\geq \kappa}(S)$ is sometimes used to denote the collection of all subsets of $S$ with cardinality greater than or equal to $\kappa.$
Comment: But it's harder to read like $\subset$ …
Comment: @Ronny, I know what you mean. Another option would be: "Consider non-empty $A \subseteq S$."
Comment: Well, that wouldn't work in, say, indexing sets using a summation sign like $\sum_{A\subset S} f(A)$.
Answer: Define
$A \subset_\emptyset B \Leftrightarrow (A \subset B \wedge A \neq \emptyset)$. Then use $\subset_\emptyset$ instead of $\subset$.
Comment: Thanks, I am aware of such possibilities. I was just wondering if there was some established standard of doing that, you know, $\subset$ with a dot in it or something.
Comment: Ah, okay, not as far as I know – sorry.
Answer: Probably not, notations differ from author to author. Not even $A\subset S$ is unambiguous - it can mean proper subset or just subset. This means that if you're going to use a shorthand notation you would probably need to define the meaning of it. The mentioned $\mathcal P_{\ge 1}$ for example is nothing I've encountered, and the same applies to $\subseteq_{\emptyset}$.
Like it or not the notation $\emptyset\ne A\subset S$ or even $A\subset S, A\ne0$  is the closest thing to something that would be immediately understood and it's almost as compact as $A\subset_{\emptyset}S$, or $A\in\mathcal P_{\ge1}(S)$.
Normally you would have it in text and then you could write it out "non-empty $A\subset S$". As pointed out you should consider the context in the case as well. If you want to use $\emptyset\ne A\subset S$ you should use it in a context that calls for a statement, for example "assume that $\emptyset\ne A\subset S$".

Notation for non-empty subset


What is the shape of the Rindler horizon?

Question: Consider a relativistically accelerating body, it is said that from its frame of reference there would appear to be a Rindler horizon at a distance $d =\frac{c^2}{a}$. My question is about the body's perceived shape of the Rindler horizon. Would the Rindler horizon simply look like a black, infinite 2D plane, perpendicular to the body's direction of acceleration? If so does it appear instantaneously at the moment $t=0$ when the body starts to accelerate, or does it smoothly evolve over time, say starting from the shape of a sphere, approaching the shape of an infinite 2D plane at $t \rightarrow \infty$. While it does make sense that along the body's direction of acceleration, the Rindler horizon would be at a distance $d =\frac{c^2}{a}$, I don't think it makes sense that the rest of the Rindler horizon would lie on the same plane (And therefore  be a 2D plane), because wouldn't the light coming from the directions which are not perpendicular to the body's direction of acceleration, have to travel a larger distance to reach the body?
$$$$I tried searching online for some information regarding this topic, but I couldn't find any clear answer regarding the shape of the Rindler horizon. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Comment: You may find this helpful: https://www.gregegan.net/SCIENCE/Rindler/RindlerHorizon.html
Answer: You would not "see" a horizon. While it is true that, say, when you hit the gas in your car and accelerate forward at a rate of "0 to 60" in 5 seconds, a Rindler horizon appears about 17 Pm behind your ass as measured in the Rindler frame, which is closer than the nearest foreign star, Proxima, at 41 Pm distant, if you are looking out the back window at the time the car accelerates, you won't suddenly see the stars disappear even though all of them will be behind it. That's because photons near you are still carrying information regarding what was going on at those times there long in the past before you hit the gas pedal (and before your standard frame of reference could be understood as a Rindler frame).
(If you want to understand the significance or meaning of the Rindler coordinates, or reference frames in general, that's a different question.)
The Rindler horizon is a surface in space-time. It is not proper to speak of its "shape" in a visualizable form, without choosing a particular method of perception or visualization, that separates space and time. I presume you mean in the Rindler frame just mentioned, which is where that distance figure comes from. But you should note this, like the Lorentz frames on which it is based, is not the frame representing the field of view of your eyes and, indeed, depending on how you interpret it, can be considered as either not to represent a real physical observer at all, or else, one that "senses" in a way vastly different from how your eyes do but is useful for mathematical reasons. In that Rindler frame, yes, the horizon is indeed an infinite flat plane at the distance just mentioned. But calling it "black" is to assume that you can see it. You can't, and won't.
Instead, what you will see if you could accelerate for extremely long times at a constant rate - i.e. replace your car, airplane or other humble vehicle with a giant bolus full of anti-matter and a throttle to control it - as your relative speed approaches $c$, the things in the direction retrograde to your motion will look increasingly redshifted and dimmer, and those in the prograde direction will look increasingly blueshifted and brighter. Moreover, that blueshifted view will tend to concentrate on the prograde point on your view sphere, becoming very bright and very hot - eventually, bright & hot enough to wound and kill you. This phenomenon is called "relativistic beaming", and importantly, it will stay even once you take your foot off the "gas" and continue to coast through space. That is because this is purely an effect of velocity, not acceleration.
While accelerating, the Rindler horizon will "appear" to you in the form of the increasing time dilation and redshifting of the stars behind you "conspiring" to prevent you from receiving information from Rindler-inaccessible events on their world lines so long as that acceleration continues.
Comment: Most excellent! -NN
Answer: The shape of the Rindler horizon can easily be understood in the inertial frame. The past and future Rindler horizons are two null half planes. The 3D null sub manifolds formed by those planes have no Riemann curvature. So they are flat.
You can also take a slice of the horizon at a fixed moment in time. That gives you a 2D spacelike sub manifold. That sub manifold also has no Riemann curvature, regardless of whether your simultaneity is defined in the Minkowski frame or the Rindler frame. So again, they are flat.

wouldn't the light coming from the directions which are not perpendicular to the body's direction of acceleration, have to travel a larger distance to reach the body?

Yes, but the same can be said of any flat Euclidean plane in an inertial frame. So this is not a valid objection.


2012 Nissan Murano interior light won't go off

Question: 2012 Nissan Murano interior light doesn't go off after door is closed. It does go off after 15 min. as it says in the manual.
Answer: Which light ? The front dome light switches on by pushing it, it will click. If the door is open , the light is on so if it is pushed at that time nothing happens ( it is already on) . But when you close the door it stays on until the timer turns it off .  I have inadvertently done that and wondered why the light does not go off when the door is closed.
Comment: Thanks' it is the dome light and I have tried all 3 positions. It does turn off in the off position  and it stays on in the far right position but when youclose the door in the middle position it won't go until it times out in 15 minutes.
Comment: Mine is a 2011, in the middle position the light goes off in 10 seconds. But if you push the light lens , there is another switch that turns on the light.


Using FileUploadField extension with extjs3.4

Question: Trying to handle with the FileUploadField extension for ExtJS 3.4 provided on Examples web page (http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/ext-3.4.0/examples/form/file-upload.html), I can't get any of the tree examples to be as it is shown on web page. And of course, can't get them work as they might.
When I specify a "FileUpLoadField" on my application, there appear two "browse.." buttons: It seems that one belongs to the ExtJS extension and another belongs to the browser.
On the other hand appear what it seems to be two textfields and there's no Icon.
I've got the FileUpLoadField" extension copying code that's provided on: http://dev.sencha.com/deploy/ext-3.4.0/examples/ux/fileuploadfield/FileUploadField.js
I've put this code on a .js file and added it as a library on my app.
I suppose this issue is related with browser/ExtJS extension I'm using.
Could anyone try to explain what I'm doing wrong?
Comment: can you create your example on http://jsfiddle.net/EugeneDae/hWGYE/
Answer: You probably didn't add link to FileUploadField.css in your code.


PE file export functions of packed file

Question: I am new to reverse engineering and I am learning about packed files.
I saw that most of the time I can recognize a packed file with a little number of import functions in PE file and not many strings but can the export functions in PE file can give me hint if a file been packed?
Comment: You can pack just about any (possibly *all*) PE executables, but why would a packer need to add something to its exports? As soon as a packed executable is running, it should be no longer "aware" that it was ever compressed. (Without checking its own executable file, that is.)
Comment: @usr2564301 in other words if a file has an export function I can assume that it is not compressed?
Answer: The presence or absence of exports alone is not enough to tell if a file is packed or unpacked. Most executables have no or very few exports but there are also legitimate executables with many exports. Packing can hide exports but might also leave them visible so it's not a reliable indicator either way.
It's better to use other means of detecting packed files: entropy, signatures, runtime analysis and so on.

PE file export functions of packed file


How to lock ubuntu device orientation in portrait or landscape from user input?

Question: I am working on a reader app to be used on Ubuntu-Touch. When reading books from the app it would be a helpful feature to lock the orientation in either portrait or landscape. This would be useful when reading in bed sideways.
I've tried to use automaticOrientation = false or true, however, the SDK currently locks the orientation in portrait when set to false.
Is there a way to lock the orientation of the device screen in one or the other and have it stay locked?
Update:
Newer releases of Ubuntu for Phone have a global option to lock orientation, however, I would still like to do this at the app level.
I am still looking for a way to do this.
Comment: I always disliked this when android apps did this, and would be glad if that control stayed on a system level. it is in a quick pull down.
Answer: Unfortunately there's no way yet to set a certain orientation programatically. You can however lock the orientation for your app on a certain one (portrait or landscape) in your app's desktop file. See the following link: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Unity8/FullShellRotation. The feature has been released some time ago, and perhaps you already use that.
Answer: Is this still a problem for you? Perhaps exposing the system level functionality through your app's UI might be the best way to go. I suspect locking at the app level would be considered a bug by the system developers so it's not offered.


Do Lannisters always pay their debts?

Question: Obviously Lannisters are deceitful and lacking emotional apathy. Is it possible that their claim that "A Lannister always pays his debts" is false?
Comment: `A Lannister always pays his debts` was coined by people other than Lannisters. Lannisters have had this reputation because they simply have always paid their debts, therefore, they have gained this unofficial motto. That Tyrion et al *use* the phrase is merely for their own benefit.
Answer: The phrase <code>"A Lannister always pays his debts"</code> is meant to appeal to the greedy, and to sway them to overlook the reputation of being deceitful that the Lannisters may have, when it comes to bribery and making deals. This is, after all, the house that sacked King's Landing, murdered King Aerys, murdered the entire houses Tarbeck and Reyne. The saying is meant to assure people that whatever else happens, you will get your money.
This is also demonstrated several times, for example when Jaime pays the Bolton men the money he promised them for returning to Harrenhal to fetch Brienne, or when Tyrion pays Mord the gaoler at the Eyrie all the gold he carried with him (but he kept the silver).
It is also a part of their deceitful nature that while they may promise gold, that does not mean you are safe, like the silent threats that Jaime and Tyrion think during these exchanges. Jaime thinks that Tywin might fill someone's pockets with gold as he hangs him, and Tyrion offers to take Mord into his service to be able to exact revenge later on.
Later on, Tyrion-gone-mad also extends the saying to include revenge, meaning that "A Lannister always pays his debts" means that Lannisters always exacts revenge.
Either way, this saying is just a way for GRRM to strengthen the impression of the untrustworthy Lannisters. Trust them at your peril.
Their real family words are: Hear me roar!
Comment: _"A Lannister always pays his debts" means that Lannisters always exacts revenge._ This is what I always felt was the "real" meaning of the saying, rather than the obvious money-debt repayment.
Comment: Well, as for that, you would have to ask GRRM. I only know that Tyrion and Jaime both used the phrase to refer to monetary debt. You might argue that "debt" can refer to *both* revenge and money, though.
Comment: great illustration of the phrase!
Comment: in the scene where lady catelyn is taking tyrion as a prisoner, tyrion makes a note of all the people who insult him, so that he can pay back their debts( read exact revenges )
Comment: The Lannisters also keep exact words, letter of the promise but not the spirit. "Let me go and I'll have you covered in gold." Tyrion attempts to bribe Jorah Mormont at one point. "I saw a man get covered in gold once. Not a nice way to die." Jorah replied.
Answer: The answer by @TLP gives the correct interpretation of the words in that they are just that, words. They are meant to make people think if they side with the Lannisters they will become wealthy. The words are coined to them as a popular phrase though their true house words are "Hear Me Roar".

His father ignored the sally. "The honor of our House was at stake. I had no choice but to ride. No man sheds Lannister blood with impunity."
"Hear Me Roar," Tyrion said, grinning. The Lannister words. "Truth be told, none of my blood was actually shed, although it was a close thing once or twice. Morrec and Jyck were killed."
A Game of Thrones, Tyrion VII

However, to answer the actual question at hand there is at least one case where a Lannister doesn't pay their debt. In this case it is Tyrion who tries to send Shae away.

"I don't want to leave. You promised you'd move me into a manse again after the battle." Her cunt gave him a little squeeze, and he started to stiffen again inside her. "A Lannister always pays his debts, you said."
  "Shae, gods be damned, stop that. Listen to me. You have to go away. The city's full of Tyrells just now, and I am closely watched. You don't understand the dangers."
A Storm of Swords, Tyrion II
Answer: It's important to note that "A Lannister always pays his debts," cuts both ways and that the non-monetary interpretation is very important on the flip side. When we talk about interpreting the phrase as a promise of revenge, you can start to see how it is also a promise that the Lannisters will be called to account for all their various evil deeds.
Here are two prime examples: Joffrey dies from poisoning; Tommen jumps from a window in the Red Keep. King Joffrey dies by the exact same method as the king immediately preceding him, King Robert Baratheon -- which was an assassination orchestrated by Cersei. Tommen dies in a way that is clearly reminiscent of what was perpetrated on Bran Stark: youngest Stark, Bran, was pushed from a window by Jaime; and youngest Lannister, Tommen, jumps from a window. To me, this is a clear demonstration that the Lannisters create karmic debts with their deeds, which they are forced to pay back with blood.
Do they "always" pay their debts? While these are just words, part of the Lannister legend, really, it seems that their reputation for paying monetary debts is well-earned, even though the receivers may not always like the manner in which the debt is paid -- which is part of the cruel beauty of this phrase. In the metaphysical sense, it is still TBD whether there is enough Lannister blood left to truly pay for all their most evil deeds. (E.g. what could possibly happen to the Lannisters to fully pay back the massacre of the explosion of the Sept of Baelor?)
Comment: Whilst this answer puts forth a sensible theory I think you've really missed the point of the question.

Do Lannisters always pay their debts?


full text search doesn't find anything

Question: **EDIT**
ok so i found the problam, it was that the min word length for the search was 4, i changed it to 3 but now it only finds the row 1 data and not row 2 data aswell...
-----original question:----
I have a MyISAM table on my phpmyadmin like this:
table name: `users`
coulmn name: `name`
row 1 data: 'dan'
row 2 data: 'dan252'

(it's just the important part of it)
now the name is fulltext index field, im using this query:
SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE MATCH(`name`) AGAINST('dan')

but phpmyadmin returns:
MySQL returned an empty result set (i.e. zero rows). ( Query took 0.0004 sec )

why it's not finding anything?
*EDIT*
ok so i found the problam, it was that the min word length for the search was 4, i changed it to 3 but now it only finds the row 1 data and not row 2 data aswell...
Answer: MATCH only works on columns with FULLTEXT indicing.  And FULLTEXT indicing only works on MyISAM tables.
Secondly, 'dan' is probably too short to use on a MATCH.
Thirdly, if your search term matches more than 50% of your rows, the term is considered too common and the search fails.
Have a read here.
Answer: Try this.
SELECT * FROM users WHERE MATCH (name) AGAINST ('dan');
I guess you are using apostrophes for tablename and in MATCH. This is wrong. Try it and let me know if this works.
Answer: I guess you are trying to return all with 'dan' in them
You could try the LIKE command.
SELECT * FROM users WHERE name LIKE '%dan%'

That will return 'dan' and 'dan252' and (if he was in the table) '123dan456'.
You could also try
SELECT * FROM users Match(name) AGAINST('+dan*')

That should return the same thing and is probably more efficient.
If you are only trying to use 'dan' then use as @Kirishna says.
SELECT * FROM users WHERE MATCH (name) AGAINST ('dan')

Comment: i want to use fulltext not LIKE, the first one returns a syntax error and secound one returns an empty result
Comment: You could try `SELECT * FROM users WHERE CONTAINS(name,"dan")` I took that from [Microsoft SQL](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms142571.aspx) so it may not work.

full text search doesn't find anything


Band(s) in the vein of Dream Theater?

Question: I really like the band Dream Theater, but I'm not very familiar with the Progressive Metal genre of which they're a part.
Can anyone suggest a band (or bands) that have a similar feel but aren't as well known?
I've tried Fates Warning (the CD was called No Exit), but couldn't really get into them.
Comment: I think that, due to the low numbers using this site at the moment, the scope of the site needs to increase. If this means allowing list questions and 'what's this song' questions - so be it. I fear if these questions aren't allowed, the site will die :(
Comment: @PatDobson I've opened [a meta question](http://meta.musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/203/should-the-sites-scope-be-expanded-to-increase-user-engagement)
Comment: Not [according to meta](http://meta.musicfans.stackexchange.com/questions/13/should-we-accept-listening-recommendation-questions/132#132).
Comment: OK, but isn't a site geared towards **music fans** a good place to ask for band recommendations?
Comment: The problem is, we have 13 pages of users on the main site, and only 5 pages of users on Meta.  So, either we need more representation on Meta, or we need a few questions here (like this one) to see how users actually respond.  So far, this question is in the black.
Comment: I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this is a list question.
Answer: Try :

Rush (2112 is a good place to start)
Muse (The 2nd law an easy one to get into)
Porcupine tree
Spocks beard
Queensrÿche
Ozric Tentacles (maybe)

Wikipedia - progressive rock
Wikipedia - space rock
Comment: I beg to differ, the difference between Glen Miller and Miles Davis is far more pronounced than the difference between DT and Muse.
Comment: Muse similar to Dream Theater? Really?
Comment: Porcupine Tree is AMAZING!  Could be one of my favorite "underground" finds this year!  Thanks!  I've heard of Muse but never knew what their music sounded like, I'll hit the youtubes on them today.
Comment: Similar in as much as people who like Dream Theater may like Muse. In the same way that people who like Glen Miller may like Miles Davies.
Comment: Mmh, I'm not really convinced. People who like Glen Miller will clearly likes Miles Davis, as they both play jazz. Dream Theater is a progressive metal band, Muse is a rock band, sometimes progressive, and not metal at all.
Answer: Last.fm has a very good similar artists page for Dream Theater with over 200 bands/artist listed that range from extremely popular to barely known and has this for any bands/artist.
All the bands above are listed along with many, many other. Just a little taste of bands that are similar to Dream Theater on this page are:

Transatlantic
Symphony X
Flying Colors
Haken
Adrenaline Mob
Opeth
Ayreon
Fates Warning

And many, many others.
Answer: You should look into Liquid Tension Experiment. It was an instrumental project of Mike Portnoy (then drummer of DT), John Petrucci (guitarist in DT), Jordan Ruddess (who became keyboard player of DT), and Tony Levin (King Crimson etc.). I'd say it's like the proggier parts of DT, sans vocals (hich is a plus in my book).
Answer: Arcane from Australia, they have a lot of similar sounding elements, particularly the keyboard, but aren't as fast nor are they anywhere near as cheesy as DT.
Answer: No Exit is really a terrible album to hear first as it doesn't sound much like old or new Fates. They didn't really hit on the more modern, more progressive sound until right after that album. You should try something later, like Parallels or Disconnected. Or both, as those two albums are very different from each other but will give you much more DT-like experiences. If you like those, try A Pleasant Shade of Gray, Darkness in a Different Light, and Perfect Symmetry. :)
I also recommend Vanden Plas, a lesser-known band that, in my opinion, sort of took over the torch from Dream Theater after that band declined in quality. The Seraphic Clockwork is an absolute masterpiece, but be aware that it takes a few listens for it to really sink in. Their album Far Off Grace sounds very different, but is also very good. The God Thing was their initial progressive breakout, and if you like 90s DT you'll probably like it as well. Also Christ 0, which sounds more like their newer stuff than the last couple I mentioned.
Comment: WOW.  Listening to The Seraphic Clockwork now and this could easily be outtakes from Images And Words.  This is about as close to DT as you can get.  Thanks!
Answer: First, check what you like in Dream Theater
Dream Theater mixes the Progressive aspect from (mainly) Rush, Deep Purple and similar bands into the Heavy Metal aspect from bands like Metallica, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden as their influences by the time. They also have a thing for fast playing (although not being the only thing they do, before someone downvotes for that), which is a predominant characteristic on Power Metal bands.
Either way, really similar bands

Haken is a really, really similar band to Dream Theater, independent of your choices above. From my contact with the fanbase, if you are a fan of one, you're most likely going to enjoy the other.
A.C.T. also has many musical similarities, especially in riffs. Circus Pandemonium is a good album to start, in the sense it shares many progressive metal concepts from DT.
Tool, while not that similar, is also often liked by Dream Theater fans.
Symphony X, while being more focused in the Power Metal than the Progressive Metal, is also commonly associated with Dream Theater.
Liquid Tension Experiment is essentially Instrumental Dream Theater.
X Japan is often called "Japanese Dream Theater" - note that japanese jazz music is usually even more dissonant than western's, and that is true for their prog as well.

The Prog aspect
If you are into the prog aspect, you will likely be enjoying old prog rock bands, such as Rush, Yes, Gentle Giant, E.L.P., King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Camel, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple (ok, DP might not be considered prog, not discussing it) and similars.
If you are interested in recent bands, you should probably follow the works of Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree), Neal Morse (Spock's Beard, Flying Colors), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) and similars.
Other than that, really, progressive metal is a genre with too many bands. A few with renown (presented, for example, in the Essential Modern Progressive Rock Albums by ProgReport) are Queensryche, Marillion, Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Devin Townsend, Opeth, Transatlantic, Pain of Salvation, Porcupine Tree, Ayreon, IQ, Riverside, Frost*, Karnivool, Between the Buried and Me, Big Big Train, The Dear Hunter, Rishloo, Leprous and Sound of Contact.
A few bands also have singular albums that are good, but mostly their other works are not well received. The Mars Volta has De-Loused in the Comatorium, for example. Native Construct has their debut and only album until now - Quiet World.
Either way, it's a big and broad genre. These bands should give you a start, after you know better what you are enjoying, you can pinpoint your searches better.
Portnoy's bands
As a special note, since you are asking about DT, it's interesting to look for bands Portnoy has participated. In particular, his interactions with Neal Morse usually end up in great progressive projects. Examples are the already mentioned Transatlantic, Flying Colors and The Neal Morse Band. Sons of Apollo is his most recent project.
The Heavy Metal aspect
Well, this one is even broader, but AFAIK, less common for recent bands. A fair share of the DT's fanbase is interested in plain heavy metal, such as Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath. If that's your case, simply look for more heavy metal, not for more progressive metal.
The Power Metal aspect
If you are instead interested in the fast playing and high tones, you can go for Power Metal. Here, you can go for Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian, Helloween and Iced Earth as things that a Dream Theater fan might enjoy. This is more likely to be true if you enjoyed When Dream and Day Unite.
Bonus
If you enjoyed the concept of a really long Opera Rock album (a.k.a. you liked The Astonishing), Ayreon gets a stronger recommendation, as well as the a little bit underground band Gandalf's Fist, known for having 3 hours albums.
Answer: You have to check out SEVENTH WONDER from Sweden. It's Tommy Karevik's (Kamelot) main or first band.
They have released 5 CD's so far which are all great.. Try " Waiting in the Wings"  or "Mercy Falls" or " The Great Escape"  first, these guys are fantastic, especially if you like the more melodic side of Dream Theater.
Answer: Take a look at music-map. Their list for Dream Theater includes at least half the bands mentioned in answers here, plus many others.
Answer: Tool, Psycroptic, Muse (sorta), Meshuggah, Periphery, etc. because they are Prog Rock/Metal mainly, but they are similar. I can't really explain why.
Comment: I see that you are relatively new to Stack Exchange and all of its sites.  When one gives an answer here, that answer is usually backed up by certain facts that add weight to it.  Otherwise, it's more of a comment than an answer.  Can you edit this to flesh it out a bit, explaining why you feel those bands might be a good fit?
Comment: I would be especially interested in the connection between Psycroptic and DT.
Comment: not on face value, but yes imo.
Answer: I'm late here, many similar bands were already proposed, you can also check Threshold from U.K., mostly their latest albums, and Shadow Gallery.

Band(s) in the vein of Dream Theater?


How much vinegar and baking soda do i put down my vent to get rid of backed up sewage

Question: How much vinegar and baking soda should I use to unclog a sewer line? When I flush my toilet, it gurgles in the bathroom sink. Does this mean I have a backed up toilet or a backed up sewer line?
Comment: Putting vinegar and baking soda down the drain is just a waste of vinegar and baking soda.  It won't solve any problem related to this.  Does the toilet flush OK and the problem is just the noise?
Comment: If the toilet flushes ok but makes the sink gurgle then you likely have a plugged vent pipe.
Comment: To explain, the sink is gurgling because as the water moves down from the toilet, it create a partial vacuum above the slug of water.  The vent pipe allows air to fill the void.  The gurgle you are hearing is likely air being pulled though the U-shaped trap which is filled with water.  That means the vent is either missing or clogged.
Answer: This is most likely a plugged vent pipe - check your pipe on the roof make sure it is free and clear (no little animals went down it and no birds started to build. Depending on the drain connections and where this toilet is a connecting pipe for a drain vent could also be the culprit.


Hard drive letter incorrectly reassigned

Question: During my failed attempt to use Norton Ghost to clone my boot drive, the original disk letter assignments were changed and now Windows 7 can not find my files.  The original disk (which I am still using) has a boot/recovery partition assigned as D: and the main partition with all docs/programs/etc. was C:.  During the attempted cloning of the new drive, the main partition of the original drive was reassigned to K:, so now Windows 7 can not find it.  How can I correct the letter assignment problem?
Answer: Open the start menu, right click 'Computer', and click 'Manage'. Wait for a moment while the Microsoft Management Console starts.
In the left pane of the MMC, select 'Storage' > 'Disk Management'. In the lower middle pane, you should see your hard drive (probably Disk 0) with a bar chart representing its partitions. Right click a partition and select  'Change Drive Letter and Paths'. Select the entry with the current letter and press Modify, in the box that opens you'll be able to select a new drive letter.
The old drive letter will continue to work as well as the new one until you restart (to prevent file handles currently open becoming invalid).
Comment: With only the original drive installed, Windows would not open the desktop/start button/etc. I reconnected the new disk with the copy of the main partition (now called C:) and it booted completely with both disks installed.  So, I've followed your instructions to rename the new drive to M: and am trying to rename the old drive's partition to C:.  However, Disk Management says, "The parameter is incorrect."  Any ideas?
Comment: The current state of things is: Old drive has D: (boot partition), K: (original program/data files) and the New drive has M: (a clone of the old disks program and data files).
Comment: On a machine I am trying, I am also getting "The parameter is incorrect" when trying to change the letter of the active partition. I suspect that this is a failure to remap the active partition, although I thought this worked. More research shows that people seem to think this is impossible... but I am 100% sure I have done it before. Take a look at this MSKB: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223188#top . Absolutely do perform a backup beforehand.
Comment: jcrawfordor, thanks for your help.  It seems that while trying to continue with the Ghost cloning process, the computer has, at some point, renamed the partitions again and the C: has been returned to normal.  So, problem solved...now back to trying to get this new drive cloned and installed.  Thanks.


Why my battery won't charge

Question: I have a 2004 escape and it has new battery and new alternator and tried a new ignition cluster.  And can't get my battery to charge. I notice that before it gets so low that the car starts stalling b4 it dies my airbag light starts flashing.  I took it to mechanic and put a new alternator on it and redid the plug and he got sick so I had to get my car back when I got it back and still didn't charge but now my radio stays on all the time I'm wondering if you might hook the club back up backwards or is there something may be wrong with my PCM I'm at my wit's end please help
Answer: I infer from your statement that the vehicle runs, but when running the battery is not charged and instead discharges. This can occur if any one or more of the following exist:

The battery is bad. Even new or "it was just tested good" batteries can be bad and refuse to accept charging current.
One or more of the electrical cables between the battery, the alternator, or the car's body or engine block (ground) is defective. The defect may not be visible to the eye.
One or more of the electrical connections at either end of the above cables are bad. Again, the defect may not be visible to the eye.
The alternator may be bad. Even a just-installed alternator may be bad.
If there's a separate voltage regulator, it may be bad. Sometimes the voltage regulator is mounted on the alternator.

I don't know what you mean by "ignition cluster" and "PCM."
All in all: you should find a shop competent in the diagnosis and repair of automobile electrical systems, and have them diagnose and repair what's wrong.

Why my battery won't charge


How to edit  info

Question: In Drupal 6 the entire page data was stored in page.tpl.php. Now, with Drupal 7, only the content that appears in between  and . So how do you edit the HEAD info? Is it still stored in a .tpl.php file? Where? If not, how do you do it?
Answer: If the theme you use does not provide the file for the header, it means that Drupal is using the default one, which is now provided by a module called "system". The file is called html.tpl.php
Just copy this file into your theme, and edit it.
Answer: You need to copy default html.tpl.php from system module directory.
Or you can using function drupal_add_html_head to override or add new head tag.
// First, we must set up an array
$element = array(
  '#tag' => 'link', // The #tag is the html tag - <link />
  '#attributes' => array( // Set up an array of attributes inside the tag
    'href' => 'http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Cardo&subset=latin',
    'rel' => 'stylesheet',
    'type' => 'text/css',
  ),
);
drupal_add_html_head($element, 'google_font_cardo');

Answer: If you want to change the head tag, you will need to use html.tpl.php
Answer: Copying html.tpl.php to your custom theme from the systems module will solve this issue. If you want to have the / tags in each of your custom .tpl files, you can just have only the following in your html.tpl.php file.
<?php print $page; ?>

How to edit  info


Boracay over Chinese New Year

Question: I've been invited to go to Boracay over Chinese New Year. Generally I've avoided Boracay as it is a tourist spot and that really isn't my thing. I also know a lot of tourists head there over Chinese New Year. I don't want to dish out cash to get there if it is going to just be shoulder to shoulder people. Has anyone been to Boracay over Chinese New Year? Is is completely crowded? Are things significantly more expensive during this period?
Answer: Boracay is nice, but yes - it's highly commercialized. You won't be able to walk 20 meters on a beach without someone approaching you and trying to sell you something. Chinese new year is a very popular holiday, so yes - it's going to be quite crowded and extremely loud. Remember, you can buy fireworks here legally, and quite cheaply. During the celebration, you won't see many cars due to the explosions in the streets.
That being said, it depends on where you stay. A lot of the resorts own a portion of the beach front (basically, the hotel's back yard) and it is quite private and roomy. You can go island hopping during the day (REALLY FUN!), and do some shopping at night. There's lots of great places to eat. You'll also notice a huge green 'net' separating the commercial area from the beach. This is due to the wind and sand (or rather, keeping it under control). At a first glance, you'd think most of the beach was private  and fenced in. That's not the case.
As for the price, resorts due charge a bit more during holiday peak times. It depends on where and how you book. AsiaTravel (in our experience) has the best deals, they reserve a lot of rooms well in advance and can sell them at a discount.
Local 'street' prices are always subject to change. If you look, talk and act like a tourist .. yes, many vendors will up the price. I'd recommend picking up an introduction to conversational Tagalog, so that you're able to negotiate a bit, as well as communicate with cab and trike drivers. But, this applies year round, vendors don't really increase prices for food and merchandise just due to a holiday.
Comment: I avoid resorts... I mainly stay in cheap places. I think I still remember a bit of tagalog, but I'm not sure how well. Sounds like it will be a bit too crowded for my liking. Thanks for the info!
Comment: @Ginamin Yes, the prices will go up for the mom and pop places too, and you will find the beaches quite crowded if the place you're staying doesn't have a small beach front. It's still a wonderful place to visit, we really enjoyed it .. but the off peak season is really the time to go.

Boracay over Chinese New Year


Is object clearing/array deallocation really necessary in VB6/VBA (Pros/Cons?)

Question: A lot of what I have learned about VB I learned from using Static Code Analysis (Particularly Aivosto's Project Analyzer). And one one of things it checks for is whether or not you cleared all objects and arrays. I used to just do this blindly because PA said so. But now that I know a little bit more about the way VB releases resources, it seems to me that these things should be happening automatically. Is this a legacy feature from pre VB6, or is there a reason why you should explicitly set objects back to nothing and use Erase on arrays?
Answer: Matt Curland, author of Advanced Visual Basic 6, who knows more about Visual Basic than most of us ever will, thinks it is wasted effort. Consider this quote (p110) about DAO, the COM data access library that primarily targets the Access Database Engine:

another example of poor teardown code.
  DAO has Close methods that must be
  called in the correct order, and the
  objects must be released in the
  correct order as well (Recordset
  before Database, for example). This
  single poor object model behavior has
  led to the misconception that VB leaks
  memory unless you explicitly set all
  the local variables to nothing at the
  end of a function. This is a
  completely false notion in a
  well-designed object model. VB can
  clear the variables faster at the End
  Sub line than you can from code, and
  it checks the variables even if you
  explicitly release your references.
  Any effort you make is duplicated.
Comment: Hi ODW, This parallels my line of thinking. DAO is the only object that I knew for sure had to be released correctly (outside of Win32). Are you aware of any other "special cases"?
Answer: The problem, as I understand it, has to do with the fact that VB6 (and its predecessors) has its roots in COM, and its reference-counting garbage collection system.
Imagine, for instance, that you declare a refernece to an object from a 3rd party library. That object has a COM reference count that is used both to keep it alive and to determine when it should be destroyed. It isn't destroyed when you set it to Nothing, but when the object's reference count reaches zero.
Now, not all COM components were written in Visual Basic. Some were written in C or C++. Structured exception handling didn't exist across all languages. So if an error occurred, the reference count on the object was not guaranteed to be properly reduced, and COM objects were known to hang around longer than they were intended to. This wasn't a problem with Visual Basic, per se. It was a COM problem. (And that, you might note, is why .NET doesn't use reference counting.)
That's why Visual Basic developers became obsessive about releasing object references prior to exiting routines. You simply don't know what a component you're allocating is creating under the hood. But when you release your reference to it, you're at least releasing your reference count to it. It became almost a religious mantra. Declare, use, release. It was the COM way of doing things.
Sure, Visual Basic might be better or faster at dereferencing variables I declared on the stack. But dammit, I want it to be OBVIOUS that those objects were released. A little assurance goes a long way when you're trying to track down a memory leak.
Comment: I don't see how explicitly setting an object variable to `Nothing` in VB6 helps removing the object faster provided that that object contains a buggy reference counting mechanism. You are only going to decrement its reference count by 1, no more, no less, and that is exactly what would have happened automatically anyway when the VBA variable goes out of scope. If the object's reference counting has a bug, manual reference clearing cannot fix it.
Answer: Have you read this Aivosto web page (from the creators of Project Analyzer)?

If you are using static variables,
  it's important to reclaim the memory
  they occupied when you don't need the
  variables any more. With dynamic
  variables memory isn't so much of a
  problem, because they are destroyed
  when the procedure ends.

In other words, you don't need to worry about clearing ordinary, non-static, local variables.
Comment: +1 For noticing that:) Although it's a pretty rare day when I am using statics. I usually just use private module level variables if I need something remembered.
Answer: I always do it for good practice, you never know what an exception might do if you fall in one and your objects are not deallocated.  You should relase them in finally statements and ensure they are not using any memory otherwise you may run into a memory leak.
I had an issue inside of a simple time off tracker system where the server kept on crashing randomly, it took weeks to determine it was a memory leak of an object that was supposed to self destruct on its own.  My code was being thrown into an exception and never cleaned up after itself causing the server (the actual web site not the entire server) to go down.
Comment: There are no Try/Catch/Finally blocks or Exceptions in VB6/VBA.
Comment: Interesting, may ask what type of object it was? What was it's scope? Was it a trappable exception being thrown, or did the app just crash out? When a standard exception is thrown the procedure is exited. Even if by exception, all local references are still automatically destroyed. So if there were no references to the object outside the procedure, what was causing the object to stay "alive"?
Comment: There are no Try/Catch/Finally blocks, but there are trappable exceptions. Have a look at Err.Raise.
Comment: Right I know there isnt in VB6, my point is there may be something similiar.  I havent done vb6 in quite some time sorry :).
Answer: Yes, set all objects to Nothing and clean up as much as you can. VB6 is notorious for having memory leaks when not cleaning up your stuff. Garbage collection was sub-par in VB6/VBA.
Comment: Sometimes you need to explicitly tear down things such as circular object references as well.  In general scope-exit will release local refences and deallocate arrays but in a long-lived scope such as module-global data you might be well advised to tactically clean up early on occasion just to free memory resources.

The point is there just isn't a general rule.  You need to be aware of what you're doing and when there is value in early deallocation.
Comment: @Bob: Good point. I think we agree actually: the point is indeed that there simply isn't a hard-and-fast rule for releasing objects. The "everything-must-be-released-always-no-matter-what" mentality seems to have originated out of want for a rule that can be consistently applied in every situation, and I can't say it's "wrong" to work under that assumption, but I think it's better to understand how GC works in VB6, so you can make an informed decision. What bothers me is people get this idea that VB6's memory management is horribly broken, but that's just an incorrect conclusion.
Comment: Hi HardCode, I have often heard this sentiment expressed. What I am trying for though is a concrete/reproducible example?
Comment: There's nothing wrong with VB6's garbage collection mechanism. It's other components that don't properly release references or which require very specific teardown semantics that break it. It's not VB6's fault that there are poorly-written components that don't follow the rules.
Comment: Thanks Bob and Mike, good discussion. I tend to agree with Mike that you shouldn't do anything without a good reason. And I think Bob defiantly presents a scenario where you might have a good reason:) +1 2 you both:)


Was ascetic Sumedha with iddhi powers?

Question: I have heard that in the birth where Gautama Bodhisathva met Deepankara Buddha, he had many powers but he didn't use it to prepare the road the Buddha was supposed to walk across but used his own effort. Where can I find further details of this story?
Answer: It is in Thupavamsa. I doubt if there's any online version of the translation.
The Pali version of Thupavams in the following link says, at the time the people were building the road, Sumedha was supposed to be flying in the sky. When he asked if he could also help, as people already knew that he had iddhi powers they gave him to construct a difficult part of the road.

Te puna divase asadisa mahādānaṃ sajjetvā dasabalassa āgamana maggaṃ
  sodhenti. Tasmiṃ kāle sumedhatāpaso attano assama padato uggantvā
  rammanagaravāsīnaṃ tesaṃ manussānaṃ uparibhāgena ākāsena gacchantā te
  haṭṭhapahaṭṭhe maggaṃ sodhente disvā kinnu kho kāraṇanti cintento
  sabbesaṃ passantānaṃyeva ākāsato oru ekamante ṭhatthāyaha te manusse
  pucchi.'Hambho kassa pana imaṃ maggaṃ sodhethā'ti te āhaṃsu bhante
  sumedha tumhe kiṃ naṃ jānātha, dīpaṅkaro nāma satthā
  paramābhisambodhiṃ patvā pavattavara dhammacakko janapada cārikaṃ
  caramāno anukkamena amhākaṃ nagaraṃ patvā sudassana mahāvihāre
  paṭivasati. Mayaṃ taṃ bhagavantaṃ nimantayimha tassa bhagavato
  āgamanamaggaṃ sodhemāti. Taṃ sutvā sumedhapaṇḍito cintesi. Buddhoti
  kho panesa ghosopi dullabho, pageva buddhuppādo tena hi mayāpi imehi
  manussehi saddhiṃ dasabalassa āgamanamaggaṃ sodhetuṃ vaṭṭatīti so te
  manusse āha, sace bho tumhe imaṃ magga buddhassa sodhetha - sayahampi
  ekaṃ okāsaṃ sampaṭicchatvā ayaṃ sumedhapaṇḍito mahiddhiko
  mahānubhāvoti jānantā dubbisodhanaṃ udakasambhinnaṃ ativisamaṃ ekaṃ
  okāsaṃ sallakkhetvā imaṃ hakāsaṃ tumhe sodhetha. Alaṅkarothāti adaṃsu.

http://tipitaka.org/romn/cscd/e1202n.nrf0.xml

Was ascetic Sumedha with iddhi powers?


Android support for parseUnsignedLong?

Question: I want to treat a value of type Long as unsigned long. I have read that in Java 8 they added methods to do things like that.
But when I try to use the new methods like:
<code>long values = Long.parseUnsignedLong("18446744073709551615");
</code>
Android Studio gives me an error message like this:

cannot resolve method parseUnsignedLong(java.lang.string)

Can I not use the Java 8 methods on an Android system?
What would be an alternative solution?
Comment: I think you don't have java 8 on Android yet.
Answer: Java 8 is supported only from Android N, the newest upcoming version of Android OS.Here some link about:
Wikipedia
Wikipedia Android Nougat
Android devo per site
Android Java 8 features
Answer: Java 8 has not yet been implemented for Android. It will be arriving with the next version (Android N)
Source
As for an alternative, see the answer to this question Java: signed long to unsigned long string

Android support for parseUnsignedLong?


"Thank you all" — wrong or right?

Question: On many occasions after we complete a speech, we often consider thanking our audience. In this scenario, I am not sure if "Thank you all" is the right English. Should it be "Thanking you all" instead to make it sound correct?
Comment: Would it be okay to just say "I thank all of you"?
Comment: Well this is perfect, but I am curious if above mentioned statement is correct, as subconsciously I tend to use "Thank you all", and I did that recently so..
Comment: I was actually wondering about _thanks very much_ which I have often heard from British people. _Many thanks_ looks far more grammatically correct than _thanks very much_ because _much_ does not go with countable nouns.
Answer: "(I) thank you all" is correct English, and a complete sentence.
Comment: [We Are the Champions](http://www.queenwords.com/lyrics/songs/sng11_17.shtml), line 22, Freddy Mercury, 1977.
Comment: Hey, thanks for the quick response. Can you also quote some resource(related link), need to forward it.
Answer: "Thank you all" is correct because the "I" is implied. The verb "to thank" is correctly conjugated as "thank" for the subject "I." Correct as is!
The word "you", in English, can be singular or plural. This is different than in some other languages such as French where there is a distinction between "tu" and "vous" that can either be the formality of the situation or if the addressed are plural or singular.
So "you all" is correct just as much as using "you" to refer to a single person. As one commenter said it is compulsory in southern US dialects where they commonly run the two words together as in "y'all."
Comment: @samridhi: In the Southern USA, it's practically compulsory ;)  But seriously, *you* can be singular or plural; *all of you* is a common phrase; where do you see a problem?
Comment: But can **you** and **all** go together?
Comment: @TimLymington Thanks for clarifying, I was just digging logically so got a bit confused. I have been using this phrase since long, but suddenly, a thought baffled me.
Answer: For those of you not residing in the southern or southwestern US, "(I) thank y'all." is also correct English, and a complete sentence.
Answer: Thank you all sounds ok colloquially, but in correct written English a noun or pronoun must always be present, not merely implied.
I thank you all or I thank all of you would be my first picks.
Comment: Under what authority must the subject in correct written English always be present and not merly implied? Implied "You" is used very frequently and I've never had any reason to consider it incorrect.
Comment: There is nothing ungrammatical about the phrase "thank you." It is an idiom. Someone who forces themselves to always write "I thank you" would sound overly stilted in the same way as if they never used contractions like "didn't" or "won't".
Comment: And a Happy New Year.
Comment: The British comedian Arthur Askey  used 'I thank you!' as a catchphrase, I believe - though it sounded more like 'Aathaangeoo!' _Overly stilted_ is right.

"Thank you all" — wrong or right?


Can I create a tile to change my default audio device?

Question: I want to easily switch between speakers and headphones.  Is this possible?
Answer: There are ways to switch the default audio device. However, because there is no published API for this, the techniques mostly involve hacks like trying to send keys, which is not very robust.
The API is kept closed and undocumented to avoid hardware incompatibilities so that manufacturers don't fight over it like the default home page on a browser. However, somebody has managed to switch audio devices on the command line in Windows 7, and in the comments WarNov has already "tested it in Windows 8. Works perfectly".
Remember that it is using an undocumented API, so may break in future versions of Windows.
As already mentioned by Jerry, you can create shortcuts with tiles, just make it call the C++ code. If you want to use it in .NET, you can also use a wrapper.
The code is also published on GitHub as AudioEndPointController, with easy to understand documentation on how to use it:
<code>> EndPointController.exe --help
Lists active audio end-point playback devices or sets default audio end-point
playback device.

USAGE
  EndPointController.exe [-a] [-f format_str]  Lists audio end-point playback
                                               devices that are enabled.
  EndPointController.exe device_index          Sets the default playback device
                                               with the given index.

OPTIONS
  -a             Display all devices, rather than just active devices.
  -f format_str  Outputs the details of each device using the given format
                 string. If this parameter is ommitted the format string
                 defaults to: "Audio Device %d: %ws"

                 Parameters that are passed to the 'printf' function are
                 ordered as follows:
                   - Device index (int)
                   - Device friendly name (wstring)
                   - Device state (int)
                   - Device default? (1 for true 0 for false as int)
                   - Device description (wstring)
                   - Device interface friendly name (wstring)
                   - Device ID (wstring)''
</code>
It is also wrapped with PlaybackDevice [ Audio Output Switch ]
Comment: As of May 2016 can report that the code for AudioEndPointController is functional in Windows 10.  That and two batch files provide one click short cuts to change the default audio output.
Answer: Well, a tile can be a shortcut to a batch file or a PowerShell file. Tapping the tile will execute the batch or PS file. That means you can create a tile to do JUST ABOUT anything in Windows.
Here's the CS technique:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/2216886/265706

The answer NOT marked as answer appears to be the solution for Windows 7/8.
This might be as good as it gets for this particular API, I am sorry to say.
Here's the shortcut technique: http://www.howtogeek.com/74331/how-to-create-your-own-windows-8-shortcuts-for-shutdown-perhaps/
Oh by the way, Windows RT devices have PowerShell, too
Comment: The problem being there isn't an API to programmatically switch the default audio device... At least there wasn't in Windows 7, doubtful for Windows 8.


Android layout interface rows of images

Question: I'm beginning android development, and I have a simple question about designing android interfaces. I'm trying to have row after rows of images, added dynamically, but I'm not sure how to do this so it wraps the edges of the screen. When I try to use a horizontal linearlayout, it goes off the edge of the screen. Is there a way to wrap the screen so it won't go off the edge? I wouldn't be able to use a relative layout, or a listview similar to that either, since screen sizes differ, and I wouldn't be able to hard-code the number of images into each row.
Thanks for any help you can give.
Answer: hi i think all that you need is the GridView with the scroll bars if i have understood your question right... if so reffer this link for gridview tutorial
hope this  could help...

Android layout interface rows of images


How is derivative text material copyrighted within an older manuscript?

Question: This is an addendum to to a previous question: How is the copyright of the derivative work dated? For example; an author writes a book in 2009 and in 2020, re-edits the book with new material. Does this new material benefit from the earlier copyright? What if the author is suspected of infringement with this new material only, in 2021, by a second author who published his work in 2015? Is the first author accountable to the second? How can it be proven if all the old copies have been removed from the shelves?
Comment: Can you add a link the previous question, please, as it seems relevant to this one.
Comment: @Rick I can't find any question on Law.se with that title.
Answer: united-states
The author of a derivative work only gets a copyright on content that is original to the derivative work. There is no new copyright on content from the source work. The author of a revised edition only gets  a new copyright on new content in the revised edition (provided that it is original).
This used to be more important when a copyright term was calculated from the year of publication.  Now it is important only in edge cases, such as when it is claimed that the new content was copied from another work, and is infringing. The date of publication is now less important because the copyright in most things that a specific author writes expires at the same time: 70 years after he or she dies (works published anonymously and works made for hire are exceptions to this rule).
The relevant US law is 17 USC 103,  which provides that:

(a) The subject matter of copyright as specified by section 102 includes compilations and derivative works, but protection for a work employing preexisting material in which copyright subsists does not extend to any part of the work in which such material has been used unlawfully.
(b) The copyright in a compilation or derivative work extends only to the material contributed by the author of such work, as distinguished from the preexisting material employed in the work, and does not imply any exclusive right in the preexisting material. The copyright in such work is independent of, and does not affect or enlarge the scope, duration, ownership, or subsistence of, any copyright protection in the preexisting material.

If Author A writes and has published a book in 2009, A owns the copyright on it (unless A sells or transfers it). Let us suppose that Author B writes a different book on a related subject in 2015, and then A publishes a revised edition of the 2009 book in 2020. In 2021 B accuses A of having copied content from the 2015 book without permission, and incorporating such infringing content into the 2020 edition. A claims that this content was already present in the 2009 edition. How can A prove this defense?
Commercial publishers pretty much always retain a few copies of every edition, even if a newer edition is the only one offered for sale. In any case, a commercially published US book will essentially always be registered with the Copyright office, whch means that a copy will have been sent to the Library of Congress, and that copy can be checked.
Moreover, B is not likely to even file such a suit unless B's lawyers have a copy of the 2009 edition and can show that the copied content was not found in it.
If it were proved to the satisfaction of a court that A had, in the 2020 edition, copied from B's 2015 book, A would be liable for damages to B, the amount determined by the court, and B could also get an injunction stopping distribution of the 2020 edition.
Laws in other countries on these points are generally similar.


Is DNA a single molecule or 46 separate pieces (out of 23 chromosome pairs)?

Question: It seems that biology books refer to DNA as 'a' molecule (implying that it is a single continuous uninterrupted double strand) ... but in those same books chromosomes are depicted as 23 separate objects (chromosome pairs) containing DNA. Are these illustrations misleading ? Are chromosomes somehow connected end-to-end or are they disjoint ? Is it a single noodle or is it 46 pieces ?
Comment: This is a trivial question the answer to which is in almost any book or article that considers chromosomes. I have voted to close on the basis that it shows insufficient research.
Answer: Unbroken strands of DNA are single molecules. So Yes, DNA is a molecule. However, the sequence of nucleotides allow for a near infinite variety. So unlike other molecules, like collagen, or water, they cannot be characterized with a unique descriptive name, other than by their sequence. I think this is the cause for confusion, because in this sense, DNA is a class of molecules, and we don't generally give them names. Each chromosome has two unique DNA molecules in diploid organisms (except in rare cases of highly inbred individuals where the two molecules might be identical). So if you have 23 chromosomes, you have 46 DNA molecules in each cell nucleus.
Answer: When a book talks about "the DNA of a cell" it is talking about all the DNA molecules which are contained in the cell.
The DNA in a cell exists as separate objects called chromosomes, each of which is usually described as a single long molecule of DNA.  (The long molecule has two strands, and coils up around many copies of special protein molecules.)
The chromosomes of a cell are separate, and do not have DNA running between them.


2001 Mitsubishi Pajero GDI unstable over 80km/h

Question: The car appears to be floating away or gliding out of control after driving at a speed of above 80km/h, almost as though I am driving on a slippery surface
Is this the shocks or stabiliser rubbers? What else could it be?
Comment: Welcome to Motor Vehicle Maintenance & Repair! This sounds really dangerous! Could you give us a little more information about the driving conditions? What are the particulars about the vehicle itself (year/engine/transmission ... any user modifications)? Does this happen *every time* the vehicle gets above this speed? Is there anything you can do which will alleviate this driving condition?
Comment: the year is a 2001refabrished automatic transmission, yes about that speed its unstable especially when it hits a bump. Most roads are bumpy I thought it might be the shock absorbers. But before I try that need tech advice.
Comment: Check tyre pressures, state of tyres and steering joints as well
Answer: As Solar Mike said, other mechanical problems can cause what you're experiencing.
To answer your question: yes, the two faults you ask about could cause or contribute. The stabilizer mounts (rubbers) by changing the response of the stabilizer bar(s) from moment to moment, or when forces on the mount(s) change direction. The shocks, if worn, will do a poor job of keeping the tires in contact with the road surface, thus affecting traction. Correctly-performing shocks — that is, not worn out — will, in turn, do a better job.
To ascertain what's going on, all of the car's suspension components will beed to be carefully examined to determine which of them are worn or faulty. There are a lot of them: tires (enough tread? correctly inflated? not bulgy in the sidewall or otherwise failing? not so old that their traction is impaired?); steering components (rack or steering box, tie rods, steering links, and the joints that connect these parts); suspension bits (shocks, including their state of wear, springs, and all these bits' mountings, suspension arms and their mountings and joints and pivots).
Answer: On top of the already goven advice: I'd check your (front) toe-in/out. Toe means the inclination of the wheels to either the out or inside of the vehicle by some degree. Your wheels are usually not exactly perpendicular to your vehicle when the steering wheel is in the middle, but off by some degree for compensation for play in the suspension.
Rearwheel driven vehicles usually have 0 degrees toe or a little toe-in on the frontwheels to compensate for force by drag and braking. Frontwheel driven vehicles usually have a little toe-out on the frontwheels. This is to compensate for the force on the front wheels put there by the engine to drive the vehicle. An excessive toe-in makes for nervous steering behaviour, excessive toe-out makes for an experience like you describe.
For a serious diagnose you should go to a workshop, but you can see it for yourself if the toe is off by a great amount.


Partitioning in Ubuntu 10.04

Question: No sound, so as suggested I upgraded to this version. Still no sound and thanks to NB seems sound is out of the question. Awhile back I downloaded gparted-live-0.7. but when i open it does not give me a workable interface.
Answer: Try gpated from the live dvd you installed from, if that fails try downloading the live cd version of gparted and partition it that way.
 It sounds like you have not got the full downloaded dvd, try reinstalling missing or non working software from site, with package manager,you may have to uninstall the program before reinstall.-hope this works for the partition and sound.

Partitioning in Ubuntu 10.04


What is QSignoff?

Question: The QSignoff folder uses a lot of disk space, can is be pared down without issue?
Answer: It's a folder used for Microsoft Error Reporting.  Per this MSDN article:

The signoff queue is used for reports
  that the user has not seen before.
  Ship assert reports are sent to the
  signoff queue.
Signoff queue CAB files and
  instruction files are stored in this
  folder:
%USERPROFILE%\Local
  Settings\Application
  Data\PCHealth\ErrorRep\QSignoff

If you don't want to do anything with the error reports you should be ok purging the files.
Here's another MS post that is a bit less wordy than the MSDN article.  A snippet from the post:

You can safely delete these files.
  QSignOff folder and the contents of
  this folder are related to Watson
  report. Whenever you hit any
  application crash, Watson will collect
  the memory dump, stack trace and other
  relevant info. These data are stored
  in QSignOff folder. So, these files
  are not interesting if you had sent
  the report to Microsoft.
Answer: These are the "Administrator queues" used by the "Microsoft Error Reporting" service (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb219076.aspx). It sounds like you're seeing a client computer that isn't shipping these files off to Microsoft (these are related to the "Error Reports" that users can opt to send when they see errors in applications) like it's supposed to.
W/o going into a long research project, my guess is that you can blow away those files w/o any consequence. I'd consider disabling the "Microsoft Error Reporting" feature via Group Policy (Computer Settings - Administrative Templates - System - Error Reporting).

What is QSignoff?


Which is best to use? ADF faces components or trinidad components?

Question: I recently got to know about trinidad of Apache MYfaces. For web application i have seen peoples using ADF faces components.  Will trinidad components  good for Web Application with rich user interface?
Answer: Both Trinidad and ADF faces components are based on JSF components. ADF faces have component set richer than Trinidad. You can choose based on what type of application you are going to work with.
Answer: ADF faces is way overtop primefaces or anyother UI set of components starting from the point that is an oracle product, we know the quality of oracle products!
the binding layer saves you from annotating the backing beans and is easy to use with jdeveloper with the drag and drop feature, plus if you have ADF BC or EJB as backend, and Oracle Database is just a blast no one stops you, that if you really know how to use all of the mentioned.
ADF Faces DEMO
Answer: They have both solid sets of components. But if you can choose i honestly recommend PRIMEFACES, great rich components, flexible themes.
Give it a chance if you can.
PRIMEFACES DEMO
Answer: As far as I can tell, ADF Faces has more features than Trinidad but usage of ADF requires some license fees when you are not deploying to a weblogic server. The most compelling reason to pick ADF over other ViewController frameworks is if you are also using ADF Business Components as your model layer since RichFaces is optimized(primarily at the data binding layer) for ADF BC.
**ADF Faces is actually based on Trinidad. If you have oracle support license and you've requested for the ADF source, you can see there that the base classes of RichFaces components eventually go back down to the trinidad packages.


A script to change ip address without knowing the Network connection name

Question: Let's suppose that I have some Pc with windows. Each of them has only 1 Local area connection , but I don't know the full name.
Is possible to create a general script to change ip address for these pc ?
I try to use netsh , but as I said I don't know the connection full name that it's required by netsh.
( Ip address , Default gateway , DNS server all are known and must be inside the script , only the connection name should be detected if possible).
Comment: Since we don't know the specifics of the PCs we don't know if there are virtual NICs from Hypervisors, VPN clients etc but this should point you into the right direction: http://blogs.technet.com/b/heyscriptingguy/archive/2014/01/15/using-powershell-to-find-connected-network-adapters.aspx
Answer: Take a look at Powershell:
<code>$activeNICs = Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_NetworkAdapterConfiguration -Filter IPEnabled=TRUE
# filter this more until you have the NIC that you really need

Foreach($NIC in $activeNICs) {
$ip = ($NIC.IPAddress[0])
$gateway = $NIC.DefaultIPGateway
$subnet = $NIC.IPSubnet[0]
$dns = $NIC.DNSServerSearchOrder
$NIC.EnableStatic($ip, $subnet)
$NIC.SetGateways($gateway)
$NIC.SetDNSServerSearchOrder($dns)
$NIC.SetDynamicDNSRegistration("FALSE")
}
</code>
Just modify it to include your specific settings and remove what you don't need.
You can create and edit scripts in Powershell ISE (search for ise in the start menu). Once it works as you want, save it with the extension .ps1. You can run it with
<code>powershell -executionpolicy bypass C:\path\to\script.ps1
</code>
Here's a Microsoft article that covers this topic: http://blogs.technet.com/b/danstolts/archive/2012/01/31/using-powershell-to-get-or-set-networkadapterconfiguration-view-and-change-network-settings-including-dhcp-dns-ip-address-and-more-dynamic-and-static-step-by-step.aspx
Comment: thank you , but in what kind of file should I put this code , .vbs , .bat....or ?
Comment: Powershell is the successor of cmd and runs Powershell scripts that have the .ps1 file extension. For security reasons the default action when double clicking PS scripts is to open the file in notepad. I'll add how to run the script to my answer.


Should An SDK Have Logging in the API

Question: I am working on building a API and SDK for a web service. My question is what is the correct practice for logging. Should the SDK do logging for the API methods? All the SDKs I have seen do not do this so I am just wondering is that the recommended best practice?
Answer: If you don't write code directly for end users but for other developers, I would generally not make assumptions about the needs of these developers unless you have to. Whenever you have the choice, leave the final choice to the people that will later on use your code.
If there are meaningful messages that can be logged in your SDK, log output may help to debug problems and discover issues. Thus I would implement a logging facility that allows the users of your code to provide an own log function/object/callback, so they can control if something is logged at all, where it is logged, and how it is logged. That way the users can also easily combine your log messages with their own logging facilities and collect all application logs in a central place or skip logging altogether by discarding all log messages.
Answer: A dependency which sole purpose is to offers special behavior that other classes use because of business logic (or use cases) should not contain a use case inside of itself.
What?
Your SDK is a tool for others to use during their use case. Whatever is relevant "logged" information will depend on the Use Case. Your SDK doesn't know and cannot pretend to know the answer to some very important questions:

What level of logging do we want to use at any given moment? (Trace,
Debug, Info, Warning, Error, Fatal)
What should be included in the    logs that are relevant for any
given use case vs another? Date? What format? Stack trace? Error
Message? What about localizing error messages?

SDKs, and any other know-how abstraction** should throw exceptions when it fails, or receive a callback function for error handling. And maybe, depending on how far you want to take it, you could return errors, warnings, info messages or codes in whatever your methods return so that the user of the SDK can decide what it wants to do with it.
** know-how abstractions: DB client/driver, ORM client, HTTP client, even clients that you build within your company/team, service classes, any piece of code that knows how to do something but doesn't decide when or why that happens.
Answer: Leave logging up to the application.
Logging in an SDK ties you to a particular logging framework. There have been many attempts to "standardize" logging in various languages, but few, if any, have achieved universal adoption. Using any of them will be an annoyance (or worse) to the developer of any application that uses a different one, or none at all.
Leaving logging up to the application will also help you write a better SDK. Too often, useful information is just logged instead of being exposed in the API.
Comment: Logging does not require frameworks if you don't want one. Every platform provides a rudimentary logging mechanism that doesn't tie you to anything, e.g. `stderr`, `OutputDebugString` on Windows,  etc
Comment: @whatsisname I sure don't want a library writing to `stderr`. Any library that does that is getting replaced.

Should An SDK Have Logging in the API


Why is a random variable called so despite being a function?

Question: According to my knowledge, its a function $P(X)$ which includes all the possible outcomes a random event.
Comment: Because it is neither random nor a variable. Old joke.
Comment: $X$ itself is the random variable.
Comment: I think a better term would be "random functional," since $X$ is by definition a measurable function.
Comment: As the answers here seem more like opinions than an exact reason, I wonder if it isn't just for historical reasons? Perhaps it was commonly referred to as a random variable prior to being formalized into a functional definition? It would also be helpful if the answers had clarified what exactly causes a random variable to qualify itself *more* as a variable than a function. E.g. why don't we just call all math functions variables?
Comment: Am seeing this years later. I cringe when I see notation $P[X]$. If $\Omega$ is the sample space and $\mathcal{F}$ is the set of events, then a random variable is a function $X:\Omega\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ (that is "Borel measurable"). The $P[\cdot]$ is usually the probability measure $P:\mathcal{F}\rightarrow [0,1]$. We can only take probabilities of events, not random variables, so if $X$ is a random variable then $P[X]$ does not make sense, though $E[X]$ does, or $P[\{X\leq 4.5\}]$ does.
Comment: The concept of how a random variable $X:\Omega \rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ is "random" is similar to the concept of how an event $A \subseteq \Omega$ can be "true" or "false" (how can a subset of $\Omega$ be true or false?)  It is just an interpretation of our probability theory, and it is not clear why someone would be confused about $X$ being "random" but not confused about $A$ being "true."
Answer: If you're in elementary probability instead of measure-theoretic probability, the following will make very little sense. My apologies if this is the case.
I'd say one reason is that we really don't look at the properties of random variables as functions from the underlying set of the probability space (usually denoted $\Omega$). You could change $\Omega$ all around, leaving the structure of $X$ behind, and we wouldn't really care. When I say the structure of $X$, I mean the measure it induces on $\mathbb{R}$, i.e. $\mu(I) = \mathbb{P} \left ( \left \{ \omega \in \Omega : X(\omega) \in I \right \} \right )$. We arguably care a little bit more about $X$ as a function when we start talking about collections of dependent random variables, but really we don't care about it then, either, since then we are just inducing a measure on $\mathbb{R}^n$ instead of $\mathbb{R}$.
Answer: I'm 4 years late :) but will answer anyway (mostly for my own sake).
In math you have, what they call in school, a variable $x$. You use this $x$ as a placeholder for some number. But what number? You can't say for sure, all you can say is that $x$ can vary in some interval $I=[0;1]$. That's basically all you know about $x$. Well, it's not much but it works for 99% of time when you need to model some phenomenon.
For example, let $x=bees/crows$. You go out and count bees and crows in some park, then you can say that $x$ is equal to some number. BUT Before going out you CAN'T guess the value $x$ will take, the best you can do is to say that:

"There could be no crows or no bees or some number of each in the
park. Yeah, and there is no such thing as negative number of bees, so negative numbers won't do. So, I can say that $x \in [0,\infty] \cup {?} $, where $?$ will
be used when I find no bees and no crows i.e. $x=0/0=?$ "

That's it! Now comes the random variable $X$. It has the same use as $x$ has but you can say A LOT MORE about $X$!!! You can expect $X$ to take some values which you couldn't do with $x$. Why? Because if there is $X$ in the book then there is a probability function $\mathbb{P}$ somewhere, you can't have one without the other otherwise you end up with dull $x$ instead.
For example, let $X$ be a random variable defined the same way as above $bees/crows$. Now you need to go to the park and count the bee and the crows. But before doing so, what can you say about $X$?

Well, $X$ belongs to the same interval $X \in [0,\infty] \cup ?$ but now we have a tool $\mathbb{P}$-probability, which we can use to GUESS the values $X$ will take. This is much more than we could have done with simle varibale $x$! Without $\mathbb{P}$ you can't even guess the value of $x$, but having defined $\mathbb{P}$ you can say that $X$ will take value 0.5 with probability 90% and thus I can save my energy and not go to the park at all!!!

P.S.
So with random variable you have additional information about the possible values $x$ can assume. So as a mnemonic you can makeup such "an equation" $$\mathbb{P} + x = X$$
Thus, it would be better to call $x$ as unguessable, and $X$ guessable variable. So, you can see that using x for both of them $X,x$ is justified since they are of the same "logic". Having $X$ explained as a function is not a bizarre thing because you can explain $x$ in the same way ($x$ is a function from set of hippos to the set of reals $\mathbb{R}$ i.e., $x:Hippos\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ so you use $x$ as a number of hippos in the park.
Answer: Because we think of it as a variable that take random value intuitively. Formally they are function. Just like why we call a sequence a sequence, or call an arithmetical function an arithmetical function, when they are actually the same thing formally speaking. Just to add to the issue, calling a variable also match the notation. For example, $X=Y+Z$ is NOT the usual function addition, but they are "added" in such a way that make sense when we think as variable.
Comment: You have seen cumulative distribution functions in elementary probability. These appear again: $X+Y$ is a new random variable whose CDF is $F(z)=\mathbb{P} ( \{ \omega \in \Omega : X(\omega)+Y(\omega) \leq z \} )$. One can assemble another probability space on which this is a random variable (it will be essentially the product of the original probability space with itself), but one rarely works out these details. Instead we prove that every random variable has a CDF and every CDF corresponds to a random variable and then forget about it the underlying details, for the most part.
Comment: I misspoke. What happens is similar, though. We don't add random variables given as functions on the same probability space. We add random variables by starting with a higher dimensional random variable and then adding up the components. There are only one dimensional random variables in this construction at all in the sense that: higher dimensional random variables can be built up from one dimensional ones (if we specify their (in)dependence); one dimensional random variables can be extracted from higher dimensional ones by integrating out all the other dimensions (i.e. marginalizing).
Comment: I'm really curious now. How would one define "addition" of random variables? I haven't taken a formal measure theory course.
Comment: Oh, I see. Thank you!
Answer: IMO, the random variable X can be considered as a variable resulted from a function, and it's often being used as a variable in $P(X)$. For example, $y=mx+c$ is a function, but it can be used as a variable to $f(y)=y^2$.


What's the best city for sound designers to start their careers?

Question: I realize that you need to go where the jobs are in order to make it as a sound designer. I know New York and L.A. are up there, but what about Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Honolulu?
Answer: I'd argue that it seems like the best city to start your career in is the city in which you're best connected - or can become best connected - to the audio post scene. That's not to say that once you're in the door that this particular city may provide a lifetimes' worth of career opportunities, but it'd certainly be enough to get you started and get you enough of a background to make a move to a bigger, or different, geographical market.
The other factor, I'd think, is what industry you want to enter into. Games is different than film, which is different than advertising, which is different than software/rich media, and some industries are far more distributed than others.
Sorry these aren't solid answers, but all markets are different, and it depends on what you're looking for, and what stage in your life you're at. Wanting to get a killer ground-floor opp in a city that you want to settle down in and start a family in is totally different than being right out of school and wanting to relocate a few times while chasing the right upwardly-mobile opportunities.
Comment: Everyone will have their opinion, I say LA, Vancouver, and London for both film and games. The SF Bay Area, Boston, and the Seattle area have a lot of game studios, NYC has a tad more film. Never forget advertising as a source for doing SfX for commercials, which puts NYC and Chicago on the list. Heck, Kansas City has major post-production now (cool, although not sure I grok why).
Comment: what if I'm the latter, and I want to work in games or film?
Comment: Agree with you, NJ - and don't forget about Boston, which has a bustling advertising scene.
Comment: Yes, but a lot of those areas with a happening advertising scene, like Boston, Chicago etc. still do their post-production in LA or NYC. I used to do sound design for ads in LA and most of our clients were from NYC, Chicago, or Boston. They all wanted to post their spots in LA...where they could stay in swanky Santa Monica hotels and avoid the cold.
Comment: That's a good point, Justin!
Answer: On the one hand you are best to go to where the work is, on the other I'd totally agree that you'd do well somewhere with your best connections.


Continuous flow calorimeter specific heat capacity of water heat loss problem

Question: In this experiment continuous flow calorimeter
I'm struggling to understand why the heat loss from the water is the same in both cases.
If the flow rate is different, there is a different mass of water passing through in the same period of time. If the temperature difference is the same in both cases, how can the energy loss be the same if the mass is different?
I'm probably just being an idiot but I've not found anything that explains this.
Many thanks in advance
Comment: They are assuming that the heat transfer coefficient between the flowing liquid and the surroundings is the same in both cases.  Heat loss H is assumed to be equal to the heat transfer area times the heat transfer coefficient times the log-mean temperature difference with the surroundings.
Answer: The heat loss they refer to in the experiment is the heat lost in the apparatus. Not the energy "lost" to the fluid.
If the temperature conditions are approximately the same in everywhere the apparatus in the 2 experiments, then heat loss to the surroundings will be approximately the same.
This is not saying that the same amount of energy is transferred to the liquid (this is not the heat loss).
In the 2 experiments different amounts of energy is transferred to the liquid, at different flow rates. But the apparatus as an object has the same temperature and therefore looses the same amount of energy = heat loss.
The identical heat loss creates the clever correspondence in the 2 experiments.


Modelling Data with Many Zeros - Principal Component Analysis vs Zero Inflated Models

Question: I have a data set (many continuous predictors, single response variable that is also continuous) with many zeros. I first used PCA and found the results to be very helpful. I further thought that the PCA scores remedy the zero problem by assigning the many zero values with numbers - but then I thought perhaps these PCA scores may not be relevant since they are based on a data set containing many zeros. PCA scores are orthogonal, they condense the data by many variables and also remove problems such as co linearity - but is it better to try some form of Poisson Regression or Zero Inflated Models?
Comment: I would look at both Zero-Inflated and Hurdle models.
Answer: The zero-inflated data issue is often an issue in community ecology data also. In ordinating sites by species communities, a PCA would result in just clustering of all of the sites near the origin. Thus we typically use distance-based ordinations, in which we calculate similarity/dissimilarity metrics for sites based on species compositions, and perform something like Principal Coordinates Analysis (PCoA) or Non-Metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS).
If you are trying for dimensionality reduction, researchers often do use the scores along the PCoA or NMDS axes as new variables too. here's a recent paper that did this using on the 'Bray-Curtis Dissimilarity Metric'.
These methods are pretty straightforward to implement in R - in particular, check out  the 'vegan' package.
Answer: In the world of single cell RNA-seq, methods have been developed that deal with zero-inflated data, and specifically performing PCA.
You could potentially use this method (ZIFA):
http://biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2015/06/14/019141.full.pdf
standard PCA on zero-inflated data will be very sub-optimal.