What job in a party does a magus have?

Question: Usually the main job (with main job I mean core purpose of the class) of a class is quite clear to me. A fighter damage, a wizard magic, cleric healing. This is superficial I know (and there are heaps of archetypes but to me every class still has its main purpose. But the purpose of the magus is not really clear to me. In what case is a magus necessary within a party and what would be his job?
Comment: @HeyICanChan: I agree. For example, pigeonholing a cleric into a healing role ignores 75% of what a cleric is capable of providing.
Comment: Fighters are terrible at damage output past level 4 (wizards fill that role, sometimes without actually doing damage e.g. *phantasmal killer*), they're usually control or tanking, or both.  Clerics heal *the dying* and heal out-of-battle (sometimes), although negative clerics can compete with wizards for damage and still wear tank armor :D
Answer: The magus is, ultimately, a fancy fighter. But the differences matter.
For the basics, the magus gains four major class features:

Spells. One way of thinking about the magus is that the magus uses spells like the fighter uses feats, accepting per-day restrictions in exchange for greater power and much greater variety. This is true, but spells also mean much more than that; see below for more details.

Spell Combat. This is what allows the magus to do what it does; while the spells are the workhorse of the class, spell combat is the iconic feature that makes a magus a magus. Basically, magi get to two-"weapon" fight, but with the offhand weapon instead being a spell. This means the magus can fight and spellcast simultaneously, which is huge.

Spellstrike. The magus can turn a touch-attack spell into a weapon-attack spell, combining a attack with the spell effect. This is nice, but not actually all that critical; one additional application of your weapon damage doesn't matter so much, and a magus should feel comfortable not using this if a non-touch-attack spell is better in a given situation. At early levels, though, using spellstrike on arcane mark (an at-will touch-attack cantrip) can turn spell combat into actual two-weapon fighting, which is sometimes all you really want.

Arcana. These are various side-benefits that make your magus your magus, different from others. Some of them are quite good, though like most of the "ability off of a list" features, they're very hit-or-miss.

About fighting and about spellcasting
So on some level, the magus is this fighter who is using magic instead of bonus feats to be better at fighting. But magic is very nearly equal to power in Pathfinder. Being a fighter who uses magic to be better at fighting, rather than a fighter who uses skill and training to be better at fighting, makes you a better fighter, and it makes you a much better adventurer.
Even with a relatively slow spell progression, magi get many, many more spells than a fighter gains feats. That means a magus is much more capable of having answers to a variety of situations—both combat and non-combat. These spells can make the magus fight better than a fighter can (by having more options available), and make the magus far more useful outside of combat.
So the magus's usual role is that of the fighter, but a fighter who is more versatile, more capable of dealing with the variety of challenges that an adventurer faces, and less forced into a singular niche. Against extremely vanilla opponents (who pose no special challenge to a fighter), the fighter is probably more effective, but especially as more levels are gained, such enemies become rarer and less threatening overall; most real threats do have some special challenge that causes problems for a fighter. Because a fighter can only prepare for so many things, while a magus can prepare for many more things than a fighter can, the magus is more reliably useful, more useful against greater threats, than the fighter is. And outside combat, there is no competition.
A downside: magi multiclass poorly, but then so do most Pathfinder classes
There are some downsides to the magical approach to combat, though: it does kind of lock you into the magus class. You qualify for feats (mostly) independently of class, so if you take a level of fighter at 10th, you can get a 10th-level feat. But you only qualify for better spells (and, though it's less critical, better arcana) by taking more levels of magus. So if you take a level of magus at 10th level, instead of getting a 4th-level spell as a 10th-level magus would, you get a 1st-level spell. Therefore, magi are not as good at multiclassing. Ultimately, however, Pathfinder punishes multiclassing massively, and the only time it's really viable is when you can get something particularly potent from a level, maybe two, of a class, delaying some other primary class only a little. The magus class features only work with magus spells, so it is not good for this purpose.
About "role" and how there's not really any such thing in Pathfinder
Finally, a last point about "role"—Pathfinder doesn't really have any such concept. Above I've described the things that a magus is natively good at, but that isn't necessarily the same thing. I've tried to emphasize, even, that much of what makes the magus better than the fighter is his ability to contribute to non-fighting things. But the fighter's "role" cannot accurately be described as "damage"—the fighter can be built to do one or two of many things, and a given fighter may not be interested in damage at all, instead focusing on defense or combat maneuvers or intimidation or what have you.
Meanwhile, both cleric and wizard can be built to do far more damage than the fighter can. Clerics, in particular, can be so much more than just healing, being one of the most powerful and well-rounded classes in the game, capable of dealing damage in melee or at range, taking hits, buffing allies, curing debuffs and damage, and even summoning assistance. And by the same token, while "magic" can cover what a wizard does, that term is misleading: "magic" can and does cover just about everything.
So I also recommend that you avoid pigeonholing classes in this manner. Classes have strengths and weaknesses (well, most of them; some of them really seem to lack any real strengths, and others real weaknesses), but they mostly can and should take on many roles—and which roles are as much up to the character, the campaign, and the individual choices made in character creation, than it does to do with the class used.
Comment: With the addition of the section on roles in *Pathfinder*, I'm sold. +1.
Comment: Spellstrike is useful primarily because it lets you use the weapon's critical threat range with your touch spells. A keen rapier has a 30% chance per hit of doing double spell damage, so with a couple of feats and traits, you can be doing 16d6 spell damage per round at 5th level pretty reliably.

Also worth noting that you can enhance any weapon as +1 Keen for 1 minute in exchange for an arcana point at 5th level, and recall 1st level spells every round for another point.

In short: if you want something with a lot of HP dead RIGHT NOW, then the Magus is the class to be.
Comment: @BlasterZero Critical hits happen too rarely to give them much consideration. And relying on them for something that needs to be dead "RIGHT NOW" is a poor strategy. A 15-20 range on a damage spell *is* nice, don't get me wrong, but it's far from a standout feature of the magus class.
Answer:
The magus blends both the mage's arts and the warrior's arms with
  devastating results, slicing apart foes and blasting them
  with eldritch f lames[...] (Ultimate Magic, pg.8)
Role: Magi spend much of their time traveling the
  world, learning whatever martial or arcane secrets they
  can find. They might spend months learning a new swordfighting
  style from a master warrior, while simultaneously
  moonlighting in the local library, poring through tomes
  of ancient lore. Most who take this path dabble in all sorts
  of lore, picking up anything that might aid them in their
  search for perfection. (Ultimate Magic, pg.9; PFSRD - Magus)

This doesn't really say much about what a Magus should be doing, does it? But what does it really tell us?
Magi are adept adventurers, constantly seeking new skills and knowledge, creating unique ways to combine and apply all that they learn. This makes them a jack of all trades, but master of none. They are a versatile bunch, capable of filling many rolls as required by the party. Most would focus on their blend of the martial and the arcane: They can be heavy hitters when played this way. But the real strength of the magus isn't in Spellstrike nor Spell Combat, it's in the Arcana.
The Arcana is the source of the Magus' versatility. The secrets they have uncovered through their travels. With these pieces of knowledge, we can create a character for several different roles. Including, but by no means limited to:
Magically Enhanced Fighter
Many of the Arcana focus on improving the natural abilities of the Magus. Improved speed, accuracy, and protection are all available to the Magus through the use of the Arcana. This allows the Magus to switch tactics on the fly, to outwit and outmaneuver any enemy. The Magus has many tricks up their sleeve in order to keep enemies guessing. Aside from the obvious Arcane Accuracy, Hasted Assault, or Maneuver Mastery, clever use of Prescient Attack, Divinatory Strike, Bane Blade, and Spell Trickery can give you the edge you need to tip the balance of any encounter in your favour.
Mage-Slayer
Many Magi, in the course of their travels, learn how to counter other spellcasters. They focus on overcoming and dispelling the magic of others, while keeping their own faculties in check.
Through the use of Arcana such as Arcane Scent, Concentrate, Dispelling Strike, Disruptive, Lingering Pain, Reflection, and Spellbreaker the Magus becomes an effective hunter, and slayer, of Wizards. This can be an invaluable addition to any party set to face such dangers.
Scout
Sometimes a party may need a deft eye in place of a strong arm. Some Magi learn to enhance their senses, and how to use their magic to hide and disguise themselves. These Magi know the secrets of the Arcane Cloak, Dark Shifter, Distant Spellstrike, and Ranger Trap. Many also have Familars to offer yet another set of senses.
Adept Multi-classer
The Arcana often present paths of knowledge even deeper into other domains. Skills gleaned can become skills mastered, with enough time and effort. There are Magi who strike with the force of a Monk, using Ki Arcana. Some have spoken of shapeshifted Druids delivering spells along with blows from their deadly claws with Natural Spell Combat. Magi who fight as gallantly and flamboyantly as any Swashbuckling pirate with their Arcane Deeds. There are also those that have decided to delve deeper into the arcane: Broad Studies, if you will.
But what is a Magus?
That Magus, in the end, is whoever they want to be. No Magus is the same as another, and it is their goal (and their pride) to find and forge their own destiny. They are an ever expanding bag of tricks learning new abilities, spells, and tactics as they adventure onward.
Answer: Well, I just played a scenario where the two sorcerer 1/magus 2 characters (nearly identical) combined to do the following: One "blocked the hole" while the other used ranged spells (full round action reach metamagic with a 4d6+8 shocking grasp). Now, granted, we're firing into melee because the first is blocking, but the blocker is also doing SG (in melee, again 4d6+8). So at 3rd level, even though our "to hits" blow chunks (-1 total for the range attacker, against touch AC, +1 to -1 for melee depending on how they are casting) they are against touch and do bring things down.
Now, the added benefit of a 3rd Magus spell was "Vanish" for 2 rounds. Now the melee or the ranged can vanish, cast full round metamagic spells from sorcerer, or say true strike then attack, then vanish to buy the team some time (this is what happened: with the 2 rounds of vanish being used to tap the tankbear a few times to get him back awake). Dealing with 3 ghouls while blind at 3rd level can be difficult. Luckily I rolled 72% on my concealment miss chance, so the true strike / reach shocking grasp was not wasted. Vanish changed the TPK (most likely outcome if I'd missed) to a win. But only because my partner magus was blocking. In the future, once we get a little more experience we'll be even worse (ranged attacks against touch ac while invisible = +2, ignore DEX (the only thing you really get to touch AC). So we're like +5 THAC0 vs a 10 on most days, take 4d6+8 or 5d6+10 (until we're up a bit then it will double). Of course we still have the option of a +1 weapon (any we pick up), as well as delivering spells (SG) through said weapon. We're running around with Cutlass' atm (18-20 crit with SG spells, sure, please 8or10d6+16or20).
In reality, except for the whole "uber zapper" I wouldn't find the class very appealing. The BAB hit is just to much for the damage output. Being able to go against touch AC (and use reach spell - thanks magic lineage) is highly appealing.
"Zapping fire support" is what I would categorize our characters as atm.
Answer: I prefer the spell dancer magus to all others, but to me, the magus's primary job is eliminate enemy spell casters. Their bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity and then having magus arcana to make it more difficult to cast spells (lingering pain, etc) they are the perfect weapon against enemy spell casters. Dimension door on opposing spell casters at high enough level. Keen that weapon before you go and surprise with a critical strike. The Magus are the unknown element to any fight, bypassing meat shields go toe to toe with enemy boss!
Comment: Welcome, please take the [tour] for guidance. You are making an argument here that the magus can do all of these things so when would their job be necessary within a party?
Answer: Magus are damage dealers. They have 2+Int skills, so they could theoretically be skill characters (with a +4 or +5 Int bonus) to some degree.
If you "uber" out your background you can do the following:
Get +3 CL to Shocking Grasp at 1st level. That means a successful strike will hit for 4d6 at first level. This scales as you go up in level.
Add to this a dip in Crossblooded Sorcerer and now you are seeing in the dark (orc/draconic) and adding +8 to the damage (again, it scales). Which means you can make a human sorcerer/magus who can do 4d6+8 with sorcerer SG and Magus SG. And as you go up in Magus, you gain dice. Even so, a second level player attacking against TOUCH AC doesn't need a high str - a +5 Str min/maxed fighter just about equals a touch magus "to hit". And would you rather be doing 2d8+5 (best fighter weapon?) or 4d6+8? And you still get to critical the damage, in fact it is EASIER to crit fish with a Magus.
Why? Two abilities: 1st level spells/wand of True Strike adds +20 (this applies to confirmation rolls as well). And the second is Spellstrike with a KEEN weapon - +2 bonus total, so 8000 gp OR you can wait until 5th level Magus and use ANY weapon with an 18-20 crit range because you can make it a +1 Keen.  So now you are dealing 10d6+20 damage on a crit.
Oh, but it gets better... take a trait called Magic Lineage and now you can apply Intensified Spell without even raising it from a 1st level spell. So a crit now does up to 20d6+40. Not bad for a first level spell (this happens around 7th level Magus, give or take). And you can recall it a bunch of times a day (so you get 4 casts from Sorcerer, 4 from Magus, and 5-8 from Magus' spell recall).
Now. If you really want to destroy the dice bags out there, you start training Wizard - straight wizard. And you do this at 7th level (before taking a 6th in Magus). This makes your Magus 8th level Magus Arcana Broad Study with Wizard Spells. Then you level up to 11th Wizard (18th total, pick up spell perfection at 15th level for Shocking Grasp - reach and elemental are good adds as well). At 11th level wizard you take staff-like wand, which lets you use your spell CL on wands instead of the wands. Now you craft 750 gp (350gp to craft) Shocking Grasp wands that all go off at 10d6+20 damage. 7.5 GP a pop... and yes, you can still spell strike with the spell even if it gets cast through a wand (so 20d6+40 is still easily possible... 1st level spell). Yeh...
So in conclusion: Magus are damage dealers with magic abilities. Vanish; true strike; critical spellstrike... all nice low level spells... wand of true strike is 750gp, so you can use 2PP in PFS to get one and not waste a spell slot. That is +22 to hit (+20 for invisible and +2 for flanking if you do it right). Great crit fishers!
Comment: This... is kind of a tangential way to answer the question. Suggestions and tips for building a magus might be related to how you see their role in a party, but it's kind of a round-about way to go about it. And on top of that... not all of this is actually all that optimal advice. I think the answer would be better if you just focus on the question itself, and leave specific suggestions for how to build a magus for another question.
Answer: Clerics don't really, not always, do any healing. In pathfinder you have to touch a person to heal them. While this is fine in the lower levels, it gets harder as you go. And their domain spells are relatively weak. I trust my clerics to patch me up, however, even though they haven't got that godly healing all healer mages face in other fantasy lore.
Instead, I like to think of clerics as buff machines. It is better that way. They buff you, debuff enemies, remove debufs YOU might have, and they bring your hp up to speed whenever necessary.
Now, figthers have 2-3 archetypes. You have a damage dealer, a tank, a rogue and one archers. Fighters, like clerics, don't necessarily fit in into any of those because they can technically do all of them. Only that they specialize in one in particular.
wizards? wizards, arcanists, and rogue tricksters can do everything you want them to. Their only real disability is the low amount of attack bonus they get. Meaning they won't be as good in the crossbow as any fighter, or even druid. They have abysmal hd. Sitting at d6 per level. And are overral just pitiful front line fighters, but not having attack bonus makes them bad at the bow as well. The game would still not limit you, and it won't limit the wizard. The wizard can use plenty of great buffs, like legendary proportions, mind blank and mind blank communal. They have a shit-ton of options for specialization. If you need a figther? go invisible and summon a bunch of tentacle monsters. If you need a cleric? have your wizard study necromancy, bring some potions, a bless and prayer spells in scrolls - good to go. Damage? fireball to your FACE. Wizards though are really limited by the game system. You even have a maximum class level for every spell after which your spells of lower levels won't grow any stronger. Making them obselete.
where was I going with this? right, magus. It is very much in the spirit of the game. As it won't limit you, only wizards so they can be balanced around fighters. A MAGUS can hit with a sword. They can cast up to tier 6 level spells. The same as the spellcaster archetype of rogue.
They're essentially wizards who don't go full on magic. Making them spellcasters. If spell damage wasn't limited by level, they would molest fighters. They are much cooler than fighters in that prespective. While not being as adapt with a weapon, they're nearly as good if not more. If magus could combine his spellbook with that of a wizard, I would take a few magus levels myself, up till my caster has nine level spells.
Think of it this way. In real life, and real live characters, people would often choose to learn several things instead of just being a 'fighter'. So every archetypical character can and will fullfill several roles. At least in pathfinder, as you are roleplay this game. This has very much that feel of 'real life mechanics', they will do several jobs. Despite them not knowing to. And a magus is just a bit less of a fighter, comparitively, but he has weapon enchantment, and can free cast spell along with weapon damage. Making him a very effective damage dealer. There are several utility spells like displacement or haste he will pick up. Bears endurance, or owl's wisdom. Touch attacks that deal extra of that sweet damage. Compare it to a fighter who can just 'hit things more effectively' then you have magus lying down and taking the throne.
Wizards are beasy to waste time on some debuffs and utility spells. No can do on their part.
Comment: Welcome to the site! Please take the [tour] when you get the chance. It's important to note that we're not a forum, and we don't do discussion. Answers should directly the answer that was asked (in this case, "what role does a magus fill in the party") rather than attempting to respond to other answers.
Comment: wow. people really didn't like this answer. I wonder why. I think I gave a very concise answer. pathfinder is more about roleplaying than dishing out damage, and when you roleplay, there's nothing stoping the wizard from straight up using a weapon. especially on the lower levels. fighters can use both bows and one handed weapons plus shields and two handed meele ones. many classes can do many things at once. wizards can utterly replace clerics with scrolls. since there are only 2-3 useful buffs anyways. better if you have a paladin. but I digress.

What job in a party does a magus have?


My domain name changes to an IP address in the URL bar when visited. How can I fix this?

Question: I have a domain name, that points to the address of my VPS. And when I visit the website the URL changes to the IP address of the VPS I own. I would like it to keep the URL as the domain name. How do I configure this?
Comment: Is your VPS running Apache, or some other web server?
Comment: It is running Apache.
Answer: <code><HTML> <HEAD><META HTTP-EQUIV=Refresh CONTENT="0; url=http://184.108.40.206/">  </HEAD> </HTML>
</code>
You need to remove this.
Looks like you have done URL forwarding via domain panel.
Comment: I am forwarding by domain panel, whats the correct way to link my domian name to the content on my VPS?
Comment: Point the nameservers at your domain registrar to those of your server.
Answer: Your site is performing a meta refresh to the content at the IP address. If you don't have hosting at the same place you registered your domain name then I assume you need to find out the correct nameservers to use and remove the meta refresh.


Save for web from selected artboard

Question: I have several pictures in different artboards. I would like to save "for web" picture in artboard #2 . When I do "save for web" I'm always pointed to dartboard #1 an I must use mouse o move right picture. This is not convenient. How to fix it?
Another problem I would like to solve - I need to have size in "save for web" menu exact of picture I would like to save and not some magic frame AI is offering me. How to solve this problem?
Answer: As for the first question, the only option you have is to always click on the Artboard you want(#2) to save then go to the settings then Save for Web. There is no shortcut to that.
Aas for your last question, Illustrator gives you an option of whether you want the Save for Web to retain its original image proportions or you use your own sizes as indicated on the red box which you may decide to check or not on the picture below. The setting is on the right hand side of the window panel.

Save for web from selected artboard


Resource suggestion for practicing modal logic and intuitionistic logic

Question: any suggestion ( Book , Pdf  , online resource , ... ) for solving problems about
modal logic and intuitionistic logic and  it would be really great if there was a solution for it .
Answer: For modal logic I'm fond of Theodore Sider's Logic for Philosophy; I'm a mathematician who took a course on modal logic in the philosophy department using this book, and I found it a pleasant text. It's more rigorous than most philosophical logic texts, it's got plenty of exercises, and it has selected solutions in an appendix. It also has a short section on intuitionistic logic, but there are probably better sources for that.
There's a good amount of material that may not be of interest to mathematicians (counterfactuals, epistemic logic, tense logic), so for your purposes it may be better to check out from a library than actually purchase a copy (unless you're also interested in the philosophical aspects).


Model import generating self-intersecting warnings that weren't there before

Question: Starting with Unity 2018, when importing my model (FBX) I am getting dozens of "A polygon of [name of the mesh] is self-intersecting and has been discarded" warnings. This is new! The model looks fine when imported despite these warnings, but this model is part of a package I sell on the Asset Store since, I am in the process of updating the asset and at the very least this looks terrible for customers purchasing this asset. Unfortunately, the warning message gives no further clues which polygons are now offending. FWIW the model was created in Maya. Does anyone have any advice on how I can track this down and fix this without breaking the prefabs?
Comment: What happens when you run Mesh > Mesh Cleanup ... in Maya on the offending meshes?
Answer: I just crossed my fingers that it wouldn't merge unwanted vertices and used "Merge vertices" in Maya. This worked for 95% of the affected polygons, the others were comparatively easy to find manually because their faces were large and Unity discarded them on import. Fortunately, replacing the fbx when exporting the mesh to the project doesn't break anything, unless you mess up the meshes in the fbx itself.

Model import generating self-intersecting warnings that weren’t there before


Can both my boys have a user on minecraft PC.

Question: My son got MineCraft PC for his birthday.  The account is under my e-mail and he has a name in the game (my terminology may be off as i do not play the game).  My other son would also like to play MineCraft, but have his own name (character???).  Can that be done?  It doesn't seem logical that I'd have to download 2 Minecraft games.  Please let me know how this works.
Comment: You'll have to buy a copy of the game per son (though you'll need another email address, too) This is the only legitimate way to have two characters with different names. If this isn't an option, they can have a 'world' each and use the same character & name, though if they do this they won't be able to take full advantage of the multiplayer stuff.
Answer: Really depends on your use case.
You only need one copy of the actual game installed if they are taking turns playing.
If you want them to play multiplayer, you will need to purchase two accounts, one for each kid. This also allows them to easily have their own name and "skin" in game.
However, if they just want their own names, you can create two shortcuts to the game, one for each kid. Then just give a different name for each shortcut. See this question on creating the shortcuts.
Comment: The command in that link apparently doesn't work since 1.6
Comment: I think you mean *one account for each kid* not two.
Comment: @Colin Undoubtedly. Fixed!
Answer: You don't have to download Minecraft twice, but you do have to buy a second account if you want them to have separate accounts. They'll be able to play on the same copy of Minecraft with their own accounts, or they can play on different computers at the same time (even together, in multiplayer).
On the other hand, they could just play on the same account. They will have to take turns using the account as one account can't log in on different computers at the same time, and they won't be able to have different names or characters.
Comment: @ratchetfreak Nothing prevents one son from booting linux and messing around with a world anyway.
Comment: they'll be able to go into each other's worlds and sabotage it if they use the same PC account, ofcourse that is only a problem if they are the type to do so. if you want to defend against that then have a different PC profile for each of them
Comment: @nightcracker target of opportunity is in effect here: if the kid sees the world of the sibling each time they start playing it is very tempting to go in and start griefing, if a workaround of booting a live linux CD and finding the .minecraft folder is required it is much less likely to do so
Comment: @ratchetfreak The new launcher has a per-profile option to use a different working folder, allowing completely separate installs and saves.
Answer: If, like you said, they want there own name then you will definitely have to buy a second account (or game) to have legitimate different names. There is no need to completely re download the game, as there is a login setting when the game is opened, allowing them to simply enter in their information when it is their turn.
There is only one benefit of really doing this:

If you have multiple computers, both of them are able to play
together through minecraft built in LAN service or play on the same
multiplayer servers together. Plus they get their own names.

Other than that, it isn't really necessary. If you don't have another computer for them to use, then one account is all they need. They can create their own world and play on multiplayer server under the same character.
Answer: I think that if you get an empty hard drive then you can just move Minecraft on to the hard drive then just plug the hard drive in to the other computer or laptop and that should work.
Comment: That would probably work, but I think the question was about running the game on the same computer with two different accounts.


What's a good technique for a not-so-strong person to do [Ashkenazi] Hagbaha?

Question: I've seen many people shy away when asked to do Hagbaha (הגבהה), thinking themselves too weak. I know for a fact that it doesn't take that much strength to do it correctly, so I'd love to see a writeup of proper technique.

See also the Sefaradi version of this question.
Comment: I would suggest that fear is a real factor that can limit or prevent success in this. If someone has never done it, a larger/heavier Sefer Torah should not be the first attempt unless the Magbiah is fully comfortable with it.
Comment: Related: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/52911
Comment: Looking around this site and YouTube to help with [this question](http://judaism.stackexchange.com/q/43444/5323), I found [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNMcpwiAyJw) which may be useful in answering this question
Answer: My Hagbaha Guidelines

Make sure there is an empty chair behind you to sit down on at the end
Roll the torah to a seam in the klaf sections.  This is not to aid the one performing it, but helps if one pulls the Torah outward with too much force in the process of lifting it up, that a tear will occur on a seam where it can be repaired instead in the middle of a section of klaf.
Make sure that it's rolled tight, without a lot of slack, so it doesn't start trying to rollout wider than your arms are wide when you lift it up.  Being able to show 4 columns is nice but not required.
Make sure your hands are all the way at the top of the handles, in contact with the disks. That way, the torah will rest on your hands, rather than being supported by the friction of your hands on the handles, which is a lot harder on your hands.
Pull the Torah off the shulchan about 4-6 inches (of the actual torah body, not just the Atzei Chaim [handles]) to give you leverage to tilt the Torah up against the edge of the shulchan.
Bend your knees so you do some of the lifting with your knees while you apply downward pressure on the atzei chayim, lifting the torah off the shulchan into a nearly upright position, still leaning against the shulchan.
Now comes the tricky part: This is the moment where strength counts and not just technique.  You lift up and away from the shulchan to raise the Torah.   It's here where if you're going to stumble it's most likely to happen due to the transfer of weight from the shulchan to your arms/wrists and need to lift it at nearly the same time if you want to look like you know what you're doing. For this I have no magic method to insure success. The more you've bent your knees, the more work your knees can do instead of your arms.
Lift it up, - in terms of how high, I think it probably most comfortable to have your hands at about the same level as your shoulder.  (I think it's nice to get it all the way over your head but it's not always easy) Once you have stopped lifting, then it should be fairly easy to steady it and wait for the congregation to say V'zot....  Optionally, you may want to turn from side to side once to make sure everyone can see the Torah too.
If you turn, make sure to start and stop turning slowly. Otherwise, you'll be fighting the angular momentum of the torah, and it will try to tip out of your hands.
Lower just your arms to bring the Torah down to a comfortable height so you can now sit down with it.   Once seated,  bring your wrists down to your knees to (a) further releive the weight on them, and (b) this usually helps with the gelilah also.
Help roll the Torah in a little as well so the klaf doesn't hang too much, and remember to ease up your grip on the Atzei chayim a little because the golel can't turn them if you're still rigidly gripping them. The disks should mostly still be resting on your hands.
Hold the Torah throughout the Haftorah if this is the minhag of the shul.  Don't try to pass it off to a kid or the golel.

As I said in #6, I do feel there is a strength component too, but technique greatly helps.  Therefore, as a rightie, I will not do Hagbaha on heavy sifrei torah until we get several parshiot into the book of B'reishit because a combination of the sheer weight on my left side along with the awkward imbalance of it, makes for a shaky hagbaha.   This is one area I prefer not to test my limitations.   I would advise anyone who has not had a lot of experience with Hagbaha to take the same into account.
Comment: Re: #8: I'm not sure that turning is actually optional. See Soferim 14:14: "... he picks it up and shows the written surface to the people who stand on his right and left, and he turns it in front of himself and behind himself. For there is a Mitzva for all the men and women to see the script and to bow and say 'Vezot ...'"
Comment: See also Mishna Berura 147:7, quoting the Sha'arei Efrayim: "The gabbai is not allowed to give the honor of Hagbaha to someone ... weakened. For it's know. that he'll pick it up to sit immediately, for he doesn't have the strength to hold it for a little while opposite the people, so that they can see well. And also, that guy has to hold himself back from this."
Comment: Re#8:  I was told to do a complete 360, going from Left to Right or Right to Left, depending on which hand you write with. I don't remember the reason though.
Comment: Re: #5: I think I actually pull it out farther, maybe even a foot, while I bend one of my knees almost to kneeling, so that gravity does even more of the work of tipping it up.
Comment: i would add balancing the weight of each side against each other, so the bottom is closer to each other and the top wider
Comment: The position of your arm as you have it lifted is very important as to what part of your body is taking the weight. You don't want it on your wrists. As one who does also practise weightlifting as body strengthening/building technique is just as important as strength if not more.

If your arms are bent so your hands are almost directly above the elbow you are shifting the weight fairly well.
Comment: @Zvi the point is to show the text to all in the shul - if there are people on all sides you need to go 360 - otherwise it is enough to go 90 degrees to your right - then same to your left
Answer: 12a. Hold the Torah on your right shoulder with the front of the cover (and any breastplates or pointing aids) facing away from your body. --sorry no citation
Comment: hagba is picking up the open tora before rolling it closed. Your answer is after it has been rolled closed and the mantel put on.
Comment: josh, Welcome to mi.yodeya, and thanks very much for adding this detail! I look forward to seeing you around.
Answer: Practical answer:

Open the Sefer to 3 columns
Hold the Sefer and pull it about half-way off the Bima
Push down until it's vertical and lift it up

Then you can turn slowly around and sit down.
On weekdays, first unwrap the Tefilin from your hand and rewind it around your sleeve.


Creating a PDF file tracker as Batch file

Question: I have created a batch file which is supposed to keep track of the opened PDF files on my system.As soon as someone opens the PDF file,the name of the file as well as time of access is recorded in a log file.
Here is code of my batch file:
<code>@echo off
echo FILE ACCESSED %1 >> I:\Batch\log.txt
echo TIME OF ACCESS %TIME% >> I:\Batch\log.txt
"C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\Foxit Reader.exe" %1
EXIT
</code>
I have also set up this batch file as the default application fr the PDF files to open with.
Now,the problem is,as soon as I open any PDF file,many cmd windows start opening  and closing unendingly. Please suggest some remedy.
Thanks....
Answer: <code>@echo off
copy %1 %1.tmp
echo FILE ACCESSED %1 >> I:\Batch\log.txt
echo TIME OF ACCESS %TIME% >> I:\Batch\log.txt
"C:\Program Files\Foxit Software\Foxit Reader\Foxit Reader.exe" %1.tmp
del %1.tmp
EXIT
</code>


Dull images on Nikon D3100

Question:
When I take pictures on my Nikon 3100 they keep coming out dull. They often look better on the screen as to when I look on the the desktop. I've been playing with settings and not had much luck. I even use a soft box, not that you could tell!
Please help.
Comment: If you are shooting in JPG, the advice below makes sense. But if you are shooting in NEF (RAW), then you should know that the image on the camera will always be different from image on the computer. The in-camera image is a processed JPG, while the NEF file is unprocessed sensor data. In camera white balance and the picture modes have no effect on RAW files, and they typically appear to be very low contrast, because they haven't been processed.
Answer: The primary problem here is simply one of exposure. The camera's metering system is not really smart — it doesn't know the difference between a white blanket that's dimly lit and a gray blanket that's brightly lit. It just assumes that everything is somewhere in the middle.
Your scene contains a lot of white. This fools the camera's assumption about the world, and as a result it underexposes.
You can compensate for this when shooting by adding one or two stops of exposure compensation. (EV +1). Or, in post processing (especially if you have the RAW file), brightening the exposure with the equivalent slider will help, too. (Not as good as getting the exposure right first, but should be just fine even with a DSLR that's a few years old.)
Answer:
I've been playing with settings and not had much luck.

My recommendations:

Stop playing with the settings and understand them.

Stop relying on luck and control the outcome. :o)

Do not wait until your baby is asleep or in a cute position, just take the picture of the same blanket with some pillow on it and change the settings.
First of all, the other answers commented about exposure. That is the first place to look.

Add 1 EV to it, and see the results. Add 2 EVs and compare.
You can use Aperture priority or Shutter priority, but as always, try to use manual exposure so you can change one parameter at a time.

Change the "Flavours" or Picture modes. Landscape, Portrait, Neutral. You probably have it on Neutral, change to Portrait.

Do not use Auto white balance. Define your custom white balance depending on your light.

Play with the direction of the light, not too flat, but a bit more to one side. This will give the image more contrast.

See if your light has enough CRI. I do not know if you are using some fluorescent lights.

Explore the option of doing some post-processing. Normally dull images are good! It is easier to add saturation and contrast than to remove them from an oversaturated and a clipped image.
Answer: Your photo is dull because the light illuminating the scene is dull.
That is, there is not much contrast in the scene.
As mattdm has said, left to its own devices your camera will meter the scene assuming the exposure should be centered in the mid-tones.
When most of the scene is white, this will result in underexposure of a low contrast scene. That's always going to look pretty dull.

They often look better on the screen as to when I look on the the desktop.

That's because the LCD screen on the back of a camera lies like a politician!
Comment: True enough, but when there is not much contrast in the scene, that means the photographer has choices: (1) increase the exposure, giving a "high key" image, (2) decrease the exposure, giving a "low key" image, (3) expand the contrast (in-camera if your camera has that option, or in post-processing otherwise.) Other answers here mostly focus on option (1) because a bright, low-contrast image looks less "dull" than a dark, low-contrast image.
Answer: This is very common. It doesn't look like you're using bad settings it just looks like there's no real light. It looks like very low, reflected light. I agree with others that you should look at what you're shooting before the camera.
Here's the photo with quick, basic, MANUAL, levels, saturation, and contrast and a little brightness. I'd bet the corrected photo is more colorful and whiter than real life.

Dull images on Nikon D3100


How can I limit the number of RemoteApp sessions to 1 per user?

Question: We have an application where only one instance of the program can be run at a time. Otherwise terrible data corruption happens. Our users currently run this program as a RemoteApp from a Windows 7 "server". However I want to be able to limit the number of instances of it to be limited to 1, so that a user can't accidentally run two instances of the program. Is this possible? And if so, how would I go about it?
Answer: There's no built-in way to do this as far as I know.  But you could hypothetically write a little stub application or script that checks to see if the process is running in the context of that user already and exits if it is.  If not, it launches the app as normal.  You'd then point your RemoteApp shortcut to this stub instead of directly to the application.
Comment: I actually also realized that by default Windows will only a user to have a RemoteApp open from one computer. So switching computers actually takes over the previous RemoteApp's session which is exactly what I'd wanted. Doesn't work if running 2 RemoteApp sessions on the same machine though.


Excel add-ins not loading since July 2016 Office update?

Question: Is anyone having a problem with Excel add-ins not loading in Excel 2016, 2013, or 2010?  This was not a problem with Office 2016 builds prior to build 7070, released July 12, 2016.  Any workarounds?
Comment: This a build from the Release branch or the Insider Preview branch?
Comment: Release.  It was pushed through via automatic Office updates.
Comment: I have Adobe Acrobat installed, and after I updated to build 7070, the Excel Adobe PDF add-on toolbar still was visible.
Comment: Adobe might be a COM add-in.  This seems to only affect VBA add-ins.
Answer: This problem results from security patch in KB31152, released in July 2016.  According to private communication with Microsoft software engineers:
"With this update, we changed the behavior of Excel so that it will not load certain file types (including .xlam) when they are untrusted. The easiest workaround is to find the add-in that is causing you trouble, right-clicking on it in Windows Explorer, and checking Unblock"
An easier approach is to simply place the add-in in a Trusted Location (in Excel, go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Trusted Locations), such as the following folder, and load it from there:
<code>C:\Users\%USER NAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
</code>
Unfortunately, Microsoft failed to clearly document this major, "breaking" change (as of this writing), leaving probably hundreds of thousands (millions?) of Excel users wondering why their add-ins are not loading.  They did, however, bury some useful information about this issue in a blog post:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/2016/07/22/excel-workbooks-may-not-open-after-installing-ms16-088/
Answer: See
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/Excel-Add-ins-fail-to-load.asp
about downloaded internet files.
(Does not solve my problem, but...)


How to use a template file to show all post having same metakey

Question: I have a meta_key value 'গল্প' inside wp_post_meta as shown value:

Now I want to show all post having meta_key value 'গল্প'. Is there any template file to manage this option like tag.php?
Answer: You might give it a shot this way:
<code>add_filter( 'template_include', 'check_post_meta_template_include' );
function check_post_meta_template_include( $template ) {
    if ( !is_single() ) {
        return $template;
    }
    global $post;
    if ( $post->post_type != 'post' ) { // Proceed only if post type = post
        return $template;
    }
    $category_meta = get_post_meta( $post->ID, 'Category', true );
    if ( $category_meta != 'গল্প' ) {
        return $template;
    }
    // Use locate_template() here.
}
</code>
Reference: locate_template
Answer: Template files are the 'responsibility' of the theme you are using. If your theme doesn't contain a template that meets your need, then you can modify one of the theme's templates and change the query to do what you want.
Modifying a theme's files directly is not recommended, as any mods you do will get overwritten on a theme update. So it's best to create a Child Theme, then create a version of the template from the parent theme that you store in the Child Theme's folder. (Copy the parent theme template to the Child Theme folder, and modify that file, not the original theme.)
Then change the name of the copied template, modify the query, save/upload to your site, and create a page that uses that modified template.


I want to find out in SQL SERVER 2012, who is creating SQL Logins and on which date

Question: I was trying to find out in sql server 2012, who created login and which date. Can any body help on this thanks,
Answer: SQL server wont generally keep a track of this. So you have to make use of the default trace to gather the information for EventClass 109.
Make sure to check that default trace is running using:
SELECT* FROM sys.configurations WHERE configuration_id = 1568

If not enabled, then enable it using:
sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
sp_configure 'default trace enabled', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

Then you can run the query as mentioned here to gather the information for the added SQL logins:
SELECT  TE.name AS [EventName] ,
        v.subclass_name ,
        T.DatabaseName ,
        t.DatabaseID ,
        t.NTDomainName ,
        t.ApplicationName ,
        t.LoginName ,
        t.SPID ,
        t.StartTime ,
        t.RoleName ,
        t.TargetUserName ,
        t.TargetLoginName ,
        t.SessionLoginName
FROM    sys.fn_trace_gettable(CONVERT(VARCHAR(150), ( SELECT TOP 1
                                                              f.[value]
                                                      FROM    sys.fn_trace_getinfo(NULL) f
                                                      WHERE   f.property = 2
                                                    )), DEFAULT) T
        JOIN sys.trace_events TE ON T.EventClass = TE.trace_event_id
        JOIN sys.trace_subclass_values v ON v.trace_event_id = TE.trace_event_id
                                            AND v.subclass_value = t.EventSubClass
WHERE   te.name IN ( 'Audit Addlogin Event', 'Audit Add DB User Event',
                     'Audit Add Member to DB Role Event' )
        AND v.subclass_name IN ( 'add', 'Grant database access' )

Note * There are 5 default trace files and these are rolled over,hence its possible to capture recent information related to objects and not related to old events. Therefore to save the information for future use please read Collecting the Information in the Default Trace
Comment: Audit is overkill. Isn't the problem just that you need a space between Add and login in the 3rd last line?
Comment: Thanks for the quick response. I tried creating logins and deleted logins after trace enabled, but above query I ran is not capturing the logins details (added and deleted). I want to find out who created sql logins.
Comment: If you have SQL 2012 Ent Edtion, you can try configuring SQL audit feature.


What pvp activities will give XP?

Question: When in a battleground, what things will grant experience? At my current low level, killing a player doesn't seem to give anything. Capping a flag in WSG or a base in AB will. Anyone know of anything else?
All in all, it seems to be really slow, like 10% of a level in a 20 min BG. Will this improve when I get to higher level?
Answer: I'm afraid that the only way to accumulate experience points through PVP is to accomplish objectives in Battlegrounds (honourable kills are not included). To answer your second question the XP you gain will likely increase in proportion with your level however it is also likely that the time in PVP needed to advance another level will increase as per the Higher level = Increased time questing to advance to the next level.
Hope this helps
Comment: Arathi basin is the best for xp as capping towers gives the best xp from any battleground (I was getting around 48k at one point) and with the other benefits of gaining honour and honourable kills at the same time
Comment: I personally found that Alterac Valley was *by far* the fastest source of XP because every tower cap was worth XP in addition to the general kill. Arathi Basin was a tiny fraction by comparison for a longer running match. They may have rebalanced it since I leveled that way however, because it's so much slower than questing now I haven't done it in several months.

What pvp activities will give XP?


Can I say "a short summary" or just "summary"?

Question: Can I use this expression? I use Grammarly app on a regular basis, and the phrase was marked as a tautology...
Answer: Whether to avoid tautology or not is your personal preference but "summary" by definition is "a brief statement or restatement of main points, especially as a conclusion to a work". You could surely say "brief/short/compact/condensed summary" but that would be buttered butter.
Better to use words like "description", "note", "article", or possibly "extract" with such adjectives. Notice that adjectives like "concise" or "succinct" can work with "summary" since besides "briefness" they mean "being comprehensive" or otherwise "giving a lot of information clearly".
Answer: Tautology is not, strictly, a grammatical error, but an unnecessary usage of a word which can count as a fault in style.
Summary in itself is a Short overview of a story. Therefore, Short as an adjective to this word would be useless. Saying just Summary would make it clear.
Hence, one should avoid using such.


Delta-v difference between Mars and Moon

Question: Considering a simple Hohmann transfer, does it take less Delta-v and propellant to go to Mars than to the Moon
Comment: How long are you willing to take to get to either location?
Comment: @CarlWitthoft Does delta-V depend on duration?
Answer: Not for a landing.  Moon, 1730 m/s.  Mars requires twice as much, 3800 m/s.
Comment: Mars does allow aerobraking and chutelanding, so by the delta-V map you've displayed, for a sufficiently light and risky mission, you can put an object on surface of Mars for at total of about 13.7km/s during a Hohmann transfer window, vs 15.1 km/s for a propulsive Moonlanding.
Comment: The one thing that is bugging me about this map: I'd expect the grey link between LEO and Moon Intercept  (3260 m/s on the map) to be pretty close in value, but less than the blue link between LEO and Earth Intercept (3210 m/s.on map) under coplanar/circular orbit simplifications. I wonder if the creator priced in a plane change to the Moon intercept burn.


suggestions for solar charging battery-operated device

Question: My battery-powered wireless device draws about 50mA @ 5V. I'm thinking of powering this off a 12V 7Ah SLA battery that is topped up with a small solar panel (12V, maybe 500mA or so). 12V to 5V will happen with a DC-to-DC converter. Can I just connect a solar panel (with diode) straight onto my battery or is this where I need a charge controller? If the latter, what is the reasoning behind it?
Comment: You can connect small solar panels to large batteries without a controller, because the panel current is not high enough to damage the batteries. In your case, I would not advise it, because you are talking about a 0.5A current and a 7Ah battery. This has the potential to damage the battery. You could use a very simple and low cost charge controller which does nothing more than disconnect the panel when battery voltage gets too high.
Comment: @mkeith I think SLA batteries are fairly forgiving regarding their charge method so I might take your hint and use my micro to simply probe the voltage and do the disconnect using a fet.
Comment: That could work OK. One thing, though. You need to add some hysteresis. In other words, if VBAT > 13.5 disconnect. But once disconnected, do not re-connect until VBAT < 12.5. Those numbers are somewhat made-up. You will have to research your battery type to determine safe upper limit, and use judgement or experiment to determine the lower limit. But without hysteresis, the FET may switch on and off rapidly which would not be good.
Comment: @mkeith Understood. That makes sense. I've also noticed that not every SLA battery I have seems to have the same fully-charged resting voltage, so I could even tweak it a bit more depending on the battery I use.
Comment: I don't know any exact SLA numbers off-hand, but I think the alternator in my car goes up to 14.2V in normal operation.
Answer: It's recommendable to use a charge controller between the solar panel and the battery. The charge controller is there to avoid damaging your battery by overcharging. When a lead-acid battery gets charged above about 98%, oxygen and hydrogen bubbles form around the internal plates in the battery.
In a "maintenance-type" battery, this vents out and can be replaced, in an "SLA" battery it can cause irreperable "gassing," but in "AGM" and "gel"/"deep cycle" batteries, the bubbles stay tralped against the battery plates. These bubbles reduce the available current & capacity, while increasing the internal resistance of the battery.
Comment: I've got a commercial battery charger and will study its charge characteristics on the battery I intend to use. I'll probably roll my own and simply disconnect the pv when the battery voltage exceeds 13.5V as per the suggestion by mkeith.
Comment: Research the best numbers to use for your battery type and temperature. 13.5 might be a good ballpark number, but I kind of pulled it from memory. Battery temperature matters.


"The hospital will take hours to treat you." - How should I understand it?

Question: What is the meaning of The hospital will take hours to treat you?
Does it mean that you will spend hours in the hospital before you will be treated (because there will be a lot of people there)?
Or does it mean that the doctors will spend hours treating you (because your injuries are really bad)?
Answer: In my experience as a native speaker, it can mean either one. Probably the first meaning is more usual in most cases.
The hospital will take hours to treat you. The waiting room is always full and service is slow, and you could get seen faster if we go to the walk-in clinic around the corner or go see my cousin who knows nothing about medicine but loves to pretend he does
or
The hospital will take hours to treat you. But after that you will be okay. The doctors will need a lot of time to carefully prepare you for surgery and actually do the surgery, for example, and this time will be pretty much the same at any hospital, since the treatment process for these injuries is pretty much standard.
It can even refer to this, which can be common if the injuries are not that serious:
The hospital will take hours to treat you, because the waiting room is full and you'll have to wait hours just to be seen by someone; and then after you do get called to the back, you will have to wait a long time between different parts of your treatment, such as taking to a nurse, talking to a doctor, getting an x-ray, giving blood samples, waiting for results, waiting for the nurse to get off break, waiting for a specialist to arrive, and thry might put you in a room overnight. It will be hours and hours. Let's just wait and see if you really do show signs of gangrene before going to the hospital.
Comment: I agree.  I also second the presumption that it is most likely the first case.  Especially in America, hospitals have a notoriety for making you wait in the waiting room for hours unless you have one of the life threatening emergencies, in which case you will be stabilized before others get their turn. (unfortunately, those life threatening emergencies are things like heart attacks, so I'm rather happy to NOT get to go into the fast-pass lane!)


When converting Classic Notes to Enhanced Notes -- what object do the Converted Classic Notes live on?

Question: I can't find them on ContentVersion or ContentDocument. If I create a NEW Enhanced Note, those live on ContentNote. But what about the converted ones? They are no longer on the Note object either.
Comment: How did you *convert* your classic notes to enhanced notes?
Comment: There isn't a programmatic "convert" operation. Conversion apps create new ContentNotes, and might or might not remove the existing Note records. What app did you use? What are you actually seeing in your org?
Answer: To you convert notes to Enhanced notes you create contentNotes like @DavidReed suggested. Based on you're question I'm guessing you might have used a conversion app something like Convert Notes to Enhanced Notes. Because if you have done it programatically yourself you would know if the old notes was deleted or not.
I started looking at the above mentioned app's source code looks like once the notes are converted the old notes are deleted. So technically this is what might be happening with other apps to just remove duplicate records. Below is some code from the above app ConvertNotesToContentNotesService.cls. Once the Notes are converted the below methods are being called where the old notes are deleted.
<code>private void postProcessConversionResults( Map<ID, ConversionResult> conversionResultsMap ) {

    // should we delete the converted notes?
    if ( this.options.deleteNotesUponConversion ) {
        deleteConvertedNotes( conversionResultsMap );
    }

}

// -----------------------------------------------------------------

private void deleteConvertedNotes( Map<ID, ConversionResult> conversionResultsMap ) {

    List<Note> notesToDelete = new List<Note>();

    for ( ConversionResult conversionResult : conversionResultsMap.values() ) {
        if ( conversionResult.status == ConversionResultStatus.CONVERTED ) {
            notesToDelete.add( conversionResult.oldNote );
        }
    }

    if ( notesToDelete.size() > 0 ) {
        delete notesToDelete;
    }

}
</code>


enumurator or Iterator?

Question: I am very new to Windows. While I was working with WMI, I saw there was no use of the term iterator rather enum or enumurator has been used for the same purpose. Do they really have iterators ? or they replace the term, iterator with enum or enum, EnumVariant etc ..... Or I am missing some thing about iterator and enumurator. As far I knew Traditionally the term enum is not same as iterator. Am I wrong ?
Answer: The term enumerator is often used as a synonym for iterator.
An enum, or enumeration, is something else altogether.
Answer: Enum is both a thing (a list of possible values) and an action (stepping through each item in a list).  The Windows API uses both terms, relying on context to differentiate them.
As a general rule, function and interface names with "Enum" in their name mean enumerate, e.g. EnumWindows means enumerate windows and IEnumUnknown (a COM interface) means enumerate unknown [objects].
The Windows API has no single enumeration methodology.  EnumWindows implements the loop internally and repeatedly calls you back via a handler function while IEnumUnknown requires the caller to write the loop using a Next() function.
So, on Windows, an enumerator is a broad class of solutions to the problem of walking through a list of elements.
Iterators are the C++ standard library concept of an enumerator.  Choosing 'iterator' instead of 'enumerator' was probably done intentionally to avoid confusion with the existing enum language concept.
Unlike Windows, the C++ standard library iterator concept is very well defined: all iterators work like pointers; all iterators require the caller to write the loop, etc.  There are a few classes of iterators in the C++ standard library that allow accessing elements linearly, in reverse, or randomly.

enumurator or Iterator?


vb.net vs C# lambda expression

Question: I am facing a strange problem when parsing a very simple lambda expression.
In C#, i have this
class Class1
{
}

class Class2 : Class1
{ }

class Invoker
{
    public System.Linq.Expressions.Expression<Func<Class1>> GetExpression()
    {
        return () => new Class2();
    }
}

This, as expected returns an expression with NodeType = New
In VB.NET, i have
Public Class Class1

End Class

Public Class Class2
    Inherits Class1

End Class

Public Class Invoker
    Public Function GetExpression() As Expression(Of Func(Of Class1))
        Return Function() New Class2()
    End Function

End Class

This returns a lambda expression with NodeType = Convert (?????)
I suppose it has to do with conversion from Expression(Of Func(Of Class2)) to Expression(Of Func(Of Class1))
I tried playing with project properties like Option Strict... I can't get it to work in VB.
Is there a way i can get the correct lambda expression in VB? I need this to implement an EnterpriseLibrary TraceListener. The base class calling the GetExpression() validates the lambda and tries to cast it to System.Linq.Expressions.NewExpression (which fails in VB since it is a UnaryExpression because of the Convert).
Thanks
Renaud
Answer: When I run both pieces of code in Visual Studio (V2008, 64bit Console Application,  3.5 framework), they both return an expression with NodeType == ExpressionType.Lambda
Comment: Sorry, i forgot to mention i am using VS 2010 with .Net 4.0

vb.net vs C# lambda expression


Hamiltonian & Eulerian paths, one vertex graph

Question: Does the graph with only one vertex have an Eulerian path? And, does it have a Hamiltonian path?
Comment: I don't know if everyone defines it the same way, but Diestel's book, at least, allows a path to consist of a single vertex, which means that the answer is yes.
Comment: @Andrew: You could post that as an answer so the question doesn't remain unanswered.
Answer: I'm not sure if all graph theory books treat degenerate cases the same way, but Diestel's Graph Theory, at least, allows a path to have length $0$, i.e., to consist of a single vertex with no edges.  If a graph consists of a single vertex $v$, then the path consisting of $v$ is vacuously Eulerian.  It is also a Hamiltonian path, since it contains all of the vertices of the graph.


Database management good practice - should it be in code or with database tools?

Question: What is good practice of settings up a database in potentially large project - creating tables and updating them - should it be done in code of the app or should it be done by external database related tools like phpmyadmin ? I mean I have two ways - create tables and set them up when the app starts, or I can do this stuff with phpmyadmin by hand independently of codebase.
Comment: They're both viable strategies, and it will depend on you or you company's culture, your technical knowledge, your deployment strategy, etc.
Comment: I would not let any automatism in the code base to create and manage the DB or run changelogs. Overall if we are speaking of a single DB for the whole project. No to say if the project can run several instances on a distributed environment. To my experience, DB management and automatisms rarely get along well. Sooner than later you will have to operate the DB manually.
Answer: What you need is some form of deployment script which automaticaly sets up your database and/or updates it to the required version.
There are a number of tools that can help you do this, but the simplest way is just a collection of sql scripts and a batch file to check the version and execute them in order.
If your application uses a local db which should be deployed with the app. Its not unusual to have this script as part of the application itself and have the app create the db if it cant find it.
But for server deployments there is no need to link the deployment and the app.
Answer: Either approach can be fine. However, the DevOps approach would be to script database creation. Having it written down and automatically executable makes it

easier to understand,
possible to repeat (e.g. when setting up a new DB for a test environment), and
easier to modify.

Those modifications are crucial: what if the schema needs to change? Scripting all of these schema migrations makes the schema change testable – you can first try it in a staging environment. Deploying new versions with schema changes is now a lot less risky. You've also eliminated the possibility of manual errors: humans are not good at being perfect.
The database might be set up as part of your app, but that's not necessary. It's also perfectly fine to write separate tools as long as they are committed into the same version control system as the app.
For a battle-proven view on managing database schemas and other admin processes, see the final section of The Twelve-Factor App: https://12factor.net/admin-processes
Answer: This is a Separation of Duties  / Least Privileges question - it's important to keep these functions separate, and much easier to do from the beginning than to try and retrofit it later on.  The creation, update, and granting of objects is a DBA activity and should be done via a separate script - and done with as a separate user with different (elevated) privileges.
In the ideal case, your runtime user should not have privileges to create or modify objects at all.  Those privileges can be easily abused by someone with access to the runtime account or via a SQL injection.
Answer: It depends how much control you want to have.  If you have people who know SQL and databases well they may opt for the manual approach.  If you have some people who only know PHP and have limited knowledge of databases and SQL, tooling may be the better option because the tooling will create the database tables, etc.  so the team can concentrate on the coding in PHP.


How to Snap Lines in CartoDB

Question: I'm trying to create a project that maps out bus routes in CartoDB, and a lot of the streets have a lot of curves and turns. Is there a way to snap the lines to the street grid?
Answer: If you are using the basemap from CartoDB there is no way you can snap the street lines on the grid. But if you have shapefiles for the streetlines, you can edit them in another software called QGIS (free open software). Then, export that data onto CartoDB.

How to Snap Lines in CartoDB


Fluid iPhone Animation ala Plants vs Zombies

Question: If you've played Plants vs Zombies, you've seen how fluid and remarkable the character animation is. Can anyone assume how they are doing this? They don't seem to simply be animating bitmaps; the animation is too crisp, even as characters rotate and scale. The artwork looks vector, but I can't imagine that everything is drawn out using Core Graphics. Any ideas?
Answer: My guess: OpenGL. Core Graphics doesn't have the performance on the iPhone to do real-time vector graphics at that level of detail. From a cursory look at the PvZ graphics, I think they're using individual bitmaps for plant and zombie body parts—a peashooter, for instance, probably consists of a base, a couple of leaves attached thereto, a head, and a stem (which gets skewed back and forth as the "head" bobs). In other words, the bitmaps themselves aren't changing; they're just getting moved and rotated in relation to each other, which is something OpenGL is ideally suited to.
Answer: If you want to do the more intense, smooth graphics that respond dynamically to user input (i.e. a game - like PvZ), OpenGL is the way it's done. It's not the dynamic drawing of the images and graphics that ultimately kills you but the overhead of the event loop when you plop the details into an open-ended runloop (i.e. Core Animation and UIKit programming) in the Objective-C runtime.
Answer: As others have noted, they probably use OpenGL or a game engine that runs on top of OpenGL.
If you want to achieve something like this, I'd suggest using cocos2d for iPhone. It is built on top of OpenGL, but uses Objective-C and geared towards 2D games. As such, it provides sprite sheet support, a particle system, actions, visual effects and more.
Answer: You could definitely pull this off using CoreGraphics and spritesheets.


What does ground in low voltage electronic circuits mean?

Question: I have been confused a lot by the word "Ground". The ground that I've usually heard about is connecting a wire of appliances with the rod buried under earth but what does the word Ground mean when it comes to small amplifier circuits. If possible could you explain it with the circuit given below?
Answer: Ground means several things in a circuit like this.
First, the line marked with the ground symbol is usually connected also to the metal case that houses the circuit. This shields the circuit from picking up stray noise, radiated interference, and so forth.
You will also note that there are two lines marked with the ground symbol here. This means that those branches of the circuit are completed (i.e., current can flow through them) by means of their mutual conection to the common ground.
Finally,  in a bipolar output stage like this one, the ground line serves as the zero voltage reference for both the B+ and the B- supplies and the current return for the load. So then the NPN transistor turns on, it is pushing current through the loudspeaker and into the ground, and when the PNP transistor turns on, it is pulling current up through the loudspeaker from the ground.


Get Additional information in the order view payment information section

Question: I created a payment method and added 2 fields vendor name and vendor voucher and save field in the database using observer.
It's working fine. Now, I want this to show additional information in the order view payment information section.
Any help please on how to do it.
Thanks
Comment: do you want to show in admin or frontend?
Comment: currently in admin its save from fornt end in addtional_informaton
Comment: a:3:{s:14:"voucher_number";s:5:"23423";s:11:"vendor_name";s:6:"werwrw";s:12:"method_title";s:16:"Training Vssoucher";} like that
Answer: I guess you are talking about payment additional information.
Assuming you have the actual order object in the variable $order you can get the complete array of additional information with the following code:
$additionalInformation = $order->getPayment()->getAdditionalInformation();

If you are in quote context, there is a similar way. Again I assume that your actual quote is in the variable $quote:
$additionalInformation = $quote->getPayment()->getAdditionalInformation();

Update: In case the returned data is not an array, it might be necessary to unserialize it like follows:
$objectManager = \Magento\Framework\App\ObjectManager::getInstance();
$serializer = $objectManager->get('\Magento\Framework\Serialize\Serializer\Serialize');
$additionalInformationArray = $serializer->unserialize($additionalInformation);
//after this you can access it by key like this:
echo $additionalInformationArray['voucher_number'];
echo $additionalInformationArray['vendor_name'];
....

I hope that helps.
Comment: {s:14:"voucher_number";s:5:"23423";s:11:"vendor_name";s:6:"werwrw";s:12:"method_title";s:16:"Training Vssoucher";} i am getting like that after your code now i want voucher_number and vendor name form here;)
Comment: I hope the complete output you get is `a:3:{s:14:"voucher_number";s:5:"23423";s:11:"vendor_name";s:6:"werwrw";s:12:"method_title";s:18:"Training Vssoucher";}` that would be a correct serialized array. I update my answer


In ionic solids such as NaCl, do the cations fill interstital holes in the cation's cubic close pack structure?

Question: Are binary ionic solids like $\ce{NaCl}$ comprised of a cubic close packed structure of the anions with the cations filling interstital holes or do the cations and the anions contribute to the cubic close packed structure equally? I am really struggling with solid state chemistry - any help would be gratefully received. Also any suggestions for good learning resources on this topic would be great. Thanks.
Comment: [This](http://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/23673/rock-salt-structure/23682#23682) might be helpful. When we talk about close packed structures, we're really only describing the positions of atoms relative to one another, not their bonding and there are often multiple equivalent ways to think about them, though which ions are involved do of course influence which crystal structures are stable.
Answer: The relative radii of the ions, and the stoichiometric ratio of the ions needs to be considered.
For NaCl, the radius of Na+ is 0.695 that of Cl-.
Na+ ions occupy octahedral holes in the cubic close packed lattice of Cl-.
If the radii are more equal (ratio greater than 0.732) then each type of ion will form a simple cubic lattice, with each ion of one lattice filing a cubic hole of the other lattice. For example, CsCl.
If the radii are very different (ratio less than 0.414) the smaller ions will fill tetrahedral holes in the cubic close packed lattice of the larger ions. For example ZnS.
See http://depts.washington.edu/chemcrs/bulkdisk/chem162A_sum06/handout_Lecture_11.pdf for more information.


Neural network classification with fixed weights on early layers

Question: If we keep the hidden layer parameters above fixed but add and train additional hidden layers (applied after this layer) to further transform the data, could the resulting neural network solve this classification problem?
Answer: There are many related concepts that can be mentioned. First of all, there is transfer learning, where you "import" parameters from other network into the early layers of your network, freeze them, and train only the parameters on higher layers, so to "transfer" the knowledge from other network into your network.
There is also broad literature on neural networks with random weights. The classic work is by Rahimi and Recht (2008) (see also webpage and talk) who described "random kitchen sinks", i.e. random features that can be used instead of the learned ones. Gaier and Ha (2019) (see also this Twitter thread) did research on weight-agnostic neural networks, that focused on finding neural network architectures that "work" without training the weights. There is also one example where attempt to reproduce one of David Ha's et al papers that used random weights (also discussed in this Twitter thread), instead of trained ones, performed equally well as trained models. Similar idea was discussed by Ramanujan et al (2018)

randomly weighted neural networks contain subnetworks which achieve
  impressive performance without ever training the weight values. Hidden
  in a randomly weighted Wide ResNet-50 we show that there is a
  subnetwork (with random weights) that is smaller than, but matches the
  performance of a ResNet-34 trained on ImageNet

Apparently, the idea you describe was already tested by Cao, Wang, Ming, and Gao (2018) in the A review on neural networks with random weights paper, who described exactly what you are describing

neural networks with random weights (NNRW) are proposed in which the
  weights between the hidden layer and input layer are randomly selected
  and the weights between the output layer and hidden layer are obtained
  analytically

As you can see, there are many results showing that you can have neural networks that have some, or even all, weights being completely random, while still achieving decent performance. Of course, those results show only that this is possible, not that it will always work. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, check the links provided above, their references they mention, and search Google Scholar for papers quoting them for many more examples.


How do you test the network speed between two boxes?

Question: I have a gigabit network set up in my house and a few Ubuntu based boxes. Out of complete curiosity I would like to check the speed between the two boxes.
I am not having any problems with speed or anything, it really is just the geek in me that is curious. Plus maybe the results will let me know if there is room for improvement, or that I have something configured wrongly.
So how does one properly test the network speed between Ubuntu boxes?
Answer: I use iperf. It's a client server arrangement in that you run it in server mode at one end and connect to its from another computer on the other side of the network.
One both machines run:
sudo apt-get install iperf

We'll start an iperf server on one of the machines:
iperf -s

And then on the other computer, tell iperf to connect as a client:
iperf -c <address of other computer>

On the client machine, you'll see something like this:
oli@bert:~$ iperf -c tim
------------------------------------------------------------
Client connecting to tim, TCP port 5001
TCP window size: 16.0 KByte (default)
------------------------------------------------------------
[  3] local 192.168.0.4 port 37248 connected with 192.168.0.5 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  3]  0.0-10.0 sec  1.04 GBytes    893 Mbits/sec

Of course, if you're running a firewall on the server machine, you'll need to allow connections on port 5001 or change the port with the -p flag.

You can do pretty much the same thing with plain old nc (netcat) if you're that way inclined. On the server machine:
nc -vvlnp 12345 >/dev/null

And the client can pipe a gigabyte of zeros through dd over the nc tunnel.
dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1K | nc -vvn 10.10.0.2 12345

As demod:
$ dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=1K | nc -vvn 10.10.0.2 12345
Connection to 10.10.0.2 12345 port [tcp/*] succeeded!
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 9.11995 s, 118 MB/s

The timing there is given by dd but it should be accurate enough as it can only output as fast the pipe will take it. If you're unhappy with that you could wrap the whole thing up in a time call.
Remember that the result is in megabytes so multiply it by 8 to get a megabits-per-second speed. The demo above is running at 944mbps.
Comment: @CMCDragonkai You probably shouldn't testing resources that aren't yours. Bandwidth heavy tests can have an impact on short-term stability.
Comment: Try -P 10. My result with single connection is similar to jschoens, but with 3+ parallel connections, it consistently pushes 920Mbps.
Comment: Man you have all the answers to my questions! My network apparently is not set up as well as yours only transfer at 714 MBytes and bandwith of 598 Mbits/sec. Dunno may look into that in the future. Thanks.
Comment: In fairness the other box is only one switch (and 20meters of cat5e) away and there's no congestion. 600mbps is still pretty fast.
Comment: This is great, but I don't have root access to the server.
Comment: What if you don't control the server?
Comment: If you're using TCP, `iperf` might be faster than `nc` because of the way they use TCP. See: http://serverfault.com/questions/296539/netcat-throughput-low-but-iperf-high
Comment: `iperf` shows 27Mbit speed on gigabit connection, I tried to increased Windows size but it doesn't work.
Comment: this is a nice solution, bunt unfortunately, is NOT GOOD, both solutions give fake answers, iperf is REALLY BAD, I get even 75mbps, netcat is better, but also fluctuate ... both solutions aren't good be cause they are about client/server not advanced enough for *squeezing* every bit of speed, I'll post my solution as an answer
Comment: what if the client is a windows machine?
Comment: @jonney ncat might be viable substitute for an option for acting as one side of the `nc` command above, otherwise I'd suggest [WSL](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10). If all else fails, a LiveUSB stick with Ubuntu on.
Comment: @Oli Please do not use WSL. It's a disgusting abomination against the freesoftware movement. It's okay for hooking and grabbing people into Linux who would otherwise refuse to try it, but developers should avoid it at all costs. Stick to the real actual good Linux, not the flimsy WSL Linux pasted on top of all the evil proprietary Microsoft crap.
Comment: @JackGriffin Please leave the preaching in church. Somebody had an existing Windows install at one end of this problem and wanted to apply my solution. WSL isn't a bad option in that case.
Answer: The command below does not require additional packages but SSH access:
ssh firstname.lastname@example.com 'dd if=/dev/zero bs=1GB count=3 2>/dev/null' | dd of=/dev/null status=progress

Example output:
2992238080 bytes (3.0 GB) copied, 27.010250 s, 111 MB/s
5859375+0 records in
5859375+0 records out
3000000000 bytes (3.0 GB) copied, 27.1943 s, 110 MB/s

The command prints a 3GB (1000^3 bytes) dummy file full of zeros to stdout on the remote server, which is printed (transferred) via SSH to stdout of the local server and then locally piped to /dev/null (i.e. ignored). You can even see the progress of the test while executing it.
Certainly not as precise as other tools but my use case was to debug a backup process where I wanted to test if network speed was the issue without installing additional packages.
Comment: The good thing here is that you can test encryption since ssh will encrypt anything.
Answer: Same as Oli's recommendation for iperf. Just want to add several points:

There are also windows clients that enables testing across
platforms.
-t <seconds> changes the test length. -P <n> changes the number of simultaneous connections. For example,  iperf -c [target IP] -P 10 -t 30 tests 10 connections together for 30 seconds and gives aggregated results along with 10 separate connection speeds.
You don't need sudo. You can simply download the binary at http://iperf.fr/. It should work. Download it with wget, make it executable with chmod, and you can directly run the binary. It works perfectly.

I found that, using default settings, the single connection speed fluctuates quite a bit. However, with 3+ parallel connections, the results are more consistent on my gigabyte switch. (consistently @ 910-920Mbps)
Answer: Using this script you can easily test connection speed between your machine and some remote host.
Example of using:
$ scp-speed-test.sh user@remote_host 80000

user@remote_host is your destination host (you must have ssh-access
to this host)
80000 is the approximate size of test file (in kbs), which will be
received to the remote host. It is not mandatory argument.
Comment: This seems to test the speed of the SCP application, which will be lower than a test at a lower layer. For example, nc uses L4. Of course, this is great if you care more about the speed of SCP.
Comment: Has problems: This script writes & reads a file to disk - that's slower than ram, so can be an artificial slowdown. Also only sends zeros, in case they're compressed that's a big artificial speedup. If you do want pseudorandom data, **don't use `/dev/random` (it can block) or `urandom`** (link comments suggested that) they can be very slow too, instead use a dm-crypt (See cryptsetup's FAQ [2.19 How can I wipe a device with crypto-grade randomness?](https://gitlab.com/cryptsetup/cryptsetup/wikis/FrequentlyAskedQuestions)) maybe with a file in ram.
Answer: If you want to test your Ethernet LAN at a lower level you can use Etherate which is a free Linux CLI Ethernet testing tool:
https://github.com/jwbensley/Etherate
Throwing it in the mix as tools like iPerf (which are very good!) operate over IP and TCP or UDP. Etherate tests directly over Ethernet / OSI layer 2.
Answer: There are also some other nice command-line tools for bandwidth benchmarking between two hosts:
nuttcp
server$ nuttcp -S
client$ nuttcp -v -v -i1 18.104.22.168 ;# 220.127.116.11 is server's address

nepim
 server$ nepim
 client$ nepim -d -c 184.108.40.206 ;# 126.96.36.199 is server's address

goben
 server$ goben
 client$ goben -hosts 22.214.171.124 ;# 188.8.131.52 is server's address

Comment: How are these different from each other, and from iperf? Do they work the same, what do they do? nuttcp is in Debian & apparently *"nuttcp is based on nttcp, which in turn was an enhancement by someone at Silicon Graphics (SGI) on the original ttcp, which was written by Mike Muuss at BRL sometime before December 1984, to compare the performance of TCP stacks by U.C. Berkeley and BBN to help DARPA decide which version to place in the first BSD Unix release."*
Answer: as I pointed out in my comment at best answer, that solution is not good enough be cause client/server is not optimized to ... squeeze every bit of speed
my solution:
make a ramdisk on both sides (therefore, you aren't limited by storage speed and I suggest you made them with ramfs not tmpfs, so they won't go in swap ... just be careful not to leave at least 512M free memory for system, this is REQUIRED if you have giga ethernet, at that speed even SSDs may slow things down)
install apache on server, then create a link to ramdisk, create few large files on ramdisk (100M-1G, you can create them with dd from /dev/random or copy if you have some at hand)
then go client side and download them (also on that side's ramdisk) with an advanced download program, I used lftp
oh well, difference was major, from 75mbps reported by iperf and 9.5M/s netcat
to 11.18M/s with my solution:
1591129421 bytes transferred in 136 seconds (11.18M/s)

Comment: 9.5M * 8 = 76 mbps
; it is quite near to 75 mbps
Answer: It's easy plug your computer on the first box, plug the other box to the first box. Then from your computer ping the first box save the result, ping the other box and do the substraction.
Comment: That shows network latency which is only one part of speed. For example my phone's 3G connection has huge latency (100-300ms) but it can still manage a throughput of 5mbps.
Comment: Latency is reaction-time, not speed.
Comment: Not my fault if he asked speed but wanted throughput.
Comment: It is speed. You can say "it takes 100ms to transfer one packet" - in the end his post is not wrong but he probably knew that this was not asked.


What is Namur, and how does it work?

Question: I found a TTL converter box custom made many years ago. It says Namur_to_TTL converter on it. What is Namur? I googled but couldn't find a clear explanation.
Answer: NAMUR is a signaling standard, used primarily on proximity and limit switch devices.  It outputs a current signal depending on the state of the switch.  The switching spec is >2.1mA (typically but not always for NC) and <1.2mA for the opposite switch state.  There is a 0.9mA deadband for noise immunity.  The output is usually characterized at an output of 8.2V when terminated with a 1k resistor.  Because of the nature of the signal, a conditioning circuit is needed to convert back to 0/5V or 0/24V logic levels.
The standard was developed in Germany in the late 1940s for use in chemical plants.  "Normenarbeitsgemeinschaft für Mess- und Regeltechnik in der Chemischen Industrie" was shortened to NAMUR.  The standard is contained within EN 60947-5-6.
Comment: @GenzoWakabayashi it's digital, but it's what's called "current-mode" instead of the more traditional "voltage-mode".  Current-mode signaling can provide better noise immunity and in some cases higher speed than voltage-mode signaling.  Current-mode signaling usually requires more power than voltage-mode signaling because P = I * V and voltage-mode signaling usually involves very small currents.
Comment: Is is serial or analog signalling? Do you know why would that be used ?
Comment: Not aware of serial PCM data transmission using NAMUR, however I have seen shaft encoders that do.  Here's one reference:  https://docuthek.kromschroeder.com/documents/download.php?lang=de&doc=33994   All of my experience with NAMUR has been with proximity sensor applications.  Because of the hysteresis, I doubt it was ever intended for analog signaling.
Comment: Very strange I think its not used often. I still dont understand how it works. Not serial not analog so what is that..
Comment: @GenzoWakabayashi  Proximity sensors are used extensively in industrial automation and process industries.  The sensors are used to detect the presence or position of an object.  Unlike a mechanical switch, these sensors don't wear with use, are fully sealed, and have built in open and short circuit fault detection capability through the NAMUR interface module.  Here is one manufacturer's sensor product offering: https://pdb2.turck.de/us/DE/groups/000000010002461b00030023 in case you want further look at this type of sensor.
Answer: NAMUR signalling is based on a current-loop style interface instead of digital (on/off), voltage style. It is mainly used in explosive atmospheres and is part of an "Intrinsically Safe" connection strategy. The current and voltage are, by design, low enough to prevent a spark of sufficient energy to ignite an explosive atmosphere. It must therefore be used with an "Intrinsic Barrier" style amplifier before it can be used to signal a PLC or Process controller.

What is Namur, and how does it work?


New bookmark syn for Google Chrome?

Question: On the new Google Chrome New Tab page there is a link for the new _Extensions" page and next to it the Bookmark sync link which actually does not link to anywhere. I have been wishing for Chrome to integrate bookmarks better with the Google user account so I could have my organized bookmarks from any computer, but now that I see this new link Bookmark sync on the bottom of the New Tab page I am curious, is there a new bookmark sync feature for chrome now?
Answer: The bookmark sync syncs to Google Toolbar bookmarks... (details). Nice and all, but I had hoped it would be an option to at least use Google's Bookmark service too. Alas.
With the beta version of Chrome you can also look into using the Xmarks extension. Good sign of 3rd party integration solving this challenge long-term.
Comment: +1 for consideration of the Google Bookmarks service.  I've been using hampr.com as an alternative for some time now.  It even has a FF (not Chrome) add-on.

New bookmark syn for Google Chrome?


How much less effective are the antibodies produced against the Alpha-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein against the Delta-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein?

Question: When viruses mutate and the surface of a protein changes that usually results in the antibodies that the body produced against an earlier form of the virus working less well. By what factor do antibodies developed against the Alpha-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein bind less well to the Delta-SARS-CoV-2 spike protein?
Comment: Are sure you are actually interested in the alpha variant specifically? Or just about the pre-delta (and pre-alpha) strains used to develop vaccines and that most people were infected with before delta arrived?
Answer: There is no general answer to this question -- it depends on the viruses involved, the antibodies in question and the specific immune system gene versions of an infectee.
Unlike with monoclonal antibodies, the population of antibodies to a given protein generated by a natural immune response is enormous. That population includes antibodies targeted to different parts of the protein, as the immune system chops up the protein into short (8-20 aa long) peptides in order to "present" those to the various antigen-recognizing immune cells. "Peptide length significantly influences in vitro affinity for MHC class II molecules" doi: 10.1186/1745-7580-4-6
Any given change to the original target protein may directly or indirectly affect from just one to many of its recognized peptides. Thus, a given antibody may have an affinity for the new protein ranging from unchanged (if its target antigen region was unchanged) all the way to essentially no binding (if its target region was greatly changed or eliminated).  An individual's overall Ab "neutralizing titer" against the new protein will depend both on the affinity of individual Abs to the new protein and on the number of each Ab present.
Answer: In vitro research suggests that the multiple changes associated with the S- (Spike) protein and for that matter, the N- (nucleocapsid) protein attributed to omicron that has demonstrated some ability to evade current vaccine-induced immunity, but also, and more markedly, can evade infection-conferred immunity. Or, to put it another way, recent infection with the delta variant is little protection against a breakthrough infection with omicron. Recent prior infection appears to moderate the potential severity in some unvaccinated, but previously infected patients. Persons who have been fully vaccinated and boosted may also experience breakthrough infection but the majority are mild symptomatically,with a much lower predisposition toward requiring hospitalization. Persons previously infected and subsequently fully vaccinated, or fully vaccinated but who still experienced breakthrough infection  are much less likely to contract a breakthrough infection and much more likely, if they are reinfected, to have asymptomatic or very mild disease.
I'm not sure I've seen any research, peer-reviewed or preprint, that discusses the IgG binding affinity for the case you describe.
(https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/report-49-Omicron/)
Comment: New material keeps coming out. Qatari research suggests that, while the effect is diminished, prior recent infection offers some protection against omicron reinfection (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.05.22268782v1.full.pdf).