What should one do if a close relative doesn't pay back the borrowed money on the deadline?

Question: I've lent some money to a close relative of mine and I noticed he didn't pay back other family members too so what kind of punishment can I give him? Can I harm so bad that he breaks his leg or nose?
Answer: First you need to know the rule of Islam before giving to any thing to anyone

Have two witness  (min)
Write down the transaction
Take the signature of all the people (witnesses, lender, borrower)

If you would had all these, there would not be any problem.
Your next question: Can I harm him, break the leg or nose :) :)
It is Better to involve other relatives and make pressure on him or forgive him, because by breaking his leg or nose you are not going to get anything except something bad....
Comment: Well I have a witness because it was all written down on a pc. But that witness is a stranger and my close relative lives a pretty far away. I can't believe he did it to his younger brother, I hate him for doing that.
Answer: Forgive him if you can afford to ot wait till he can afford to,  and do not try to barter one of his child for the loaned money, it is an un Islamic tradition.
Comment: How long should I wait? Because his behaviour is repeating itself over and over again.


I need help with 2009 Buick Lucerne- Engine and Oil

Question: I have a 2009 Buick Lucerne.  I have recently realized it has been dripping oil. Thought it was another car and it is not a lot of oil.  Anyway, this prompted me to check the oil level.  I usually do this every so often anyway, but fell out of the habit within the past several months due to a lot going on (no excuse, I know).  I never had to add oil in the past when checking between changes with my previous vehicle and I am getting to know this current Buick as quite a high maintenance B*.   I still like the car a lot though, and so, am willing to give it some time and benefit of doubt.  To the point (two days ago) - When I checked the oil level it seemed empty.  There was oil all over the dipstick  before I cleaned it off but after cleaning it off is when it looked empty to me.  There was only oil on the side edge of the stick about an inch or two long.  I put the stick back in and went for another person for second opinion.  I do have trouble reading these sometimes. When I pulled the stick out this second time, oil was all over it again.  I clean it it off, reinserted it and got the oil only on the edge again.  So I put in some oil.  I had to put in two quarts to get it to where it should be.  Now I am very worried I ruined my car.  There were never any symptoms or warnings that my car was low in oil.  No oil light warning.... nothing.  Also I am due for an oil change which I had planned for this Wednesday on my day off.  Then, driving home from work last night, my change engine oil light came on.  Coincidence?  Have I damaged my car?  I am not driving it anywhere now until I change the oil.
Answer: The change oil light comes on when certain parameters are met by the computer. Things like time, miles and driving conditions. It has nothing to do with your current dillemna. Sounds like you have been driving around 2 quarts low. That is low enough to do engine damage if driven too long like that, but also may have done little or no damage. If you don't know a good repair facility, try and find one through recommendations. Tell them your concerns and they will look a little into it to see if you have anything to worry about. This shouldn't cost much. Do not take it to a quick oil change store as they generally do not have the expertise to advise on this. I suspect that once your oil is changed, you will be alright as long as you check your oil once a week.


Can a hairpin (stem loop) within a transcript stall a eukaryotic ribosome?

Question: Is their evidence of RNA secondary structure causing a stall in translation within a eukaryotic cell?
Comment: Hi @LeeAnn, and welcome to biology.SE. Someone has voted to close your question because you haven't shown an attempt at the answer. What prompted the question and how have you tried to solve it before coming here?
Answer:
Can a hairpin (stem loop) within a transcript stall a eukaryotic ribosome?

It seems that could happen.
C9orf72 translation is one of the examples. In this gene, GGGGCC repeats exist in 5' UTR of the mRNA (upstream of the first ATG). The repeats expand in subsets of neurodegenerative disorder such as ALS. The repeats can form a stem loop structure and stem loops of expanded repeats are more stable.
mRNAs having expanded repeats seems producing poly-GlyAla, poly-GlyPro, and poly-GlyArg peptides which codons are GGG-GCC, GGG-CCG, and GGC-CGG from different frames from GGGCC repeat.
This means the translation starts somewhere in or upstream of the repeat without ATG. To explain this, there is speculation that ribosomes stall because of the tight structure of the stem loop by expanded GGGGCC repeats, mistakenly take tRNAs and start translation. It is called "Repeat-associated non-ATG translation".
You might want to refer to:
Repeat-associated non-AUG translation and its impact in neurodegenerative disease.
https://sites.tufts.edu/als/the-answer/c9orf72/
RAN translation and frameshifting as translational challenges at simple repeats of human neurodegenerative disorders


What makes the Pillsbury canned biscuits puff up?

Question: What is it in canned biscuits that makes them puff up immediately upon opening the can yet stops them from raising further? What kind of food voodoo is at work here? Please explain the food science behind this and what additives cause this effect in the "food".
Comment: I'd like to know too :)
Comment: I don't think this is a food additive or anything to do with food science: the cans are simply packed under pressure, so when you open them, they "pop".
Answer: It could be achieved with almost any leavening, but I suspect it's baking soda or baking powder, and not yeast.
You'd just need to package it before the reaction is completed, and let it finish in the container.  This would create additional gas, which would pressurize the can.
As for why it doesn't continue to rise, it's because they can control how much leavening goes in, so they'll have a known amount of gas created.  Once that gas gets to one atmospheric pressure (roughly, depending on how close to sea level you are), it'll expand appropriately.
It's effectively the same sort of process that happens with fizzy drinks -- when you open the bottle or can, you allow the interior pressure to equalize with the surrounding, which causes the bubbles to escape.  The difference in that case is that the bubbles are dissolved in the liquid, and so may need some agitation or nucleation sites to escape.  But there's still a fixed amount of bubbling that could happen.
Comment: I did check; there is no yeast in the ingredient list.
Comment: @WayfaringStranger  Enriched Flour Bleached (wheat flour, niacin, ferrous sulfate, thiamin mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), Water, Soybean and Palm Oil, Sugar, Hydrogenated Palm Oil*, **Baking Powder (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, sodium aluminum phosphate)**. Contains 2% or less of: Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil*, Salt, Vital Wheat Gluten, Dextrose, Whey, Mono and Diglycerides, Xanthan Gum, Propylene Glycol Alginate, TBHQ (preservative), Natural and Artificial Flavor, Color Added.*Adds A Trivial Amount Of Trans Fat
Comment: @SAJ14SAJ Does it list ammonium bicarbonate, or just say leavening agents?
Answer: I used to make the store brand version of the Pillsbury canned biscuits.  It was true that the CO2 is the gas that creates the pressure.  The dough is made by measuring all of the "scaled" ingredients to get the proper mixture, which in turn controls the amount of gas created.  It is then pumped onto a conveyor where it is sheeted.  This is similar to rolling it with a rolling pin.  This is how the thickness is determined.  After that it is cut with a die similar to a cookie cutter.  (although for mass production and varies based on what size and shape desired...Look up rotary die cutting for biscuits-- this was not the tool we used but is the most common way that bakery manufacturing cuts sheeted dough).
We did retard the gassing by keeping the production room cool until the product got to the canning process.  Then we allowed the process to warm.  This allowed the cans to "gas up"  This process actually helps the can seat or seal.  The metal lids are just crimped (rolled with cams) onto the cardboard side.  The gas actual pushes on the can structure until it latches together.
Answer: My suspicion is that the dough is pressurized, which shrinks the gas bubbles in the dough and allows Pillsbury to make smaller, denser containers of dough. When you open the can, the bubbles can expand again, making the dough puff up.
I don't have any proof of this, but this Yahoo Answers page mentions it (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080513195851AABE3vl) and the "Biscuit Bullet" myth (as seen on Mythbusters) seems to corroborate it also.
Answer: I suspect the leavener that does the initial puffing up is ammonium bicarbonate. Ammonium bicarbonate breaks down completely to CO2 + ammonia at temperatures above 30 some centigrade, is a common biscuit ingredient for that reason, and is featured in at least one of Pillsbury's recent dough patents.
This is likely not correct answer, as ammonium bicarb dioesn't appear on the ingredient list SAJ14SAJ provides.
Answer: My guess is that they are packaged in a vacuum which removes any air and other gasses. Upon opening, air rushes in and the dough pops out. Just like a sponge will when sealed in a vacuum.
Comment: That'd just destroy the structure and it wouldn't reinflate, like what happens to marshmallows.


How is electricity produced in star wars?

Question: I am specifically thinking of planets like Coruscant which does not seem to have many natural resources at their disposal. There is a page on Power generators but it says nothing on how it generates the power. I'm wondering if there is a preferably canon answer to this.
Comment: [The power of the Dark Side.](http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Force_lightning)
Comment: this isn't what you are looking for? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Central_power_distribution_grid
Comment: Well, if you are wondering about Coruscant specifically, they import  much of what they need. But in any case, power generation in Star Wars is vaguely defined much of the time, so that one can (a) hypothesize whatever real energy source could conceivably provide sufficient energy or (b) suppose that, as with hyperspace, some fictional physics is at play.
Comment: Randall Munroe says [Yoda](https://what-if.xkcd.com/3/)
Answer: As far as I know, there isn't a clear and unambiguous answer given in canon on this subject. A lot of Star Wars technology is essentially handwaved, a function of Star Wars being more of a fantasy series in space than a sci-fi. However, we do know some things.

High energy plasma is used for at least some power generation. The power station that we saw in the Qui-Gonn & Obi-Wan vs Maul battle in Episode I is described in detail in the book Star Wars: Complete locations. It describes it as a plasma mining facility, where Naboo's natural plasma energy is drawn up from the planetary core, refined, and either used locally or traded with other worlds.
In Legends, we heard about Hypermatter, which consists of tachyons harvested from hyperspace. The main reactors of ships and stations would accelerate hypermatter particles to 'infinite' speed, the particles would annihilate, and the resultant energy was used as power generation, thrust, and to allow jumps to hyperspace.
Fusion reactors are also mentioned in various places, mostly in Legends.


How to convert regression into classification?

Question: So I have a regression problem with bunch of features X, and labels in the amount (price $). How can I convert it to classification problem? I have read about convert label from continuous to categorical possibly thesholding at some points for instance 0-50 (0 class) 51-100 (1 class) and so on till 500 maybe (here thresh-holding to 50). This approach is ineffective intuitively i.e no data lay 51-100. Is there any way to mitigate this problem or if there is any effective way to do this? Like in clustering we can use density estimation can we do that here?
Comment: There is **no standard method**, one can always turn regression into classification using a bunch of different criteria and heuristics. It depends on your data and problem at hand
Comment: You want convert task of predicting the price into a classification task?
Answer: To add to the number of methods you can use to convert your regression problem into a classification problem, you can use discretised percentiles to define categories instead of numerical values. For example, from this you can then predict if the price is in the top 10th (20th, 30th, etc.) percentile. These values you can easily find out using Python's numpy.percentile(X[i], percentile) method, for example.
This type of labelling will place thresholds with respect to the distribution of the data.
Answer: The task you are converting is not actually classification per se, it's ordinal classification. I am pointing this out cause there are implementations that specialise in this matter. Moreover, the task you are asking is how to properly bin the values. For that, you can refer to binning as a pre-processing step. I am sure if you search for "binning python" for instance, you will find various implementations.
Answer: Since your output is one dimensional, clustering the output is equivalent to fixing thresholds. The best you can do is use field knowledge to distinguish the different classes. You can also plot the histogram of the log of your price and see if there is a mixture of gaussians and try to seperate them into classes.
Comment: Can you elaborate on how to separate gaussian mixtures , there is GMM model but that is used for other purposes
Comment: Actually, you seperate them by visualising the graph and fixing the thresholds by yourself. It's a one dimensional problem so you're probably more fitted than an unsupervised ML method to fix the thresholds.


Is there a list of all the EOS cameras using the T3 vertical release?

Question: I've tried to find a complete list of all the EOS cameras using the T3 vertical release for remote shutter release. The only info I got was that EOS 3 was the first camera to use the N3 connector. This does not differ between the cameras that had no remote trigger socket and an actual T3 one (and possible other connectors). Is there a list of all the EOS cameras using the T3 vertical release?
Comment: I'm sorry, I thought you were referring to the Rebel T3 camera that uses an E3 remote connection. Any camera that uses the T3 connector is long out of production and so is the T3 shutter release adapter that was only available through Canon Professional services.
Comment: See http://bobatkins.com/photography/eosfaq/eosfaq24/9miscellany.html#q24
Comment: Note that the material at that link was current as of 1993.
Comment: And the T3 vertical release, as it was officially called, was already rare in 2000.   http://photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0017jd
Comment: No problem, I was not clear. I will correct it. If it was rare in 2000 and EOS 3 was the first one using the N3 the transistion must have been quite immediate assuming there where no other connector in between.
Answer: There were several early EOS cameras that used the T3 connector for both wired remotes and to connect a vertical shutter release. Many of those early models are listed at this link that was current as of 1993. "compatible with T50, T70, T80 & T90 cameras as well as the EOS-1, EOS 5/A2E/A2, and the EOS 620/30/50/RT series when those cameras are fitted with optional grip GR-20"
The vertical release was only available directly from Canon Professional Services and was not distributed via the Canon dealer network. By the year 2000 the T3 vertical release was a rare, hard to find item.
You can still find adapters that allow using standard cable releases with 2.5mm stereo mini plugs (what Canon calls the E3) with cameras with a T3 socket.
Mike Sowsun photos added


Where to find microwave on the road in the US

Question: I'll be driving almost non-stop (no hotels).  I have some frozen curry and other things I'd like to heat up as I travel on down the line.  Where is it possible to use find a microwave to use?
Comment: You want a gas station that has an attached "mart" or a 7-11 or something like that. They usually sell some food that you can heat up (like burritos) so there should be a microwave.
Comment: @mkennedy Some convenience store microwave ovens don't actually have timers on them, but presets (e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4) and you have to guess how long the microwave will actually run.
Comment: will they just let me walk in and insert my bucket of food into their heating unit?
Comment: I asked for it at a 7-11. They were very helpful.
Comment: you are an hero.
Comment: @mkennedy I love you.
Answer: TA Travel centers and similar truck-stop like facilities might be your best bet.  They cater to people spending lots of time on the road.  They often have showers and other facilities that go beyond regular retail restaurant/gas station stops
Comment: You are an also an hero.
Comment: There are other chains with similar services, also.
Comment: @LorenPechtel such as?
Answer: You can buy a microwave that operates on 12 volts. They aren't as powerful as mains voltage ones (600 watts or so, compared to 1500 watts) but they do the trick. You can buy them from places that cater to RVers or mail order.
Here is one example
Note that even at 600 watts, the current draw is 55 amps. You should plan on wiring it directly to your car battery (bypassing the car's fusebox) and also make sure your alternator is up to the task. I.e., if you plug it into the cigarette lighter (which is usually 15-20 amps), you will blow the fuse.

I would also be negligent if I did not take the opportunity to introduce you to the wonders of under-hood foil cooking. Perfect for tandoori chicken on the road.
Comment: Note that these may be designed for trucks and campers. The current draw on a car may be too much (and you might blow a fuse). Check the manuals for both the car and the appliance first.
Comment: I could kiss you.
Comment: You can buy a propane stove on Amazon for around $25, a canister of fuel around $10. Then you just need matches, water and a small pot.
Comment: @MichaelT - I said that in my answer and you won't blow a fuse if you wire directly to the battery although you might hurt the alternator. Not sure why you any upvotes.
Comment: @RoboKaren maybe the wording? or that people wanted to up vote that comment to again highlight the importance of it. There's also the bit that I was partially mentioning this after SztupY's comment and that was fresh in the minds of the readers (mine too - I had mostly forgotten you mentioned it in the answer when reading the preceding comment)? Lots of options.
Comment: OP asked for a microwave oven on the road. If he had asked for how to cook on the road, that would have been a different question with different answers (my tandoori chicken comment aside).
Comment: Sometimes the best answer to a question is to point out that there may be different question worth asking.
Comment: There are cheaper ones, this is just the first one I found.
Comment: a portable stove might do the job as well, and is much cheaper than a microwave: http://www.amazon.com/RoadPro-12-Volt-Portable-Stove-Black/dp/B00030DLEE
Answer: In addition to the other excellent answers, from personal experience when you are farther away from larger highways there are less likely to be large "truck stops" and travel centers. However, gas stations are generally run by clerks who are usually bored and generally friendly, and they rarely if ever object to you using the gas station microwave for your own bring-in food.
Just as when stopping to use the bathroom, it's polite to buy some small item like a bottle of water, soda, souvenir, snack, etc, or just to top off your vehicles tank with gasoline. That way you are officially a "paying customer", and it is extremely rare that anyone objects (or cares) if you use their sink, microwave, bathroom, etc.
Indeed this can be a good way to save money and eat healthier while on the road, while still respecting individual business owners hospitality and good will. When in doubt, just ask something like "do you mind if I use the microwave to heat up my lunch/snack while I'm here?" If you do this while in line to pay for your gas/small items, I have never been turned down or given a disapproving look. Just clean up after yourself and you should have little to no trouble, and if they say "no" then you can likely just drive a block or so and try again at another station.
Answer: I bought the Microwave and we use it on long trips. It was a little tricky getting the connection to the battery, but once that was done, it works very well. It also can be used in motels when you stop. I went back to find a link for you guys, but the AC/DC model is now marked as discontinued. They still sell the DC only model. Here is the link. http://www.roadtrucker.com/12-volt-microwave-wavebox/12-volt-microwave.htm. It's not cheap, at $300, so before spending that kind of money you might want to take a look at the other cooking items they have which are much cheaper. Also they do take a lot of power, but with the high output alternators in the cars today you should not have any trouble. There was a little stove that we bought about 5 years ago that was only about $30, maybe $40 bucks and that worked pretty good. You could plug that into the lighter. It took a little time to heat up food, but you could keep driving until the food was ready.
Answer: Whole foods almost always has public microwaves in the eating areas of the restaurant. Next sentence I also have found 7-Eleven sometimes have customer accessible cents next sentence I do that I'd eat healthy on the road all the time and I'm always looking for my Ruede since I bring my own food next sentence courteous and buy something that's expensive specially at whole foods next sentence another place it's  another sure when our place is college campuses we have public microwave for student so if you go to a college campus somewhere and find the cafeteria specially community college there's always a microwave there so to summarize since I do this all the time and I'm all stars in my car for lunch Whole Foods always has them and college campuses always have them so I make a point of working at those places also some employers have accessible cafeterias that might grocery store
Answer: Some coffeeshops may also have them. For example it seems that some Espresso Royale branches (Midwest) have microwaves.
For chains like Espresso Royale, I don't think the staff there will really give a damn if you microwave your curry for a few minutes; indeed, they probably won't even notice.
Answer: I found one at Arco gas station with a food mart. I bought some drink and they let me use the microwave oven. It's so much better than to buy food from some shitty restaurants: healthy, economy, good taste from own cooking.
Answer: I don't know if this also applies in the US, but I've notices that Mcdonald usually have a microwave in their fast food restaurants. I think they are meant for heating baby food.
Comment: In which country(ies) did tou see a microwave for customers inside a Mcdonalds?
Comment: I don't recall ever seeing this in the US.
Comment: Many McDonald's are run as franchises, so it's conceivable that somewhere in the US there are McDonald's which make available such microwaves. But I've never seen one.
Comment: I've never seen this but it's not a bad idea.


Effects with audio interface

Question: I wonder if some can tell me if I can plug my Behringer amp to my Tascam US 16x08 audio interface?  The reason for doing this is that I would like to use the affects from the amp for recording.
Thanks for your help!
Comment: First, you'll probably have better results if you mic the amp. Second, assuming you still want to plug them in directly, what model Behringer is it?
Answer: If your amp has a line-out, then plugging this into the line-in of your audio interface will work.
You can also use a headphone socket as a "poor man's line-out", and this will work almost as well. Adjust the headphone volume to set levels. And, an "FX out" is effectively a line-out.
Let's think about what this means.
What you think of as an "amp" is actually a bundle of several things.
In a traditional combo you have:

a pre-amp (which brings the instrument level signal from the guitar up to the power necessary to drive the power amp)
a power amp (which produces the powerful signal that drives the speaker
a speaker cone in a cabinet (which turn the electrical signal into vibrating air)

(It's called a combo because it combines these elements -- an alternative is to have the speaker cabinet and the amplifiers in separate boxes)
You mention effects, and that suggests that your combo also contains an effects unit, and this is likely to fit into the chain between the pre-amp and the power amp.
Each of those steps adds some character to the sound - "hi fi" amps try to process sound without changing anything, but guitar amps are not hi fi amps. The pre-amp has character; the power amp has character; the speaker cone itself and even the acoustic properties of the box it's mounted in, all contribute to the sound you hear.
The line-out will be a tap into the point in the chain just before the power amp. Therefore you'll get the character from the pre-amp, and effects. You won't get the character from the power amp or the speakers.
It's up to you whether what's added to the sound by those components matters to you.
I would guess that if you were enough of a "connoisseur" to care, you'd already know the answer, and would be working with an expensive Marshall/Fender/etc amp.
My advice is to plug it all together and see if you like the result. You won't break anything.
If you do find that you're missing something in the sound, that you think was contributed by the power amp and speaker, then consider using a microphone. This is what a most professional studios still do. However it has its issues:

Microphone positioning is a sophisticated art. Yes, you can just put a vocal mic against the speaker grill. But professionals do a lot more than this, chasing the perfect sound.
People say that power amps and speakers sound good -- but they often only really "sing" at high volumes. You might not have the luxury of playing that loud.
Once you start recording with a microphone, you have to start worrying about background noise. If you leave moving air out of the record chain, you don't have to worry about creating silence in the background.

Alternatively you might look at the software amp modelling effects available for many DAWs -- for example Guitar Rig or the amp modelling built into GarageBand. You could use this to add back the character of a power-amp and cabinet, having recorded the output of your combo's pre-amp + effects.  Or, you could plug your guitar directly into your audio interface, and let the software provide the full chain of effects and amp modelling.
Guitar Rig (optionally) models every step, right down to choosing the position and type of a modelled microphone, and the type of simulated room it's in.
Comment: Should be noted that some newer amps (Including Behringer models such as the LX110-GY; I suspect the OP might have one like that) don't actually rely on the colouring by the power stage and cabinet much, but simulate all the colourations digitally and in the end send the signal to a power stage and speaker that in itself behaves much more HiFi than traditional guitar amps. In this case, the line-out will probably sound as good as the amp gets.
Answer: Todd is right a mic is best, your vocal mic on the grill, straight at the speaker is pretty foolproof.
If you are talking about using it like an effects loop, forget it. The input impedance is wrong, the output level is going to be wrong even if it has an XLR output. Any computer will produce vastly better results with free or stock plug ins. And all guitar amps and effects are noisy.
Once you go digital, you stay digital.
Every time you record into the interface it samples the sounds and you have less and less of your music left each time. I have a US-800 and the thing is stellar, yours should be better. Only use effects that go before the amp when recording guitar, like distortion, wah, phaser, etc.
You don't want effects like reverb on each separate track either.  You make a channel with no input on it, assign your best reverb to it with a 100% wet mix, and use the software's send controls to add reverb to each track.
Appendix
I feel I should directly address the points in the comments.
Please read my response above.

I did not say plug ins are better in general. You use guitar FX on
the way in to the amp. The are designed for Hi-Z input (like a
guitar).

The question asked about:

my Behringer amp to my Tascam US 16x08 audio interface

It did not ask "should I reamp through a Marshall in A. Crowley's castle through my Neve console.
This would be "reamping" with:

same amp
probably with the same mic
in the same room
with the same FX he had going in.

Yes pro's do sometimes reamp tracks, typically when they screw up or want to use a scratch track possessed of some unusual genius (usually the former in my experience). But they have consoles with multiple configurable outputs. The current generation of Tascam audio interfaces is really the first range of affordable audio interfaces to provide sufficiently high enough quality input preamps and DAC to enable a home studio to provide broadcast quality results without resorting to pricy outboard preamps. But that quality comes at a price.
That price is the quality of the outputs and ADC which is designed for latency free monitoring, not pristine audio reproduction. I am not talking in the abstract I am talking from extensive experience with virtually identical equipment. You lose quality on the way out (probably having to dither), then you take a line level output and stick into a high z input (I doubt the O.P. feels like spending a bunch of money direct boxes,otherwise there's pretty much no chance of it sounding good), it gets filtered down to the frequency range a guitar typically produces on the way into the internal effects of the amp, gets sampled again, gets the same FX he had on the way in, is dithered and converted back to analog then resampled again going back in.
The producer in the studio down the hall from mine was really into the reamping concept and we tested it many times using Tascam, Focusrite, and Digidesign interfaces on Logic, Protools, and Reaper. We both concluded the resulting increase in noise, loss of headroom, and increased small room ambiance detracted from the overall mix in every case. This was using Marshall, Mesa, and Fender tube amps, and we had the benefit of direct boxes, quality mics, 3 full stacks worth of vintage Celestion speakers, outboard preamps, and some of the amps had FX loops, power amp ins etc.
The only place it proved positive was with bass tracks recorded direct. Maybe our mistake was not using a Behringer? It was also time consuming and a pain to set up.
As to being always more artistic, worthwhile, and fun, well art is the process of creation, when that creation meets, exceeds, or expands our original vision we can say its worthwhile. When the results of our efforts are compromised because we fail to accept the limitations of our tools, that isn't fun, that's frustration.
If you have researched reamping you are probably familiar with the "Super 70's Snare Drum Trick" by Bart Thurber of House of Faith Studios. I asked him about it when I was recording my second album. He replied "That came in real useful until I learned how to get it right the first time."
Comment: I disagree that plugins are better than guitar effects in general, and also that one should not send any recording back to the analog domain for any reason. Certainly high end amps and effects (not Behringer - granted) will almost always sound better than plug-ins, and recording the sound you want is better than trying to craft it in the mix. And there are so many cases where re-amping or making a physical reverb track is a great idea. The pros do it that way and even with low end gear it's worthwhile, more fun, and more artistic.

Effects with audio interface


when do you say "here you come"?

Question: I happened to see this expression "California, Here You Come"  in the article below.
But I don't know exactly what it means or under what situation you native English
speakers say it.
whole story:http://www.sunset.com/travel/california/california-here-you-come
Comment: I think it exploits the ambiguity of whether it is addressing visitors (as a state's slogan generally would) or California itself. In the first interpretation, visitors are bound to come to California because it is such an attractive place. In the second interpretation, California is addressed in a way that indicates that it is an up-and-coming place. The two interpretations together say "you're bound to come here because we're coming up in the world."
Answer: This is a difficult one because it is meant to convey the idea of "You" meaning "I" - "California here I come" which is a through back to the Gold Rush days of the 1840's
In this situation the article does sound grammatically incorrect, but I think the point is that the idea is to push the object on "You" as someone visiting California and not "I".
Answer: Usually, when someone goes on vacation, they express their excitement by stating "California, here I come!" I think this goes back to the days of the gold rush, when people decided to head to California to make their fortune. Al Jolson has a song with the same title.
I read your article, and I didn't really get the reversal in the title. I guess she's referring to everything California has to offer her visitors.
Answer: This headline is not meant to be an example of good English.
The author is daring the reader to visit California.  As mentioned in the other answers, "California, here I come!" is an old saying.  The headline writer is making a pun on the old saying.
If you do visit California in the near future, the headline will become a prophesy.

when do you say "here you come"?


What are the vintage items?

Question: In playing Team Fortress 2 after the most recent update I've noticed a lot of "Vintage" items. What's different about these items? How can I acquire more?
Comment: @Bruce Connor because I hadn't run my query recently, thanks!
Comment: no prob (characters)
Answer: Vintage Items are items that existed prior to the Mann-conomy update that happened on 2010 September 30th.
You can recognize a Vintage item both by its name and name color (which is blue).
If you are trading to try and get Vintage items, note that items can now be renamed... check the name color and make sure it really is a Vintage item.  Also, renamed items should have the items names in quotation marks... i.e. "Vintage Merryweather" instead of Vintage Merryweather.
There are two items that already had Vintage in their name: Vintage Merryweather and Vintage Tyrolean.  These now have Vintage in their names twice for the Vintage versions.
Note: Not all items became Vintage items.  Ones that didn't include:

Gentle Manne's Service Medal
Aura of Incorruptibility
Bill's Hat
Mildly Scary Halloween Mask
Ghastly Gibus (players that had a Ghastly Gibus before the Scream Fortress Update got their Gibus upgraded to a Ghastlier Gibus, then to a Ghastlierest Gibus following the 2011 Halloween update)
The Big Kill
Max's Severed Head
Alien Swarm Parasite
All the rank medals (Primeval Warrior, Grizzled Veteran, Soldier of Fortune, Mercenary)

and all the new items added during or after the Mann-conomy update (except Foster's Facade and Stockbroker Scarf, which are Vintage if you owned Killing Floor prior to the KF cross-promotion).
Unusual hats were also added to the game during the Mann-conomy update.
These are hats have particle effects attached to them, such as ghosts or a sunbeam.  The names for these items are shown in purple.  They are not available through the random drop system, but instead as a rare drop from a Mann Co. Supply Crate, which require you to buy keys from the Mann Co. Store (for $2.49 each) to open.
Of course, like all hats, they can be traded.  Expect to trade a lot of hats for one, though, as they are exceedingly rare.
Scammers are on the prowl... if you're trading, always make sure that, while you were putting your items into the trade box, the person on the other end didn't change what items they had in it.
Strange weapons are a new type introduced with the Uber update in 2011.  They are the same as Vintage and Unique items, except they also track kill counts.  They have an orange name.
Edit: Dumb me, Unusual hats have a purple name, not a green name.  Green names are for community and self-made items.
Comment: For what its worth, I think you wrote the best answer here.
Comment: [kreker](http://gaming.stackexchange.com/users/6077/kreker) says that the Lugermorph can become vintage.
Comment: @Oak I believe that's correct, but I think it's ONLY the Lugermorph from preordering Sam and Max season 3.  The one from preordering Poker Night at the Inventory is not vintage.  I'll double check after work.
Comment: @Dave: That would be correct.  I have one Vintage and one non-Vintage from having preordered Sam and Max and unlocking one from Poker Night at the Inventory.
Comment: @Powerlord Yep, I just confirmed that myself
Comment: In addition to removing the Lugermorph from the list, I also updated the info about the Ghastly Gibus, which TECHNICALLY has a Vintage version because old ones got converted to the Ghastlier Gibus.
Comment: Oh, and speaking of updates, I added the Ghastlierest Gibus, which was added in 2011.
Answer: The main difference between normal and Vintage items is that Vintage items are all the items people obtained before the Mann-conomy update. They can no longer be acquired in any way except trade. This makes them very rare. You can recognise them by their blue name only, since people could also just rename their items Vintage. Also, as pointed out in the comments, the "Vintage Tyrolean" and the "Vintage Merryweather" are renamed to "Vintage Vintage Tyrolean" and "Vintage Vintage Merryweather" respectively.
See the Mann-conomy FAQ:

Q: Why have all my items switched to "Vintage" items?
A: Some items that used to be rare will become more common when they are available for purchase. We wanted to give players this option, but still recognize people who obtained those items "the old-fashioned way" in the past. So we decided to perform a one-time conversion of all the old items into "Vintage" versions, which will never be attainable in the future. This way, those older rare items remain rare (in fact, they're even rarer, because they're limited editions now).

Basically, Valve decided that making items available for money devalued the items, since it is less impressive to buy an item then it is to craft/find it. Therefore they converted every existing item in people's inventories to Vintage items.
Since you can no longer create them (only the items converted at the update become them) Vintage items are very rare, which gives them a higher value in trade. Otherwise they are identical.
Additionally, a couple items are excluded, such as badges, promotional items (eg. Bill's Hat) and holiday items (eg. Ghastly Gibus).
Funnily enough, the Vintage item's rarity will increase over time, as people use them up in crafting.
See also: The Quality article on the Team Fortress wiki.
Comment: Do not be confused by the "Vintage Tyrolean"! Any true vintage item has BLUE TEXT, which means that in the case of the aforementioned hat, you are actually looking for the "Vintage Vintage Tyrolean"
Comment: @Raven Dreamer: Same with the Vintage Vintage Merryweather.  Also, I mistyped your name as Radical Dreamer in my previous post... I must have Chrono games on the mind.
Answer: Vintage items are simply items that existed before the big Polycount patch. There is no functional difference between vintage items and non-vintage items. The only way that you can acquire more is to trade them from someone that already has them.
Comment: So new items I get through the random drops will not be vintage?
Comment: @Ross They will not.
Comment: Side note: The official name of this update is "Mann-conomy" not "Polycount," even though it includes the items from the Polycount contest.
Answer: Some of the more recently added weapons post-date the Mann-conomy update but were also converted to vintage after a certain point, e.g. the Crusader's Crossbow. I wouldn't be surprised if a similar conversion was applied at some point for all the items not currently available in Vintage versions.

What are the vintage items?


How to pay for user resources cost for payable action?

Question: I have a smart contract which has a payable action defined. I want to cover the cost of transfering token to my contract, what's the best way to do this? Thanks.
Answer: It's hard to send inline transfer while executing your action. (@eosio.code permission needs to be added to user's @active permission in advance)
[[eosio::action]]
void signup(name user) {
   /* To make user token transfer in action is difficult */
}

Triggering your action by notification from eosio.token::transfer would be a better solution. User needs to send token with pre-arranged string.
[[eosio::on_notify("eosio.token::transfer")]]
void on_transfer(name from, name to, asset quantity, string memo) {
  if (from == get_self()) return;

  /*
   * parse memo and do necessary things
   * for example, memo can contain action name and its args.
   */
}

Comment: Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. I understand how payable actions work. What I am asking is how to cover the cpu/net cost of user transfer token to my smart contract. Currently user needs to stake a lot of EOS to make transfer, I am trying to find the best way to cover that cost. I understand how ONLY_BILL_FIRST_AUTHORIZER works, but I don't want to leak my private key, even with a custom permission.
Comment: @TommyJiang I don't think there is an elegant way to do it in general. You need to sign user's transaction to pay by your account, so there can be two ways, to provide some frontend (website or wallet application) to handle user's signed transaction (which adds your signature prior to user's), or expose private key with custom permission as you mentioned.
Answer: For people who might have similar question in the future, here is the outline how I am solving it today.
In a nutshell, you need your own API endpoint. The private key is saved in your API server, which will sign the first action, hence paying for the cost of whole transaction. Aaron Cox from Greymass explained it very well here, https://decentium.org/jesta.x/eosio-systemc. To implement it with Scatter, nsjames has a good example here, https://gist.github.com/nsjames/44d9c18879342449a211c49e53c74ccb.
If anyone has a way to do this securely without setting up an API endpoint, please comment.
Answer: you can follow this guide to pay cpu/net for users.
https://cmichel.io/eosio-how-to-pay-for-users-cpu/


How to make material semi-transparent in Cycles?

Question: I have a simple shader with a water texure and I'd like to make it semi transparent.  Using Blender Internal engine, you can do this just by setting the alpha value on the shader.  Is there a way to do something similar in cycles?
Answer: To make a semi transparent texture, place a diffuse and transparent shaders in the input of a mix node in the node editor.

To make water, use the glass shader and play around with the node values.
Answer: It depends on the nodes used to make the material.  The latest "Principled" has a transmission slider that controls transparency.  In cycles that is all you need; with eeVee you also need to enable that feature.
from the docs:


How to make distributor highly available in Always On Configuration

Question: We have clients requested us to configure Always on with Replication. Microsoft does not support it. "The distributor should not be a host for any of the current (or intended) replicas of the availability group that the publishing database is (or will become) a member of. " We do not want distributor to be on the same server as Publisher.
Has anyone faced this change? Do you know the limitation for not having distributor as replica of the availability group. What other options do you recommend to have high availability for distributor in transactional replication in Always on Configuration.
Thanks
Answer: Put the distributor in a virtual machine, and use the hypervisor's high availability tools. This lets you survive host hardware failure. OS problems will still cause issues, though, so for an additional level of protection, you can run clusters inside virtualization.
Answer: What about putting the Distributor in an AlwaysOn Availability Group of it's own on two different servers and make the secondary a synchronous replica? Besides, there's real benefit in a high volume OLTP environment to not having the Distributor on the same SQL Server.


Does Twinned Spell work on Hellish Rebuke?

Question: With hellish rebuke I can take 1 reaction on being damaged by "a creature" within 60 feet to do damage back at him. The Sorcerer Twinned Spell allows me to target a 2nd creature within range. The requirements are only "targets one creature" and doesn't have a range of self.
Reading it as RAW so far Twinned Spell would work on Hellish Rebuke but then the description for Hellish Rebuke states "creature that damaged you is momentarily surrounded by hellish flames". Well the Twinned 2nd creature didn't do damage to me what should I do now?
Answer: Twinned Spell doesn't work with Hellish Rebuke
Well, technically it does, but only if you are somehow damaged by two creatures at once.  Like you note, Twinned Spell only requires that the spell you twin targets one creature and doesn't target yourself, and Hellish Rebuke certainly qualifies.  However, all of the targets of the Twinned spell need to be legal targets.  The only legal target for Hellish Rebuke is the creature that damaged you, so your second target from the Twinning is wasted.
If you were somehow damaged by two creatures simultaneously, you could twin a Hellish Rebuke, but it wouldn't work otherwise.  Also, I'm not certain that the system technically allows 2 creatures to deal damage simultaneously.
Comment: @Grosscol Yes, it does. The reaction trigger is in response to taking the damage. If you don't act on the trigger immediately (i.e. as soon as you take damage), you don't get to react to it later.
Comment: Hellish rebuke does not specify a time frame for the damage.  Just "the creature that damaged you is momentarily surrounded by hellish flames"  As long as two creatures have hit you, and the spell is cast after the 2nd one does, it should have two valid targets.
Comment: @Grosscol if you fundamentally disagree with my answer, you should make a new answer yourself. Your comments here are pretty close to answering in the comments, since you're significantly disagreeing with my interpretation here, and not just clarifying.
Comment: @T.J.L. the content of the spell does not specify that.  If two creatures hit you, and you take your reaction the second time, the first creature still is still a valid answer to "which creature damaged you?"  The spell doesn't specify it has to be the most recent.
Comment: If two creatures prepare an action to hit something when a condition is met, then they can hit simultaneously
Answer: No, it doesn't work.
Hellish Rebuke can only target a creature that damages you. It is not possible for two creatures to damage you at once in 5e.
Example
Let's say you move out of a square threatened by two other creatures, and both use their reactions to attack you, hitting you and dealing damage. Even in this case, the DM determines the order in which these attacks are resolved; one creature hits you, then the second creature hits you.
So even if you choose to exercise your reaction to cast Hellish Rebuke after the second creature hits you, the trigger you are using for Hellish Rebuke is being hit by the second creature -- for the purposes of the spell, THAT creature is the creature that damaged you; the prior attack had already resolved prior to the spell trigger.
Can Metamagic apply to Hellish Rebuke? Of course! You could Empower the spell, for instance, to try to increase the damage dealt back to them. But you can't Twin the spell, because there is no valid second target when the spell condition is triggered.
Answer: Yes; you can use Metamagic on Hellish Rebuke

PHB pg101 : "...you can use only one Metamagic option on a spell when you cast it, unless otherwise noted..."

This is saying that when you cast a spell (whether or not it's your turn as the Spellcasting action, or your enemies turn as a Reaction, you are still casting a spell), you may enhance it with one of your chosen Metamagic enhancements.

PHB pg102:  "...when you cast a spell that targets only one creature and does not have a range of 'self' ..."

This is saying that as long as the spell you are casting targets one creature, and YOU are not that creature (It can be an enemy creature or an ally creature), you may enhance that spell with Twinned Spell, allowing you to choose a second creature (the same one or a separate one) for the target of the spell.

PHB pg250 Hellish Rebuke Range: 60ft  "...you point your finger and the creature who damaged you..."

The important parts of any spell are the first and last parts.  The parts that tell you it's casting time, target/range, duration, and components; followed by the damage structure and type.  Anything in between is flavor text.  If you wanted hellish flames to erupt from the ground and be purple? That's fine.  If you wanted to shake your fist at the creature instead of point? That's fine.  If you wanted to point at the first creature and then point at a second creature after you Twin Spell? That's fine too.  The 'you point at the creature who damaged you' isn't a rule, it's just elaborate flavor text.
So yes, Hellish Rebuke is a spell that the user casts due to the triggering event.  He's still casting it, it's still subject to meta magic enhancement, and you may choose a second target for the cloned spell; the same target or a different one regardless of if it attacked you or not.  Why? Because when you Twin Spell a spell, you are effectively creating a copy of the same instance of magic you cast.  Same goes for using Twin Spell on a spell such as Witch Bolt.  You clone it, may choose a second target, and may concentrate on both each turn as it's a copy of a single instance.
Comment: -1; this answer ignores the targeting restrictions built into the spell in question.


Does cutting meat into pieces make it go bad faster?

Question: Assuming I buy some chicken thighs, and it would be fine in the fridge for a few days until I'm ready to cook it, if I cut the thighs into pieces and mix with some veggies put into a separate container from the cut-up veggies (thanks @Joe), would the raw stir-fry mix (in a tupperware in the fridge) keep the same amount of time? Or would the increased surface area make it go bad faster? Does the answer change if it's beef or pork?
Comment: It's one thing to cut up the meat early -- I'll do it in the morning and give it a marinade in soy sauce (in that case, the salt is a preservative), but don't mix it with the vegetables, as you don't need to cook them the same amount of time.  (you'd now have to cook the vegetables fully through, as they're contaminated by meat juices)
Comment: @Joe Oh, thanks, good point. I'll amend my question to keep them separate then
Answer: Yes, as you said, the increased surface area makes it go bad faster.
Not only that, but bacteria on top of the meat can now go to the middle with little resistance.
Consider the expiration date of ground beef and whole beef slabs.
Pork tends to go bad faster than beef, and freshly butchered pig smells of feces (especially right beneath the skin), but they still go bad faster.
Comment: As Yamikuronue shows, there are alternatives to the word that can't be construed as a swear word _at all_.
Comment: @ElendilTheTall, the expletive you removed was meant as a literal statement. Not as a swear word.


What to do when done Rendering?

Question: So I've been trying to make an intro for my youtube channel and I've made it and rendered it but I don't know what to do after I'm done rendering. Can someone help me please.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [How can I upload Blender videos to Youtube?](http://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/24724/how-can-i-upload-blender-videos-to-youtube)
Answer: Saving a Still Image
(Assuming you have already rendered your image - if you haven't yet, do Render > Render Image)
From the UV/Image Editor menu, choose Image > Save As Image

You will be presented with a screen prompting you to choose the file path where you want your image to be saved.
If you ever see the file path field turn red it means a file with that name exists, and saving with that name will overwrite the existing one.

There are some options for file format and color information on the bottom left.

Then press the Save As Image button in the upper right.

Clicking the "plus" button or pressing + = will increment your file name by one number.
Note that Blender can also be set to write still renders to disk, like it does with animations.
Saving Animations
Specify a file path in the Render context.
Use PNG for rendering individual image frames, or a video container format such as MOV if you want a single video file.

Specify the frame range.

Choose Render > Render Animation or press the Animation button.
Comment: I just added the video info too. :-)  While OP's question was not well worded, and showed little effort, it is a very common question for beginners to have. So I hope my answer will be helpful to other newbies as well.
Answer: You should have set the output folder in the "Render" tab so that it saves the whole video in a specific folder. I guess you'll have to render it again...
Answer: Upload your video to YouTube... Then go to YouTube Studio where you can set some Featured Content in your channel.
But that's not a real Blender related question if you wanted only this as an answer...
Make sure, your render is in one of the supported YouTube file formats, namely .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, .AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, 3GPP or WebM. Only some of them are supported by Blender through the intenally used ffmpeg. It depends on your system and how Blender was compiled, but there already are other questions about this topic...
Consider using the recommended upload encoding settings: MP4 as a Container (without Edit lists), AAC-LC as an audio Codec with Stereo or Stereo+ 5.1 and a sample rate of 96 or 48 kHz, H.264 as video codec*, if possible the same framerate as it was recorded, deinterlace your footage if possible, use a 5Mbps Video Bitrate for 720p or 8Mbps for 1080p for standard framerates (24-30) or multiply by 1.5 for high framerates (48-60) and if possible use a 16:9 aspect ratio. For Audio use 384 kbps for stereo or 128 for mono. Not everything that YouTube recommends can be set up in Blender properly, though.
*For the H.264 video codec use:

Progressive scan (no interlacing), High Profile, 2 consecutive B frames, Closed GOP (GOP of half the frame rate), CABAC, Variable bitrate (No bitrate limit required, though we offer recommended bit rates below for reference), Chroma subsampling: 4:2:0.

To give you a few more details of what to setup in Blender for example for a 25 fps 720p video:

Hit Render Animation (CtrlF12), wait for it to finish and the upload the generated upload.mp4 next to your blend file to YouTube as described above.

What to do when done Rendering?


Does my wallet.dat file contain all wallets?

Question: I have backed up my wallet.dat file, but now I find myself wondering if bitcoin core stores all newly generated wallets in the same wallet.dat file. Of course this is after having accidentally deleted some files I shouldn't have. Can I safely restart my computer and download bitcoin core again, and load the old wallet.dat file or should I have seperate wallet.dat files for every newly generated wallet?
Comment: Do you actually mean separate wallets, or just multiple addresses? A wallet.dat file contains one wallet, but all its addresses.
Comment: That is exactly what I am not so sure about - I never modified/replaced the wallet.dat file, but I clicked create new wallet in bitcoin core - is that wallet just a new address that is added to the same wallet.dat file?
Comment: If you click create a new wallet, it creates a new wallet, which will be in a different file.
Comment: Well Allright I hope I can recover them then, thanks for your answers :)
Answer: A wallet contains many addresses. An address is not the same thing as a wallet.
When you create a new address with Bitcoin Core, it is stored in the wallet that you are actively using at that time. This means it is stored in the wallet.dat file.


Descartes and feral children

Question: How can the slow learning progress of feral children be explained by Descartes? I believe he said that if we don't know something or believe something wrong, it is because we are choosing wrongly (I don't know if this explanation is right). But how would this work in the cases of children who lived for a while in the wild or lived in a very neglected state?
Comment: You may also be interested in the book "Feral Children and Clever Animals: Reflections on Human Nature By Douglas K. Candland" which nicely summarises, particularly the early work on Feral Children.
Comment: It should be pointed out that feral children are not simply uneducated or untrained. They're usually severely *malnourished*, which causes serious developmental problems, including brain damage.
Answer: Descartes believed in the theory of innate ideas, the theory that not all of our knowledge is from education and experience and at least some of our knowledge is knowledge that we are born with.
Another classical example of this theory is presented by Plato in the Meno Socratic dialogue. In this dialogue, the slave boy, being young and being a slave, has no education or no scientific or mathematical training whatsoever, so he is similar in essence to your feral children. Yet Socrates, through a series of questions - but without providing any answers - shows that the boy still has a good grasp of geometry. Per Plato, this is proof that the boy was born with this knowledge of geometry already instilled in him.
Where does this knowledge come from? Plato saw it as proof of souls and past-lives. Descartes saw this knowledge as something God put in us. A more modern take might be that this knowledge was programmed into our neural configuration by the process of evolution and natural selection.
Comment: @DHHU Why it would take older children longer would be more of a psychology or neuroscience question. From a philosophical point of view - I don't have any references, but many traditions talk about a necessity of unlearning acquired knowledge to uncover innate knowledge or something along those lines - presumably older people have more to unlearn than younger people, hence the slowness.
Comment: Oke so if understand it correct, it could be formulated shortly to something 'the feral children will need the guidance a younger child would need the make the same progress in finding the ideas in him/her'? And if that's correct, could Descartes (or Plato) give an explanation why it would take older children (or adults) longer to find those ideas than younger children?
Answer: Descartes had little interest in cases of abnormal psychology. To take an example, at the outset of his long argument in the Meditations, he declared unhesitatingly that he wasn't mad.

And how could I deny that these hands and this body are mine, were it not perhaps that I compare myself to certain persons, devoid of sense, whose cerebella are so troubled and clouded by the violent vapours of black bile, that they constantly assure us that they think they are kings when they are really quite poor, or that they are clothed in purple when they are really without covering, or who imagine that they have an earthenware head or are nothing but pumpkins or are made of glass. But they are mad, and I should not be any the less insane were I to follow examples so extravagant.

That he wasn't mad was not a conclusion of any argument or proof of Descartes's. It was just a necessary methodological assumption, without which his enterprise would have lost its point. Descartes's meditations were meant for normal and intelligent adults. He had little concern with those outside this sphere. Feral children were therefore largely beyond the scope of his work...

Descartes and feral children


RPi-Cam-Web-Interface does not work properly after installing PiHole

Question: I installed a RPi-Cam-Web-Interface using the default settings on my Pi 3. Everything went great, the Web interface worked. After installing PiHole - again with default settings - my web interface always says LOADING.
I have checked the Trouble Shooting regarding this problem on this site. But it did not solve my problem. I am new to web-servers, can you help me with my problem?
(My installation of Raspbian is up to date).
Answer: I solved it by reinstalling the Rpi-WebCam sw, using a different port nr.


Making a CI server build all XCode targets as .ipa's

Question: I'm looking into TeamCity and Jenkins, for a CI server.
My goal is this: every time someone commits a change to our repo, the CI server builds all targets in the project as .ipa's - ready for downloading/installing on a device.
I got Teamcity and Jenkins up and running, using a Mac mini as a build slave. That part of it is working fine.
Using Jenkins XCode plugin, I succeeded in building all targets as .ipa's.
I havent had such luck with Teamcity. The XCode plugin doesnt allow building all targets. Rather, you have to specify which targets you want to build, in each build configuration.
I approached the makers of Teamcity, and they gave me some convoluted method involving meta runners and a lot of duplication, in order to accomplish my goal.
Instead of relying on plugins, I'd rather build the .ipa's using shell scripting. However, as I'm not a script ninja, I can't figure out how to go about this.
I can figure out how to build one target via scripting, but it illudes me how make it build them all. Everytime I create a new target in the project, I don't want to have to add it at the CI server. The server should be able to automatically build all targets in the project.
...Maybe someone has a better solution? Any help is much appreciated.
Answer: What you should do (codes are bash script snippets, ready to run on OS X, you don't need to install anything except Xcode's CLI/Command Line Tools):

if you want to do this for every Xcode project file you have in your repository you should first search for these (if you have a specific Xcode project you can skip this)
for path in $(find . -type d -name '*.xcodeproj' -or -name '*.xcworkspace')

do
after this you can query all the shared (!) schemes through Xcode's command line tool
if [[ "$project" == *".xcodeproj" ]]; then
  xcodebuild_output=($(xcodebuild -list -project "$project"))
else
  xcodebuild_output=($(xcodebuild -list -workspace "$project"))
fi

now you have all the schemes so you can simply xcodebuild them one-by-one

Here's a bash script we developed to search for every Xcode project and every scheme configuration in a repository: https://github.com/concretebuilder/steps-cocapods-and-repository-validator/blob/master/find_schemes.sh
Note: you need to mark you schemes as shared to get xcodebuild (the command line interface of Xcode) list them.


TARDIS-proofing a ship

Question: If the humans can TARDIS-proof a room, then why can't the obviously more intelligent species such as the Daleks, Cybermen and others TARDIS-proof their ships?
Answer: We have no idea! It's a new thing.
Like deadlock seals and "the sonic doesn't do wood," every now and then a writer or producer decides that the Doctor's technology needs to be limited. Sometimes it's done well, and sometimes it's done thoughtlessly.
In this case, the idea of TARDIS-proofing a room was necessary for a cool entrance effect, and it doesn't seem much thought was given to its implications. We haven't heard of this thing before, and that's why none of the Doctor's enemies have ever done it.
That said, the vast majority of the Doctor's adventures have not featured the TARDIS except as a way to show up. TARDIS-proofing your Evil Gravel Quarry of Doomsday Plotting would just mean the Doctor has to park a little further away and walk.
Comment: Maybe the other races just lack the necessary "human stupidity."
Comment: "...to park a little further away and walk." I'm sure he'd RUN (or take a scooter). *Bells of St. John* IMO had one of the better reasons not just to appear there, although I guess that wouldn't have fit in *The Day of the Doctor*.
Answer: Clutching at straws, but it could also be that TARDIS proofing a ship could also affect the performance.
If, for example, you built something that stopped a TARDIS from getting in through time it could, on a Dalek ship, stop them from using time corridors.
Comment: That's a very good point actually. It'd be like making an aeroplane entirely out of the material they use for the black box. It'd be absolutely indestructible, and utterly incapable of flight.
Comment: This is my theory. The line about "human stupidity" makes me think there's a potentially harmful side-effect.
Answer: The Daleks and Cybermen have spent countless years attempting tardis-proofing, using all manner of exotic physics and wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.
UNIT just lowered their ceilings.
Comment: lowered their ceilings ??
Comment: It would probably just land sideways without warning, because that's how the TARDIS rolls (poorly).
Comment: Actually an interesting thought: What happens if they just make the whole room so small that there's never enough room for the TARDIS to materialize. It's able to materialize and then contain something, but so far that's always been a human (or alien) or something else that's pretty small.
Comment: There'd probably be a way around that. There was a first-Doctor story (which I've never seen) where everyone was shrunk to a very small size. I'm not certain, but I think the Tardis was shrunk as well.
Comment: And another first Doctor story where a TARDIS was shrunk and its pilot could no longer get inside, so I guess dimensionality is another wibbly-wobbly thing. (The Time Meddler)
Answer: Maybe its because UNIT have studied the TARDIS in first hand, like when the 3º Doctor was stuck in the Earth.
Maybe its because the room is in a temporal distorsion, like in the Angels Take Manhattan. UNIT find that temporal distorsion and said, "Let's make a Doctor-proof room for our nasty secrets!" or something like that.
This may not be first time that UNIT try to take some restrains into the Doctor, like the Arton Sensors that figured in the 7 Season.

TARDIS-proofing a ship


Why does iPhone and iPod touch auto-brightness setting work relative to a brightness you set rather than absolute?

Question: iPhone and iPod Touch aside, I've always considered manual brightness and auto brightness to be mutually exclusive settings.  Intuitively, auto brightness means exactly that - the device figures it out.  Why is the iOS auto brightness setting implemented relative to the manual brightness setting rather than absolute?  In other words, why is manual brightness even an option when auto brightness is selected?
Answer: Because a one-size-fits-all auto-brightness setting is going to be unpleasant for a large number of users, either because the automatically-selected levels are either too difficult to see, too bright, or eat too much battery.  The automatic setting is based on the threshold you set specifically so that the device can "figure out" ideal settings within a range that you can tolerate.
More to the point, I have a question for you.  Is there a point on the auto-brightness slider that you're comfortable with?  If not, that should be all the proof you need that the slider is necessary!  If there is a setting that looks ideal all the time, you've got nothing to complain about - the system works for you.
Comment: Plus, different content will require different brightness levels, and it would be impossible for the os to know how bright a certain app should be. For example, I want my screen to be brighter when playing a game or watching a movie than when reading an email.
Comment: ^ This.  Another excellent point.
Comment: @Kerin - I'm probably being dense but here goes.  :)  Let's say I set the slider at 25% and turn on auto brightness.  At the time I make this setting I do it so the brightness is comfortable at that time.  When I go into a significantly brighter area, not like 12pm on the equator but something more reasonable, the autobrightness setting increases the brightness marginally but not nearly enough to see comfortably.  I think a great brightness configuration would be implemented as follows.  Forget auto-brightness all together.  Then, the user goes into a "dark" situation (cont. -->)
Comment: (cont.), whatever they consider dark to be.  They set the brightness slider so it's comfortable for them in that scenario.  Then for example they go to the normal office daytime situation and set a brightness for there.  And so on, for their environment.  In reality it's probably <= 5 data points.  Once config is done, the sensor picks up the lighting level at a particular scenario (office, dark, etc) and sets the brightness according to their setting for that scenario.
Comment: Eh, your mileage may vary.  For what it's worth I hate, hate, *hate* auto-brightness but the iPhone's is less intolerable than the other implementations I've seen.  Keep in mind that it's hard to *objectively* judge how well-lit a location is, especially when it comes to fluorescent or natural light.  Fluorescent has the aggravating habit of appearing less bright than it is, and expecting the phone to determine what preset brightness level is appropriate is going to be a crapshoot at best.  Is this space dim enough to be preset A, or is the user just holding the device at a different angle?
Comment: I suppose you're point is valid that it could be more intelligent, but I believe it's design goals were simply to tweak a little more battery life out rather than function as an automated system.
Comment: @HandyRandy - I have no idea which of the options - the current method or the method I'm suggesting - would have the least impact on the battery.
Comment: @Kerin - "Less intolerable" - I love it!  I don't think the logic to adjust the brightness to match preset levels would be too difficult.  The light sensor wouldn't have to match exactly; it could do so within some margin of error.  It would be like the your comment about figuring out the right level.  It wouldn't have to be exact just as the current system isn't exact.
Answer: The reason why the brightness bar is still an option when auto brightness is on is two-fold. First, on the lock screen, when you are putting in your code or just checking time or whatever, the IPhone/IPod Touch uses the actual brightness bar setting for the brightness on lock screen. Auto-brightness only works after you unlock the device (by unlock, i mean the point in time where you can click on apps and such).
Also, the brightness bar sets a quasi-minimum limit, like, if you go into a darkened room like a movie theater, the auto-brightness  will dim the light, up to the level that you have your brightness bar. Kind of like the volume limit for music, except this sets a minimum value instead of a maximum. There are situations where this doesn't apply, which is why i called it a quasi-minimum limit.
For example, if the place you are in is like, literally pitch black (or as close to it as you can achieve, then the difference between your set level and the level the auto-detector wants it to be, is considered extreme, and the auto-detector will override the set level, and put it on the lowest possible brightness.
Hope this helps, seeing as I derived all of this from personal experience with my own usage of the IPhone 3GS and IPhone 4.
Oh, just a note, i mentioned that while on lock screen, the device will use your brightness bar settings, yeah, that only works when it's NOT on the charger. placing the device on charge will automatically put the new lock screen (the one that shows a picture of a battery) on the highest brightness setting.


change access request page in sharepoint 2013

Question: If a user who don't have access to site, visits the site then he should see my custom page instead of Access Denied or Access Request page. Is this possible?
Answer: Yes it is! There is a very cool TechNet article on how to create a custom access denied page, however you need to have access a Front End server with a farm administrator account.
Apart from the Farm Adm account that also has the SharePoint_Shell_Access role for the farm configuration database, I think you would need some HTML/ASP knowledge.
Alternatively, you could create a HTTP Handler to intercept each request and redirect to your custom page. Check this blog post. And this is an code example of a Handler class.
<code>public class CustomAccessDenied : ISPCustomRedirectHandler
{
    public string GetRedirectUrl(string key)
    {
        string serverRelativeUrl = string.Empty;

        var ctx = HttpContext.Current.Items["DefaultSPContext"];
        if (ctx != null)
        {
            serverRelativeUrl = ((SPContext)ctx).Web.ServerRelativeUrl;

            if (serverRelativeUrl.Equals("/"))
            {
                serverRelativeUrl = string.Empty;
            }
        }

        return string.Format("{0}/_layouts/15/myCode/CustomAccessDenied.aspx", serverRelativeUrl);
    }
}
</code>
To learn more about the redirect module, Microsoft(link in the comments) has a nice Walkthrough on how to create and register a custom module.
Comment: [Walkthrough](https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms227673(v=vs.100).aspx) Microsoft TechNet
Comment: Were you able to implement the custom pages?
Comment: Didn't try this one, as I don't have farm administrator account. But thanks for your answer @Murilo Santana


Is there a way to check if your time signature conversion is correct?

Question: I'm just starting to learn Music Theory and trying to practice time signature conversion. I understand the basics but I don't know how to practice because I don't know if what I write is correct or now. Is there some kind of web app that can check for you or is there some other method of checking?
Comment: Can you explain what you mean by "time signature conversion"? I did a web search but it seems like there's more than one meaning to that out there.
Comment: Ya I mean if you go from something like 4-4 time (i.e. common time) to 4-2 time. You need to keep the melody the same but now the half note receives the beat.
Answer: I guess one possible way, based on your comment of moving from 4/4 to 4/2 time, is this:

If the numerator stays the same, find the adjustment to the denominator and perform the reverse operation on the note values.

In other words, you go from 4/4 to 4/2, meaning you halve the denominator. So do the reverse of this to the note values, meaning you'll double them.
Similarly, let's say you want to go from 6/8 to 6/16. You double the denominator, so now you'll need to halve the note values.
Answer: I don't know if there is an automated way to "check" for this specific thing, but there is at least one way that you can be reasonably sure that you have converted your time signature correctly, and that is to compare the measure numbers. For instance, if you are switching from 4/4 to 4/2, and if there were 5 measures in a melody in 4/4 time, then there should also be 5 measures in 4/2 time. You could also check, periodically, that the note that you expected to fall on beat 1 in some measure is still the same note on beat 1 in that measure when you change to another time signature.
If you were to play "Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are," and in 4/4 time, the "how" was on beat 1 of the third measure, then if you switch to 4/2 time, the "how" should still land on beat 1 of the third measure.
I hope this helps!
P.S., This becomes a little more complicated if you switch from a simple meter to a compound meter, but that principle should more or less stay the same.
P.P.S., This becomes even more complicated if you are switching from one number of beats per measure to a different number of beats per measure. Like 4/4 to 3/4. In that case, counting the measures won't work as well. Changing from something like 4/4 to 3/4 is less an exercise in converting time signatures than it is in rearranging a piece of music!
Answer: Sibelius can do this automatically with the 'Double' and 'Half' transformations.  Not sure what other software supports this.
It's pretty easy to check this in any notation software.  Just plug the original and converted music into different files, then double (or half) the tempo as needed.  If they sound the same, you did it correctly.
Answer: If I understand you correctly, you start with a melody and from a specific point of time you want to change the metre. So if this is the case, and you don't want to worry about converting note values, I would suggest to change the time signature but keep its duration constant, i.e. go from 4/4 to 2/2 or 8/8. Or change from 3/4 to 6/8. (This way, you can use the same medoly with the same note values, only the metric changes).
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(music)
Comment: 3/4 and 6/8 are not equivalent.  3/4 has three beats per measure.  6/8 has two beats per measure.  Your other examples do work, though.
Comment: Yes, sorry if I was unclear: that is actually what I meant: 3/4 and 6/8 differ in metre (3/4 has three beats, 6/8 has two beats with three subbeats each). But they have the same duration. Same goes for 2/2 and 4/4...


Post-Package Installation Locks

Question: After a package is installed in an upper environment, for instance from DEV to QA it retains the lock from a user unknown or a user in the DEV environment that is not on QA and only an Admin can unlock. How can I fix this issue?
Answer: Lock will be retained when packaging an item as well as when installing an item regardless of locked user's availability in destination Sitecore instance.
You may write a custom pipeline inside item:saved
<event name="item:saved">
  ...
  <handler type="MyNamespace.UserCreatedClass, MyNamespace" method="CustomHandler"/>
  ...
</event>

and unlock items in your pipeline which are locked in package,
namespace MyNamespace
{
    public class UserCreatedClass
    {
        public void CustomHandler(object sender, EventArgs args)
        {
            if (Sitecore.Context.Job.DisplayName.Equals("Install"))
            {
                Item item = Event.ExtractParameter(args, 0) as Item;
                if (item.Locking.IsLocked())
                {
                    item.Locking.Unlock();
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Note - This pipeline will be executed whenever an item saved directly
  [ex - in content tree] or indirectly [ex - when installing a package]
  but the first line of code will check for job name in context and it
  will execute the code only for package "Install".
Answer: I found out the reason why and a simple resolution to the issue. In order to fix this issue you should do the following:

ALWAYS make sure you remove locks on the items that you are packaging for deployment to another environment. By default, the "locked" file will retain it's "locked" status across environments.

This is problematic if the that user DOES NOT have access to that environment, for instance Staging. Hence, the package was created in QA in a "locked" state, and then installed in a Staging instance, and that developer does not have access to Staging so there is going to have to be an Administrator that will need to "unlock" the items now at this point.
A user with Administrator access CAN unlock the item/s by using the gutter in the Content Editor. You simply right-click in the gutter, click on "Locked Items" and then click on the padlock to unlock the ones in question.
Here is a blog post on how to unlock items in Sitecore:
How to unlock an Item in Sitecore

Post-Package Installation Locks


Automation testing tools for non-GUI installer written in Ruby script on Mac and Windows

Question: I am finding an automation testing tool to test a non-GUI installer which is written in Ruby or power script. The automation tool should work on both windows and Mac machines.
Comment: If it's non GUI I assume it's a CLI installer, right? So what keeps you from starting it via a language of your choice and just check the generated output? I don't think you'd need a tool for that (or that a tool for that even exists).
Answer: The classic tool for testing of interative non-GUI applications is called expect. It comes from the Tcl world but Ruby equivalents are available as well:
https://github.com/abates/ruby_expect


Entity Framework Core 2.1 - Generic Model in FromSql method

Question: I have been using the below approach to call stored procedure in EF core 2.1
In DBContext
public DbQuery<SomeModel> SomeModels { get; set; }

Class
var result = context.SomeModels.FromSql("SQL_SCRIPT").ToList();

I'm trying to create a generic method to execute all stored procedures so that I don't need to physically attach a model with context each time when I call a stored procedure. I'm looking for something like what I have below (Ignore the syntax). Please advice.
public Response SoftDelete<T>(T entity) where T : class
{
    var result = context.<T>.FromSql("SQL_SCRIPT").ToList();
}

Answer: Try following code.

    var result = context.Set<T>().FromSql("SQL_SCRIPT").ToList();


Indeclinables: What are the strategies good Latinists use to deal with them?

Question: I have read that the modern tendency is to translate a modern person's personal name into Latin but not his surname. So John Doe would be translated as Ioannes Doe. This seems sensible at face value, for people to understand who you are talking about, but it seems very complicated when you actually generalize this for every person mentioned and then try to talk about said persons interacting. So if Ioannes Doe decided to hit Ioannes Smith, how could we possibly make sense of who hits who? Smith Doe pulsat doesn't make any sense. You could contour that by always using their first name, so Ioannem Smith Ioannes Doe pulsat reveals that it is Smith who is getting beaten. You can even simplify this by only naming one of them, so Ioannem Smith Doe pulsat, which by context has Doe be the perpetrator. But are there any other strategies used by good Latinists to deal with the proliferation of indeclinables? Are there any authoritative sources that deal with this issue and any prescribed standards?
Comment: If I heard _Smith Doe pulsat_ I would assume the first is the subject and the second is the object, which is the default word order in Latin even if other options are possible.
Comment: That is the more likely word order, yes, so I would also probably go that route if I ever saw that in the wild, but it seems like horrible Latin, because it forces the reader to assume a rigid order that is far from universal as "the" order for undeclinables. Any nuance of emphasis that you might wish to convey then is not accessible in these situations.
Comment: Very true. Indeclinables are unfortunate like that. In Greek you can use articles to disambiguate but in Latin you can't.
Comment: Given their proliferation in modern topics (because of the standard of Indeclinable surnames), I was wondering if there are any modern standards of style and strategies used and agreed upon to deal with this situation.
Comment: Related: [Nominative-accusative ambiguity](https://latin.stackexchange.com/questions/4364). Also, note that Russian speakers seem to get by with the increased number of indeclinable nouns that have apparently come to be in the language, and German has fairly free word order compared to English even though it only has distinct nominative and accusative forms for masculine words.
Comment: @Asteroides German tends to use definite articles with personal names, though, and those decline quite clearly ("Der Michael schlägt dem Simon" – though I don't think it would be done if using family names only). If you go further north, to Scandinavian languages, they all have no cases at all, and while their word order is quite rigid, they make heavy use of topic fronting, through which SVO can become OSV (like in German, but without case markers). In Swedish, _mamma slog pappa_ can mean both 'mum hit dad' and 'dad hit mum'. Doesn't usually cause any trouble there either.
Answer: As cmw says, the most common solution was to simply…ignore the problem. In many cases, the ambiguity isn't particularly bad; there's a default of putting the subject before the object, and the context will often make it clear who's doing the action to whom. That's how it's done all through the Vulgate for example.
But some authors found other ways. The easiest is just to force the names into some Latin declension; now they're no longer indeclinable. Another is to put them in apposition to something which declines; in Classical usage, for example, names of alphabet letters are indeclinable, but you can talk about littera A versus litteram A. While Smith and Doe are indeclinable, Joannes is not.
For names, instead of apposition, you can use a demonstrative like hic or ille—or you can stick an article onto it. Even though Classical Latin doesn't have articles, some later authors back-ported the Romance article li for this purpose, or borrowed the article from Greek. This answer gives some fun examples:

... ne fortè ... per technas Imperium à se τῷ Aly destinatum præriperent.
…lest perhaps…through their artifices, they would snatch away the Empire destined by him for Ali.

In the end, though, simply ignoring the ambiguity (and relying on context or word order to disambiguate it) was the most common solution by far. This is also what Romance ended up doing when sound changes eroded the distinctions between the cases: sacrificing the free word order and relying entirely on the syntax for clarity.
Comment: @VictorBC Very much so! Sound changes eroded the case distinctions away, and word order can take care of nom vs acc, but not so much for the others. So _de_ and _ad_ started taking over genitive and dative.
Comment: Does that also explain partially why prepositions exploded in later periods of Latin? The Vulgate being full of undeclinable names kinda forcing the use of prepositions where otherwise mere declensions would have done the job?
Comment: I marked yours as correct because your response was more detailed
Answer: You may not like it, but word order is necessary, and in fact is what was done with the Vulgate:
Matthew 1.2:

Abraham genuit Isaac Isaac autem genuit Iacob Iacob autem genuit Iudam et fratres eius

There's no way someone will read this and think "Isaac begat Abraham".
For most of the antiquity, it wasn't an issue, so Neo-Latinists have largely fallen in line with that precedent.
That said, context is key. In what non-textbook, real-world example would Smith Doe pulsat not make sense from context? Anything unclear could be made clear in the same way ambiguities in actual Latin could be clarified (hic/ille, putting one into passive, etc.).
Comment: I'm sure you can find *someone* doing *something*, but word order tends to be default. Feel free to wait days, weeks, or months for others to chime in before marking it solved, though, to encourage other ideas.
Comment: I used a very simple example just to showcase the idea of ambiguity caused by not having declensions. I didn't mean it as a puzzle that in itself had to be found a solution. My question was specifically regarding standards, as in, what is the agreed upon or prescribed way of dealing with ambiguities when indeclinables are very common in a text. I am aware that in the Bible they deal with it mostly with a rigid word order and context, but I wanted to know if that was still the current strategy or if others were devised and currently employed. If not, then I'll mark your answer as the right one.
Comment: Yeah, I know there were some people who were, shall we say, creative, like for example the weird custom of using Greek articles to fix the ambiguity (in the Latin text!). Those sort of monstrosities don't interest me though, of course. I was more hoping that some prose composition manual might be showed to give clear instructions on how this *ought* to he delt with. But that might not exist :/ either way, I'll leave this up for a week or so just in case.
Answer: There is a long tradition of translating personal names into Latin or Greek, especially in the Renaissance. One of my favourites is the German humanist Osiander, né Hosemann ("trouser man", half done into Greek and half left in German). So John Smith could become Ioannes Faber. And John Doe could become Ioannes Cerva, or why not Cervus. Both parts are then declinable.
Comment: My go-to example for this is Regiomontanus for Königsberg, which was coined by Philippus Melanchthon, aka Philipp Schwartzerdt.
Comment: I know, and I find that the best way of doing things, frankly. I am extremely perplexed by the modern tendency of leaving indeclinable surnames. It reeks of decadence, taking on the custom of a period in which Latinity was losing space for the vernacular. There are few arguments to be made in favor of it, none of them convincing. It attacks the virility of the language and I hope one day this unfortunate tendency is completely reversed. But given that it is so, the question was not related to changing the paradigm, but what authoritative sources say are good strategies to navigate the paradigm
Answer: I won't claim to be a "good Latinist", but my typical strategy is to switch to passive voice where the agent is marked by a preposition.
Smith pulsatur a Doe.
Comment: That's an elegant solution in case you want to change the usual order of the phrase for the purpose of emphasis!


What is the chronological order of watching Berserk?

Question: There is the original series and the recent continuation and three movies. Is there any specific order or can I watch them chronologically?
Comment: Related: https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/7335/how-much-of-the-berserk-storyline-do-the-anime-and-ova-cover?rq=1
Answer: Berserk Anime is pretty loyal the manga so watching it first is no brainer. Movies are up for grabs, there is no need to watch them if you are watching in continuity since they are basically recap of the original anime.
You should watch the current Anime AFTER the original.
I personally haven't seen any of the three movies, and have heard that the CGI is pretty horrible in action sequences. However, I and many other fans would recommend you to read the Manga (again) after watching the original series.
The original series allows you to have a foothold in Berserk. Manga has beautiful artwork and you can skip the Golden Age Arc if it seems boring to you.
If you don't mind the CGI animation, Berserk movies do take the story a bit further and don't spoil anything from the Black Swordsman Arc which the First Episode of the original series does.
TL;DR Since Both movies and Anime tell the Golden Age Arc only they you can watch Either/both, but people mostly prefer the anime even if aged. The newer iteration of Berserk comes after them
Comment: thank you for your answer.actually one of my friend liked movies so much that he suggested that i watch just those.however i want to get the full experience so was asking for the correct order to watch them to understand the anime properly
Answer: If you want to watch the movies in order, it will be Berserk the Egg of the King, then Berserk the Battle of Doldrey, then Berserk the Advent. As for the actual anime series itself, I haven't yet watched it, nor do I read the manga.


How to book a flight for faculty interview with no knowledge of available budget?

Question: I read that universities invite candidates and ask them to book a flight. If universities don't specify the amount available, can candidates select any airfare? Should the candidates ask or just book any? 100$ or 1000$, would that matter? And do booking the cheapest flight be a positive sign?
Comment: For a postdoc application I just asked "Is it fine to take [flight dates], which costs $[X]?".
Answer: When you're invited for an interview, the university should offer some guidance on how to book travel and what they will reimburse.  If for some reason they don't, it's reasonable to ask how you should handle it.  By default you should book a reasonably priced economy-class ticket (i.e., given several options don't take one that stands out as much more expensive).  It's wise to save a few screenshots of price comparisons in case anyone suggests you should have gotten a much better deal.  If all the available flights seem remarkably expensive, for example if you are invited to interview with relatively little notice, then you can always check to make sure they are OK with the expense (but they will presumably say yes if the expense could not reasonably be avoided).
Comment: In my experience interviewing for faculty jobs over the last few years, I was never given a dollar limit for airfare or any guidance beyond "book a flight and send us the receipt".  I also never had a problem getting reimbursed for any of them.  (In a couple cases the guidance was "get in touch with our travel agent, So-and-So; they will book a flight for you and send us the bill directly.")
Comment: @BillBarth: Yeah, I presumed they would object if I asked for reimbursement for a first-class ticket, but I don't think anyone ever explicitly said that.  (I actually did once book a first-class ticket for a job interview, because it was unusually cheap, but I expected that I would have to pay for it myself, and indeed the employer refused to reimburse it.)
Comment: @NateEldredge, trying booking first class and see if anyone squawks!
Comment: +1 I recently had to book last-minute travel at a pretty exorbitant rate. I pre-screened it to my hosts---"Is it okay if this ticket costs $x?"---and they were a little amused that I even bothered. It never hurts to ask. And FWIW, the reimbursement I ultimately received included instructions, "Book only coach travel;" a little late for that information but I gather that that's pretty common,
Answer: The norm for any job interview is to book an economy ticket and the most reasonable rate (NOT what airline gets you best "points").  It is reasonable to prefer a direct flight and one that works with your personal schedule in terms of departure/arrival times, but even here I would probably do the more inconvenient flight if the difference is over $200.  (With some judgment...for instance if you have other interviews or other hard schedule demands, just do the flight that works best time-wise.)
Sometimes last minute travel, especially during peak demand periods (and summer is one), can be quite expensive.  So if the ticket is above $1000, I would let them know what is coming.  They will very likely say just book it before it goes up more, but it is just nice so it is not a surprise.  Otherwise just book it.
Also, you don't need to clear and pre-budget all the details of your rental car/cab or the meal in the airport TGIF.  You're a grownup now, applying for a grownup job.  You don't need to clear this all ahead of time--it will look unsophisticated if you do.  They will probably give you a form to submit expenses (after the meeting)--if not, just send a letter to your point of contact or whatever factotum at the department handles that stuff (if you know name), with a bulleted list of travel expenses:
*Cab or POV mileage (@IRS rates) to airport, plus any tolls
*Airport parking
*Rental car or cabs at destination
*Hotel
*Meals
Save your receipts--many places expect them to accompany expense reimbursement.  (For some, just the list is fine.)
Comment: Just a little note about how picky is too picky: if you live near a small airport and are traveling to another one, a policy of taking the cheapest flight will have you heading to the airport at 3AM with a five-hour stopover far out of the way. I'm sure there's organizations with picky rules so we should advise caution, but I also can't imagine most schools caring if you pick your preferred carrier for the miles. That's the main carrot used to get people to schedule it themselves.


Do all moons orbit their planets on the ecliptic?

Question: Do all moons orbit their planets on the ecliptic? Do they all follow this same process as the moon that orbits Earth, or is their some random distribution with some even having extreme polar orbits.
Comment: no moon is *exactly* in the eccliptic and no planet (except the one that defines the eccliptic) either. Why should they?
Answer: Of course not.
See Neptune's moons. Triton's orbit has a tilt of 157º from Neptune's rotation plane, which is in itself tilted 30º from Neptune's orbit, just 2º away from the Ecliptic.
Or look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moons_of_Uranus