How can I remove my users from local admin rights with a GPO?

Question: I have active directory 2003 and windows xp running on clients so I don't want any of my users to have any admin rights on their PCs and I have already gave them local admin rights So Without to go to each PC and remove it by hand .
How can I remove my users from local admin rights with a GPO?
Any advice would be appreciated
Thanks
Answer: Restricted Groups
Computer configuration > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Restricted Groups.
If you set that up with Using the "Members" Restricted Group Portion of Policy, it will remove anything else that is listed locally. It will only apply the group that is in your policy. You can read more about it here
Comment: Be careful with this. If you don't add Domain Admins to the restricted group, you'll find yourself unable to administer the machines.
Comment: Sorry I'm haven't understood you
When I have added the users in local admin right I did by client side I wen to each one and used administrator account I added the user so already I dont have this policy. May I have create new one or what I have to do to remove administrator users locally?
Comment: restricted groups will ensure that only the users in the restricted groups policy are in the local group.  it doesn't matter if you changed the group membership onthe client.


Concrete Pier/Footing design question

Question: I'm designing a post and beam shed with a pier/footing foundation. I have access to an endless supply of free 2x4 and 2x6 dunnage, so I'm designing the forms with that rather than plywood. Does anybody see anything wrong with this design as far as strength and blowout? The pier is 13"x13"x2' and the footing is 22.5"x22.5"x5.5". I'd appreciate any insights or suggestions. Thanks!

Tweaked form design based on Isherwood's feedback.
Comment: Depends on the load applied, and on the bearing capacity of the soil, and the frost-line depth. You haven't mentioned any of those. I also don't see any indication that you'll be reenforcing your piers, which is usually a pennywise-pound-foolish choice.
Comment: Appreciate the responses.  Engineering has been done. The strength and proper depth of the piers are not the concern, only the pier and footing forms.  Take care.
Comment: Also, I'll consider throwing a couple lengths of rebar in each one for good measure.  I agree Ecnerwal, it's a cheap insurance policy. I tend to be a belt and suspeners kinda guy as well.
Comment: That's an odd design. All of that bracing all over the place, but then zero sway bracing along the front line. Are there steel tension X braces immediately under the rafters or something to transfer some of the back line's bracing strength to the front line? Or maybe those shallow arches have rigid connections to the columns?
Comment: Are these gonna be monolithic pour, or are you gonna pour the spread footing first?
Comment: It's gonna be a monolithic pour.
Comment: popham: The shallow arches are gonna have hardware for bracing and strength. It's more a post/beam than a traditional timber-frame so there will be plenty of steel brackets and hardware securing the connections. I'm also planning to add cordwood masonry as the walls which will create rigidity as well.
Comment: Ah, so above those arches is filled with masonry? That might be the easiest moment frame to design that I've ever seen.
Comment: Indeed.  A mixture of small cedar logs (3-4" diameter) and masonry.  All the walls and above the arches will be done that way. I'm excited to mix the two building methods together; post/bean and cordwood masonry.
Answer: I don't see any real problems. Deck piers in my region are almost never internally reinforced, so that doesn't concern me. Nor do your dimensions, which seem reasonable. Do make sure they're below local frost depth.
Some general suggestions:

Consider lifting the pier form 2-3 inches above the footing form top and letting the concrete slough out to the footing form, creating a sort of pyramid. With your design you have an inverted cantilever, so the inside corner at the base of the pier is a weak point. If you thicken that a bit the footing becomes a belled, integral part of the pier instead of a separate structure.

Wrap your pier form strapping fully around the form, with laps opposing those of the form itself. Screws are probably going to hold in tension just fine for that short pier, but ideally you have some screws in shear at all corners as well. You could use fewer at the interior, then.
Comment: Thanks for the insights isherwood. I've edited my post to show an updated model with the pier riased 2" from the footing and the form straps overlapping the form sides. As an aside, I read Earth Abides for the first time a couple months ago, great book. Take care.
Answer: The footing is below grade, so shaping the top of the spread footing to shed water is foolish. Box the concrete in from above down there to avoid problems. Uplift from pressure on that cap then becomes an additional problem.
ACI 347 prescribes formwork design for concrete placement. For your short little columns, you just use hydrostatic pressure for design. 2'-5" tall implies (150psf)(2.5ft) = 375 psf pressure. Over a 22.5" width (call it 2'-0), that's a force at both ends of your bottom boards of 0.5(2ft)(5")(1ft/12")(375psf) = 160#. The NDS specifies that screws and nails into end grain have zero withdrawal strength, so that connection down there is a definite problem, especially if you'll be doing internal vibration (with a concrete vibrator submerged in the concrete).
A cap on the free surface down there should cross the joint and provide sufficient reinforcement for its top edge. For the bottom edge, I would put dirt back around the form and hand tamp it to get a layer of soil all the way to the top of that 5" edge.
Another option is to construct each footing with a cold joint at the interface between footing and pier. I assume that there's rebar already  spec'ed at the interface.
Moving up to the pier's base, the 13" width combines with a 300 psf pressure to provide 0.5(13")(1ft/12")(6")(1ft/12")(300psf) = 81# at the end of each side. The center fasteners get the same load, 0.5(13")(1ft/12")(12")(1ft/12")(150psf) = 81#. 3" long #8 screws have a withdrawal strength of about 125# and a lateral strength of about 80#. For combined loading from the pressure on both sides, that's a strength of (125#)(80#)/[(1/2)(125#) + (1/2)(80#)] = 100#. The demand is [(81#)2 + (81#)2]1/2 = 115#. The #8 screws, then, are a little out of their league with only 3 fasteners. That's with Spruce-Pine-Fir lumber, though. For Douglas Fir or Southern Pine, just 3 of those fasteners is sufficient.
Isherwood's strapping is a wise detail to avoid withdrawal load on the fasteners, so duplex nails become feasible without a mess of them. Technically, duplex nails have a withdrawal strength when installed into an edge like you have detailed, but it's only something like 40# each.
And theoretically, the capped spread footing generates 700# of uplift, [(22.5")2 - (13")2](1sf/144si)(300psf), so your footings would typically be staked down (or constructed with that cold joint). To save a buck on concrete delivery, I might place just the bottom 6" or 7" at each location, vibrate, and then cycle back to the start and place the remainder, taking it easy with the vibration down low to avoid activating much of that 700#. I'd still use at least 2 stakes per form, though.
Comment: Thanks for the thorough reply popham, I'll tweak my designs accordingly. All wood is Doug-Fir. I plan to backfill around the footing form before the pour, but I like the idea of capping it. Also like idea of splitting each into two separate pours to decrease possible uplift issues when vibrating. Thanks again.
Comment: @Derek, Doug Fir? Nice. I too am blessed with Doug Fir. I just put things in terms of SPF around here to avoid asking a question.
Answer: Orienting the 2x4 so that their strong axis is engaged would likely improve the stiffness of the formwork.
As drawn in the question, I would be concerned about bulging out of the formwork due to the orientation of the 2x4's.
Comment: Using quick, very conservative assumptions (even for SPF, although I guess this is Doug Fir), I get a 0.01" max deflection and 80% demand/capacity ratio for strength. The fabricated form systems that look like your detail tend to be designed to scale way up to much taller than 2 ft.
Comment: Thanks for the reply CrazyArm. I agree your suggestion is definitely the preferred form design for a large form and I have indeed seen this method numerous times while researching. Considering my piers are so small/short, I'm hoping to get away with just the overlapped strapping.

Concrete Pier/Footing design question


Mouse and keyboard issues when dualbooting Ubuntu and Windows 10

Question: I'm dualbooting Ubuntu 16.04.1 and Windows 10, but when I boot the Ubuntu OS every once in a while, like every 30-60 seconds the mouse freezes and stops moving. The keyboard also doesn't seem to register every key I press, and sometimes it holds down a key while I'm not even touching the keyboard. This is not happening on the Windows 10 OS, everything is working fine there.
My keyboard is a very old Dell SK-8115 and my mouse is a Rapoo N6200 but that shouldn't have anything to do with it since they work fine on Windows 10.
Comment: Just wonder if you found the solution :) I am experiencing some similar behaviour...
Answer: A potential cause for the freezing of the keyboard and mouse on Ubuntu 16.0.1 is that the Ubuntu system is under excessive load, for instance runs very low on RAM when the input freezes. You can diagnose that by typing
<code>top
</code>
in a terminal window (Ctrl - ALT T). While freezing may be an issue with your mouse or keyboard driver in my experience occasional or hickup freezing of the mouse or the keyboard is often a symptom of other issues with your system. For instance a process that eats all memory or overheating.
I experienced the same symptoms that were caused by excessive load and I resolved the cause of the load. In my own case I discovered my previous swap RAM was missing after an Ubuntu 16.04.1 update. Adding swap did not revolve the issue as the memory still quickly ran full via a fcitx startup process. I also had to deinstall fcitx and em-config and installed a proprietary driver for my Intel board (Processor microcode firmware for intel cpu) offered via the Ubuntu Software Center (Menu: Edit - Package sources - Tab Additional drivers). Your case and solution may be entirely different but first you should monitor CPU and memory.
The reason why I recommended you "top" instead of the standard system monitor utility was that in situations where your system input freezes/hickups it gets more difficult to launch the system monitor gui utility. If you are able to launch it, you may as also take the "system monitor" tool for diagnosis.
Comment: Allright, so this is what I see when I do `top`

https://gist.github.com/anonymous/eda33a7fe8de5b43e76cfff8728a5b51
Comment: Everything looks fine here, great. You have enough ram and swap, and at the point no excessive processes running. Good to have that cause of error ruled out.


Microsoft Teams alternative with ability to deploy your own independent server

Question: Are there any free/open source alternatives to Microsoft Teams with text/voice channels, group video calls + screen sharing, file sharing features etc.? But it should be able to be deployed on an independent server on your own machine or cloud.
Answer: You could go with Nextcloud, which you can deploy onto your own servers.

file sharing: provided out-of-the-box. You can share to other members of your own instance, to Email-addresses or even anonymously, including password protection if needed.
ext/voice channels, group video calls + screen sharing  are provided by the **Nextcloud Talk app.

Nextcloud is open source and comes fee of charge. Like Nextcloud Talk, there are many more apps to extend the functionality. On a side note: the German government decided for Nextcloud for their Bundescloud, which strongly speaks for its maturity.

Nextcloud (source: Wikipedia) and Nextcloud Talk (source: Nextcloud); click images for larger variants
What you didn't ask for: there are also several apps for mobile devices, to keep data synchronized with your Nextcloud or have a "native app" for e.g. Talk – though you could use all of it simply via your web browser.


Is the UNIVERSE trying to discover itself?

Question: We are all made of atoms. We are trying to discover the universe(which is made up of atoms) . So can I say the universe is trying to Discover itself?
Comment: Can you share a little more about what you might have been reading or studying that's made this concern an interesting or important one to you? What exactly are you looking for someone here to explain to you? (This doesn't feel like a particularly specific concern arising from the study of philosophy as currently framed.)
Comment: Mr. Joseph,
I came across a sentence- "Biology is nothing but physics and chemistry applied."
If it is so, then the same atoms make both the universe and us(living things). We know that we are a part of the universe. Till now it has not been able to describe what 'living' means.
So, i wanted to know if my thoughts are correct and also how many people share this thought.
Answer: Humanity is not identical to the universe (universe is way bigger), although we are a part of it. So you can say: A little part of the universe is trying to discover the universe.
Answer: A property of a part is not necessarily a property of the whole. For example, a page in a book has a page number, but the book itself does not have a page number.
In your example, the fact that we (the part) have a property (the intention of discovery) does not imply that the whole (the universe) has that property too.
I should add to this the fact that intentions need agency. And I would dispute strongly that the universe, as such, has it.
Answer: @CesarGon, I think OP clearly didn't described our atoms and the universe atoms as seperated, you did a seperation which is not clearly logical and proven here, ( - what made you seperate people from the universe atoms? - who said it's not one? - what are you RELYING on?)
in the case that our atoms and the universe atoms are one, (I'm not saying it is but I'm also not saying it's not), and by your logical statements, clearly OP is right.


Problem instaling outlook add-in in Office 2013

Question: I am developing an add-in for outlook that references other libraries. It is supposed to work in Office 2013 and 2016 but in 2013 it does not work.
Showing the errors the only thing I found is this:
<code>LOG: This bind starts in default load context.
LOG: Using application configuration file: C:\Users\Popp\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\JW01D5OR.8RE\ROEMLG7C.9LB\outl..vsto_d09fd7cbd513af1b_0001.0000_635810ba53eccad0\OutlookAddIn.dll.config
LOG: Using host configuration file:
LOG: Using machine configuration file from C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\config\machine.config.
LOG: Policy not being applied to reference at this time (private, custom, partial, or location-based assembly bind).
LOG: Attempting download of new URL file:///C:/Users/Popp/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0/JW01D5OR.8RE/ROEMLG7C.9LB/outl..vsto_d09fd7cbd513af1b_0001.0000_635810ba53eccad0/MyLibrary.DLL.
ERR: Failed to complete setup of assembly (hr = 0x8007000b). Probing terminated.
</code>
The .Net version is installed fine.
Answer: There are a lot of reasons why your add-in may not work in Outlook. I'd suggest starting from checking dependencies whether any platform specific components are used, for example, x86 assembly can't be run in Outlook 2013 x64 (and the opposite). So, first of all, you just need to make sure everything is deployed correctly. Then you may check the windows registry keys for the add-in - whether Outlook can detect the add-in and load it. If your add-in is supposed to be loaded at application startup, look at the LoadBehavior for your Add-In in the windows registry and make sure it is set to 3. This is necessary because, whenever an Add-In load fails, Office disconnects the Add-In (Loadbehavior changes to 2).
Hard disabling can occur when a Add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your add-in is executing.
Soft disabling can occur when a Add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable an Add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing.
When you re-enable a soft-disabled Add-in, the application immediately attempts to load the Add-in. If the problem that initially caused the application to soft disable the Add-in has not been fixed, the application will soft disable the Add-in again. Read more about that in the How to: Re-enable a VSTO Add-in that has been disabled article.
Also, you may find the Troubleshooting COM Add-In load failures article helpful.


Why changing the distance between two parallel plates capacitor will affect its charge?

Question: I have a question that is bothering me, Lets assume that I have a parallel plates capacitor with distance $d$ between them. Now connect it to  DC voltage source $V$.
according to equation $$V=\frac{Q}{C}$$ $$C\approx\frac{1}{d}$$ by getting the plates smaller I will decrese $Q$ because $V$ is constant in this case (I am not plug out the battery)
my question is where  the charge $Q$ going? the capacitor is connected only to voltage source so intuitively I do not understand why would I will lose charge?
Answer: When the separation distance $d$ increases, all other things being equal, the capacitance is less, as you already know. But the charge doesn't "go anywhere". You don't "lose charge".
With no voltage applied to the capacitor, the charge on the metal plates consists of an equal number of mobile free electrons and protons. The total charge on the capacitor is the sum of the two and is constant. But there is no net positive or negative charge on each plate until a voltage is applied.
When a voltage source (e.g., battery) is connected it does work to separate the existing charge into plus on one plate and minus on the other. It doesn't add any charge to the capacitor. A lower capacitance simply means that less charge $Q$ can be separated per volt $V$ applied across the plates. No charge is "lost". Or, to put it another way, it requires more work per unit charge (more voltage) to separate the charge the greater the distance between the plates.

I am still confused than what does is it mean when the value of  is
decrease /increase while changing the distance between plates. and
when you say the net charge is constant is it necessary zero?

It means that the amount of the charge on the capacitor that is separated into plus charge on one plate and minus charge on the other plate is less. Perhaps the following rough analogy will help.
Let's say I have 20 marbles of which 10 are black (the electrons) and 10 are red (the protons) on each side of a table (analogous to each plate of the capacitor). There is no net amount of red or black on either side of the table. There is a total of 40 marbles on the table. This is our capacitor with no voltage applied between the two plates of the  capacitor.
A force (analogous to electric field) does work per marble (analogous to voltage) comes along and pushes (or pulls) 5 black marbles from one side of the table and moves them to the other side of the table . Now there is an excess of 5 red marbles on one side of the table (the positively charged plate of the capacitor) and an excess of 5 black marbles on the other side of the table (the negatively charged plate of the capacitor). Note that there are still a total of 40 marbles on the table.
Now the distance between the two sides of the table is increased (greater $d$ in the capacitor). It now requires more work per marble (voltage) to move the marbles from once side of the table to the other. Maybe we can only do enough work  per marble (if there is no increase in voltage) to move only 3 black marbles (equivalent to a lower $Q$) from one side to the other. Now there is only an excess of 3 red marbles on one side of the table and 3 black marbles on the other side of the table. The increase in distance across the table is analogous to the increase in plate separation. It requires more work per unit charge to move charge from one plate to the other.
In all of this, regardless of how many marbles we are able to move from one side of the table to the other, the total number of marbles is the same. For the capacitor, the total amount of charge is the same.
Hope this helps.
Comment: I am still confused than what does is it mean when the value of $Q$ is decrease /increase while changing the distance between plates. and when you say the net charge is constant is it necessary zero?
Comment: @Sagigever I have updated my answer to respond to your follow up question. Hope it helps.
Comment: This is great explantion, thank you very much!
Answer: The electric field on one plate is "felt" by the other.
A simple way to think about why the distance between the plates matters, is that the closer the plates are, the more strongly will the field of one plate help pull charges towards the other plate. Thus, more charge can be accumulated on the plates when they are closer.
When the charges are not concentrated/accumulated at the plate, then they are distributed somewhere else along the wire/circuit leading up to the plate. Or possibly, the voltage source, such as the battery, has not yet released them to the battery terminal yet (the electrochemical reaction that releases the charge has not yet happened).
Answer: You connect the battery which puts a net charge $+Q$ on the top plate and $-Q$ on the bottom plate. The plates are attracted to each other and when you pull them apart you are doing work on the system.
My guess is that this work ends up forcing some of the charge on the plates to flow back to the battery.
Maybe try this calculation:
Separate the plates by some small amount $ds$. You have to do work $Fds=(VQ/s) ds$ (where $s$ is the current plate separation, and $V/s$ is the electric field between the plates; all of this is happening at constant $V$ set by the battery).
The hypothesis is that this work is used to transport charge off the top plate, through the battery "the wrong way" and onto the bottom plate. We can write this as,
$$
\frac{VQ}{s}ds = - VdQ,
$$
where the minus sign is because losing charge from the top plate ($dQ<0$) corresponds to doing work on the system (i.e. forcing the charge "uphill" through the battery).
Therefore, $dQ/Q = -ds/s$.
This is consistent with the two equations you started with: $Q=CV$ and $C \propto 1/s$. So maybe this scenario is plausible.
Comment: According to what you wrote, I understand that I lose the net charge on the capacitor even though it doesn't connect to a circuit wich is really confusing because the other 2 answers says that the net charge on capacitor is constant as long it doesn't connet to a circuit
Comment: Well the net charge on the capacitor is zero at *all* times: $+Q$ on the top plate and $-Q$ on the bottom plate, no matter what value $Q$ actually takes. And there is a complete circuit here. Positive charge on the top plate can flow to the (+) terminal of the battery and out the (-) terminnal to the bottom plate of the capacitor.


What is wrong with my cat's eye

Question: She is my recent rescue. I rescue barn kittens from farmers who don't want them around or if they have dogs who in's them better as chew toys. But she came to us with some gunky infected eyes and have been cleaning them out multiple times a day with warm water, as I normally do with all of the kittens who come through. But she has one good eye and the other may look like she is blind, but she shows no signs of blindness (running into things, trouble finding food and litter). She also has some pretty good reflexes. I'm not sure if I was doing it right, though; I never dealt with this before. Thank you in advance.
Comment: If you are in worry about the health of your pet, please see a vet! Do not wait for the guesses of strangers from the internet! For the well-being of the pets, this kind of question were classified as "out of range of pets.SE" and will be closed.
Answer: The eye of your cat is cloudy, that much is clear. But there are different types of cloudy eyes.
A cataract is "only" a cloudy lens and can be treated by an operation.
A cloudy cornea affects the (usually transparent) skin of the eyeball and covers the pupil and iris. This is what your cat has and there is no appropriate home care. You should get her treated by a vet.

The reason why her one eye became milky is probably the infection. The bacteria may have moved inside the eyeball or at least infected the cornea, the outer skin of the eyeball. If that is the case, the infection must be treated by a veterinarian or it might flare up again and again. In the worst case, the eye must be removed to stop the infection. Better start the treatment before it gets to that.
Right now, there is no doubt that her milky eye is blind and once the transparent skin becomes milky, it cannot be reverted.
However, her behavior is a clear indication that her other eye works fine and she can have a very happy and healthy life, once the infection in the milky eye is properly treated.

The cloudy eye is still red and she seems to squint it more than the clear eye, which indicates that it's still badly infected and causes her pain. The vet will probably prescribe antibiotic eye drops or oral antibiotics for her. As with any antibiotics, you must complete the entire course, even if the cat doesn't show any symptoms anymore.
Whenever you clean her eyes, first clean the clear eye, then the milky one. Do not transfer bacteria from the milky eye into the clear one.
Comment: Worth adding that cats with healthy eyes, in fact most animals, will not normally squint just one eye without an obvious reason like rubbing their head against something. This is almost always an indication that something is in need of attention by the vet, like early stages of an infection, even if you can't see anything wrong yet. One shouldn't wait and see how it develops either, for one it is always best to get on top of things early to avoid lengthy treatments, and also since there might be rare cases where there are only a couple of hours to safely avoid blindness of the affected eye.

What is wrong with my cat's eye


lifetime orthodontic maximums, do they reset if I leave to another insurance plan and come back a couple years later?

Question: I had orthodontic work done on my son for a phase 1 and used some of his orthodontic lifetime benefits from insurance A. After he was done with phase 1, I changed to insurance B for a couple years. (employer remained the same). If my son is to go back for phase 2 with the same orthodontist, and I switch back to insurance A, do they keep a record of his used benefits even though it was a few years ago? Or would his lifetime orthodontic benefits reset since I am coming from insurance B?
Answer: No, the word is "lifetime" for a reason. When I was in this situation, the orthodontist had to supply a form to the new insurance noting how much the previous company had paid and then they picked up the remainder.
That said, not all insurance companies and plans have the lifetime maximum; I was delighted to learn that my company is switching next year to a plan that only has a maximum of what they pay per person.
Answer: Since you stayed with the same employer, the employer will have asked the existing provider to transfer lifetime maximums to the new provider.  This is standard practice within the insurance business.
If you change employers and the insurer is different, the data may not follow you but I wouldn't change jobs just to get more ortho insurance money.
If you leave and come back to the same employer, the chances are high that the former limits will be remembered.


Why was Ross Ulbricht guilty of anything?

Question: If I understand correctly, Ross Ulbricht created Silk Road as a general purpose online market site, similar to eBay except using Tor and Bitcoin (neither of which are illegal), and other people used it illegally. Why wasn't Ulbricht protected by Section 230?
Comment: Because there was also evidence that he actively contacted people he knew to be dealing drugs, ordered hits on people and so on
Answer: Under 47 U.S. Code § 230(e)(1),

Nothing in this section shall be construed to impair the enforcement of section 223 or 231 of this title, chapter 71 (relating to obscenity) or 110 (relating to sexual exploitation of children) of title 18, or any other Federal criminal statute.

Section 230 exists to protect site operators from civil lawsuits and overzealous state/local prosecutors (there's now also an exception for prostitution and sex trafficking, but that didn't exist back in 2013). It doesn't protect site operators from federal criminal prosecution. For that, the same rules apply to site operators as apply to everyone else. Ulbricht knew and intended Silk Road to operate as a drug trafficking site, so he was criminally liable for operating it as one.
Comment: Oh, okay. I didn't realize he intended for it to be used for drug trafficking. If it was not intended for that purpose, but people used it for it, would he have been responsible?
Comment: @Someone: There's generally a sliding scale. The first time it happens, definitely not. And there's no exact count in law when it becomes a problem. But the courts will look at context. Same thing with The Pirate Bay: their problem too was that copyright infringement was the most prevalent use of the platform, and could not be dismissed as incidental abuse.
Answer: Ulbricht was charged with seven offences: continuing a criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit computer hacking, conspiracy to traffic fraudulent identity documents and three counts of conspiracy to traffic narcotics.
At a jury trial the judge vacated two of the narcotics charges (finding them duplicative) and the jury decided, after hearing the evidence from the prosecution and defence, that Ulbricht was guilty of the other charges.
Answer: In addition to facilitating drug trade, Ulbricht also used his site to purchase assassinations of several "inconvenient" people. Apparently he got scammed and the killings were not carried out, but I recall that ordering these "hit jobs" added quite a lot to his sentence.  Read "American Kingpin" by Nick Bilton, it's fascinating.


How to change the way data is shown in WPF GridControl?

Question: I'm trying to use GridControl from DevExpress but I can't do the same thing I usually do in ListView with a GridView View.
I did both aproach. Using DisplayMemberBinding and CellTemplate. Both show nothing. Code below (I removed some columns):
<dxg:GridControl ItemsSource="{Binding}" Name="gridControl1">
    <dxg:GridControl.Columns>
        <dxg:GridColumn Header="Teste" DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding DataNascimento}"/>
        <dxg:GridColumn Header="Nome">
            <dxg:GridColumn.CellTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBlock Text="{Binding Nome}"/>
                </DataTemplate>
            </dxg:GridColumn.CellTemplate>
        </dxg:GridColumn>
    </dxg:GridControl.Columns>
    <dxg:GridControl.View>
        <dxg:TableView Name="tableView1" AutoWidth="True" />
    </dxg:GridControl.View>
</dxg:GridControl>

It is shown like this image:

You can see my columns but no data. I bound 3 items and it shows 3 rows. The data itself is bound but looks like the template was not shown.
I tried the same aproach of this question but not work for me.
My class have INotifyPropertyChanged and I used an ObservableCollection<T> before bindind to the GridControl.
The only way it works is if I remove almost all code and change the AutoPopulateColumns to True. But in some cases I want a custom format and cannot achieve with this option.
Edit1:
I did this in Design mode and works:
            <dxg:GridColumn FieldName="DataNascimento" Name="gridColumn3">
                <dxg:GridColumn.EditSettings>
                    <dxe:TextEditSettings DisplayFormat="{}{0:dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss}" />
                </dxg:GridColumn.EditSettings>
            </dxg:GridColumn>

Edit2:
Tried the same aproach @blindmeis suggests with grid and it works like I spected:
<DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="False" Grid.Row="2" ItemsSource="{Binding}">
    <DataGrid.Columns>
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding DataNascimento}" Header="Nascimento" />
        <DataGridTextColumn Binding="{Binding Nome}" Header="Header" />
        <DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Teste">
            <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
                <DataTemplate>
                    <TextBox Text="{Binding Nome}"/>
                </DataTemplate>
            </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
        </DataGridTemplateColumn>
    </DataGrid.Columns>
</DataGrid>

Looks like this aproach works in both ListView and DataGrid. Unfortunately GridControl behaves different.
Using <dxg:GridColumn.EditSettings> is the correct way?
Comment: have you tried your 1st code with the built in DataGrid form .Net4.0? i use it all the way and it works.
Comment: @blindmeis Just tried. I can use almost the same aproach. I can use `DataGridTemplateColumn` and provide what I want. But I really need many features provided by `GridControl`. Thanks. Just learned that `DataGrid` has `DataGridTemplateColumn`.
Answer: It end up in a more complicated problem.
As I had mention above in my edit TextEditSettings did what I wanted in that particularly case. But as soon as I improved the code some bugs started to appear.
The problem I faced after that is mentioned here at the official DevExpress forum and I'm summarizing below:
The real problem
I was using a base class for some reports and in those grids I was using theirs derivated classes.
The solution I had mention in my question works in a regular nom derivated class but I soon as I started to use properties from the base class and the derivated class some strange behavior started to happen.
By using the TextEditSettings with FieldName I could format the data and show its summary for properties in the derivated class but for properties in the base class it did not work.
So I changed to DisplayMemberBinding and it worked with all properties but the summary stopped work.
The solution
To make format option available for properties from your class and properties inherited and to make summary work properly you must use like this:

Side Note: Don't know if all those properties in the TableView are really necessary but since this control is very sensitive to changes  with them I keep them all just to make clear what worked for me.

<dxg:GridControl ItemsSource="{Binding MyObservableCollection}">
    <dxg:GridControl.Columns>
        <dxg:GridColumn DisplayMemberBinding="{Binding Percent}"
                        FieldName="Percent"
                        Header="%">
            <dxg:GridColumn.EditSettings>
                <dxe:TextEditSettings DisplayFormat="F2" />
            </dxg:GridColumn.EditSettings>
        </dxg:GridColumn>
    </dxg:GridControl.Columns>
    <dxg:GridControl.View>
        <dxg:TableView AllowSorting="False"
                       ShowTotalSummary="True"
                       FilterEditorShowOperandTypeIcon="True"
                       NavigationStyle="Row"
                       MultiSelectMode="None"
                       AllowColumnFiltering="False"
                       AllowDateTimeGroupIntervalMenu="False"
                       AllowEditing="False"
                       AllowFilterEditor="False"
                       AllowGrouping="False"
                       ClipboardCopyAllowed="False"
                       ShowGroupPanel="False" />
    </dxg:GridControl.View>
    <dxg:GridControl.TotalSummary>
        <dxg:GridSummaryItem FieldName="Percent"
                             DisplayFormat="F2"
                             SummaryType="Sum" />
    </dxg:GridControl.TotalSummary>
</dxg:GridControl>

In this case it will work in the Percentproperty that was inherited. The DisplayMemberBinding will make it work for the TextEditSettings and the FieldName in the GridColumn is used to make summary get that property in GridSummaryItem.
Answer: i was just needing to format a text, but apparently the DevExpress GridControl, doesn't support StringFormat.
After various intents, i was able to manage the formatting.
I populate my grid using an ObservableCollection. The columns are:
Price, datatype double, i.e.: 15
Symbol, datatype string, i.e.: US$
and the format i was expecting: US$ 15.00
This is the way i usually do with a regular DataGrid
<DataGridTextColumn  Header="Price" IsReadOnly="True">
    <DataGridTextColumn.Binding>
        <MultiBinding StringFormat="{}{0} {1:#.00}">
            <Binding Path="Symbol" />
            <Binding Path="Price" />
        </MultiBinding>
    </DataGridTextColumn.Binding>
</DataGridTextColumn>

Here is how i do it. Note that in "Binding Path" the field needs to be preceded by Data. and has to have RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}", or it won't work.
<dxg:GridColumn Header="Price" FieldName="Price">
    <dxg:GridColumn.DisplayMemberBinding>
        <MultiBinding Converter="{StaticResource stringConcatenator}">
            <Binding Source="{}{0} {1:#.00}"/>
            <Binding Path="Data.Symbol" RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}" />
            <Binding Path="Data.Price" RelativeSource="{RelativeSource Self}"/>
        </MultiBinding>
    </dxg:GridColumn.DisplayMemberBinding>
</dxg:GridColumn>

And here the converter:
public class StringConcatenator : IMultiValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        //the first parameter is the format, and the consequent parameters are the values
        return string.Format(values[0].ToString(), values.Skip(1).Take(values.Length - 1).ToArray());
    }

    public object[] ConvertBack(object value, Type[] targetTypes, object parameter, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
    {
        return new string[] { };
    }
}

Answer: If you are binding your datagrid with observable collection from your view model and if your observable collection have DataNascimento and Nome as two fields then you do not have to bind them again like you did. You can directly give fieldname and it will populate the columns with values from your observable collection.
You can do something like this:
<DataGrid AutoGenerateColumns="False" Grid.Row="2" ItemsSource="{Binding YOUR_OBSERVABLE_COLLECTION}">
<DataGrid.Columns>
    <DataGridTextColumn FieldName="DataNascimento" Header="Nascimento" />
    <DataGridTextColumn FieldName="Nome" Header="Header" />
    <DataGridTemplateColumn Header="Teste">
        <DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
            <DataTemplate>
                <TextBox Text="{Binding Nome}"/>
            </DataTemplate>
        </DataGridTemplateColumn.CellTemplate>
    </DataGridTemplateColumn>
</DataGrid.Columns>

Comment: Actually you code looks correct. And you wrote like I expected. But You missed one point: I'm using a DevExpress GridControl. You can see that my fist example is equivalent as yours. Many things in this control does not behaves like a normal WPF control. ;)


Drink offering and Food offering in Exodus 29-30

Question: Difference between a drink offering and a food offering in Exodus 29-30.
What was their purpose while instituting?
Comment: @Student...I answered, but next time(s), please be far more specific in details and, if possible, specify passages. If it's not Exodus 29-30, then please specify which passages. Broad, opened questions are usually not answered and put on hold.
Answer: In the Pentateuch, written from an ancient Near Eastern (ANE) milieu, rituals were performed by all ancient peoples for the gods. God used what the Israelites were familiar with and what they had in their possession to ritually represent God, his throne, his glory, his holiness, etc. In a similar fashion, Jesus used what was available already in the passover meal (bread + wine) to give it a new significance and it became the Lord's Supper (pointing to his death), and today some of us imitate this meal in our churches with bread + wine or grape juice.
The purpose of instituting these offerings were for ritual purposes. Rituals, libations (drink offerings) and sacrifices (various) already existed in the ANE way before Moses in Egypt and Mesopotamia. So, again, God used what was already available and modified it accordingly the right way--the holy way, in contrast to the pagans.
The sacrificial offerings (food) and the drink offerings (liquids / wine) were part of ritualistic meals. God doesn't need to eat, so it's clearly ritual. It represents communion, not that God is actually hungry.
Let me cite from Carpenter:

A "libation offering," or drink offering, is described in 30:9. The
  articles used on the table that was placed in the holy place for
  libation offerings (cf. also 2 Chr 29:35; Psa 16:4; Jer 44:17, 19, 25)
  are described in Exod 37:16; cf. 25:29. Although these were more or
  less secondary offerings, they also accompanied other offerings as
  here. Wine (cf. Num 28:7) was the liquid used most often. Libations
  were normal with the burnt offering of well-being (peace offerings;
  Num 15:1–15; Lev 23:13, 18, 37). Since a meal needed this kind of
  accompaniment, it is not surprising to find this type of
  offering...Libation offerings consisted of liquids: wine, oil, or
  water poured out at the altar (see 29:40). Only wine plays a
  significant part in the basic offerings described in Leviticus (cf.
  Num 28–29).
Eugene Carpenter, Exodus (ed. H. Wayne House and William D. Barrick;
  vol. 2; Evangelical Exegetical Commentary; Bellingham, WA: Lexham
  Press, 2012), 257.
Burnt offerings were completely burned up on the altar, and these
  offerings in general were intended to establish a relationship of
  acceptance and appreciation between the offerer and God. The
  slaughtered sacrifices here refer to peace offerings, and their
  special emphasis is the communal sharing and celebration of the
  worshipers...
These sacrifices were wholly dedicated to the deity and therefore were
  entirely burnt upon the altar. The "peace offerings" or, as many now
  prefer, "offerings of well-being" (שְׁלָמֶיךָ) were shared before God
  by the priests and the sacrificers (cf. Lev 3; 7:11–34)... The
  offerings that were wholly burnt were gifts to Yahweh indicating the
  total dedication of Israel to Yahweh, while the offerings of
  well-being provided a sacred meal and fostered fellowship. Part of
  these offerings were burnt on the altar, part eaten by the
  participants in the ritual ceremonies.
Eugene Carpenter, Exodus (ed. H. Wayne House and William D. Barrick;
  vol. 2; Evangelical Exegetical Commentary; Bellingham, WA: Lexham
  Press, 2012), 145–146.

And, finally, the issue of blood in the OT sacrificial system:

The covenant involves life/death commitment by both parties, and the
  blood represents the life/death commitment of each party (see v. 8
  below). McCarthy has surveyed the Israelite and ancient Near Eastern,
  as well as Greek, concepts and use of blood and finds that there was
  no "widespread belief in the sanctity of blood" per se as is often
  maintained, and that Israel's attitude toward the use of blood was
  unique. Israel connected the meaning and significance of blood to
  life, not death. He found this attitude present in Exod 24:5–8 and
  that this section is probably quite ancient. This use of blood was a
  solemn but joyous occasion for Israel, and in this passage a time of
  communion is celebrated
Eugene Carpenter, Exodus (ed. H. Wayne House and William D. Barrick;
  vol. 2; Evangelical Exegetical Commentary; Bellingham, WA: Lexham
  Press, 2012), 146.


how get the current page URL in Razor Template and TOM .Net?

Question: I want to get current page url in my razor code.how to retrieve that?
Comment: what research have you done and what have you tried?
Comment: I have added HttpContext.Current and Request.Url.ToString() in my razor code but it gives me Null Reference exception.
Answer: The Razor Mediator has excellent documentation, including the info you're looking for: https://code.google.com/p/razor-mediator-4-tridion/downloads/detail?name=RazorMediatorDocumentation_v1.3.3.docx
In your case I think you'll want to use the @Publication.PublicationUrl to get the URL then concatenate the @Page.FileName onto the end of it.
Comment: Hi *Tanner* Thanks for the update....but There are some different implementation in my project.Your suggestion *@Publication.PublicationUrl* will give me the current page URL which is present in Tridion CMS. I want current browser URL in my Razor/TOM.NET code. In my project there are one dynamic page and 100+ components has been indexed to that single page. For each components I don't have particular page.
Answer: Where and when is your code being executed?
By the web application when a user makes a request or by the publisher service when an editor publishes the page?
Tridion templates or template building blocks are not executed when visitors make requests; as such there is no way to determine the URL of the request within the web application from a template simply because the template isn't executed inside the web application.
If you want to determine the requested URL by the visitor you need to write code that is executed by the web application at request time. You can emit this code from your razor template (as opposed to execute it). This will cause the published page to contain the code. Every time the published page is requested the code will be executed.


Are you allowed to collect dead wood for a campfire?

Question: Yesterday we've camped in a campsite near Lake Wenatchee. We've brought in a lot of wood but I've also seen numerous dead trees lying around in the surrounding forest. Is it okay to take branches from those dead trees to feed a campfire?
Comment: @ab2 I've so far found that its really hard to figure out official rules for those kinds of questions. Normally I'm a fan of "ask the ranger on site" but haven't seen a single park ranger during my stay unfortunately.
Comment: I don't think this can be answered in general: I've seen places where you are not allowed to collect wood locally and have to bring it, places where you are neither allowed to collect locally nor to bring, but you have to buy it and also places where you have to collect locally...
Comment: I don't know the rules at Lake W, or where that is, but in Yosemite or Rocky Mtn Natl Park, it is OK to use fallen dead trees or portions thereof for a campfire, as long as you are in an area where campfires are permitted.  I would not take dead branches from a standing tree.
Comment: We are not rangers, but we can give you answers based on a good deal of experience.   To some extent, one has to use common sense.  For example, if wood is scarce on the ground -- the area looks as though a barbarian horde has razed the forest floor -- don't add to the  depredations.  If there is a lot of wood just lying around, take a modest amount for a modest campfire.  For myself, I admire the character in the Nevada Barr series who uses a candle as a campfire.  She gets the ambiance of a fire and her imagination does the rest.
Answer: Do not bring in firewood. From the Nason Creek Campground page:

Don't Move Firewood: Please protect Pacific Northwest forests by preventing the spread of invasive species. Firewood can carry insects and diseases that can threaten the health of our western forests. You can make a difference by obtaining and burning your firewood near your camping destination. Visit Dontmovefirewood.org for further information.

The linked site has a lot more information about how to supply firewood for a campfire.
But please, do not start any campfire during a burn ban.
Comment: We've obtained firewood ~5 miles from the campsite, this should count as "near your camping destination". And the burn ban does not apply to fire pits at camp sites - there's an explicit sign at the entrance which says so.
Comment: [Found it!](https://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/okawen/home?cid=fsbdev3_053600). Campfires are allowed on Federal land, but not on state-owned park land.


Why do we use step response?

Question: We tend to identify systems more often by using the step response. Why? Especially when the impulse response is directly related to the transfer function?
Comment: Because real systems don't like infinite input voltage.
Comment: You are correct, in so far that the transfer function is the Laplace transform of the impulse response. However, I think we are generally more interested in how the system transfers to a new state whenever the input changes it's state, rather then the response to a temporary input disturbance, like a Dirac pulse.
Comment: It's kind of hard to feed a system a Dirac delta in the real world, but at least you can approximate a step fairly well...
Comment: @DmitryGrigoryev - But real test systems don't generate true square waves/steps.
Comment: @HotLicks Depending on your definition of "true", true sine waves or true DC may also not really exist. My point is that most systems under test will like a 5V step much better than a 5kV 100ns pulse.
Answer: Step response and transfer function are interchangeable via Laplace transform (step response -> differentiate to get impulse response -> laplace -> transfer function), but you can't run a Laplace transform on a graph pulled out of a datasheet...
For example, the user of a LDO will usually be interested in things like voltage sag/overshoot when load current steps up and down, so in this context a graph of the step response is useful.
Same if you design the control system for something like a mechanical actuator: the transient response is often more important than transfer function, you'd want to avoid overshoot, avoid excessive slew rate, have good damping, things like that. Step response shows all this in a way that is easy to understand, whereas transfer function will not (instead, it provides more insight into stability, etc).
Also testing the step response is much easier than measuring the transfer function.
And the transfer function is only valid when the system is linear, not when it is slewing. If slew limit is involved, or other large signal conditions, then step response is no longer the Laplace transform of the transfer function, because the system is no longer linear time invariant.
Opamps' datasheets usually give both, since we're both interested in the frequency response, and settling time/ringing/overshoot, clipping recovery, etc.
EDIT: I just realized you asked why step response was used instead of impulse response:

It is easy to generate a fast step, very difficult to generate an "infinitely short" pulse (or an approximation of).
The step contains much more energy and will generate a much larger response. Whereas a pulse would only generate a small blip on the output. Signal-to-noise ratio is much better with a step.
An impulse would not allow to test for slew rate. It would provide little information.
Thus the step is easier to use in practice. If you want the impulse response, do a step, then differentiate.
Comment: I don't agree with your assertion that the step response is the Laplace transform of the transfer function, but the unit impulse response is the inverse Laplace transform of the transfer function.
Answer: An impulse, i.e. hit it with a hammer, is not very friendly, particularly in systems that have mechanical bits and pieces.
A perfect impulse cannot be generated, so you have to tailor the pulse duration to the system.
A pulse that gives meaningful response data needs to be relatively strong, and that means high amplitude (strength = area = height x duration, and duration=small, therefore height=large)
To get the step response from the impulse response you have to integrate, which means you need to know initial conditions.
An impulse response does not give DC gain information readily; a step response does.
A step isn't as violent as an impulse.
A step is a step regardless of the system dynamics.
You can get the impulse response from the step response by differentiating - and doesn't require initial conditions.
The step response is often the inherent integral of the impulse response (eg motor velocity to motor displacement) and integration has noise-rejection characteristics.
Comment: A perfect impulse cannot be generated, that is true, but also the generation of a perfect step or ramp is not possible. But in praxis, a step aproximation is better than the aproximation of an impulse.
Comment: Impulse ("hammer") testing is a very standard technique for mechanical systems - it is quick, and after mounting accelerometers at fixed positions on the structure you can apply the impulse at as many different positions as you want. Of course the impulses are not mathematically perfect - therefore you also record the output from a force gauge *in the hammer head,* so you know what impulse you actually applied in each measurement, and get the measured transfer function, not just the un-normalized impulse response. The "hammers" used can weigh from 20g to 20kg, depending what you are testing!
Answer: It's possible to describe an "almost perfect" step function using positive parameters δ, ε, and ε', such that:

For all values of t<-δ, the output will be between -ε and +ε.
For all values of t>+δ, the output will be between 1-ε and 1+ε.
For all other values of t, the output will be between -ε' and 1+ε'.

Graphically, such functions may be described by saying that their output is always within an "envelope" that looks like:
<code> :                █
 :                █▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ y=1
 :                █
 :                █
 :▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀█▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ y=0
 :                ▀
</code>
Any application that would work with all functions that would meet the requirements for some particular values of δ, ε, and ε' would be satisfied by any function that met the requirements for smaller values of those parameters.  The exact position of the function within the envelope may be poorly defined, but most applications wouldn't be interested in that level of detail beyond having upper limits for δ, ε, and ε'.  This thus makes it easy to describe a set of functions that will be "good enough" for a particular purpose, and ensure that the behavior of a real-world system is a member of that set.
An "almost perfect" impulse function, by contrast, cannot be described in such a fashion.  Behavior may be well-defined at the points where nothing is happening, but the part of the domain where behavior is least well-defined is also the part of the domain where everything interesting is happening.
Comment: This is nice mathematics, but irrelevant in practice, since it is easy to *measure* the applied impulse (or step) with the same time-domain resolution as you measure the response.
Comment: @alephzero: If an impulse is somewhere around 1usec wide and one wants to measure its total amplitude accurate to 1%, one would need to be able to resolve its width accurate to 10ns.  If one looks at the step function instead, all one would need to know is the value at any time before it started to change, and at any time after it had stabilized.  Performing the latter measurement with the required accuracy is apt to be much easier than doing the former.

Why do we use step response?


is/has/have + verb-ed

Question: I am confused in below.Could anyone please help me
which one is correct and why ?
"finally,blinds are fitted"
"Finally,blinds has been fitted."
"Finally,blinds have been fitted."
Comment: What about the usage of each is causing you to become confused? Which do you think is correct and why?
Answer: This is basic stuff:  These phrases are all in 'passive' (not 'active') voice.
The verb (fitted) is 'perfect' (completed), and is preceded by auxiliary verbs that handle the tense, aspect and subject agreement.  Since the subject (blinds) is plural, the first [aux] verb should not have the 's' suffix.  (The 's' on the verb is a type of parity with the subject.)
There is also a type of parity which signals 'passive': the total of 'perfect' and 'possessive' verbals is odd ('are fitted' = 1 perfect; 'have been fitted' = 1 possessive + 2 perfect; 'are being fitted' = 1 perfect; 'have been being fitted' = 1 possessive + 2 perfect).  Active phrases have even parity: ('fitted' = 0 perfect = 0 aux + 1 past; 'have fitted' = 1 possessive + 1 perfect; 'have been fitting' = 1 possessive + 1 perfect).
Note that the very first [aux] verbal is never 'perfect', but it may be 'past' (was, had, etc).
These parities are not something that we are aware of when we talk.
Answer: "Blinds are fitted" is good.  The verb "are" is the present plural form of the verb "to be."  "Fitted" is a predicate adjective, the past participle of the verb "to fit" used as an adjective.  It expresses a present condition.
"Blinds have been fitted" is also good.  The verb "have been fitted" is the past perfect progressive form of the verb "to fit."  It expresses a past event that continues to the present.
The plural subject "blinds" must take a plural verb "have."  "Blinds has" is wrong.

is/has/have + verb-ed


how UUID of a partition is generated

Question: Can anybody explain me how UUID (Universally unique identifier) of a partition is generated in Linux based distributions ?
Answer: Both UUID of GPT partitions, and UUID of filesystems, are generated randomly when the partition/filesystem is created. You can check that they're version 4 UUIDs.
Answer: An uuid is just formatted (hyphens at specific places) random bytes so there's nothing magical about it.
By glancing at the source, which you can get with apt-get source libuuid1 if you're on a Ubuntu based distro, the uuid generation either uses truly random bytes (known to be rather slow -- you can get those by reading from the /dev/random special file) or time-based bytes (virtually instantaneous but not cryptographically secure).
Answer: UUID of a partition which generated in Linux distribution is version 4. The version 4 UUID is meant for generating UUIDs from truly-random or pseudo-random numbers. It is described in RFC 4122 .
Answer: At present in my Ubuntu 15.04 UUID version 4 is used for partitions.
Version 4 UUIDs use a scheme relying only on random numbers.
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-4xxx-yxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

here 4 denotes the version number
 x is any hexadecimal digit
 y is one of 8, 9, A, or B
Random UUID probability of duplicates
Out of a total of 128 bits, two bits indicate an RFC 4122 ("Leach-Salz") UUID and four bits the version (0100 indicating "randomly generated"), so randomly generated UUIDs have 122 random bits. The chance of two such UUIDs having the same value can be calculated using probability theory (birthday paradox). Using the approximation

these are the probabilities of an accidental clash after calculating n UUIDs, with x = 2^122:
To put these numbers into perspective, the annual risk of a given person being hit by a meteorite is estimated to be one chance in 17 billion, which means the probability is about 0.00000000006 (6 × 10−11), equivalent to the odds of creating a few tens of trillions of UUIDs in a year and having one duplicate. In other words, only after generating 1 billion UUIDs every second for the next 100 years, the probability of creating just one duplicate would be about 50%.
source: wikipedia
Comment: Hmmm.....I see a different format of UUID for marked LVM2 members: /dev/sda2: UUID="7ceOVx-e0v2-8Y4H-i5En-Vkum-rz54-B24bmU" TYPE="LVM2_member" on one system and /dev/sda2: UUID="Cq99qZ-go7M-O569-e1Kc-yzso-xCWQ-R9bP4G" TYPE="LVM2_member" on another which deviates from the standard described in this answer.
Comment: @mdpc how does it deviates?
Comment: the '4' and the 'y'
Comment: @mdpc looks like your distribution is not using version 4, but that is ok

how UUID of a partition is generated


May 6, 2010 stock market decline/plunge: Why did it drop 9% in a few minutes?

Question: Today (5/6/2010) the market dropped almost 900 points in less than an hour.  I don't see any news story that explains the drop.  Am I missing something obvious?
Comment: I'm sure you already know the answer to this after more than a year, but check out [my answer](https://money.stackexchange.com/a/145330/110537) below for the up to date version. :)
Answer: No one is quite sure what happened (yet).  Speculation includes:

Automatic trades gone wild
Typo by a trader (Rumor is that a trader at Citigroup hit "B" for Billion instead of "M" for Million)
Straight up computer glitch

The interesting thing is that Procter & Gamble stock got hammered, as did Accenture.  Both of which are fairly stable companies, that didn't make any major announcements, and aren't really connected to the current financial instability in Greece.  So, there is no reason for there stock prices to have gone crazy like that.  This points to some kind of screw up, and not a regular market force.
Apparently, the trades involved in this event are going to be canceled.
Edit #1:
One thing that can contribute to an event like this is automatic selling triggered by stop loss orders.  Say someone at Citi makes a mistake and sells too much of a stock.  That drives the stock price below a certain threshold.  Computers that were pre-programmed to sell at that point start doing their job.  Now the price goes even lower.  More stop-loss orders get triggered.  Things start to snowball.  Since it's all done by computer these days something like this can happen in seconds.  All the humans are left scratching their heads.
(No idea if that's what actually happened.)
Edit #2:
IEEE Spectrum has a pretty concise article on the topic.  It also includes some links to follow.
Edit #3 (05/14/2010):
Reuters is now reporting that a trader at Waddell & Reed triggered all of this, but not through any wrongdoing.
Edit #4 (05/18/2010):
Waddell & Reed claims they didn't do it.  The House Financial Services Subcommittee investigated, but they couldn't find a "smoking gun".  I think at this point, people have pretty much given up trying to figure out what happened.
Edit #5 (07/14/2010):
The SEC still has no idea.  I'm giving up. :-)
Comment: Wikipedia maintains a list of theories: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_crash
Answer: It has been a very long time since this question has been touched, but doing some digging on some of the provided Wikipedia links, it seems that there is a clearer answer in this page on the 2010 Flash Crash, specifically here.

In April 2015, Navinder Singh Sarao, a London-based point-and-click trader, was arrested for his alleged role in the flash crash. According to criminal charges brought by the United States Department of Justice, Sarao allegedly used an automated program to generate large sell orders, pushing down prices, which he then cancelled to buy at the lower market prices. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed civil charges against Sarao. In August 2015, Sarao was released on a £50,000 bail with a full extradition hearing scheduled for September with the US Department of Justice. Sarao and his company, Nav Sarao Futures Limited, allegedly made more than $40 million in profit from trading from 2009 to 2015.

...

In January 2020, Sarao was given a sentence of only one year of home confinement, with no jail time. The sentence was relatively lenient, as a result of prosecutors' emphasis on how much Sarao had cooperated with them, and that he was not motivated by greed.

A long overdue answer to a question that piqued my curiosity. And credit where credit is due for the answer from @myron-semack. You should have waited to give up until 10 years later ;)
Answer: I hate attributing an event like this to a single cause.  That implies that the market is an orderly system where everything operates smoothly.  I prefer to see it as much chaotic.
When I see a drop like that happen, I'd say that there were a lot of sellers of stocks and all the buyers were bidding less and less for those few minutes.  Perhaps the catalyst for that was a typo or a strange order.  But in the end all the participants in the market responded by bidding down stocks, not just one person.  It takes sides to complete a trade.
I know my model is a bit simplistic...  I'd be happy if someone corrected me :-)
Answer: Trading error at Citi
Comment: @MrChrister: Apparently the PCs at citi didn't have a popup that said 'Are you sure you want to sell 16billion?' and someone sold 16 billion instead of 16 million.  At least that was the initial theory.  Of course Citi is denying everything.

@Chris: Hey thanks!
Comment: So the automated trading software went Skynet on us?
Comment: @MoneyCone - Excel 2007 would pop up the paperclip say "Looks like you are trying to scare the ever living crap out of the market.  Do you want some help?"
Comment: Is there a citation?
Comment: this was disproved.
Comment: still disproved. recommend deletion.
Answer: Part of it was an Oops, but not all of it.

There were reports that the sudden
  drop was caused by a trader who
  mistyped an order to sell a large
  block of stock. The drop in that
  stock's price was enough to trigger
  "sell" orders across the market.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36983596/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
Comment: this was disproved.
Comment: still disproved. recommend deletion.


I am an Indian citizen with a valid USA visa. I am flying DEN-ORD-CDG-BOM with United (Denver Chicago) and Delta (Chicago-Mumbai through Paris)

Question: Do I need to collect luggage and do security again in Chicago for my Paris flight? And second question, do I need a transit visa in Paris? Thanks.
Comment: @Newton: This question is different because the DEN-ORD leg is a domestic flight.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [PEK-ORD-YYZ - Re-check Luggage in Chicago?](https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/104250/pek-ord-yyz-re-check-luggage-in-chicago)
Answer:
(a) You might have to do security again in ORD, depending on which terminals you arrive and depart from. Probably yes.
(b) You probably won't have to collect your luggage in ORD. There are no exit customs checks in the US. When you check in in DEN, ask the agent if you are unsure where you next need to pick up your bags.
According to What type of visa do I need to transit through an airport in France ?, you should not need a transit visa with a valid US visa (emphasis mine):

Exempted by France from ATV [Airport Transit Visa] are :

holders of a visa valid for a Member State of the European Union or the European Economic Area, Canada, Japan or the United States ;
Comment: United and Delta have an interline agreement, according to the last article I could turn up with Google, which greatly increases the probability that the luggage can be checked all the way to Bombay. ORD-CDG should leave from Terminal 5 and may be operated by codeshare partner Air France. There may now be an airside shuttle from Terminal 3 to T5, and T1 (United Airlines) and T3 are connected airside by foot. If so, no need to do security twice.


Verifying that the $2n$-th term in a modified generalized Fibonacci sequence of order $n$ is the $n-1$-th Cullen number

Question: I was messing around with recursive sequences and I came across something interesting.
The Fibonacci numbers start with $F_1 = 0$, $F_2=1$, and continues with $F_i = F_{i-1} + F_{i-2}$.
The Tribonacci numbers start with $F_1 = F_2 = 0$, $F_3 = 1$, and continues with $F_i = F_{i-1}+F{i-2}+F{i-3}$
The generalized Fibonacci numbers of order $n$ start with $F_1=F_2=\dots=F_{n-1}=0$, $F_n=1$, and for $i\geq n$, $$F_i=\sum_{j=i-n}^{i-1}F_j.$$
I find the numbers that these generate to be boring, though, so I'm going to invent a new set of sequences called the Gibonacci sequences.  The recurrence relation is the same as the Fibonacci sequences, but the initial values are different.  For the Gibonacci sequence of order $2$, we have $G_1=G_2=1$ and $G_i = G_{i-1}+G_{i-2}$.  Likewise, the generalized Gibonacci numbers of order $n$ we have $G_1=G_2=\dots=G_n=1$ and for $i\geq n$, $$G_i=\sum_{j=i-n}^{i-1}G_j.$$
I'm particularly interested in the point where all the initial values are used up, so to speak -- the last number that is defined in terms of one of the initial values.  This would be the $2n$-th term for a Gibonacci sequence of order $n$.  For example, when $n=2$, our sequence would be $1,\,1,\,2,\,\boxed{3},\dots$ where the number of interest is highlighted.  For $n=3$, our sequence would be $1,\,1,\,1,\,3,\,5,\,\boxed{9},\,\dots$.
What I'm going to do is define a sequence from these numbers as I go up in order for the generalized Gibonacci numbers.  We'll define $C_n$ as $G_{2n}$ where $G$ the Gibonacci sequence of order $n$.  Our sequence $C$ looks like this:
$$(1,\,3,\,9,\,25,\,65,\,161,\,385,\,\dots).$$
It seems to be the case that the $i$th term in this sequence is precisely $(i-1)\cdot 2^{i-1}+1$.  In other words, this sequence seems to generate the Cullen numbers!
I'm very much convinced that this pattern continues for every number in the sequence, but I wouldn't know how to prove this to be the case.  That, in essence is my question: how can we prove that this sequence generates the Cullen numbers?
Answer: Prove that $G_{n+k}=2^{k-1}(n-1)+1$ for $1\le k\le n$.
It's useful to note that $G_{n+k}=2G_{n+k-1}-G_{k-1}$.


How could the Soviet Energia rocket go to orbit without an upper stage, and how could it have carried payload to the moon?

Question: The Energia rocket could loft a massive 100 tons into orbit. It could also shoot about 32 tons to a trans-lunar injection. It did not have any upper stage. So, could it really go to orbit and even further, the moon? It is the only orbital class rocket that I know without an upper stage.
Answer: The "upper stage" was strapped to the side of the booster - it was incorporated into the payload.
The Buran had its own orbital maneuvering engines as did Energia's only other payload (Polyus).
Problems with the insertion burn on Polyus resulted in the loss of the mission.
However, Energia (or its payload) "could really go to orbit" - Buran did so.
Any Energia-lofted lunar payload would have had to provide similar arrangements.
The US space shuttle similarly had no 2nd stage as such.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_(spacecraft)

The launch vehicle had two functionally different operational
variants: Energia-Polyus, the initial test configuration, in which the
Polyus system was used as a final stage intended to put the payload
into orbit, and Energia-Buran, in which the Buran orbiter was the
payload and the source of the orbit insertion impulse.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energia_(rocket)
Comment: I should have looked up sources first! It was all right in the Energia article.
Comment: @user71659 yes, as I stated in the answer "The US space shuttle similarly had no 2nd stage as such."
Comment: Isn't that similar to the Shuttle, where the separate OMS engines are used for orbital insertion? The fundamental difference being you're hanging on to your non-functional SSMEs instead of expending them with the fuel tank.
Comment: I see, I read that statement differently as in the Space Shuttle had no 2nd stage like the Buran.


Do clouds reflect ambient noise?

Question: On days with a full blanket of low-hanging clouds overhead it seems I can hear more trains/traffic in the distance. Do clouds actually reflect ambient noise or is this some trick of the imagination?
Comment: This is connected http://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/62754/rolling-sound-of-thunder
Answer: Clouds can form at a temperature minimum. Above the clouds the temperature may increase sharply.
The sound speed increases $T^{1/2}$, so immediately above a temperature inversion, there can be a region of decreasing (sound) refractive index. This can have the effect of bending sound waves back towards the Earth.
The phenomenon is more normally noticed on still, clear nights, where the ground layer can be colder than air higher up.
I rather suspect that this is a related question Why do I always hear remote train horn at night?
Comment: Was writing a very similar answer - you posted first.
Answer: The propagation of sound over distance definitely changes with weather; but perhaps not the way you think.
For example, it is my experience that if you stand at the shore of a quiet lake (say 1 km across) at night, you can hear sounds from the opposite shore. This is a result of changes in the density of the air, which gives a "focusing" effect. Specifically, if the air right above the water is cooler, it will be denser - and this will slow down sound. The result is that the air column acts like a giant wave guide: sound that is aimed "slightly up" gets bent down again. And thus instead of the sound propagation being 3D (with inverse square law behavior), it will be quasi 2D, with $\frac1r$ behavior. Which makes the sound "carry".
Now if you have low-hanging clouds, I imagine there are also thermal layers in the air below these clouds. And it is conceivable that on some days that results in a similar constraining of the sound, and improved propagation.
Would a cloud reflect sound? The density of the air is greater, and thus there would be a acoustic impedance mismatch. But the surface of the cloud is rarely smooth enough to maintain phase relationships needed to keep the sound coherent. Perhaps some low frequencies would carry (where the wavelength is long compared to the irregularity of the surface of the cloud).
My money would be on thermal layers first, and clouds second.
My hunch is strengthened by an interesting article on "acoustic shadows" and their possible influence of the outcome of the US Civil War (see "Outdoor Sound Propagation in the U.S. Civil War" by Charles D Ross)

The battle, silent to Johnston two miles from the front, was heard clearly by citizens of Richmond ten miles to the west and to Federals as far to the east. The probable cause was a temperature inversion bending the sound back to the ground. On the night before the battle, a violent thunderstorm (many soldiers said it was the worst they had ever seen) raged over the area. The day of the battle dawned with widespread, low cloud cover-ideal conditions for a low- atmosphere temperature inversion.
Comment: That link was an absolutely fascinating read, thanks for sharing
Answer: The only way to answer your question is by means of experimentation.
As your post implies, the mind sure plays tricks on itself. And how we perceive the world is not how the world actually is.
So get yourself a decent sound meter and get measuring!
Should you find some effect the question then becomes "how and why?" That would be an interesting question for this site.

Do clouds reflect ambient noise?


Shapely - convert polygons to lines?

Question: Given a shapefile with polygons, how do I convert the polygons to individual lines instead? I know how to do this in QGIS, but I'm looking for a Shapely function which does the same thing.
Answer: bugmenot123 is ok but I find easier use the boundary of the polygons. If you have a multipolygon or a polygon with holes the boundary returns a multilinestrig, if you have a polygon without holes the boundary returns a linestring.
Here is a simple example so you can see how it works:
<code>import shapely
from shapely.geometry import MultiPolygon, Point

pol1 = MultiPolygon([Point(0, 0).buffer(2.0), Point(1, 1).buffer(2.0)])
pol2 = Point(7, 8).buffer(1.0)
pols = [pol1, pol2]

lines = []
for pol in pols:
    boundary = pol.boundary
    if boundary.type == 'MultiLineString':
        for line in boundary:
            lines.append(line)
    else:
        lines.append(boundary)

for line in lines:
    print line.wkt
</code>
Answer: According to https://shapely.readthedocs.io/en/stable/manual.html#polygons:

You can get the outer ring of a Polygon via its exterior property.
You can get a list of the inner rings via its interior property.

According to https://shapely.readthedocs.io/en/stable/manual.html#collections-of-polygons:

For a MultiPolygon you can iterate over its Polygon members via
iterating via in or list() or explicitely using its geoms property.

Collect all the rings and you have the lines.
Comment: Please post your own solution then.
Comment: Tbh, I actually output the individual lines by getting the coordinates defining the polygons' vertices then creating LineStrings from consecutive coordinates. But your solution works as well.

Shapely - convert polygons to lines?


Could there be a scientifically supported way of accessing higher dimensions that is practical?

Question: The whole concept of higher dimensions has always been a fascinating one, but I have to ask if anyone has found anything, like a popular science article or something, that suggests a useful way of interacting with them.  One of the big problems with the idea of interacting with them or going to them is that doing so suggests a loss of energy from our dimension.  At this point, there isn't any evidence of energy being literally lost from the universe as far as I know (discounting any zero point energy stuff).  There is the suggestion that black holes could exist in higher dimensions or that dark matter could, but other than that there isn't much.  The only way that I've heard about for going to other dimensions is by using an extremely huge amount of energy like the energy in particle accelerators.  Is there any lower energy way someone or something could interact with a higher dimension that has some science behind it?
Comment: Can you explain what is "higher dimension"? Are you referring to 5th dimension (from space-time)? Or are you referring to "other world" ?
Comment: While most variations of the string theory do indeed posit more than three spatial plus one temporal dimensions, the "extra" dimensions are supposed to be "coiled" or wrapped on very very small scales; that is, they are not extended like the "regular" three spatial dimensions, so they cannot encompass a world. Sort of like a wire can be seen as a one-dimensional object, while in reality it's of course three-dimensional but two of the dimensions are small and limited in extent.
Comment: It might not work out all that well for someone if they succeeded. See *[Flatland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatland)*.
Answer: I regret the answer is no.  I don't know where you heard about the energy thing, but it suggests the speaker had little understanding of what science believes are the higher dimensions.  Science Fiction, alternate realities, and new age thought have all unintentionally conspired to suggest that higher dimensions are someplace we can "be."  You must remember that a dimension is a "dimension of measurement."
It is assumed (because science has declared it to be so, and it's not an unreasonable assumption) that time is the 4th dimension.  Thus, if you think of a patch of ground as the 2nd dimension, a building constructed on that ground as the 3rd dimension, then the decay of the building and it's possible replacement over time is the 4th dimension.
To get an idea of what science thinks about multiple dimensions, view this youtube video (allow me to apologize for the narrator in advance).
It's worth noting that, perceptively, our understanding of dimensions suggests that you can always look (observe) "down" into the lower dimensions, but cannot look (observe) "up" into the higher dimensions.  You certainly can't exist in lower dimensions, QED, you can't exist in higher dimensions, either, other than to experience it one-piece-at-a-time (e.g., second-by-second, you can't "enter" the 4th dimension such that you can "observe" time as you would "observe" a landscape).
You might want to consider parallel universes.  Scientists are investigating a spot in our universe that might represent the collision between two such universes.  If this proves to be true, then it would be theoretically possible to move between them.

EDIT: @Tom, as you can see, I needed more space to respond to your comment.
Remember that "dimensions" are an arbitrary form of catagorizing observable measurement, not universal constants (and certainly not places to visit).  Time happens to be something measurable, that's all.  Therefore, there is nothing gravitons can escape "into."
Perhaps the best way to say it is, could there exist a creature who can observe more than three dimensions of measurement?  If so, how would gravitons affect such a creature?  Such a creature doesn't "exist" in a "4th dimension."  Said creature would exist in our universe just as we do.  It's passage before us would, perhaps, be perceived as a 3D "flicker" as our passage through time happens to coinside momentarily with his (oohhh... ghosts...).  This reflects the example from the video I suggested where passing your hand before a 2D being would result in its seeing a series of modulating edges as the 3D hand passed through its 2D vision.
The reason, perhaps, there is so much confusion in the world about this is the tesseract.  A tesseract is a "four-dimensional" cube where the fourth dimension is NOT time.  It's a theoretical geometric construct that works like this:
If you start with a one-dimensional point, creating a 2D line is done by drawing a line from that point in any direction to a second point (doubling the number of points).  A shadow cast by light shining along the line's angle of protrusion is a point.
Creating a square means drawing equal length (that's important) lines at 90-degree angles from the first two points to encompass a total of four points (doubling the number of points).  A shadow cast by light shining along the square's angle of protrusion is a line.
Creating a cube means drawing equal length (remember, this is important) lines at 90-degree angles from the existing four points to encompass a total of eight points (doubling the number of points).  A shadow cast by light shining along the cube's angle of protrusion is a square.
Creating a tesseract means drawing equal length lines at 90-degree angles from the existing eight points to encompass a total of sixteen points (doubling the number of points).  A shadow cast by light shining along the tesseract's angle of protrusion is a cube (and we just ran out of reality as there is no evidence of an emissive source that could do this).
Can you see the problem?  You can model it mathematically, but you can't build it because there isn't a way to spatially align more equal length lines at 90-degree angles.  The "space" doesn't exist.  It's only a mathematical concept as it cannot be measured (like time).
That's why "inter-dimensional travel" is (at least at this time) a nonsensical concept.  With the exception of the mathematical and geometric exercise of a tesseract, "dimensions" are identified as things that can be measured... even by us in a "lower" dimension.
Comment: I was referring to the idea of detecting gravitons escaping into higher dimensions.  But even in that view, ordinary matter would still be confined to 3 dimensions.  I was generally asking about the idea of 3D matter entering or effectively gaining another dimension.  I guess that by extension I'm also asking if there's any evidence of some 2nd dimensional existence and if so, whether matter from that 2nd dimension could come into the 3rd (where it wouldn't have to leave the 2nd but still exist in it).  There isn't proof of that though.
Comment: @Tom, I edited my answer because your comment needed more than comments would allow.
Comment: I see.  Perhaps traveling to a parallel universe is a somewhat more reasonable concept than traveling to "another dimension", which seems more unclear conceptually.  Still, doing so would imply leaving this universe and there isn't any proof that's possible so far, even for subatomic particles.  If a particle had been observed disappearing it would absolutely be on the news because it would either mean definite proof of another universe.
Comment: Did you follow the link I gave you?  [Here it is again](https://www.newscientist.com/article/2063204-mystery-bright-spots-could-be-first-glimpse-of-another-universe/).  If you want hard science there isn't any.  But there is emerging science for parallel universes.  *And it was all over the news when it was first reported.*
Comment: Well this is evidence for a certain kind of parallel universe, right?  Observable universes outside of ours, which is kind of what I was thinking of.  I was more envisioning a universe that's right next to us but we can't touch it.  Still, clearly we don't currently know of any way to send a particle or anything to another one of those bubble universes.  Even if you could shoot a laser there that wouldn't encounter any matter on the way, it could never reach past our cosmic horizon. (I read some stuff on wormholes but obviously the hard science for that is still developing).
Comment: I get that there still isn't hard science for traveling to another universe besides the usual theoretical stuff with black holes/wormholes.
Comment: :-)  That's why we have imaginations.


Are photons affected by "temporal gravity?"

Question: Since objects follow geodesics in spacetime, that is the locally shortest path, it would seem to me that unless objects move, they do not trace any path at all. In other words, if I'm stationary on Earth, I should only be affected by the curvature of time, since I always move through time. But on the flipside, photons do not travel through time at all, and so my question is: are they only affected by the spatial curvature?
Comment: *photons do not travel through time at all* They travel through the time of any observer.
Comment: *unless objects move, they do not trace any path at all* An object that is stationary in space is moving through spacetime.
Comment: @foolishmuse *near Earth, 99.99% of gravity is due to time dilation* That's talking about the $tt$ component of the metric tensor. It represents time dilation, and it is the only important component in the Newtonian limit of GR. It isn't talking about the Riemann curvature tensor.
Comment: *the curvature of time* Time does not have curvature. Spacetime has curvature, and the curvature tensor has components involving the time direction along with spatial directions. The $tttt$ component is zero.
Comment: @Ghoster  Regarding your statement that time does not have curvature: It is often said that near Earth, 99.99% of gravity is due to time dilation and it is only near a black hole that space curvature accounts for 50% of gravity.    Can you reconcile these for me?
Answer:
But on the flipside, photons do not travel through time at all, and so my question is: are they only affected by the spatial curvature?

Indeed it is a little tricky to analyze pulses of light. They travel on what are called "null geodesics". With timelike geodesics you can parameterize them with the proper time, which is the invariant "length" of the worldline.
But for null geodesics the invariant "length" is zero, so the procedure described above results in a division by zero. So instead of parameterizing by proper time we use what is called an affine parameter.
For timelike lines proper time is an affine parameter, and for null world lines an affine parameter is not proper time but it does distinguish between different events on the null geodesic.
So null geodesics do trace a path through spacetime. That path is parameterized by an affine parameter that is not proper time. As that affine parameter varies, both the position and the time vary, so light is affected by both in any way that it makes sense to say curvature in space is separate from curvature in time.


PostgreSQL server running very slow at minimal work load

Question: Postgres server running very slow. DB has two tables and when I run explain analyze for below query, taking more than 10min and query running forever.
Tables DDL, db<>fiddle.
User query:
explain analyze select COUNT(*) as "DII_1"
  from ( select table0."individual_entity_proxy_id" as "INDIVIDUAL_ENTITY_PROXY_ID"
                                from test1 table0
                                inner join test2 table1
                                on table0."individual_entity_proxy_id" = table1."individual_entity_proxy_id"
                                where ((table0."shared_paddr_with_customer_ind" = 'N')
                                                   and (table0."profane_wrd_ind" = 'N')
                                                   and (table0."tmo_ofnsv_name_ind" = 'N')
                                                   and ((table0."last_contacted_dm_datetime" is null)
                                                   or (table0."last_contacted_dm_datetime" <  TIMESTAMP '2020-03-15  0:00:00.000000'))
                                                   and (table0."has_individual_address" = 'Y')
                                                   and (table0."has_last_name" = 'Y')
                                                   and (table0."has_first_name" = 'Y')
                                                   and (table0."direct_mail_preference" is null))
                                                   and ((table1."tax_bnkrpt_dcsd_ind" = 'N')
                                                  and (table1."cstmr_prspct_ind" = 'Prospect')
                                                  and (table1."govt_prison_ind" = 'N')) ) TXT_1;

Explain Analyze:
"Finalize Aggregate  (cost=3440557.89..3440557.90 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=119522.092..119522.092 rows=1 loops=1)"
"  Buffers: shared hit=5369032, temp read=949785 written=937509"
"  ->  Gather  (cost=3440557.16..3440557.87 rows=7 width=8) (actual time=119001.846..119559.076 rows=6 loops=1)"
"        Workers Planned: 7"
"        Workers Launched: 5"
"        Buffers: shared hit=5369032, temp read=949785 written=937509"
"        ->  Partial Aggregate  (cost=3439557.16..3439557.17 rows=1 width=8) (actual time=118997.002..118997.003 rows=1 loops=6)"
"              Buffers: shared hit=5369032, temp read=949785 written=937509"
"              ->  Hash Join  (cost=2093187.27..3428070.55 rows=4594644 width=0) (actual time=87536.941..118613.469 rows=5394697 loops=6)"
"                    Hash Cond: (table0.individual_entity_proxy_id = table1.individual_entity_proxy_id)"
"                    Buffers: shared hit=5369032, temp read=949785 written=937509"
"                    ->  Parallel Seq Scan on test1 table0  (cost=0.00..1130249.76 rows=4604772 width=8) (actual time=0.022..3737.959 rows=5394697 loops=6)"
"                          Filter: ((direct_mail_preference IS NULL) AND ((last_contacted_dm_datetime IS NULL) OR (last_contacted_dm_datetime < '2020-03-15 00:00:00'::timestamp without time zone)) AND (shared_paddr_with_customer_ind = 'N'::bpchar) AND (profane_wrd_ind = 'N'::bpchar) AND (tmo_ofnsv_name_ind = 'N'::bpchar) AND (has_individual_address = 'Y'::bpchar) AND (has_last_name = 'Y'::bpchar) AND (has_first_name = 'Y'::bpchar))"
"                          Rows Removed by Filter: 1284863"
"                          Buffers: shared hit=972803"
"                    ->  Hash  (cost=1435596.42..1435596.42 rows=40081668 width=8) (actual time=83938.784..83938.784 rows=40077727 loops=6)"
"                          Buckets: 131072  Batches: 1024  Memory Usage: 2553kB"
"                          Buffers: shared hit=4395726, temp written=818046"
"                          ->  Seq Scan on test2 table1  (cost=0.00..1435596.42 rows=40081668 width=8) (actual time=0.789..14573.245 rows=40077727 loops=6)"
"                                Filter: ((tax_bnkrpt_dcsd_ind = 'N'::bpchar) AND (govt_prison_ind = 'N'::bpchar) AND ((cstmr_prspct_ind)::text = 'Prospect'::text))"
"                                Rows Removed by Filter: 94756"
"                                Buffers: shared hit=4395726"
"Planning time: 3.115 ms"
"Execution time: 119559.941 ms"

Server config:
PostgreSQL v10.11
RAM: 380GB
vCore: 32
Shared_buffers: 65GB
work_mem:104857kB
maintenance_work_mem:256MB
effective_cache_size: 160GB

Any suggestions for optimization?
Answer: try:
explain analyze
with testdata as (

    select table0."individual_entity_proxy_id" as "INDIVIDUAL_ENTITY_PROXY_ID"
    from test1 table0
    where ((table0."shared_paddr_with_customer_ind" = 'N')
        and (table0."profane_wrd_ind" = 'N')
        and (table0."tmo_ofnsv_name_ind" = 'N')
        and ((table0."last_contacted_dm_datetime" is null) or (table0."last_contacted_dm_datetime" <  TIMESTAMP '2020-03-15  0:00:00.000000'))
        and (table0."has_individual_address" = 'Y')
        and (table0."has_last_name" = 'Y')
        and (table0."has_first_name" = 'Y')
        and (table0."direct_mail_preference" is null))

    intersect

    select table1."individual_entity_proxy_id"
    from test2 table1
    where ((table1."tax_bnkrpt_dcsd_ind" = 'N')
        and (table1."cstmr_prspct_ind" = 'Prospect')
        and (table1."govt_prison_ind" = 'N'))
)

select COUNT(*) as "DII_1"
from  testdata

if this not help - probably you need to create indexes, maybe change fields char to bool ('Y' -> true, 'N' -> false)


Does LR automatically apply lens profiles?

Question: I am looking at buying a Nikon D810 with 20mm 1.8, 50mm 1.8, and 85mm 1.8. I use LR 5.7.1 and Windows 7.0. I found the files that LR stores its lens profiles in and all three lenses are listed there. My question is: After I upload a picture to LR, will LR automatically find the correct profile from the LR lens profile files and use it for corrections?
Answer: No, not automatically. If you select to manually apply the lens correction, it will use the right one automatically - assuming it has the profile for that particular lens.
One option is to create a developer preset that applies the lens correction, and use this preset during the importing process. This way, all the imported photos will have the right lens correction applied, but nothing else.
Let me know if it's not clear enough and I'll try to take some screenshots of my setup ;-)
Comment: Thanks for the info.  Under basic if I check enable profile correction and then go to manual will that apply the correction? How could I create a developers preset and would that correct for all three lens?
Comment: No need to go to the Manual tab; when you select "enable profile correction" (under the basic tab) it will automatically select and apply the right profile (you can go to the Profile tab and confirm it selected the right combination of camera + lens).

To add a Preset, first apply the changes you want to save as a preset (in this case, only the profile correction) and then, on the Presets Panel (left side) click the + sign next to the word Preset and, on the popup screen, select only the Lens Correction option and save it (check it our here http://i.imgur.com/Wzu6Sh7.png)
Comment: Once the preset it's saved, when you are importing new photos, on the right side, in the "Apply During Import" menu, select the preset you just created under Develop Settings and the lens correction will be applied to all images you import, selecting the correct profile to every lens you used.


Programatically copy a content control along with its contents

Question: Any idea, what should be done if I want to copy a content Control into another, along with its contents. Note: Content control will contain other content controls too. When I copy the content control, I need to copy it along with its contents
Answer: Export the content of content control into another word document
perhaps this question answers what you were looking for


Is using Skype safe on a computer with sensitive information?

Question: Does Skype client in some way harm the privacy of information not submitted over it? For example, by capturing the contents of the screen, scanning the disk, the memory of the system and submitting this information anywhere. Is it safe to use Skype on government or corporate computers for unrelated activities?
Comment: Would you trust a service run by a firm that his famous for being in bed with the government, notorious for insecure software, and whose p2p model of communications was changed for them to be convenient to eavesdrop? Are you of a foreign government that is not particularly liked by the USA? Why use the computer and not a voIP phone?
Comment: Ask your IT-team. Because in nearly every bigger company and especially governments forbid you to install/use software without explicite consent of there IT-/security-team. Doing otherwise can cause legal problems for you. For some of the reasons see the comment of @RuiFRibeiro and your question. If you are chief of security in this government/company and don't know the answer ask a professional security consulting company who can evaluate your specific situation.
Comment: Are you on windows?
Comment: Hi throwawayaccountlhn53, if you look at the right side, below *Related* you might find some post covering your question.
Comment: Very pertinent question. Microsoft uses their hold on popular services like Office and Skype to sabotage their functionality/availability of new versions/proper integration with the OS when running in other arquitectures, namely OS/X and Linux.
Comment: Could you clarify what you mean by "unrelated activities" in your last sentence?
Answer: Skype is definitely not a safe client to use. A Google search of "Skype exploit" will reveal a lot of its problems in regards to exploits and various news articles provide information on how the NSA uses Skype as part of its Prism program (e.g. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/12/newly-published-nsa-documents-show-agency-could-grab-all-skype-traffic/). Note: Although the news articles do not indicate that Skype is being used as spyware targeted at the device(s) itself, this may still be a possibility so it's best to stay away from Skype.
The good news is there are safer alternatives and one example is Tox (https://tox.chat/). Also, Open Whisper Systems (a company recommended by Edward Snowden) has apps focussed on privacy/security (https://whispersystems.org/) including a mobile messaging/phone app named Signal.
Comment: This answer deals with exploits, but I think the OP is asking about intended functionality, i.e. Skype being used as spyware.
Comment: good point @schroeder Post updated.
Comment: How would you qualify the function permitting file transfer within the Skype channel when a firewall would have been put into place to prohibit any remote file access on a given protected system?