Does it make a difference for the receiver, if the sender was an ordinary account or a smart contract?

Question: I sold some ether through bitsquare, and used quorumwallet. It sends the funds by executing a smart contract.
The transaction is visible on the block explorers as internal tx, and the balance adds up correctly.
But the receiver didn't see it in his wallet, and claims he cannot spend it. Is there a better tool to check this claim than etherscan.io or etherchain.org? The account has about 90 transactions.
Answer: There's no practical difference - ether is ether, regardless of how it arrives. Value transfers made by contracts won't show up as separate transactions, though some block explorers are capable of showing them, either associated with the original transaction, or associated with the account that received the transfer. ether.camp has a more comprehensive view than most.
'Bare' accounts can't show incoming transfers in general because of the above; the usual recommendation is to have a wallet contract if you want to be able to view incoming transfers.
Comment: Thanks for the explanation. ether.camp also shows the tx as well as etherscan.io or etherchain.org, but tradeblock.com/ethereum does not.
Comment: @ulrichard Because value transfers aren't directly recorded in the blockchain (they're a consequence of code execution), extracting them is more complicated - it involves tracing the execution of the contract code. Naive block explorers don't tend to implement that, so they show an incomplete view.
Comment: Also www.bitledger.com shows the tx.So what would be the best strategy to convince the receiver that he actually spent the eth if he didn't keep track of the balance, but only looked at the transactions in his wallet software?
Comment: Show him any of the online transaction explorers!
Answer: I have found that ether.camp and etherscan.io should be used whenever you deal with contracts / transactions to and from contracts. Blockchain explorers must implement a way to read contract transactions, which requires a bit more than standard transactions. Some do it better than others.
I would also recommend when sending ETH to a third party that may or may not be 100% familiar with ETH, it is best to send it to a standard account and then send from there (for the time being).
There is no real risk in sending from a contract, beyond the obvious hassle and necessary communication with support representatives to get it sorted it.
It's also worth educating whoever you are dealing with. For example, ShapeShift's support team used etherchain in the beginning until they started encountering the same issues. They now seem to use etherscan to verify transactions as it gives a much clearer look at transactions, internal transactions, and especially errors in contract execution.


How to avoid collinearity of categorical variables in logistic regression?

Question: I have the following problem: I'm performing a multiple logistic regression on several variables each of which has a nominal scale. I want to avoid multicollinearity in my regression. If the variables were continuous I could compute the variance inflation factor (VIF) and look for variables with a high VIF. If the variables were ordinarily scaled I could compute Spearman's rank correlation coefficients for several pairs of variables and compare the computed value with a certain threshold. But what do I do if the variables are just nominally scaled? One idea would be to perform a pairwise chi-square test for independence, but the different variables don't all have the same co-domains. So that would be another problem. Is there a possibility for solving this problem?
Comment: Why do you "want to avoid multicollinearity"? Sometimes it's inevitable, even helpful, and can be dealt with by approaches like ridge regression. If your nominal variables were individual items that together made up a Likert scale, then you would actually depend on their multicollinearity and could use the sum of such items as a predictor. So what in particular about your study makes it so necessary to avoid multicollinearity?
Comment: Not a duplicate, but a similar one: http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/200720/how-to-detect-multicollinearity-in-a-logistic-regression-where-all-the-dependent . Don't be misled by the title, OP of that question meant independent variables. Also, see Peter Flom's answer to this question: http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/72992/binary-logistic-regression-multicollinearity-tests
Answer: I would second @EdM's comment (+1) and suggest using a regularised regression approach.
I think that an elastic-net/ridge regression approach should allow you to deal with collinear predictors. Just be careful to normalise your feature matrix $X$ appropriately before using it, otherwise you will risk regularising each feature disproportionately (yes, I mean the $0/1$ columns, you should scale them such that each column has unit variance and mean $0$).
Clearly you would have to cross-validate your results to ensure some notion of stability. Let me also note that instability is not a huge problem because it actually suggests that there is not obvious solution/inferential result and simply interpreting the GLM procedure as "ground truth" is incoherent.
Answer: The ViF is still a useful measure in your case, but the condition number of your design matrix is a more common approach for categorical data.
The original reference is here:
Belsley, David A.; Kuh, Edwin; Welsch, Roy E. (1980). "The Condition Number". Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 100–104.
And here are more useful links:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condition_number
https://epub.ub.uni-muenchen.de/2081/1/report008_statistics.pdf
Comment: +1. Hm... A bit "blast-from-the-past" that report but interesting. I suspect that this approach will be a pain when dealing with multiple variables that have multiple levels (their applications are binary or trinary categorical variables) but yeah, interesting read!
Answer: Another approach would be to perform Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) on your multicollinear independent variables. After that you will end up with orthogonal (perfectly independent) components which you can use as IV in your model. There will be no collinearity present, but it will be hard to intepret effects of your original variables. At the other hand if there is multicollinearity, MCA will unite your correlated IV variables effects into more general effects, which you can find even more interpretable and plausible.
Answer: You can check bi-variate correlation by using rank-order or other non-parametric test for categorical variables.  It is the same as you check the correlation matrix for a group of continuous variables, just use different test.
Comment: The OP has already said he has rejected this as his variables are not ordered categorical.


Trouble connecting to Mongo Config Server from mongos

Question: Folks,
I am setting up a MongoDB Cluster. The problem is when I am starting up 'mongos' it fails to connect to Mongod Config Server. If I start 'mongos' from localhost with same server as Mongod Config Server it connects & works.
localhost-$ mongos --port 30000 --configdb server-02:20000    [Works]
server-01-$ mongos --port 30000 --configdb server-02:20000    [Does Not Work]
Since from localhost I am able to start mongos by connecting to mongo config server & execute queries, it appears that config server is running fine.
Not able to understand what prevents servers to connect to one of their peers. When I attemped to connect first time from localhost, I got a prompt from OS asking whether process 'mongos' should be allowed to accept incoming connections for which I clicked allow. Perhaps  if server fails silently because of this permission issue, with no way to prompt.
Error I recieve:
Sun May  8 01:14:46 ./mongos db version v1.8.1, pdfile version 4.5 starting (--help for usage)
Sun May  8 01:14:46 git version: a429cd4f535b2499cc4130b06ff7c26f41c00f04
Sun May  8 01:14:46 build sys info: Linux bs-linux64.10gen.cc 220.127.116.11-2.ec2.v1.2.fc8xen #1 SMP Fri Nov 20 17:48:28 EST 2009 x86_64 BOOST_LIB_VERSION=1_41
uncaught exception in mongos main:
11002 socket exception [6] server [server-02:20000] mongos connectionpool error: couldn't connect to server server-02:20000

Well I did try clean install yet the problem persisted, so I moved my mongos to a different server with new install & it appears to connect to config server without any issue. Apparently there is some sort of socket contention issue with first server I tried to run mongos.
Answer: In all the directories of your mongodb's datas, you have a mongo.lock file. If this file is not empty, it seems to mean that one instance of mongodb executable (config, shard data server) is already running.
Just delete this file in each directory if not empty.
Answer: Check your bindip value, which is used  by  your mongo service. Take out the bindip flag. It works perfectly.


The Absolute Unity of G-d

Question: As we all who know Hebrew can assert, the sufix "im" in the words usually means plurality. How can HaShem be Elohim or Elokim if He is absolutely One and the Only Lord?
Comment: See also http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/8859.
Answer: There are a lot of answers. Here are a couple:

In Hebrew, mastership is often expressed in the plural, as in אדוני יוסף or בעליו עמו. Similarly, then, the Name Elokim, which denotes that G-d is Master of the Universe, is in plural form (and sometimes even takes plural-form verbs). (Rashi to Gen. 20:13 and 35:7)
It's the plural of אלה, "these." This Name represents G-d as the master and controller of all of the disparate "these-es" of creation. (R' S.R. Hirsch to Gen. 1:1)
In a similar vein, though in Kabbalistic terms: Elokim is in plural form because it symbolizes the different spiritual worlds and levels which G-d created to serve as the conduits for His energy to reach the physical world and power it. (R' Shneur Zalman of Liadi, Torah Ohr, Vayera 56a ff)
Comment: My reference in my question above is to the Almighty, Creator of the Universe and not to spiritual worlds, angels or whatever. When Elokim is used in reference to God, the word is not in the plural but absolutely in the singular as absolutely One God is.
Comment: The Almighty, Creator of the Universe is beyond any descriptive terms. (Indeed, even to call Him "the Creator of the Universe" is, in a sense, to limit Him.) When we talk about a Divine name like Elokim, we are necessarily talking about an aspect of G-dliness to which we can relate. It is therefore quite correct to say that this name represents the various means (spiritual worlds, angels, *sefiros*, etc.) through which we perceive G-dliness - while also being aware, at the same time, that these are all creations of His.
Answer: The plural, in Biblical Hebrew, is like an honorific. (Ibn Ezra on B'reshis 1:1)

כל לשון יש לו דרך כבוד. וכבוד ל' לועז שיאמר הקטן לנוכח הגדול לשון רבים. ובל' ישמעאל דרך כבוד שידבר הגדול כמו המלך בלשון רבים ובל' הקדש דרך כבוד לומר על הגדול ל' רבים כמו אדנים בעלים שאמרו אדנים קשה. ולקח בעליו.
Every language has an honorific mode. . . in Lashon Hakodesh the honorific mode is [expressed by] speaking about a superior in plural terms. . .

I like the analog to the English "royal we".
Comment: Yes, I am aware of the "royal we," but in reference to God we don't use "your majesty." Elohim is not plural but singular. And grammatically, the plural of El is Elim and not Elohim.
Comment: א-להים (or אלהים for the profane meaning) is clearly grammatically plural, based on its agreement with plural adjectives and its declension for possessives. In all cases it follows the grammatical pattern of a plural. The Ibn Ezra I cited (as well as Rash"i, Ramba"n, Or Hachayim, et al.) understand it this way. The putative singular of the word would be א-לוה, which is attested plenty of times in תנ"ך. It is _related to_ (but not equivalent to) א-ל.
Comment: (See further related comments at http://judaism.stackexchange.com/a/8863 .)
Answer: There are an abundance of answers given to this question, including those listed by Alex.
You might like the approach of Abarbanel, who sees no reason to assume that "elokim" is plural, since it is used as a name, like Ephraim, Mitzraim, or Chushim, which are all names in the "plural form". Rather he prefers the explanation that "elokim" is a composition of "el" meaning "god" in a general sense, and God's specific four-letter name ykv"k. (The me"m at the end of the name is to be grammatically correct in "closing off the word" so it won't sound like a possessive noun.)
Answer: R. Judah Halevi addresses this question right in the beginning of Part IV of the Kuzari:

The word has a plural form, because it was so used by gentile idolaters, who believed that every deity was invested with astral and other powers. Each of these was called Eloah; their united forces were therefore, called Elohim.
(Hirschfeld translation p. 198)

Apparently, then, the Torah uses the word Elohim because it conveys the idea of the sum of all powers, which is what God is, and not to impugn the unity of God.
Answer: A name represents the function of the entity who holds it—i.e., how they interact with the world. Jewish names are supposed to reflect the purpose of the child, which is the reason for how they interact with the world, and therefore, parents are given a certain amount of prophecy to name their child the correct Hebrew name.
G-D doesn't have a purpose. G-D is the One who needs the purposes for His plan. Therefore, His Names each represent one of the ways in which He interacts with the world. His Name "Eloqim" translates to "Powers", and means He interacts with the world via every single one of the powers in creation, which are all under His control. It is His Name of Judgement, of Awe, of Control, of Creation. His Name "Adoqai" translates to "My Masters", and means that He is the King of Kings of Kings, the Ruler of all the forces of creation, and the One Who directly causes the causes and results of anything and everything to occur. It is His Name of total Mastery. So on with all His Names. The two I used as examples are in the multiple, answering your question more directly.
Answer: Hashem has a lot of names, all Torah are His names.
Why?
Cause we are far from Him and in our life Hashem comes from different names but All comes from 1 higher source - from Hashem - 1 Aleph.
But we must keep in mind that all comes from 1 - from Him.
Answer: kabbalistic literature differentiates between G-ds intrinsic name (the Tetragrammaton) which refers to his essence of absolute unity, and than other names which refer to various attributes of G-d. Elokim refers to the fact that G-d is the master of all forces in the world. The name specifically comes to address the fact that in the universe there appears to be disparate forces and that G-d is the master of all of them. Elokim is a name that specifically addresses how G-d appears from our perspective where there is not absolute unity. Much of Sefer Nefesh Hachaim comes to address this. See the first few chapters that explain the name Elokim.

The Absolute Unity of G-d


What does it truly mean to love and hate for the sake of Allah?

Question: What does it truly mean to love and hate for the sake of Allah?
Please give a good answer, taking into context today's reality and how one must act to achieve this! I'm talking about al-wala and bara.
Comment: Al-wal and bara? What are they?
Comment: It means to be loyal and disassociate for the sake of Allah. i.e love and hate what Allah loves and hates or for his sake alone.
Comment: Noticed you were new to Stack Exchange, so just wanted to clarify. Did you know that you can accept answers on your question. Just press the check mark to the left of an answer.
Answer:
The prophet saaws once said:"None of you is a believer until he loves for his brother (his fellow Muslims) what he loves for himself." (Sahih Muslim)

Islam truley emphasizes the lesson of love to those who love allah.
the prophet also said

"No, by Him in Whose Hand my soul is, (you will not have complete faith) till I am dearer to you than your own self." Then 'Umar said to him, "However, now, by Allah, you are dearer to me than my own self." The Prophet said, "Now, O 'Umar, (now you are a believer)." bukhari 78:628

the reason for this is if you love the prophet and those who are good you will want to be like these people. Also by loving those who love allah, its demonstrating your own love for allah.
If you think about it todays example, you will see that many people idolize celebraties musicians, and others who do no benifit to the world. This wouldnt be loving people for the sake of allah, it would in fact be the opposite if you love somone who denies that allah exists. Also, when you love people of negative influence, you will want to act like these people.However, if you love people like the prophet, you local mosque sheikh, a very righteous person, you will have influence to be like these people.Also, you would be loving these peopel for allah, you are giving these wondrful people you love to them and allah, and benifiting yourself with their example. This is what it mean to love people for allah.
so in conclusion by loving those who love allah you demonstrate your love for allah, and you recive your influence from them to become a better muslim.
Comment: can someone shed some light on having association and disassociation in today's reality i.e. with all this non-islamic stuff going on and many muslims have love for this etc.
Answer: It really depends on your perspective of your faith.

But as for those who believed and did righteous deeds, He will give them in full their rewards, and Allah does not like the wrongdoers. [3:57]
أَمَّا الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ فَيُوَفِّيهِمْ أُجُورَهُمْ ۗ وَاللَّـهُ لَا يُحِبُّ الظَّالِمِينَ

Take this verse from Surat Al-i-Imran for example. Allah states that he rewards those who do righteous deeds, but does not like the disbelievers. Does this mean that you should dislike the disbelievers? No.

For you is your religion, and for me is my religion." [109:6]
لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ

So really, Allah does not tell you in the Quran to hate what He hates, and love what He loves. He tells you to do what was told of you, and that He dislikes and punishes those who don't.
Comment: Thanks for that, your bit about Allah doesn't tell you to hate what he hates etc in the Quran. There is a discussion amongst the scholars about this, so something like loving a football star isn't something Islam glorifies on the contrary to love your mother and family this Allah and his messenger love for you to do.
Comment: @abushahin That just proves my point. Allah doesn't tell you who or who not to love/hate, besides things like your parents and family. He tells you what _he_ loves and hates.
Answer: to not care about what people and even yourself want and only care about what God wants. so you should first know all laws of Islam which are wants of God.
Quran says respect your parents but:

And We have enjoined upon man goodness to parents. But if they
  endeavor to make you associate with Me that of which you have no
  knowledge, do not obey them. To Me is your return, and I will inform
  you about what you used to do. (8)

http://tanzil.net/#trans/en.sahih/29:8
this means for sake of Allah you even should not obey your parents if they say something opposite of what Allah says.
also recite this Ziarat every day.
this is the best Love and Hate for sake of Allah:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashura
Imam Ali S.A. for sake of Allah killed so much Arabs from his own relatives in wars of prophet with pagan Arabs like Abu sufyan that he was called by Arabs "the killer of Arab" قتال العرب  and so many of them hated him.
or prophet Ibrahim for sake of God wanted to slaughter his son.
Answer: It is as simple as loving what Allah loves, hating what Allah hates without the interference of your choice/desire/like/preference. Of course it is not so simple when you want to apply this principle to your life. Trying to live a life like this is true/greater jihad and brings in sincerity.
Answer: You love Allah by obeying His commands (laws) and loving as well as emulating Rasullulah(SAW),the pious and hating that which is evil.


Is unopened mascarpone cheese still good if not refrigerated?

Question: I bought a new unopened package of mascarpone cheese yesterday and forgot to put it in the refrigerator overnight.  Is it still good to use?
Answer: Mascarpone cheese is NOT made with a culture. It therefore needs refrigeration, sealed or unsealed. You really should throw it out.
Comment: Welcome to Seasoned Advice, Klaas!
Answer: Any dairy product not specifically labeled as safe for room temperature storage (processed cheese, UHT milk) must be kept refrigerated. If it spends more than 4 hours in the "danger zone" (40-140F), it should be discarded.
Comment: That's not entirely correct. Dairy products inoculated with cultures actually need to be held at room temperature to achieve the purpose of the inoculation (yogurt, creme fraiche). Welcome to Seasoned Advice BTW, I see that you have been busy!
Comment: True; they should only be refrigerated once the culture process is complete. I stand corrected. (It is worth noting that the beneficial bacteria in such cultured dairy products usually are replicating fast enough to prevent pathogenic bacteria from growing alongside.)
Answer: That depends on how it was packaged; check the label.  If it does not say something like "refrigerate after opening" or give a shelf life, assume that it must be refrigerated at all times and discard.
Note that this advise is very conservative, and you will have to evaluate your own tolerance for risk.
See also:
How do I know if food left at room temperature is still safe to eat?


My daughter was potty trained at 18 months and has now regressed. what can i do?

Question: My now 19 month old daughter was potty trained at 18 months and was going on the potty on her own with no accidents for 3 weeks straight. She would run to the potty when she needed to go without even being reminded which is how i know she knew to go on the potty to pee. then all of a sudden one day she decides she is no longer going to go on the potty. a complete 360. What should i do? I did the potty training technique of running around naked and it worked, should i go back to that?
Comment: Welcome to Parenting! Can you think of any major events or changes that might have happened around then -- using a public restroom, for example, would often scare my kids into refusing the potty for a while.
Comment: I don't have an answer, but I did want to provide this helpful resource.

http://www.diaperfreebaby.org/

There's a method of potty training called Elimination Communication and it's often taught from birth, but can be taught to a child of any age. It's basically reading your child's cues that signal she needs to or has already relieved herself. It's helpful because it opens a line of communication (hence the name) so you can understand your child's needs and, more importantly, they feel their needs are being understood. It's not for everyone, but it can be a useful resource.
Comment: I also wanted to add -I have a 19mo daughter, too, and have been attempting potty training with her as well. Whether you follow EC or not, the best approach I have found is very low pressure. Offer the potty at every change, but don't force it and don't give her the expectation that she HAS to. If you set her up for success, she will learn quicker. And good luck. Potty training is one of the least glamorous parts of parenting!
Answer: This is called a 'potty pause' and is extremely common.
First of all, you need to rule out physical causes. Is she constipated? Could she have cystitis or a urinary tract infection? If it hurts her to poo or pee she will resist doing so until she can't keep it in any longer. (Constipation can cause pee accidents as well, as the backed-up poo in the rectum will press on the full bladder. If she has a blockage further up, then some liquid poo might get round it and come out on its own.)
Secondly, has she had a bad experience that has put her off? Perhaps some well-meaning person has been trying to force her on the potty when she didn't want to, or failing to provide a potty when she needed one. Or maybe there's been a big disruptive event (like moving house, a holiday, or a relative arriving/moving out)? These can cause regression in all sorts of areas as the child diverts processing power to dealing with the changes. Once a bit of time has passed and the experience has faded, she should go back to her previous behaviour. In the meantime, try and tempt her back on with a new potty, or a toilet seat adaptor, so the novelty will be exciting.
Or it could just be that life is too exciting to break off and go to the potty. Go back to potty training – bare bum when you can so she has the feedback of wetting herself, tell her she's peeing when you see her doing it (but don't tell her off – this is known to be counterproductive), and have a potty in every room she uses regularly so that the sight of it will be a reminder and she won't have to go too far. Tempt her to stay on with 'potty toys', things she doesn't have at any other time, or a book. Books about using the potty, or poo in general, are particularly good. My daughter is particularly fond of simple jigsaw puzzles.
Did she have any sort of signal she used to show that she needed the potty if she couldn't get to one? If not, try and introduce one – a sign or gesture that you always use when you say 'potty' or when she's on one. She might well pick it up and sign it back to you when she needs to go, even if she doesn't make a move towards the potty. Also, look out for non-conscious signals and point them out to her. 'You're standing with your knees bent and jiggling about. That might mean you need to pee. Let's have a try on the potty.'
If she already knows how it feels when she needs to go and what to do about it, this stage won't last long. She'll soon get tired of having to interrupt what she's doing to get her wet clothes changed. Just keep talking to her and looking out for signals to help her communicate.


How can I tell if a rim is bent or if the wheel is just out of true?

Question: How can I tell if a rim is bent or if the wheel is just out of true?
Comment: This is an interesting question (one I'd like to know the answer to), but it sounds like everyone's answer is that a wheel builder would know. Maybe add a bit more to flesh out what you're looking for?
Answer: The common qualification here is an important one: truing is a skill that benefits from practice and experience (chicken, meet egg). Your wheels are important, and it's important to have somebody who knows what they're doing at least check your work if you're just learning (or if you're disinclined to trust your well-being in dense traffic to wheels you trued yourself).
Having said that, a rim that isn't bent should have more or less even spoke tension across all the spokes when it is true. On the other hand, a bent rim will require higher tension in some spots and lower tension in others. So, noticeably uneven spoke tension in a true wheel is one sign that the rim might be bent.
Answer: Well, sometimes the rim is visibly bent, especially if there are creases in the sides.  But if not visibly bent, and you don't have an experienced eye, then you have to attempt to true the wheel and see if it trues up well.
Some minor dents in a rim can be repaired with the proper equipment, but others require rim replacement.
Beyond that you need to read a book.
(It should be noted that if the wheel is not particularly expensive then this is a good opportunity to learn wheel truing.  If you're reasonably careful (and use the right spoke wrench) you won't screw it up much worse, and, unless you true it, you're going to have to take it to the shop anyway.  So a good time to give wheel truing a try.)
And in response to @WTHarper:
It helps to know how the wheel got cocked up in the first place.  If it was hit by a car then the odds of a bent rim are pretty high.  If it "just happened" -- the wheel went out of alignment on its own -- then a bent rim is very unlikely (and a broken spoke is likely).  If it happened in a "soft" fall -- eg, the wheel slid out from under you on loose gravel -- then a bent rim is possible but unlikely.  It's more likely that some spokes were just stretched out.  If it happened in a hard fall or when hitting an obstruction then a bent rim is more likely but far from certain.
(And I should have mentioned checking for broken spokes:  First check that all spokes are tight, and if any are loose check whether they are in fact broken.  It would be very unusual for a wheel to not "taco" slightly when a spoke breaks, and replacing the spoke should get it back in true with relatively little effort.)
Answer: If you remove the tire and loosen all spokes completely, or better remove them as well, and put the rim on a flat surface, it should become clear if the rim is bent or not.  Obviously this requires some work which may be unnecessary if the wheel simply needs truing, so I'd try that first.  If it fails and you are thinking of replacing or repairing the rim, it will need to be removed anyway.
Answer: First: don't try truing a wheel you rely on without experience!
If spoke tension is high on the side of the rim deviation, then you can improve the true by adjusting spoke tension. If spoke tension is low on the side of the deviation or the tensions are roughly even, then the rim is bent and trying to fix it with tension will make the tension balance worse.
If you can hear tones pretty well, you can check tension by plucking spokes. Either pluck at the cross (in which case be aware you're conflating the tension of two spokes) or damp the spokes at the cross and pluck one spoke rimward of the cross.
On undished wheels, you can compare the tensions of spokes on the two sides (i.e., coming from different flanges of the hub) directly. If the wheel is dished (as with geared rear or most disc-brake wheels), you'll want to pay attention to the relative tension with respect to same-side spokes, and compare that between spokes on both sides of the wheel near the deviation.
For example, if I have a road rear wheel with a rim deviation to the left (non-drive), I know the right-flange (drive) spokes are at higher tension than the left, so I can't compare tones directly. I'll pluck some left-flange spokes near the deviation, and then some other left-flange spokes around the wheel, and do likewise for right-flange spokes. If left-flange spokes at the rim deviation are tighter than average, and right-flange spokes are looser than average, then I can true with a spoke wrench. If it's the opposite, or if the sides are the same, then it's a judgement call (regarding whether truing will be able to correct the deviation while maintaining acceptably even tension).
Comment: "First: don't try truing a wheel you rely on without experience! " is the most useful comment in here.

I got it into my head that I should try wheelbuilding, so I should start by truing these bent rims I have, right?

If adding new warps to a rim is a skill, then I have it.
Comment: A wheel can be trued without prior experience with an understanding of what's trying to be achieved, the target tension for your wheel+spoke type, patient attention to detail, and proper tools (a proper spoke tool and tension gauge) by reducing the tension on all spokes first, then tightening methodically, checking along the way, and understanding which side needs to have tighter spokes than the other. (Wheels are off-center, so the spokes on one side need to be tighter in order to pull the wheel back into the center.)
Answer: The best advice here is to take your wheel to an accomplished wheel builder who should be able to true your wheel if it's possible or rebuild it if it needs it.
Truing wheels is one of those things that's more Art than
Science and once it starts going wrong, it just gets worse.
http://sheldonbrown.com/tooltips/truing.html
Comment: I can tell a lot about the rim by inspection combined with a straight-edge, but I've built a bunch of wheels and repaired several as well. Per Alex, take to a wheel builder and ask him to talk you through the inspection and truing.
Answer: If there are no obvious signs of damage, then the wheel needs to be true in order to tell.
That's because unbalanced spoke tensions can cause the rim to wobble or be flatter in some areas than others.
Other answers say that a bent rim will have higher tensions on some spokes than others. But that's the case only if:

it's true
it has no tire irregularities, such as an uneven tube, or tire protector inside

Higher tensions can be required even on a non-bent rim once the tube/tire is installed, in the second case, unless you can perfectly balance the tire and what's inside.
Answer: The cause of your question should probably determine if the rim is bent or just needs "adjusting" by a qualified wheel builder. If contact with a vehicle or other solid object is the cause of the question, then there's a good chance the wheel is actually bent and will likely need to be entirely re-built or replaced ( replacing may be more cost effective ). If you just discovered the wheel seems to be "wobbling" in a certain spot or is rubbing the frame or forks in a certain area, the problem is likely a wheel rim that needs trueing by spoke adjustment or spoke replacement in a certain area of the wheel rim. In either case, in the interest of safety and rim longevity, I'd suggest having a knowledgeable wheel builder at a bicycle shop take a look at the wheel. That's better than worrying about a possible accident caused by a bad wheel.


How to get Instantaneous Magnitude for a Instantaneous Frequency From FFT?

Question: My understanding if a frequency in my signal doesn't line up exactly with a bin, it is smeared over a few bins to the right and left.
How can the instantaneous magnitude be determined? (do I have to worry about the windowing function?)
Answer: Frist of all you need compute the Magnitude:
windowed = framed .* hann(length(framed))
Fourier = fft(windowed)
Mag = abs(Fourier)

And you need build a Window Kernel based in your Window Function!
For a Hann Window the kernel can be:

   Wk(k) = 0.5 * (sinc(k*(M/N)) / (1 - (k*(M/N))^2))

M=Window Size
N=FFT Size

Of course you can use the same size for both, N and M !
k = Bin Number from FFT / N
sinc = Normalized Sinc, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinc_function

If you have already determined the Instantaneous Frequency, you need find the corresponding offsets for each Frequency and the Instantaneous Magnitude is found when you multiply the magnitude from FFT by your Hann Window Kernel index:
 Offset = abs(InstFreqs(i) / (Fs/N) - i)
 index = floor(abs(Offset) * N) + 1
 InstMag = Mag(i) * Wk(index)

Answer: Instantaneous frequency is given by the derivative of the phase of the analytic signal. The analytic signal is
$$ f_A(x) = f(x) + \mathrm{i} (h \ast f)(x)$$
where $h(x)$ is the Hilbert transform kernel. It can be written as
$$ f_A(x) = A(x) e^{\mathrm{i} \phi(x)}$$
where $A(x) = |f_A(x)|$ and $\phi(x) = \arg(f_A(x))$. $A(x)$ is called the instantaneous amplitude and $\phi(x)$ is called the instantaneous phase. Instantaneous frequency in radians is then given by
$$\omega(x) = \frac{d}{dx} \phi(x)$$
The Hilbert transform has an infinite impulse response and therefore uses the entire signal to compute. Typically one would bandpass the signal to localise the response. This both smears the signal in the spatial domain and removes DC and high frequency components. The values calculated as above are then called local amplitude, phase and frequency. Since the Hilbert transform has a discontinuity at DC in the Fourier domain, it is good to remove this first.
In MATLAB to get analytic signal it is
f_A = hilbert(f);
A = abs(f_A);
phase = angle(f_A);

But now the tricky bit, how to differentiate the phase? This is discussed here:
http://www.mathworks.com.au/matlabcentral/newsreader/view_thread/54129
I would try taking a section of the phase signal centred at the point of interest, fit a polynomial, then calculate the derivative from the polynomial coefficients.
Answer: are you doing this for a phase vocoder or something?  are you doing the short-time fourier transform (STFT) with multiple frames?
i have trouble connecting "instantaneous frequency" (which you get from computing the analytical signal) to "bins" from an FFT output.  you can calculate stuff like group delay, but to get a changing frequency, you need to have multiple frames (spaced in time) and look at the change of phase (at a variety of bins) from one frame to the next.
Comment: RBJ good to see you here, and you are right about the use of Intantaneous Magnitude for a phase vocoder, some time ago I try use it together with a phase vocoder, and is hard connect IF correctly ...
Comment: Yes sorry. I'm using the Phase Vocoder (Flanagan) to get the Instantaneous Frequency.

I just wasn't sure what the best way to determine this frequencies amplitude (I called it instantaneous magnitude).


Save for Web changes color

Question: every time I save for web in Illustrator, my colors change. I've looked this up, but every solution I find, the option is grayed out for me. In Edit > Color Settings everything is grayed out. Also edit > Assign Profile is also grayed out. I've changed the document over to RGB from CMYK and it still converts my colors when using "Save for Web". I need to use "Save for Web" because of the easy scalability it has because I need to scale something up in different various sizes. I also noticed in the settings of "Save for Web" that Convert to sRGB is checked and is grayed out so I can't uncheck it.
Comment: How did you setup your document?
Comment: I can't exactly recall the exact settings, but the color mode was set to CMYK and Profile was set to Custom.
Answer: Have you tried the options on the "Save for Web" dialog?
How many colors are using in your GIF?
Is the option for "sRGB" ticked?
I would set 256 in your Colors and untick the Convert to sRGB option.
Comment: What if I was wanting to save a PNG?
Comment: Same process. Choose "Save for web" but in the drop down select PNG instead of GIF.
Answer: Converting the doc to RGB is correct, but you also may have to convert individual colours in your palette to RGB. They may be CMYK or even Pantone colours. You may have to change the colour of every object on your artboard. Here's a tip to expedite the process a little: select a 'good' RGB swatch in your palette, and then command-click the 'bad' one it's replacing, so that both are selected. Now in the swatches menu select 'merge swatches' and the 'bad' colour will be replaced by the 'good' colour on every object that has the 'bad' colour applied to it. Both colours have to be global, or both not, for the merge to not be greyed out.

Save for Web changes color


How to backup and restore MBP hard drive before reinstalling OS X?

Question: My MBP Retina 13″ late 2012 is showing the stop sign and I know that I need to reinstall my OS. I have not got my hard drive backed up with Time Machine. Is there a way in which I can backup my hard drive to an external drive using Disk Utility and then restore it back once I have reinstalled the OS (I have to restore as for some reason I don't have enough space or something)?
Answer: Absolutely - this is a good plan in general - having a bootable backup in addition to a Time Machine interval backup.
I like to get a SD card / micro SD card and install an emergency boot OS with just enough tools to fix any situation.

How do I make a bootable USB flash drive a Mac?

I would do that before making any changes. Next, you will want to measure how large your drive is - open Apple Menu - about this Mac and look in storage:

For this Mac, you would need 185 GB of space.

Connect a USB drive and partition it to have one free partition that's at least 5 GB larger than the space needed. (I would go 15GB or more larger if you care about speed or ever booting from that partition)
Erase the partition you will be using and format it as OS X Extended and name it "target" or something unmistakable.
Shut down the Mac and hold R when booting to boot to Recovery HD
Use Disk Utility from Recovery to restore data from Macintosh HD to target
Wait - enjoy some tea or coffee or whatever
When things are done, power off and boot holding option - you should see two boot drives with different icons on the grey screen and can test booting from the clone.
Comment: Caveat: If the original is **not** bootable, there is a pretty good chance that the target disk isn't bootable either. Additionally  I miss a hint that the OP shouldn't restore (restore as in Disk Utility -> restore image)  the "backup" but migrate chosen content of the target back to the reinstalled OS X. If the target **is** bootable then less time consuming tasks like repairing the main volume instead of backing up the original and re-installing OS X should suffice.
Comment: @klanomath You rock - I will add a part about making a bootable emergency disk too.


How do I choose the order in which my blockers are chosen?

Question: Under normal circumstances, an attacker can be blocked by multiple blockers. However, I have not been able to find an explicit way to choose which blocker I can pick to be the cannon fodder. For example, when I block a 3/4 creature with a 2/2 and a 3/2 creature, logic dictates that I should choose to block with the 2/2 first, so that my 3/2 would survive; the game quite often disagrees by picking the stronger of the two to block first. Is there a definite way to make this happen?
Comment: The attacker chooses the order to assign damage, not the blocker.
Comment: Yes, I figured this out from the answers. I marked Novarg's answer as accepted because he mentioned settings. I was actually having the same issue with attackers having no control over which blocker to assign damage first, which is what led me to think blockers had control over the assignment of damage rather than attackers. It's all an interesting chain of events that originates from this option being turned on (automatic) by default.
Comment: FYI here is the same question (with the same answer) for MTG 2012:  http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/50781
Answer: No, there shouldn't be a way to choose which creature will block first. There is however a possibility to choose a blocking creature to attack first(so if you attack with a 3/4 creature and enemy blocks with 2/2 and 3/2 creatures, YOU can choose which creature to attack first).
To enable choosing creatures, you have to enable it in the settings. Go to Help & Options -> Settings -> Advanced, and uncheck the Order Blockers Automatically option.
Source: MTGDotP 2012 and 2013 (I don't think that it changed)
Comment: A good answer, especially because it attacks the root of the question, which is that the Q is confused by the automatic resolution for attacker choice.
Answer: According to the rules (from Innistrad upwards), the way the damage is assigned is as follows:
The owner of the attacking creature chooses the order of blocking creatures which the attacking creature will deal damage to. So if the attacking player has a 10/10 and the defender has one 5/10 and five 5/1 and blocks with all of them (ignore that it's a stupid idea to block like this), the attacker can decide to who he will deal damage - logically, he would choose the five 5/1 creatures and the last 5/10 would just soak up the last 5 points.
Similarly, if a blocking creature would be blocking more than one attacker, the owner of the blocking creature decides the order of the creatures it's blocking in which they are dealt damage by the blocking creature.
So, the short answer comes to No, it would be against the rules.


What does きかい and おより mean on this question?

Question:
The correct answer is 1 but I do not understand it completely,based on what I know, the meaning is "When there's the existing machine,please get near to it"
which does not make a lot of sense. Thank you for the help.
Comment: I think next time you should try looking words up in the dictionary. There was no need for this question.
Comment: Totally off-topic but I guess you're using a textbook from good old days or printed outside Japan. That nostalgic typeface's nearly died out along with phototypesetters in Japan.
Answer: The correct answer is indeed 「きかい」 but this is not the 「きかい」 you are thinking of.

「機会{きかい}」 = "a chance" or "an opportunity"
「機械{きかい}」 = "a machine"

The correct answer, of course, is the former.

"If you have a chance to come to my area, by all means, please drop by."

「お寄{よ}り」 is the honorific noun  form of the verb 「寄{よ}る」, which means "to drop by".


Is margarine necessary for my brownies?

Question: I recently got a new cookbook and it recommends margarine for brownies instead of butter. I have never baked with margarine before and my brownies always seem to be fine, but this is the only recipe in the book that calls for margarine. What gives? What kind of difference will margarine make vs butter?
Comment: Many years ago, [Vincent Price](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_Price) appeared in television commercials for butter. Margarine commercials would declare that their product "tastes just like butter". Vincent Price would end each commercial with, "We would **never** say our butter tastes just like margarine!".
Answer: Hello fellow cooker :) ,
by description

Butter:
Most frequently made from cow's milk, butter can also be manufactured from the milk of other mammals, including sheep, goats, buffalo, and yaks. Salt (such as dairy salt), flavorings (such as garlic) and preservatives are sometimes added to butter. Rendering butter, removing the water and milk solids, produces clarified butter or ghee, which is almost entirely butterfat. wiki
Margarine:
Whereas butter is made from the butterfat of milk, modern margarine is made mainly of refined vegetable oil and water, and may also contain milk. In some places in the United States, it is colloquially referred to as oleo, short for oleomargarine.2 In Britain it can be referred to colloquially as marge. wiki

So with margarine, brownies will be "lighter" and not so rich as with butter because it has not the same "fat" as butter.
That's also from personal experience as i make brownies with margarine.
Baking with butter has two major advantages over other fats:
1. Flavour. Shortenings are flavorless, but butter has a smoother and more desirable flavour, adding more taste to baking and pastries.
2. Melting qualities. Butter melts in the mouth. Shortenings or lards do not. After eating pastries or icings made with shortening, you might find and unpleasant film or coating in your mouth. searched
EDIT: i really forgot to answer the primary question "Is margarine necessary for my brownies?"... the Answer is yes and no. it's all about what you like the most! Except this consider that the cooking art is all about a try/failure duo and a little bit of "alchemy" (i like this terminology :D )
Answer: Different fats have a different melting behavior when baking. So it is entirely possible that the recipe has been finely tuned to work best with margarine, and it will be worse with butter. Of course, it is also possible that it is just the ingredient the author prefered to use, and that butter will work without much noticeable difference.
So the only thing you can do is, as with all substitutions, to make a personal test. First, make the original recipe. (Do not start with the substitution!) After you have a feeling for how the original is supposed to work, make a substituted version. I promise you there will be a difference, but it is unclear whether it will be large enough for you to notice, and if yes, whether you will prefer to make the substitution or not. So, you will have to make your own decision which version you prefer.

Is margarine necessary for my brownies?


Is it legal to put IRLP on a 2 meter repeater?

Question: I heard that it is illegal to put IRLP linking onto a repeater on 2 meters in the USA.  I was wondering if this was actually the case.
Answer: The ARRL has addressed this in detail:

Is It Legal?
By Brennan Price, N4QX and ARRL General Counsel Chris Imlay, W3KD
What Part 97 regulations govern VoIP-assisted Amateur Radio?
All of them or none of them, depending on whether you're asking about the "VoIP-assisted" or the "Amateur Radio" part of VoIP-assisted Amateur Radio. Follow this link for a PowerPoint presentation on VoIP by Mike Goldberg, K1LJN.
Many callers to the ARRL's Regulatory Information Branch over the last few years have focused on the novelty of the Internet when asking questions about the legal uses of certain systems. Such focus is misdirected. Part 97 does not regulate systems; it regulates stations. The Commission doesn't care what a ham has feeding his or her station; it cares that the station--not the Internet, but the station--is properly operated. And all the rules that apply to any Amateur Radio station apply to one that retransmits audio fed to it by VoIP.

The gist of it is this: it's not illegal. All the FCC cares about is your station, and what you transmit. If your transmissions come from the internet instead of a microphone, more power to you. Just be sure those transmissions comply with the regulations like everything else.
It does not matter if the protocol you use on the internet is encrypted or not. Part 97 regulates the RF emissions from your station, not what you do on the internet.
Answer: While Part 97 regulates the station and what you transmit, there is still the "no encryption or other privacy techniques may be used" provision (HOW you transmit). As such, VoIP utilizing any encrypted data protocol would probably not be legal.
Comment: IRLP doesn't transmit anything encrypted, just plain clear voice in English. I think encryption won't be the deciding factor.
Comment: The part going over the internet is irrelevant, encrypted or not. The part you can't encrypt is what goes on the air.
Comment: This would mean that IRLP itself is not legal, which is certainly not the case!
Comment: Protocols such as TCP/IP or HTTP are not by default encrypted, they are merely encoded information, such as Morse code is (at a much higher data rate, of course). Monitored/captured/intercepted packets would still be readable by anyone, which satisfies the requirements of amateur radio transmissions being open to monitoring. There are discussions about the subject; some favor the ability to encrypt, some fear it would expose amateur radio to accusations of supporting extremist activities. http://www.kb6nu.com/im-jumping-on-the-anti-encryption-bandwagon/


Why are Sakura's feathers so powerful?

Question: Princess Sakura of Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle has her memories scattered to many dimensions in the form of feathers. These feathers are incredibly powerful, able to do things such protect buildings and water underneath from acid rain. Why do the feathers have this power?
Answer: According here and here,

Sakura is revealed to have strange powers when she has a vision of a
  mysterious symbol and places she has never seen.

So,

Since these feathers represent Sakura's soul, these hold an enormous
  amount of magical power. Each of them affect their surroundings
  differently.

In the last arc we learn that the true power of those feathers are

 to cross dimensions and time.

Why are Sakura's feathers so powerful?


Why are speakers howling when a microphone comes in front of the speaker boxes?

Question: While using the microphone in front of the speaker, it makes a howling sound. Why is it so? How can I avoid that without reducing the sound?
Comment: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_feedback
Answer: This is called feedback.
Put simply, the microphone hears some sound. It sends it to the amp. The amp sends it to the speaker. Some time has passed. The microphone hears the sound from the speaker (now louder), sends it to the amp, and round-and-round it goes, getting louder each time.
After a few goes around the loop, you reach internal limits and resonances in the mic, amp and speaker, which work together to distort the original sound into the howl you hear.
To avoid this, you need to ensure that the microphone "hears" as little sound from the speaker as possible.
Turning the volume down is one simple solution, but of course often you don't want to do that. Moving the microphone further away from the speaker also helps.
A more useful solution, is the knowledge that many speakers and mics are directional. Speakers send sound in a certain direction. Mics described as "directional" pick up sound from a certain direction.
So, point speakers away from mics. Point mics away from speakers. If you have control over EQ, put a notch at the frequency that's causing feedback, in the speakers that are causing problems, or in the mic's mixer channel.
Some mics are decribed as "omnidirectional" - they pick up sound from all directions. These are good for recording ambient sound. They are less useful for live amplification because they make it difficult to control feedback.
One very common approach is to make the stage area much quieter than the audience area, by putting the PA speakers in front of the band. The band won't really hear much from the PA speakers because they are pointing away from them. The band hear themselves through monitor speakers, which are quieter than the PA, and which can be EQ'd to prevent feedback.
Comment: Good question @PraveenJames -- I made it a Q&A here: http://music.stackexchange.com/questions/20697/in-live-performance-what-is-a-monitor/20698#20698
Comment: May I ask you one more thing.. What make monitor speaker different from PA speaker??
Answer: The reason for monitor speakers not causing feedback is the DIRECTION more than the sound level. Since the microphones used for live performance are virtually all directional, the direction the speakers are firing is critical. Monitors are always angled to send sound at the rear of the microphone's reception field, where it is least sensitive. They can often be very loud, especially in the case of a loud rock band with Marshall stacks. Singers gotta hear.
Comment: The lowest sensitivity of a vocal mic is not always directly behind.  With a hypercardiod pickup pattern it can be at something like 160/210 deg rather than a single node at 180 deg.    But that's the right idea, you put the monitor speaker wherever the maximum rejection is.
We've got the possibility of In Ear Monitors (IEMs) now as well.


Question about Schengen visa

Question: I am not an EU passport holder, but currently working in Ireland. I have a GNIB card which is going be up for renewal on the 3rd o January 2020. I am planning to go to France on September 27-October 3 this year which falls just in time within the 3 month allowance before expiration the Schenghen visa requires.
The question is, if the Embassy in France would grant me a 6 month Schengen visa, can I still go to other countries in the EU after October 3 using the same visa that France would grant?
Comment: **Visa C** is based on the 90/180 rule. **Visa D** is for longer periods and is a **national** visa. During the time of a Visa D, travel to **other** Schengen Countries are permitted based on the 90/180 rule while inside those countries.
Answer:
If the Embassy in France would grant me a 6 month schengen visa, can I still go to other countries in the EU after October 3 using the same visa that france would grant?

Yes (subject of course to the other conditions of short-term travel to the Schengen area).  It strikes me as unlikely, however, that France will give you a visa valid beyond the expiration of your residence permit.
(The previous version of this answer was based on a misreading of the question.)
Comment: his GNIB card needs renewal, his passport is not meantioned.
Comment: @anonIreland as far as I'm aware, the validity of the GNIB is only relevant to the visa application, not to the actual trip.
Comment: @MarkJohnson I see. Thanks for the correction.
Comment: but after oct 3, the gnib is now within the 3 month expiration period. will i still be permitted to go inside other schengen countries using the visa from france? or will i be stopped in the airport?

Question about Schengen visa


How were copies of movies meant to be distributed to theaters made?

Question: In the "olden days" before digital movie projection and the Digital Cinema Package were around, movies were recorded onto film (usually 35mm, I have heard of 70mm instances). The "master film" was the 35mm roll, and somehow copies were made to be distributed to theaters, which could also be in the 35mm format but 16mm could be used as well. Just how was this done effectively?
Answer: Regardless of format; 16, 35, 65, etc... The studios would distrubute release prints. The prints were shipped (speaking about 35mm here) on 2000' reels; 5 reels to a can.
In the olden day's they would use two projectors and the projectionist would have to literally load reel one, and two to the other, and they would switch over. Back and forth. A typical movie in today's world (2 hours) would run about 5 reels.
So let's talk the 1990s. The theater receives a can of 5 reels. The reels would be sent up to the projectionist booth. The projectionist would then assemble the reels into one giant reel; on a platter; basically a large spinning lazy-susan. The platter can feed either from the inside; called the core (the core is roughly 10 inches; and has a center mechanism so with rollers in an assembly so the film never has to be "rewound".
The projectionist would first add blank leader, just black, typically 30 seconds; then they would use a film splicer and film tape to add the theater opening title, and each trailer which would play before the film. Some films; shipped with specific trailers on them. But most times; there would be racks and racks of trailers (small film reels about 6 inches (3 minutes) of film; and the projectionist would; whatever his preference or theater policy; add the trailers he wanted (typically matching action with action films, etc). Then any other small film reels would be added; "Turn off your cell phones". Etc.
Lastly; the projectionist would add reel 1, then 2, and so on; and the platter is motorized so it literally pulls the film off the reel which is setup on a rolling stand.
Each reel would need to be checked at the tails; and spliced and glued together.
The final reel would be a very large reel of film; roughly 5 feet in diameter, with a core about 10 inches in the middle.
Because this would be the "first run", the start of the movie would be on the inside, in the core; so the film would be pulled out of the core; through multiple rollers; and into the projector; and then fed to a take up platter either below or above the feed platter. (Typically there would be 3 platters so you could have more than one movie available on any given screen).
This setup would yield after the movie with the film left on a new platter, ready to be "re-threaded" through the projector.  Every showing required the projectionist to check the platter; and reload the projector threading the film over rollers with sprockets; through the gate, and then to the take up reel.
Release Prints were VERY expensive for the studios to produce. So many theaters had rollers for "Big Releases" - think "Titanic"; where one platter would run through the projector, then instead of going straight to a take up platter; it would be fed through a series of rollers down a long wall; to a 2nd or even 3rd projector; and they would have 3 screens starting all at the same time. The final take up reel would be at the last projector.
After the film was finished being run. The projectionist would then literally do the opposite of putting it together. Trailers typically discarded; and the film put back onto the 2000' reels. The film reels would be put back into the can; labeled for FedEx, and sent to a B-Theater; a less popular/lower income movie house.
This is why when you saw movies in the pre-2000s at say an old mall movie theater; there would be lots of scratches and dust, because the film had been played so many times and had been out for so long.
Now; you can find release prints on ebay; I almost bought a "Terminator 2" release print just to have... they were owned by the studio, and destroyed after use... so they are fairly scarce.
The projectionist would have to pay close attention during assembly and tear down; because you cannot rewind the platter.
I speak from being a projectionist for a year after highschool. One time I assembled a movie in the order of reel 1, 2, 4, 3, 5. So half way through the movie people got confused and came out and complained. With no way to rewind or fixed, the rest of the days shows had to be canceled, and the film reels taken back apart and put back into the same order.
Last note; you can typically see the change from reel to reel when watching a movie; either by seeing what's called a cigarette burn (small circle top right of frame), or simply, you notice a weird cut/shift in color/sound where the splice was... Because the release prints were made on multiple printers, color always didn't match reel to reel. Most times, you could at the least (if the film had an optical audio track); a small pop. Towards the later 90s... films went to digital DTS, and THX went digital as well. But before that, the film was a waveform optically printed on the left side of the frame. The audio, was optical.
In terms of how they did it "effectively". It's just how it was done for almost a 100 years. They were very very happy when things went digital. And theaters had to literally fight the studios, because most projectors in film houses were decades old... mechanical... and the studios wanted them all to upgrade to 20K Lumen 4K Dual Projectors (Digital); which run about $200,000 each.
Cheers!
Comment: He asked how it was done effectively; My answer commented yes on some off topic parts; but it discussed the release print process; how the films were transfered from a level film houses to b, then to c houses, then destroyed. The release print costs were a huge cost... as far as the printing process; they simply made "release prints" using a contact printer off sets of negative prints the studios made from a set of master positives; which were made from likely from just a few negatives... quality was lost in each transfer. As far as 35 to 16, that's just done using an optical printer /lens
Comment: This brings back memories. During the mid 80's I was an avid moviegoer, and being **very** frequent customers, a friend and I were invited to visit the projectionist's booth. This was when the projectionist still had to switch the reels manually.
Comment: You seem to be answering a different question from the one asked. You're talking about what the theater did, but the question seems to be asking about how the reels were produced for distribution before the theaters received them.
Comment: Yes, thank you @Martin Andrews for this answer, but what I am wondering is _how_ the release prints were made. I do not understand how film copies are made to be distributed to the theaters.
Comment: http://www.oxberry.com/images/oxberry1600.jpg    They were made on these...
Comment: In my local theater, before they went digital, they used to show "turn off your cellphone" as well as some commercials, with a digital projector (not bad, but clearly not really cinema capable, slightly smaller image etc) and then start the main feature with the film projector. I think Avatar was the last movie I saw on film... or maybe John Carter...
Answer: It would have been unusual for 16mm prints to be struck from 35mm negatives. This would only be done with an optical printer, which is an expensive frame-by-frame process. If an extensive 16mm release were needed for a 35mm film, a 16mm interpositive and duplicate negative ("IP/dupe neg") would be made using an optical printer and distribution prints struck from that. Many dupe negs could be made from one IP. It would be more common for 65mm (so-called 70mm) films to be treated this way using 35mm dupe negs.
Typically 35mm prints were struck using a contact printer, a continuous-flow process, from one of a set a daughter negatives. These second-generation negatives were made using the IP/Dupe Neg process mentioned above.
In the early days prints would be "bicycled" from theater to theater (town to town), with second run and third run venues getting the prints in order. By the end of the chain the prints would be in very poor condition.
Of course, these days the master negative isn't nearly as valuable because everything is done using a digital intermediate process, where the true master is bits on a server that can be "printed" at will.


Questions about Travel History

Question: I am a Nigerian by birth. And i live in Nigeria. I want to ask in the case of travel History and I have been to nations like Rwanda, Kenya , etc , Can I use this as travel history in the cause of applying for a Visa or is it a must I apply for Visas to the EU before In order to use it as travel history?
Answer: Your travel history is a list of all the countries you have visited. You cannot decide what it is, you have a travel history. When you are asked, you should tell the truth. Lies will greatly complicate your life and lead to travel bans when they are found out.
For some visa, having a certain kind of travel history is useful. If you apply for a visa for France, then a history of recently having been to Belgium, and having left on schedule, will be very helpful. The French will assume that if you were about to overstay, you would have stayed in Belgium.
Of course you don't have to have a previous EU visa to get an EU visa. That would make it impossible to get a first EU visa. But the first visa application will get more scrutiny than subsequent ones.
And when you apply for an EU visa, you will have to explain why you travel and what your financial circumstances are. It really helps if your travel history matches this description.
Comment: Going to other countries is traveling. Counties in Africa (except Nigeria, where you live) are "other countries." Traveling from Nigeria to other countries in Africa is traveling. Therefore, you should include going to other countries in Africa in your travel history because it _is_ your travel history.
Comment: So you imply, since I live in Africa, I can visit other african nations and use that as history? Is that what you mean sir?
Comment: @Sam, you do not "use something as" travel history. Either you do have a travel history, or you don't. Visits to Kenya won't be as helpful as visits to Singapore or Australia when it comes to EU visa, but **that is your history.** If you are afraid that your personal situation looks like that of an economic migrant (no good job, no family ties ...) it might make sense to visit "easier" countries like South Africa or Turkey first, to extend your travel history.

Questions about Travel History


End user impact by frequency and timing of updates and enhancements

Question: As an organization, we strive to remain competitive and current. With that, we often discuss UI changes and the impacts they have to our user base. A concern we have is the frequency and extent to which we make changes. Are there studies or rules of thumb(s) available that indicate an acceptable length of time before you can introduce UI changes, big or small? If we as an organization have a variety of applications and have enough resources to update one at a time, what is an appropriate amount of time between updates, i.e., how long can one application be updated to a new UI standard while the others remain the original? 12 months? Second, if each update or enhancement we make, big or small, is to make the life easier for our user base, does it matter the frequency in which we make them?
Comment: I think this should also be driven by insights you have from your users, unless you are an organization on the scale of Google, which seems to make updates whenever it needs/wants to.
Answer: Changes over the UI for every 3-6 months is quite sufficient for a user to know the application & start using it more efficiently & provide you feedback about its pain points.
If you check Photoshop update history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Photoshop_version_history#Version_history
You'll see that they've updated software on an average of 6 months. So did Microsoft Office suite, check there WikiPedia article.
But changes in the UI should entirely depend on User feedback & Analytics. Feedback collection modules like 'Report a bug' or 'Suggest a new feature' should be implemented in the application. When a new module suggested by a user, Community can vote that feature. So for the votes received to one particular feature, you can keep a status log where users are informed if such module is being implemented in upcoming version.
http://forums.gomockingbird.com/forums/44049-feedback-feature-requests
Comment: Thanks for the feedback, Suraj. That helps in regards to general updates to the environment as a whole but what I'm most interested in is the appropriate time in which one application is updated to a new UI standard while the others remain the original? It's not possible as an orgainzation of hour size to update everything at once, we have somewhat of a 'silo' environment. Is it acceptable for a user to have different experiences during their workflow because some of the areas of the application they will visit will be updated while others won't. Thanks, again!
Comment: are we talking about users in general or a very specific & limited set of users?
Comment: Specific user base. They use our applications to do business. Average about 10-14k unique visitors a day.


How to squash stretch the Bounding box so as to get Good Physics effect

Question: I have Surrounded a game Object with a rectangular Box and applied Physics properties to that Box so that load on the computation gets reduced. But i have a problem, whenever in animation if the Game objects body part goes out of the Box then it will not collide, Is there any solutions?
Answer: You can either change the size of your bounding box to encompass the entire object and all it's possible sizes (not very realistic). Or you can make multiple physics objects for the game object. The physics boxes would surround all the moving parts of the game object, and move with those parts in animations.


Not asking for Letter of Recommendation from Masters thesis supervisor

Question: Recently I finished my Masters. My relationship with my thesis supervisor is very bad. He is a professor.  I am very disappointed with his mentoring. He is very lazy and always kept himself busy with work other than research. I expressed my dissatisfaction to him directly. That made him furious at me. I have planned to pursue my Masters degree at a university in North America. Three reference letters are required. I don't want my thesis supervisor as a referee. Other faculty members in our department have agreed to refer me. But will it affect my admissions chances negatively if I don't submit a reference letter from my thesis supervisor?
Answer: It will look a bit weird, yes. And the other faculty members in your department probably do not know you as well as your thesis supervisor, so their letters of recommendation will not be very specific. But I've never seen this be reason for an immediate rejection, which means you can make up for it in the rest of your application.
Probably an unnecessary tip, but: don't express your dissatisfaction with your supervisor in your applications.
Comment: I found few teachers 3 years in my undergraduate and graduate level. They know me very well. Those teachers are good at research and their profile are also good. Will their good profile compensate?
Comment: Unluckily as my supervisor didn't allocate me time for consulting (he only gave me a topic), he knows my strength and weakness less than my other teachers.
Comment: I have wasted a lot of time working with this supervisor. I don't want to waste any more time to mend the relationship with this bad supervisor.


2005 hyundai elantra error code p0501

Question: So my 05 Hyundai Elantra has the check engine light on. I took it to the store & had them put the code reader on & it comes up with  p0501 vehicle speed sensor performance.  My question. .  is it ok for me to drive it until my husband can fix it?  Will I cause irreversible damage or really expensive damage if I continue to drive it today?   The auto part store said I should be fine driving it but I just wanted to get a second opinion
  Thanks
Answer: It should be fine. You probably need a right front wheel speed sensor. At worst the speedometer will stop working until the sensor is replaced.
Comment: @mary - Ben is right, you should incur no ill effects from this. My rule of thumb in these situations is this: If when the Check Engine Light (CEL) comes on, if the vehicle isn't running any differently, then it usually isn't an issue to be overly concerned with. Get it fixed as soon as possible and you shouldn't have an issue. On the other hand, if the vehicle is driving differently, get it fixed as soon as possible ... something is wrong which requires immediate attention.

2005 hyundai elantra error code p0501


Disabling the Source tab in a Component

Question: Is there a way to restrict the "Source" tab based on the Tridion security group. If so, what's the setting to disable it? We are trying to restrict editors from editing from the source
Answer: You can make a basic GUI Extension for your components (there are some guides to do this)
Then in the js of your extension the code that you need could be something like that:
<code>    if (Tridion.UI.UserSettings.getJsonUserSettings(true).User.Data.GroupMemberships.Group)
    {
      if (Tridion.UI.UserSettings.getJsonUserSettings(true).User.Data.GroupMemberships.Group["@title"].toString().indexOf(YOUR_SECURITY_GROUP) == -1) {
         $display.getView().properties.controls.TabControl.disableItem(2)
      }
    }else{
      $display.getView().properties.controls.TabControl.disableItem(2)
    }
</code>
The line :

$display.getView().properties.controls.TabControl.disableItem(2)

Turns the source tab (with index 2) disabled.
Answer: In addition to the information provided by Julián above, we recently used the following Anguilla code to disable the 'Source' tab on Tridion 2013 SP1 (Where we are supplying the tab id, rather than the position):
<code>$display.getView().properties.controls.TabControl.disableItem('SourceTab');
</code>
Answer: Yes, there is a way to do this. Unfortunately it's not OOTB. We had this exact same requirement at a client who only wanted certain "less trusted" editors to only use the WYSIWYG. We ended up developing a custom GUI extension to disable the Source tab's text area based on user's group.
Comment: Thanks Nickoli, I suppose this cannot be shared? Or can it? TridionWorld possibly?

Disabling the Source tab in a Component


What is the saturation of /feed?

Question: I have a Minecraft 1.7.10 server running, and I have the Essentials plugin installed. It comes with <code>/feed</code> which fills the user's health, but I had a question about the command itself. Each food item in Minecraft when eaten will make its given hunger last a certain amount of time, and usually that is displayed either in-game, or on a wiki. What I have not been able to determine is what the saturation of /feed is! Being a command, it does not have a GUI display, so it cannot be checked in-game, and I have not been able to find it on the web. The only semi-helpful link was this server's forum page, but even that didn't give a definite answer. After the saturation is determined, I would like to change /feed to have much higher saturation if at all possible.
Comment: You're profile picture is awesome! While this question fits here, I'd also recommend asking on the forum of Essentials plugin as the people there might know the answer better. Be sure to self answer here if you learn the answer too!
Comment: @ardaozkal Thanks! I'll make sure to do that, and see if anyone there can help me solve this. If I do get an answer I'll definitely post it!
Answer: According to the Essentials GitHub repository, the /feed command sets a player's saturation to 10. Source: Here (See line 73)
Comment: Although this is telling me the saturation, I still have no clue how to change it.
Comment: It cannot be changed without rewriting the class, as the value is hardcoded.
Comment: Still not helpful. How do I rewrite the class?
Comment: The easiest thing to do would be for me to make you another /feed cmd with customisable saturation
Comment: Okay, that would be great but I'll also need instructions on how to install that
Comment: Add me on skype: mariolord640

What is the saturation of /feed?


Is this a real Concorde or just a replica?

Question:

I'm confused with this, the lugs in this bike look identical with another Concorde but the tubing sticker clearly says "Reynolds". (Concorde only uses Colombus, right?)
Comment: Is the reynolds sticker on top of the clear coat or under the clear coat?   IE can you feel the edge of it with your finger nail?  The logo looks right on the downtube.
Comment: Searching suggests that Concorde is a Dutch brand who definitely used colombus but there were some vague mentions of a Canadian version from CCM which used the same name and was made from Reynolds tube.  However googling "CCM Concorde" shows quite a different logo.   Puzzling.   Could it have been repainted with the wrong logo/sticker?
Answer: I have a 1990s Concorde Americas that has Tange tubing. I bought it when it was just a couple of years old.
Comment: congratulations on your bike. How does this answer the OP's question?
Comment: Please brows our [tour] to learn how the site works. You've made the common error of assuming this is a chat forum, whereas SE is a Q&A forum.  Your answer doesn't attempt to answer the question.  Could you please use EDIT to tell the Original Poster if their pictures resemble your one at all?  That would increase the relevancy.
Comment: OP asked if Concorde exclusively used Columbus tube sets, evidence of a bike built with a Tange tube set speaks to that.


InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT resetting itself without MySQL restart

Question: We've recently noticed the following scenario happening in many of our databases:

A record is inserted, and receives an AUTO_INCREMENT primary key.
The record is deleted.
Another record is inserted, and receives the same AUTO_INCREMENT id as the deleted one.

I'm aware that this will happen for InnoDB tables (which is what these are) if MySQL restarts between setps 2 and 3, but it is not restarting. Is there any other event that will cause the AUTO_INCREMENT counter to be re-initialised? The time period between 2 and 3 can be a few minutes or up to a month.
Over the past month we've had some performance issues that we have so far resolved my increasing table_open_cache. The server has up to 8000 databases in use at any one time, and we found that we had a lot of processes in the "Opening tables" and "Closing tables" states. Could this be related?

Edit in response to Rick James' comment regarding FLUSH TABLES
The MySQL documentation (under "InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT Counter Initialization") states that:

If you specify an AUTO_INCREMENT column for an InnoDB table, the table handle in the InnoDB data dictionary contains a special counter called the auto-increment counter that is used in assigning new values for the column. This counter is stored only in main memory, not on disk.

This is the counter that is initialised to MAX(id) + 1 on restart. However, the glossary entry for the data dictionary states that:

This metadata is physically located in the InnoDB system tablespace.

This in turn links to the glossary entry for the system tablespace, which states that it is stored in "One or more data files (ibdata files)". This is contradictory but  I'm inclined to believe the InnoDB AUTO_INCREMENT documentation. If the counter were stored on disk in the system tablespace, there would be no need to initialise it with MAX(id) + 1.
If this is the case, then FLUSH TABLES would have no effect, but if the counter is persisted to the system tablespace then it should work. Does anybody know which part of the documentation is correct?
Comment: Hmmm... I wonder if `FLUSH TABLES` would also "back up" the auto_inc value.  The 'next' auto-inc value has to be stored somewhere, and I feel sure it is not on disk (other than having to do `SELECT MAX(id)+1` when opening a table).
Answer: This can be one of known bugs: https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=77743 (fixed in 5.6.27) or https://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=76872 (still not fixed)


How do I find my Apple ID connected to my iphone if the phone has been lost?

Question: I've lost my phone and in order to access iCloud I need my Apple ID however I don't remember the one that is linked to my iPhone.  What can I do to find this out?
Answer: There doesn't seem to be any easy way to do this.
To do it by trial and error, you can go to the iCloud web-site and login with each of your Apple IDs and try the "Find my iPhone" feature to locate it and/or send a message/tone to it.
If you have any other iOS devices with a similar setup, you can check on them as well.
Answer: There's isn't really a way. I guess you could check iTunes or iCloud settings on your computer to see what account it used?
As well, Apple's iForgot has a tool that will help you find out which one of your email addresses is an Apple ID.


How to Upload Files from a Raspberry Pi to a File Sharing/Transfer website

Question: I have a Raspberry Pi B+ hooked up to my router at home, I can currently access it over the internet using weaved. How do I transfer files from a hard drive connected to the Raspberry Pi to somewhere like https://www.wetransfer.com without using something like the Midori Web Browser?
Answer: Unless your cloud storage provider provides a binary package for the RPi's ARM architecture or source code for one, you may be out of luck. If they provide an API, you may be able to code something yourself.
I would suggest using a provider that supports Linux natively, or using any of the many file transfer options available natively on the RPi such as scp or rsync. Alternately, you could just email the file(s) from the RPi as an attachment.
[Edit] If you're trying to move/copy a file from the RPi at home to your laptop on an outside network, you have several options:

Interactive file transfer from laptop: You could have the laptop "phone home" periodically and connect to your RPi and copy the file using scp or any of the many file-transfer programs that support it.
Automatic/on-demand sync from laptop: You could have the laptop "phone home" and synchronize files using rsync, unison over ssh, or something like bittorrent sync in a more automated manner. This would allow you to set up a 'sync' folder hierarchy and sync the contents with your laptop automatically.
Access laptop from RPi: Depending on your laptop OS (since you mention Samba, I assume it's linux, but could be Mac), you could run a service such as ssh to enable all of the above in the reverse direction. Of course, security issues abound, and your laptop might wind up behind a firewall that renders it unreachable. I've found originating transfers from my laptop to be far simpler and reliable.
External hosting: You could set up and outside server using Amazon EC2 some other hosting provider and have the RPi and laptop push/pull files from there as needed. (I run a small EC2 instance, and it costs somewhere between $15-$23 per month, depending on storage and uptime for a small Debian linux server.) This would be more like the file-sending service you alluded to in that the server is the "always there" transfer point. You might install something like owncloud for this.

There are many (many) other options. One challenge you may face, depending on specifics of your setting, is locating the RPi at your home or your laptop on the road. If the IP address of either changes regularly, you probably need to utilize some sort of dynamic dyns service to allow automatic updating of the current IP address in DNS. noip is a popular service for this.
Due diligence mandates that I point out that this is not a particularly RPi-specific topic and should probably be moved to another SE site... leaving one to wonder why exactly this one exists.
Comment: My goal is to upload a file from the Pi to my laptop, I could use something like Samba, but my laptop is outside of my home network. using weaved I can control the pi from my laptop but not transfer files between them
Comment: I'm not familiar with Weaved, but I am familiar with synchronizing between a variety of computers, including the RPi. I'm understanding that your laptop is the one moving around and that your RPi stays at home. Do you have access to your RPi from outside? By what means? Is it OK if the transfer is initiated by the laptop and not the RPi? If you're using ssh, you could set up rsync to have your laptop "phone home" and sync periodically, or fetch on demand. I do this to backup my laptop files while on the road. I'll edit my answer to summarize some options.


Lauch gimp with 'Acquire screenshot dialog'

Question: Is there a command-line switch to launch GIMP and open the 'Acquire screenshot' dialog directly, rather than going through the menu?
Answer: If it is a command line screenshot you are interested in
ImageMagick has a very good import command that can be used for screen capture.
Comment: Thanks for the answer. I'd like to open it directly in GIMP since then I can easily crop/adjust it.
Answer: <code>xwd >/tmp/snap ;  gimp /tmp/snap
</code>
This uses the xwd utility to let you grab an image of a window then opens it immediately in Gimp for editing, acting as if it has been snapped directly into Gimp. Read the man file for xwd for various options you can add to this line to alter its behavior to what you prefer.
If you don't have xwd (an ancient and pretty common screengrab utility) then use scrot or ImageMagick's "import" to grab the screenshot to a file, and open it in Gimp the same way.
You could make a small script with this line and invoke it with a hotkey (e.g. PrintScreen key) for ease of use. There are issues with using the PrintScreen key though. Read http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=754063#754063 for background info on why PrintScreen key doesn't work properly in many distros and how to very easily fix it.


Does fasting Ashura expiate all sins minor and major?

Question: I have read differing positions on this, but I have yet to see any definitive evidence for either positions. It doesn't necessarily have to be Ashura, it could be Arafah or any related fasting that expiates sins. I would like to know whether 'sins' includes all, or only limited to minor ones?
Answer: There are some hadiths which say it like this, that fasting on the 10th of Muharram (Ashuraa) expiates the sins of preceding year.
And the ruling of many scholars is that by such actions, about which is said that this action will expiate sins, the minor sins are meant. As far as the major sins are concerned, So for them, the sinner should do Taobah (توبة). And if someone has committed a sin which is related to some other human being (حقوق العباد), the sinner must ask for forgiving that from the person to whom he has done the harm.
Following Hadith is given as an example, and many others could be found like this.
and I seek from Allah that fasting on the day of Ashura may atone for the sins of the preceding year.
You can find this Hadith here.
The same Hadith is also narrated by Imam Abu Dawood, See it Here.
And Allah Knows the Best.
Comment: I'm asking about the scholar's rulings and how they came to the conclusion that it's only minor sins and not majors or both.
Comment: That's a completely different question which would require somehow obtaining access to any discussions surrounding the ruling. Basically a history project.


Manufactured home light fixture junction box mountings

Question: I have a Clayton manufactured home.   We replaced the light fixtures in a number of rooms and now the bathroom light fixture as well as the box it is mounted to has fallen out of the ceiling.  We have found that the box was basically held by the Sheetrock and per Clayton, that's the standard.  It's a clip style box that rests on the Sheetrock per the guy my husband spoke with.  I would think this should be mounted to something solid and not resting on something like that.  Can anyone direct me further on what to do or if that's just a bad standard?  I appreciate your help.  I am attaching pics.
Answer: You could replace the box with a braced box, something line this one.

They're designed for the bar to slip up into the hole, and then expand to bite into the nearby structural members. Once the bar is securely in place, the box can be attached to it.
Comment: With a heavily textured ceiling such as your, you probably should consider this solution because there is less chance in causing more damage to the ceiling. It would be very difficult to make a repair to that ceiling that will match the existing one.
Comment: Awesome....much appreciated.  We will definitely try to find this product. :)


Samsung Galaxy s3 won't boot

Question: My Samsung keep booting up and then after the intro where it should show my home screen it showing a blue flashing Samsung sign with the Led light glowing blue as well. I have tried taking out the battery and holding down volume+home+power button. and holding the home button for restarting it. it's frustrating me
Comment: Welcome to the Android Enthusiasts, Erica -- and thanks for sharing your concern! However, we are a Q&A site. To answer your question we need to know it. Could you please update your post to let us know what exactly your *question* is? Do you get to the homescreen -- or is your device stuck at the "blue flashing Samsung sign"?
Answer: Press and hold VOLUME UP and Home(center) button
Press Power until the phone vibrate
Wait until you see the Android logo then release all the buttons.
Select Wipe data/Factory reset with VOLUME DOWN, press Power (right hand-side)
Select YES -- delete all user data with VOLUME DOWN and then press Power
After format, press Power again to reboot phone. (select reboot system now)
Answer: Try wiping it from recovery.
WARNING, it removes all data from phone.

Samsung Galaxy s3 won't boot