How old is Dottie Smith?

Question: Because she appears childlike in the film, I was curious how old Dottie Smith is in Killer Joe?
Answer: I don't believe it is ever explicitly said in the film, but it is supposed to be 20. This is what is stated in the play (see here for a link to a "snippet" from the play).
A lot of the confusion/controversy in the film comes from the "chicken" scene, where she mentions she is 12. This has been discussed by several people involved in the film, including Matthew McConaughey:

"The way I understand it," said McConaughey, "the MPAA's NC-17 rating
  is really about the chicken scene."
SPOILER ALERT: Skip the next paragraph if you don't want plot
  revelations.
Indeed, whatever mark "Killer Joe" may leave on America's movie
  conscience, it will forever be remembered for the "chicken scene," in
  which Joe forces Sharla, in front of her husband, to perform mock oral
  sex using a chicken leg. It is a seriously messed-up moment that spurs
  more violence.
Initially, McConaughey thought the harsh rating was because of a
  sexual scene between Joe and Dottie, in which Dottie recalls a
  physical encounter from her childhood when she was only 12. If you
  don't quite catch the dialogue, you might think Dottie, who is
  supposed to be 18 or 19 in the film and is played by the 23-year-old
  Temple, is saying she is 12.
"I thought that's what the MPAA was having trouble with, and I thought
  that could be a simple fix, raise the volume a bit, or get a line in
  there, 'How old were you?' The reason I thought the chicken scene was
  in the realm of R is because it's so deliberately provocative. It's
  hyper-reality. It's got so much what-the-F to it. It's the classic
  comedy setup. I thought there was something about the deliberation of
  it that lets it be absurd and lets you laugh, in the way that
  Tarantino can get away with some of that stuff."
The producers and Friedkin appealed to the MPAA.
"I believe it came back to, 'There are 20 or seconds that need to be
  cut.' And Billy was very clear, 'No way.' And I was on board with him.
  'Please, no. That's it. Let's wear NC-17 as a badge, and shine that
  badge and go forward.' "

However, it appears this confusion is something that has affected many online, with plenty of commentators incorrectly referring to her as being 12.
Comment: Apparently he asked how old she *was* when *she* had sex for the first time. I've added a link to the play now which will hopefully help.
Comment: I thought she said she was 12 before they had sex for the first time (he asks how old are you), not during the chicken scene?
Comment: Ah, yes, that makes sense.
Comment: @Insane: The first paragraph addresses her age. The second part is for people who are interested in why this is an issue, and the entire section is relevant. The question is answered in the first two lines though.

How old is Dottie Smith?


Make file in linux readonly

Question: Is there a way to make a file readonly permanently in linux. Or can I put a password to a file to make it readonly, then apply that password again to change its permission, or before they can alter it.
Comment: Like it's pointed out by `Sami-Laine`, you can't. However, if you're the admin & the person to know the root password you can. And not to mention `recovering root password` when you've access to hardware.
Comment: Not really, you could use `chmod 600` to make the file only read/writeable by *you* (and root) or do chown root:root so that only root password can change permissions. Either that or encrypt the file.
Comment: Who are you protecting against, or in other words, who would still be allowed to make the file read-write? You can't do anything that the system administrator or someone with physical access can't undo.
Answer: Only way to do that would be to write the file in question on a media which is writable only once, e.g. a CD-ROM.
Any other solution is possible to circumvent by root. If the file you'd like to make non-writable is one of system files, e.g. /etc/passwd, you'd either have to to live with many files being read-only or create a symlink from the file you want to protect, e.g. /etc/passwd to a file residing on your read-only media, but that again would be easy to circumvent by root, simply delete the symlink and create new content in its place.
So simple answer would be: No and there must be a better way of achieve whatever it is that you want to accomplish by making one or more files permanently read-only.
Comment: Basically, what I wanted to do is to protect lookup files from being altered. Thus the option of putting password to it and making it read only. Is there any other way of accomplishing this?
Comment: I read somewhere that SELinux is also able to enforce certain limitations that even root can't break.  That will only work if root can't turn off SELinux or boot from other media.
Comment: That is true, but it isn't exactly making a file read-only no matter what, only to make it better protected (root can still circumvent SELinux by turning it off, for example by booting a kernel which doesn't have SELinux compiled in or simply by using SELinux enforcement commands to turn it off).
Answer: The only way you could have a file that is read only and still on the system is have an ISO file that then contains the read-only file. Then the file will be read-only as the ISO filesystem for CDRoms is read only. You could then mount the ISO file somewhere to allow access to the file. You don't need to write the ISO file to a CD.
However, if you ever need to modify the file, you need to create a new ISO file with the new file within the ISO file system as you cannot modify files within an ISO file system.

Make file in linux readonly


Which exercises a cyclist should do before/after any ride?

Question: Any exercise that can help the muscles to have more optimism while riding, or relief sore on muscle. I also accept any special massage.
Comment: Do try and wait a day or two before accepting an answer.   The SE Tour under the Help menu is worth reading.
Answer: I get enough stretching while getting my pants on before a ride.  I take the first 10 minutes fairly slowly too, because its in traffic with lights.  A drink of water before you go helps with pre-hydrating.
Afterward, do a cooldown ride for the last 5-10 minutes, not too fast.  A hot shower helps, followed by clean fresh clothes.  Then go clean your bike.
Some people use sports massage or self-massage with a roller to beat up tense muscles.
Comment: I like to clean my bike before I shower, I tend to get dirty again while cleaning it!
Answer: I prefer light jogging or running before. If that's not possible then some light stretching would be good since it tends to warm up the muscles for more rigorous activity later on. Do not forget to hydrate enough before cycling, during the pre-workout. Even skipping ropes works if you can do that.
Afterwards, a stretching becomes mandatory to relax the muscles. Also, while you are riding long stretches and get wound up and take a small break, do stretch the legs and back a bit, it helps in the long run. This would keep muscle soreness at bay, if not avoid it completely, but at-least delay the onset of it by a significant distance eventually.
The more you practice these habits in accordance to what your body tells you, you will be able to realise which muscle is going to ache/pain next and adjust your speed, posture, pit-stop, hydration accordingly.
Answer: I have found that dynamic stretching, moving between yoga poses such as the downward dog and mountain climbers (lunges with your hands shoulder-width apart on the floor) so that you are able to do 8 repetitions, provides deep stretching after long rides.
Recently, I have worked on a series of seated, body weight movements with a goal of standing without using my hands to assist getting up. This is a feat for a mid 60's man.
Begin at a standing position and slowly lower yourself to the floor, knee first then seated in a crosslegged position. Open legs bent in front and turn to lower knees sideways on the floor, one heel in front and the other behind you. Then reach to the sky and pull yourself up to one knee. Then push with your other raised knee, foot planted in fron now to bring yourself to a standing position. Never use your hands to assist. Do this 8 times.
Answer: I'll answer a bit more broadly. Note that any links are not necessarily endorsements of the channel or organization who made the link, and that they're not guaranteed to be permanent. In all cases, I encourage you to google for alternative versions of the stretch, or alternate stretches targeting the same muscle group.
Warm ups
For many athletes, I suspect that just easing into your ride is sufficient. I think that the current recommendation by exercise scientists is not to stretch beforehand. In the worst case, this could lead to injuries, because you're stretching cold muscles.
If you're interested in further exploring pre-cycling warmups, you could search for dynamic stretching recommendations. Bicycling magazine (note: metered paywall) recently wrote one dynamic warmup routine. As you age, this type of warmup may become more beneficial.
Stretching key muscles
Afterwards, the quadriceps and hamstrings are obvious muscles to stretch. For the latter, I like to stretch them with a towel, as shown here, or you can replace the towel with a rubber exercise band.
We frequently get tight hip flexors. The first hip flexor stretch at this site is a good, basic stretch. I prefer a variation with a dowel. You can substitute a broom or similar implement for the dowel.
Self-massage options
This requires a foam roller or a substitute. Free substitutes include tennis balls (find a nearby tennis court and search around the perimeter) or rolling pins. You would focus on trigger points, or particularly sore points in a muscle. These are a good way to massage the quadriceps and adjacent muscles. I think that the quads near the knee and the illiotibial band (outer edge of the thigh) are prime targets here. I think that ITB is frequently tight in cyclists.
A Thera Cane is a device for massaging the upper back and neck. These can get sore. Again, a free alternative to this is a tennis ball, although those will be bigger than the heads on a Thera Cane or similar device.
Electric massage guns perform similar roles. I don't think they're exact substitutes for foam rollers, but they both do perform pretty similar functions and you absolutely don't need a massage gun. If you use one, I'd recommend using the softer head, and take care not to press into the muscle too hard. This was discussed on the TrainerRoad podcast (starting at 1:22). Currently, I think I wouldn't use a massage gun on my neck; it's hard to reach, and it's right by the spine. You might explore having a friend cautiously help you here.
Strength and conditioning
I think these are optional but potentially helpful. Cycling is a pretty static sport and we can develop muscle imbalances if we just focus on riding. Those can sometimes be the root cause of pain.
Push ups and bird dogs are two bodyweight exercises I tend to like to supplement with. You can search for other recommended core exercises.
If you have access to kettlebells, the basic kettlebell swing can be self-taught and is helpful. If you have a gym membership, you can seriously consider the deadlift and squat, but these require you to maintain good form, particularly as you add weight. I think that good form can be self-taught, but it's not a guarantee. For any weight exercise, coaching can be beneficial to help you master the basics of a movement. If you've had previous injuries, I'd more strongly consider finding a coach.
NashCat alluded to yoga and similar exercises. I think that spans both stretching and strengthening.
Last, bike fit
I've mentioned bike fit many times. When we buy bikes, we get a very basic bike fit by the salesperson. However, they aren't specialists in how our bodies interact with bikes. They may not catch more subtle issues like asymmetry (e.g. leg length functional asymmetry, or more rarely structural asymmetry). Also, as we age and as we get further into cycling, our bodies and preferences change. Many casual cyclists likely have their seats too low, but some performance cyclists think of that fact and end up pushing their seats too high and causing overuse injuries (personal experience).
While bike fitting is expensive, and while it's not actually a one-time deal (because bodies, needs, and preferences change), it is worth investing in a periodic fit. However, as with talk therapy, you may need to shop around for a good bike fitter, or to find a fitter that is good for you (i.e. the fitter-client interaction; a good bike fitter may just rub you the wrong way, or you might have found a pure roadie bike fitter but you're not that type of cyclist, etc). Good bike fits can prevent you from developing some injuries or sore spots in the first place. Depending on their expertise, some bike fitters may be able to recommend exercises to help you address weak points.


Can a broken chemical bond be made again?

Question: My question is that if we raise the temperature of a substance carrying chemical bond …….then will the bond be made again by itself by cooling down the temperature?
Comment: It depends on exactly what is heated and then cooled back down. Caramel can be made by appropriately heating a sugar and then cooling it back down to room temperature. More generally, thermal decomposition is a thing.
Comment: Happens all the time during melting and resolidification.
Comment: @EdV Yes, I think the answers might be assuming that the reactions are taking place (figuratively or literally) in a vacuum...
Comment: @Michael Agreed, but "a substance carrying chemical bond" is kind of broad, given that tens of millions of chemical substances are known and the number goes up every day. ;-)
Comment: Of course. An example: https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/175408/when-sunlight-breaks-bonds-whats-the-probability-the-bonds-can-reform-back
Answer: This is exactly what chemical equilibrium teaches. Take a reaction, for example
$$
   2\text{NH}_3 \leftrightharpoons \text{N}_2 + 3\text{H}_2
$$
which is endothermic. Increasing $T$ moves the equilibrium to the right, which means N-H bonds are broken to form N-N and H-H bonds. The opposite happens when temperature is decreased.
Answer: It is certainly possible. If you heat water so that it boils into steam then you are basically supplying enough thermal energy to break the hydrogen bonds that exist between water molecules in the liquid state. If you cool the steam so that it condenses into liquid water again then the hydrogen bonds are re-established.
Answer: The Key Concept is "Chemical thermal reversible reaction" , which is a type of the more general "reversible reaction" category.
[[ Most reactions are irreversible : Burning Cotton/Paper/Petrol/Wax will generate Smoke/Ash/Water/Gases , which can not be cooled to get back those Items , in general ]]
In general terms , "Chemical thermal reversible reactions" are like this , where ⇋ indicates the reversibility :
$$Chemical A + Chemical B + heat\ \ \ \ \unicode{x21CB}\ \ \ \ Chemical C + Chemical D$$
The reaction may occur when Certain Conditions ( Pressure / temperature / Concentration levels / ETC going higher ) are suitable to convert the Original Chemicals.
The reverse reaction may occur when those Conditions are reversed ( Pressure / temperature / Concentration levels / ETC going lower ) to give back the Original Chemicals.
Your Query is about "heat" being the triggering Condition. These are quite common.
Diverse Examples :
[1] Ammonium chloride + heat ⇋ ammonia + hydrogen chloride
[2] $(NH_4)_2SO_4 + heat\ \ \ \ \unicode{x21CB}\ \ \ \ NH_3 + H_2SO_4$ ( at $235^0C$ )
[3] blue hydrated copper(II) sulphate + heat ⇋ white anhydrous copper(II) sulphate + water
[4] If limestone is heated above $900^0C$ , it will decompose into calcium oxide (lime) and carbon dioxide. If the lime (calcium oxide) is cooled, it will recombine with carbon dioxide to give back the limestone.
$CaCO_3\ \ \ \ \unicode{x21CB}\ \ \ \ CaO + CO_2$
Check out this Article , from where I got these Examples , for more Details :
https://docbrown.info/page04/4_74revNH3a.htm
Answer: There are many thermally activated reactions that do not really seem to be reversible.
Metal oxidation or corrosion is the process of formation of an oxide film at the surface of a metal via reactions at the surface. It is known that all metals (except gold) are less stable than their oxides, this is why a metal exposed to an agressive environement (like air or liquid electrolyte) will be oxidized or corroded. This reaction happens faster at higher temperatures. Actually, in mining industries it is almost never the case that a metal can be extracted from earth in its pure form. For example aluminium is extracted as aluminium-oxide and then converted to pure aluminium via application of high voltages (electropolishing). Thus, this reaction can be reversed, but only with high voltages, not with low temperatures.
Hydrocarbon cracking is the process by which long-chain hydrocarbons and other organic molecules are broken down into smaller pieces via cleavage of carbon-carbon bonds. In thermal cracking this breakdown of large hydrocarbons into smaller ones is achieved by heating. Again here I have never seen this reaction being run backwards by cooling.


Wikipedia: how to edit *specifically* the introduction of an article?

Question: When an article consists of different sections and the first section does not contain a header (== header ==) it cannot be edited separately but you have to edit the complete article to change the section. This is especially bad if the page is very large where the complete page has to be loaded and saved back to the database.
Answer: In the Wikipedia Preferences page, go to the tab Gadgets subtab. Unde "Appearance`, check the box "Add an [edit] link for the lead section of a page".


Automatically add CPT UI categories to the menu

Question: I have created a CPT UI and selected built in taxonomies "categories (WP CORE)". I have added some records and every time I add a category and main record, I want them to display in the main menu automatically after adding. Is this possible? Currently I have to manually drag them into position in the menus section.
Answer: wp_nav_menus (Menus) are manually managed. There is an option to allow new Pages to automatically be added, but not new Categories. You could use a Category Widget instead - they automatically show a list of all Categories which have been assigned to at least one published post.


Is malware distributed with pirated software actually common?

Question: An often-repeated piece of conventional wisdom goes like the following.

Don't download pirated software, they often contain malware.

I'm curious to know if there are any hard facts to backup this claim.
I've seen plenty of software vendors making this claim over the years, but they have a vested interest in having people believe pirating their software is risky.
There are many anecdotal claims out there on the internet, such as Software Cracks: A Great Way to Infect Your PC, but even the provided stats are vague.
For the sake of this question, only pirated software distributed with  malware counts, not completely fake software which are actually just malware in disguise trying to trick people to run it.

Are there hard statistics to backup the claim that actual pirated software commonly contains malware?
If so what is the risk factor?
I realize the risk is non-zero, which many would consider good enough to steer clear of P2P networks (I only install software from trusted sources myself), but I'm curious to know how much of this is actually true and how much is just propaganda.
UPDATE: For the sake or narrowing down software, we can exclude operating systems like Windows.
Comment: What type of software are you referring to? This may be different from the point of view of an Operating System (i.e. Windows), mainstream application (i.e. MS Office or Photoshop), or a less-prominent software application.
Comment: Seein how the vast majority of people here makes a living from *selling* software, one would have to reply: _"Yeah, definitely. You're going to die."_  That being said: related to / near dupe of: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/124356/is-there-now-an-increased-risk-of-ransomware-in-pirated-software  ... no wait, that is the wrong dupe... there is an almost identical one from not long ago though...
Comment: From the experience of acquaintances who're into living free, just often enough that you should get real familiar with doing good, fully recoverable system backups and be willing to lose intermediate stuff.
Comment: @GeorgeBailey Good point. I wasn't considering operating systems. Tough to draw a line on mainstream vs non though.
Comment: Just considering a large company with >1m customers may have secured their software quite differently from an up and coming company with 1k users. It could also affect the percentage-share of malware-injected piracy.
Comment: Anecdotally I know it to be true, thanks to my kids.  For an actual study with hard numbers and statistics, there are some in here:  https://news.microsoft.com/download/presskits/antipiracy/docs/IDC030513.pdf (mainly in the footnotes.)
Comment: For the software companies, it's not just loss of sales, it's also pressure on support lines from idiots who want support when fake software from a piracy site messes up their computer.
Answer: Finding statistics for this is rather difficult, but here are some sources that are close (I say close, because most look at platforms that are often used to distribute pirated software, but also to distribute legal software).
The percentage of malware seems to vary greatly based on distribution - eg P2P like Kazaa and Limewire contain more malware than torrents - and type of pirated software.

Moshchuk et al performed a study were they crawled the web and looked for spyware. They classified the websites, and in the category "pirate", 7.1% of the domains contained some malware. Other categories were "adult" (7.5% contained malware), "celebrity" (7.6% contained malware), "games" (20% contained malware), or "news" (0% contained malware). Moshchuk et al, 2006. A Crawler-based Study of Spyware on the Web.

From a paper looking at torrent sites:

18.5% of all downloads contained malware Berns & Jung, 2008. Searching for Malware in BitTorrent.

Applications like key generation apps seem to be more likely to be infected (which makes sense, as they are smaller, and there is no need to first crack a legitimate program).

I wasn't able to find the original paper, but Bruce Hughes seems to have done research regarding malware in Kazaa:

Bruce Hughes [...] found that about 45% out of 4,778 files he downloaded with Kazaa contained malicious code Dowland & Furnell, 2006. Advances in Networks, Computing and Communications 3.

Here is a study analyzing Limewire:

Our results from over a month of data show that 68% of all downloadable responses in Limewire containing archives and executables contain malware. [...]  [I]n Limewire, the top three most prevalent malware account for 99% of all the malicious responses.Kalafut et al, 2006. A Study of Malware in Peer-to-Peer Networks.

From a 2006 study sponsored by Microsoft:

11% of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from Web sites and 59% of the key generators and crack tools downloaded from peer-to-peer networks
  contained either malicious or potentially unwanted software.Gantz et al, 2006. The Risks of Obtaining and Using Pirated Software

Note the phrasing of "potentially unwanted software", which includes toolbars, which are often bundled with non-pirated software as well.

This report by Microsoft states that 14% of Web or P2P downloads contained viruses, trojans, or keyloggers.

The warez scene sees things a bit differently of course. Here for example is an article which describes how the scene reacted to a group that distributed malware.
It should also be noted that legitimate software may not be free of spyware, especially DRM software may act as a rootkit and may contain backdoors or otherwise make a system vulnerable to outside attacks (see eg Sony BMG or UPlay).
Comment: Those stats are larger than I expected, I wonder if they are still roughly accurate today. I totally agree on the legit software having malware. Loads or legit software in the Windows world comes with a friendly little installer offering malware of some form or another.
Comment: Limewire and Kazaa were dirty - I could believe it
Answer: Downloading pirated software is a crime in many countries and visiting websites involved with pirating puts you at risk of getting viruses not only from the software itself, but also from rogue advertising since criminal gangs are involved.
Regardless the fact that many people download and run the pirated software and movies, nearly all of them contain some kind of malware. And moreover, these trojans hide themselves from detection pretty well as nobody cares about chasing malware in pirated content.
Even if antivirus grabs one, users normally put it into exception and don't care, based on an assumption that "antiviruses don't like cracked software", while in fact, cracked software and free movies do contain malware.
The file does not need to be executable to infect your PC. Normally it contains only a minimal payload in any type of file which then exploits a vulnerability in your PC so it can run and then it downloads the rest from the internet.
Also, extremely bad things happen sometimes. The best example was a pirated  version of XCode for MacOS which was backdoored and went undetected for long time in China. It wasn't classical piracy, it was just an unauthorized download, so if you have a chance to download authorized software, do so.
See this: Chinas Awful Internet Speed Has Spread Malware to Millions of Smartphones and this: Novel Malware XcodeGhost Modifies Xcode Infects Apple iOS Apps and Hits App Store
Note that it wasn't typical malware, but it was modified development stack which basically hid malware in numerous applications built with it and then spread onto mobile devices via the AppStore. So it was a free application, but unauthorized - that's why it's best to get only valid content.
Regarding legal software and malware, such as Windows 10, there have been rumors that Microsoft can read any data from your hard drive, which isn't true. The quoted text from the EULA which was published on many websites was modified by removing important words, so that the whole sentence has an incorrect meaning. The point is, that when you are using online services like Outlook365 or Google Drive, you send that data to the provider. However, this data is encrypted during transfer and at-rest in cloud and the key is derived from your password. For criminals it's easier to break into your PC than into the cloud.
Finally, the answer to your question based on statistical data from BitTorrent would be "Yes". I can't publish in which torrents I have found it - just how I found it. For example, I got one WMV file which wasn't detected by Panda, but then it downloaded another payload which was detected by Panda but not by Avast. In another instance, there was a program downloaded which had remote control built-in and it was contacting a host on the internet, which was was detected by the IDS. In another instance, the downloaded key logger software had a backdoor which was neutralized by Kaspersky AV.
I'd suggest trying trials and free games. There's more of them every year and these are very often full fledged products. You can also obtain free games during promotions and competitions. Very often there are lowered prices some time after the product is released (e.g. on Amazon). There are also many promotions in many online stores during certain periods during the year. Note that this is the case for the most well known and reputable sources. Any unknown website selling cheap software is very likely selling pirated copies and very likely with embedded Trojans. Try to pay less for the hardware, it's a lot cheaper today, you can buy very good business laptops and desktops for a third of the price.
Comment: Where are the "hard statistics to backup the claim that actual pirated software commonly contains malware" the question explicitly asked about? You mentioned "statistical data from BitTorrent" but forgot to mention a source for those statistics.
Comment: Hmm, the XCode issue does add a new dimension to this. XCode has been legitimately free for years, so it's not quite the same situation as a typical piece of pirated software, but definitely worthy of note.
Comment: Free trials and free games often approach being malware. Many free games contain excessive monitoring and tracking capabilities and come loaded with "helpful" bloatware and addons. Not to mention anticopying and anticheat provisions that are basically Trojans and RATs.
Answer: Let's talk about a hypothetical man named Jim. Jim is a good friend of mine, and Jim has downloaded hundreds of files illegally from major piracy sites on the internet. Jim has always been cautious, and only used the highly rated and downloaded files from these major websites. In Jim's entire life, he has gotten only a couple viruses from anywhere, let alone these files.
Certainly, if you merely go by the amount of malware you are likely to find anywhere on the internet there is an incredible amount. But the idea that every illegal file is very likely to have malware is downright ridiculous. This is a huge market driven by fairly honest if morally questionable people, and just like everything on the internet you're pretty safe if you use common sense.
I absolutely believe that programmers should be paid for their hard work, being one myself. That being said I will never agree with the scare campaigns that companies use to drive their bottom line. This is no different than telling people ad blocker will give them a virus. I think people should buy software because it's the best option available, not that they should be forced to because it's seen as the only option.
Comment: The problem with this pirate industry is trust. In case of legitimate software, you have a company name and adress you can complain to. They have a reputation they don't want to loose so they're less likely to publish malicious software. Pirates on the other hand have only pseudonyms which they can change any day. They don't loose anything by publishing malware.
Comment: Where are the "hard statistics to backup the claim that actual pirated software commonly contains malware" the question explicitly asked about?
Comment: How do you know JIm has only gotten a couple of viruses/trojan horses?  The best malware will be subtle and hide traces of its presence.  The question isn't about illegal files in general (like mp3s or movies where exploits would be harder and only work in flawed players), but specific to illegal software, where by definition the software has executable permission and may do more than you expect.  E.g., it could join your computer in a botnet that doesn't max out your CPU (but uses a core or two occasionally) or just steal passwords and other information.
Comment: I will admit that I can't provide any hard statistics, but this is because there is no way to gather statistics. Like gathering statistics about any crime, only the reported ones can be looked at. And the ones that are reported are, by nature, malware, making statistics useless. The only thing I can tell you is that Jim has been perfectly fine. And as to hidden malware, Jim uses anti-virus and monitors his computer and as far as he knows doesn't have any malware. He has also never had his identity stolen on any of his accounts.
Comment: @AndréBorie Considering all the spyware unabashedly distributed by legitimate companies, reputation damage  does not appear to be an effective deterrent.
Answer: Absolutely.
Many of the techniques pirates use to circumvent DRM are the sorts of techniques that also run afoul of virus scanners. It's no coincidence most pirated software tells you to disable your antivirus when installing.
The Sims had a big problem with hackers dropping RATs in pirated content of the game so they could spy on teenage girls' webcams.
Who ever knows what else they're packaging in there, but botnets don't build themselves. They could be mining bitcoins with your spare CPU cycles, or your PC could now be part of a distributed LOIC. Games are an easy vector for spreading malware since they're usually installed by kids who won't think twice about installing any- and every-thing with admin privileges.
Nobody has the time or inclination to reverse engineer every distributed copy of every crack on the market, which is part of the reason why you're told "piracy == malware" in the first place. There are enough bad actors in there for it to be a concern. You just never know what you're getting unless you're trained in malware reversal, in which case you're probably paid enough to purchase your entertainment like a responsible adult.
Answer: The cracks could contain viruses but probability of this is overrated.
To understand why the antivirus catches some cracks and marks them as malware (viruses, worms, etc.), you should know some things:

the way of working of cracks;
the way of working of antivirus software (when trying to detect unknown viruses)

Antivirus software detection approach
It uses few methods of detecting viruses. The simplest one is detection with matching parts of malware body (signature-base detection). It is powerless for advanced malware.
Other approach is emulation of executable file and looking for virus/malware behavior. What is virus/malware behavior:

Changing executable files.
Injecting code into program threads.
Monitoring  user's behavior: recording keystrokes, etc…

Crack - techniques of avoiding genuine checks
Now I will mention two kinds of implementing cracks and I will tell some words for each of them.
Patching an executable file
The crack opens a executable file (.exe, .dll, …) and make corrections inside it to avoid checks for legality. Changing executable files is specific action for viruses and the antivirus could create false positive result.
Injecting code into program threads
This is some kind of in-memory hack to cheat checks for legality. It is typical again for viruses and the crack could be detected as a virus.
Conclusion
So two of the most common approaches of implementing cracks are highly suspicious actions, which could make the AV software think the crack is a virus.
P.S. Compilers for example do some of this virus specific features. But compilers are signed with private keys of producing company (e.g. Microsoft), which guarantees (but not absolute) what this behavior is safe.
P.S.2. From time to time some AVs mark regular software as virus. In this case the producer company contact the AV and the case is investigated. When it is sure that that is a false positive, the AV is fixed. This procedure is not done for cracks, for many reasons.
P.S.3. I am almost sure that some corporations pays AVs to mark the cracks as malware. This is some kind of measure against software piracy.
Comment: I would like to see some sources, please.
Answer: I think it's worth mentioning that, in some targeted cases, it is a very real threat.
For instance, consider what happened to one of the Panic developers. As a result of the recent Handbrake incident, source code was potentially leaked to a malicious party, whose modus operandi would likely lead to cracked versions of the stolen software with malware embedded in it.
Although, as has been mentioned on here many times already, it's hard to find solid statistics on the matter for the general case. I think it's fair to say that you're more likely to run into trouble with pirated material than non-pirated material.
Answer: Yes. These games can appear to work, but they might actually have a virus in them. And some can just infect your computer without even starting the game! Like a "Continue download" icon or just putting a self activating virus there! tl;dr Yes it can.


Where does OS X store your current desktop picture?

Question: Where does OS X store your current desktop picture? I read somewhere else that it was in /Library/Caches/com.apple.Desktop. But I don't have that directory.
Answer: In current versions of macOS (at least in Mojave, probably since Sierra, not sure about others) the location of the desktop pictures are stored in a SQLite database located at ~/Library/Application Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db.
I did not dig into details of the database structure but you can get the file path with this command:
sqlite3 -readonly ~/Library/Application\ Support/Dock/desktoppicture.db \
    'SELECT * FROM data ORDER BY rowID DESC LIMIT 1;'

Answer: Starting in Lion, I don't think Lion caches desktop pictures anymore (possibly because you can have multiple at a time, for different desktops/spaces).
In that case, use plutil -p to dump the binary plist file in text form using terminal:
 plutil -p ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist

The Apple delivered desktop images are stored in /Library/Desktop Pictures , so you can eliminate those (or seek those if you used an Apple picture for one or more spaces). Before Lion, the preference file that controls desktop images is text format any to find out the current image, open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist in a text editor and find the first ImageFilePath property. That will tell you the path to the current desktop image.
Comment: I'm not seeing this file on mavericks, any other ideas?
Comment: That plist file doesn't seem to exist any more.
Comment: Correct.. plist and Desktop folder no longer exists in Big Sur.
Comment: Awesome! thanks! ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist is what I was looking for. And I'm still on snow leopard.
Answer: As of Catalina (MacOS 10.15.5) and Big Sur (MacOS 11.2), I can verify that this is now the location of the desktop background images.
System/Library/Desktop Pictures
If you want to navigate to it, you can press command K and paste the text below in.
file://System/Library/Desktop%20Pictures
1.4 GB too. : [
You'll need to turn off System Integrity if you wish to give write privs to that folder so that you can remove any of these images.
Answer: If you just go into system preference, then desktop. you can simple click and drag the little image you have onto your desktop.
Comment: This doesn't say where the photo is stored, just that you can copy it somewhere else.
Comment: That's a helpful tip because I just wanted to backup my current desktop file.  Also it provides you the exact filename, so you can search the filesystem and find the original location. The other methods didn't work for me with High Sierra
Comment: It does allow you to retrieve the image if that is what you want. Also once you drag it to your desktop you'll know the filename and then you can use Spotlight to search for the original copy, thus finding the location that you stored it in.


How do you adjust watering based on rain in the forecast?

Question: I have a few vegetables growing in containers.  Let's say the soil is starting to dry out, but it's supposed to rain tomorrow.  Would you fully water the plants now? Or just give them a bit of water to hold them over till the rain comes?
Comment: Hi, JDP!  Water them! I see that there is some great advice offered in the answers, here. But, I don't know if any of them are answering what you are asking, because more details are needed. You can edit your question above, so that everyone can see it. i.e.What type of vegetables are you growing, how big are the containers and what are they made out of? Are they recently purchased plants, seedlings, or established plants? How do you water them, and how much? Approximately where do these plants live? (If you are growing tomatoes or peppers, it may be a very different answer than other veggies.
Answer: If the plants are in containers, you water as normal - unless rain is torrential and persistent, it doesn't make much impact on potted plants, especially as the season progresses and topgrowth/foliage increases in size, helping to keep even more rain off the soil in the pots. I'm assuming the containers have drainage holes...
Answer: I wouldn't recommend the habit of giving any plant "just a bit of water" if that means "less than it really needs". Over time it can lead to poor development of the plant, like a shallow root system to catch most of the "bits of water" in the short term at the expense of getting a proper supply of water and nutrients from deeper in the soil in the long term.
If you think the plant needs watering right now, then water it normally. If you are confident it will survive until it rains tomorrow, don't water it at all.
A complete answer would depend on the local climate, the type of plants you are growing, etc, etc - in gardening, "one size fits all" rarely applies.
Answer: It depends on what the aim is.  If you want healthy looking plants, then sure, make sure that they have a regular supply of water.  But over watering also results in (micro)nutrient loss from the soil as it gets washed into the lower layers beyond the reach of the roots.  So, in this respect it might be better to retain the water in the soil (with mulching) rather then more frequent watering.
The other issues is the health benefits to you from eating the vegetables.  If the plant is stressed and susceptible to more insect attack, it starts to activate greater defenses against insects etc, and this leads to higher concentrations of antioxidants and other plant chemical defenses. Often these chemicals are considered beneficial for human health, though the taste might then tend to being more bitter.


Error while integrating OpenCV in Android Studio (color.xml, content not allowed in prolog)

Question: I have been trying to integrate/use OpenCV in Android Studio. But I keep getting stuck with this error.
C:\AndroidStudioProjects\IntegrateOpenCV341\app\src\main\res\values\colors.xml:1:1: Error: Content is not allowed in prolog.

I have tried to use:

OpenCV-2.4.9-Android-SDK

reason: Most tutorials (outdated) work with this version

OpenCV-3.4.1-Android-SDK

reason: Version with the latest tutorial (August 2018)

OpenCV-3.4.6-Android-SDK

reason: Second latest version of OpenCV sdk android

OpenCV-4.1.0-Android-SDK

reason: Latest version of OpenCV sdk android as of now

I went through these steps without error:

Import Module (in a project)
Add Dependency
Edit compileSdkversion and targetSdkversion of OpenCV's build.gradle to match with app's build.gradle
Made a Native folder (JNI folder) named jniLibs and copied the files inside sdk>native>libs to it
Typed in this code in MainActivity.java to check if it works*
package com.example.integrateopencv249; //also tried with 3.4.1 and 4.1.0

import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.Toast;

import org.opencv.android.OpenCVLoader;

public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    if(OpenCVLoader.initDebug()) {
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "OpenCV successfully loaded", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
    else{
        Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "OpenCV failed to load", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    }
}
}

But after I run the last step. It just fails.
This is what is inside the color.xml (it is the same with all versions of OpenCV sdk)
package org.opencv.core;

import java.util.Arrays;import java.util.List;

public class MatOfRect extends Mat {// 32SC4private static final int _depth = CvType.CV_32S;private static final int

These are the details of my Android Studio:
Android Studio 3.3.2
Build #AI-182.5188.8.131.5214842, built on February 16, 2019
JRE: 1.8.0_152-release-1248-b01 amd64
JVM: OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM by JetBrains s.r.o
Windows 10 10.0
(All of the SDK Tools are installed)

I tried to search for solutions to this problem but none are helpful to my situation.
Please help me :( I'm a complete beginner and I really want to start learning how to use OpenCV in Android Studio. I'd appreciate any help or suggestions.
note: I didn't continue OpenCV 4.1.0 after the first step because the module name only shows "java" and doesn't automatically update to the format "openCVLibrary410" as all the other versions before it do.
Answer: Errors are caused by unparsed code, not only in color.xml but to all of xml files. Solved by coding in the right contents in the right format.


Can I monitor contract's activity on any explorer?

Question: Is there any way I can use a blockchain explorer or similar tool to find out how much activity there is on addresses for specific ethereum based services (Digix, Augur etc. pp.)?
Comment: WHAT IF A SMART CONTRACT / TOKEN IS NOT VISIBLE ON THE ETH EXPLORER ? A coin for example - written as a smart contract on the eth blockchain. If its not visible, is it a real decentralize coin ?
Answer: Yes you can if you know the address. Just use any of the blockexplorers such as :
Etherscan.io, Etherchain.org or Live.ether.camp. You can see past transactions and the internal contract invocations. This gives you a good indication of "activity".
For more information on block explorers see What Ethereum blockchain explorers exist?
Answer: Using blockchain explorers for quickly checking transaction or a specific smart contract activity is ok. But it gets tricky when you want to do real monitoring on the long run as :
1 - you don't have any control on what is scanned or what information
2 - the service is not local, so you are at risk any moment the service is
    not available
3 - Since these explorers take the task of monitoring and reporting
    activity about the
    whole blockchain you will end up with some restrictions etherscan, for
    the example doesn't process requests that return more than 10,000
    transactions.
The solution is to create a local tool that you can run on your system or server that will monitor specific addresses you specify and return the whole activity they conduct.
Checkout
https://github.com/Neufund/smart-contract-watch
it's open source so you can anything you want with it.
Answer: Yes. Bitquery gives you APIs and explorers to do real-time and detailed monitoring. The builder is easy to use, you can just click select to add data.
For example:

You can track dex trades
Transactions
Balance History for an Address and so on...
Start with the Explorer

Complete docs -> https://docs.bitquery.io/v1/
Answer: You can use a number of blockchain explorers to see the transactions coming to/from a given Ethereum address.
To do this through EthTools.com you can simply enter the address in the search bar displayed on the right hand side of the header.

This will take you to a screen similar to the below from which you can deep dive into the details of specific transactions.

Disclaimer: My company built EthTools.com
Answer: At QuickBlocks, we're building a fully client-side decentralize explorer. All the solutions mentioned above are centralized, and there, in our opinion, less applicable.


Research on homophonic voice-leading principles in (3-part) Black Gospel music and related genres?

Question: I'm working on a thesis critiquing functional theory broadly, as incarnated in the text The Musician's Guide to Theory and Analysis (4th ed., 2021), but with one specific gripe: homophonic voice-leading as present in Black Gospel music and related genres is not touched whatsoever.
In a nutshell, here is my intuitive understanding of the SAT 3-part homophonic syntax, based on having sung in churches and Black Gospel choirs for 7+ years and having perfect pitch:

Either S, A, or T can have the melody. The other two parts form a diatonic triad in any inversion (usually major/minor, sometimes diminished, rarely sus2/sus4), or occasionally a chromatically modified triad, or--rarely--a quartal voicing accomplished by moving the lower voice of a first-inversion triad down by step (bottom-to-top T-A-S: G-Bb-Eb --> F-Bb-Eb). There is usually no bass part in the choir.

These triads are almost exclusively in closed position; i.e. no additional chord member of the triad could fit, say, between S and A or between A and T. This means the intervals between S and A are almost always a 3rd or 4th, as are the intervals between A and T, except as part of the occasional sus2 or sus4 triad. So voicing a C triad may be done (spelled ascending bottom-to-top, T-A-S) as C-E-G, E-G-C, or G-C-E, but not C-G-E or some other open-voicing permutation.

The 3 upper parts move in almost exclusively oblique, parallel, or similar motion. Sections with contrary motion are not unheard of, but very rare since voicings are almost always closed. If more contrary motion were allowed with non-stagnant melodies, the distance between parts would by necessity change and voicings would be more open at some point.

"Overlapping" is common if any of the voices leaps by more than a chord tone, as in "Okuhle Nomusa". The voices do not (almost ever) cross, but, say, the T may leap to a note higher than the note the A was previously singing.

These SAT triads may combine with underlying band accompaniment to create extended sonorities, e.g. in "My Hope" (end of the chorus, see transcription below):

<code>Vocal chords:           Em Em  D           Bm     A

Accompaniment chords:   Em           G                        A

Combined sonority:      Em     Em11  G∆9   G∆7   G13(#11)     A

Lyrics:             God you   are                my     hope

Roman numerals:         ii             ii11      IV9      IV7     IV13(#11)         V

A    A     A

N.C.           Em         G∆7                A

A              Em13(no7)  G∆13(#11)          A

All day long

(V)            ii13(no7)  IV13(#11)          V
</code>
I intend to focus on this type of voice-leading because:

It is very similar in scope to the more classically familiar 4-part writing; the goal is to harmonize a melody in some form or another.

However, the principles are an opposite extreme: parallel motion is highly valued, since the goal is to enrich or thicken a single melody, so that interdependent voices are heard together, rather than creating counterpoint and independent voices which can readily be followed separately. Singing a cappella is rare but possible (with the addition, perhaps, of a contrapuntal bass part which is usually absent), and 3-part a cappella is used as a break from a fuller choir-and-band texture. However underlying chordal accompaniment usually comes from the band, and the bass voice is played in a pinch by a piano's left hand or, most typically, a bass guitar.

It may be uniquely familiar to some incoming undergrads (like me) with experience in gospel choirs.

It should be somewhat familiar to many incoming undergrads, because taking 2 (or 3) of the voices described above in a different genre can (I hypothesize) yield folk and pop vocal arrangements. There is just so much homophony in vocal parts out there. I can hear it.

My question is: Who has studied this? Has anyone written extensively about 3-part Black Gospel writing already, or its relatives in pop/folk? I've been searching JSTOR and Google Scholar and drawing a blank. People that I've read just say the voices move in parallel, or say things like, sometimes the chords match the accompaniment, sometimes they don't. If there is a systematic syntax already written like what I've outlined above, but with more detail, I have yet to read it. It would be so useful for me.
Thanks in advance!
Research I've looked at so far:
"Analyzing Gospel" (Shelley 2019)–thanks ttw, their discussion of choral inversion as an intensification technique in their case studies is very useful.
"Musical Style and Experience in a Brooklyn Pentecostal Church: An "Insider's" Perspective" (ML Butler 2000)–more wonderful ethnomusicological connections to be made here, and good explanations of extended chordal accompaniment, but little on the structure behind vocal parts.
"Exploring the Gospel Fusion Arrangements of The Recording Collective" (Williams 2020)–similar to Butler 2000. Gets close to what I'm going for, but lacks detail (quote from p. 40 by header is closest):

In gospel music, the melody and harmonies of the vocalists are informed by the underlying instrumental accompaniment. However, there are moments of harmonic disconnect, in which dissonances are formed between the voices and instruments. Jefferson says, "the chord progressions in the instrumental part do not necessarily have to agree with what is being sung by the choir; this creates a very dense texture and at times might produce dissonances that may sound erroneous to the listener unaccustomed to this practice" (Jefferson 2013)

Jefferson's 2013 book still focuses more on piano technique, however, and I would theorize these dissonances (usually) as extended/enriched consonances. I want details on how the dense texture is created and which rich consonances are produced.
"Making Music" (Ch. 5 from The Art of Worship, Scheer, 2006)–section on vocal harmonies–gets pretty close to what I am looking for. Its pedagogical explanation of how to write 3-part is a great start. However, this is an applied text written for worship leaders, rather than an academic text written for music theorists. And, once again, there is little about how rich consonances are created by apparent "harmonic disconnect".
"African American Gospel Piano Style In The 21st Century: A Collective Case Study" (Vester 2020)-confirms that the piano was once a doubling of choral parts which choristers could listen to in order to find their part, but now it is far different: complex, soloistic, polychordal. Little detail is offered on the particulars of these polychords (extended sonorities), simply that they are difficult for some accompanists to play (either inexperienced or more traditionally trained accompanists).
"The Whitfield Sound - Unearthing foundational elements of contemporary gospel music"-what is described as "unavailable tension" in Fig. 1 (numbered page 10) is the sort of choir-accompaniment interaction I am interested in. This provides an example of tension where it is actually quite difficult to theorize it as a single extended sonority:
Choral F (triad = F, A, C, approached and left homophonically) sung over accompaniment A13 (A, G, C#, F#, B) results in m2s between F, F# and B, C, and 7 distinct pitch-classes heard at once, verging (briefly) on avant-garde material as opposed to extended tonality. Two chords later, the combined sonority is more readily analyzable as an extended G chord: Choral Em (E, G, B) over G7(13) (G, F, B, E) reduces to just a combined G7(13).
Yet this source (unfortunately for me) does not spend much time detailing this type of relationship, and rather focuses on other aspects of Whitfield's music.
So: Any lightbulbs? i.e. any systematic treatment of homophonic choral part-writing, and its relationship with accompaniment to create extended tonality? :)
And/or: Any extra tidbits? More case studies like those I've discussed above would be helpful too!
Answer: There are probably quite a few articles in the music journals on the subject. Also, I would guess that there are some dissertations available. I found this https://online.ucpress.edu/jams/article/72/1/181/109694/Analyzing-Gospel
with a short search.
As most gospel music doesn't use contrasting music lines (lacking the bass that country, Latin, and I'd guess other popular styles have), most of the stuff in Clendinning and Marvin about counterpoint is irrelevant.
Comment: Thanks for that paper! I was just starting to read that yesterday.
Comment: Their discussion of inversion as an intensification technique in their case studies is very useful.
What I am most interested in is a detailed, systematic syntax of 3-part (vocal) homophony and its combination with (instrumental, polyphonic) accompaniment to create a richer polyphony. Case studies are great to the extent that they get at the detail of part of it. I also really appreciate the ethnomusicological connections they make. If there is one unified, systematic treatment of 3-part, though, that would be so golden.


Gamma distribution different derivations

Question: According to this link -
http://cnx.org/contents/2d28fe6a-5000-454e-a2b9-6fbca9e9b56c@3/THE_GAMMA_AND_CHI-SQUARE_DISTR
the waiting time of the $k$th event in a poisson process is gamma distributed. Also, we know that if we square $n$ normal random variables, we get a gamma rv (a particular case, the chi-squared). Apparently, two unrelated paths have led us to the same distribution.
But are they really unrelated? Is there a way to connect them (is the waiting time for the $k$th event in a poisson process the sum of squares of $n$ normals in some intuitive way)? Should one even expect to find such connections when the same distribution is encountered through unrelated paths?
Comment: "*is the waiting time for the kth event in a Poisson process the sum of n normals in some intuitive way*" - read your preceding text, and note that this doesn't say the same thing. Please edit so that everything corresponds.
Comment: The waiting time of the $k$th event in a Poisson process is the sum of $k$ iid exponential variates.  So you merely need to explain why the sum of the squares of two standard normal variables is exponential.  Maybe a maximum entropy connection?
Answer: Well, for one thing, one cannot derive a gamma distribution by assuming a discrete non-negative integer variable and then saying that now, all of a sudden let us remove the concept of whole counting numbers of events and allow all reals. For example, there is no such thing as a transcendental event like rolling a six-sided die and getting $\pi$ rather than a whole number from 1 to 6.   In specific, one cannot say without fear of contradiction that a gamma function is a generalized factorial, because that puts the "cart before the horse." However, one can say that a factorial is a special case of a gamma function, that discards negative reals, and only considers non-negative integers. So the thought experiment error is like saying that a gamma distribution is a generalized exponential distribution, where it is more accurate to say that an exponential distribution is a degenerate case of a gamma distribution.
In order to make this clear consider that we would not call $y=b x+c$ a quadratic equation. It is a linear equation. Sure, it is a degenerate or trivialized case of a quadratic, i.e., $y=a x^2 +b x + c$ for $a=0$. What a linear equation lacks is a square term, i.e., a linear equation does not have the same form as a quadratic because it lacks a quadratic term. However, linear equations also lack a cubic term, an $x^\pi$ term and, any other nonlinear function one cares to consider, such that calling a linear equation a quadratic is only true in one out of a transfinite number of other possible imaginary circumstances. So too an exponential distribution can arise not only as a degenerate or trivialized gamma distribution, (as $x^0=1$) but in myriad other cases as well. So one has to say that a gamma distribution is one of a very large number of generalizations of an exponential distribution, e.g., see generalized exponential distribution.
What is the danger in that you ask? Well for one thing, sloppy thinking leads to mistakes, and there are many of them, including the "derivation" alluded to above, that a gamma distribution arises from a Poisson distribution. Let me be clear, that is not the case. Rather, the Poisson distribution is a special case of a gamma distribution. Another example arises when examining tail heaviness. The correct method for comparing tail heaviness is to contrast so-called "survival" functions (more accurately called complementary cumulative distribution functions,  ccdf's, $1-F(x)$,  when continuous) and the correct procedure for this is given as examples on this site at Which has the heavier tail, lognormal or gamma?. Now when our unchecked inductive urge is let run free, mistakes are made, for example, by stating that various tail heaviness can be classified into groups, where one of the groups is functions of "exponential tail heaviness". The mistake (applying L'Hôpital's rule to non-indeterminate forms) is replicated throughout the literature, and is documented as a mistake in the Relative Tail Heaviness Appendix section of an article, which relates that "For continuous functions, pdf binary comparison through survival function ratios avoids false attribution, for example, classifying the GD (sic, gamma distribution) as having an ED (sic, exponential distribution) terminal tail, whereas in fact, the exponential has tail heaviness that is within the GD tail heaviness range...", and "...Even when two functions are in the same category of tail heaviness their range of heavinesses might not overlap, which may seem counterintuitive, but implies once again that only binary tail heaviness comparisons make sense."
Now finally, we have said that a gamma distribution does not arise from a Poisson distribution, so then, from what does a gamma distribution arise? One thing should be clear, it does not arise from an Erlang distribution despite incorrect claims to that effect, e.g., see this mistake, which is yet another attempt to use uncritical inductive thinking. Rather, it may arise from a gamma Lévy process, where the difference in approach is that a Lévy process begins with a real number variable treatment (i.e., not integer), and where no claim is made that it has to arise only in that context.
The next question relates to the Chi-Squared distribution, and again the treatment in the OP's link is deficient. Chi-squared implementations, unlike the text of the OP's link, have $ν$, degrees of freedom, to be any positive real number. Thus, there is an actual relationship between the gamma distribution and the Chi-squared distribution for continuous variables. Thus, the understanding that $v$ corresponds to a whole number of normal distributions is not actually a derivation of Chi-squared, just an example special case application of it. That is, in the OP's link:
" Let now consider the special case of the gamma distribution that plays an important role in statistics. Let X have a gamma distribution with $θ=2$ and $α=r/2$, where $r$ is a positive integer. "
If we drop the unnecessary $r\in\mathbb{Z+}$, and require instead that $r\in\mathbb{R+}$, then the substitutions above yield a more general than integer df derivation of Chi-squared. However, the obverse is not true, that is, Chi-squared does not provide a derivation of a gamma distribution because the number of parameters has decreased by 1 from setting $θ=2$, and generalizing Chi-squared does not imply only a gamma distribution but other things as well, for example, see Generalized Chi-squared distribution .
The final question is should we expect distributions to be related through alternative paths, the answer to which is yes, we should. For example, see this answer which shows how general interrelationships are between distributions and how, in specific, gamma distributions relate to other distributions.


Require exact matches for Google Alerts?

Question: I've got a Google ego-Alert set up for "billpg". It keeps finding alerts for "Bill Page". Is there any way, please, to have an alert for exactly billpg and not Bill Page who I'm getting throughly sick of hearing about?
Answer: Google Alerts use the same search syntax as when you use Google Search. So if you don't want certain words or phrases appearing, you can exclude them with the minus (<code>-</code>) operator.
Here's an example that alerts to traffic, but excludes those that concern safety:

Search query: traffic -safety

To exclude a phrase, wrap it around quotes. In your case it would be:

Search query: billpg -"bill page"
Answer: If you want results about billpg and not Bill Page, change your query to "billpg" (in quotes). Putting a word in quotes forces it to be an exact match.


Is it possible to re-import a Trello board?

Question: After exporting a Trello board as JSON or CSV,
is it possible to import it again? (to the same/new account)
Answer:
If you exported the JSON with the intention of re-importing the board elsewhere, you should transfer the board instead.
If you want to copy the board to a new team:

Copy the board you want in the origin team (Menu > More... > Copy Board)
Transfer the board copy to the destination team

If you exported a JSON and you don't have access anymore to the original board, then you should follow boardtc's advice.
Comment: Link to boardtc's advice?
Comment: Uh, I'm afraid the comment was deleted.
Answer: Trello offers export options for JSON and CSV export from the menu on the right of the board

You can then import using the (free) import power-up. If you have exported as JSON you will need to convert that to CSV for the importer, but that is easy enough to do with a service like JSON to CSV


How to Make One Player Understand the Party System

Question: In Jade Regent, I have a new(ish) player. She has played one other game of Pathfinder under an incompetent DM, so she's still learning the rules. She also plays a lot of RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout, and wants to be the best at sneaking, melee, archery, magic, and skills all at once, since those games allow for that. Her friends have said she's not good at teamwork. Is this situation salvageable, and if so, how do I make her understand the point of a party system?
Comment: There seems to be two questions here: "how to explain to the player that you need to specialize to be effective" and "how to help the player become a team player." These are not the same question - a jack-of-all-trades character can be a great support character if played by a team player, and an expert at only one thing can be an uncooperative solo act, if played by a player who doesn't like to team up.
Comment: What happened when you tried talking to her?
Comment: What does "not good at teamwork" mean?
Comment: When I talked to her she kind of just brushed it off and half-heartedly said she'd try to do better. As for what "not good at teamwork" means, I noticed she doesn't take part in the planning process and just does what she wants in the end.
Answer: Try comparing it as different jobs and tasks
You can try comparing classes and their roles as jobs in real life. You call a locksmith when your lock is broken, not a plumber or a lawyer. Of course, you could try in real life to train a wide set of usefull skils, but you probably lack the time and will to do so. As in real life, you generally prefer to focus your studies in a field to become efficient in it.
Should you translate it to game such as Skyrim, show the barbarian as a Companion (fierce warrior), the rogue as a member of the Thieves guild and so on...
Of course, she could be the Dragonborn and master all the skills... If she was lv 90, as in the game. She's only beginning her journey, and will grow more powerful with time. But as she isn't prominent in all fields, she must learn to cooperate with ally who possess complementary skills.


Bunny-sitting at home exclusively or not?

Question: When going in vacation for an extended period of time, meaning 1 or 2 weeks, would you consider leaving your bunny to a pet-boarding place? Knowing that rabbits are vulnerable to stress, would it be safe for them?
Answer: Most pet boarding places do not have sufficient experience to board rabbits.  Many will not take them, and some that will do not know how to care for them.
You are correct that stress is potentially fatal see the related question Can a rabbit be scared to death?
In my area there is a local rabbit rescue (http://www.rabbitwranglers.org/) that also provides provides boarding services. In the case of this organization, there is no facility, everybunny is in someones house. You take your rabbit that is being boarded to the house of one the volunteers, they care for it while you are gone, watching for diet changes which is one of the primary concerns often overlooked by the inexperienced. In general providing a safe home environment for your bunny. You may be able to find similar services in your area.
The other two options I would consider:

Have a neighbor come to your house daily, to check the food, water, hay and empty the litter box.
Take your bunny to friend or family member.  A cool place in garage or basement with daily care is going to be much less stressful then a boarding house with rotating staff.

Lastly take you bunny with you.  We take our rabbits camping on short and long trips, I have a brief answer on traveling with rabbits here
Comment: I'm with you on every bit of this one. I have had a couple rabbits now and they are very sensitive to change. My current one doesn't even like it when we move the furniture around. We usually make sure to leave him plenty of food and water when we go places, as long as it is only a couple to 4 days.


How do I fix input lag on my new HDTV

Question: I recently purchased a new 55 inch LED HDTV, I hooked my ps3 up to it (HDMI) and now I experiance about a half a second delay when I press a button and the action is preformed on the TV. This never happened on my old TV, I've looked around and can't find any solutions help! I'm using a Kogan KALED55XXXWA and as far as I know there isn't a game mode.
Comment: Is it literally a half-second? 500ms input lag would be astronomical, it's usually in the ballpark of 20ms-75ms, which is a few visible frames worth of lag in most games.
Comment: it may depend on the refresh rate of your TV. But besides that I can't give any explanation for that. Ben Brocka's answer seems to explain your problem though
Answer: Input lag is generally controlled by the TV and generally not something you can affect yourself, outside of using "game mode". If possible, things like disabling higher than 60Hz display modes and any form of postprocessing can help display lag, but there's often no option for doing this outside of "game mode". You can try disabling any advanced video features the TV allows you to and see if that decreases lag.
This is why it's important to check the input lag of a TV or monitor before purchasing, as it's for the most part out of your control. Make sure you're not using a capture device device between the PS3 and TV as those can introduce lag as well; I personally use a splitter to get the feed direct to the TV and direct to the capture card. If you're using a splitter, make sure it's a powered splitter.
This review indicates the Kogan LED 55" TV might have upwards of 70ms of input lag, which is fairly bad.
Comment: What does it mean if the tv is 120hz?
Comment: @TheSpiderBite the input is 60Hz, so the added frames are all post-processing. That's why, if possible, you should disable higher than 60Hz display rates on high Hz TVs (it often isn't possible, however).
Comment: 70ms is less than 1/10 of one second.  The OP said he is experiencing about half a second of input lag, which would be 500ms.  There must be more to this.

How do I fix input lag on my new HDTV


Seeking title to a short SciFi story from the 50' or 60's

Question: I am trying to learn the title of a short story that was about various races of beings on a ship heading to invade earth.  They feel smug and more advanced then the inhabitants of Earth.  However, their state of the arts weapon are something like muzzle loader. At the end of the story, much to the surprise of the aliens, when they land, they are made short work of by the machine guns and other weapons of Earth, that they had no experience with.
Anyone have any insight to this title?
Comment: Earlier question on the same story: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/7184/short-story-of-a-race-who-discovered-primitive-but-subtle-interstellar-travel http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/33341/short-story-where-ftl-travel-is-super-simple
Comment: I remember this story - the principles of interstellar travel are relatively simple, obvious to humans when we see it, but until seeing it, we never think of it. Societies tend to stall technologically when they can raid other planets for resources, so our inability to travel puts our other tech far beyond the aliens we encounter, at least for a while... if we are talking about the same story, I think it is more recent... 80s at least...
Answer: The Road Not Taken, Harry Turtledove:

The story is told through limited third person point of view, with most of the story concerning a single Roxolani captain. During a routine journey of conquest, they happen upon Earth. The Roxolani anticipate a simple and rewarding campaign, as they can detect no use of gravity manipulation, the cornerstone of their civilization. Humanity is awed by the invaders, as the maneuverability granted by that technology suggests the rest of their civilization is equally impressive. But as they begin their assault, things take a turn for the absurd—the Roxolani attack with matchlock weapons and black powder explosives. Humans retaliate with automatic weapons and missiles. The battle is short, and most of the invaders are killed. A few are captured alive.
When they are interrogated, the truth becomes evident. The Roxolani's method of manipulating gravity is absurdly simple, and they were thus able to begin utilizing aircraft, spacecraft, and even faster than light travel during their Age of Sail.


Prove that $n \geq \sqrt{n-1} + \sqrt{n}$ for $n \geq 4$

Question: I am trying to prove that $n \geq \sqrt{n+1} + \sqrt{n}$ for $n \geq 4$ (n in naturals of course). I am not sure if there are any specific inequalities that could help me out here. I also know that 4 is not exactly the "base" case, I just chose it arbitrarily as I am trying to compare two series. I attempted induction but am not sure if it is the correct way to do it.
Comment: The inequality in the title is different from the one in the question body.
Answer: Using that $4\leq n $, written as $2\leq\sqrt n $, we have $$
\sqrt {n-1}+\sqrt n\leq2\sqrt n\leq (\sqrt n)^2=n.
$$
Answer: Simply, $\sqrt {n-1}+\sqrt{n} \lt {2\sqrt n}$
$\forall n\in N$
For $n\ge 4,$ $2\sqrt n \le n$
Thus we have proved that $n \gt\sqrt {n-1}+\sqrt{n}$
$\forall n \ge 4$
Answer: Since $a+b\leq\sqrt{2(a^2+b^2)}$, we obtain:
$$\sqrt{n}+\sqrt{n-1}\leq\sqrt{2(n+n-1)}=\sqrt{4n-2}\leq\sqrt{4n}\leq n$$


Can the TFT in LCD displays be made in the nanometer range?

Question: Can the TFT elements and hence the pixels in an LCD display be made in the nanometer range? Say 10nm x 10nm?
Comment: What is the use of 10 nm pixels for light with a wavelength between 400 and 800 nm?
Comment: why are you asking? .... what are your thoughts about this?
Comment: The 10nm x 10nm is approximate size of the TFT elements but not for the sole purpose of transmitting light. In fact the elements might as large as 100nm x 100nm. I'm just throwing out small values to indicate the TFT will be small. I'm more concerned with having a low size (high resolution) of LCD elements to manipulate. And if, and it's a BIG "if", many 10nm x 10nm elements in concert are working together they could be used form structures with the LCDs other than those used for the standard (large) RGB pixels.
Answer: TFTs features are made by repetitions of a coat,photoresist,etch process
using ordinary ultraviolet light same as PCB manufacture.
Even X-ray photo-lithography is challenging at 10nm (Intel makes chips with 14nm features. that's feature size, actual transistors will be several times larger.


If a cohen's wife has an affair with a non-Jew after they are married do they have to get divorced?

Question: I know that someone is considered a zona if they have had forbidden relations including with non-Jews and those in their family but what if this were found to happen whilst they are already married so do they have to get divorced?
Comment: You include two questions, Wife and Cohen Wife. Cohen wife has two problems. EG in a case of rape, when an Israel wife isn't prohibited, a Cohen wife is. For a Cohen, there is a prohibition called Zona. A forbided relationship or a relationship with a Pasul, even if permitted makes her a Zona.
Comment: אשת כהן שבויה אסורה לבעלה
Comment: Welcome to Mi Yodeya. Always ask a rabbi about practical cases, but as a general rule, even if it was before they were married they would have to get divorced.
Answer: We'll add sources later, but the answer is certainly yes. Any married Jewish woman who willingly sleeps with another man (Jewish or otherwise) needs to get divorced, and a kohen's wife has to do so even if she's raped, God forbid.


Does greater mage hand satisfy the requirement to access the arcane trickster prestige class?

Question: My character is a spellthief and it has no access to level 0 spells. I'd like to get some levels as an Arcane Trickster, but I only have access to Greater Mage Hand, could it be enough to qualify for the prestige class?
Answer: Technically, no, mage hand and greater mage hand are separate spells and knowing greater mage hand doesn't count as knowing mage hand. You cannot qualify for arcane trickster with greater mage hand.
But the only reason that's true is because arcane trickster was written before greater mage hand existed. Ask your DM—I'd be surprised if they had a problem with it.
But note that arcane trickster isn't a very good choice for a spellthief—you already get sneak attack, which is the main advantage of arcane trickster, and arcane trickster won't do anything for your spell stealing. Ranged legerdemain is cool and all, but you can do much more with spellthief than you can with arcane trickster.
Comment: thank you, I would like to know more about the alternatives for the spellthief you aformentioned. I know I should open a different thread, but could you give me some ideas for it?
Comment: @Verdict00 Yeah, that would be a separate question, and you would need to give a lot more detail on what exactly you were looking for from the character, but if you're thinking of multiclassing, you'll want Master Spellthief from *Complete Scoundrel*. It's not perfect, but it helps you not lose too much spell-thieving when you take other classes (like arcane trickster). Unseen seer is a common choice for skilled, trickstery arcanists—it's the magical spy class—and so that could be OK. But really, spellthieves usually stay spellthieves. Borrow spells from your allies; it helps a lot.


Does Sub-race and Variant work the same way?

Question: So I just recently found out that with sub-races you add the racial ability modifier instead of replacing it but is that the same with variants or do you replace it if it is a variant?
Answer: Variant traits replace other traits
Sub-race traits add to the Main race traits, but Variant traits explicitly replace other traits.
Ex. Variant Human Traits:

If your campaign uses the optional feat rules from chapter 5, your Dungeon Master might allow these variant traits, all of which replace the human's Ability Score Increase trait.

All of the variants tell you which specific traits they replace, in this example you replace the Ability Score Increase trait (All ability scores increase by 1) with Ability Score Increase (2 different ability scores increase by 1), Skills (Proficiency with 1 skill), and Feat (You gain one feat).
Another example, Tieflings in "Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide" have a list of 5 different variants, each variant tells you exactly which trait it replaces (one of the variants doesn't replace anything, it's an addition).
Answer: Not all races have subraces, but if they do, its benefits (or drawbacks) are in addition to the parent race. Variants are an alternative (by definition), they replace something else.
For example, Half-Orcs don't have any subraces available, while Elves are subcategorized into High elves, Wood Elves and Drow (and probably also Eladrin once Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes is released).
Concerning variants, the most prominent example is the Variant Human (which also don't have subraces) - it replaces some of the traits of the original Human race and replaces them with something else.
Other available variants are the Half-Elf variants, SCAG p. 116, or the Tiefling variants, also SCAG, p. 118. I'm not aware of any other currently officially released variants, although there might be some in Unearthed Arcana or future releases.
Comment: It may be worth noting that the variants in SCAG describe which traits are replaced by which variant traits


UiPath - Issue embedding double quotes around String

Question: I have come across a peculiar problem while running a workflow on a different laptop. The workflow was running without issues on the original laptop that was used to design the workflow.
The issue seems to be simple and is with a "type into" activity which types into the bing webpage search box.
I need to embed a string within double quotes. This was working as expected on the original laptop but when I tried to run this in a new laptop, there seems to be some special characters appearing instead of double quotes.
Below is the string that should be typed into the search box.
"site:" + URL.ToString.Substring(4)+" "+"""AS400"""
A correct sample string typed in should look like the below.
site:bfa.ao "AS400"
But instead, it is getting typed as shown in the image below.

As can be seen, the first "A" character in the string gets typed into as Ä and the double quote is missing.
Please help why this is happening so.
Answer: You can try to use:
Chr(34) as double quote char symbol.
So in you case it would be:
"site:" + URL.ToString.Substring(4) + " " + Chr(34) + "AS400" + Chr(34)


Congruence subgroup of $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ definition

Question: Congruence subgroups of $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$ usually seem to be defined as a subgroup that contains $\Gamma(N) = \left\{\begin{pmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \end{pmatrix} \mod N \right\}$ for some positive integer $N$.  But, I have also seen it defined as a subgroup defined by congruence conditions on the entries.  The problem is, this isn't very specific.  For example, what if I look at the set $\left\{\begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} : a^b \equiv c^2 d^{15} \mod 17 \right\}$?  I just made that up off the top of my head and odds are it's not closed under multiplication and thus not a subgroup.  Maybe the solution set is empty.  But, assuming it is a nonempty subgroup, would that be considered a congruence subgroup?  Or, more generally, are there more specific conditions on what types of congruences are allowed, i.e., is there a rigorous definition somewhere?
Comment: I don't think the notion of "congruence relation on the entries" is supposed to include exponential functions. I think it's meant to be *linear congruence relation* on the entries, or perhaps some larger subset.
Comment: I think the only examples I have ever seen have been of the form $\left\{\begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \equiv x : x \in X\right\}$, where $X$ is some set of matrices.
Answer: If the subgroup $\Gamma$ contains $\Gamma(N)$, then we can find a coset decomposition $\Gamma = \displaystyle \cup_{\alpha \in A} \alpha \Gamma(N)$ where $A$ is a set of coset representatives.
Then we have $\Gamma = \left\{ \begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} \equiv \alpha \pmod{N}: \alpha \in A \right\}$.
If you have any set of linear congruence relations on $a, b, c, d$ that define a subgroup of $SL_2(\mathbb{Z})$, you can just take the lcm of the moduli of congruence and construct a set $A$ of coset representatives.
I believe that this is the content of the comment that "congruence subgroups are those defined by congruence relations."  I don't know of anything to say about other forms of congruences, such as the one you suggest.


Anime where the main character has a red eagle-like form

Question: The main character in this anime has a red eagle-like form. Additionally, another character possesses the ability to transform into a wolf-like creature, the character who can transform into a wolf-like creature has two forms: one bipedal and one quadrupedal. Can anyone tell me the title of this anime?
Comment: In roughly which year did you watch this and when do you think it might've been made?
Answer: Might this be Digimon Frontier (original airing early 2000s depending on where you lived, although some regions only got it much later)?
There are more than the two characters you mention, but the "lead" characters are mostly Takuya who has multiple transformations:

red-colored
knight-looking
vaguely fire-themed
several of them have bird-like wings

And Koji who has multiple transformations that are:

blue-colored
wolf-themed
one of which is quadrupedal


What's the usage scenario of kubernetes headless service without selector?

Question: I know a scenario of kubernetes headless service with selector.
But what's the usage scenario of kubernetes headless service without selector?
Answer: Services without selectors are used if you want to have an external database cluster in production, but in your test environment you use your own databases,  to point your Service to a Service in a different  Namespace  or on another cluster, when you are migrating a workload to Kubernetes.
Service without selectors are often used to alias external services into the cluster DNS.
Here ia an example of service without selector:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Service
metadata:
  name: example-service
spec:
  ports:
    - protocol: TCP
      port: 80
      targetPort: 9376

This Service has no selector, the corresponding Endpoint object is  not  created automatically. You can manually map the Service to the network address and port where it's running, by adding an Endpoint object manually:
apiVersion: v1
kind: Endpoints
metadata:
  name: example-service
subsets:
  - addresses:
      - ip: 192.0.2.42
    ports:
      - port: 9376

If you have more that one IP address for redundancy, you can repeat them in the addresses array. Once the endpoints are populated, the load balancer will start redirecting traffic from your Kubernetes service to the IP addresses,

Note:  The endpoint IPs  must not  be: loopback (127.0.0.0/8 for IPv4, ::1/128 for IPv6), or link-local (169.254.0.0/16 and 188.8.131.52/24 for IPv4, fe80::/64 for IPv6). Endpoint IP addresses cannot be the cluster IPs of other Kubernetes Services, because  kube-proxy  doesn't support virtual IPs as a destination.

You can access a Service without a selector the same as if it had a selector.
Take a look: services-without-selector, example-service-without-selector.
Comment: That is not a headless service (it's `ClusterIP` by default). To get this to work you'd have to explicitly state `ClusterIP: None`.
Comment: @ZenMaster As it is said in the answer the service load balances between the provided addresses and it works fine that way. Headless service in the other hand doesn't load balance but rather groups the services/addresses. It depends on the use case you are after. They both work.
Comment: @Prata Not sure where you are going with the comment. The question was about  a **headless** service. The answer doesn't talk about **headless** services.
Answer: Aliasing external services into the cluster DNS.
Comment: Can you be a little more specific?

What’s the usage scenario of kubernetes headless service without selector?


Escape key press isn't registered on M1 Macbook

Question: On my 14" M1 MBP running MacOS Monterey, pressing the escape key suddenly stopped registering for exiting dialogs or entering the command mode in VIM. I opened the on-screen keyboard in System Preferences->Accessibility and pressed escape, and it does register the keystroke.
Answer: After trying a few things and reading around, it turned out that Siri was somehow to blame. I had also noticed lately that Siri had stopped working, it didn't trigger by voice or clicking the dock icon. After disabling and re-enabling Siri in System Preferences, the escape key immediately started working properly.
Comment: Well done, these sorts of preference settings small corruptions are hard to find. Jiggling the on/off handle is always a great thing to try...
Comment: Wow thank you so much, would never have guessed this! I had just (unsuccessfully) summoned Siri via Fn+Space and afterwards Esc stopped working - but I never would have connected the two events if not for this answer.


Can a local internet administrator detect what websites I visit if I use a VPN?

Question: For instance, if I use a VPN at a local high school, can the internet administrators at the school tell I am browsing Youtube?
Comment: Don't forget about the idea of the school having hidden camera's, thrown in just for the paranoid
Comment: @MadBoy: A sensible IT guy would probably just block those ports (since schools would want to avoid bad PR if any students were accessing inappropriate content). Having said that, from my limited experience, schools don't have IT guys.
Comment: Use FreeGate with Stunnel proxy.....http://us.dongtaiwang.com/loc/download_eng.php
Comment: I wouldn't advocate using school resources for non-school related activities - you wouldn't want to get into trouble. The fact there's encrypted data being sent / received would alert the IT department that there's something dodgy going on and cause them to look for the culprit (assuming competent IT staff of course).
Comment: @Skizz not sure if there are schools around the world that would try to bring you down for using SSL connection to one IP.. unless you would transfer a lot of data. Unless they are doing this manually I don't think it would show on monitoring apps as security concerns for IT Guys to even both to take a look what's going on. I can't imagine IT guy sitting.. hrmms there's this guy with encrypted connection to IP xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx. I must find him and ask him what he is doing :-)
Comment: Does the computer belong to you or the school?
Answer: If you've configured properly VPN and you don't use their DNS servers but use some other thru VPN as well you should be safe. I'm assuming that you own the computer you're going to use. Otherwise other things like GPO, lack of administrative rights etc may get in your way when you even try to setup VPN. And even if it would allow this I wouldn't trust that anyways and would opt to use your own computer with VPN.
Answer: In addition to what MadBoy said, make sure to use private browsing mode, or your webbrowser will leave traces everywhere. (This is fine if it's your computer and you have 100% control over it, but something to consider if it's a school computer)
Comment: I was assuming he uses his own computer :-)
Answer: As long as you are in control what's on the PC (as in the administrator didn't install any "monitoring" software on it) and you connect to a VPN service which changes your DNS also (like PingBuster) then they cannot see what you are doing.
All they see through sniffing are encrypted packets. As you don't use their DNS server either they cannot see the DNS requests. So, this way you are 100% safe. The only thing they see is to which VPN server you are connected (as the packets will need to be send to somewhere obviously).
Answer: For one, most school network administrators have access to client-side software that's going to get in the way.  Such software is designed to limit your browsing experience on the actual computer you're using, by monitoring your activities even if you're routing through a VPN, or by limiting the sites that you can go do through settings and security (For example, those IT administrators adamanantly opposed to YouTube could install software which prevents flash from running on the YouTube domain).
So, you may or may not be able to access YouTube through a VPN, and even if you are, you may have your activities being monitored.  Network IT administrators tend to take this stuff really seriously too (Which makes sense as it is their job).  So, prepare to handle the wrath of your IT staff if you take the risk :P
Answer: When you use a VPN it'll hide your ip address where you can not be traced and it will not show on a Admin's computer that you are even looking at certain sites. VPN's are bascially just to get you past blocked content without being detected. Onavo is what I use to use and it works really good.
Comment: You may want to reference your sources on the claim VPNs are "basically just to get you past blocked content without being detected".


How to tell from which expansion a card is?

Question: I ordered a few sets of Descent after I watched a friend play and after opening a few boxes I mixed up the cards. Now is there a way to unmix them? I don't remember which cards went to which expansion... I'm not sure if it matters that they are mixed up, but it seems like it does.
Answer: I've not handled Descent cards myself, but in my experience most games with card-based expansions — Fantasy Flight games in particular — tend to have small icons on their cards which indicate which expansion they come from; I usually find this in the lower right corner of the card itself (no icon typically means it comes from the base set).
From my quick skim of the instructions, that does appear to be the case here (see, for example, page 3 of the Lair of the Wyrm expansion rulebook, as well as page 3 of the Trollfens rulebook).
Comment: That just may have helped thank you. I'll check all rulebooks for symbols n go from there again ty
Answer: No, it doesn't matter if cards are mixed up. The game is designed to be mixed and matches at will. You can play any subclass in any expansion. You can buy any item at the shop from any expansion as well.
Only overlord cards are played "face down". Everything else is displayed on sight, and marked exactly when to use. For example, act 2 shop items are marked with a "II". If more expansions are mixed in, that just means you'll have more loot to choose from in Act II. There are some scenarios (tutorial for example) that will tell you exactly what to bring to the table. Having more cards, just means more options for all the players.
Cards are marked with their expansion symbol, if for some reason you want to check them individually or remove them from the game.

A side comment, I'd check the app if you haven't yet. It basically plays the Overlord (which almost no one likes to play), and you and your friend just play the heroes. The app is called descent road to legend, and it's available on Steam, iOS and Android for free. It uses every expansion you have (you select them in an option), although only in side quests, and minions. They just launched The Delve, a campaign that'll mix and match content from all your expansions, but it's payed for (5$). I'd try the general campaign first, and then if you enjoyed it, go for the Delve (which is much more re-playable).
Answer: While some FFG games like Arkham Horror function best with just one or two expansions and can become unwieldy with  more, Descent just gets better and better with each expansion added, just like @CyberClaw mentioned. And as @goldPseudo mentioned, there are typically small icons on the card to indicate the set each card belongs to.
For more information on those icons and a quick reference to which set they belong to, the Descent Wiki - Expansions page can be extremely useful, as each expansion's detail page lists not only the detailed contents of the expansion, but also the set icon for that expansion.
Comment: Well I wanted to start this off as a single play so to better understand the game. But there are many different cards and I'm confused now lol but I do see icons on some of the cards.
Comment: I can totally understand wanting to start simple, and on that note I'd second @CyberClaw's recommendation of the App: the Rise Of All Goblins mini-campaign is an excellent introduction for the players to understand their side of the game-play, and then you can learn the Overlord part after that, if you'd like.
Comment: Thanks alot everyone, 2 weeks off from work soon. Plan on digging deep into the depths of this game


Cauchy Criterion for Infinite Series

Question: The Cauchy Criterion states that for each $\epsilon\gt0$ there exists a number N such that $n\geq m\gt N$ implies $$\left|\sum_{k=m}^n{a_k}\right|\lt\epsilon$$ Does $n$ have to be finite or if it can be taken to be infinity? If the Cauchy Criterion is satisfied does that imply the statement below? $$\lim\limits_{m \to \infty} \sum_{k=m}^\infty{a_k}=0$$
Answer: You say a series converges if each partial sum converges, i.e, if you define $S_k=\sum_{1\leq i \leq k} a_i$, if you consider the sequence $(S_k)_{k=1}^{\infty}$, it has to converge.
And as every convergent sequence is Cauchy, thus $\forall n,m\geq k$ (suitable $k$) you must have $|\sum_{1\leq i \leq n} a_i-\sum_{1\leq i \leq m} a_i|=|\sum_{1\leq i \leq n-m} a_i| \leq \epsilon$ (WLOG letting $n>m$ and suitable $\epsilon>0$) and just shift $n\to n+m$ to get why it works.
For your last part, i fo not understand why you would like to write that way. You are dealing with the sequence of the sums, not the entire sum itself.

Cauchy Criterion for Infinite Series