How can i implement deadlines in smartContract?

Question: Suppose I am running a gallery and ask participants to submit there paintings before a specific date. After passing that date participant should not be able to submit their entry. How can I implement such functionality?
Answer: There are two ways to do this:
1) Limit the deadline by the block number.
require(block.number < 7169670); // Where 7169670 is a block number.

2) Limit the deadline by the current timestamp.
require(now < 1549219795);  // Where 1549219795 is the current unix timestamp.

There are advantages for both. It is not recommended to use block.number for checks that are in a long time, as there is variance in timing of blocks and other factors such as the ice age.
now is preferred, as it is generally more accurate. With each mined block, miners include a timestamp of the current time. There are rules which limit their ability to manipulate this time (for example, it cannot be prior to the previous block's timestamp, nor can it be too much longer than it).
Comment: Why to use `block.number` is not recommended to use for checks in a long time? @shane
Comment: It was recommended to not use `block.number` back when the difficulty bomb existed. There were a number of contracts (usually ICOs), that used `block.number` and expected to start their ICO at a certain time. When the difficulty bomb happened, these start times got pushed back because of the longer block times. Thus, the reason to not use `block.nunber` is because the variance in block times in the short term (<infinity) is too large to accurately predict.
Comment: How about if it is network is proof-of-authorithy network and block time is fixed seconds such as 15 seconds?
Comment: I would say that is fine. Additionally, it should be fine for certain situations where precise timing isn't necessary.


Why can't I get into my acount?

Question: When I went into my Minecraft the first thing I saw was a log in with your email and password I wrote my password, email, and username on paper but when I tried it, it said that it was wrong. I never changed computers and I never reset my password in case it would delete my Minecraft servers and worlds. Help?
Comment: What do you by "my password email and username"?  Did you try a few times to make sure you were typing the required information correctly?
Answer: You have to use your email (Not your password!) if that doesn't work just change your passcode.
Also if you can update your launcher you might be using an old one.
If you have an old account you will get migrated to a new one on minecraft.com if you ask for help there.
Eventually it will log out of your account from time to time so you have to memorize your passcode.

Why can't I get into my acount?


Does -u reduce the speed of ripgrep?

Question: I have read the man pages and documents online without getting a clear answer. It is stated that using -u with ripgrep will "Reduce the level of smart searching" as well as not searching the .gitignore file. I want the same level of speed searching but also don't want ripgrep to look at my gitignore. After testing for a while it's still inconclusive if it is the same speed or faster. I think ripgrep caches things making the reproducibility harder. Anyone have a definitive answer?
Answer: If you don't want ripgrep to respect your gitignore, then use -u. It's as simple as that. There is no definitive answer to your question. -u might make riogrep go faster because now it doesn't need to parse and match your gitignore rules against every file path. But -u night also make ripgrep slower if it needs to search more files that would have otherwise been skipped by gitignore. This is a fundamental trade off that depends on your specific circumstances.
The only way to know is to measure your own workload.

Does -u reduce the speed of ripgrep?


Will there be any copyright issue if we use an existing product's name?

Question: In software industry, while naming a new app or a product, will there be any copyright issue if we use an existing name?
Comment: It would help if you indicated the relevant country , as laws on trademark (and copyright) differ somewhat in different countries.
Answer: The term in your question, "use an existing name", is pretty broad.
Do you propose to say, "Compatible with Microsoft Lync"?
Or will you actually name your product "Lync"?
The first option is likely safe.  The second one looks like a Trademark infringement more than a copyright issue. And "Lync" is distinctive enough, you probably won't win.
However, if you propose to name your product "Messenger", you're slightly better off because "messenger" is a generic term in the English Language, even if Facebook adopted it for their product.
The major criteria would be if your chosen name is likely to cause confusion with Facebook's product.
Answer: The names of software programs and apps, like the titles of books and movies, are not protected by copyright. However, they are often protected as trademarks. If a new product uses the name of an existing product, or part of it, or a significantly similar term, or a visual symbol such as a logo, such that a reasonable person might be falsely led to believe that the new thing is made by, endorsed by, approved by, sponsored by, or in some way affiliated with the makers of the existing thing, that might well be trademark infringement. If a reasonable person might be confused about the source, approval, or endorsement, that could also be infringement. It will only be infringement if the name (or symbol) of the existing product is protected as a trademark.
The rules for obtaining protection are different in different countries. In some countries, merely using a name or logo in commerce will grant at least some protection. In other countries, some sort of official registration is required for any protection to apply.
It is generally permitted to refer to another product by its name for purposes of comparison or review or similar reference, provided that no "passing off" a product as being from or affiliated with the makers of the other product is being done, and no confusion is probable. This is known as nominative use.  For example:

Compatible with Acme Corp's WordMaker.
50% faster than Acme Corp's WordMaker.
Half the price of Acme Corp's WordMaker.

would all be permissible. A prominent disclaimer, such as "This product made by Zebra Corp, and is in no way sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with Acme Corp. "WordMaker" is a trademark of Acme Corp." helps to make sure that no reasonable person would be confused.
Note also that use of a name out side of commerce, that is in no way connected with selling or advertising a product or service is generally not subject to trademark protect. But again, the law on this varies in different countries.
Note also that a name or other mark that is not distinctive will receive little or no protection. I could open a shop called "David's Best Pizza", but I would probably not win a trademark suit against a shop called 'Tom's Best Pizza", as "Best Pizza" is not very distinctive.
Note also that trademarks are generally protected only in the industry and geographic region where they are used. A product called "Dolphin Pizza" sold in New York would likely be protected in New York, and perhaps New Jersey, but probably not in California. And that trademark probably would not be able to prevent someone from using "Dolphin" as the name of a line of pools, or showers, or computers. However, at least in the US, "Famous" marks which are widely recognized get wider protection. The mark "IBM" might be protected even in industries that IBM has never marketed any product in, for example.
Comment: Trademark can be also registered and then they may be reserved even in industries that the owner doesn't currently perform.
Comment: @Mikko Rantalainen
 However, if a mark is not used according to the registration for a period of three years, it can be cancelled as  abandoned.
Comment: I guess it depends on jurisdiction. I live in Finland and as far as I know, here the expiration time for registered trademark is 5 years after which it *may* be cancelled due lack of use. The trademark cancellation can be requested by anybody after that 5 year unused period but the cancellation request costs minimum of 400 euros. If nobody requests cancellation, the trademark can stay reserved indefinitely.


distribution of objects

Question: Find the number of ways to distribute $n$ distinct objects to $5$ distinct boxes, such that boxes $1$, $3$ and $5$ must hold an odd number of objects and boxes $2$ and $4$ must hold an even number of objects.
Answer: If $n$ is odd, this question is quite hard. One approach is as follows.
Let $A_{n,i}$ be the number of ways of distributing $n$ objects between 5 boxes such that $i$ of the boxes contain an odd number of objects ($0 \leq i \leq 5$). Then
$$\vec{A_n} = \begin{pmatrix}
0&1&0&0&0&0\\
5&0&2&0&0&0\\
0&4&0&3&0&0\\
0&0&3&0&4&0\\
0&0&0&2&0&5\\
0&0&0&0&1&0
\end{pmatrix}^n
\begin{pmatrix}1\\0\\0\\0\\0\\0\end{pmatrix}$$
We want $A_{n,3} / {5 \choose 3}$.
One way to compute the power of the matrix is to diagonalise it. It's an automatic procedure, but for a $6×6$ matrix I would not want to do it by hand!
Answer: Is the value of $n$ odd or even?

distribution of objects


Achieving versioning in taxonomy

Question: I am trying to use taxonomy for navigation. I wanted to know if there is a way to have versions of taxonomy.
Answer: Taxonomy, like Folders and Structure Groups, does not have versioning functionality from Tridion.
If you would like to know who changed what and when, without rolling back, it is fairly simple.  You would write an Event System class that listens for the Save Keyword event and writes this info to a DB (OrmLite, SQLite, MongoDB, etc) and then write an asp.net page that sits on the Tridion CMS to display the list of keyword information.
If you want to have the ability to rollback then you would need to store additional information.  I would look at getting the XML of the item from Tridion, and see if it contains everything you need to create the item again.  If not, I would suggest adding the extra info into the Tridion XML document, and persisting the XML to the DB as one record.
Finally, if you want to also be able to rollback or restore the older version, you would need to use the UpdateXML method, or something similar, to update the keyword and use the older XML for it.
Overall, not too tricky to do, and depends on what use case you need to solve.
Comment: Here is my use case:
I schedule publish of a page for some point of time and then modify it and schedule a publish for some other point of time.This way i achieve publishing various versions of a page at different times. I want to publish taxonomy in similar fashion
Comment: I'm not sure why you need versioning to publish a category at different times - do your changes, then publish it. Unless you intend to roll-back the changes as well, you don't really need versioning...
Answer: This would need to be custom functionality as Rob already mentions in his answer.  I'd like to add that you can store your custom versioning data in AppData for each keyword.  No need for a custom DB.

Achieving versioning in taxonomy


How high is too high for battery volts

Question: I have been doing some unrelated          auto electrical work on a 1964 pontaic bonniville .I checked the charging voltage with the giant 389 at normal idle .Measured 15.9 Vdc on trusted DVM .When we lifted engine revs to about 2700 and turned on the headlamps the voltage remained at this seemingly too high 15.9 Vdc.I have seen 15Vdc on older classic cars with generators .This detroit iron has an alternater with external volt reg which is normal for its year of manufacturer .The car is really origional and I want to keep it that way .I could rebuild the internals of the volt reg setting up at say 14.8Vdc keeping the car good for open bonnet concource .Is this voltage normal?
Answer: No, that is to high for that era.
13.7 to 14.4V maximum - newer cars have fancier control (I have one) and it charges up to 15.3V but the ecu will control to a set charging algorithm.
Those regulators will just control the voltage to a given point.
Some of those external regulators had an adjustment - even some alternators had 3 connections to give low, medium and high outputs - usually based on use: low for continuous output ie lots of highway and high for stop / start situations.
Comment: @Autistic - The voltage you've stated will boil the battery (literally) given enough time. If you measured the voltage as stated, they shouldn't run the car at all on it. You can *try* to rebuild the regulator, but I'll bet you won't have much luck doing so. You can still buy an original GM regulator for the vehicle. While it would look brand new, it will be stock, which still fits into an "open bonnet concourse" vibe.
Comment: Reassuring .I did warn the owner not to go on a big trip  because the battery might spew over the nice internal paint .I think i will deal to the reg .
Comment: This is all good Paulster .I will discuss options with the owner .I only do the rebuild thing when the customer can not get the part .These rebuilds are only for special ocassions.
Comment: Before you repair or replace the regulator, carefully trace the wires between the alternator and regulator to confirm that there is no short to ground, perhaps from contact with a hot manifold. Some alternators produce maximum voltage when a regulator wire is shorted to ground, though I don't know if your alternator is that type. If it's easy to disconnect the wires at both ends, check ohms to ground. Shouldn't be any.

How high is too high for battery volts


Combined texture bake is Causing bad Aliasing?

Question: I am running into issues when baking a combined map in Cycles. Many lines within the textures not just edges are rendering with jagged edges. I have tried many many settings with no luck in fixing it. Currently I'm rendering at 4k with 4096 samples with Denoise on (openImageDenois, Albedeo and Normal, Accurate).Attached are images of my settings and the issue at hand. Does anyone have an Anti-Aliasing solution with in blender? or am I doing something incorrectly?
Answer: May not be the best solution, but I've been looking into this problem for a long time as well and the only option I've had is to super sample it: Bake it at twice the resolution, and then downsize it. This will simulate anti-aliasing somewhat, at the cost of greatly increasing render time.


Derivation of formula for finding median for grouped data

Question: I know the formula of formula for finding median for grouped data that is $$\mathrm{Median} = L_m + \left [ \frac { \frac{n}{2} - F_{m-1} }{f_m} \right ] \times c$$
and I know what all the letters stand for. But can anyone provide a derivation of this. Because I am very curious on how this comes.
Comment: "I know what all the letters stand for." Good for you! I don't. Why don't you tell us what they stand for?
Comment: @Shahab thank you for a bounty on such an old question
Comment: @Rahul: $L_m$ is the lower limit of the median class, $n$ is the total number of observations, $F_{m-1}$ is the cumulative frequency of the class preceding the median class, $f_m$ is the frequency of the median class, $c$ is the class width.
Comment: https://www.themathdoctors.org/finding-the-median-of-grouped-data/
Answer: This formula is the result of a linear interpolation, which identifies the median under the assumption that data are uniformly distributed within the median class.
To derive the formula, we can note that since $N/2$ is the number
of observations below the median, then $N/2 - F_{m-1}$ is the number of observations that are within the median class and that are below the median ($F_{m-1}$ is the cumulative frequency of the interval below the median class, i.e. of all classes below the median class).
As a result, the fraction $\displaystyle\frac {N/2 - F_{m-1}}{f_m}$ (where $f_m$ is the frequency of the median class) represents the proportion of data values in the median class that are below the median.
Now if we assume that data are uniformly distributed (i.e., equally spaced) within the median class, multiplying the last fraction by $c$ (total width of the median class) we obtain the fraction of median class width corresponding to the position of the median. Adding the result to $L_m$ (lower limit of the median class), we get the final formula $\displaystyle L_m + \left [ \frac { \frac{N}{2} - F_{m-1} }{f_m} \right ] \cdot c$, which identifies the median.
Comment: But why do we find the N/2th observation? How will it be the 50th percentile then? Why not find the (N+1)/2th observation as it is done in the case of an individual series?
Comment: This method does not give you an exact estimation of the median, but only an approximation. Accordingly, it is used when you have no complete data (e.g. when you only have grouped frequency tables). It is based on the assumption that data are uniformly distributed within the median class, so that you get the estimate by interpolation. Using $N/2$ in the formula gives the point where we expect the median value to be placed under this assumption, irrespective of whether N is even or odd.
Answer: Suppose you want the fraction value of $4$ boys out of total children $10$ we calculate $\frac{4}{10}$ multiplied by total value .
Similarly we  calculate median $=l+x$ , where $x$ is the fraction value of median observation .
Thus we calculate $x = \frac{1}{f}(\frac{n}{2}- cf) ×c $


Parallel/simultaneous read

Question: Is there a way to read more than 1 port pin simultaneously (like a parallel port read) using wiringpi? I can see wiringpi functions to do a single pin read (digitalRead()) - but in my application I need to read 2+ pins at once. I guess I can read the pins directly via GPLEV0/GPLEV1 registers in the broadcom device - but ideally I'd do it via wiringpi.
Comment: Unfortunately its sub ms (the pulses are 100 - 200ns wide or so) - I'm trying to read the state of one pin when another changes state (and read the one that changes state). I'm intending to use an interrupt from a pin change to initiate the read. From what I have read the latency can be up to 75ns - so just about doable in theory.
Comment: What is the required latency for your application?  If a dozen or so milliseconds is okay, you probably don't have to read them in literal parallel.
Answer: If you look at the wiringPi source you will see there are a couple of likely functions in wiringPi.c.
digitalWriteByte
digitalReadByte
The associated comment is
<code>/*
 * digitalWriteByte:
 * digitalReadByte:
 *      Pi Specific
 *      Write an 8-bit byte to the first 8 GPIO pins - try to do it as
 *      fast as possible.
 *      However it still needs 2 operations to set the bits, so any external
 *      hardware must not rely on seeing a change as there will be a change
 *      to set the outputs bits to zero, then another change to set the 1's
 *      Reading is just bit fiddling.
 *      These are wiringPi pin numbers 0..7, or BCM_GPIO pin numbers
 *      17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 24, 4 on a Pi v1 rev 0-3
 *      17, 18, 27, 23, 24, 24, 4 on a Pi v1 rev 3 onwards or B+, 2, 3, zero
 *********************************************************************************
 */
</code>
You will probably need to experiment.
Comment: Looking at the code digitalReadByte (and digitalReadByte2) just assemble a byte by 8 independent pin reads - so its not what I'm looking for.
Comment: That's not the full story.  It uses 8 reads if you are in sysfs mode but not if you are in other modes.  Are you using SYS mode?
Comment: Nope - not in SYS mode.  Looking at the code in more depth your right - for non WPI_MODE_GPIO_SYS mode its doing a 32bit read and then the loop is assembling 8 output bits from them.

Parallel/simultaneous read


What techniques can determine the concentration of ethyl acetate in a solution containing ethyl acetate, acetic acid, ethanol and water?

Question: I need to monitor the concentration of ethyl acetate in an Fischer esterification reaction. What techniques or spectroscopies can detect the concentration of the compound? And which one do you recommend based on precision and less sample preparation?
Comment: Hold on, why EA? I assume that the esterification you are doing is between the citric acid and ethanol, so shouldn't you be looking to monitor the ethyl citrate product? I can't imagine where EA would come from unless you added it from the beginning.
Comment: How much ethyl acetate is present in the mixture ?
Comment: @ITTsoi I'm sorry, you're right. I meant acetic acid. It was a typo.
Comment: @ankit7540 The concentration of ethyl acetate is considerable (>10% ww)
Answer: You might consider taking Aliquots of the reaction (or if you have the equipment directly sampling via a cannula) into a GC-FID or quantitative GC-MS. This way you could monitor the concentrations of all species in solution given the right GC method. Areas under each peak will give you relative amounts, you would need to use an appropriate known amount of an internal standard that remains constant to get absolute numbers.
Answer: You don't mention the scale of the reaction, however 1H NMR will be the easiest and most effective method for monitoring the progress of the reaction, and give very accurate results.
If done on a small scale, you could take 50uL aliquots, and dilute in deuterated solvent. If you are doing this on a large scale, you simply take 0.4mL aliquots, and either add a small amount of deuterated solvent for lock, or simply run it unlocked. If running it neat, you can return your sample to the reaction vessel to continue the reaction.
Monitor the reaction via the concentration of the methylene groups for ethanol and ethyl acetate. The ethanol CH2 comes around 3.7ppm, and the ethyl acetate CH2 comes around 4.1ppm. Easy peasy.
Answer: Great answers above using specific techniques.
I would use in-situ Raman spectroscopy.
Sample preparation : No sample preparation needed. The whole reaction vessel can be moved to the sample point of Raman spectrometer (if the Raman spectrometer allows it). The incoming laser beam will not affect the reaction since none of the chemicals mentioned are light sensitive.
Advantage : No need to open the reaction vessel and take aliquot after some time duration. You can continuously monitor the change (~ every 1-5 minutes depending upon spectrometer throughput).
Quantitative information:
2 approaches:

Using an internal standard:
Raman peak from some species whose concentration stays same throughout can be used as a relative internal standard. Concentration of other species can be found relative to this standard.
Using abolute Raman cross-section: Absolute Raman cross-section of any species if known can be used and concentration can be found absolutely in the reaction vessel. If concentration of one species in known accurately others can be found relative to it.

*If you need more info send a comment.

Since custom Raman spectrometer is hard to find, it is more practical to use an instrument which is available in your department and is free to use, which is more likely to be an NMR instrument.


Magento 1.9 - Maximum file upload size?

Question: I have to upload photos that are about 5-10mb each,but the default maximum size is 2mb.
I've searched in google and found that you have to edit the php.ini file and increase the amount.
However, when I go into my Cpanel, I cannot find php.ini, but there is phpsample.ini
If I go into this phpsample.ini, there is no code that has the maximum file size.
is there any other solution to fix this problem?
Thanks!
Comment: ask your host, they will do for you or will tell you where to access php.ini file
Answer: You need to check your php settings for the values set.
You can create phpInfo.php and paste the below code in it
<?php echo phpinfo(); ?>

This will give you full info of your settings. You can check the values for
upload_max_filesize = 2M
post_max_size = 2M

You can increase this values and restart your server. To know which php file you are using look for the below detail
Loaded Configuration File /etc/php/7.0/apache2/php.ini
If you are using shared hosting you need to contact your server administrator.
You can also try adding this code in your script file
ini_set('upload_max_filesize', '5M');
ini_set('post_max_size', '5M');

Answer: Just update php.ini settings:
memory_limit = 32M
upload_max_filesize = 24M
post_max_size = 32M
And don't forget to restart your server afterwards.
Hope this will work!!

Magento 1.9 - Maximum file upload size?


Taxonomy dropdown metabox in the back-end

Question: I have registered my custom taxonomy and want to use dropdown in back end...
code given here Taxonomy dropdown metabox in the back-end works like a charm.... but now in admin there are two metaboxes one is my custom which shows as drop down and another is default which takes comma seprated input similar as tags and i dont want that... So how could i remove that default meta box...
Answer: I had the same question.
You use the remove_meta_box functions mentioned in a previous answer, but you have two options: tagsdiv-{$tax_name} for non-hierarchical taxonomies and {$tax_name}div for hierarchical taxonomies (like categories).  So in your case:
 remove_meta_box('tagsdiv-brands', 'post', 'normal');
 remove_meta_box('brandsdiv', 'post', 'normal');

Answer: use remove_meta_box. you may need to look at the html source to verify that the div that you want to hide is called tagsdiv-brands, I'm pretty certain it should be correct.
function rajeev_remove_post_items() {
    remove_meta_box('tagsdiv-brands', 'post', 'normal');
}
add_action('admin_menu', 'rajeev_remove_post_items' );

EDIT - I changed the function name from remove_post_items to rajeev_remove_post_items, it's always a good idea to prefix your functions with something likely to be unique to avoid potential collisions.
Answer: Just set show_ui to false when you register your taxonomy.


Condition for neutral equilibrium

Question: Do rate of change of force with respect to $x$ $\frac{dF}{dx} = 0$ at the equilibrium position imply that it is the neutral equilibrium position?
Answer: No. For instance, the force $F=-kx^3$ has $\frac{dF}{dx}|_{x=0}=0$, but is nevertheless a stable equilibrium.
Neutral equilibrium requires $\frac{dF}{dx}=0$, but $\frac{dF}{dx}=0$ does not imply neutral equilibrium. Higher-order derivatives need to be examined.
Comment: Damn, beaten to it! :-)
Comment: @JohnRennie I'm impressed that you almost beat me to it, *and* yours has a graph ;)
Comment: @Chris Thanks you, confusion got clear. I checked out many books but didn't get this!!
Answer: $dF/dx=0$ implies that the position is locally neutral. You'd need to look at the higher order derivatives to see if it was globally neutral. For example consider this force distance curve:

This has $F=0$ and $F'=0$ at $x=0$, but it is obviously only locally neutral.

Condition for neutral equilibrium


How to install and configure X11RDP?

Question: I surf the web without finding a good tutorial how to install and configure X11RDP since XRDP is making some problems and i found that X11RDP solved this issue.
Comment: I'd just like to point out that the post marked as "the answer" is basically my Scarygliders Xrdp-o-Matic script which the person concerned has merely cloned from an older version and made some changes of their own. Since that happened I have made lots of changes to the original and it's now up to v3 as at time of writing this answer, with many enhancements - including the creation of debian packages. It works on Debian-based distros including Ubuntu. Whilst I'm glad people are using my tools, and they've been released with a very open source license (ISC) , if you're going to use the version
Answer: did you visit the scarygliders?!
Try it, it's a very nice website

OK, Finally I am ready to provide you my script
check this link on gitHub and download the folder
I have uploaded all needed packages for installing x11rdp and xrdp together
I have pre-answered all dialogs and choose Ubuntu-2D for Interface and for All Users
What You have to do is to only execute the setup.sh script via sudo sh setup.sh
*Uploaded on GitHub, and changed the link
Comment: Your answer becomes worthless if that link becomes invalid.  Please upload this - for example github or launchpad - so that your answer remains relevant.
Comment: Welcome to Ask Ubuntu! Whilst this may theoretically answer the question, [it would be preferable](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/8259) to include the essential parts of the answer here, and provide the link for reference.
Comment: I visited before but its just didn't work for me
Comment: i am working on Ubuntu 12.04 64bit
Answer: scarygliders is by far the best tool to build the very latest x11rdp and auto install it for you.

How to install and configure X11RDP?


What is this gigantic dish at Ben Gurion airport?

Question: As the title asks, what is this thing for?  Have never seen anything like it at other airports I've been to.
Comment: It's probably some insane technology hiding in plain sight. That would be *soooo Israel*...
Comment: Is it just for decorative purposes by any chance?
Comment: It would be a great place for an endurance bike race, ["The Long Walk"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Walk) style. If you're too slow, you fall from the velodrome, down into a pit.
Comment: Totally [just a decoration](https://live.staticflickr.com/4163/33516776124_b6c28a8037_b.jpg). Fire at will, commander.
Comment: Skate rink, of course!
Answer: It is just a design feature, and serves no technical purpose, beyond filtering some light and providing a waterfall feature.

Safdie designed the roof of the rotunda as an inverted dome, an asymmetric dish floating above the piazza that lets sunlight in and filters the daylight with a special white fabric ceiling.
source: https://www.bdcnetwork.com/ready-takeoff

and

Rain falling upon the suspended dome drains towards the center and enters the rotunda through an oculus skylight as a waterfall. In the dry season, a continuous flow of water washes the roof, contributing to the rotunda's cooling and forming a fountain through the oculus.
source: https://www.safdiearchitects.com/projects/ben-gurion-intl-airport-airside-terminal

Image, because it looks nice (Same source as second quote above)
Comment: @DeepSpace That seems to be the purpose of the 'special white fabric ceiling', not the dome design itself
Comment: `"that lets sunlight in and filters the daylight with a special white fabric ceiling"` well that **is** a technical purpose, won't you agree?
Comment: @Rob: But still the **dish** serves a technical purpose just like any other possible roof for the building. The question could have been simply answered by: The dish serves as roof for the building ;-)
Answer: It's Architecture [sic], and it's for your eyes to behold:
Safdie architects explain further.
Comment: Because this is architecture with a capital letter :)
Comment: Why did you write `[sic]`?
Answer: This is the decorative roof above the duty-free area, which is circular with a plaza in its center. From the top center and around the "sun roof" there a circular waterfall.


Where have you used gSOAP?

Question: Can you give examples how you used gSOAP and how well it was integrated in your existing architecture? Have you found development bottlenecks with gSOAP?
Answer: We used gSOAP for a bunch of ARM clients to communicate with an AXIS Web Service server. Pros of gSOAP:

very powerful, supports nearly all Web Service constructs
easy to use, its abstraction of WS calls into functions removes all Web Service complexity to the programmer
elegant interfaces in both C and C++

However, we ran into several development bottlenecks:

when using custom datatypes like maps or sets, it takes quite some hacking to get the gSOAP compiler to handle them (marshal/unmarshalling). Especially bad with dynamic data structures.
debugging is hard because of its intrinsic complex network, parsing and memory allocation parts. Do everything possible to stick with static memory allocation.
the mailing list is alive, but developers are not very active on it. Simple questions can get answered quickly, but the toughest problems often go unanswered
forget about optimization. Linking in gSOAP eats about 1MB of memory at runtime (-Os). Runtime performance is fine on our 32MB linux-based ARM board, but there really is little to do about optimization if you need it.
Answer: We used gSOAP in a C++-based web server about 4 years back. Overall it worked fine. The only major issue was that the interface was in C and procedural (I understand it is difficult to design a good non-procedural interface). There may be a lot of repeated code while implementing the interface, for which you might have to use macros (we didn't explore the templates option too far then).
Answer: We are using gSoap to deploy a web service onto an embedde linux device running an ARM MX processor.
Answer: We are using gSOAP to consume a WCF based webservice from an application deployed on a linux device running on ARM processor. The experience is good to a large extent.
Answer: We used gSOAP in a web server on ARM ARM9 400MHz device.
gSOAP daemon connected to a database daemon through zeromq library, which is run on the same device.
It supports more than 1000 basic requests wich does not requre connection to database.
Disabling  support for multi-referenced SOAP option by the WITH_NOIDREF define helped to decrease serialization time about 4 times faster on big requests with large number of serialization nodes.

Where have you used gSOAP?


Probability Amplitude AA* source?

Question: I was watching a video about fundamental Quantum Mechanics. The video  lecture is excellent but I am confused after hearing the part  at the 9.46 sec of this video  . He said repeatedly from the previous video  that the probability amplitude can not be proved but the MAX BORN asserted it from experiment.  My question is why  the probability aptitude AA*   is assertion from an experiment but not an theoretical argument.
Answer: Generally speaking nothing in physics can be "proved" in the sense of mathematics. What can be done is to compare measurements with predictions of a theory. QM basically tells us that if we take a magical quantity $\psi$ and evolve that with a magical Operator $H$ in the magical Schroedinger equation and then apply another magical operator $x$ or $p$ to that, then we get a number which can be compared with the AVERAGE reading on a dial labeled "x" or "p" of a specific quantum mechanical experiment that has been repeated many times over.
And if you do that right in the lab, you will be jumping of joy, because the magical numbers and the measured ones seem to agree with an astonishing precision.
Please note that this does not fundamentally differ from what we do in classical mechanics, except that we lack a sense of wonder about why mass and force and acceleration are related trough Newton's second law. The reason why we lack that is because it is absolutely tantamount for a kid to learn that relationship biologically while it learns to walk. Kids who biologically still keep wondering about $F=ma$ at the time they are 15 won't make it into the high school football team and they will have a significantly smaller chance to marry the head cheerleader... hence the reason why Newtonian mechanics feels familiar and QM does not.
Answer: ψ ψ* is the probability density not the Amplitude which is  ψ, this is the standard belief of most "quantum mechanics" because a self consistent theory can be constructed from this.  It is not derived from standard assumptions like the probability of rolling dice.
Some famous Physicists hated this idea, most notably Schrodinger who invented the "Schrodinger's Cat" example to try to show the absurdity of the notion. Schrodinger believed
 ψ ψ* was proportional to the electron charge density. Another skeptic was Einstein, who famously said that God didn't play dice.

Probability Amplitude AA* source?


How do you find out if your PC is reverse shelled?

Question: I am just wondering, how do you find out is your PC is reverse shelled or not? Does your antivirus protect against it?
Answer: 1.) Netstat -a: look for connections that are not familiar to you. If you are suspicious about one, do a dig and a whois lookup to see who they are.
2.) Check open ports on your machine and your router. Verify your port forwards if enabled. Hackers tend to use the same port especially if the tool was employed by a script kiddie.
3.) Run your AV of choice and do a deep scan.
4.) TronScript: This is a hell of a script that it open source and regarded to be very effective. It's updated frequently. This is the last thing you can do to get rid of any malware/issues before doing a full clean wipe and clean install of your OS of choice. TronScript has good logging and it will tell you directly what it is doing and when. Read more at the link I provided.
Answer: You can use a netstat command to look for active connection. Any suspicious connection on strange port should be checked.
Most of antivirus have this kind of checkings too.


Who are these Figures?

Question:
Does anyone recognise the two larger LEGO figures? They are from sets released in the 80's and I am trying to find out what sets they're from so I can hopefully build the sets with my son. One is a fireman and came with a fire engine. They fit perfectly between Duplo and LEGO but I can't seem to find any trace of them, the closest similar product I've found is Fabuland which is all animals but the same size figures.
Comment: Based on their apparent size they could be Duplo figures, but I couldn't find any exact matches in Bricklink or Brickset (albeit with an admittedly non-exhaustive search). Are you sure these figures are genuine LEGO pieces? Or they could also be mixed up from multiple separate figures: the legs do look like Fabuland, but the heads don't match.
Comment: @zovits good points, but both Duplo and Fabuland figures were designed to not be taken apart easily.
Comment: @RobertColumbia I know they weren't designed to be separated, that's why I'm sceptical whether they are LEGO figures at all. Nonetheless, "designed to be not taken apart" =/= "can't be taken apart", especially when talking about kids with seemingly unlimited creativity, tenacity and time. But the well-preserved state of the figures indicates the lack of forceful disassembly attempts, so I'm still not sure enough to warrant an answer.
Comment: The sets were identified as Lego Basics 390-1 and 392-2 and I've been able to assemble both from my hoard of bricks now that I've seen pictures of the vehicles. The figures have Lego stamped inside the legs so I was certain they were original Lego pieces.
Answer: These are Basic Figures

fab13a  : Basic Figure Human Boy Blue, Black Legs, Brown Hair
from 390-1: Helicopter

and
- fab13c : Basic Figure Human, Black Legs, White Hat
from 392-2: Fire Engine
Comment: Thank you for your response. I also contacte Lego directly and they identified which sets they came from and after some rummaging I was able to piece the sets together for my young son to play with.

Who are these Figures?


Entropy-based methods in R

Question: I was wondering if anybody knows of the existence of an R package which implements entropy-based methods (maximum empirical likelihood, maximum exponential empirical likelihood, minimum discrepancy estimators, etc.)?
Answer: Well there is a package which implements entropy-based methods and it is called .... entropy.
More information: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/entropy/
Answer: I haven't done this personally, but a very good reference for R packages is the R Graphical Manual
A search on that site of "empirical likelihood" gave several results, including EEF.profile from the boot package. There are also some packages that claim entropy methods (FNN), although I don't know precisely what you are looking for. I would check that site. Be as specific as you can with the search bar.

Entropy-based methods in R


Why would someone have a fallback function for ^0.6.0?

Question: A receive function allows a contract to accept eth via a send() or transfer(). As someone thought it was a good idea to have both a receive and a fallback function, I was curious what sort of scenario would be helped by having an additional fallback function? I can't think of one so I figure I am missing something.
Answer: The receive function is called if no other function is found and the transaction includes Ethers. The fallback function is called if no other function is found.
Assuming the transaction doesn't call any known function, the fallback function is useful to catch non-Ether transactions.
Here are a few example use cases:

Someone trying to call a transfer function (thinking it's an ERC20 contract) on a non-token contract - you could for example revert the transaction stating "You called the wrong contract, this isn't ERC20 contract".

A contract which simply needs to store addresses of those who are trying to interact with it for some reason, so the user can just send an empty transaction to the contract.

In general catching people who try to call functions which don't exist (probably using the wrong contract).

Granted, I can't think of many reasonable use cases for this either.
You can read more about the details for example here: https://solidity.ethereum.org/2020/03/26/fallback-receive-split/
Comment: I like this answer!
Comment: So it's not for helping the contract do stuff, but rather, help developers debug?
Comment: I added some a bit far-fetched examples. In general, I don't see too much use for it either. But probably someone else would for some specific scenarios.


MySQL Workbench

Question: Just upgraded from 18.10 to 19.04. MySQL Workbench has been deleted. Will it come back in the near future?
The mysql-workbench-community_8.0.15-1ubuntu18.10_amd64.deb can't install!
Do I need to compile it from source to get it back?
Answer: Package not available at mysql downloads page for 19.04 yet. There are packages for 18.04 and 18.10.
You have to wait when it will be released or build from source
Download source code there (select Source in dropdown and choose from list Generic Linux (Architecture Independent), Compressed TAR Archive) and follow build/install instructions there
Comment: Unfortunately I can't compile/link these modules! The CMakeError-log file contains:
Building C object CMakeFiles/cmTC_ba91b.dir/CheckFunctionExists.c.o
Linking C executable cmTC_ba91b
/usr/bin/cmake -E cmake_link_script CMakeFiles/cmTC_ba91b.dir/link.txt --verbose=1
/usr/bin/cc  -DCHECK_FUNCTION_EXISTS=pthread_create    -rdynamic CMakeFiles/cmTC_ba91b.dir/CheckFunctionExists.c.o  -o cmTC_ba91b -lpthreads
/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lpthreads
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [CMakeFiles/cmTC_ba91b.dir/build.make:87: cmTC_ba91b] Error 1

MySQL Workbench


iPhone Objective C - Differences between Ringer volume and In-App Volume

Question: iPhone has Ringer volume.
My app plays a few different sounds.
Is there a way to set different volume for my app (not related to iPhone's Ringer volume).
Are there any differences between iPhone Ringer volume and in app volume?
Answer: There are two straight forward ways to play audio on the iphone (IOs device).
The more flexible is AVAudioPlayer, this will allow for playing simultaneous audio streams with independent volume control. The other is to play audio at the system volume level (like your ringer) using Sound Services check out Apple's AV docs.


rectangle collision detections on a path

Question: I have two rectangles, one is moving and one is stationary. I have the size of both rectangles and both the current coordinates of the moving rectangle and the coordinates of where it wants to go. It will move in a straight line. With this information, what is the most effective way to find if the two boxes will collide on the path. Is it more efficient to do this or to move the box a small amount each frame and do a collision detection each time?
Answer: Since one of the rectangles is stationary, one way to do this is to create a polygon of the path travelled by the moving rectangle, which can be done using only its initial and final positions:
<code>(initial position)
+--------+
|\       |\
| \      | \
+--\-----+  \
 \  \     \  \
  \  +-----\--+
   \ |      \ |
    \|       \|
     +--------+
      (final position)
</code>
Path polygon:
<code>+--------+
|         \
|          \
+           \
 \           \
  \           +
   \          |
    \         |
     +--------+
</code>
Then use a normal polygon collision detection algorithm between the stationary rectangle and the path polygon.
Answer: If it's moving at a constant speed the most efficient way is to calculate when they will collide (Time = Speed/Distance) and if they will collide (Derive a linear equation of motion, and see if it will pass through the stationary rectangle). If it's moving at a variable speed, perform these calculations each time the speed changes. These are both far more efficient than comparing for each frame.


Irreducibility of Induced Representation over arbitrary field

Question: In representation theory of finite groups, there is Mackey test for irreducibility of an induced representation (Serre- Linear Representations of Finite Groups - #7.4). The author has stated it for field $\mathbb{C}$. Is it true for representations over arbitrary field whose characteristic is zero or co-prime to the order of group ?
Comment: A good reference for this seems to be D. Bump's Lie Groups (chapter 34 and further). Bump comments on the dependence on the ground field.
Answer: I think so. The key property used in the proof is
 $$
Res^G_H Ind^G_H V=\bigoplus_{s\in H\setminus G/H} Ind^H_{H_s}V_s,
 $$
where $V_s$ is the twist of $V$ by $s$, and $H_s=sHs^{-1}\cap H$, and its proof is more or less manifestly characteristic-free. Other than that, instead of characters and scalar products $\langle \chi_U,\chi_W\rangle$ you can use the actual spaces of intertwiners $Hom_G(U,W)$, and finally instead of saying that irreducibility of $W$ means the intertwining number $\dim Hom_G(W,W)$ is equal to 1 (which is true over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero), you can say that irreducibility of $W$ means that $Hom_G(W,W)$ is a division algebra (which is true in the semisimple case, so under the assumption you want to make).
Let me, following a comment of Darij Grinberg, make the last step a bit more clear. There is a natural homomorphism of algebras $Hom_H(V,V)\to Hom_G(Ind^G_HV, Ind^G_HV)$. The induced representation $Ind^G_HV$ is irreducible if and only if this map is an isomorphism of algebras. However, to conclude that it is sufficient to show that it is an isomorphism of vector spaces, which we do without trouble via the Frobenius reciprocity.
Comment: The isomorphism of vector spaces $Hom_H(V,V)\rightarrow Hom_G(Ind^G_H V, Ind^G_H V)$ will hold if $V$ is irreducible and $Res^H_{H\cap H_s} V$ and $Res^{H_s}_{H\cap H_s}V_s$ ($s\in G\setminus H$) do not share an irreducible component; what about converse?
Comment: You are right, the converse is actually not clear at all. Probably without any assumptions on a field you get only an if, not iff, statement.
Comment: (after one more minute of thinking) The natural 4d irreducible representation of the quaternionic group is induced from the nontrivial irreducible representation of the *normal* subgroup $\{1,-1\}$!
Comment: We get $\Hom_G\left(V,V\right) = \bigoplus\limits_{s\in H\backslash G / H} \Hom_H\left(\rho,\rho^s\right)$ as vector spaces. I am pretty sure this doesn't say anything about their ring structure, if the RHS has any at all; how do you see that $\Hom_G\left(V,V\right)$ is a division algebra iff $ \Hom_H\left(\rho,\rho^s\right)=0$ for all $s\neq e$?
Comment: I added a bit of a clarification. It's a kinda cheap trick with applying forgetful functors which I tend to like a lot.
Comment: Ah, you are using the fact that a subspace of a vector space having the same dimension as the whole space must be the whole space. Nice!
Answer: To reinforce what Vladimir says, I'd replace his "I think so" by "Yes".  The basic paper by Mackey in Amer. J. Math. 73 (1951) is retrievable online through JSTOR and might be worth looking at.   His initial discussion of finite groups is done over arbitrary fields of characteristic 0, intended to generalize the work of Frobenius while providing background for the study of locally compact groups.   It's only a convenience to assume that the ground field is $\mathbb{C}$ (done by Serre in part because his audience for the early lectures consisted of people with applied interests in character theory).
By now there are multiple textbook sources (including Serre, Bump, Isaacs, Dornhoff, Grove, etc.), each with different coverage and emphases.   Probably the most comprehensive treatment of induction (along with tensor products and intertwining maps) is found in Part I, Section 10, of the large treatise Methods of Representation Theory by Curtis & Reiner, which goes beyond their pioneering 1962 book.  At first they can work over arbitrary commutative rings, while discussing only the general module results; this flexibility is needed later to pass to J.A. Green's work on modular representations.
But in order to get an applicable irreduciblity criterion for induced characters in (10.25), they take a subfield of $\mathbb{C}$ which is a splitting field for the given finite group and all its subgroups.    Even this kind of assumption can be weakened, since you only need a field of characteristic 0 containing sufficiently many roots of unity to ensure absolute irreducibility of the characters of the various irreducible representations involved.
If you really want to work with fields of prime characteristic, it's also a standard principle that the character theory works the same way provided only that the characteristic of the field doesn't divide the group order.   To deal with absolute irreducibility of characters, you still need the splitting field assumption.
Comment: Virtually all of the classical results on characters for finite groups (Frobenius, Schur, Mackey, etc.) are developed over a splitting field for the group and sometimes for all its subgroups too when induction is involved.  It's usually a subtle question to sort out further questions about irreducibility vs. absolute irreducibility.    The field of complex numbers is convenient for exposition but of course much too large.  In any case, it seems unrealistic to expect clean general statements for an arbitrary field (of characteristic not dividing the group order).
Comment: As you have pointed out, for splitting fields, the theorem is true; no doubt about it. But I am not sure, whether it holds for non-splitting field. Is the answer "Exactly YES"?
Answer: The inclusion ${\rm End}_H (V)\longrightarrow {\rm End}_G ({\rm Ind}_H^G V)$ is much clearer at the level of Hecke algebras. If ${\mathcal H}(G,V)$ denotes the spherical Hecke algebra attached to $V$ (which is known to be isomorphic to $ {\rm End}_G ({\rm Ind}_H^G V)$), then ${\rm End}_H (V)$ naturally identifies with the subalgebra of functions in the Hecke algebra with support $H$ : to $\psi$ you attach the function with support $H$ given by $h\mapsto \pi (h)\circ \psi =\psi \circ \pi (h)$. Then one has just to observe that the hypothesis of Mackey's criterion exactly says that functions in ${\mathcal H}(G,V)$ have support in $H$ !
For all of this you need to assume that the order of $G$ is prime to the caracteristics of the field of coefficients.


Did HTTPS and HSTS kill MITM?

Question: Is there a point in being MITM nowadays since HTTPS makes it impossible to make sense of sniffed data and HSTS prevents SSL stripping?
Comment: Just like with other things like SQLi - there are technologies around that mitigate or prevent an attack altogether... but the attacks aren't dead because programmers don't use the technologies. Maybe they're lazy, maybe they have maintain compatibility with legacy software. There's also the chance that there are novel MitM techniques yet to be developed, the same way that XSS has morphed over the years.
Comment: There is more to life than HTTP, especially in enterprise environments.
Comment: You've made 3 assumptions: 1. there is only HTTP, 2. all HTTPS sites/browsers use HSTS perfectly, and 3. being in the middle only has value if you can read the data. All of these assumptions need to be confirmed.
Answer: HSTS simply informs the browser that it should only access the site by HTTPS and not by HTTP.  It does this using a response header that the site serves when the user's browser connects to the site.  The site owner can petition to have the site listed in an HSTS preload list that some browsers will load.  So, in order for HSTS to be effective, the user must have visited the site previously, or the site must be in on HSTS preload list that the user's browser loads.
So, even with HSTS, there is still an opportunity for an attacker to pull off an MITM attack - if the attacker can manage to get a certificate for the site signed by a CA that the user's browser trusts, or dupe the user into trusting the certificate.
And, even if the site is configured to send the HSTS header, the attacker may also be able to pull off an sslstrip attack, if the user has never connected to the site before, and the site is not on an HSTS preload list that the user's browser loads.
Answer: You forgot one vector: the certificate.
If the attacker have the capability of issuing the certificate of the target domain, he can still intercept and modify the data.
Public CA certificates are well protected, and issuing a fraudulent certificate is very unlikely, but not impossible. CA security failures ave happened in the past, and will continue to happen.
The main issue is when the victim is on a corporate network with mandated HTTPS interception in the proxy. Almost all security solutions dealing with HTTPS will terminate the original TLS connection on the border, analyse the contents, and create a certificate on-fly with its own CA certificate. If the attacker manages to compromise this certificate, he is in position of MitM every connection.
HTTP Public Key Pinning was intended to fix that:

HTTP Public Key Pinning (HPKP) was a security feature that used to tell a web client to associate a specific cryptographic public key with a certain web server to decrease the risk of MITM attacks with forged certificates. It has been removed in modern browsers and is no longer supported.

It was a good idea, but several devastating attacks employing HPKP turned it more into a liability than an asset, and currently no browser uses it anymore.

Did HTTPS and HSTS kill MITM?


Get default lead owner in Apex

Question: I'am creating task for inactive leads. However, there is a scenario where the lead owner is inactive already. Since 'Assigned to' field in task is a required field, I'm trying to set the default lead owner as the task owner but I haven't find any doc to get this. Is anyone here know how to achieve this or is there any other workaround on this. TIA.
Answer: So, while I don't think there is a way to query for the default Lead Owner (you would expect it to be in the LeadConfigSettings) you could do the following:

Take the parent Lead and rerun the Assignment rules on that Lead. This will assign the lead to an active user
Query the lead post-assignment rules execution to get the Lead.OwnerId and use for the Task

Alternatively, if your Lead Assignment rules are don't have an "otherwise" final rule, construct a temporary Lead with data such that you know it will fall through the entire set of assignment rules (I once used Leads coming from Country = Diego Garcia), thus being assigned to the default lead owner. Query the Lead for the ownerId, then delete the temporary Lead and use the ownerId for the Task
Lastly, and an approach a lot of people would do is to define the username of the default lead owner in a custom setting, label, or custom metadata and query that user to get the ID.

Get default lead owner in Apex


Tips and/or suggestions to install Silverlight on Mac Computers

Question: All:
Our ASP.NET C# web application is used in the following environment
<code>.NET Framework 4

Silverlight 4 ( with PivotViewer )

IIS 7

Windows 2008

Visual Studio 2010
</code>
.NET IDE
<code>C#

HTTPS ( SSL )
</code>
The Mac users of our application usually have trouble with installing Silverlight.
For some Silverlight installs in the Mac with ease.  However, most people have to install silverlight, and restart the machine a number of times.
It's so unpredictable how Silverlight installs on the Macs.
In a lot of the cases a mac user has to separately install Silverlight for the various browsers ( i.e. FireFox, Safari and Chrome ).
Moreover, Silverlight might only start working after the user restarts the Mac after a number of times.
-----For users who have Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or a higher version of Mac Operating Systems------
The Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and higher versions of Mac Operating Systems seem to have the feature called "Resume" which ensures that the Mac system will
recall the state of applications and files just before you quit which would allow you to open them up again, and just pick up from where you left off.
However, the "Resume" feature may be a stumbling block when it comes to installing Silverlight.
Therefore, it might be a good idea if we turn off the "Resume" feature temporarily in order to install Silverlight.
If you have a Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or a higher version of Mac Operating Systems then go to the Mac OS's System Preference.
Go to "General" Tab within System Preferences.
Ensure that the checkbox for "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps." is unchecked.
After installing Silverlight, and ensuring that the Silverlight/Pivot Viewer in Perls Web Application shows up properly, you could check the checkbox for "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps." if you want the "Resume" feature for your Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or a higher version of Mac Operating Systems
------Some of my colleagues also gave the following steps but it only worked for some Mac Users therefore it's still unpredictable--------------------------------------------------
Mac User might have to install Silverlight, uninstall silverlight, and then install silverlight again.
Mac users usually had a problem with our Silverlight/Pivot Viewer component  within our Web Application.
if the Mac User already has Silverlight installed on his Mac but has problems using the Silverlight/Pivot Viewer component  within our Web Application then kindly take the following steps in Removing Silverlight plugins on Macintosh:

Access your hard drive
Double-click the hard drive icon on your
desktop
Find the plugin by Navigating to your Internet Plug-Ins directory:
/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
Remove the plugin  by Dragging any of the
following into your trash bin:
a) Silverlight.plugin
b) WPFe.plugin

-Just quit all applications, and then shutdown your Mac, and then start up your Mac again.
-Open up Safari browser in Mac.
-In general, Safari on Macs place entities downloaded from the internet on to the following directory
/Users/blah blah your Mac LoginID folder blah blah/Downloads/

However, if you want to configure where downloads by Safari on Macs should be placed then Click on the "Safari" menu on the Main Menu of the Mac computer.
When the drop-down menu shows up, make sure that you select the "Preferences……" option.
A new Window should show up with the title "General"
There should be a drop-down box with the Label "Save downloaded files to:" within the Window
Using drop-down box with the Label "Save downloaded files to:", we can configure where we want Safari to placed Downloaded entities.
click the Save Downloaded Files To show the drop-down menu and choose Other.
Navigate to and select the location where you want the files stored and click Select.
Click the Close button to exit Preferences.
The folder you chose will now be the default location for anything you download from the Internet.

-lets start off by entering the url called http://www.microsoft.com/ on the Safari browser.
-On the Microsoft Website, search for "download Silverlight for mac"
-Click on the Relevant link associated with getting Silverlight
-Try to download the Silverlight component
It is important to note that we found that for the Silverlight installation needed for the Silverlight/Pivot Viewer component within our Web Application, we needed to ensure that you quit all browsers on the Mac before the installation of Silverlight.
-Ensure that you quit out of all browsers.
-Just quit all applications, and then shutdown your Mac, and then start up your Mac again.
-Ensure that you quit out of all browsers.
-Navigate to the folder where Safari places Downloaded files:
-Click on the Silverlight installation file ( should be a file with the extension pkg or it might be file with extension dmg which contains the file with extension pkg.)
-Run the installation.
-Navigate to Web application Website
-Login, and try to see if the Silverlight/Pivot Viewer shows up properly.
Does anyone know straightforward steps, tips or suggestions taken to install Silverlight on Mac computers?  If so, could you please list it out?
Thanks in advance.
Comment: One of my colleagues installed Silverlight on his Mac for the very first time, and nothing worked in any of the browsers.  He then took the following steps: - downloaded silverlight
- noted the instructions for uninstalling
- quit all browsers
- did the uninstall
- installed silverlight
Comment: from experience the important thing is once you have done the install Quit (Apple-Q) all browsers, don't just close the browser windows. You have to fully unload the things to get the plugin to register properly.
Comment: @Offbeatmammal We noticed that it was important to Quit all Browser "Before" running the installation of Silverlight ( Not during installation or after installation) It is important to note that we found that for the Silverlight installation needed for the Silverlight/Pivot Viewer component within our Web Application, we needed to ensure that you quit all browsers on the Mac before the installation of Silverlight.
Answer: Cleaned up the info from your post a bit:
The Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) and higher versions of Mac Operating Systems seem to have the feature called "Resume" which ensures that the Mac system will recall the state of applications and files just before you quit which would allow you to open them up again, and just pick up from where you left off.
However, the "Resume" feature may be a stumbling block when it comes to installing Silverlight.
Therefore, it might be a good idea if we turn off the "Resume" feature temporarily in order to install Silverlight.
If you have a Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) or a higher version of Mac Operating Systems then go to the Mac OS's System Preference. Go to "General" Tab within System Preferences. Ensure that the checkbox for "Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps." is unchecked.
(after successful installation you can go and select that option again at the OS)

If the Mac User already has Silverlight installed but has problems using the Silverlight component take the following steps in Removing Silverlight plugins on Macintosh:
• Double-click the hard drive icon on your desktop
• Find the plugin by Navigating to your Internet Plug-Ins directory: /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/
• Remove the plugin by Dragging any of the following into your trash bin:
a) Silverlight.plugin
b) WPFe.plugin

Ensure that you quit all browsers on the Mac before the installation of Silverlight.
-Ensure that you quit out of all browsers.
-Just quit all applications, and then shutdown your Mac, and then start up your Mac again.
-Navigate to the folder where your browser places Downloaded files:
  -Click on the Silverlight installation file ( should be a file with the extension pkg or it might be file with extension dmg which contains the file with extension pkg.)
  -Run the installation.


Dynamic Menu Jquery

Question: I need to hide all list elements, but only show one at a certain time depending on the direction or button pressed by the nav bar.
I've tried this:
$('ul li').hide().first().show();

which shows me the first element in the list.
But now I need to take control of the list with navigation which I don't know how to do.
Basically, I need a menu that has more or less this layout:
< - prev           LINK1            next - >
So basically, id have a unordered list, so the html would be like this

LINK1

LINK2

LINK3

So, I need to only display one at a time, and once the next or previous buttons are pressed it would "loop through" the list if it's at the end or start.any plugin available to apply on it.
Answer: try;
$(els).hide().end().first().show();

Dynamic Menu Jquery


By what means is space expanding?

Question: By what means is space expanding?
Can we reproduce the conditions in a laboratory experiment to observe "man made" space expansion?
Comment: What do you mean "by what means"? It expands as a solution to the Einstein equations.
Answer: Had you asked this question a few billion years ago, I might have told you that space is only expanding this second because it was expanding last second. Back then, the expansion of space was decelerating. The only thing that made it keep expanding was that it had been previously expanding and had not yet slowed to a stop. However, in the cosmologically recent past, Dark Energy has become the dominant form of energy in the universe, according to the most widely accepted theories. These theories state that dark energy is a driving force that actually is accelerating the rate of expansion. So, in a way, space is now expanding because dark energy is causing it to (although, even without dark energy, it would still be expanding today, just at a much slower rate).
We cannot reproduce this in a laboratory. By our best understanding, dark energy is spread throughout the universe homogeneously and the density of it, its concentration, is more or less constant no matter how much the universe expands. This means we have no way of manipulating the amount of dark energy in a laboratory. The factors that cause expansion to decelerate are also too weak for us to be able to manipulate them on a scale large enough to affect expansion.
Unfortunately, this all means there will be no man made expansion in the foreseeable future unless some new exotic and unexpected form of energy/matter is discovered or a new theoretical framework is proposed that describes a manipulable mechanism that drives expansion.

By what means is space expanding?


Letter-sized Document truncated when printing from browser on Mac OS X

Question: The bottom of the page is truncated when printed. (Approx 1/2 to 1").
This printing problem does not seem to be specific to Flash (printing certain PDFs also yields this problem), but that is where we found it.
The problem does not occur in older versions of OS X, but does occur in the most recent versions (10.5.5 and up). Not sure where the line is. The same application on Windows works fine.
It happens in Safari and Firefox.
Our Flash CS3 (AS2) application uses the PrintJob object to send pages to the printer. The pages are supposed to be letter-sized. On Windows they are letter-sized and print fine. But on the Mac, the pages are truncated. When the browser Print dialog comes up, if you change paper size to A4, the document prints fine. IT IS NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A4.
What is going on?
Here is a fraction of our printing code:
<code>private function runPagePrintJob(pages:Array):Void {
    var pj:PrintJob = new PrintJob();
    if (pj.start()) {
        var paperHeight:Number = this.pointsToPixels(pj.pageHeight);
        var paperWidth:Number = this.pointsToPixels(pj.pageWidth);

        for (var i:Number=0; i<pages.length; i++) {
            var mc:PrintablePage = pages[i];

            var xScale:Number = paperWidth / mc._width;
            var yScale:Number =  paperHeight / mc._height;

            if ((xScale < 1) || (yScale < 1)) {
                mc.setScale(Math.min(xScale, yScale) * 100);
            }
            mc.setBGSize(paperWidth, paperHeight);
            var xMin:Number = 0;
            var xMax:Number = paperWidth;
            var yMin:Number = 0;
            var yMax:Number = paperHeight;
            pj.addPage(mc, {xMin:xMin, xMax:xMax, yMin:yMin, yMax:yMax}, {printAsBitmap:true});
        }
        pj.send();
    }
    delete pj;
    this.close();
}

private function pointsToPixels(pts:Number):Number {
    return pts/72*System.capabilities.screenDPI;
}
</code>
Answer: Have you tried this with more than one printer model? I've seen similar problems that have been the result of a buggy printer driver.
Comment: Good suggestion. However, this happens if I print to PDF as well.


If hypothetically we lived in a time when a Buddha were to arise, how could we acknowledge him as being perfectly enlightened?

Question: Assuming that in a hypothetical multitude of so-called "enlightened masters", a future Buddha would actually arise and we were alive at that time, how would we be able to recognize him? The question could also be valid for acknowledging an Arahant or any enlightened person not necessarily a Samma Sambuddha, but would be much more interesting to answer it in the context of just before a new Sangha is formed, assuming a person declared that the Dhamma has been discovered again.
Answer: the teaching of a perfectly enlightened being would be always in line with the three marks of existence, the four noble truths and the noble eightfold path. in other words, an arahant or a buddha would be completely and permanently objective and selfless and with no other interest than what is conducive to suffering (dukkha), what is the common cause of all suffering (dukkha samudaya), what is the absence of suffering (dukkha nirodha) and what is the method for attaining the absence of suffering (dukkha nirodha gamini patipada).
Comment: no one seems to have mentioned it, but since you bring it up, actually, ehipassiko means "come and see", from the verb passati. it is the quality of Buddha Dhamma that invites to scrutiny, investigation and direct experience.
Comment: thank you for the comment, it makes sense to use the essence of the Dhamma as a filter, since it is timeless. and especially when compared to other teachings where personal and relative views are encouraged, while the correct doctrine should be completely objective and absolutely selfless in both its expression and its pursuit, agreed.
Comment: the word 'ehipassiko' does not mean 'timeless'. in respect to time, the word means 'without delay' or 'immediately effective'.
Answer: The Dhamma cannot be discovered by a new Buddha again while the Pali Suttas remain existing in the world & known to humanity. The Suttas (MN 115) say there can only be one Buddha in a world system. A new Buddha can only arise when the Dhamma has been undiscovered or has been lost. The Suttas say:

Mendicants, whether Realized Ones arise or not, this law of nature
persists, this regularity of natural principles, this invariance of
natural principles... A Realized One understands this and comprehends
it, then he explains, teaches, asserts, establishes, clarifies,
analyzes and reveals it...
AN 3.136 & SN 12.20

Since most Buddhists, let alone most people, have not understood the Pali Suttas over the last 2,600 years; it is unlikely if a future Buddha were to arise, most people would acknowledge him as perfectly enlightened. Instead, most Buddhists & most people would regard fakes as perfectly enlightened. This appears why most Buddhist take refuge in all of the myriad gurus, commentators & scholars.
Comment: it is still unclear why one would mention the existence of scriptures as an argument in this regard. didn't the Buddha reject the Vedas? and in this regard, was he not seen as an outlaw by the scholars of the time ?
Comment: thank you for the attempt at answering, but it is contradictory and imprecise. firstly, can the Dhamma be lost or does it persist? your statement is contradicted by your quote. secondly, the last Buddha rejected the scriptures of his time, so their existence is not relevant. and lastly, the Pali Canon is believed to have been compiled some 500 years after the passing away of Buddha. the purpose of the question was to provide an explanation for how could an enlightened being be identified as such, even an Arahant if not a Buddha.
Comment: the Vedas are not the Pali Suttas. Your comments here appear to support my answer, that now, today, there are people who cannot identify what Buddhism really is; therefore they won't know a Buddha when a Buddha arises.
Comment: Of course the Dhamma can be unknown or lost to humanity, which is why the quote says
a Realized One reveals it...
Comment: the title has been modified for more precision with regard to the purpose of the question
Comment: `Your comments here appear to support my answer, that now, today, there are people who cannot identify what Buddhism really is; therefore they won't know a Buddha when a Buddha arises.` Thankfully we have Classical Theravada to remind us that Buddhism is (by definition) the Pali canon—because that is the way the people who wrote the Pali canon defined Buddhism.


how to track swaps through affiliateAddress or feeRecipient that are done through 0x api?

Question: I found in the documentation that affiliateAddress can be used to track swaps that are sent to the 0x api, but how to filter this data based on affiliateAddress, I haven't found any way to track the swaps that are sent to our interface through 0x api, we are using 0x api on Ethereum, Polygon and BSC, so we want to track the trades on these networks
Answer: We don't emit this data as events off of the contract as it is expensive for the user. The data is attached to the calldata of the transaction instead.
You should be able to search it on 0xTracker (more network support coming)
https://0xtracker.com/search?q=AFFILIATE_ADDRESS


Is it possible to extract installed TeXlive from one computer in-order to install it (TeXlive) on another computer?

Question: Assuming I install TeXlive 2015 on laptop A using an online installation, is it possible to install TeXlive 2015 on another laptop say laptop B by extracting (or copying) 'something' from laptop A, copy the 'something' to flash-drive and use the copied 'something' to install TeXlive 2015 on laptop B IF direct download of TeXlive 2015 ISO file is not working. This I think will help in saving financial obligation involved twice (or for the number of fresh TeXlive 2015 installation(s)). Please accommodate my ignorance, if my question is not good.
Thank you.
Comment: I think the easiest to to might be to rsync the tlnet folder from one of the ctan mirrors that provide rsync support. Then put that folder on a USB and install from it. That is what we do for install parties (when downloading over the wireless becomes cumbersome because too many people are doing the same at the same time.
Comment: What financial obligation? Texlive can be installed in a portable configuration and then replicated where-ever you like.
Comment: @AubreyBlumsohn thank you, What I mean by 'financial obligation' is expenses on internet air time. How can it be replicated?
Comment: Also it *is* possible to transplant tl from one windows to another. I gave a script that can do that, though it has never seen wide use.
Answer: TeX Live installations are essentially self-contained. Assuming you go with the standard 'vanilla' installation from TUG, you will have

Windows: C:\texlive\<year>
Linux/Mac: /usr/local/texlive/<year>

This entire directory can then be copied from one machine to another, and it is then only a question of pointing whatever tool(s) you use to do TeX editing to the system. At the minimum, I would add the system to the path, which will depend on the OS and is really edge-of-scope for us.
Comment: thank you but how can I point TeX editor such as Emacs-AUCTeX to the system on Windows or Mac?


How to get a filesystem on my phone?

Question: Is there a way to get a file system on my Lumia 800 with Windows Phone 7.8? I dislike using Zune and would like to see and copy directly from my file manager. Is there a way to do this?
Comment: Another similar one which has solution via editing the registry (not sure if it still works in Win 7.8) http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com/q/316/295
Answer: No unless you root the device.
In fact, it is impossible to have access to windows phone (either 7.x or 8.0) file-system for 3rd party applications (because they are sand-boxed and bounded to an isolated storage) and Microsoft has not provided such utility up to now (as far as I know).
Therefore there is no such utility application either on phone or even on PC. Zune sounds to be the only solution for syncing some sort of files (Music, Pictures…)
If you root the device then you may have access to file-system as there was on older versions of Windows Mobile and Windows CE.
Comment: And are there "secure" not official wP systems that support this. I mean secure, that it doesn't brick my phone etc.. I saw a not official 7.8 with which I can download apps for free, and I know its illegal but with these, can I have a file system? If yes, can you post example OSs? Thanks :)
Comment: sorry I've updated the answer. The only way to have access to file-system is rooting the device meaning you have to replace original ROM image with modified ROM. There is no guarantee in that and it not only break warranty but also may harm your device.

How to get a filesystem on my phone?


While using K-means, how do I represent IP addresses and languages on the coordinate axis?

Question: I'm using K-means for unsupervised learning, using data vectors with an IP address and a language. I need to represent them in an abstract way, so that I can use this algorithm.
Comment: What is an _Ip_?  Do you mean _IP Address_?
Comment: Yes, an IP address. I should have explained it better.
Answer: If your data doesn't map in an obvious way onto vectors of continuous real numbers, don't use K-means.
To use K-means clustering you need to have a well defined distance between any two points in the space.  To do that you need to have a notion of distance for each axis.
Typically discrete classifications like "language" don't have any natural mapping onto real numbers.
Comment: So, is there a way to make classification on problems of this genre? I have tought of PCA, but It's the same problem.


Intel CPU and Surface Mounted Capacitors (located directly on top)

Question: I would like to know what is the purpose of the surface mounted capacitors found directly on the top of a CPU such as the Intel i3 2120 or the one depicted in the photo ? Does this type capacitor directly feed the internal circuitry of the CPU with a charge ? Directly to a specific layer on die of this Intel CPU ? If yes does a SMC and its charge ie voltage somehow follow a trace directly to a location a particular layer on die ?
Answer: These are the regular power bypass capacitors. The distance from the die to bottom pads is substantial, so the inductance of nets is substantial too. The CPU has multitude of rails with dynamically changing power consumption. The caps are there to eliminate/reduce current starvation on spikes of consumption.
If the caps are placed only on mainboard, plastic substrate lead/plane inductance will not be able to supply changing current, and voltage will drop killing CPU functionality. That's why the caps are placed as close as possible to the die.
Comment: Ale..chenski@ can you tell me what are rails ? Do they supply voltage/current to the various IC's (such as the CPU Cores, I/O Controller, GPU and so on) on the die ?
Comment: @JoeT, yes, these are power rails, to supply power to various internal IP blocks, like interconnect fabric, memory drivers, and to the other logic as you listed. They all are dynamically controlled to save power.
Answer: What you call the "CPU" is actually a WLCSP package (the tiny rectangle in the middle, and the actual CPU die) on top of a small PCB carrier. The carrier "converts" the WLCSP package to a PGA, BGA, or LGA package and also provides a small amount of area that can be used for components that wouldn't fit in or be appropriate in WLCSP such as decoupling capacitors and options jumpers.
Answer: These are decoupling capacitors. Their purpose is to "smooth" the supply voltage, which cannot respond immediately to fast current demands.
The aim of each capacitor is not to feed a particular layer on the die, but to feed the whole chip. Each cap is, however, often located as close as possible to a supply pin of the chip. Because if located too far away, they loose their effectiveness due to the resistance of the track from the capacitor to the chip. Which is why they put them directly on the small CPU integrated PCB.
Comment: dim@ just one question. Where on die and using the photo above is the Memory controller located ? Does it span multiple layers starting at the top assuming the chip is flipped upside down ?
Answer: They're probably decoupling capacitors serving the same purpose as decoupling caps placed between power and ground pins near any digital IC (or analog for that matter.)
Larger processors and microcontrollers (ie with more internal circuits) always have multiple power and ground pins simply to decouple all of those circuits.
Answer: They are bypass capacitors and since the substrate for the cpu has circuit via's (it's like a miniature multi-layer PCB) they are used to reduce power supply impedance to portions of the die. They are typically solid electrolyte or ceramic capacitors.
This might help you: https://labs.wsu.edu/advancedmanufacturing/wp-content/uploads/sites/238/2014/10/Embedded-Capacitors-in-the-Next-Generation-Processor.pdf


how to bulk insert into existing database table using ado.net 3.5

Question: I have a table in database which already have 100 records. Now I have to insert 100 more records to it. Now which object we have to use? whether dataadapter or sqlbulkcopy?
Answer: If the underlying ADO.Net provider supports SQL batching you can use the DataAdapter.  If you are using SQL server you can use the SqlBulkCopy.  SqlBulkCopy has speed advantages as long as you can directly insert data into the database but only works with SQL server.  If you need to use custom inserts, stored procs, or other data providers you will need to use the DataAdapter.  The .Update method on the DataAdapter does run in a batch mode by default that ships many records to the database at a time is does the inserts on the server instead of looping the records one at a time on the client.
Keep in-mind that some providers do not support batch modes as all.
Also for loading data you might also look into SQL Server Intergration Services (SSIS)
Edit:
anishmarokey also makes a very good point.  For processing 100 records it doesn't really matter how you do the inserts.  Even with looping the records and doing custom SQL INSERTs will run reasonably fast.
Comment: Good explanation your last point really depends on the cost of the roundtrip to the DB. If it's same server or they have a very fast connection I'd agree but there is a tipping point there.
Answer: I think sqlbulkcopy is not needed. sqlbulkcopy is to insert bulk(millions) data .
Note : sqlbulkcopy - The .NET Framework and .NET Compact Framework do not support all versions of every platform
Answer: I'll assume two things: that you are working with SQL Server and that you are Inserting your records from an external file.  Here is a sample of the T-SQL code you need - it is quite simple (enter it right in a SQL prompt window in Mgmnt Studio):
BULK INSERT TableName
        FROM 'C:\SomeDirectory\SomeFile.txt'
            WITH
    (
                FIELDTERMINATOR = ',',
                ROWTERMINATOR = '\n'
    )
GO

Whether 100 records or 1 million, this is easy enough that there is no reason not to use Bulk Insert when you want to import from a CSV file.  If the CSV doesn't match your table structure, then (what I do is) create a temporary table, do the import and then use an INSERT (as shown below) to copy from the temporary table to your target table, selecting just the fields or order that you need.
Just in case - if you are inserting 100 more records from another table or query, the syntax is:
Insert Into [dbName].[dbo].[TableName]
  Select Field1, Field2...FieldN From OtherTableName Where {Some conditions}

If your insert will include an Identity field it is:
Set IDENTITY_INSERT TableName ON
GO

Insert Into [dbName].[dbo].[TableName] (Field1, Field2...FieldN)
  Select Field1, Field2...FieldN From OtherTableName Where {Some conditions}
GO

Set IDENTITY_INSERT TableName OFF
GO

Note that you have to explicitly include the field list on the insert if you have an identity field where you do not have to do this otherwise.


Determining width of paths

Question: I have an image, like the one below that has different paths. I want to be able to detect the thin parts of these paths and highlight them. What is the best way to go about this?
Answer: Just an idea that might work. Let original image be $I_0$. Erode just enough to remove the thin lines, then dilate back to obtain $I_1$. Afterwards, obtain the difference of the $I_0$ and $I_1$.
Comment: Thinning until 1px lines appears is skeletonization, and it works ;)
Answer: I got a bit confused on your question. Are you looking for the paths that are thin? or are you trying to make the paths thin?

Maybe this paper about Stroke Width Transform can help you.
I would also like to suggest doing edge detection first. Then you compute the distance from one edge to another, both on X and Y directions, and then saving the smallest distance in each pixel of the path. To highlight the paths you will look for the smallest values saved on each pixel of the paths.

I hope this helps.

Determining width of paths


Is it OK to "repost" a question that hasn't gotten many views?

Question: I don't mean a complete repost, but rewriting the question to be more interesting, more general, so that more people read it, and possibly write an answer.
Comment: FWIW: i think you did a good job of "reposting" that question - the new one stands alone, takes a different approach to obtaining the information you're after, and links to the original for non-essential background information only - nice job!
Comment: This is the "... or ask a new question" part of the old Duplicate Banner; and might be more a duplicate of https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/88979/282094 or https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/174744/282094 - rather than the one initially suggested.
Answer: If you're just adding some details that you originally left out, or clarifying part of your original question that you later realized was misleading, then edit your question. It'll get bumped, and maybe gain enough attention to help you find an answer.
If you realize that your original question was misguided, and you really should have asked something else (perhaps you realized this as a result of an answer or comment on your first question...), then post a new one. You can link to the first question to provide some background, but don't skimp on details - the new question should stand on its own.
If you have nothing to add or change, but just aren't happy with the amount of attention your question received, then consider adding a bounty to it. You may be asking something that requires a significant amount of research on a niche topic, and would benefit from "sweetening the deal" a bit...
Comment: Thank you. This is the second case I have here. And no answers yet, but unfortunately I don't have enough reputation to sacrifice as bounty.
Answer: It would be best to rewrite the answer as an edit to your original question. Though you may not get to the top of the new questions list,  you will get the same exposure at the top of the home view.
Also, if you really want to get better answers than those that your original wording provoked use the bounty feature to entice feedback.
Answer: Yes, absolutely.  That's a fundamental part of how Stack Overflow (and family) works.


How do I type the pipe character on a MacBook Pro (Lion) with a Turkish-Q keyboard layout?

Question: I can't find the keyboard combination to make the | symbol. On snow leopard "shift+ı" worked. I've tried shift+\. Any suggestions?
Answer: Under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS running on PowerBook G4, I selected Macintosh layout. Then, I mapped the third level key binding to the right Apple key (Alt right). Once done, typing Shift+Alt,→+L gives the pipe character.
Comment: Are you serious? That is not usable. Is there any other option?
Answer: I was on a turkish-q keyboard. The correct combination is strange, but  alt + < worked for me.
Answer: alt + 7 did the trick for me.
Using a windows-oriented (has a windows button) keyboard for nordics.


How would three small moons, rather than one large one, effect an earth-like planet?

Question: Let's say you have a planet about the size of Earth. It has three moons, each roughly the mass of one-third of the Earth's moon. Would this cause tides of different magnitude than those on Earth? Are there other ways in which this would affect the world?
Comment: Tidal forces depend very strongly on the distance between the planet and the moon. They are inversely proportional to the *cube* of the distance. So then, it is rather important to know the distances between the planet and those three moons.
Comment: You need to be careful where you place the moons or there orbits will not be stable over geologic timescales.  If you aren't careful, one or two may be flung out of the system.
Comment: do you actually mean "effect" or rather "affect"?
Answer: Moons will be in a stable and resonant orbit, like the three first galileans.
Gravitational pulls will be weaker, even when the three moons are aligned due the distance to the planet compared than that pull of the Moon.
Nights will be darker than in Earth due no a full moon to reflect much light, that may make the nocturnal fauna are less dependent of eyesight, or still more specialized.
A civilization formed in your planet will have some nice ways to build calendars.


Where do you put an Apostrophe in this sentence

Question: This position will play a key role in the Universities fundraising strategies.
Comment: Where would you think?
Answer: Since you are talking about the fundraising strategies of Universities, the apostrophe will come after the word Universities. See below:
This position will play a key role in the Universities' fundraising strategies.
The easy way to remember the use of apostrophe is to identify possession, i.e. a person / thing that owns or is related to something. As in the above example, the fundraising strategies belong to the Universities.
Also, had you been only talking about one University - the placement of apostrophe would have changed. See below:
This position will play a key role in the University's fundraising strategies.

For singular nouns, you put an apostrophe first and then the 's' (University's fundraising strategies)
For plural nouns, you put an 's' first and then an apostrophe (Universities' fundraising strategies)
For plural not ending with an s, you put an apostrophe first and then the
's' (Children's play area)


How to alter the speed in Dwarf Fortress?

Question: How can one increase/decrease the speed of Dwarf Fortress?
Answer: Short answer: You can't.
Long answer: Get a faster computer.  I've noticed that when I first start a fortress that it runs very quickly (70-80 FPS) but once I have 50 dwarves running around the FPS will drop to around 20-30 and game speed is tied to FPS.
Edit: C. Ross is correct. Dwarf Fortress is only single-threaded so the speed depends entirely on the speed of whatever core is running DF.
Comment: You should also note that it's based on a single core speed.  Since DF is single threaded, multiple cores don't help at all.
Comment: :( I thought it was possible to choose among a couple of speeds as in the Sims series (speed 1, 2, 3, etc.)
Comment: @Poindexter Sorry, that was a *really* unnecessary edit on a really old post. I was editing some of my own answers and got--confused... >.<
Comment: I think there's a .ini setting to reduce the speed (set to 100 FPS by default), but DF is usually running as fast as it can go.
Answer: Yes, you can try.
Lowering [FPS_CAP:X] in the data\init\init.ini file can lower the speed of the game. If you're running at your FPS cap, increasing it can increase the speed of the game. Normally, however, the cap is not reached and your processor speed is the bottleneck.
Lowering [G_FPS_CAP:X] can actually increase the speed slightly, if you're not running at your FPS cap.
Lastly, I will add that the single most important thing I have personally found that decreases speed is your embark area. If it's large, your game will start to crawl after you get a larger number of dwarfs. And now that magma can now be found in every embark square, I usually stick to areas of 3x3, and my FPS hums along at a nice 120.
Answer: Above answers are answers to question "Can I make DF run faster", which is a bit different question from "How can one increase/decrease the speed of Dwarf Fortress?"
You can manipulate simulation time by changing FPS limit. By default, you can do that using Alt+equals, Alt-mins key binding. The upper speed limit is bound to your CPU processing capabilities.
Answer: Poindexter is right, you can't directly. Certain tricks like caging all pets or limiting the population of your fort might help the game run faster with the hardware you've got. Even the layout of your fort can effect run time (because path-finding is a major CPU task). See the answer provided here: Extremely low FPS in Dwarf Fortress
But I would only go down those routes if the game is so slow as to be unplayable.
Answer: Things you can do to decrease speed:

Start your fort near the ocean
Have a larger embark area
Increase your population as much as possible and free any caged animals.

Things you can do to increase speed:

Start your fort somewhere without ocean or water
Choose a small embark area
Slaughter and/or cage all non-essential animals

Finally the speed of your computer will certainly affect game speed. I occasionally will start a fort on my old laptop so that the game runs a little slower at the start, and then move the save to my PC once things get going and the framerate slows a bit.


I've lost Dogmeat. Where/how can I get him back as a companion?

Question: I have Nick Valentine as a companion now but Dogmeat isn't anywhere to be found! I'm playing on Xbox One so I can't use the console to find him like some people have recommended for PC users. Anyone know how I can find him?
Answer: Check the doghouses on your settlements, he might be in one of them, for instance, sanctuary has 3 or 4 of them built already.
Also try to return to the gas station, where you found him, he might be there due to some bug or reset.
There aren't many options on the consoles.
Theres is an article about this here.
Comment: I've checked all of the doghouses in Sanctuary and removed all of them but one next to my house. I'll have to check the Gas Station next time I log on. I'll update after I do that. Thanks!


Do British people insert a glottal stop before consonants like k, p and ch?

Question: Do British people usually insert a glottal stop before consonants like in the words  sto'p, tha't, a'bsolute, kno'ck, wa'tch? Is there a rule for this?
Comment: What makes you think we do so? In my experience, glottal stops _replace_ the middle consonant in some words in some dialects.
Comment: It **can** happen, but only when that particular word is heavily emphasised, like telling a persistent child, "I said, stop."
Answer: Some British dialects glottalize word-final or syllable-final oral stops.  That is, a glottal stop is articulated simultaneously with the stop.  I suspect this is what you're hearing.
Some American dialects also do this, for example my own Midwestern dialect.  When the oral closure is lost for some reason, what is left is just a glottal stop.  Oral closure is lost for glottalized [t'] before a consonant and for [p' k'] before a homorganic stop.  For example, I say [hɪʔmətaiz] for "hypnotize", where the [p] causes assimilation of the following [n] to [m], and the [p] glottalizes, then loses its oral closure because it is now before homorganic [m].
There is a book about this glottalization in British English by a British linguist who was visiting at OSU when I was a grad student there  -- Eleanor Higginbottom [spelling?].


boolean not working properly

Question: I have 1 Sphere and 1 Cylinder. I try to join them by boolean. when I Join the cylinder with Sphere, Cylinder behaves weird while sculpting however Sphere seems to be normal. There seems to be some issue of either Clean mesh or Normals. But not  sure how to fix that in Blender 2.8. Please help
Comment: Is it necessary to use the boolean? eg To model cylinder with sphere attached could add a uv sphere, choose a latitude edge ring, delete all verts "south" and extrude.
Comment: This looks like Z-fighting. Do you still have the cylinder, as well as the sphere-plus-cylinder, so they're overlapping?
Comment: Or create and position one with Ctrl+R and then do what batFINGER says. And Ctrl+J is always there.
Answer: Just to illustrate batFINGER's point:
Delete faces with Delete > Faces.
Select an edge loop and extrude downwards.

To close the bottom, just Fill and Poke faces.
Answer: You should adjust the Overlap Threshold of Boolean Modifier.
In my case correct Overlap Threshold is from 0.000001 to 0.001:

After apply Boolean Modifier sculpt is correct:

boolean not working properly