Difference between incendiary and normal shotguns shells in Tomb Raider?

Question: I'm playing the game for the first time and want to know if there's a downside to using the incendiary shells.
Answer: Don't think so. I had the same question to. I thawt the fire rounds would yes, have the chance of catching the target on on fire, but only by sacrificing damage dealt at the same time. That dusn't seem 2 be the case tho. So, as i do, i just recommend keeping it on 'incendiary rounds'. I hav also found it kinda pointless 2 giv u a silencer 4 ur pistol later in the game when the whole time u've been using ur bow. Why stop now just 2 use & waste ur pistol ammo on silent kills? Plus u can retrieve ur arrows, unlike w/ the silencer pistol. Only way i can c this EVER cuming n2 play is if u don't hav or just plain run out of arrows. Which i don't c happening. Ammo is actually pretty plentiful 4 the most part.


how to find wheel brand

Question: How do I find the brand/make of a bike wheel? I have been given a free bike in great condition except the front wheel is damaged. I need to replace it but can't find any markings to state what make it is.
Comment: If you're replacing the wheel, the brand is not important. Just ensure that you have the correct axle and rim size. There are further considerations depending on the type of brakes you have.
Answer: you need to know the width of the front fork at the axle, to know what width your new hub needs to be. Then you need the diameter of the wheel (mostly stated on the tire, 26" or 28" usually) and if you need a wheel with a braking surface on the rim of the wheel (if you have v-brakes: yes). If you have a disc brake in the front, you need a compatible hub for this. With those four things in mind you can go and look for a wheel :)
Comment: Also worth noting that in some cases you may not need the exact same size of wheel.  If your bike has an old 27x1-1/4 wheel, then you can often switch it for a new 700c wheel without much trouble. This will give you more selection of wheels and tires.  Just check that the brakes have enough reach to account for the slightly smaller wheel.

how to find wheel brand


some relation $R$ is defined on $\mathbb{R}$ such that $xRy \iff x = 7^{k}y,$ for some $k\in \mathbb{Z}$. Prove that $R$ is an equivalence relation

Question: some relation $R$ is defined on $\mathbb{R}$ such that $xRy \ \iff  \ x = 7^{k}y,$ for some $k\in \mathbb{Z}$. Prove that $R$ is an equivalence relation
I'm confused with proving that it is symmetric and transitive.
Comment: For symmetric, note that $k$ can be negative.
Comment: For transitive, note that $7^a7^b=7^{a+b}$.
Answer: If $x\sim y$ and $y\sim z$ then we have $x=7^ky$ and $y=7^nz$ so $$x = 7^k(7^nz) = 7^{k+n}z$$ so it is transitive.
Also $x\sim y$ then we have $x=7^ky$ so $y =7^{-k}x$ so it is also a symmetric.
Answer: Symmetric: If $x\sim y$ then there exists an integer $k$ so that $x=7^ky$  Then $y=7^{-k}x$ So $y\sim x$.
Transitive: Suppose $x\sim y$ and $y\sim z$ so that there exist integers $k,m$ such that $x=7^ky$ and $y=7^mz$, from which it follows that $x=7^{k+m}z$. Thus $x\sim z$
Reflexive: For every $x$, we have $x\sim x$ because $x=7^0x$.
So this is an equivalence relation.
Answer: This holds for $\,G = 7^{\large \Bbb Z}$ and also for any set with the same algebraic (group) structure (closed under products & inverses). The proof is  more conceptual (and just as easy) when done this way.
Suppose that $\,G\subset \Bbb R\,$ satisfies $\,\color{#0a0}1\in G\,$ and $\,g,h\in G\,\Rightarrow\, \color{#08f}{gh}\in G,\,$ and $\, \color{#c00}{g^{-1}}\in G$
Then $\ x\approx y \!\overset{\rm def}\iff\! x = g\, y\ \ {\rm for\ some}\ \ g\in G\ $ is an equivalence relation, $ $  since
$\qquad\ \ \ \  \approx\,$ is $\ \ \rm\color{#0a0}{reflexive}\,\ \ $ by $\  x = \color{#0a0}1x\,\Rightarrow\, x\approx x$
$\qquad\ \ \ \  \approx\,$ is $\,\rm\color{#c00}{symmetric}\,$ by $\ x\approx y\,\Rightarrow\, x = g y\,\Rightarrow\, y = \color{#c00}{g^{-1}}x\,\Rightarrow\,y\approx x$
$\qquad\ \ \ \ \approx\,$ is $\ \rm\color{#08f}{transitive}\,\ $  by $\,x\approx y\approx z\,\Rightarrow\, y = hz,\,  x = g y = g(hz) = (\color{#08f}{gh})z\,\Rightarrow\, x\approx z$
Remark $\,\ G x = \{ gx\ :\ g\in G\}\ $ is called the $G$-orbit of $x.\ $ It is a basic concept in group theory.
A quick way to recognize such group structure is by the subgroup test, i.e. a nonempty $G\subset H$ of a group $H$ forms a group $\iff$ it is closed under division, i.e. $\, g,h\in g\,\Rightarrow g/h = gh^{-1}\in G,\,$ which is clear for $\, G= 7^{\Large \Bbb Z} $
 since $\, 7^{\large j}/7^{\large k} = 7^{\large j-k}\!\in 7^{\large \Bbb Z}$ since integers are closed under subtraction. In fact this subgroup test is implicitly used in a complementary form since grade school in inferences like below
$\qquad$


Container overrides default style

Question: I have a 3rd party control in which i have added a toolbar in it's header container. The toolbar and child items show normally but the selection styling (highlighting of the child items) doesn't trigger. Somehow the header container overrides this. Is there anything i could do to prevent this?
Answer: You'd have to check why exactly this is happening first. Assuming that something is being overwritten is a first step, but you'd have to find out exactly what it is.
I suggest you try Snoop - It allows you to see what is the exact Visual Tree of your application - If you are correct then you will see which property is overridden by which control.

Container overrides default style


How to re-size SimpleModal Dialog box based upon content rendered

Question: I am working with SimpleModal dialog box and within a page I would like to have the modal dialog box to set the height of the dialog box to present the content without scrollbars.
Within a test page I am using the following code: I inserted a bunch of extra paragraph tags to represent more like a form layout. This dialog box will not need to exceed the height of the screen but I would like for the dialog to expand up to the max height of the screen and then scroll if necessary.
I've tried using maxHeight as an option in the modal window but the css continues to revert to inline fixed height and width within the DOM.
<link href="Styles/basic.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" />

    <form id="form1" runat="server">

        <asp:TextBox Width="300" BorderColor="Black" BorderWidth="1px" Height="32px" Font-Size="1.1em"
            runat="server" />

            Click to open Modal window

            Basic Modal Dialog

            For this demo, SimpleModal is using this "hidden" data for its content. You can
            also populate the modal dialog with an AJAX response, standard HTML or DOM element(s).

            Examples:

    **... removed for brevity this consisted of additional html content to invoke a scroll**

In reading the documentation from Eric Martins site I see reference to the content reverting to overflow.

SimpleModal internally defines the following CSS classes:
  simplemodal-overlay, simplemodal-container, simplemodal-wrap
  (SimpleModal will automatically set the overflow to auto if the
  content gets larger than the container), and simplemodal-data.

And I see within the CSS the following styles:
#simplemodal-overlay {background-color:#000; }

    #simplemodal-container {height:360px; width:600px; color:#bbb; background-color:#333; border:4px solid #444; padding:12px;}
    #simplemodal-container .simplemodal-data {padding:8px;}
    #simplemodal-container code {background:#141414; border-left:3px solid #65B43D; color:#bbb; display:block; font-size:12px; margin-bottom:12px; padding:4px 6px 6px;}
    #simplemodal-container a {color:#ddd;}
    #simplemodal-container a.modalCloseImg {background:url(../img/basic/x.png) no-repeat; width:25px; height:29px; display:inline; z-index:3200; position:absolute; top:-15px; right:-16px; cursor:pointer;}
    #simplemodal-container h3 {color:#84b8d9;}

I have been unsuccessful in getting the modal window to expand/scale based upon the content within the basic-modal-content div container above the 400 min height value I currently pass.
Do I need to modify the simple modal js files(this doesn't seem correct) or is there an option that I can pass within the modal function that I am missing.
Update to Question
In working with this further I have been able to over-ride the width and height by using dataCss and containerCss as specified within the simpleModal js file. My call now looks as:
$(function () {
            $("#basic-modal").click(function (e) {
                $('#basic-modal-content').modal({ dataCss: { height: "95%", width: "95%" }, containerCSS: { height: "95%", width: "95%" }, overlayClose: false });

                return false;
            });
        });

This seems to work or at least accomplish what I was attempting.
However I would appreciate any additional suggestions or direction if there is a better approach
Thank you,
Answer: Just remove any width or height properties (css AND js). This way Simple Modal will perfectly fit to your hidden markup.


EC2 Instance status

Question: If I have a thousands of server's running in AWS, how can i get the list of servers that are in running state and the ones in stopped state.
Comment: You can use amazon aws cli https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/reference/ec2/
Answer: Use AWS CLI tool as below
aws ec2 describe-instances

More details in the link below
https://aws.amazon.com/cli/
Comment: Thanks for your time and quick response
Answer: You can use instance-state-name filter as a part of describe-instances call and set it value to stopped to obtain all the instances that are stopped.
--filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=stopped"

if you want to reduce the amount of received data then you can query only for subset of instances' attributes such as, instance-id and state.
--query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].{InstanceId:InstanceId,State:State.Name}'

Then full command becomes
aws ec2 describe-instances --filters "Name=instance-state-name,Values=stopped" --query 'Reservations[*].Instances[*].{InstanceId:InstanceId,State:State.Name}'

EC2 Instance status


Lion Mail "Show Format Bar' button missing

Question: In Lion Mail there is supposed to be a "show format bar" button at top right of a new mail window. It is not there for me. How can I get it to show?
Answer: You have to customise the toolbar and add the format button.
Drag the format button to the bar:

And when you compose a new message, you can click on the format icon:

And the bar will appear.
Comment: This is the correct answer. It would have even been better to say "you have to customize the toolbar using View > Customize Toolbar" because this was not immediately obvious. Nevertheless, thanks!


Setuid for iphone app to run as root

Question: Im am trying to make my iphone app run as root, and i was told to setuid, I do not know how to do this.
Comment: Did you find out how to do this?
Answer: If you follow Apple's development guidelines, you can not run the application as root, and you can not access any resources outside of your your own application space, called its "application home directory".
The application home directory is made up of the following:
(1) myApp.app (the bundle — code-signed, and un-changeable)
  - myApp, mainWindow.xib, somepicture.png, etc
(2) Documents
 - files created at run-time, after installation
(3) Library
 - caches, preferences, etc
In order to access any resources outside of those, you'll need to call their iOS API's.
This compartmentalization of the applications is a core part of Apple's security model.  It makes package management much easier, and it is much safer than if applications had root-level permissions across the filesystem.
Alan

Setuid for iphone app to run as root


GStreamer on Android

Question: Can anyone give me any tips on getting GStreamer to work on Android. I have never used it before and I would like to use it with FFmpeg (I already have FFmpeg compiled and works fine on Android). I would just like to use GStreamer to help with some of the processing as learning the FFmpeg API is somewhat of a nightmare haha. Thanks in advance for any help at all!
Comment: Glib have to be ported to Android see http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/browse_thread/thread/e3ba69545e1d31ac/439a80ecee837714
Comment: Thank you for the link, that was useful information.
Comment: There is also another link where i will track it when ever i get those all done. e.g: http://stackoverflow.com/q/5585538/285594
Answer: Try this link as well :
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/wiki/GstreamerAndroid_InstallInstructions
and also subscribe to the gstreamer android mailing list :
http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/gstreamer-android
idealy you must build the gstreamer first for android and then port it and run a basic command on the adb shell for the sanity check.
Once this is done you can do the same for ffmpeg (which you have already done)
Download the ndk from here
and then Try taking out the sample code from the ndk and add your c files in any of the simple jni programme .In c files you can programme the gstreamer and ffmpeg api calls.
You need to understand the ndk build documentation as well.
Answer: Check http://cgit.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/attic/gst-android/  It could be very useful.
Cheers
Kapil

GStreamer on Android


Is this a "folk theorem" about analytic functions of a complex variable?

Question: In a comment on question 110345 I made a claim that might be incorrect. I claimed that if
f(z) is a non-constant analytic function defined by a power series whose circle of convergence C
has a positive radius, then f(z) cannot be bounded at all points in the interior of C. But is
this really true?  Or am I just imagining that I learned it somewhere. I could not come up with
any simple counter-examples. It sounds like some weird generalization of Liouville's theorem.
Answer: This is not true. For a counterexample take
$$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{x^n}{n^2} $$
The radius of convergence is one and this is bounded by
$$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{1}{n^2} = \pi^2/6 $$
You are likely confusing this with the maximum modulus principle saying that there must be no local maximu (in absolute value) in the interior if the function is nonconstant.
Answer: You are probably misunderstanding the following folk theorem:
If $D $ is the convergence disc of a power series converging to $f$, then there must be some singularity of $f$ on $\partial D$. In other words, you cannot continue $f$ analytically onto a larger disc.
A counterexample that is more explicit than quids example is the power series expansion of $\sqrt{1+z}$ around $z=0$, which has convergence radius $1$. The singularity at $z=-1$ is not a pole.
A hint to the proof: if $D \subset U$ is a disc in the domain of definition of a holomorphic function $f$, then the Taylor expansion around the midpoint of $D$ converges in $D$.
Comment: I prefer this example to quid's.
Comment: similarly, any polynomial map of degree ≥ 2 admits bounded local inverses in any disc D whose interior does not contain a branch point.  if the boundary circle of D does contain a branch point, there is such an inverse which does not converge on any larger disc.
Comment: +1 and congratulations on 10k.
Comment: Thanks for the illuminating counter-examples. I wonder if the following modification of my statement might be true. Let D be a
closed disk in the complex plane having a positive radius. Let f(z)
and g(z) be single valued functions of a complex variable such that
(1) f(z) is analytic at all interior points of D. (2) g(z) agrees with f(z) at all interior points of D and is continuous at all
points of D. Then f(z) can be extended to a function that is
single-valued and analytic in a connected open set containing D
as a subset.
Comment: I don't think I understand this last remark; probably you want $g$ to be continuous. But you can extend the square root to a continuous function on the whole plane (say by Tietzes theorem). But as I said, there is no analytic extension.
Comment: I am actually asking for necessary and sufficient conditions on the
function g(z) that is single valued and continuous at all points of
a (non-degenerate) disk D and analytic at all interior points of D
to be extendible to a single valued analytic function in a domain
containing D. I am not assuming that the boundary of D is the
circle of convergence of any power series.


How does QGIS calculate slope?

Question: There are several ways to calculate slope in qgis using a DEM layer, but how does it actually work? My results show pixels with a slope of 40°+, this seems like a lot (in my DEM, one pixel is 25*25 m). Does it mean that the average slope of the pixel is for example 30° and in reality it could be that the pixel is actually quite flat, but there's a small part of it with really steep slope?
Comment: Have you looked at the source code to see how it is done?
Answer: A pixel represents a point. It has no length or width. Slope comes from the relationship between the height of the point and that of neighbouring points, and the distance between them. It is the inverse tangent of the quotient of the difference in height and difference in lateral position
<code>slope = arctan(dy/dx)
</code>
In practice, it can be an average or other statistical aggregate of the slope between the point under consideration and several of its neighbours. If you look at the Wikipedia description of image gradient, you can see the mathematics typically involved.
Further, rather than looking at immediately adjacent pixels only, the span of the gradient calculation can be larger. which will generally give a smoother result.

How does QGIS calculate slope?


installing a language rom file for the same phone but a different build number

Question: so i just want to install another language rom for my phone since it doesn't originally have it
now i found several files for my phone but the one that is available for my phone with my build number is just for keyboard, which was already available officially
the others however support both the interface and the keyboard
what happens if i install the rom that is intended for, let's say J120HXXS0AQE1 on my phone which has the build id of J120HXXS0AQF1?
because the difference is just for one syllable
that's it
will it be that bad?
please respond shortly if it works
thanks yall
the phone model is samsung j1 2016 sm-j120h
Comment: If you are able to install a ROM depends on two things: 1. The ROM have to be signed using the same cryptographic key as your installed ROM and second it's version have to be higher than the one you have installed because Android does not allow a downgrade. If one or both requirements are fulfilled is unknown to you as I neither know your device nor the ROMs you have mentioned. Note that even if you are able to install a ROM doesn't have to mean that it will work in the end. If two ROMs just differ in the language it should work as long as the hardware is not region specific.
Comment: well, i did it, i installed a rom that was not made for my phone's build number
and it worked!
(the phone is a bit slower, [probably due to installing a rom just now) it functioned alright, language is now changable for the interface as well
thanks the guy who helped me even though your english is a bit bad
Answer: i did it becuase robert said that it'll be fine as long im not trying to meddle with too sensitive stuff such as hardware and whatnot.
so it works
as longas the change ain't too drastic
Comment: You did what? Please mention the steps you took to solve your problem.


Meaning of strongly and weakly degenerate

Question: In ideal Bose and Fermi gases we often use either strongly degenerate ideal Bose/Fermi or weakly degenerate ideal Bose/Fermi gas. As far as I know mathematically if the fugacity $z=e^{\beta\mu}$ close to 1, then it is strongly degenerate Bose gas and otherwise, it is weakly degenerate Bose gas. Also, if the temperature is low then it is strongly degenerate, and if the temperature is high, then it is weakly degenerate. However, I am stuck in here since I don't have a clear picture on what does that means. Also, the degeneracy has different meaning in quantum mechanics. If possible give me some Intuitive picture into understanding strongly and weakly degenerate ideal gases
Answer: The meaning (at least for fermion gases) is how close the occupation index is to being 1 for all energies below the Fermi energy and zero above it. This is the ideal case of a completely degenerate gas. The occupation index tells you what fraction of the available quantum states are filled as a function of the fermion energy.
In practice, this is assessed by comparing the ratio $E_F/kT$ (or if you are an astrophysicist and care about relativistic fermions $(E_F -mc^2)/kT$) with unity. If it is much bigger than 1, then the gas is strongly degenerate. If it is somewhere between 1 and 10 I would call that partially (or weakly) degenerate, but if it is less than 1 I would call that non-degenerate.
This "degeneracy parameter" is affected by both density and temperature. By definition, the numerator, the Fermi kinetic energy, only depends on the fermion number density; whereas the denominator obviously depends on temperature. Thus there are two ways you can get a degenerate gas with a degeneracy parameter much larger than unity - by decreasing the temperature or increasing the fermion density.
To get a visualisation, try this applet I wrote, which shows how the occupation index of the fermions as a function of energy changes as the degeneracy parameter changes. It is valid for strongly degenerate and weakly (or partially) degenerate fermion gases with degeneracy parameters $>1$. The applet was for use in astrophysics, so the energy includes the rest-mass energy of the fermions.


Trying to make a spine-like structure in blender

Question: So, I have the structure of a single vertebra (roughly) and an armature bone to dictate it's motion. What I want to know is, is there any way to generate a series of vertebrae, one on top of the other, with their armature bones already linked together? I REALLY don't want to place and link every single bone together, when there might be more than 50 of them. Also, I'd like the general scaling of each vertebra to be decreasing as each structure is generated. I know the array modifier can do the first part of that, but it doesn't copy the bones, and I don't know how to add scaling to it.
Answer: I would do it like this:
- Create the first vertebra
- Shift D Z to duplicate and move upward
- Shift R to repeat the last operation
- S for scaling the needed
- at the end select all the vertebrae and ctrl J Join them
- add a curve modifier to adjust the shape of the whole object

Then create a single bone
in edit mode extrude the bone moving the tip toward the top of the next vertebra
extrude again ...
at the end parent the object to the armature using automatic wheight

I think it can take half an hour for 50-60 pieces
Maybe for 5000 you would need an automated way
Remember also that a long bone can be subdivided n times,  with the W key menu.
Answer: Better to use python for highly repetitive tasks like this. Here's a python script automate the generation of the bone and vertebrae pairs:
<code>#Script assumes existence of "VertBone1" armature and "Vertebrae1" object with the "Vertebrae1" object parented to the "VertBone1" armature

import bpy

gapAmt = 0.1
scaleAmt = 0.9
numVertebraes = 6

#deselect all objects
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='TOGGLE')
bpy.ops.object.select_all(action='DESELECT')

for i in range(1, numVertebraes):

    #set our target object names
    boneName = str("VertBone"+str(i))
    vertebraeName = str("Vertebrae"+str(i))

    #iterate over all objects and select our target objects
    for o in bpy.data.objects:
        o.select = False
        if o.name == boneName or o.name == vertebraeName:
            o.select = True
            if o.name == vertebraeName:
                #get the height of the current vertebrae
                curVT = o.dimensions.z

    #duplicate both objects
    bpy.ops.object.duplicate(linked=False)

    newVert = bpy.data.objects[vertebraeName +".001"]
    newBone = bpy.data.objects[boneName +".001"]

    newVert.select = True
    newVert.name = "Vertebrae" + str(i+1)
    newBone.select = False

    #scale vertebrae object
    bpy.ops.transform.resize(value=(scaleAmt,scaleAmt,scaleAmt))
    bpy.ops.object.transform_apply(location=False, rotation=False, scale=True)
    newVert.select = False

    newBone.select = True
    newBone.name = "VertBone" + str(i+1)

    #set translation amount to equal height of current vertebrae plus gap amount
    moveAmt = curVT+gapAmt
    bpy.ops.transform.translate(value=(0, 0, moveAmt))
</code>

Note: each bone will be a separate armature. You may have to join them if you only want one armature.


What technique is Sungha Jung using in this video?

Question: In his cover of Secret Base - Anohana during the chorus at 1:25 he makes a loud twang-y(?) bass note noise that overall gives the composition a really nice sound. Im wondering what hes doing and couldn't figure it out by myself. It sounds like a pop but it looks like he is thumb slapping. Can anyone help?
Answer: First off: I have no idea what the technical/real term for the technique is.
However, if I'm understanding your question correctly, what he's doing is transitioning from a slap on the low E to a Bass and strum thing. But, I don't really hear a "twang". I think that might just be from the hard attack that he does, but it doesn't sound like he's going for "twang" (i.e. snapping the string against the fret board).
Recently I had the opportunity to learn from Mike Dawes about his various percussive techniques that he always relates to a drum set. Essentially, you can have a bass/kick drum, snare, and high hat.
The slap on the 6th, 5th, & 4th strings is considered a high hat. So Mr. Sungha Jung goes from the standard "high hat" slap on string 5/6 to a kick drum with the heel of his palm against the body of the guitar, while simultaneously flicking his middle finger to strum his chord. Also, it looks like while he's hitting the kick drum, he is also doing a snare technique by hitting the side of his thumb just above the sound hole (although, it is difficult to tell from the camera angle).
Basically, you can just flick your middle or ring finger while slapping strings 6, 5, or 4 to allow the note(s) to ring while you still get the percussive hit.
Hopefully that's what you were asking. I'm not 100% on what "twang" you're talking about, but that is my guess on what was meant.


MS Dynamics CRM. Workflow update record

Question: I have workflow that updates entity record after checking condition. Everything works well. But... For example workflow's owner is User1 and i try to modify the record with User2. I thought field "Modified By" must have a value User2, but it has a value User1. Why?
Answer: Automatic workflows inside Dynamics CRM always run in the security context of the owner of the workflow.
In your case the owner of the workflow is User1, so it's right that the modifiedby field has User1 value.
To complete the answer, on-demand workflows run in the security context of the running user.

MS Dynamics CRM. Workflow update record


Geometry. Parallelogram.

Question: Let $A$, $B$, $C$, $D$ be $4$ fixed points on line $l$. Through $A$ and $B$ pass two arbitrary parallel lines, and two arbitrary parallel lines pass through $C$ and $D$. These $4$ lines form a parallelogram. Prove, that the diagonals of this parallelogram cross the line $l$ in two fixed points. Tried Menelaus' Theorem and  the Intercept theorem but couldn't work it out. How to solve this?
Comment: Prove that the diagonals are not parallel to the line.
Comment: @DaleM actually, they can be parallel. but we need to prove that for all other cases if the points are fixed, no matter what pairs of parallel lines we draw, they will respectively pass through the same point on the line l
Answer: Take the $y$-axis as the line $l$. We can write the four lines $l_1, l_2,l_3,l_4$ as $y=rx+a$, $y=rx+b$, $y=sx+c$, $y=sx+d$, respectively. The intersection point of $l_1$ with $l_3$, that of $l_1$ with $l_4$, that of $l_2$ with $l_3$, and that of $l_2$ with $l_4$ are $\displaystyle (\frac{c-a}{r-s}, \frac{rc-sa}{r-s})$, $\displaystyle (\frac{d-a}{r-s}, \frac{rd-sa}{r-s})$, $\displaystyle (\frac{c-b}{r-s}, \frac{rc-sb}{r-s})$, and $\displaystyle (\frac{d-b}{r-s}, \frac{rd-sb}{r-s})$, respectively.
So the diagonal passing through the intersection point of $l_1$ with $l_4$ and that of $l_2$ with $l_3$ has equation
$$y= \frac{(rd-sa-rc+sb)}{(d-a-c+b)}x+ \frac{(rd-sa)}{(r-s)}-  \frac{(rd-sa-rc+sb)}{(d-a-c+b)}\frac{(d-a)}{(r-s)}  $$
which for $x=0$ has solution
$$y= \frac{(rd-sa)}{(r-s)}-  \frac{(rd-sa-rc+sb)}{(d-a-c+b)}\frac{(d-a)}{(r-s)}$$
Expanding the products and simplifying, the last equation reduces to
$$ y=   \frac{  (rbd+sac-sbd-rac)  }{(r-s)(d-a-c+b)}=-\frac{  (r-s) (ac-bd) }{(r-s)(d-a-c+b)} =\frac{ (bd-ac) }{(d-a-c+b) }$$
Since the equation is of the form $y=k$, with $k$ constant and independent of the slopes $r$ and $s$, the diagonal of the parallelogram crosses the $y$-axis, i.e. the line $l$, in a fixed point whose $y$-coordinate is given by the last equation, no matter which slopes are considered.
The same considerations allow to show that the other diagonal passing through the intersections of $l_1$ with $l_3$ and of $l_2$ with $l_4$ also crosses the $y$-axis or line $l$ in a fixed point, whose $y$-value is given by
$$y=\frac{(bc-ad)}{(c-a-d+b)}$$
Finally, note that the cases where the denominators $d-a-c+b$ or $c-a-d+b$ are equal to zero represent those in which the corresponding diagonals are parallel to the $y$-axis.
Answer: Use coordinate geometry

Calculate the coordinates of the vertices V1 and V2 and then fit the equation of the diagonal. The intercept of the diagonal with the y axis is Y = [b(a-d) + a(c-b)] / [a - d + c - b], provided m not equal to n and provided (a - d + c -b) not equal 0. The first is the condition that the two sets of lines are not parallel and the second that the diagonal is not parallel to the y axis.
So, the y intercept is independant of the slope of the two sets of parallel lines.

Geometry. Parallelogram.


Free iOS library to scan PDF417 barcodes

Question: Are there any free scanning libraries with PDF417 capability available to integrate with iOS apps?

If it supports Android, then that would be even great.
Answer: Try RMScannerView:

Simple barcode scanner UIView subclass for iOS apps. Quickly and efficiently scans a large variety of barcodes using the iOS device's built in camera.

It is the only free project I've found that supports also PDF417 barcodes:

Scan Aztec, Code 128, Code 39, Code 39 Mod 43, Code 93, EAN13, EAN8, PDF417, QR, and UPCE codes.

I tried it and it works fine.
Answer: The current AVFoundation support PDF417 metadata. Too late to answer but if this is still required, AVFoundation solves the issue. Just add the following code to the scanning session:
<code>let metadataOutput = AVCaptureMetadataOutput()

 metadataOutput.setMetadataObjectsDelegate(self, queue: DispatchQueue.main)
 metadataOutput.metadataObjectTypes = [.pdf417]
</code>
Hope this helps someone.
Comment: Answering any later is okay.


Why do we write "cum marito eius" (cum + abl+ gen.) and not "cum marito ei" (cum + abl+ abl.)?

Question: Pline wrote this sentence:
"Sunt mihi et cum marito eius Minicio Iusto, optimo viro, vetera iura; fuerunt et cum filio maxima, adeo quidem ut praetore 5 me ludis meis praesederit".
I don't understand why we have "cum marito eius" (cum + abl+ gen.) and not "cum marito ei" (cum + abl+ abl.).
Thank you.
Answer: I think there are two issues that would be helpful to clarify here:

ei is the dative (not the ablative) of the demonstrative pronoun is/ea/id. Since Latin does not have a third-person personal pronoun, this demonstrative pronoun is used to mean he/she/it.
The possessive adjective suus, -a, -um is only used reflexively. (See the first note under §145 of the linked grammar entry from Allen & Greenough.)

Thus, if you want to say his/her/its, there are two options in Latin:

Use the adjective suus, -a, -um agreeing with the noun, if it refers back to the subject, e.g. pater amat filium suum = "the father loves his [own] son."
Use the genitive pronoun eius, as a standalone, if it does not refer back to the subject, e.g. pater amat filium eius = "the father loves his [someone else's] son."

In short: there is no non-reflexive third-person possessive adjective.
In the third-person, this is a relatively fixed rule. You'll note that there are cases, like the first-person adjective meus, -a, -um and genitive pronoun mei, where there isn't the same reflexive vs. non-reflexive distinction. In such cases--as your instincts tell you here--Latin almost always prefers the adjective, not the genitive pronoun.
Comment: Thank you very much for your very clear and structured answer.

Why do we write “cum marito eius” (cum + abl+ gen.) and not “cum marito ei” (cum + abl+ abl.)?


How to make all post in to a category?

Question: I need to make all current posts to a category called "Past Posts". I could not find a way to do it. I have 250+ posts. So I can't do it manually.
Comment: You can Bulk edit and assign category from admin panel. I think that would be easy rather than writing scripts.
Answer: First query all post
<code>$args = array(
    'post_type'         =>'posts',
    'post_status'       =>'publish',
    'posts_per_page'    =>-1

);
$query = new WP_Query($args);
$post_ids = array();
if($query->have_posts()){
    while ($query->have_posts()){
        global $post;
        $query->the_post();
        array_push($post_ids,$post->ID);
    }
}
</code>
Now you have an array called $post_ids which contains all post's id .
Now  , change the categories
Loop through the array and change the categories
<code>$post_categories= array('Past Posts');
foreach ($post_ids as $key => $post_ID) {
    if(!in_category('Past Posts')){
        wp_set_post_categories( $post_ID, $post_categories, true );
    }
}
</code>
If you want to append a category then set the third parameter of wp_set_post_categories of this function true or if you want to replace then make it false .
Put this code in functions.php  , you can delete this code after your work is done

How to make all post in to a category?


using paint that has been frozen

Question: I used some latex paint that had bee frozen. it had a granulated texture but that was no matter for the project I had. I have heard this will crack and peel faster. what if I paint over it with good paint will it cause problems with that too or will a coat of new paint prevent the premature peeling? basically do I have to remove the layer of bad paint or can i just paint over it?
Answer: Once you have a weak layer of paint, adding strong layers won't help, as it will still crack and peel at that weak layer. I'd suggest waiting and seeing what happens; if it lasts as-is then you're good, if it starts peeling then you'll have a head start on removing it.

using paint that has been frozen


Constant pressure

Question: When we refer to constant pressure like in Charles law what is this pressure? The pressure of the gas or the pressure that the container (the piston maybe) exert on the gas? Also does atmospheric pressure is taking into account when we refer to constant pressure?
Comment: The pressure of the gas hence the pressure exerted on the walls of the container by the gas in which the gas is contained.
Answer: It is all three things you mentioned.  It is the force per unit area that the gas exerts on the wall of the container, the force per unit area that the wall exerts on the gas, and the force per unit area that each parcel of gas exerts on its neighboring parcels (and that they exert on it).  If the container is totally isolated from the atmosphere, the atmospheric pressure is irrelevant to the gas pressure inside the container.
Comment: What do you mean by the container being totally isolated from the atmosphere? If the container is a cylinder with a massless piston isn't the gas pressure atmospheric pressure?
Comment: @Bob D Thanks.  That's not what I meant.  I meant a gas in a rigid container with no piston.  Incidentally, I posted that thing that we were talking about.

Constant pressure


What affects the different types of luck in Animal Crossing New Leaf?

Question: If luck isn't random each day, what affects my character's different types of luck? Can I turn a type of luck around in a given day?
Answer: Luck is largely affected by Feng Shui and Lucky items. Thonky has a detailed article on the matter.
Taking Katrina's suggestion is also believed to improve luck but I don't have any firsthand knowledge of how well that works.
Answer: Every so often Katrina will visit your town. She might say that bad luck is in the future and a specific item will help. If you have it (like if it is clothing) then wear it, you never know, something nice might happen. However sometimes you can get those random bad luck days; don't worry, all that happens from what I've experienced is when you run your character will trip, look up the river glitch in youtube to find the advantage to this. Also in the accessories section in Able Sisters, there may be a King-Tut mask on sale. Be aware this does also give you the "bad luck". But if you want to glitch into your river, this item works too. Unless a fortune from Katrina, I'm not sure you can change your luck around. Hope I helped :)
Answer: Katrina told me wearing a shamrock will enhance good luck if worn in your hair. She also sold me a tingle hat that she said will make good luck better. It was 10,000 bells, but you can order one from your catalog for about 1,500 after you have the first one.
Answer: I'm not positive, but I think the general things you say to the cat when you first start may affect this. Once, when I picked most of the bottom options, I had generally terrible luck. however, I had good physical and bell drops. When I picked all top options, it was the opposite. Item and friendship were high. There could be some hidden variables, like house location and battery that nobody knows about, but I'm confident on your picks being a part. (I never changed clothes or decorated my house.)


How do I find the owner of the head in my hand?

Question: On Hypixel Skyblock, there is this item called the Raw Soulflow. I think the head looks cool, so I want to copy it.
But, after extensive searching, I can't seem to find out how!
Is there anyway to see the owner of the head in your hand in Minecraft? If you can't in vanilla, is there a mod that lets you?
Answer: Using a SkyBlock mod (or any mod that does this tbh), I use a special mod made for editing the official SB wiki - you can take the NBT of an item. Hovering over a Raw Soulflow and taking its NBT gives me this (copied to clipboard):
<code>{
id: "minecraft:skull",
Count: 1b,
tag: {
    HideFlags: 254,
    SkullOwner: {
        Id: "0411d14d-f9fb-3395-b96f-b9fb16c47d16",
        Properties: {
            textures: [{
                Value: "eyJ0ZXh0dXJlcyI6eyJTS0lOIjp7InVybCI6Imh0dHA6Ly90ZXh0dXJlcy5taW5lY3JhZnQubmV0L3RleHR1cmUvODEzZmYwZmJjODE3MWEzMDYyYjZiZDVjYWNmN2FhMmVmZGZlOGRlMzk5NDYyYjJlMDMwYzlkYzljNjAifX19"
            }]
        }
    },
    display: {
        Lore: ["§7Hold and right-click to consume,", "§7gaining §3+1⸎ Soulflow§7!", "", "§a§lUNCOMMON"],
        Name: "§aRaw Soulflow"
    },
    ExtraAttributes: {
        id: "RAW_SOULFLOW"
    }
},
Damage: 3s}
</code>
The string found at tag -> SkullOwner -> Properties -> textures -> Value is a base64 string which in this case decodes to:
<code>{"textures":{"SKIN":{"url":"http://textures.minecraft.net/texture/813ff0fbc8171a3062b6bd5cacf7aa2efdfe8de399462b2e030c9dc9c60"}}}
</code>
Viewing the url link gives you
which is the skin used for the soulflow item.
Answer: Without commands I think your only option is asking the mod developers.
It is not clear what the item is, it might be a regular block added by the mod with custom texture, and not a player head. If the block is indeed implemented as a player head, you have two options:
Place it somewhere (if possible) and then get its NBT with (replace with the actual coordinates):
<code>/data get block 125 65 194
</code>
If it can't be placed, you can drop it on the ground and make sure there are no other items around and then:
<code>/data get entity @e[type=item,sort=nearest,limit=1]
</code>
Comment: They are not talking about any mods, and they don't have commands so they are actually looking for mod recommendations


Forcing Jquery Mobile to reload in Rails app

Question: I am working on a mobile site that uses Rails and Jquery mobile. The problem is that I have a button which when triggered is suppose to go to a link. The link then starts a controller which generates data to be shown in the page and saved in the database. The problem is that it only works the first time around and when I try doing it again, JQM just loads the cached data and uses ajax, so the page is never reloaded again..
Button:

<%= link_to "Get Basket",basket_path%>

Answer: You should place data-role="button" and data-ajax="false" inside your anchor tag, like this:
...


"sorry for the inconvenience to you", is that correct?

Question: I used to use:

I am sorry for the inconvenience.

Today, I've encountered someone saying:

I am sorry for the inconvenience to you.

Is that correct? Why or why not?
Answer:
I am sorry for the inconvenience to you.

This looks grammatical and meaningful to me, but it isn't really natural or idiomatic.  It doesn't break any grammatical rules, but people don't say it very much.

I am sorry for your inconvenience.

This sounds a little better, but people still don't say it very often.
You don't need to say to you or your.  It's clear from context who's being inconvenienced: the listener.  Perhaps that's why people don't do so very often.
Or perhaps people just don't use words like these because they don't hear anyone else do it.  After all, we learn language by imitation.  Sometimes there isn't really a logical reason why we say one thing instead of another.

I am sorry for the inconvenience.
  I apologize for the inconvenience.
  I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience.

These and similar phrases are quite common.
Sometimes people use any instead of the, particularly if they aren't sure whether or not you've actually been inconvenienced:

We apologize for any inconvenience.

This is also quite natural.
Answer: All expressions are relative and correct. It all depends on expressions and the situation on the ground. e.g.

I am sorry for the inconvenience.
I am sorry for any inconvenience.

The word "THE" relates to any type of inconveniences which must have been caused by an action, but the word "ANY" simply says I am not too sure if I have actually inconvenienced you, but all the same I need to apologize in case of any.
So any expression can fly, whether "inconvenience to you or caused you" can fly.


Flash drive life monitor?

Question: Is there a tool to advise how much wear the drive has seen? (I've just acquired one and don't know it's history.)
Answer: Nopey.
As the cause of write-cycle limits (10k to 100k erasures ∓ a large factor given loose manufacturing tolerances) is a quantum mechanical effect, not even Werner Heisenberg could tell you with certainty when a cell will fail.
As a general rule, flash controllers have improved significantly over the last decade, with older drives doing less (or no) wear leveling.
If you are talking about a thumb-drive, the USB connector is rated for 10 times fewer insertions than the flash erasure cycles. If you are talking about an SSD, you shouldn't have to worry about it for another five years, at least.
Answer: Not quite what I was after but better than nowt...
USB Flash Drive Tester

Flash card/drive tester allows testing of any removable media including SD, MMC, CF, USB flash pen drives for bad or unstable sectors. Especially useful for testing for fake sizes often seen on low quality USB pen drives.

Flash drive life monitor?


will a battery drain charge if connected to a breadboard open circuit and no load

Question: Can you please let me know practically is it possible to drain the charges of the battery if the terminals are attached to a breadboard on two different columns and without load. Ideally if its open circuit it should not.
Comment: This is really asking 'do batteries leak their charge' and yes, they all do. Check the datasheet for your battery.
Answer: You are correct. As a practical matter, it should drain no more than if the battery were sitting in it's package.


I cannot change Game Centre Profile name

Question: When I first put in my nickname I used emoji with the name. now each time I try to sign in to change the name a box comes up saying to update my account cannot connect to server. As far as I know my account is updated. However the emoji keyboard no longer is available when I sign in. How do I fix this?
Comment: Where do you try to login?
Answer: To log in to Game Center, you use your Apple ID email and password, not your Game Center nickname. Go to Settings > Game Center, tap your current nickname (under Game Center Profile) and then you should be able to edit it.
Comment: I always sign in with Apple ID and password as I didn't know you could have a different one for game centre.


Are there processes other than fusion which can create very heavy elements?

Question: Have there been hypothesized processes other than nuclear fusion which could possibly create heavy elements? For example these incredibly powerful particle accelerators we are continuously building and improving.. have they shown anything pointing in such a direction?
Comment: They are what nuclear physics folks would consider standard nuclear reactions. Note that in normal operation stars really use a small number of reaction pathways. Supernovas reach conditions that we have no hope of achieving. Yet, either way, the nuclear reactions can be understood, and many performed in earthly labs.
Comment: Like [r-process](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-process) and [s-processes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-process)?
Comment: Accelerators of various types have been used for decades to produce heavy elements. Unclear what your question is.
Comment: @JonCuster Is what happens in those accelerators the same type of fusion as in stars or something else?
Answer: Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction where two (or rarely, more) atomic nuclei fuse to form a heavier nucleus. So, if you add nucleons together to make a heavier nucleus, you're doing nuclear fusion.
The only exception would be if you 1) didn't count neutron capture as fusion, and 2) you could continually add neutrons and get some of them changed to protons by beta decay. You can transmute uranium like this, but then it might explode.
Maybe you're imagining forming some exotic super heavy single particle that then manages to decay into a neat bound state of hundreds of protons and neutrons? And the neutron/proton ratio somehow happens to even allow a bound state? And any excess energy just goes away nicely instead of unbinding the new nucleus?
Comment: I imagined somehow that the high energies maybe could synthetically create totally new particles instead of just rebinding neutrons and protons.
Comment: New particles aren't new elements, though. Every chemical element is just a collection of protons and neutrons bound together. The only way to make them is to put protons and neutrons together, which is called fusion (except maybe neutron capture events, but I feel like maybe those should be included in a general definitionof fusion in this context).


how to change gtk tab height in gtkrc file?

Question: I want to change GTK tab (something like terminal tab or Firfox tab) height. I know that  TKNotebook can do this but I do not know which property is the height.
GTKNotebook::height=xxx does not work. By the way, can GTK change the height of the Firefox tab?
Answer: I don't think GTK can change Firefox appearance, as Firefox uses its own UI/widget system. There are probably extensions or themes that allow it to be changed.


Office 2007 and Office 2010 installed side by side

Question: I have Office 2007 and Office 2010 installed side-by-side. How do I stop the setup / configuration window from appearing each time I open a different version? If I open 2007, it will go through the configuration process, then I can use 2007 without issue until I open a 2010 application. Then, when I open any 2010 Office application it will go through the configuration process.
Comment: This had been an issue for us with 2003 and 2007 for a long time before we ditched 2003 altogether. But that probably doesn't help.
Answer: I was able to find a solution posted on the following blog: http://uksbsguy.com/blogs/doverton/archive/2007/07/21/how-to-get-rid-of-the-installer-configuration-dialog-when-running-office-2007-and-office-2003-on-the-same-system-for-vista-and-other-versions-of-windows.aspx
The solution was to add a registry key as specified below for both Office 12.0 (Office 2007) and Office 14 (Office 2010). I only had to do this with one application (Word) to stop the configuration wizard from appearing each time I opened any office application.
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1
reg add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Word\Options /v NoReReg /t REG_DWORD /d 1
Thank you for all of your help.
Answer: My recommendation would be to use virtual machines to isolate the two versions of Office. If you have Windows 7 Pro or higher you can install XP Mode and put one of the versions of office in the VM. Otherwise VirtualBox is a great VM host.
Comment: This is my solution for a development environment; however, it is too resource intensive for a production environment. Our company does not currently support Windows 7 so VPC 2007 or VirtualBox are my only real options. Thank you for the suggestion, though.
Answer: Uninstall the versions you don't want. IMHO, Office 2010 is just enough. by default, office files will be opened with 2007.
Comment: I wish I had that liberty. I am developing Office add-ins for our company and the majority of users will be on 2007. I however, don't want to give up Office 2010 just so  I can develop against 2007.
Comment: could you help us by showing off configuration window you've faced ?


What is the quality threshold for recordings sounding better/truer?

Question: I have a couple of "audiophile" friends who either obsess of vinyl or lossless FLAC files and invest a lot of money into special headphones and audio systems, and swear by the massive difference it makes when listening.  There's an obvious difference between cheap earbuds and quality speakers, but when it comes to recording quality I've seen it claimed that, for MP3, after about 192 kbps no one can tell the difference in quality.
That experiment is a little informal.  Have there been proper studies to determine how much detail humans can distinguish in audio and, more specifically, what is the quality threshold at which people can no longer distinguish two recordings of the same music?  As Franck Dernoncourt pointed out, the bitrate correlates with different quality levels given different file formats and conversion methods, but I'd be happy with any info using a clearly defined format or quality metric.
This is related to one of our definition questions.  The pros and cons of vinyl have been discussed on the Skeptics site and the differences between some file formats have been discussed on the Music site, so I'd like to focus more on bitrate and how the human ear works.
Comment: @RobertCartaino thought it was more suitable for a comment since it was just my opinion. Anyway it's kind of hard to post it as an answer now, since it was deleted ;-)
Comment: @LuísdeSousa all true what you say about the source material. I think the presumption is that we are considering cases where the reproduction equipment and the hearing ability of the listener are not limiting factors. I was interested to read, though, that there are differences in the quality of decoders : http://mp3decoders.mp3-tech.org/objective.html
Comment: Interesting question. I cannot tell the difference once the bitrate is higher than 192. But I'm not sure this is a music question. Are the workings of the human ear not more suited to a site about biology?
Comment: @CarlH Maybe my title was still misleading.  I'm not looking for a biological explanation, or any explanation really, just a statistical observation.  As a Music Fan I'd like to know whether I'd be wasting my time seeking out super high quality files, or if it would improve my experience, etc.
Comment: @AndréStannek Please post your answers below. Comments are not designed for this, thanks.
Comment: As some folk already explained, the answer to this question is in first place dependent on the encoding format and and the equipment used to reproduce the sound. But beyond that, it will also be dependent on the individual's ability to interpret the sound. Hearing degrades with age, sounds that you could listen at 15 may be totally inaudible at 50. And of course there is the music itself. I listen mostly to progressive rock and the difference from 192 kb/s MP3 to CD is pretty evident on the HiFi. Were I to fancy other music genre it could be different.
Comment: topo morto, if reproduction equipment and hearing ability are not limiting factors then any loss of signal should be detectable by the listener.
Answer: Unfortunately there seem to have been a large number of informal experiments, with various shortcomings such as using a limited range of source material, focusing on preference without also looking at ability to tell a difference, or making the files listened to available to test subjects (removing some or all of the 'blind' quality from the test) - but relatively few published 'scientific' studies.
Most lossy compression algorithms I know of are based on perceptual coding - a nicely detailed paper describing some of the principles (in the context of the development of PASC, an early technique) is at http://www.minidisc.org/MaskingPaper.html.
A few points from that paper :

the ear divides the sounds it receives into frequency bands, called 'critical bands'. Quiet sounds in the critical bands can be 'masked' by other, louder sounds in the same critical band. (this gives the opportunity for data reduction : if we can't hear a quieter sound, we don't need to encode it).
"There is no agreement as to the specific number of critical bands active simultaneously. Critical bands and their center frequencies are continuous, as opposed to having strict boundaries at specific frequency locations".
we have many more bands in the lower frequency range
In general, low sounds mask higher sounds
Sometimes a signal can be masked by a sound preceding it, called forward masking, or even by a sound following it, called backward masking
The masking threshold of a signal entering in one ear can be raised by a masker entering in the other ear.
Spatial location can have a negative effect on masking

Thinking about all those in combination, it's clear that the characteristics of the audio we're encoding are going to have a huge influence on the amount of data we can throw away and still keep the result subjectively indistinguishable from the original (or at least, not subjectively worse). So, even taking account file format and compression algorithm, another huge variable is the song we're encoding.
This means that as a general rule, taking a rough average of the results from the 'unscientific' tests we've read about may give as good an answer to your question as we can hope for without considering a particular song.
For what it's worth, my personal impressions, for music, on average:

128Kbps is usually just about good enough to enjoy the song, but is almost always noticeably worse than the original
192Kbps is always good enough to enjoy the song, and sometimes be indistinguishable from the original (or at least, not subjectively worse).
320 Kbps is close enough that I'm not putting any money on that I can distinguish it from the original in most cases; (but I would bet I can find some particular tracks where I can).

On yet another personal note : I listen to music through playlists, so I'm not usually aware what file format or bitrate I'm listening to. Sometimes I catch a bit of a song and I think "wow, that sounds good!" and I check the file - very often (85% of the time?) it is lossless or 320kbps; just occasionally it's 192. It's never less.
Comment: Those caveats regarding masking seem very important to factor in.  Thinking about it, I would tend to agree that maybe rough results are the best we can get.  Thank for the information!
Comment: @MatthewRead Even knowing something about how it works I do find it amazing how much info can be discarded (compared to the uncompressed file size) and keep things sounding so good. It's impressive stuff.
Answer: The "best"/"optimal" bitrate threshold depends on the audio coding format, since the bit rate is simply the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time (typically in second). E.g. if you take a FLAC file, and converted it into a 44.1 kHz 16-bit two-channel WAV file, the latter will have a higher bitrate but will sound the same. It also depends on the loudspeakers as you mentioned, and other factors such as the song itself (e.g. rock vs. EDM).
Here are some examples of frequency analysis using Audacity that show the impact of the bitrate:
FLAC/WAV (lossless):

MP3 320 kbps from Beatport:

MP3 128 kbps from YouTube:

AAC 256 kbps from iTunes (they used to be 128 kbps!):

Frequency analysis is just one of many aspects to investigate the sound quality.
From personal experience, discussing with several EDM DJs, for club use the consensus was MP3 320 Kbps or above. If needs be, 192 and 256 Kbps are usable too but stay avoid from them if possible. Don't use anything below.
Some other ideas: When does playing 320 Kbps MP3 instead of FLAC matter?
Comment: There's some weird stuff going on below 100Hz in all those examples - makes me doubt the accuracy of the rest of the data.
Comment: This is excellent info and I obviously need to tweak my question to account for bitrate across different file formats.  However, I don't think this actually provides an answer to the question -- the threshold where increased quality makes no difference to the listener.  The answers to your related question don't really seem to have any science unfortunately.
Comment: Just to check - are they analyses of the same song?
Comment: I think these graphs need to be compared to a plot of frequency response for a typical human ear.
Comment: Could you also do a plot for a 192kbps MP3?


Small build-in ssd in notebook can install linux?

Question: I bought a samsung laptop series 5. There are a 24gb ssd and normal hard disk. I need to install linux ubuntu on this notebook. Can I just install the ubuntu on the build-in 24gb ssd? If not, how can I use the 24gb ssd for anything?
Answer: Yes, you can install Linux on this SSD 24Gb. Modern Unix-like Operating system requires about 5Gb of disk drive.
For example, here is a requirement for Ubuntu and other Linux OSes, they all basically take about the same space.

Ubuntu Desktop Edition

700 MHz processor (about Intel Celeron or better)
512 MiB RAM (system memory)
5 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
VGA capable of 1024x768 screen resolution
Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB port for the installer media

Internet access is helpful

Debian

Fedora

1 GB RAM
10 GB disk space
64-bit only

OpenSUSE

Pentium* III 500 MHz or higher processor (Pentium 4 2.4 GHz or higher or any AMD64 or Intel64 processor recommended)
Main memory: 1 GB physical RAM (2 GB recommended)
Hard disk: 3 GB available disk space for a minimal install, 5 GB available for a graphical desktop (more recommended)
Sound and graphics cards: supports most modern sound and graphics cards, 800 x 600 display resolution (1024 x 768 or higher recommended)
Booting from CD/DVD drive or USB-Stick for installation, or support for booting over network (you need to setup PXE by yourself,

look also at PXE boot installation) or an existing installation of
  openSUSE, more information at Installation without CD
Comment: I've corrected your Fedora link, which was to the requirements *for running virutalization*, meaning, a system which hosts other virtual systems.  The correct link for the requirements of the Fedora 20 desktop edition is **[here](http://fedoraproject.org/en_GB/get-fedora)** and they are: 10 GB hard drive space, 1 GB RAM, 64-bit processor.
Answer: If low resource consumption matters for you, you could decide to install LUbuntu which is explicitly designed for being lightweight. That's why I like it.


How do I automatically split an audio file where a tone occurs?

Question: I have an audio recording in which 1 kHz tones divide its segments. There are so many segments that it would take a while to use Audacity to manually split the file. Is there an automatic plug-in or program to do this?
Comment: It may not be a practical suggestion, but find the binary code for that tone, and split by it.
Answer: This is actually possible using Audacity's Beat Finder analysis plug-in when combined with a bandpass filter.

Duplicate your mono audio track.
Find the tone's exact frequency.

Select the tone you want Audacity to detect and choose Analyze → Plot Spectrum.
Set the size to 16384.
Move the mouse pointer over the highest peak.
Look for the "peak" frequency.

Use a bandpass filter to remove everything but the tone.

Select the entire tone detection track and choose Effects → Nyquist Prompt.
Type (reson s 1000 1 1) into the box.
Replace 1000 with the frequency you got from Step 2.
Click OK.

Optionally, apply the Amplify effect, setting New Peak Amplitude to zero.
Use Analyze → Beat Finder. Start with Threshold Percentage equal to 100; reduce that percentage until Audacity successfully detects the tone.
Use File → Export Multiple to actually save the marked segments as separate files.
Answer: Hmm, how's your lisp? Audacity multi-export, as described http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/Splitting_recordings_into_separate_tracks does what you want, given appropriate labels.
Seems it'd be possible to combine the auto-label-silence script from there (named SilenceMarker.ny) with the simple spectral processing example from http://audacity-forum.de/download/edgar/nyquist/nyquist-doc/examples/rbd/03-fft-tutorial.htm to do labeling based on freq. If I had to do it, I'd give it a try, but lisp isn't one of my languages.


Mouse middle button function

Question: I have the ABBYY Lingvo 12 translater. It make translate word by push middle button of mouse and it's working perfect! But when I try to translate word by it way in Opera browser I have scrolling instead translate.
How can to solve it?
Answer: Perhaps,it may not work as you stated ..
in browser, if you set your cursor upon a link, and then click middle button, it's "Open New Tab" function.
I kindly want to advise to choose Babylon Dictionary and translator
Best.
Answer: From the "Main functionality of the program" section at the support pages: The pop-up translation function works in Microsoft Office applications and in Internet Explorer.

Question: Why doesn't the pop-up translation function work?
Answer: To use the pop-up translation function, make sure ABBYY Lingvo 12 is running at the moment you want to use the function. Go to Tools -> Options -> Translation -> Look-up from other applications, and make sure the option "Show pop-up translation" is selected.
The pop-up translation function works in Microsoft Office applications and in Internet Explorer. If you experience problems, try restarting ABBYY Lingvo 12. Select "Translate", then click "Exit". Pop-up translation doesn't work in PDF files, so use hotkey translation instead.

But there's hope:

To use the hotkey translation function, select the corresponding option in Tools -> Options -> Translation -> Open a full entry.
Comment: I need exactly the "open a full entry" function and hotkey translation is working for it, but mouse middle button much faster and more convenient

Mouse middle button function


What color space should I use for combined PBR maps?

Question: I have an RGB texture each channel of which contains a grayscale 8-bit PBR map (metallic, roughness, etc.). However I am not sure what color space I should use for it. Switching from sRGB to Non-Color changes shading quite a lot. Which color space is correct one?
Comment: Can be anything. Ask the author or just trust your eyes.
Answer: If no channel contains color data, use non-color. Otherwise use something different - sRGB is a good first guess, but ideally the provider of the texture should tell you what is the color space used.

Non-color
sRGB or different

roughness, glossiness, metaliness, normal, displace, ambient occlusion
albedo, diffuse, base, subsurface, emission

Disclaimer
There is no guarantee someone will not give you a normal texture in sRGB color space. It's very unlikely and makes no sense, but it can happen. Likewise you can get base color in linear ("non-color") color space - makes more sense, but still little. I think especially in case of combined textures, where each channel holds different data, it's possible that you will get color data mixed with non-color data and therefore either of those will be encoded in sub-optimal color space - which makes it harder to guess what color space that is, but I'd bet sRGB if at least one channel holds color data.
Explanation
It's actually very simple: when you set color space in your Image Texture node, you're not telling Blender "remember this, and treat this data as a color/non-color from now on". What you're doing is simply telling if the image is non-color data - in which case Blender just loads it - or uses some color space like sRGB - in which case Blender converts it to non-color data, because Blender uses linear (physical) color space. This hopefully explains why there's no obvious answer to what color space has to be used (actually it could even be considered off-topic, as it doesn't strictly relate to Blender) - it depends on how the image was created, and not on how Blender uses it. Blender only decodes data if it was encoded.
Perhaps it's worth to mention why the data is encoded. Human vision does not perceive light linearly: for example, the sky is actually violet, but we're almost blind to this color, so we see it as blue. Likewise, if you increase the intensity of light over time, even though you increase it linearly, you will perceive it as accelerating/decelerating at times. Conversion to sRGB fights exactly that, so now you no longer increase the strength of the lamp linearly, but thanks to that you perceive the increase as linear.


Multiple onyomi

Question: If a kanji has multiple onyomi, which one do you use? Is there a rule governing this or can you use any one at any time?
Answer: There is no general rule. It depends on the compound in which the kanji appears. Sometimes even compounds have two readings.
Japanese people themselves (literate ones, that is) sometimes don't know how to read a personal name or place name.
You cannot pick just any onyomi.  For instance 上 in 上手 (jouzu) must be じょう, and in 上海 (Shanhai: the Chinese city Shangai) it must be しゃん. "Shanzu" or "jouhai" doesn't make sense.
You have to recognize the compound as a word.
Comment: Just a suggestion: this answer would be better if you used an example other than 上手, because that particular two-kanji combination can also represent うわて.
Comment: or かみて ........
Comment: That particular word actually is in the dictionary (if the dictionary is big enough). It's pronounced ほんさつ and it means something like "main book", "main text", as opposed to 別冊 (べっさつ), supplementary volumes. But the general answer to the question is basically as Kaz says: it depends. e.g. In the case of 本冊, 本 seems likely to mean "main" or "this" (so almost certainly "ほん", not "もと"). 冊 is most often さつ in Japanese, so unless you have a strong reason to suspect さく or ざく (e.g. the context is tanzaku at Tanabata), ほんさつ is the most likely reading.
Comment: 本冊 is not a kanji compound (not in dictionary), so would it be pronounced "honsatsu", "honsaku", or "motofumi"(kunyomi)? Why?
Comment: +1 for useful example. When I ask my Japanese friends about this, they usually respond with "you just know."  This makes them amazing teachers, ya know?
Answer: The general rule is to use go-on for buddist terms, kan-on for academic terms, and so-on/too-on for zen-buddism or business terms.
Answer: Occasionally (I'm not sure how common it is) there are kanji for which the different on-readings relate to different sets of meanings.
An example is 日; in a Japanese kanji dictionary it is shown that the reading ニチ can be used for compounds in which 日 means Japan/Japanese (e.g. 日系、来日). The reading ジツ isn't used for those compounds.

Multiple onyomi


i just upgraded to ubuntu 15.04 but i cant launch the terminal

Question: the question says it all i just cant get into the terminal and I've tried using Ctrl + Alt + T, but it still wont pop up please help !
Comment: Please do not edit the question  with "solved" but add an answer and accept it.
Comment: Do you still have the "gnome-terminal" package installed?
Comment: Can you find it from unity dash (press the Super key and type `terminal`) ?
Comment: How did you solve it? Please add that info as an answer and select that as the accepted answer..this would help all future readers..
Comment: What was the outcome here? is gnome-terminal installed or not?
Answer: You can use ALT + F2 and enter gnome-terminal.
Comment: @user258542 What does the login prompt look like? I recommend editing your question to provide a detailed description of this, and *also* (if possible) a screenshot. It's very strange to have to log in to run the `gnome-terminal` executable. Or do you mean that you are you pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2 (which will switch you from tty7, where the GUI is running, to tty2, a virtual console with a non-graphical login prompt)?
Comment: it makes me login and my log in doesnt work for some reason
Answer: I had the same problem.
It seems the gnome-terminal-server program is the problem.  If I run it:
    $ /usr/lib/gnome-terminal/gnome-terminal-server
    Non UTF-8 locale (ANSI_X3.4-1968) is not supported!
    $

So a simple fix is to start gnome-terminal as follows:
    $ LANG=en_US.utf8 /usr/bin/gnome-terminal

You can add the LANG=en_US.utf8 to your ~/.bashrc by adding the following line to it:
    export LANG=en_US.utf8

and logging out and logging back in. (or rebooting)  (Note, that if you are not in the USA, substitute your own locale, as long as it ends in utf8)
Now, as to why either gnome-terminal-server requires this or why the proper LANG isn't set, I don't know.  Strangely, my Ubuntu box at home has no problem running gnome-terminal, but my work box does.  I have compared the two systems and cannot immediately find the difference.  (I don't set the LANG variable on the machine that works!)
Oh, and on the system where gnome-terminal doesn't work, I simply started xterm instead...  Not perfect, but good enough to get a terminal running to examine things.
Answer: I had the same problem as the initial question. Since my initial upgrade failed, I installed 15.04 by first removing the old installation in the initial install process. After installation terminal would not launch. Still it was running several times according to System monitor.
In another discussion someone suggested that if you check System Settings > Language Support the system suggest that internationalisation or language support installation was not finalised. After finalisation (I'm using three languages) the terminal started working.
Answer: To fix this problem, you have to

Find out your user name. It is NOT your display name. Most likely it won't contain capital letters, nor spaces. If you remember it from somewhere, it is good, jump to 5. If not, do as follows:
Press Alt+F2, then enter "gedit" in the window. It will something like "Text Editor" or so, open it.
Click Open, then Other Documents, then browse to Computer, and select the file /etc/passwd.
Search for the line that has the number 1000 after x, that is, [YOUR_USER_NAME]:x:1000:33:Default User,,,:/home/[YOUR_USER_NAME]:/bin/bash or something similar. Look for the 1000, and that line will start with your user name.
Switch to "regular tty" (character console) using Ctrl+Alt+F1. Please remember in time that you can switch back with Ctrl+Alt+F7 anytime.
At the login prompt, enter your user name (found above or known), then your password. You will get logged in to a "full screen terminal".
Enter sudo -s at the prompt. (You can also use "sudo su", if you read that on the Internet, but it is better knowing what you actually do; -s is the "shell" switch, it is DESIGNED for this function.)
Then enter your password - again.
At the root prompt # enter dpkg-reconfigure locales. You will have a scary blue window with a grey area, and a lot of locales available under Locales to be generated:. Use the cursor keys to pick en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and en_US UTF-8, plus anything else you might need (but be sure that locales having your language AND ending in UTF-8, if it is not US English, also be selected). You should use space bar to toggle a locale.
When all picked, press TAB to select "Ok", and press ENTER.
Now you have the window for selecting the default locale for the system. Pick one from the list, but do not leave it on None, then press ENTER again.
Now the system will generate your selected locales and configure the system accordingly.
When all this is done, you should reboot your computer to make sure that the environment will be updated. For this, switch back to the graphical terminal with Ctrl+Alt+F7 then reboot as usual, or just enter reboot at the root prompt.
In fact, in the last step, restarting the display manager with service lightdm restart should suffice, but if not, you will need to reboot anyway.

Now your terminal should operate as expected.


How do spammers crawl the web for mail addresses?

Question: I have recently started getting the occasional spam mail after not having this problem for several years. As far as I know spammers typically obtain mail addresses via data breaches or by crawling the web for mail addresses carelessly made public via forum posts etc. I don't think the former applies to me so I was wondering how to "reproduce" the latter, i.e. what methods, tools etc. I could use to find my mail address on the web beyond simply using a search engine such as Google.
Comment: Valid mail addresses are much easier bought than scraped from the web. Think about it: How often do you publicly post your e-Mail address? Not that often. Instead, spammers just buy and sell them. And e-Mail addresses that are confirmed to both exist *and* be looked at are the most valuable, which is why opening an e-Mail with a tracking pixel or even clicking "Unsubscribe" is not a good idea.
Comment: All it takes for your email address to be added to spammers' lists, is that one of your contacts, anyone, receives emails on an infected machine. "Data breaches" don't necessarily involve your accounts, but might involve other people that for some reason have your email address (like your contacts, or even anyone you've ever sent an email to)
Comment: @reed Interesting, I hadn't though about that. That does indeed sound likely.
Answer: There can be multiple sources:

big random e-mail databases generally available on black market
specific e-mail databases leaked/stolen from specific sites; those are also sold on the market
automated tools that phish addresses from web-sites; many site still have addresses in plain text which is a bad practice since it's a trivial matter to extract them
addresses shared between large companies for (theoretically) marketing or other similar purposes; that's why GDPR appeared

The last one in the list usually guarantees that you end up as spam target. It is sufficient to register on a few big shopping sites with low security and that's it; you'll start getting spam.


What's the "Convert Float" checkbox in the VSE for?

Question: When using an Adjustment Layer Effect Strip, there's this curious function button in the VSE... what is its meaning?

I found no description on the wiki....
Comment: do u mean this?

sequence_editor.sequences_all["Adjustment"].use_float
Answer: That option enables you to process image adjustments using 32bit float precision.
Why would you want that?
Most consumer video formats create 8 bit images. In 8 bit images each channel (Red,Green or Blue) is limited to 256 values.
In 8 bit the number of possible colors is 16 million. While it might sound like a lot of, you'll find that it is not enough, specially when dealing color transformations and compositing, you'll see artifacts like banding, along with some other inconsistencies.  By converting the image to 32bit float the number of available combinations is over 4 billion...
In other words: Color operations in 8 bit (or even 10 bit for some video formats) will result in posterization and rounding errors, due to the very limited amount of possible values. By carrying out the adjustments in 32bit float you are increasing the precision of color operations.
Enabling float data does have the penalty of using more computing power and memory, so depending on your computer be aware of a possible slowdown on performance.
Answer: It's briefly mentioned in the source code that some operations (like color correction) are more efficient when the input data is converted to float data.

<code>  - Color balance (is most efficient in the byte -> float
    (future: half -> float should also work fine!)
    case, if done on load, since we can use lookup tables)
</code>
Source: sequencer.c, lines 2377 to 2379


"Four and one half feet to an inch" or "Four and half feet to an inch"

Question: To mention the scale of a map, which is more natural and formal, "Four and one half feet to an inch" or "Four and half feet to an inch" ?
Comment: Four and **a** half feet to an inch
Answer: In writing, I would use "four and one half feet.
In speech, I would say "four and one half feet if I want to emphasize the number - e.g. I am telling someone the conversion for the first time.
If I am referring to the conversion or speaking quickly, I might say "four and a half feet.

[spoken] He gave me a map of the city that was four and one half feet to the inch.....  Can you believe that?  How am I supposed to carry a map with a scale of four and a half feet to the inch!  The map was huge!  ....Four and one half feet to the inch.

Caveat: I am an engineer in the U.S.  My demographic has a reputation for being very precise with numbers, so it may be the case that others use "four and one half a little less frequently than me.   The point is that either is acceptable, and the choice between them is a matter of style.
EDIT:  In response to comments.

Fractions in ratios are a little awkward, but not totally unheard of.  For instance, in describing road grades or streambed slopes, they pop up. The OP asked about scale ratios in maps, and I agree that that is a peculiar scale to use, but mostly because it makes for huge maps.  Maybe in an architectural drawing?
User3169 suggests I point out that I switched the OP's feet to an inch to feet to the inch.  Using to the is much more common, at least in the U.S.
Comment: @T.J.L. I agree - I was trying to formulate a comment about why you should use 1::54 notation instead, but I started to get all Engineery and it got too far afield from English, so I didn't hit the submit button.
Comment: It's probably also worth mentioning that this is not likely to come up... using fractions in a scale ratio is just a mess.
Comment: You might emphasize "to *the* inch" (as you wrote) which is a better option than "to *an* inch" that was used in the question.
Answer: "Four and one half" is grammatical, but it is much less common than "four and a half". ("Four and half" is not grammatical).
My intuition also says that "Four and one half" is American, and I would not expect to find it in British English.
Looking at GloWbE (the corpus of global web-based English) bears out my expectations. "and one half" occurs 376 times in the corpus, with over 100 being in US sources, 59 British, and 50 Canadian.
"And a half" occurs 39482 times (more than 100 times as often), and GB sources slightly outnumber US sources (8563, 8120 respectively).


What can I do to differentiate the switched receptacle from the unswitched receptacle on a duplex receptacle?

Question: I have some duplex outlets where one of the two receptacles is on a switch. I wanted to install the one on the switch upside down (ground up) so that it's easy to tell which one is on the switch.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure a device like this exists. How can I make the switched receptacle different?
Comment: Permanent marker (brand agnostic) and done. Also, ground pin up IS right side up.
Comment: Never seen such an outlet. Also, how is that easier, you will have to remember which one is which?
Comment: Just to be clear, do you plan on using a dimmer?
Comment: I don't plan on using a dimmer on the switched outlets
Answer: Lutron makes this outlet

That works with this plug

So you can tell which one is which, plus no accidentall plug-ins.
Comment: To be clear, this outlet is not made just for switched outlets.  It's made when you want to control half of an outlet with a dimmer.  Some electronics and devices can be harmed by the undercurrent of a dimmer, so a "safety" measure is needed to stop you from plugging anything in other than a lamp.  With a normal switched outlet, you can safely plug anything thing in, so this is a _very_ expensive and unnecessary option.
Comment: I think its a fine answer and fits the question for future users.  I was only adding that its really designed with dimmers in mind.
Comment: To be precise, this outlet and plug combo DOES NOT REQUIRE a dimmer. Also, if a dimmer is used later, then this is NEC code complaint. Yes it is expensive, and other options do exist.
Comment: Never said it required a dimmer.  It is designed to be used with a dimmer, and that's really the only reason it was made.  Of course you can spend $80 to use this with a regular switch, but no one will.
Comment: I will happily remove my answer if I can get the OP to confirm they are not using or plan to use a dimmer.
Answer: I suspect that you are way way over thinking this issue. Lets just say that you were able to purchase a duplex outlet that looked like this:

...And then you decide to wire it up such that the outlets with the safety GND hole UP would be the switched outlet. That would require you to remember that this orientation was switched. It would turn out that this would always be on the bottom side of the duplex. So why not just use normal outlets and simply remember that the switched one is on the bottom.
If you really do need a visual indicator then get some acrylic paint or nail polish of a likable color and paint the surface of the switched outlet.
Comment: The majority of the outlets in house are not switched. That means almost all receptacles will be ground side down. That will make it very easy to remember which are the ones that are different


How to secure a jack wall to an existing wall?

Question: I built the walls of my 12' x 12' shed before deciding what type of roof I wanted. Now I'm left with the problem of how to secure the roof to the lower walls. If I build a jack wall as shown below (image probably from this video), how would I secure the bottom plate of the jack wall to the top plate of the lower wall? I don't want the joint between the walls to be the weak link against wind.
Comment: It would seem that the rafters would stabilize the jack wall and so extreme measures need not be taken to secure the jack wall. The jack studs could possibly just be toe nailed into the top plate or you could use Simpson right angle stud to plate fasteners.
Comment: @JimStewart Edited to clarify, hopefully.
Comment: If you're interested, you might check out the concept of a structural diaphragm. If you're worried about the joint between walls acting as a hinge that the wind folds, the ceiling's panel material stabilizes that joint, transferring it's load to the walls running perpendicular to your jack wall. If there's no ceiling paneling, then most obviously you could install ceiling joists across to the other side so that the wall-folding load can enter the roof diaphragm at the opposite side.
Answer: You have to notch your roof rafters (birdsmouth) at the bottom and at the top so that the rafters can sit on the plates. You'll then nail from each side to secure it to wall plates. Familyhandyman has a diagram on what this is.
For the jack studs, you'll need a top and bottom plate for it so you can nail/screw the bottom plate to the top plate of the existing wall.
Once the siding, roof and rafters are put on it'll be secure. I live in a hurricane prone area and I built my shed similarly and it has so far withstood a few hurricanes.
Answer: I decided on a butterfly roof. I erected the jack walls by first securing them with with eight 3/8" galvanized bolts, two on each side about a foot from the corners. When all four sides were in place, I drove some 16d framing nails through both plates.
Comment: You totally abandoned your concept and implemented something else? That's not an answer to the posed question. Micah's is a legit answer, although your omission of ceiling details means that Micah's answer should have a caveat or two.
Comment: @popham What? No. The question explicitly states that I hadn't decided what kind of roof to put on. That's the whole reason the jack walls were separate, the whole reason for the question, and it doesn't change the answer.
Comment: "How to secure a jack wall to an existing wall?" plus a picture of a jack wall sitting on top of an existing wall. "Before deciding what type of roof I wanted" implies that you have decided upon what type of roof that you want.
Comment: @popham Your interpretation is totally bizarre.


55 year old and new to rowing machine cardio workout

Question: I'm 55 yrs old and just bought a rowing machine. I row for 2 1/2 minutes very hard (very winded!) 3 to 5 times a day. Is this enough or should I be doing more?
Comment: I can help with this, but, I would need to know your goals, experience, and the type of rowing machine you use.
Comment: My goal is to just stay in shape. I started a new job that I just sit ALL day. I'm not a "gym" person so I bought a Concept 2 rower. I've had it for about 5 weeks now and have been rowing 600 meters at 22spm/2:00 split four to five times a day. Is this enough or should I do more? I would like to be able to work my way up to 2k meters under 8 minutes but don't know if it's possible, like I said I'm very winded just after the 600 meters. Also I'm thinking about getting an Air Assault bike just to mix it up a bit.
Comment: Thanks for the info. I'll have an answer this afternoon.
Answer: First, congrats on your purchase of a Concept2 Indoor Rower.  I, too, own that same rower.  In my opinion, you've purchased the gold standard for rowers.  With any training program, it's important to use the best equipment if you're serious about achieving your goals.
Now, as for your goals.  Your current approach is not optimal for your stated goals.  Rather than performing a series of brief, intense rows, you should consider switching to Steady State rows.  "Steady State" can mean different things to different people, but, in this context, it implies longer rows at a consistent stroke rating (eg. 18-20 spm).  You won't need to totally abandon interval training, but, the majority of your rows should be steady state.

"From my experience, the biggest mistake people make with the erg is
  that they only, or mostly, use it for testing and hard interval
  training. The erg becomes a painful experience and we learn to dislike
  it, often to the point of being afraid of it.
Instead, try to spend time on the erg doing steady state. I find the
  more I erg, the more I get into a rhythm and the easier, both mentally
  and physically, it becomes. Listen to music, books on tape, watch TV,
  but simply, spend time on the erg."

US Rowing: Make The Most of Your Time on the Erg.
While your goal to row 2k under 8 minutes is somewhat ambitious for a rowing "newbie", using steady state training will assist you in preparing for that goal.  Steady state training will help build a base of fitness by training your heart to be more efficient over longer distances.  In addition, there's the added benefit of weight control since you should be training within your aerobic zone.
Rowing a measured 'piece' (eg. 2k) requires correct form.  Contrary to popular opinion, rowing is not a pulling sport.  Rather, it's a pushing sport since the first movement of the rowing stroke is to engage the legs to push against the foot plates. If you haven't already done so, I would strongly recommend you take a look at the C2 technique videos to make sure you start with correct form.  Using correct form will assist you in achieving any rowing goal.  In addition, take a moment to read up on Damper Setting 101 and Debunking  the Myths: Damper Setting, Stroke Rate, and Intensity.  Those articles will help you avoid many common mistakes made by first time users of the C2 rower.
Lastly, as you progress towards your goal(s), there are lots of resources available to you.  Depending on the C2 model you own, you can track your progress using the on-board performance monitor and log the results in the C2 Logbook.  The logbook provides a history of your training sessions.  Also, there's daily workouts available so you can maximize your time on the rower.
Good luck and have fun!
Answer: Just based on age, exercise response and the fact this piece of equipment is new to you - just keep working up your intensity.  There isn't a "set time" per se.  For now just stick to what you can do.
As @rriower said as you progress you should look to start a regimented plan (based on your goals etc).


SQL Server update from SP1 to SP3

Question: Can I move directly from SQL Server SP1 to SP3 or do i need to install SP2 then go to SP3. I was assigned to upgrade my servers 2014 just to make sure I don't fall into problems
Answer: Yes, you can upgrade directly to Service Pack 3. Service packs are cumulative; SP3 contains everything in SP2 and SP1.
This has always been true for every version of SQL Server I've worked with, and I'm old. But for those needing to read this from MS  documentation on their web site instead of peers answering questions here, here is one official source:

Service packs are cumulative. Each new service pack contains all the fixes that are in previous service packs, together with any new fixes. You do not have to install a previous service pack before you install the latest service pack.

You will need to upgrade to SP3 before applying any SP3 Cumulative Updates. The name is a little confusing but a cumulative update is only cumulative from the relevant service pack. SP2 CU1 can only be applied to SP2; it won't install on RTM, SP1, SP3, etc.
This acronym definition page may have useful info too.
Comment: Quote is provided now ;)
Comment: In that case can i jump direct to the latest CU
Comment: Yeah, 2 installs. Latest SP, then latest CU for that SP.

SQL Server update from SP1 to SP3


Download all SharePoint Lists on a Site as offline CSV files

Question: Is there a way to download all SharePoint lists found on a SharePoint site as offline local CSVs, one CSV per list?
Answer: I solved this by using Power Automate, creating a flow to copy all Lists as CSVs inside a Document Library. It becomes easy afterwards to download all of these CSV files at once using SharePoint web portal.
The flow is designed thus:
Comment: I'd like to see the details about how you setup each step, like "Get items". I can't see how to get it to automatically pull the site address and list names into the Get Items step.
Comment: This will work on a specific SharePoint site and not on many sites.  In Site Address, be sure to select the same site as in previous steps, otherwise the flow will fail to execute or wrong lists will be exported. Under List Name, click the `V` symbol and choose Enter custom value to select dynamic content here.
Now choose DisplayName under Get lists banner. This will give us the names of the lists inside the site, on which we will execute.

As to the next action, namely Create CSV table: populate its From field with the dynamic content: `value` list of items element under Get items banner.


Title for a paper that theoretically compares several algorithms and implements one

Question: First, I am not asking for name suggestions. I am just not sure how to express very well the content of my paper. The paper theoretically compares four algorithms, and nominates and implements one of them. I found many papers in the literature which started with the name Comparative analysis. Does this term apply to my paper? (In all the literature I've found they implement all algorithms, not just one.) If this term does not apply, is there a proper term that can pinpoint the content? More specifically, my paper compares four pattern recognition algorithms and implements one of them that theoretically seems to be the best. Does (Selection and Implementation of an Algorithm for optimizing ... system) properly express the content of my paper ?
Comment: I understand the analysis of the algorithms is to check which one is (most) suitable for using the GPU, this is an analysis of the state of the art. Then the implementation is an engineering requisite for the real scientific contribution, the evaluation of this algorithm when used with a GPU. Then you conclude how good is using a GPU with this algorithm. AFAIK, using a GPU is the real contribution, so it should be something like: "Testing [Benchmarking?] Pattern Recognition using the GPU power." or "Using GPUs for efficient Pattern Recognition", "Adapting $Algorithm for GPU enabled PR", ...
Comment: What's the contribution of the paper? What kind of evaluation do you perform and what kind of conclusions do you extract from it? If the analysis is the important, then it's a comparative analysis, but since it's only theoretical I doubt it has enough relevance as such. If the important part is the implementation then it's a system for pattern recognition, but since it was already designed, the relevance is again doubtful. Please note I don't really know the answer to the questions posed in the first place, which is the key.
Comment: @Trylks Thanks for the enlightenment. First, the paper analyze the algorithms from a certain point of view. Based on that analysis the paper chooses one of them and implement it. I know implementing all algorithms will be much better and give a more solid results. But I'd rather leave that for other research. So I implement the winner and prove it perform with heterogeneous system (cpu+gpu) better than it's performance with (cpu only). Of course not all algorithms achieve that
Answer: Difficult to choose a title without more information, but why not choose:
Performing ..., theoretical comparison of four algorithms, and implementation of ...
Comment: If the focus of your paper is the comparison between algorithms, then I think it should appear in the title, but you may drop the implementation part. If it is the implementation, then you could use a shorter title by dropping the comparison part. I don't know of a shorter way to express both ideas together.
Comment: Don't you think it's gonna be long title? isn't there any shorter expression?
Answer: I would go for something brave:

Algorithmic Jungle on GPU: QuickSort, HeapSort and ShakeSort Compared.

The fact that you implement one of them should be mentioned in the abstract, however, it seems to be too long for the title, and people don't like too long titles.
On the other hand, if the implementation is more important for you, then maybe:

QuickSort Implemented on GPU for Sorting Ducks.
Comment: I would go even shorter: **Sorting Ducks**.


Moving MP4 files from PC to iTunes

Question: I am trying to watch an MP4 file (saved on my PC) on my iPad 4. I've done numerous things to add the video to the iTunes library, but it doesn't seem to 'accept' the file, and hence I cannot sync it to my iPad - help please!!!
Comment: Can you expand?  More details like the codec, resolution, bitrate of the file, the methods you are using to stick it in iTunes, and the errors received?
Answer: You need to make sure the mp4 file is within the specs needed by your iPad.  Chances are it's either the wrong resolution, bitrate, or codec.
If you're on a mac, Handbrake is awesome for converting files for iPhone or iPad, and has presets built in.

Moving MP4 files from PC to iTunes


Showing image caption only if caption exists - Wordpress

Question: I found a really helpful discussion here that outlines how to display the image caption, alt, title, etc. I've tested this function, and it works well, but for the images that don't have captions, the div for the caption still displays. How would I go about making this function display nothing, if there's no caption available?
function the_post_thumbnail_caption() {
  global $post;

  $thumb_id = get_post_thumbnail_id($post->id);

  $args = array(
'post_type' => 'attachment',
'post_status' => null,
'post_parent' => $post->ID,
'include'  => $thumb_id
);

   $thumbnail_image = get_posts($args);

   if ($thumbnail_image && isset($thumbnail_image[0])) {
     //show thumbnail title
     echo $thumbnail_image[0]->post_title;

     //Uncomment to show the thumbnail caption
     //echo $thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt;

     //Uncomment to show the thumbnail description
     //echo $thumbnail_image[0]->post_content;

     //Uncomment to show the thumbnail alt field
     //$alt = get_post_meta($thumbnail_id, '_wp_attachment_image_alt', true);
     //if(count($alt)) echo $alt;
  }
}

Answer: if ($thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt != '')
{
    echo $thumbnail_image[0]->post_excerpt;
}