Can spiders be used like spy drones using brain implants using current technology?

Question: You can imagine doing surgery on the brains of insects or spiders to implant electronic devices and transmitters so that it becomes a drone and will transmit data. To gain intelligence on a target of interest one could release a large numbers of such spiders nearby and steer them to locations of interest.
Comment: Would it make more sense to create a spider with what you are looking for instead of hacking into a live one? It would be a lot easier and a whole not more feasible.
Comment: I would prefer using a bird or a lizard out basically any other larger creature.
Comment: @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 As I understand it, with current technology, an artificial spider with similar "intellectual" capabilities as a real spider would take a large computer to control, so the processing unit would be too large by an order of magnitude to fit in the spider itself. That's why I thought that hacking into the brain of the spider might be more feasible at present.
Comment: I would use a fly over a spider, they pretty much have 360 degree vision so assuming you are getting video signal from their eyes  you see pretty much everything and they're almost impossible to kill. I mean really you don't even have to try to kill a spider but a fly? Those things are almost impossible to hit!
Comment: @CountIblis The problems you are facing with your setup are orders of magnitude more difficult. Take for instance, tapping into the (low resolution) spydie eyes. That would take much more computational power than simple command and control of a drone. (We have yet to do that task, where as we have made machines that walk [very sorta]).
Comment: I hate you, because "spider brain implants" can mean implanting computers into the brains of spiders, or it can mean something far more uncomfortable involving the spiders being implanted.  Not the image I wanted.
Answer: No.
"Feasible" parts (not that it has actually been done, but could be considered true if someone told the world he has).

Connecting an electrode to an spider glanglia to force it to move where you want it to go.

Unfeasible parts

Communications. The small size of the spider means that there is little place for an antenna. Emissions would be very short ranged unless you use LOTS of power (see next point).
Power. There is no battery technology that would provide a power source for the electronnics on the spiders for a decent (3 - 4 days) time range.

Mixed

You may direct the spider, but most probably you cannot "tune in" with the spider senses to know what the spider sees and or hears (even if you "connect" the right ganglia, the signal will be meaningless because the sensory organs are very different). You will need additional video and sound hardware tiny enough to fit in a spider. And power those up with the same battery as above.

Basically, short range of communications and battery life means that the spiders will only be useful if the ISIS HQ happens to be almost next door to you (and if that is the case, drones and troops on the ground would do a better job).
Comment: so in summary, not with current technology, but certainly a possibility in the future.
Comment: Yes... main issue would be the battery life.
Answer: Ooh. Fun question.. And weirdly the answer is a...
Yes!
Cyborg moths are a thing, as are cyborg cockroaches, so we know that we have the technology not just for control of the insects, but also for carrying sufficient power to contact a base station and adding in some small sensing capability (though the spiders aren't the ones doing the sensing). These drones could be used as one shot wonders, going in, gathering data, then using up their remaining power bursting a (reasonably stong) radio transmission back to wherever they came from before finding a nice dark corner (a behaviour already hardwired into most spiders) and curling up to die.
It's also worth noting that 'go into the light' and 'hide' can be effected using chemicals delivered into the spider, letting you offload a lot of processing to the spider while you passively listen for information.
This could be further enhanced by having a larger, more powerful spider 'nest' that serves both as a delivery vehicle and an intermediate data storage unit. The spiders are released, record information, are occasionally controlled via signals relayed through the nest (or if you want a passive system they record, die, and then the nest is picked up later for hard data-retrieval). If you include a solar recharge station in the nest you could even have the spider drones coming back to the nest for recharging (potentially via an inductive loop system in their underbellies).
The two biggest problems are robustness and stealth. Most spiders aren't as robust as moths or cockroaches, so mounting the hardware might prove to be an issue on any species small enough to not be noticed. Oh, and PCB's aren't exactly well camouflaged, so you'd have to work on that.
Other than that you've got a multitude of options. Enjoy your cyberentemology!
Comment: @SJuan76: Depends an awful lot on the quality of the data. Low sampling rate audio can easily be compressed and sent. 8Kbps audio comes in at 60 KB per minute, so we need 0.05 seconds transmission time to send a minute of audio (with no compression, using low speed data over radio). That's assuming our spiders record at all times rather than using any kind of passive capture, which is a really stupid way to build a bug (no pun intended).
Comment: @Sjuan: Steering them isn't impractical if you only need them for a short, targeted mission. The option of just deploying a few hundred of them and hoping some of them get to a place of interest isn't actually as much of a crazy idea as you might think. If you know there's a building you want to map out then dropping a Nest on the roof and sending the trigger for 'get into the warm and head downwards' leaves you with a swarm of spiders autonomously heading down the building, listening to everything and periodically relaying it back to you via the Nest. That's pretty useful if you use it right.
Comment: The issue with "gathering data" is that a) you leave the spider uncontrolled until you get the communication back and b) you cannot send three-four hours of data in a burst, and obviously the spider cannot tell what is important and what is not. You need to continuously monitor the spiders to send them where you want, and to know where you want them.
Comment: @SJuan76: using these bugs as controlled drones is either going to be for incredibly short range, targeted missions (spiders aren't noted for their cross country abilities) or for longer range literal bug saturation missions. In the first case you'll be close enough that you'll be able to use the bug in short bursts of constant communication, in the second you're relying on having hundreds of otherwise passive bugs. These babies could never be effectively used unless you already had a damn good idea where the bad guys were.
Comment: But that's exactly my point... in order to have the spiders go somewhere useful you have to track them continuously. having the means to send the spider "up" or "down" is not useful unless you know where are they now, and just deploying them and hoping that some of them will, at random, get to a place of interest is too much of a stretch. So you cannot just "let them go and have them transmit back later" because they will not go where you want them to go; you have to steer them and that is impractical.


How do I make the lens less sticky?

Question: I have recently obtained a camera that has a lens that was apparently left in the sun/heat, and now the plastic on the lens is sticky. I was wondering if there was a way to make it not sticky without damaging it any more than it already is?
Comment: Is it sticky in the sense that the rubber/plastic itself is tacky, or is it sticky in the sense of there is something sticky on the lens? If it is the latter, it should be cleanable. If it is the former...
Comment: Do you know how long had it been left in the sun?
Comment: I know it's been left in the sun, the person I have gotten it from is from Florida, and where I found it was in an area where it was really hot and not so much shade from the sun and they said it's been sitting there for years.
Comment: it's tacky on the rubber plastic, and it's only on the rubber part as if it had melted, but the rest of the lens is fine
Answer: If it's older, and if it's not a substance (like soda) - then it could be either:
A chemical reaction with something like insect repellent(DEET) or sunscreen (??).  Certain ingredients in these products can react with polymers and paint. I don't know if it's reversible.
OR, if it's old - it could be the polymers breaking down. Rubbery-type Polymers will also degrade over time (and with UV/heat exposure) and become tacky.  I was told by my former Plastics professor, that this was a very bad thing (it's a carcinogen).  Maybe look into getting those components replaced.
Comment: Verify this before you try it - I don't know if it's Camera Safe... but on other things, I've used isopropyl alcohol. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. I definitely wouldn't use it on a lens element (e.g. glass) and I'd be very careful not to let it get inside the lens, but used lightly on the outside (body/barrel) it might be okay.  Also, I would try it out first on a small spot (and with a lot of caution) and then wait.

How do I make the lens less sticky?


What is the difference between a DPY-10, DPY-11, and DPY-13?

Question: My TA mentioned these three mutations of C. elegans since we started working with the worms but seems to skip over what the differences are...
Answer: Dpy is a class of genes. Usually they're written in lowercase when referring to a mutant allele. The name Dpy itself stands for dumpy and comes from the morphological change that occurs when one or more of the genes are mutated: the worms appear short and fat, or dumpy.
Another big class is Unc. Mutations in those genes cause uncoordinated movement.
For a description of the genes, see http://www.wormbase.org


Adding Alt Attributes Automatically when Uploading Images to Media Library

Question: I have lots of images that has to be uploaded via media library. I want to know, is it possible to add file name to alt attribute field automatically when I am uploading them? At the moment I have to open each image and add the alt attribute manually.
Answer: A viable solution I found was adding the post title to images missing the ALT attribute.
Add the following to your functions.php file:
function add_alt_tags($content)
{
        global $post;
        preg_match_all('//', $content, $images);
        if(!is_null($images))
        {
                foreach($images[1] as $index => $value)
                {
                        if(!preg_match('/alt=/', $value))
                        {
                                $new_img = str_replace('<img', 'post_title.'"', $images[0][$index]);
                                $content = str_replace($images[0][$index], $new_img, $content);
                        }
                }
        }
        return $content;
}
add_filter('the_content', 'add_alt_tags', 99999);

Alternatively, if you want to replace the attribute with the file name, you could look into using the get_attached_file function for the $new_img variable.
Answer: I know I am very late to the party, but I couldn't let this one pass because I wrote a plugin just for this: Auto Image Attributes From Filename With Bulk Updater
As the name suggests, there is a bulk updater as well, so you can update existing images as well.


Display more fields in Discussion Board SP 2013

Question: Can anyone tell me which function or part of the code I have to override from SP.UI.discussion.js to display extra fields in subject view of discussion board? Other than the fields it has OOTB.
Answer: You can find a good example in the following blog post: http://aroundsharepoint.blogspot.co.at/2012/11/sharepoint-2013-add-geolocation-field.html
But I think the functions in the blog post are not the correct one. As far as I could find out, the correct one are:
$2z_0: function SP_UI_Discussions_PostBehavior$$2z_0($p0){} and
$2v_0: function SP_UI_Discussions_PostBehavior$$2v_0($p0, $p1)

Comment: Hi,
   is the code inside the fucntions correct? as you are saying they have mentioned the wrong functions because I am not able to make it work.

Thanks and Regards,
Alamzeb
Comment: For me the code worked just fine.Did you replace the column names in the JS code in the article?
Comment: Ah. Another possible problem:
SharePoint does some kind of caching with these JS files on the server side. Try the following: edit the discussion list webpart, select a different view (e.g. management), save it, switch back to the subjects view and save the webpart again. This should lead to a reloading of the JS file.

I hope you dont forgot to add your custom field to the viewfields in the JS (just search for "", just a simple CAML, you should know what to do about it)
Comment: well it is working now.. Thanks alot, but don't know why if I customize the sharepoint default subject view or create the new custom subject, the navigation is broken. Rather than opening itemdetail(Flatview of discussionboard) when clicking on any discussion title, it tries to open the itemdetail in the same subject view. Do you have any idea about this?
Comment: I can't seem to use this technique all the way: Since I don't want to damage my discussions rendering on the entire Web App, I've copied "SP.UI.discussion.js" locally into some folder of my site collection root site, and changed the path to /sites/MYSITE/FOLDER/SP.UI.discussion.js in allItems.aspx, using SP Designer.
I don't get an error (hurray!) but the rendering is completely different now. It doesn't look like those fancy SharePoint discussions anymore, only like a normal list display (with all the columns). What did I do wrong?


How does applying Z gate to $|0\rangle$ change the phase of other states during reflection about $|s\rangle$ in Grover algorithm in Qiskit textbook

Question: I am trying to understand the Reflection Gate - Us explained for 2 qubits in the qiskit textbook. In the explanation it is mentioned that first Hadamard gate is applied to change the state $|s\rangle$ to $|0\rangle$ then a circuit adds negative phase to all the states orthogonal to $|s\rangle$ and this is done by applying 2 $Z$ (one each on both the qubits) gates followed by a controlled $Z$. I am confused about this because once $|s\rangle$ goes to $|0\rangle$ there won't be any superposition so $Z$ gates won't do anything at all because the effect of $Z$ gates on computational basis is to change $|1\rangle$ to $-|1\rangle$. Can someone please explain. This question is different from other questions asked so please do not link it to other questions.
Comment: Related question: https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/15766/why-does-grovers-algorithm-rotate-around-000-0-rangle/15838#15838
Answer: In a nutshell:
The key fact to remember is that what you called the reflection gate is only applied after the oracle. Therefore, the state is not $|s\rangle$ anymore.

Detailed answer:
To show in more detail what's going on we can calculate a concrete example.
In general, Grover's algorithm apply the Grover operator $Q$ defined as
$$
Q = H^{\otimes n}S_0 H^{\otimes n} S_f
$$
where $H$ is the Hadamard gate, $S_0 = 2|0\rangle^{\otimes n}\langle 0|^{\otimes n} - \mathbb I$ is a reflection about the $|0\rangle^{\otimes n}$
state and $S_f$ is the oracle. Sometimes we group the first three operations and call it "diffusion" because it equals a reflection about the maximally superposed state:
$$
Q = S_{+} S_f
$$
with the diffusion operator $S_+ = 2|+\rangle^{\otimes n}\langle +|^{\otimes n} - \mathbb I$.
In the standard formulation of Grover's algorithm, we initialize a maximally superposed state and apply $Q$ a specific number of times $p$ to amplify the amplitude of the solution bitstring:
$$
Q^p H^{\otimes n} |0\rangle^{\otimes n}.
$$
If you know the number of solutions you can calculate $p$, otherwise we usually apply different powers of $Q$, measure, and check if the output is a solution.
Let's look at your particular example to see that the diffusion operator really amplifies the solution state. I've attached that as notes, since the math takes a bit long to TeX

Sidenote: you can also use different operations than $H^{\otimes n}$ to for the general amplitude amplification algorithm.
Comment: [Texed version](https://quantumcomputing.stackexchange.com/a/13314/8746) of the decomposition of Grover's diffusion operator
Comment: Thanks for explaining


Is it possible to "ripple delete" in Adobe Illustrator to automatically move everything up without manually selecting and moving everything?

Question: So if you've used Premiere Pro then this will make sense, but basically I have a very long document and when I remove an object from the middle, I have to select everything underneath and nudge it up. I was wondering if there's an easier way to make everything move up to fill the empty space that I deleted from.
Comment: I'm not familiar with this so I'm not really sure what you're asking here. Could you provide a screenshot or another example?
Answer: No there is no such thing. There really can not be such a thing without inventing something to represent nothing, other than empty. But if you can identify anddescribe what that nothing is then I'm sure such a tool could be built.
See empty space is as valid design as nonempty space. Maybe your looking to compress/auto layout artboards, but why not use InDesign then?
Answer: "Very long document" and "Adobe Illustrator" don't really go together. As @joojaa mentioned, you very well may be better off using InDesign for a document of any length. Artboards in Illustrator are there to allow you to have separate canvases to work on, but shouldn't be used as "pages" of a long document. InDesign is a much better tool.
If you needed a hole in a piece of wood, you could technically use a hammer and nail to do the job, but you'd have a much easier time (and many better options) by using a drill.
All that said, to answer your main question... No, there isn't a good way in Illustrator to do what you're asking (but there is in InDesign!).


What's the difference between .tar.gz and .gz, or .tar.7z and .7z?

Question: Recently, I've been backing up a lot of my data, and I noticed that I can save files as .gz or .tar.gz, or .7z and .tar.7z, etcetera. What are the differences between the normal one and the .tar.* variant? Which one of them is adviced when making backups?
Answer: If you come from a Windows background, you may be familiar with the zip and rar formats. These are archives of multiple files compressed together.
In Unix and Unix-like systems (like Ubuntu), archiving and compression are separate.

tar puts multiple files into a single (tar) file.
gzip compresses one file (only).

So, to get a compressed archive, you combine the two, first use tar or pax to get all files into a single file (archive.tar), then gzip it (archive.tar.gz).
If you have only one file, you need to compress (notes.txt): there's no need for tar, so you just do gzip notes.txt which will result in notes.txt.gz. There are other types of compression, such as compress, bzip2 and xz which work in the same manner as gzip (apart from using different types of compression of course).
Comment: @Exeleration-G After reading through the other answers, I see SaultDon answers this; 7zip doesn't store unix ownership and permission of the archived files (it seems to be mainly geared towards Windows, like zip and rar), so it makes sense to combine it with tar to get ownership and permissions preserved.
Comment: That makes sense, but then, why is it that I can make a `.7z` archive from multiple files, while I can also make a `.tar.7z` archive from multiple files?
Comment: @Exeleration-G 7zip does not follow this scheme. It's more like zip and rar. Not sure what the point of using tar in conjunction with 7zip is as I haven't used 7zip myself.
Comment: In my experience 7z is much better at compression than zip.  When I tested it saved me something like 40% extra
Comment: @Eoin Yep. But the downside is that is less likely to be supported on other computers and it is quite slow.
Answer: It depends on what you are looking for... Compression or archiving?
When I talk about archiving, I mean preserving permissions, directory structure, etc...
Compression may ignore most of that and just get your files in a smaller packages.
To preserve file permissions, use tar:
tar cpvf backup.tar folder

The p flag will save file permissions.
Use the z flag for gzip compression or the j flag for bzip compression.
tar czpvf backup.tar.gz folder #backup.tgz is acceptable as well
tar cjpvf backup.tar.bz2 folder #backup.tbz2 works too

If you want to have a tar file you can "update" package the tar using the P flag:
tar cpPvf backup.tar folder

Then to update, replace 'c' with 'u' and when unpacking, you can use 'k' to preserve files that already exist.
tar upPvf backup.tar folder #updating a tar file
tar xpPkvf backup.tar #extracting a tar with permissions(p) and not extracting(k) files that exist on disk already

The P flag saves files with full paths, so - /home/username vs home/username (notice the leading forward slash).
7z compression offers greater compression, but does not preserve file ownership, permissions, etc. Rzip is another compression utility that offers comparable compression with 7z as well.
I guess a backup.tar.7z file is just a tar file (with permissions) compressed by a 7z file, though I wouldn't be surprised if little compression occurred because 7z may not be able to dump the file metadata. It's 7z's ability to exclude the file metadata that it can offer great compression (amongst other things of course).
Compression depends entirely on data type as well. Some files don't compress well because they may already be compressed with some other means (ie, .mp3, .jpg, .tiff/with lzma, .rpm, etc).
Answer: gzip or bzip2 doesn't know about file system - file name, directory, or tree structure. It just compresses input stream, then output result. Even gzip or bzip2 can't archive directories on their own, that is why it is usually combined with tar.
tar(archiver) - just archive file structure.
gzip,bzip2(compressor) - just compress input.
I think this strategy came from 'do one thing well' Unix philosophy. Tar works well? Leave it as is. Need more compression ratio than gzip? Here is bzip2 or 7zip.
Comment: Actually 7zip can archive like zip or rar.
Answer: its different styles of compression , tar by itself is simply archived(little to no compression). tar.gz is a tar archive but the contents are compressed by gzip(moderate compression) hence the .gz and tar.7z is compressed using 7zip (usually super high compression)
when backing up I would recommend tar.7z as it has the highest compression rate saving you space but uses an extra program (7zip). .tar.gz will be larger files and do the same job, you could also use bzip (.tar.bz/bz2) although i'm not sure if that would suit you better as I use gzip or 7zip
Answer: typically, *.tar files are just tar files created by tar program, *.gz programs are created by gzip, *.tar.gz (sometime also *.tgz) are gziped tar files, and *.7z are created by 7zip.
However, in Linux/Unix, one can name a file pretty much anyway he wants, so it is completely at the discretion of the creator of the files.
Answer: Tar (Tape Archiver) has traditionally been used as a container in Unix/Linux to package files for movement.  It packages the file structure and maintains file attributes, but it doesn't compress the files.
Compression programs compress the file to make it smaller, but they may not handle multiple files, and/or they may not handle the file attributes neccesssary for Linux.  Since tar already exists and is well-supported, there's no reason for archiving programs to duplicate this functionality, which is platform-specific (re, different for Windows and Linux).  Also, different compression programs may perform differently on different types of files, so having a choice of more than one is desirable.
Answer: Other answers have explained the difference between compression and archiving well.
7z is an archiver, which means it knows about the internal directory structure, file names, etc. without having to decompress everything. However, there are some limitations. I quote from man 7z on my Ubuntu system:
Backup and limitations
       DO NOT USE the 7-zip format for backup purpose on Linux/Unix because :
        - 7-zip does not store the owner/group of the file.

       On Linux/Unix, in order to backup directories you must use tar :
        - to backup a directory  : tar cf - directory | 7za a -si directory.tar.7z
        - to restore your backup : 7za x -so directory.tar.7z | tar xf -

       If you want to send files and directories (not the owner of file) to others Unix/MacOS/Windows users, you can use the 7-zip format.

         example : 7za a directory.7z  directory

       Do not use "-r" because this flag does not do what you think.

       Do not use directory/* because of ".*" files (example : "directory/*" does not match "directory/.profile")

There you have it. One can use tar inside 7z (resulting in directory.tar.7z) to make sure you have preserved all the special Linux goodies. However, 7z will only know about the one tar file inside, and the entire tar file will have to be unpacked and read to discover what lies inside. Therefore, for a bunch of regular files, and where ownership doesn't matter, just use 7z directly.
Also, if a tar file (or a compressed tar.anything file) is damaged, you will only be able to recover your data up to the point of injury. With an archive like 7z (not using tar inside) your chances of recovering more files are better.
PS: 7z can also create solid archives, which result in better compression, but comes with the same limitations as using tar inside any compressor. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_compression


State of a Robot

Question: I saw the expression "robot state" in many articles and resources, but I could not understand what that exactly mean.
What does state of a robot exactly refers to ?
Answer: To extends the answer from the_parzival a bit:
There are different kind of robots so that 'robot state' can have different meanings. If you have a drone or Roomba-robot, the most important state is related to its pose (position, orientation, speed, acceleration, ...). Other states are the Battery state, Motor speeds (and temperatures), essentially every value of your system that can change over time.
The other group of robots have a fixed position, but are themselves more complex: Robot arms ( or CNC mills and similar machines). Their base has a fixed position, but their position is described by a set of joint angles (and speed, acceleration,...). In this case, the robot state can be the set of angles, or also the pose of the end-effector (or a combination).
So the 'robot state' depends on how your robot looks like and what you are interested in.
Answer: The state of the Robot refers to the properties of the robot that you want to estimate. If you take a 2D robot as an example, then you might be interested in its 2d position which refers to
$$
   X(t) =
\begin{bmatrix}
  x(t) \\
  y(t) \\
\end{bmatrix}
$$
If you also want to estimate its velocity, then you can add another element to its state vector and estimate its velocity in your equations.
If you scale your robot to 3d and want to estimate its orientation and position, then you may want to add quaternion(orientation) to your state vector
$$
   X(t) =
\begin{bmatrix}
  x(t) \\
  y(t) \\
  z(t) \\
  q_w(t) \\
  q_x(t) \\
  q_y(t) \\
  q_z(t) \\
\end{bmatrix}
$$
Normally a filter such as Kalman filter in Linear conditions or Extended or Unscented Kalman filter in non-linear conditions are used as state estimators.
Comment: This assumes a rigid but moving robot. If you robot is a robot arm, the robot state would rather be the individual joint angles (maybe together with their velocities)
Comment: @FooBar I expanded on just this in my answer.
Answer: The answer by parzival is only a partial answer. Especially with robots with more than 3 axes, the matrix cannot be solved for a deterministic state, a famous example of this is Dirac's belt trick, where with only the 3 DOF that a human arm and shoulder provide, you cannot have any deterministic state using the matrix provided above. The true state of a robot is actually represented by:
$$
J_{s} =
\begin{bmatrix}
  J_{1} \\
  J_{2} \\
  J_{3} \\
  ... \\
  J_{n} \\
\end{bmatrix}$$
Where $J_{n}$ is the absolute rotation or linear distance from zero of joint n. Hereon, this is referred to as the $J$ matrix, and the matrix in parzival's answer is the $X$ matrix.
Let's do an example.
Here is a 6-axis robot (Joints highlighted) with a Cartesian absolute of [780,65,200,-180,0,90] where the parameters are [X,Y,Z,yaw,pitch,roll], in mm and deg. This is also known as Euler-Cartesian, or XYZWPR representation. most industrial robots use this. It's very rare to see Quaternion-Cartesian representation.

The absolute state of the robot in the J matrix is [0.102,-36.487,-12.657,0,-77.343,-270.102].
This is plainly, a jumbled mess, and it makes sense to use XYZWPR, as it's many times easier to visualize. For example, raising the arm by 200mm, the new $J$ matrix is [0.102,-35.138,-2.241,0,-87.759,-270.102]. You may be able to generally tell what happened, but it's not obvious at all the magnitude.
So what's the deal with these two positioning systems, and why use $J$, and not $X$? The answer is a P vs NP problem. To convert $J$ to $X$ is trivial, and does some vector addition you probably learned in secondary school. just take the angles of all of the joints, and add on the magnitude to get XYZ components, and add those components together to get a final position. Converting from $X$ to $J$ however, is a bit more advanced, and this robot for example, has up to six $J$ matrices for almost every possible $X$!
Take the example above. Let's find a second $J$ associated with the $X$ above.
A configuration such as this:

can produce very similar results. Where the $X$ matrix is the same, the $J$ for this pose is something close to [-180, -31, 210, 180,-120,0], but $X$ is still [780,65,200,-180,0,90]. Ok. but what about an absolute match? This is actually easier than you think. Take a look at the image below. People with an astute sense of robotics may notice that the $J$ is different, but the $X$ is exactly the same!

Spot the difference yet!? The J4 axis has rotated 180 degrees! Thus the new $J$ and the old $J$ AND the alternative $J$ ALL correspond to the same $X$!
\begin{array} {|c|c|}
\hline
J & X \\
\hline
[0.095,-36.710,-12.529,180.000,77.171,-90.195] & \downdownarrows \\
\hline
[0.102,-36.487,-12.657,0.000,-77.343,-270.102] & [780,65,200,-180,0,90] \\
\hline
[-180.000, -31.000, 210.000, 180.000,-120.000,0.000] &  \upuparrows\\ \hline
\end{array}
So in short, the pose of a robot is it's joint positions, either in absolute encoder pulses, or rotational degrees, and the state of the robot is the same thing, but including velocities (always in deg / sec. or rad / sec.). Velocity will have the same errors if the velocities are stored as XYZWPR. Some robots even include acceleration and jerk, but most do not, or store a target velocity, and acceleration and jerk limits (always joint acceleration and jerk limits, NEVER EVER Cartesian limits).

State of a Robot


Does multi-cooker actually bake?

Question: I am confused about how multi-cooker actually works. Frying meat on a skillet is one thing. Baking it in the oven is another. Advertisement says a multi-cooker can both bake and fry. How is that possible? If it bakes does it mean it can replace oven at all? Can I actually bake meat in the multi-cooker as I would in the oven? Or can fry it like I would on a skillet? How can this single device do two things differently?
Comment: I have seen many devices which pride themselves of being a "multi-cooker", what is the one you had in mind?
Comment: @Ecnerwal, This is not a very useful comment, to put it bluntly.
Comment: http://redmond.company/us/lp_what_is_multicooker/
Stuff that Redmond sells for instance. Now that it's that specific it looks like an advertisement. They say it litteraly replaces a whole oven.
They all look the same, just a heater with a bowl in there and some led-display.
Comment: Advertising frequently lies...
Answer: It doesn't necessarily do any of those things well, but yes, it does (more or less) all of the things it suggests.
Basically all cooking is the application of heat, in different ways, to food.  So a multicooker like you mention is something that's capable of producing heat at different levels and different timings.
Baking differs from frying/sauteing/etc. in that some of the heat is not applied through conduction. Some of it is - the pan typically gets hot and directly heats the food where it is in contact - but some of it is either radiation or convection cooking.  This probably won't do much for convection, but because it's an enclosed container, it will heat the non-contact parts through radiation if it's constructed properly (i.e., it is properly insulated, and has metal walls that will radiate heat back towards the food rather than plastic that will absorb the heat).
You'll notice it doesn't claim to roast foods (as opposed to some other multicookers); some do, and those have a heating element in the top.  A pressure-cooker style multicooker can't have this (easily, anyway) and so doesn't claim any application that requires direct heat - only conduction or radiation.
Frying is cooking in oil (the oil version of boiling).  Anything that can produce heat in a pan can fry (and to be good at frying, it just has to be good at maintaining a specific temperature).
Most of the features it claims are related to an ability to precisely control temperature.  Yogurt making and sous-vide cooking require specific temperature control, but beyond that most of the features are just things you could do in any pressure cooker or slow cooker managed in the proper way.
The one feature it claims that I'm most dubious about is 'microwave'; it seems unlikely to me that it uses microwaves (it's too small really, for one), so probably it's claiming it can replace your microwave because it can reheat your food (the main reason many people use microwaves).  There are microwave/oven combos (If you're in the US, your local Subway restaurant uses one, for example, probably made by Amana), but they're much bigger.
Either way, I don't think this is something that can 'replace' an oven or similar, because an oven is going to be much better at even heating over a period of time, and an oven is much larger (you're not roasting a turkey in here).  It probably doesn't get very hot, either, compared to a good oven.  The main point of multicookers is that they can do several things in the same device - so for example you can sautee your veggies and then cook a soup directly in them without involving anything else; and they do several things that you might need different devices for (saving kitchen space).  They don't do them as well, but if you're in a tiny 40 sq meter apartment, perhaps that's fine.
Comment: If I understand correctly what baking is then what you describe is not baking but just grill roasting. Grill uses radiation with its electrical heat source either at the top or on the side. Typical oven has its flames beneath the food thus heating it with ascending hot air by convection. Why would someone confuse between these two different methods of cooking?
Comment: Baking is done in pans; you don't have to get food off of the pan to make it baking.
Comment: @Cascabel  Yes, I didn't explain that quite right. Trying to explain the difference between baking and cooking only with conduction. Will reformulate.
Comment: @German  Convection can be used in baking but not necessarily. The point of a rack would indeed be to do something like you describe - get some convection also around the food - and you're right that I really mean roasting the way I explain. Will reword.
Comment: Reworded that section significantly, thanks for pointing that out.
Answer: I am able to bake cookies, bars and even bread in the Ilo multicooker.

Does multi-cooker actually bake?


External content types in sharepoint

Question: I have an external list based webpart with 5 wild card filters. when I searched using one filter the required item is displayed but the same item is not displayed using other filter. For example if an item has last name JOhnson and title Project Manager, when an item is searched using last name item is displayed but when searched using title item is not displayed. Can any one help me in this. Thanks in advance.
Answer: Are you using SPD, or just the filter in the OOTB browser?  Maybe there is some case sensitivity, or your filter have AND/OR added improperly.  You need to add more details to help troubleshoot.

External content types in sharepoint


Old passport with no visas was destroyed, now applying for a new US visa

Question: My father is applying for a US visa for the first time. In the interview process he was asked to bring his old passport too, which unfortunately he had destroyed after it expired many years ago. He never travelled outside India on this old passport. Does he need to bring some kind of document proving that he had an old passport and had no visa on it? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Comment: He doesn't HAVE to however he can if he wishes to. I believe the passport issuing agency will have proof of the previous passport. Unnecessary though IMHO
Comment: In the states, you can just say it was lost, and then bring valid identification (we can use our Drivers License even) to apply for a replacement passport.  Once he receives the new one, apply for the visa.  Again, this is in the states, so I'm leaving it as a comment, not an answer.
Answer: Some Indian passports mention the number of the previous passport; if your father's does, he needs to keep that referenced passport with the present one ALWAYS. Under no circumstance are you supposed to throw it away. If the previous passport number is mentioned but you don't have that passport, a FIR copy will be required from the local police station mentioning all the details of how the passport went missing.
If your father's present passport doesn't mention the number of the previous passport (on the last page), you don't need to tell them that he had one.
And for future reference: Never throw away a passport. Even an expired or cancelled one.
Answer: Although the instructions mention that you should bring all previous passports to the visa interview, they may not necessarily ask to see them. In all US visa interviews I have attended so far, I was never asked to show my old passports.
As far as your father's visa application is concerned, I don't think not having his old passport is a big issue. In case they ask to see the old passport (which is very unlikely) - just state the true facts.
However, as a general guideline, NEVER destroy an expired/cancelled passport. The passport office returns your cancelled passport to you for a reason. You are supposed to keep it with you.


Clustering sequences of sentence embeddings

Question: I have a sequence of events, right now I am not worried about their actual times, just the order. This is a sequence of web page views.
I have modelled my data as the following, where each element represents the category of the web page.
<code>user_sequence = ['A', 'A', 'B', 'C', ...]
</code>
Following this I used the code and approach from this paper: Sequence Graph Transform
My question is how could I represent more complex data in my sequences, for example, we have an embedding representing the page content, along with features including the dwell of the user on each page.
So to summarise, the goal is to do process sequences of rich event data in an unsupervised manner.
Answer: The approach taken for anyone coming across this has been to first cluster each web page / node before passing it into SGT. This means we can encode more information into the sequence prior to using SGT.


Sampling H(z) to get DFT

Question: Suppose that I have a $H(z)$ and I sample it to get a DFT of 15 values. Let's call this DFT $H_{1}[k]$. Then, suppose I antitransform $H(z)$ and grab the first 10 values of the sequence, and then I add 5 zeros. After this, I calculate the DFT of this new sequence. Let's call it $H_{2}[k]$. What differences would these two DFTs have between each other (if any)?
Comment: Unless those truncated sample were already zeros, the result wouldn't be the same.
Comment: @robertbristow-johnson No, OP grabs 10 values (ie. removes 5), then adds back 5 values. Net result he's left with 15 points.
Comment: so you're changing it from sampling $H(e^{j \omega})$ 15 equally-spaced points around the unit circle ($|\omega|=1$) to **something** like $H(e^{j \omega})$ being sampled 20 equally-spaced points on the unit circle.
Comment: @robertbristow-johnson OP truncates $h[n]$ before adding those 5 zeros, so it would still be something ($H(e^{jw})$ convolved with the transform of a rectangular window) sampled at 15 equally-spaced point on the unit circle.
Comment: @SleuthEye Yes, both of them turn out to be a sequence of 15 points. But are they the same or do they have differences between each other?
Comment: @SleuthEye, that's why i used the words "**something** like".
Comment: MS, no, if you pad (or "add") 5 zeros and then "DFT the new sequence", you will go from 15 to 20 points in the result of the DFT.
Comment: @SleuthEye Is there any other way you could obtain $H_{2}[k]$? I mean a different process than the described above
Comment: oh you're right @SleuthEye, i didn't read it carefully.
Comment: @M.S. You have 2 options: time domain windowing (what you described in your question), or frequency domain circular convolution (see [this wikibook section](https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Digital_Signal_Processing/Discrete_Fourier_Transform#Circular_Convolution_Theorem)).
Comment: @SleuthEye I see. And is it possible to get $H_{2}[k]$ from the original $H(z)$ without antitransforming? (i.e. without getting out of the frequency domain at all)
Comment: @M.S. yes, compute the circular convolution of $H_1[k]$ (obtained by sampling $H(z)$) with $W[k]$.
Answer: When grabbing the first 10 samples of $h_1[n]$ you are essentially multiplying the whole sequence $h_1[n]$ with the rectangular window
$$
  w[n] =
\begin{cases}
  1 & 0 \leq n < 10 \\
  0 & \mbox{otherwise}
\end{cases}
$$
whose DFT is given by:
$$
\begin{align}
  W\left[k\right]
    &= \sum_{n=0}^{9} e^{-j 2\pi k n / N} \\
    &= \frac{1 - e^{-j 2\pi k \cdot 10/15}}{1 - e^{-j 2\pi k / 15}}
\end{align}
$$
By the circular convolution theorem:

Multiplication in the discrete-time domain becomes circular convolution in the discrete-frequency domain. Circular convolution in the discrete-time domain becomes multiplication in the discrete-frequency domain.

In other words,
$$
  \mbox{DFT}\left\{h_1[n] \cdot w[n]\right\}
  = \frac{1}{N} H_1\left[k\right] \otimes W\left[k\right]
$$
where $\otimes$ is the circular convolution operator.
This can be seen with the following matlab script (you can play around with h1 to see what happens with other waveforms):
n = [0:14]; % discrete-time index
k = [0:14];
h1 = sin(pi*n/14); % some arbitrary function

% window function
w = [ones(1,10) zeros(1,5)];

% time domain operation
h2  = h1.*w;
% convert to frequency domain
H2t = fft(h2);

% frequency domain operation
W   = fft(w);
H1  = fft(h1);
H2f = cconv(W,H1) / 15;

% Compare H2t & H2f
figure(1);
subplot(2,1,1);
hold off; plot(k, abs(H2t), 'b');
hold on;  plot(k, abs(H2t), 'bx');
hold on;  plot(k, abs(H2f), 'ro');
title('Magnitude');
subplot(2,1,2);
hold off; plot(k, angle(H2t), 'b');
hold on;  plot(k, angle(H2t), 'bx');
hold on;  plot(k, angle(H2f), 'ro');
title('Phase');

Note that if $h_1[n]$ is already no longer than 10 samples (i.e. if those truncated samples are already zero), then windowing in the time-domain will have no effect and similarly the circular convolution with $W[k]$ in the frequency domain will happen to produce $H_1[k] = \frac{1}{N} H_1[k] \otimes W[k]$ (but only as a special case).
Answer: Note that if your original H is not representative of a sufficiently time limited window, the sampling process will be lossy.
H2 would be the transform of an even shorter time domain window.  A rectangular window in one DFT domain is equivalent to circular convolution with a Sinc function in the other DFT domain.  The shorter the rectangular window, the wider the Sinc, likely making H2 "blurrier" (unless the 5 zeroed values are already zero).

Sampling H(z) to get DFT


Android AVD Not detecting Google API as target

Question: I have installed the Google API and created a Google API specific project in Eclipse. Although when i go to create a new AVD with the Target set to a Google API i only have the option for Android 4.2 - API Level 17.
How can i make the Google API show so i can select it?
Comment: DO you have all the lower levels installed?
Answer: Make sure to restart Eclipse after downloading Google APIs.
Answer: I would double check that you have downloaded the Google API, and not just the Android API.  They will both have the same API number. Using the SDK Manager, you will see a variety of selections for downloads.  Make sure you have downloaded the "Google APIs" in addition to the "SDK Platform".
This is the behavior you would see if you don't have the Google portion downloaded.
Answer: Go to Android SDK manager, then download everything you needed to create new AVD.
After finished downloading, you can create AVD with what you had just download.
Answer: Maybe you need to check your path to SDK location, it might be pointing to other SDK location where only Android 4.2-API Level 17 is installed.
You can do so by going to Window -> Preferences (in your eclipse), in Preferences goto Android, in Android you will see the SDK Location. Browse & change SDK Location to the SDK location where your Android SDK tools is installed. For Eg.: C:\Program Files (x86)\Android\android-sdk


key wont turn inside

Question: I have a Chevy Cobalt 2008.  I drove the car yesterday before the freezing cold and during the snow. This morning the key will not turn in the ignition but the lights come on. The sun is up but still cannot turn key. The steering wheel is not locked and the car is in park completely.
Answer: Three things I can think of:

Do you have another key to try? May just not like the key you are trying.
Is the steering wheel cocked at all, where there may be causing pressure on the key lock? Try giggling the steering column as you are trying to turn the key (assume you might have tried this, but don't know).
Your locking mechanism may be frozen. You could try heating up the ignition cylinder by using a hair dryer. If this works, shoot the ignition with just a little bit of WD-40 or some other lubricant to help it not do this again.
Answer: In addition to Paulster2's suggestions, try jiggling the shifter (shaft and button).  Also, there is a recall for the ignition lock cylinder on your vehicle that has been all over the news.  The fix for that may solve your problem. Check your battery (it's in the trunk), too.  The interior lights coming on don't mean it's 100%.  There is a button in a compartment on the column behind a rubber cover.  It's for releasing a key from the ignition, but you might give it a shot.

key wont turn inside


Multiple extrusion on selected curve objects using the Option (alt) key

Question: In Blender 2.80 I was able to extrude multiple curve objects, including text and imported SVG files by simply clicking and dragging on the Geometry Extrude field while pressing the Option (alt) key. That feature seems to be broken or removed in version 2.81. If I press the Option (alt) key then the field for the parameter freezes. Did they changed the way to do this?
Answer: Ok I found the answer at the developer site. I had the Emulate 3 Button Mouse option checked. That changed the behavior of the Option (alt) key in combination with the left click button.


Generate sql script of a table schema in SQL 2000 through script

Question: I wrote some scripts for correcting my old sql 2000 db schema compared to new sql 2000 db. This is done through a loop operations. First check if any table not found in my old db, then running a table creation script for creating that table. If any system stored procedures or scripts availble for table creation ?. I want table scripts like when we take 'generate sql script' process.
Answer: There are no Transact SQL system functions or procedures provided by Micrsoft that generate object creation statements for you. You might be able to find scripts that others have written and posted to the internet.
There are things that you can do with other languages like VB, VB.Net, C#, Powershell or even VBScript (through Windows Scripting Host). I do not think that Transact-SQL is a good language to use for tasks that require manipulation of large strings, file I/O or even connecting to many other SQL Servers (to do things like schema comparisons). PowerShell, VB.Net, C# or even VBScript are much more flexible and provide simple ways to write files and connect to another server (or a thousand other servers). Whenever I want to do anything "complicated" and I can use something else, I always use something else.
IIRC, you can the SQL-DMO objects to create scripts fairly easily. SQL-DMO is a set of objects that were installed with SQL Server 2000 tools. These objects provided easy programatic administration of SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 (and maybe even older versions like 6.5).
The problem I am seeing right now is that SQL 2000 is very old (SQL-DMO was superceded by SMO in SQL Server 2005) and I am not having much luck finding a programming reference for the SQL-DMO library through google. (Perhaps someone else has a link they could share?)
SMO is another set of objects that can do anything that SQL-DMO could do. SMO is installed with the SQL Server 2005 (and later) tools. IIRC, it is also available as a downloadable installer off of Microsoft's site.
SMO provides a fairly easy to use .Script() function for all database objects, so it is largely a process of finding the missing object, get a reference to the existing, "good" object, setting appropriate flags, calling .Script() and putting the results in a file for later use. Picking the appropriate flags is the hardest part. (Flags affect the behavior of .Script(). For example, you can generate a script with or without primary keys, with or without relevenant indexes, etc. etc.)
TL;DR:
IMO:
There are better ways to use your skills than writing programs that have already been written.
I'd suggest that you look at a tool like Redgate's "SQL Compare", Visual Studio 2010's own database comparison functions, ErWin, Dezign or OpenDBDiff (which is open source--I've heard positive things about but never actually used it) to build difference scripts. There are many other such tools. Nearly any database ERD/logical/physical relational database designer tool should be able to provide such scripts nowadays. These tools can do all sorts of useful things besides finding missing tables. They can find missing columns, missing indexes, different data types, different versions of stored procedures or functions, differences in permissions, etc.
You will want to make sure that the tool you choose is compatible with SQL 2000 before relying on it. For example, OpenDBDiff claims compatibility with SQL Server 2005/2008 and doesn't mention SQL Server 2000. So it might work OK or it might not.
If you really want to write your own tool, I'd look at using Powershell or C# to leverage the functionality in SMO. SMO has better features and is still well-supported, even in the "new era" of Powershell cmdlets.


Sources of guild records of cabinet-makers in Scotland around 1815-1830?

Question: I'm looking for records concerning cabinet-making apprentices (particularly a Charles Frazer) around 1815-1830 in Scotland - particularly Aberdeen.
Comment: I suspect the sources for Scottish and Irish records are likely to be quite different. Since the first answer that came in is for Scotland I have reduced the scope of this question to that.  Please don't hesitate to ask a new, near identical question about Ireland.
Comment: Certainly in Scotland, each Guild (ie each town or Borough with a Guild) would have kept its own records. There is a site for Dundee's Guild records but I have no idea about Aberdeen. Further, in Dundee's case, at least, records were usually kept only for apprentices serving the full 7y apprenticeship who would then be qualified to run their own business. People who just got some training to do the work, probably wouldn't be recorded.
Comment: Thanks, Adrian. My target was a master cabinetmaker. I'll pursue Aberdeen with the the limitations you describe here and elsewhere in mind.
Answer: The Three United Trades of Dundee is the website for the relevant guild in Dundee. The Wrights was apparently the one to cover joiners - other places may divide the trades differently, and the Wrights were themselves split up. I have not checked to see what the site holds. This may give at least some inspiration. Note that qualification to trade in Dundee did not mean qualification to trade anywhere else.


Circuit breaker + panel selection -- make and breaker series?

Question: Is there a compelling reason to choose one type/brand of breaker & panel (Eaton CH, Eaton BR, Square-D QO, Square-D HOM, Siemens, GE) over another when putting a new electrical panel and breakers in?  Or is availability (I am loading my panel with dual-function CAFCI/GFCI breakers on all 15 and 20A branch circuits, provided no shared neutrals turn up that is) the sole consideration I should take into account when deciding on one brand of breakers over another?
Comment: Question: WHY would you possibly need/want AFCI/GFCI breakers for ALL circuits???
Comment: @SpeedyPetey -- I'm in a house with 50+ year old electrical wiring and want maximal protection -- GFCI throughout is needed simply to conform to Code due to the lack of EGCs in 99.9% of the wiring, and arc fault protection is mandated in several places (bedroom, kitchen, laundry, living/dining) and seems (to me) like a wise idea throughout.
Answer: I am of the strong opinion that for a residential application it almost does not matter what brand you choose. They are all nearly the same, even QO and CH series. Sure, copper buss is nice, but not mandatory. I have seen and installed pretty much every major brand in the last 25 years or so, they are ALL ok.
I would choose something that you can get breakers and parts locally and easily.
Answer: I seem to recall avoiding "Square D Homeline" due to possible issues with the copper over aluminum buss bars. I considered trying to get an "interchange/nonproprietary" brand having seen some folks with obsolete panels flailing to find breakers, but ended up with Square D QO as both available, affordable and with a solid copper buss. I hope it turns out to be "non-niche" enough that I don't have problems down the road.
Apparently it's possible that one has to specify copper buss even on QO (there seems to be an option for that) or it varies by model and even some homeline units have copper buss.
Comment: Unless you are in a highly corrosive environment, such as very close to a coastline, an aluminum buss is absolutely fine.


'96 Ford Ranger - Shock Replacement

Question: Do I need any special tools or skills to replace the shocks on my 1996 Ford Ranger?
Regular Cab, Step Side, 3.0L V6 if it matters
Comment: There have been similar questions about different vehicles that may get you started: e.g., http://mechanics.stackexchange.com/questions/3380/cost-of-replacing-struts-on-a-99-camry-and-is-it-doable-on-our-own/3390#3390
Comment: 2 or 4 wheel drive?
Comment: It is 2-wheel drive.  Thanks for the link Bob, I will check that out as well.
Answer: Too easy with a basic set of tools, a jack and jackstands. Let's start at the front.
Jack the truck up and put it on jackstands, you'll need the jack to raise and lower the wheel which is why you need the jackstands. The shock bolts into two places, at the top in a 'shock-hoop' and at the bottom at the control arm. Unbolt the bolts from the control arm, they're probably 13mm and/or 15mm depending on if they're the original bolts. Go to the top and take a picture or two of how the shock threads up through the shock hoop with the washers and rubber bushings on each side. Your new shocks may or may not come with new bushings. If they don't and yours are cracked, grab some new ones at the part store. (note, as you're reading this go check them so you know to grab some when you pick up the shocks.) There is a nut on the topside of the shock hoop and through it, there is a rod which is connected to the shock. Hold that rod with a pair of vise grips and loosen the nut. It helps to turn the wheel or remove it entirely, but the wheel's weight helps pull it down so you can get the bottom of the shock aligned to the slot in the control arm. Your call. After some annoyance, you'll have the nut removed from the top of the shock and you can thread the rod out of the shock hoop and the shock out of the front suspension. Installation is the reverse. Start at the top, look at the picture you took and stack the rubber parts and the washer, and tighten it down. Use your jack to raise the wheel/control arm so it lines up with the bottom of the shock and bolt it down.
On to the rear. Same deal, jack it up and put it on jackstands. You're going to need to drop the spare tire to get at the top of the shocks, do it before or after you jack up the truck. Use your jack and put a slight bit of pressure under the bottom shock mounting point, leaf spring, or even on the axle itself if that works for you. The bolt that goes through the bottom bracket is under some tension from the leaf springs and it will be 10x easier to remove if you don't have the leaf springs pushing down and trying to cram the bolt and threads through the hole. Unbolt the bottom shock bracket, knowing Ford this is an 18mm nut and bolt. Tap the bolt out, and you may need a punch or a screwdriver you don't like to tap it all the way through the hole. Once that's out, let pressure off the jack slowly so that side of the rear axle fully drops. Start working on the top, this is just like the control arm at the front except with less space. Install the new one in the reverse order, starting at the top and using the jack to lift the axle up to meet the bottom of the shock.
That's pretty much it. Go for a cruise around the block and come back and check all your bolts to make sure that you didn't get one falsely tight because it was bound up a little bit. It also helps to spray all those nuts and bolts with some sort of 'break-free' penetrating oil, it will make the entire process a lot easier.
Comment: Thanks @sevenjames!  Do I need compress the shocks when I put them in? I'm looking at getting the Monroe Monro-Matic Plus Shock Absorber #32235 and #32237.  I don't haul or tow anything heavy.  They are only $76 for all 4.  Thoughts?
Comment: I don't know about Monroe's specifically, I've never used them before. You don't need to compress them anymore than necessary to fit them in place on the bolts.

'96 Ford Ranger - Shock Replacement


If price increases and quantity remains the same can we infer that demand is perfectly inelastic?

Question: My college tutor told me that demand for college admission at our institute is price inelastic. She says so, because, in the past 20 years, price of college education at our institute has increased, but the number of students hasn't decreased. Does this really mean that college admission at our institute is price inelastic? Or is there a way I can counter that?
Answer: We know for a fact that supply is perfectly price inelastic. Each school typically has a quota -- some rough estimate of the number of students it wishes to enroll.
And every year, there are many who are able and willing to pay the full price of the good (a spot in the school) but are nonetheless not admitted.
Example. For decades, a school has consistently offered 10,000 seats to each cohort. Demand though has consistently risen so that price has also risen. However, we cannot infer anything about the slope of D (i.e. whether demand is price inelastic).
That demand is also price inelastic may very well be true, but cannot be inferred simply from the fact that the number of students hasn't decreased.

Another important consideration/complication is price discrimination. Through financial aid, US universities practice what amounts to near perfect price discrimination, making many students pay as much as they can bear. So, while the sticker price has risen greatly, the actual price paid by many students may not have risen as much.
Answer:
My college tutor told me that demand for college admission at our
institute is price inelastic.
Does this really mean that college admission at our institute is price
inelastic?

That is not necessarily accurate. For instance, there could be excess demand so that a more expensive tuition makes no difference in enrollment because the wealthier students still outnumber the spots available in college.
Price inelasticity of demand of this college conveys the notion that a student generally does not care about tuition increases: he will enroll in this college anyway. But in reality, if there are options (that is, other colleges) from where to choose, most likely there are substitution dynamics at play even if the end result is that all spots in this college are filled up. Indeed, those wealthier students might be substituting their otherwise preferred and costlier college by enrolling in this one if their first option becomes unaffordable just like this college became unaffordable to other students.
Answer: It might actually be quite elastic but income has risen just enough to compensate for the increase in tuitions! It also might be the case that demand is high enough so that the amount of available spots is fully met at any reasonable price.
A priori, one just can't guarantee that the demand curve for higher education is inelastic based on the observation that over 20 years prices have risen without a significant decrease in demand. A lot can change in 20 years and one can't simply assume all things were held constant during the period.


My dog is old and dying, how do I convince him not to be scared of me?

Question: My dog is now 19 years old and on his last legs; completely deaf, nearly entirely blind (cataracts so bad you can see them) and occasional unsteadiness when walking, neither I nor his vet have noticed signs that he's in pain so I don't want to have him put down yet, but still he acts scared of me: not looking at me (which makes getting his attention difficult) and sometimes even shaking when I approach him. I understand this is because he thinks I may eat him like a pack would when he gets to this stage but it's quite distressing for me, he's always been a "lap dog" and never been abused so I don't know why he feels this way, is there anything I can do to convince him he's still safe with me and make him more comfortable?
Comment: Could you tell us what breed your dog is? Some react to excitemen with shivers that have nothing to do with fear and other breeds have more of a tendency for anxiety.
Comment: @YElm He's a cross between a Jack Russel Terrier and Border Collie, I suppose it's possible it's excitement, when he was younger he'd run around a lot when he was excited so I didn't really notice
Answer: It can be heartbreaking to feel like you're scaring your own pet.
Maybe wait until he comes looking for you? If you can read what signs indicate that he's looking for you.
Keep everything as routine as possible. Don't move any food or water bowls, that way he will know where to find them and you don't need to take him to them. Either keep feeding him at the same time/s each day or leave kibble out for him at all times, so he knows he can come and snack.
Dogs do well with smell. When you do approach him, try and crouch down (not so easy for everyone as they get older) and put the back of your hand slowly towards his face, but low. Keep it under his chin level, so it's not as threatening. This will give him time to sniff your hand and minimise any chance of him harming you  if he bites in fear, as it's a more flat surface place.
I'd avoid wearing strong perfumes or aftershaves around him (unless they're worn all the time), as it will mask who you are to him and make him more frightened.
Keep everything as constant for him as it has been the past year or so, so it is familiar as his senses fail him.
If he's already been allowed on furniture. Another thing is to introduce ramps or steps to help him get up onto furniture  he may not be able to jump onto, so that he doesn't have to be picked up as often. That way  he can then hop onto a lounge chair you're sitting on, on hop onto the bed and have a cuddle. If he hasn't been allowed, it would be another stress doing this, although you mention he's been a lap dog. There's ways of creating steps and ramps that would be safer for a sight impaired dog to use, we don't want him falling off the side.
If he's not suffering, there's no reason to put him to sleep.
Comment: I'd like to thank you for this, after a few days of just slowly approaching him and letting him smell me has seen a marked improvement in him, he's no longer shivering and seems very calm when anyone comes near him as long as they do the same. I think his vision had just deteriorated a bit quickly and it had him worried because of not being able to identify people, but he's learned that things that come towards him slowly are friendly.
Comment: @MrLore I'm so happy for you all. Yes you will find as you all adapt to a new routine he will improve. Our family has an aging dog who is going blind, I also have an aging horse who is losing her sight. At night time (twilight on actually) I have to be very careful. I can be standing next to her and she doesn't see me. She literally will jump sideways if I reach out and touch her. I have to keep speaking in a low voice letting her know where I am at all times when it approaches dusk.
Answer: Dogs rely very much on their sense of smell and sound. Imagine for a moment that your dog has completely lost these faculties and can no longer comprehend who is approaching him. Maybe he is still learning to adjust to these losses?
It's perhaps also worth mentioning that dogs don't "think" the same way humans do.
I agree with some of the other comments... your dog may be shaking with excitement at your approach. Fear would manifest other behaviours such as growling, barking and/or showing his teeth in a snarl. Does your dog demonstrate any other behaviour apart from shaking?
I don't believe your dog would expect to be eaten by you especially when you've spent so many years taking good care of him.
What I can confirm, after many years of experience with dogs, is that they develop an intuitive capability to understand, at some level, the physical, emotional and mental states of their "pack" humans.
If you're feeling anxious for your dog, he will know this and, maybe at his age, will respond with anxiety?
Suggestions from me include:

identify which of your dog's senses still function and use those to alert your dog to your presence (e.g. touch/vibration- tapping gently on the floor as you approach, smell - take his favourite treat to him in your hands);
as difficult as it may be, attempt to enjoy the time you have left together - rather than feel sadness at what is lost, feel happiness for what still remains - this may alleviate anxiety for both you and your dog.

Hope this helps. Any questions feel free to ask.
Answer: First, let's concentrate on the symptoms. You dog is looking away from you and sometimes shivering when you approach him.
You interpret this behavior as fear, but there are other possible explanations.
Cesar's Way list as possible reasons for shivering:

Excitement
Have you ever experienced a dog tremble or shiver in the middle of a game of fetch or while offering affection? It may look odd, but it's nothing to worry about. Shaking when excited is completely normal and healthy for dogs — it just a way of lowering that excess energy.

Sickness or pain
Often, dogs will shake or shiver if they are in pain or suffering from some kind of sickness — just like we might tremble due to a cold or fever. Canine illnesses associated with trembling include distemper, generalized tremor syndrome (GTS), kidney disease, Addison's disease, poisoning, nausea, seizures, and inflammatory brain diseases.
Stress
Just like people, dogs can get stressed out and become anxious. Also just like people, there are many reasons why this may happen: riding in a car, beeping alarms, fireworks, trips to the vet, and so on. Worse, different stressors can develop over time based on negative experiences. When faced with these stressors, many dogs may tremble or shake, and some even engage in bad behaviors such as chewing on furniture.

Old age
As your dog gets older, you may notice that he develops tremors in his legs. While a certain amount of age-induced shaking is to be expected, don't simply assume that everything is proceeding normally. Shaking in senior dogs can also be a sign of pain, particularly joint pain and discomfort.

You should keep an eye on your dog; does he only shiver if someone approaches him or also when he's alone or when he's walking or standing up?
Shivering when he's alone might be caused by feeling cold, a sickness or generally being in pain. An arched back (much like cats do) is another sign of pain, mostly in the chest cavity, digestive tract or kidneys.
Shivering when standing up or walking is a rather clear sign of pain in the spine, hips, legs or joints.
Shivering when approached might be excitement, anxiousness, fear or pain from moving a certain way.
If it's actually fear, it might be increased by his overall state.

Due to his deafness he cannot hear your voice and cannot derive your mood from it. Dogs are very good at reading our intentions from our voice, but your dog doesn't get those clues anymore.
His cataracts make him see shadows instead of sharp forms, So he doesn't recognize you from your look and cannot read your body language. To him it might look like a dark shadow approaching and he doesn't know what that shadows intentions are. I've witnessed a recently blinded dog become angstly-aggressive towards anyone but her owner because she couldn't read body language any more.
Just like humans, dogs and other animals can get dementia. He might honestly have forgotten you (at least partially) and getting to know you again is difficult because his senses fail him.

To alleviate his fear, you should

Always let him sniff you before touching him, like others already wrote in their answers.
Sit down next to him to appear as small as possible. Don't tower over him.
Try offering him a little treat every time you approach him. It should be something good smelling like a small piece of sausage or cheese.
Don't pet him on the top of his head. Many dogs feel intimidated by something touching them in this vulnerable place where they cannot see it. Instead stroke from his cheeks sideways to his neck. From there you can continue upwards to scratch behind his ears.
Don't put any weight on him while petting him, you might hurt his joints.
If he growls when you touch a specific area (like his hips) it's a clear sign that he's hurting there. Avoid touching such areas at all.


Boot issues with 64gb sd card

Question: I just got a raspberry pi 2 B and installed raspbain via noobs as per the setup guide on a 16gb Kingston micro SDHC 8GB class 10 card and everything was working fine and I used it for a day. Then I got a Sony micro SDXC 64GB class 10 card and did the same exact thing as with the 8gb and put it into my pi and booted it up. Nothing happened on my monitor (HDMI) and the green light did not light up. It seems to me that the pi is not not seeing the 64gb card but it is brand new. What can I do to fix this?
Answer: After much hair pulling and head banging I realized that windows is unable to format an SD card FAT so it formats it exFAT. I just the raspberry pi can not use exFAT so I used this to format it FAT and then everything worked like usual.
I also had to follow this to make the card actually one partition instead of one really small and one really big then I made it fat
Comment: did you make 64GB card work for you? I cannot. Formatting entire 64GB card into Fat32 (using 3rd party windows tools )did not work. Creating small Fat32 partition did not work (rest EXT4). Did it work for you? If so, what brand did you use?

Boot issues with 64gb sd card


Is this an exclusively theravaden forum?

Question: We can downvote questions and project our wrongview onto those questions of other Buddhists ?
Comment: Itjs a householder-forum and householding is variable to it's on it holding consumers.
Comment: This is not a proper question for this forum and if anywhere belongs in the meta forum.
Comment: The answer to the question in the title is "no". I don't understand the question in the text.
Comment: The main site is for question about Buddhism. Questions and discussions about the site are hosted separately i.e. here on this "meta-site" -- see also the Help section titled [What is "meta"? How does it work?](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/help/whats-meta).
Answer: To answer your question directly... Yes, we can all downvote questions or answers as we see fit, based on our understanding and conscience. Sometimes — yes — that means we project our own 'wrong' views onto a question, but that is the nature of the human beast. We all have 'wrong' views until we manage to rid ourselves of them, and on this forum (at least) there is a reasonable expectation that people will work with our misunderstandings in a kind and generous manner, so that we can start to rid ourselves of 'wrong' views more quickly and easily.
However, there is a difference between 'views' and 'attitudes' that's important to consider. Someone might have an absolute 'right' view — a perfect intellectual understanding of the dharma — and still be far from the goal because they adopt an attitude of anger, bigotry, fear, self-centeredness, or what you will. Attitudes of this sort often have to be moderated, because these attitudes are infectious: rage will bring out rage in others, fear will bring out fear, bigotry bring out bigotry. Even the best question or answer might be closed and removed because the person who wrote it loaded it with triggers and traps that might set the unwary off.
I haven't read enough of your posts to know exactly where you are coming from, but phrases like "[...] project our wrongview onto those questions [...] like a Mahayana" is a slap in the face to anyone who follows a Mahayana path. You don't have to like the Mahayana paths, or respect their teachers, but active disrespect of this sort says less about their practice and more about yours. No Theravadan teacher I know of would condone his students indulging in such snark both because it hurts the student's progress and because it reflects badly on the school and lineage. If you don't believe me, ask someone in your tradition whose opinion you value.
Be calm and clear. Post from an attitude of compassion and peace, not from righteous indignation. That is easier said than done, I know, but it is best for everyone.
Comment: @4N4G4M1N:  Well, I tried...
Comment: Yes sir. Thank you for your instruction. There is a lot to be understood. The one who will understand exists in time and This One walks on Earth patiently waiting. You bring up a good question of my lineage? And if they have not revealed themselves? The One who self cherishes has saught Them out but it appears they are in hiding or sick. Regardless, yes wheels of time keep turning and we keep learning every day and hopefully the one who self cherishes will bring joy to her elders.
Answer: I think I've understood the question now.
No this isn't an exclusive site.
Someone people (users) study one school, some another, and some several.
We (the community of users on this site) don't want sectarian arguments between schools.
So a question like, "what does school A think of school B?", is difficult to ask on this site -- not quite impossible but those kinds questions are quite rare and carefully asked.
Generally if you ask about school A's doctrine, then you should be asking for school A's view of that doctrine -- i.e. don't ask what school B thinks about school A's doctrine.
Often any question might be answered from the perspective of several schools (which I think is nice, one of the benefits of this site).
But sometimes, when a question is about the specific doctrine of a school, then it should be answered from the perspective of that school only.
Those questions might be tagged using a tag like theravada or mahayana or tibetan-buddhism or zen or a number of other tags.
If you see a tag like that (for example "theravada") then a purely Mahayana answer would be off-topic, not an answer to that specific question (and downvoted/deleted).
That is, more or less, how all the several school of Buddhism can be represented on this site -- they coexist, without sectarian arguments.
See also:

The Hostile and Broad Comparisons reasons in the Moderation policies for Questions
The Minimizing controversy section/topics of the FAQ index (summary of site policies).
Comment: Have you read the [Dhammapada](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/dhp/dhp.intro.budd.html)? The Pali scriptures are long and a bit difficult to read -- the Dhammapada is quite a good introduction IMO -- accurate and cheerful. Your mentioning "self-cherishing" reminded me of Chapter 10. I don't want to push back the presence of beings, but I want to see people sharing nicely with each other (and being harmless), posts which fit the Q&A format (on this site) -- and ideally something like [right speech](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/search_results.html?q=right+speech). May you be well.
Comment: Several web sites that can help, e.g. to study the Pali side-by-side with an English translation -- especially suttacentral.org, also buddha-vacana.org -- and a lot of the questions on the main site ask about that (e.g. there must be a hundred questions trying to ask exactly what *anatta* means, and other questions asking about all the various other Pali words). I imagine that most people don't try to learn Pali, and that no-one would unless they were already quite interested in the text for some reason.
Comment: Still it takes a while to learn a new language, a good English translation is better than nothing. :-) Also there are different/several translations of the Dhammapada which give slightly different English words. Anyway I think the Dhammapada is used (in Buddhist countries too) as a popular classic or summary -- and introduces various themes. [This edition of the Dhammapada](https://www.tipitaka.net/tipitaka/dhp/verseload.php?verse=001) has the Pali as well as English, if you're curious, and the "origin stories" too (those stories aren't considered "*buddha-vacana*", but the verses are).
Comment: Yes we're fortunate to be able to access the doctrine (the "dharma"), and the people who worked and still work to make it accessible seem heroic and kind, one might be grateful. I used to read to my wife in the last year of her life, I think we both liked doing that.
Comment: In theory this isn't a Buddhist site -- instead it's a site *about* Buddhism, and it's mostly *for* Buddhists but for others too. But please respect Buddhist sensibilities -- so [for example here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhisattva_vow#Tibet), "Belittling the shravaka vehicle" is behaviour which you should avoid (according to Buddhists), and, must avoid (according to the "rules" of this site). See also the [Code of Conduct](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/conduct) (as well as "[Be nice](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/help/behavior)"] which applies to every site on the SE network.
Comment: Yes okay thank you for taking the time to moderate today. Hopefully by pushing back the presence of the one who self cherishes there will be less discomfort rising to you. May your good fortune increase three times by next Tuesday!
Comment: It feels wrong to read translated texts. It feels as though if one would study such profound teachings they should understand the original language. The one who self cherishes has read some translated texts and will read chapter ten as compassionately advised by The Wise. Thank you
Comment: Dear kind one, the sentiment in your last two comments brings tears to they eyes of the one who self cherishes she cries on Earth. Because the one who self cherishes does not deserve the regard of The Wise Ones, is not owed anything by them, the gifts they give bring tears. Priceless gifts richer than any gold or diamond. Given to a wretch. Such behavior only highlights the endless mercy of The Wise.
Comment: It is more soothing to listen to such profound teachings being read aloud by one who loves what they read. Like when listening to yuttadhammo their voice adds dimension to the texts and magnifies what is already present. Andrei the moderator must sound similarly were he to read aloud for us to hear.
Answer: I was hoping Chris's answer and your subsequent comment would prove a moment of reflection for you, but I see from your subsequent posts and your slanderous answers that it was not.
You need to stop. Right away. Your tormentor is not someone who practices Theravada, but rather a Mahayana practitioner who wants you to stop doing harm on this forum both to yourself and others. It is quite evident from your erroneous answers that you are a baby Buddhist without a lot of practice or knowledge. You also seem to be quite unskilled in discipline and self-restraint. So stop.
You are causing potential schism and violating the rules of the site and disparaging the Dharma. Take a break, get some water, reflect with some humility and try to use the site to learn and grow your practice or to help others. Of if you simply cannot restrain yourself, then stop posting on the site altogether.
Comment: Many of your answers are erroneous from both the viewpoint of Theravada as well as Mahayana and show a lack of understanding of very basic Dharma. At best they are confused. Your motivation is similarly not altruistic, but full of self cherishing. If you had the skill to look inside and check this is what you'd undoubtedly see. Unfortunately, your self-cherishing is at such a level that it will likely overpower any self-assessment. The best thing you could do is adopt an attitude of humility, admit a little doubt about what you think you know and use the site to learn and progress.
Comment: Before you can help others you need to learn to help yourself. And you need to learn what an altruistic motivation truly is and not the facsimile.
Comment: This was in reference to [this answer](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/37140/254) which is now deleted.
Comment: Ok guru thank you for your instruction it is appreciated. Whoever it is you claim has a self-cherishing attitude has renounced volitional harm to all who could be a bodhisattva and to all Buddha's and their families. If the one who self-cherishes has caused pain it was not intentional or volitional. An apology is indeed due to The One who was hurt.
Comment: Please if the one who self cherishes could be so bold to ask guru if tomorrow he will compassionately share even just one sentence of instruction to help one cultivate humility & and an air of doubt. It is the wish of the one who self-cherishes to please beloved guru
Answer: I don't know whether this answer really fits, but because I've just only a couple of days ago downvoted one answer of you, I'll add my remark.
In that "answer" in question I downvoted not because you were critical or something about Theravadins/Theravada (the contents of your contribution), but because how you formed it as a ridiculation (because style - you were "downvoting" the Theravada by some private perception of some stupidity of the others). However I had even added a comment to my downvoting explaining shortly why I downvoted and also flagged that contribution of yours for moderation to put attention on this.
Some more explanation: I've been active member in a german buddhist newsgroup from 2002 to about 2010 and the pattern of putting the style of comments towards "the others" completely blocked any positive evolution in the newsgroup. Even trolls made fun out of this by inducing this style of "conversation" to trigger other (usually peaceful) people to engage in this a-social style of conversation.
Later in the evening, when I came back to BSE here, I noticed moreover that nearly every question on the screen was signed with your icon - maybe it have been 20 contributions in 9 hours, and I really suspected that "4n4g4m1n" might be such a troll-account: who would be able to contribute to so many threads in such a short time with serious content?
Well, I'm not often here in BSE currently, so this all might have been an unlucky accident and the style of conversation which I've critizised has become more a norm nowadays...
So - I do not really know whether this all concerns here your question/complaint. If not, let say me I'm sorry for wrong guess. But at least for supplying a possible context for the other readers here my recollection might be useful.
Comment: @ChrisW - many thanks for your confirmation! Hope things still go well here (for the sake of ours and our contemporaries) :-)
Comment: Yes the answer which you flagged was [this one](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/37102/254) -- and you were right to flag that and to comment IMO, thank you. I think that "style of conversation" is abnormal still, on this site. 4N4G4M1N is a new user and has posted prolifically but starting only very recently.
Comment: Thank you Gottfried - the pure motivation you describe is interpreted as love to the one who self cherishes. Unworthy of anything you have to give. Grateful for what you have already given.


Why "nigra truo" is a concept that uses two words instead of one?

Question: Nigra truo is an adjective next to a noun. It can be any hole that happens to be black. I was surprised to find that this "word" is in ReVo and is used for speaking about the cosmic object named black hole in English. Usually, for speaking about a specific concept, we create a new word like naztruo, butontruo, terpomo... I wonder why nigra truo is different and does not have its own word made from compounding.
Answer: The term black hole, when translated into other languages, is basically always either a phonetic transliteration or expressed literally. I do not know of any exception, perhaps because the term is enticingly vivid. Thus, nigra truo is the form most likely to be understood immediately in context.
If you need an unambiguous term, use gravita singularejo.
Comment: Even in German, a language with very rich compounding, the term is _Schwarzes Loch_ (ie 'black hole').
Answer: Well an immediate issue I've noticed with compounding the 2 words is that unlike those other words that you've mentioned, "nigrtruo" is incredibly difficult to pronounce thanks to R being right before T. I can only imagine that this problem alone has a lot to do with it, and not necessarily some grammatical reason. Thanks to Esperanto's agglutinative compounding system however, you could type "nigrtruo" and I'm sure everyone will know what you mean. Saying it is the real problem.
Honestly, the biggest annoyance to me is calling that concept a "black hole" at all. Maybe we could come up with some other term that doesn't parallel the English one. It just feels like there's a better name we can come up with than that. Maybe that compound will work out better.
Comment: In the case that could be ok to make a single word, where would be too difficult to pronounce, I suppose it is ok to just write it like nigratruo.
Comment: @IvanGarcia When combining words in one, using *a* to link them is not allowed. One can either drop the end vowel, use *o*, or add a dash. So you could go with: *nigrotruo*.
Comment: "some other term that doesn't parallel the English one" - It's not just English. People literally say "black hole" in almost every language from Spanish to Chinese to Swahili.
Answer: The proposition ''gravita singularejo'', like nigra truo is a calque (of gratity singularity). Note that ''singularo'' in esperanto only refer to the grammatical number. To translate "singularity", you might probably use unuopo, neordinaraĵo, specialaĵo or kuriozaĵo. ununura and solsola also came to my mind but it seems they only translate "singleton". You could aslso build a word based on rara, like rarano.
As an alternative you can use pezegejo aŭ kosm(a)pezegejo. Here pez/ is certainly suit well, it's already uzed to render the greek root "bary-" of classic terms like "barycentre" (pezocentro). While gravita is in PIV, it still might be interpreted as grav-it-a, a possible collision you will avoid with "pezoforto", that PIV give also have as a synonym entry of gravity.
If you would like to focus more on the "dark side" of the black hole, you should use a word which tells that it's an object which absorb light itself, like lumsorbo or lumsorbaĵo.


Can you install Google Chrome on an iOS Device

Question: Is it possible to install Google Chrome web browser on an iOS device?
Answer: You can now install Google Chrome on an iOS Device.
Do note that it does not use the Chrome Rendering engine, but uses the Safari webkit. The "killer feature" though is that it has syncing with your Google Account.
Answer: No. It's not possible to run Chrome in iOS.
I don't see why you'll want to run Chrome, even if it exists.
Safari for iPhone uses WebKit, the same rendering engine that Chrome uses. There shouldn't be much difference between the two. Safari is plenty fast on the iPhone.
The only other browser available for iPhone is Opera.
Comment: @Gnuchu - no, it was not political. Opera Mini is actually a remote viewer for a web browser session running on Opera's servers. Due to this, it passed all the Apple tests and they had no grounds to reject it. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/opera-mini-web-browser/id363729560?mt=8
Comment: I have a feeling that apple on allowed Opera through the app store approval process because it is so poor and they wanted to show them up
Comment: This answer is no longer true. Chrome is now on iOS. ;-) And I love the incognito tabs. But it still needs some polish.
Comment: Haha, that's a good one @gnuchu.
Comment: @gnuchu, I concur. That's why Apple store is not showing Chrome because Chrome beats Safari to death.
Comment: @Graviton: please unaccept this answer, as it is no longer true; see jrg's answer.
Answer: As it is not available in the app store (at least not here in Germany), it is not possible. Maybe there is an app or possibility for jailbroken iPhones, but I doubt it.
Answer: It is not and I doubt that there will ever be such a port, because the model Chrome is based on is that each tab is run as a separate process. As there is no true multitasking in the iPhone (available in public APIs, that is) such app would not be possible to do.
If Google ever releases something like that (which would not be approved in the App Store, with the current rules, but for argument's sake let's say it's released as an ad-hoc distribution, or as source code) it would work very differently, thus being a different product with the same brand
Comment: Might want to consider deleting this, it makes you look bad :]
Comment: I appreciate your concern, but what I said is still true. The current Chrome browser on the App Store is a wrapper on top of the same webkit that Mobile Safari uses. It doesn't come from Chromium, the only similarity being likely the bookmark syncing code and other peripheral code.
Answer: Google would have to first properly release a chrome app for android before even thinking about an iOS app. Would be shooting themselves in the foot otherwise.
Whether or not Apple would approve it would be another story.


How to allow all users to configure their own file/folder permissions?

Question: I am an owner of a SP (online) Site within my company. We would like to give all users the ability to modify file/folder permissions under the Document Libraries they currently have access to. (e.g. be able to make a folder private so only they have access to it.) Where precisely are the settings to manage this option?
Answer: When you create any folder, just click on the ellipsus besides folder (3 dots) -> shared with -> advanced settings. This is the page where you will find permissions on that particular folder.
By default it will be inherited from parent (library in this case). Click on "stop inheriting from parent". And now you can add/edit/remove permissions for that particular folder. Give the person who wants to manage access to the folder a minimum "Edit" level permission on the folder. Or just give "full control" to make someone the owner of that folder.
Answer: For SharePoint Online, go library settings and then find the link "Permission for this document library". Then you can stop inheriting and create unique permission for this library. Add all users who need to manage permission level to a certain group and then grant the group with enough permission.

Note: It is always not recommended to give too many users the role to manage permission.


The use of elipses in writing a novel

Question: I am a little confused and need some help in clearing things up. In writing dialogue and the speaker pauses how do you show this. Now, from my understanding you use ellipses(...). If this is true, how are they used? A space after the last word with the last word being "going" ("We are going ...but I think,") or no space after the last word but space before the next word ("We are going... but I think,") or no spaces before and after the last and first words? ("We are going...but I think,")
Answer: To answer your question, it'll be something like this: "... I said, but I wouldn't." Then, the next person says, "Sure, but why?" It'll be best to use a comma unless you're trying to demonstrate that the person speaking is drawling out a specific word. Only use ellipses when your speaker is drawling a certain word.
Comment: So how does one write a person pausing to think before speaking? For examples, "You know," he looks up as if he thinks for a second, "I think you are right." vs "You know...  think you are right."
Answer: This is called aposiopesis. And you can use either the em-dash — or ellipsis. There seems to be no real agreement on the proper use. I generally use ellipsis with space after but not before but having one both after and before is recommended by some.
That said, if you want to show someone paused, you usually should just say it. Strictly speaking apart from few specific uses ellipsis simply means that the sentence was not completed, it does not specify if there was a pause in speech beyond the normal short one between sentences. It is also misleading if the sentence is completed but after a pause.
The em-dash might fit you better since "self-interruption" is one of its uses, unlike with ellipsis. "I believe I shall—no, I'm going to do it." is example Wikipedia gives which sounds lot like what you want to me.
Answer: If you're writing for yourself, you can do whatever makes sense to you, as long as you're consistent with it.
Personally I do this:

Ellipses are for when someone's speech trails off (for sudden interruptions, I use an em-dash).
I use the Unicode character "…", with no space before, and one space after.

I write everything in plaintext, then let the software (in my case, pandoc) do the conversion to nice-looking Unicode characters. Any WYSIWYG word processor worth their sal— I mean, bytes, can smarten punctuation on the fly, or let you insert special characters.
I've seen some old texts on Project Gutenberg that put spaces between dots, or even use more than three dots, such as (made-up example):

Yes, do that . . . . please.

Also, in Japanese media, using long runs of dots is common to indicate pauses.
If you're writing to get published, take a look at the style guide that your editor uses.
For example, the Chicago Manual Of Style prefers three dots, and requires non-breaking spaces to be put between them (but allows the single-character Unicode version too), while New Hart's Rules prefer the single-character (source: https://www.liminalpages.com/ellipsis-spaces-dots).
But ultimately, (ibid.)

[B]oth are correct!

And, in regards to spacing before/after the ellipsis, (ibid.)

Should there be a space before and after the ellipsis, though … like
  this? Or should there be no space…like this? Again, it's a style
  decision. Either is fine, as long as you're consistent.

Being consistent is key, so that you make your editor's life easier, and they can replace all occurrences of ellipses with a single command.
I use no space before the ellipses, so that they don't get broken apart, and you end up with just ellipses at the beginning of the line -- you always have at least one word preceding them -- and one space after, for consistency with commas and periods.
And in regards to spacing if you use separate dots (ibid.):

Keep in mind, too, that it's important the dots always appear on the
  same line, so make sure you're either using a single glyph or
  non-breaking spaces.

Again, non-breaking spaces are a pain in WYSIWYG editors (it's not immediately apparent they're different than normal spaces), so I just prefer the single-character ellipsis.
Comment: +1 Good practical advice. On the Project Gutenberg using a space before: In older text ellipsis was used to signal an omitted word as in "23 ... Street". In such use you need a space before it, if the word it replaces would need one. And of course this resulted in the space being added when not strictly needed because habits.

The use of elipses in writing a novel


Ubuntu clipboard manager that pastes from popup without Ctrl+V?

Question: I've just discovered Glipper. Is it possible to have it paste the entry from pop-up as soon as I hit enter?
That is, get rid of the last step in the following sentence:

Ctrl+Alt+C
Navigate popup with arrows
Enter
Ctrl+V

I also evaluated Parcellite and it does not seem to support it either.
Answer: You can use middle click in your mouse to paste the selected text.