How to show errors when saving multiple things at once?

Question: I have this situation. I have list of data and user can choose one button. After pressing that button dialog is shown to user , with yes and no button. On sucessfull operation element in list disappear and user gets grren notification in right upper corner "Saved successfully", or on failure "Failed because...".
Everything is fine with that scenario. I like it.
Here is the problem.
I needed to make checkbox near to each element in list, where user can check one or more items in list. Selecting one element triggers visibility of one button (save all) where user can save for example 5 items in once.
Chances are that 3 of those items will be saved corretly but 2 will not. How to shows relevant errors for those items.
I can't show them as notifications in upper right corner because what when user selects 10 items, and 10 of them fails. Notifications also dissaper automatically after 5 seconds. They will take entire screen from top to bottom and user will not have enaught time to read them. User will notice that few items were not "saved" bacause they remain in list but I'm trying to find the way for showing notifications for t
Comment: It might be helpful if you could show a wireframe or screenshot of what you're working with. It sounds like the "toast" style notifications you're using aren't really suitable for this situation, and inline error messages next to the item in the list is the way to go.
Comment: Yes I thought about inline messages, I can upload images tomorrow but it is really that simple.basic table  with items and checkboxes next to item which enables to save more tham one item at once.
Answer: It sounds like you have a table with a list of items. Assuming this is what you have, is it possible to show the invalid items like this?
Answer: I am working on a similar situation for a B2B financial app. User can import a number of files. The system validates and can reject some and accept others. But the user may want to correct some of the entries and try again, so she needs to know which ones were rejected.
Here's how we handled it:

User imports a file with 100 records and all are valid. She gets a
green success message.
User imports a file with 100 records and all are invalid. She gets a
red failure message.
User imports a file with 50 valid and 50 invalid records. The valid
records are imported, and she gets a yellow message saying "Some of the
records could not be imported. Download a CSV file of the records we could not import." There's a hyperlink that immediately downloads and the resulting CSV has a reason for rejection for each of the records. The user can make corrections when convenient and import the corrected records.
Answer: You can show a separate screen where you will be showing unsaved or saved items (any of them) though I will recommend to show unsaved items. If in each step something is not saved, it will appear there with some small indication(without individual errors)., list of unsaved items will be available for the user and while clicking on an item, again the submission process for unsaved items will be initiated. You can also have a special option to process all the unsaved items at once.
If it's a web-based application, i would suggest to use something similar to cookies to store those entries temporarily (until they are reflected on the server).


Decent low-footprint web server? (.net)

Question: I'm looking for a server which is:
Lightweight,
Non-buggy,
Supports .NET,
Runs on client for testing,
Runs on Windows

Cassinni is too buggy, IIS is too expensive, Apache is hard to setup, XSP is linux only

Visual Web Developer's is cutting it.
Comment: You can get a very functional version of IIS with Windows 7....
Answer: IIS.  That's the only server that supports .Net really well.  You can go with Mod_Mono on Apache, but that's probably not going to be as stable as running IIS.
Answer: Cassini
Note: (from their website)
"UltiDev recommends running UltiDev Cassini Web Server as an Intranet (inside-the-LAN) web server. Exposing UltiDev Cassini to Internet may be unsafe without using of HttpVPN due to the fact that UltiDev Cassini windows service is running under the powerful Local System (NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM) account. Compromising applications running under Cassini may give an attacker complete control over the system."
Answer: XSP - "a lightweight and simple webserver written in C#"
Of course, you're going to get better performance from apache + mod_mono, but this is definitely lightweight
Also, XSP runs on windows: http://www.mono-project.com/Mono:Windows
Answer: Apache and Mod_mono.
Answer: Probably not relevant to this discussion but be careful testing / debugging on cassini. Its threading model is different from IIS. I've had problems with security (thread.CurrentPrincipal etc) on cassini that just disappeared when I started debugging against IIS.
Answer: The company I work for makes a server called the Neokernel Web Server that meets these reqs; it can be used standalone or embedded in your application and started programatically. The assembly is around 500KB so it's pretty small. This is a commerically supported product with a free evaluation license available. It is not based on the Cassini source code, although like IIS and Cassini it uses the ASP.NET processing pipeline for ASP.NET files.

Decent low-footprint web server? (.net)


How to improve Fuel consumption of Kia Sportage 2014

Question: How we can improve Fuel consumption of Kia Sportage 2014. Also guide me what is the Avg fuel economy of Kia sportage 2014 with 50,000/ mileage.
Does changing of spark plugs have any affect?
Comment: Make sure it is serviced correctly and drive gently...
Comment: There are tyres that puport to be more fuel efficient by reducing rolling resistance - I don't know what the effect of that is in terms of grip/safety though.  It may be something to consider.  Additionally, lightening the vehicle could also help - i.e. remove anything you don't need, swapping a full size spare for a space-saver or replacing it with a tin of "gunk".
Answer: Seeing as how most vehicles made today dont need any tune up done to them until 100k miles, there's nothing you can do to your vehicle to get better fuel mileage as far as a tune up goes. You could possible do things which are extraordinary, such as get mechanical work done (ie: cams or porting on heads) or tuning (new fuel map).
As far as a tune up, the only thing which can get you better fuel mileage is by tuning up the driver (as Solar Mike stated in comments). You'll have to decide what is the best way to handle that.
If there's nothing you can do on your end, the only thing left is to get a more fuel efficient vehicle.
Answer: Unfortunately, the Kia Sportage isn't the most fuel efficient vehicle even when new. 21-23 MPG combined depending on your trim: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/Feg/bymodel/2014_Kia_Sportage.shtml
Like solar-mike said, drive gently and follow your service schedule. Try not to accelerate quickly, coast as much as you can, and try to avoid braking.
If you have 50,000 miles on your Sportage, a new air filter might make a tiny bit of MPG difference if your current filter is dirty. New spark plugs could also make a little difference but would basically only be noticeable if your current ones are old or wearing out.


X3: Terran Conflict -- Asking ships to surrender

Question: Does anybody who has played X3:TC know if it ever works to tell ships to surrender when you are in a dog fight with them?
Answer: I've spent a few dozen hours with it and I've yet to see any ship surrender. I've been told by a friend who's played a lot more than I that you have to have overwhelming firepower and a strong reputation before they'll even consider it. In short, I wouldn't waste your time until you've made it into the middle or late game.
Comment: Basically wait till you have a ship that can blast anything out of the sky, then see if they'll bail :)
Comment: it'll have to be REALLY late game when you have a super high combat rating.  At that point, however, small fighters aren't even worth your attention anymore and most will die to the flak of whatever capital ship you are flying in within a few seconds.
Comment: This may also depend on the race. A Split or Paranid will probably never even consider to surrender while a Teladi may do it.
Answer: It's based off three things:
1) You firepower (most important. Fast ROF, low damage weapons are nice for this so you don't blow something up as they eject. PRGs, IFEs etc.)
2) Enemy ship class (you'll see more M3/4 pilots ejecting than M1 ones, for example)
3) Your military reputation. It only takes a little bit of combat and this jumps RIGHT up.
4) Pilot race. As already stated, you won't see many split or paranid ejecting unless you REALLY pile on the hurt. Teladi and Boron eject a lot more, as do pirates. (did an escort freighter mission and they were doing the hokey-pokey by the exit gate, while more Yaki kept coming. With my two M4s I ended up snagging about 5-8 ships, mostly Fujin variants and a few Raijin variants. That's firing 4 PACs to drop the shields, then 2 PACs and 2 IFEs to attack the hull so they don't die to fast and they have a chance to eject.
Best things to do are grab a second combat ship to match your own (preferably a vanguard or sentinel so your AI buddy has a good amount of shields) and make sure his weapons are a balanced mix-- otherwise he'll probably run out of energy and be useless. Also give him a nice load of missiles and put their missile fire probability up to like 10-20%. You'll need to keep them resupplied, but it's nice to see in combat.
Then do station defence missions. I just did one at the plankton plant in Kingdom's End (a very hard one for 200k listed reward) with my Buster Vanguard and AI wingman in a buster raider (less shields, but the speed is nice for chasing down anything that I can't catch.) That's two M4s.
I nearly shit myself as the enemies came in through the jumpgate. A whole load of pirate M5s, a few M4s, an M3 and an M8 (bomber.)
They trickled forward slowly, spreading out. Cue destroying every ship one by one until I reach the bomber-- Two M4s firing a mix of PACs and the cheap IFEs (4 PACs and 2 IFEs each, set up right it's a nice balance of firepower and power drain on an M4) chopped it right up-- AND THEN IT BAILED. About five hours in, barely anything to my name and CHACHING, a bomber pilot ejects. I repaired it back to full and dear lord it sold for over 3mil.
I'm gonna use those two Argon busters as wingmen for my nova, whenever the hell I can afford one.
Answer: When I'm looking for force others to bail I usually go with a Boron M3 that's heavy on the ION and has some additional hull type firepower.  Shredding the shields makes the ROF factor spike for the calculator.  I tried just ION but the success rate dropped considerably.  Either there is a hull damage factor as well or the hull damage keeps the calculation high enough, long enough to about double the surrender rate.


Send email from SQL Server

Question: I need to send email from SQL Server SP. Until now I used sp_send_cdosysmail. Is it better to use sp_send_dbmail? And the main question - which mail server is used by sp_send_dbmail - is it configured somewhere?
Answer: Database mail depends on what server, profile is configured in Database Mail
Ref: Configure Database Mail
as for using sp_send_dbmail, see sp_send_dbmail (Transact-SQL)
This db mail functionality is available from SQL Server 2005.
See also these example database mail configuration scripts by Dan Guzman.

Send email from SQL Server


Is it worth it to learn a dialect of assembly?

Question: My goals are focused on software application development, and maybe web application development, but most likely desktop applications. I'm embarking on a path to becoming more familiar with C/C++, but should I go much lower than that, into assembly? Or would I not have a benefit for my long-term goals?
Answer: I am really surprised to see so many "no" answers to this question. I think you should learn assembly.
I do not expect that you would ever use assembly directly as part of your job. But it does not follow from that that you should not learn it.
Learning assembly will teach you about what is going on inside the computer. It will help you to understand what the software is actually doing.
It's really about professionalism. Are you going to be a professional software engineer? Or are you going to be a copy-and-paste hack? Sure, the latter may pay the bills, but being a professional is so much more satisfying.
To hear someone say, "Nah, don't bother learning assembly," sounds to my ears like "Here's the cookbook for building bridges. You don't need to learn about physics or engineering to build a bridge. Just follow these recipes." No, thank you.
Answer: G'day,
I learnt PDP assembler when I did my Elect. Eng. degree in the late '70's. The last dialect of assembler that I really used had four different modes of memory addressing. Last dialect I ooked at had 17 modes!
Not sure what learning assembler really gives you nowadays. Back then it was an essential part of a CS stream in my elect. eng. degree.
As to learning C++ I'd just sit down and work through "Accelerated C++" which approaches C++ in its own right and not as "C with other bits".
As to C, I'd just work through the latest version of "C Programming Lanuage" (a.k.a.) K'n'R
Hope this helps.
cheers,
Rob
Now if you'd asked about nano-progrmming... (-:
Answer: "Is it worth it to learn a dialect of assembly?"
I have programmed assembly professionally. M68k running a fax machine and scanner. Also windows VxDs (virtual device drivers) back in the windows 3/3.1 days before they had a real kernel.
When you code assembly to do ordinary software-y kinds of tasks (copying memory, concatenating strings, calling interrupt handlers etc), it's kind of interesting. Sometimes you code assembly to be called by C code to perform some specialized task as fast as possible on a given processor. That can be more interesting because you're looking for ways to take advantage of every cycle the processor gives you. You care about what's in the processor's L1 cache. You care about aligning data in memory to avoid cacheline hits (if I remember the term). You care about dual pipeline processor architecture and using the right 2 or 3 or 4 instructions in the right order so that 2 or 3 or 4 things are happening with a single clock tick (-one- of those HZ in the processor's XgHz).
When you code assembly to drive custom hardware, now you're doing stuff like filling a 16byte buffer of memory, setting up a DMA operation and firing that data over to a controller that is doing something like driving a laser printer drum. And the drum is turning and can't be stopped and wants its next 16 bytes within the next 5us. Of course that can be done in C or C++. But the examples are endless.
I would maybe trim off the last half of your question "Is it worth it to learn a dialect of assembly?" And make it "Is it worth it to learn?"
If you love programming, how you define "worth" involves some component of the love of programming. In that sense, I've never learned something in programming and not thought it was worth it. Even if I didn't use it much afterwords.
In that same sense, I would almost say that the harder something is to learn, the more "worth" it it is.
But all that fluffy crap aside, I believe it is worth it to at least get -some- assembly background. Go ahead and figure out how to write the assembly to replace a few simple stdlib routines like strcpy, memmove etc. Then try to optimize them, calling them from C a million times while timing it.
Answer: I wouldn't start learning ASM. If you want to learn C/C++ then start with that. As the quality of your code matures, you may find you have a need for ASM. 99% of the time you won't, but every now and then you might need it.
Also, it does help to know ASM in terms of understanding what C/C++ is doing behind the scenes. But again, until you get more advanced, you probably won't have a need for it.
Answer: I did, and I think it helped me at the time.  It doesn't help me day to day anymore, but I think it would depend on your job.
I learned assembler 20 years ago on a Commodore and again in University on an IBM mainframe.  I can't say it helps me in my current job.
Answer: It's probably not going to have a whole lot of benefit unless you have a direct application for it.  If you're going for general knowledge, C/C++ is a fine place to start.
That said, the challenges that assembly poses are very interesting and it requires a pretty different mindset to get things done.
I spent a little time learning Z80 assembly by programming the TI-86 calculator.  The Z80 instruction set is pretty small and the novelty of programming a calculator in assembly is very amusing.
ticalc.org has a lot of good resources on TI assembly programming.
Comment: You can make homebrew Nintendo Gameboy games with (a subset) of Z80 assembly, as well.
Answer: I agree with Mark. I think it's similar to learning MSIL when writing in C#, VB.NET, or another .NET language. It helps to know what's going on under the hood, but you could go your entire life creating applications that work and never need it.
Answer: No. Unless you want to for fun, you really don't need learn assembly.
There are some things you need to know assembly for, like driver creation, OS development, exploit development, but aside from that, I personally believe you can quite happily code forever without knowing it.
If you do need to learn assembly, you'll know it - I wouldn't learn it for the sake of learning it..
Answer: If you are writing unmanaged C++, it is occasionally invaluable to know at least basic x86 assembly, binary number systems, etc.  I primarily do C/C++ development, and I occasionally need to debug production code for errors that are so specific to the machine-code representation produced by the compiler that the only way to find, and then fix the bug is to read the decompiled assembly and ascertain why the compiler generated it as such.
For more information on assembly, see the question: What is the best way to learn Assembly? Specifically, for someone who has experience in dynamic languages.
Answer: Assembly is not very difficult.  Once you're familiar with C, spend a day or two learning basic assembly.  Its helpfulness in terms of debugging is tremendous, plus its fun being able to write code that beats the C equivalent speed-wise by a factor of 10, 15, or more.
Answer: I would not suggest to learn a "modern assembler language".
However knowing a little about MOS 6510 Assembler and browsing through the disassembled C64 Kernel, a.k.a. it's OS and BASIC Interpreter, helped me a lot to understand what's going on inside a computer - stuff like interrupts and memory pages.
This could possibly help you to give you hints how to write optimized code in other languages. A lot of that - however - is already done by modern compilers, so I'd only suggest that if you're interested in what's going on inside of that black box.


SharePoint 2010 Taxonomy and URLs

Question: Can anyone explain if there is a relationship in SharePoint 2010 between the meta data services/taxonomy and the url of list items?
Answer: If you tag pages (not items) in SharePoint, this is done by URL. If the URL changes (e.g. by renaming), the tags are getting lost ;-( This is a showstopper in case of organizing an portal using tags.

SharePoint 2010 Taxonomy and URLs


What is Completion Stage Meditation also known as Nispannakrama?

Question: In Vajrayana there appears to be many different types and stages of mediation. One form is called "completion stage meditation" also known as nispannakrama.  It appears to be associated with something called Anuttarayoga Tantra. What exactly is "completion stage meditation" and how is it practiced?
Answer: According to what I understood from explanations given to me in one of the temples in New Kadampa Tradition, completion meditation is an antidote to potential sideeffects of generation meditation. If practitioner gets too attached to (image of oneself as) one's yidam, they are prescribed certain exercises designed to help them let go.
Comment: I found a copy of "The Life of Milarepa" by Tsangnyon Heruka published by Penguin Classics.  In the introduction it discusses generation and completion stage mediations.  Are you familiar with the text's perspective on these types of meditations?  The story sounds very interesting as well.
Comment: I have read The Life of Milarepa almost 10 years ago, but I still remember it pretty clearly. I don't think I saw Generation/Completion meditation discussed anywhere in the text itself. Maybe in a (modern) introduction? But I may be wrong, it was a while ago and I don't have the text handy these days.


Dying in Dead Island

Question: If you die in Dead Island is there a way for you to get out of the mission you are playing and return to free play without having to quit to the main menu?
Comment: For the record, this user hasn't visited since ten days after they posted this question, so there is little likelihood that they will accept an answer.
Comment: I might be able to answer better if it's a particular mission that you're stuck on that you can tell me so I can tell you if it's possible.
Answer: Or join someone's game and your save will become that one.
Answer: I know in the successor, Dead Island: Riptide you could quit a mission and return to free play without dying, and I would imagine the case in the original is the same, as they're very similar
Answer: Most missions, you can complete at your own pace. Few missions, and I believe those are escort missions, have a fail condition that resets you back to its location if you try to "return to free play". If you've already begun an escort mission, I think that you may be stuck in it until you complete it. You could try selecting a different mission in your mission log, but I don't think it'll help.
I don't think that quitting to the main menu allows you to "return to free play" either. That option is more of a "take a break from or never play this game again" option.

Dying in Dead Island


Message queue configuration changes in Magento 2 EE 2.1

Question: I've been looking at the EE message queues functionality, but it seems like it is incomplete.
Prior to 2.1 there was a reasonably functional implementation that allowed you to create a etc/queue.xml to define publishers, topics, consumers and queues as described in the official documentation: http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.0/config-guide/mq/config-mq.html.
There were limitations such as not been able to create bindings unless they matched a topic defined in configuration, which limited the flexibility as you had to define all possible topic possibilities up front. The lack of a recurring install script also meant you had to do a bit of hacking to get the installer script to run again.
As of 2.1 the publisher, topic, consumer and bind elements in etc/queue.xml have been deprecated and the configuration is split between etc/queue.xml and etc/communication.xml, as can be seen here: https://github.com/magento/magento2-samples/blob/master/sample-module-sample-message-queue/etc/. The deprecated publisher/topic/consumer/bind schema can still be used in isolation, but not in conjunction with the revised broker/queue schema.
However, none of this has appeared in the official documentation and its not immediately clear why the configuration has been split and requires duplication in some cases. More importantly, there doesn't seem to be a facility to define binding now, with the topic name used as the routing key instead. This in turn also makes it impossible to use special characters for binding queues. So it appears to have been refactored but lost functionality.
On a positive note, the magento/module-amqp module now uses a recurring installer script so the queue config changes are installed when you run magento setup:upgrade. This change has not been applied to the magento/module-mysql-mq module yet though.
So I'd like to know:
a) Have I got this all wrong and there is actually way to create bindings and it is more flexible than it seems?
b) Why has the configuration been split?

As a side note, as I've been experimenting with this I've been using one of the topology examples from the RabbitMQ tutorials at https://www.rabbitmq.com/tutorials/tutorial-four-php.html:

This deprecated configuration achieved the topology for the most part:
queue.xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework-message-queue:etc/queue.xsd">
    <topic name="quick.orange.rabbit" schema="Example\MessageQueue\Api\MessageInterface" publisher="default" />
    <topic name="quick.orange.fox" schema="Example\MessageQueue\Api\MessageInterface" publisher="default" />
    <topic name="lazy.pink.rabbit" schema="Example\MessageQueue\Api\MessageInterface" publisher="default" />
    <topic name="lazy.orange.elephant" schema="Example\MessageQueue\Api\MessageInterface" publisher="default" />
    <topic name="lazy.brown.fox" schema="Example\MessageQueue\Api\MessageInterface" publisher="default" />
    <consumer name="consumerOne" queue="queueOne" connection="amqp" class="Example\MessageQueue\Model\Subscriber" method="processMessage" executor="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\BatchConsumer" />
    <consumer name="consumerTwo" queue="queueTwo" connection="amqp" class="Example\MessageQueue\Model\Subscriber" method="processMessage" executor="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\BatchConsumer" />
    <bind queue="queueOne" exchange="magento" topic="*.orange.*" />
    <bind queue="queueTwo" exchange="magento" topic="*.*.rabbit"  />
    <bind queue="queueTwo" exchange="magento" topic="lazy.#" />
</config>

UPDATE:
The documentation has now been updated. Wildcards are now not supported, so the flexibility of a topic exchange is rendered null. So I tried to recreate the following direct exchange:

communication.xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework:Communication/etc/communication.xsd">
    <topic name="orange" request="Example\MessageQueueExample\Api\MessageInterface" />
    <topic name="black" request="Example\MessageQueueExample\Api\MessageInterface" />
    <topic name="green" request="Example\MessageQueueExample\Api\MessageInterface" />
</config>

queue.xml:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<config xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="urn:magento:framework-message-queue:etc/queue.xsd">
    <broker topic="orange" type="amqp" exchange="magento">
        <queue consumer="consumerOne" name="queueOne" handler="Example\MessageQueueExample\Model\Subscriber::processMessage" consumerInstance="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\Consumer"/>
    </broker>
    <broker topic="black" type="amqp" exchange="magento">
        <queue consumer="consumerTwo" name="queueTwo" handler="Example\MessageQueueExample\Model\Subscriber::processMessage" consumerInstance="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\Consumer"/>
    </broker>
    <broker topic="green" type="amqp" exchange="magento">
        <queue consumer="consumerTwo" name="queueThree" handler="Example\MessageQueueExample\Model\Subscriber::processMessage" consumerInstance="Magento\Framework\MessageQueue\Consumer"/>
    </broker>
</config>

However, when you run the consumers, only the "green" topic is routed to consumerTwo, it ignores the "black" topic. So it seems that the best that can be accomplished is a direct exchange with only one binding per queue and consumer.
Answer: We've published documentation about 2.1 message queues at http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.1/config-guide/mq/config-mq.html and http://devdocs.magento.com/guides/v2.1/config-guide/mq/queue-migration.html
Comment: Thanks @KHarper, the updated documentation is very helpful. Sadly it does confirm that the flexibility of queue configuration has been reduced.
Comment: I have added an update to the original post detailing the limited flexibility, hopefully you will be able to advise if there is a way to create the direct exchange topology.
Comment: Also just to let you know it has been changed again in 2.2.*


Word that means going along with something you know is wrong in order to get ahead

Question: I am looking for a word that means going along with something you know is wrong in order to get ahead or stay in the good graces of a superior.  This could mean knowingly supporting a false interpretation of a situation such that it injures someone else, but not caring because you come out ahead.  The word is not "venal," because venal implies bribery.
Comment: "Turn a blind eye to" is close, but not exactly what you want.
Comment: ['Appeasement' carries this connotation](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/186800/connotation-of-appease/186803#186803).
Comment: Sounds like a good time to [**close your eyes and think of England**](https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/close-your-eyes-and-think-of-england.html) (which, despite what this and other pages say, does not refer exclusively to sexual intercourse nowadays, though its origins there is still palpable even in broader use).
Comment: Compromise [your principles]
Answer: A mercenary is someone who does something for money without regard to the morality of the action...or to quote Google dictionary's definition of mercenary:

"(of a person or their behavior) primarily concerned with making money
  at the expense of ethics."
Answer: "Biting one's tongue" is slightly more neutral than your example (i.e. it doesn't imply doing it for any particular reason)
To "toe the line" generally does imply that you're doing it unwillingly, because 'fitting in' is important to you, but not because of need for personal advancement, sometimes out of fear.
Or you could go for something less complimentary, like 'ass kisser' 'brown noser' 'sucking up' etc.
Answer: Thank you for these suggestions.  As I searched online for the exact word for the situation I wanted to describe, I came across the word "hack," meaning, "a professional who renounces or surrenders individual independence, integrity, belief, etc., in return for money or other reward in the performance of a task normally thought of as involving a strong personal commitment" (definition found on Dictionary.com).  This is pretty close to what I was after.
Comment: Consider ***sell-out***.
Comment: Or we can talk, metaphorically, about someone **prostituting** themselves (or their principles) in this sense.
Comment: A hack can also just mean someone who is not very skilled; they get the job done but not very well.
Comment: First, "hack" doesn't mean what you asked for.  First, it's not a verb.  You asked for a verb, not a noun.  Second, if "hack" as a verb meant what a "hack," as a noun, does, it wouldn't even nearly mean what you explain you want the word to mean. The comment of ab2 is a right answer to your question; so is JeffUK's.
Answer: You could try
opportunist
Defined by The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English as:

a person who exploits circumstances to gain immediate advantage rather than being guided by consistent principles or plans.
most burglaries are committed by casual opportunists
Answer: A yes man.
:a weak person who always agrees with their political leader or their superior at work. [OED]
Their eyes glazed over and their lips turned into a smug smile, Donald Trump's Cabinet continued to be the yes men that he wanted, every last white male among them.
Although my example could also mean they don't know what their doing in the first place.
Answer: There are a number of words or phrases that come to mind. An old-fashioned one is a "trimmer." "Sycophant" and "opportunist" at least come close to what you are trying to express, but "opportunist" has a broader field of meaning whereas "sycophant" has a narrower field. "Yes-man" seems exact, but it is informal and may be an Americanism. There are scatological phrases that may apply.
Comment: I think that down vote is probably because you're providing nouns for someone who does that, not a verb for doing that, which is what is being asked for.
Comment: You may be correct, but I no longer bother to comment here because, among other reasons, people too often give down votes without giving any reason. If your reasonable supposition had been correct and had been explicitly explained, I could have amended my answer to include "trim." Moreover, it seems quite clear that verbs were **not** required because the OP explained why the **adjective** "venal" did not answer the question. But thank you for wondering about the down vote.
Answer: pay lip service to

express approval of or support for (something) without taking any significant action.


delayed final manuscript submission

Question: We have submitted one article to a journal. The editor gave us two weeks for the final manuscript submission. However, he also informed us if more time is absolutely necessary then he can allow us some more time. We have sent him two emails asking some more time. But, he never responded. What should we do now? If I take some more time, will my article be automatically considered as a new one (in the email, he has written so)? Or should I send him some more mails until he replies.
Comment: Possible duplicate of [When / how should I ask about a manuscript's status in review?](http://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/900/when-how-should-i-ask-about-a-manuscripts-status-in-review)
Answer: These things are almost always at the discretion of the editor. If you notified him that you need more time, you are probably in the clear. But even if for some reason the manuscript database of the journal decides that you took more than 2 weeks and forces you to submit your revised paper as a new manuscript, the editor will still send it to the previous reviewers and treat it as if it was a revision. That's because any other course simply makes no sense from the perspective of the editor.
In other words, the worst that can happen is that the date of submission on the final, published version of the paper is the date when you submitted the revised version, rather than the original. There are likely very few cases where that actually makes a difference.
In summary: Don't worry too much about this technicality.
Comment: thanks a lot. does this depend on the journal? say for example if the journal is IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. another thing: should I explain this situation in the cover letter to the editor (if I do not get any email from him)?
Comment: The details might depend on the the journal, but the basics are the same everywhere. It probably makes sense to say something "This is the requested revision for manuscript XXYYZZ. As mentioned in my email from 11/10/2016, I needed a couple more weeks to do the revisions, but here they finally are."

delayed final manuscript submission


Are there diamond cup grinder wheels that create a coarse, no slip concrete surface?

Question: I bought a diamond cup grinding wheel for my 4.5" grinder to remove an acrylic stained concrete finish. The cup works great removing the acrylic stain, but it leaves the concrete highly polished and slippery. Is there a particular grinding wheel that will leave a no-slip, coarse concrete surface?
Answer: Short answer: no, at least if used as intended.
There are some cups and disks that are extremely coarse; they look like a few pebbles of abrasive stuck in random spots.  But they just remove more material faster, and still leave a surface smoother than would be helpful for your purpose.  The problem is the rotation and speed.  The abrasive gets at the whole surface with just a little motion of the grinder.
You could do something different with a coarse cup.  Hold the grinder in one spot and turn it on for just a second or so.  It will grind a circle in that spot.  Move the grinder to another spot and repeat.  The idea is to cover the concrete with a pattern of circles.  They don't need to be deep, maybe on the order of 1/16".
Another technique is to use a circular saw with a diamond cutting wheel.  Adjust the blade guide so the cutting depth is very shallow (around 1/16"), and use a guide to make straight grooves at controlled locations.  Grooves about 1" apart should be enough.
You could also try the opposite approach; add instead of remove.  Bond a thin layer on top with a broomed finish (you would need material with high bonding strength designed for this purpose).  There are also surface finishes that contain some coarse grit for traction.  Or you can buy non-slip tape sold for this purpose.  It is a rugged tape with a gritty surface and a serious adhesive.  You put down strips about 9" apart.


What is the spawn rate of Creepers in Minecraft?

Question: I was in my Minecraft world and saw a ton of monsters in a dark room, I saw creepers there mixed in with he crowd. Since all these were randomly spawned by the game I wondered what their spawn rate was.
Answer: There is nothing about spawn rate. They are all the same. But what you might have seen was a pack. (https://minecraft.wiki/w/Spawn#Pack_spawning)
Comment: @RobertLane Excuse me for the INCREDIBLY late response. But, Enderman has a lot more spawning conditions
Comment: Thank you. That's useful. But aren't mobs like Endermen less common than Creepers?
Answer: Sometimes, the game would spawn a pack instead of a single entity where the game would select a random location on a chunk to be the center of the pack
Answer: Zombies, spiders, and skeletons are most common, then endermen and creepers, then blazes and the rest of the harmful mobs are very rare.


In the USA, why is there still a government shutdown when Congress and the White House are controlled by the same party?

Question: During the United States federal government shutdown of 2018, a single party commanded both the White House and a majority in both houses of Congress.  Under these circumstances, why is there a government shutdown? Does it mean that this party is unable to agree between its members in Congress and its President?
Comment: @blip No, it means that Democrats filibustered the bill in the Senate. Unlike the Democrats near the beginning of Obama's term, the GOP does not have a filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate - or anything close to one. They have 51 votes (out of 100 total.) Stopping a filibuster requires 60.
Comment: @reirab filibuster was irrelevant. They couldn't even agree across their own party. So it's moot either way.
Comment: Does it mean that this party is unable to agree? = yes
Comment: @blip I'm not arguing whose fault it is or isn't; I'm saying your comment about the GOP being unable to agree _with itself_ is not the source of the problem. They _did_ have enough votes to pass it without filibuster and it has already passed the House (where filibuster isn't possible.)
Comment: @blip No, the filibuster was not irrelevant. They had a majority of votes for the bill, just not 60. Without the filibuster, it would have passed.
Comment: @reirab the only thing we can agree on is that its congress's fault. There's not going to be a one-side-is-solely-responsible here. You could argue without the filibuster, it would have passed. You could also say, without the GOP stonewalling the democrats, there'd be no filibuster. We could say all sorts of things. At the end of the day, they don't have 60 votes...certainly at least in part because they can't even get all of their own party on board.
Comment: Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/72017/discussion-between-blip-and-reirab).
Answer:
Does it mean that this party is unable to agree between its members in Congress and its President?

This doesn't really have anything to do with the president.  Sixty votes is the threshold to invoke cloture on most votes, including this one.  Trump has nothing whatsoever to do with cloture.  He can neither block it nor grant it.  It's entirely a Senate thing.  The lack of cloture prevents the Senate from actually voting on the bill.
Anyway, if they needed to override a Donald Trump veto, the threshold is two thirds.  That's sixty-seven votes out of a hundred.
Even if John McCain had voted yea (he did not vote at all, presumably for health reasons) and the five Republicans who voted against the continuing resolution had voted yea, they still would only have had fifty-six votes and they needed sixty.  Democrats Doug Jones, Joe Manchin, Joe Donnelly, Heidi Heitkamp, and Claire McCaskill voted for the bill to avoid the shutdown.  Jones is extremely vulnerable in 2020.  The other four are up for election in 2018 in vulnerable states.
Mitch McConnell voted nay so as to be able to reintroduce the same bill later.  McCain was not present for the vote; he has brain cancer and likely did not bother to attend as his vote wouldn't have mattered.  I'm not sure of the specific reasons why Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Mike Lee, and Jeff Flake did not vote for the bill.  Graham advocates a slightly different bill, so he may have voted nay so as to support the other bill.
Should this or another bill pass the Senate (and the House; this bill came from the House but any changes would need a new vote), there is no reason to think that Trump wouldn't sign it.  He has expressed official approval of the bill.
Vote info
Comment: For the non-US audience among us, could you clarify what cloture is?  If I understand correctly, it's related to filibusters?
Comment: In the US, Congresspeople (specifically Senators) can talk as long as they want. Therefore they can delay or prevent the passage of a bill by simply standing and talking for hours or days on end. A vote of cloture, which requires a supermajority, puts a stop to this delaying tactic by restricting, among other things, how long Senators can speak both individually and collectively.
Comment: +1. One can argue that if the Republicans had a united support then, while that is insufficient to invoke cloture, with a few vulnerable democratic senators likely to join the vote to invoke cloture the pressure would be substantially elevated on Democrats to provide a few more votes to proceed, lest they be easily branded as "at fault".  As-is, Republican disagreements and dysfunctions gave Democrats enough power and certainty in the failure that "fault" would not be (entirely) theirs.  Or so they hope (and similarly so do Republicans).  Time will tell how the voters feel.
Comment: @BobE The vote Friday night was for cloture. The cloture vote is required to pass first in order to be able to actually vote on the bill. Had the cloture vote passed, the bill would have, too, as that would have only required a simple majority, which they had.
Comment: I think that McCain is in Arizona undergoing treatment (so it's not like he "just didn't bother".  BTW, the vote that was taken Friday night in the Senate was **not** on the bill. The bill that was being debated was never voted on, I believe because McConnell realized it would be defeated
Comment: @gerrit I am in the US audience and have no clue as well. I suspect that it is a quorum type thing. Probably that they cannot vote unless a certain percentage is present.
Comment: @gerrit Specifically, 60 votes are required to invoke cloture, which, as Obie described, puts a limit on the otherwise-unlimited debate on a measure in the Senate. The practical effect of invoking cloture is stopping a filibuster.
Comment: @reirab Not necessarily true, though in practice usually so. All the cloture vote means is "we've had enough debate on this, we can end that now".  You could be a decisive "nay" on the bill itself and still vote for cloture because you want to move on from the debate phase.  This was essentially McCain's position on an earlier Obamacare repeal: he voted to advance the bill, but said he would vote "no" on the bill as-is.
Answer: Yes, (assuming that the Continuing Resolution was what the President wanted). In order for the Senate to consider the House passed Continuing Resolution, they needed 60 votes to close debate (cloture)and then could proceed to on the HR 195. The Senate Republicans were only able to marshal 45 votes, so approximately 10% of the Republicans were unwilling to agree to proceed to consideration, thereby blocking the (assumed) presidential preference. If that 10% deficit represents an inability to agree to consider HR195 - then yes.
Expanding further: The Senate Majority leader, realizing that he would need 50 to vote yea on HR 195 to pass, but could only muster 45 votes to end debate, concluded that the Continuing Resolution would fail if brought to a full Senate vote.
Comment: @gerrit They need 60 senators (under current senate rules) to ensure those opposing a bill can't prevent it being brought to a vote through a filibuster.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster#Senate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filibuster_in_the_United_States_Senate  This is all internal to the Senate.
Comment: They had 51 votes, not 45. Had the filibuster been stopped, the bill would have passed. (Only 50 Senators actually voted for cloture, but McConnell voted against it only for procedural reasons, as mentioned in Brythan's answer. If the cloture vote would have been able to succeed, he'd have voted for it.)
Comment: @origimbo 8 - It is not at all uncommon for parliamentary organizations to have a supermajority requirement to limit debate or take such other actions that might restrict the minority from exercising a right to discuss a pending action. The intention is to balance the scales against what is referred to as the "tyranny of the majority"
Comment: @reirab 10 The original question is focused on party ("this party is unable to agree...".  There was no vote taken on HR 195, so assertion that the republicans "had 51 (affirmative) votes" is incorrect.  What the republicans were able to get from their party members was only 45 to invoke cloture.  Since the cloture motion was defeated, you and I still don't know how many votes the republican members would have cast to "pass the bill"
Comment: To clarify — do they need 60 votes because it overrides the President, or do they need 60 votes to pass anything even if the President agrees?  In the latter cause I'd expect this to be a lot more common...


Should I consider the bid-ask spread as part of the transaction cost of a market order?

Question: When I place a market order or marketable limit order that successfully executes, should I consider the bid-ask spread as part of the transaction cost of my order? The bid-ask spread is appears to be a transaction cost, especially to a buyer or seller who crosses the spread using a market order. Is there anything wrong with this thinking? Should I record the full bid-ask spread, or should I record slightly less (due to "price improvements"), or should I record half the bid-ask spread (if I can assume that the "real price" is the midpoint of the bid and ask)?
Comment: Record for what purpose?
Comment: @glibdud So that I know how much I "pay" in transaction costs every year, which is a useful statistic when wanting to minimize transaction costs.
Comment: Minimizing bid-ask-spread is rather easy. Trade only when refrence markets are open (=no pre- or after-hours-trading), avoid obscure illiquid stocks and avoid stocks that are highly volatile at the moment. Or in other words: the greater the risk for the market maker to end up with a bad deal, the bigger the spread
Comment: Is fine to use the mid point of the bid/ask, if when you submit you get price improvement, calculate it from the original spread (eg factor in the price improvement above the public quoted spread).
Answer: What you pay for the security when you buy it is the cost and what you receive for selling it is the proceeds.  These are the numbers that you 'record' and they are used for determining P&L, ROI, taxation, etc.  The rest of it makes for a good cocktail party discussion of what ifs.
There are a number of variations but let's consider a simple three  party transaction that includes the buyer, the seller and the market maker who buys at the bid and sells at the ask.
The midpoint of the bid/ask is the 'real price and 1/2 the of the B/A spread is the mark up/down. Bob buys at the ask from the MM and pays the mark up.  Ted sells at the bid to the MM and is marked down (Carol and Alice are the wives). The MM collects the difference as the security changes hands.  It is most definitely a cost because the B/A spread is now in the market maker's pocket.
Answer: The bid-ask spread is considered an "implicit" transaction cost in that it separates the cost purely from trading from the value of the actual security. Note that it does not matter for tax purposes, but it can be a factor if you're looking to minimize such costs and maximize the return solely from choosing good securities.
The effect of buying and selling on future orders (or subsequent lots within a large transaction) can also be considered an implicit transaction cost.  If you want to (or have to) sell a large stake in a stock and can't do it in one transaction due to liquidity limitations, then just the act of selling may drive the price of the stock down, affecting the price at which you can sell smaller lots.
Note that both of these do not make a significant difference for retail investors, but can be significant for institutional investors if they are very active traders (even if "explicit" transaction costs like commissioins are zero). These implicit costs, if not managed appropriately, can be a minor drain on profitability.


How to specify in presentation that permission to use a particular image is taken?

Question: I am presently undertaking research on a particular topic in control systems. That particular topic has a long history and I found a image which summarizes the history in one image only. I want to use that particular image in my presentation. I have also taken permission from the authors of that image to use it. But, while using it in my slide, I want to show in the same slide that I have taken permission to use that image so that professors understand that I am not stealing that image but I have taken the requisite permission to use that image. What line or a sentence should I include in that particular slide, so that the professors get that point automatically. I mean something like "Used with permissions". Like that what is the precise line which can be included ?
Answer: You can cite it a number of ways. I usually do this:
Right below the image, (Smith et al. 1998) if it's a paper where the image comes from. Then at the end of the presentation, you can have a slide called "References", there you can list the paper in the reference style of your choosing (e.g. APA). This way it's very clear where the image comes from.
I don't think the phrase "used with permissions" is necessary in a presentation. But I'm not certain. I'm sure others will comment on this. However, that phrase IS necessary if you were to publish the slides of your presentation, or if you will use that image in a paper.
Comment: I am not using that image in any paper and I understand that putting it in "References" at the end might be sufficient. But, since it is my final presentation, I don't want to take the risk of making my professors angry. So, I want to use some particular line in the same slide only. Which line should be used, that I am unable to comprehend. It should just show that I have taken permission from xyz person/organisation for using it in my slide
Answer: When putting / formatting an image on the slide you can normally add a caption box below with the source shown, such as « Used with permission, source Fred Jones, Somewhere, 2018 », also respecting your referencing structure (APA etc).


What is a preformatted text for?

Question: I cannot understand what those brackets above for. When I click it, "enter preformatted text" comes up. What is it for?
Answer: When you use "preformatted text", all the letters are the same width.  That's really good for programming sites like Stack Overflow where you need to discuss computer code:
<code>#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello, world!\n");
    return 0;
}
</code>
But we don't use it much here on English Language Learners, because we don't need to discuss programming very much.
Instead, we usually use the blockquote formatting:

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.
— The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien

This is better for discussing English.  The letters are different widths and are easier to read.
Please use blockquote formatting in your questions, and don't use preformatted text unless you have a special reason to do so.  What do I mean by a "special reason"?  If you really want to line text up vertically, like in joiedevivre's answer, you can use preformatted text to do so:

  1 Shakta people (ethnic group)
+ 1 Shaiva people (ethnic group)
________________________________
= 2 Hindu peoples (two ethnic groups that are both Hindu)

  n Hindu people who believe in god
+ n Hindu people who don't believe in god
_________________________________________
= n Hindu people (many Hindu people with different beliefs)

But this should be treated as the exception rather than the rule.
For a little bit of white space every now and then, you can use <code> </code> to insert one blank space. Also, two blank spaces at the end of a line will force a line break. Those two tricks can be used to write something like this, for example:

Your breath has time to straighten,
      Your brain to bubble cool, –
  Deals one imperial thunderbolt
      That scalps your naked soul.
— The Master, Emily Dickinson
Comment: I just used pre tags yesterday in this answer: https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/156268/usage-of-peoples/156275#156275. I'm not claiming it's a brilliant answer or anything, but it's certainly a place where pre tags worked and blockquote tags wouldn't have.
Comment: One reason to use "preformatted" is if you want to show markup characters like `[How to write hyperlinks](https://ell.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4640/)` without the page rendering them like this: [How to write hyperlinks](https://ell.meta.stackexchange.com/a/4640/)
Comment: In addition to most browsers' rendering the text within the `pre` (together with `code`) tags (that the "preformatted text" button adds) using a *monospace* font, all the whitespace will be preserved, and word wrap will be disabled. The penultimate feature might be useful when quoting poems or such, where preserving the original formatting might be of value.
Comment: @userr2684291 - You can also use ` ` for a blank space, which might be better if you are merely trying to add a little bit of white space every now and then. I hope snailplane doesn't mind my addition to this answer.
Comment: @J.R. Please add anything you like :-) I might have simplified things too much in the original version of the answer.
Comment: @joiedevivre Great example!  I've incorporated it into the answer.

What is a preformatted text for?


Discrete logarithm problem - Pohlig Hellman $GF(2^p)$

Question: I would like to ask how to modify Pohlig Hellman algorithm if I need to work with polynomials $GF(2^{60})$ I know how this algorithm works with numbers, but I am not able to imagine how to do some operations with polynomials. E.g. if I need to do $g^{\frac{p-1}{q^e}}$. How can I do this with polynomial?
Answer: A field like $GF(2^n)$ is represented by the residue classes of polynomials modulo $f(x)$ where $f \in GF(2)[x]$ is an irreducible polynomial of degree $n$ with binary coefficients. There are $2^n$ such polynomials $$a(x)=a_0+a_1 x+ \cdots+ a_{n-1} x^{n-1}.$$
Addition is by mod 2 addition of coefficients. When you multiply two polynomials, you take the remainder of the product modulo $f(x)$.
You can use square and multiply (see here) to compute the power
$$a(x)^k=a(x)^{k_0+2 k_1+ 2^2 k_2+ \cdots+ 2^t k_t},$$
taking care to reduce modulo $f(x)$ from time to time, so the degrees of the squares don't get too large.


APLpy coordinate change to pixel values

Question: Does anyone know how to change the coordinate values to the pixel values of a fits file image in APLpy?
Answer: The only way I could think of is just pass in the data-array instead of the fits file. If it has no WCS information it must operate in pixel-space.
<code>from astropy.io import fits # or import pyfits
with fits.open(filename) as hdus:
    data = hdus[0].data
f1 = aplpy.FITSFigure(data)
# ... whatever you want to do thereafter.
</code>
I haven't used APLpy maybe there is a better way but I haven't found anything in the documentation.

APLpy coordinate change to pixel values


Is it ok to transmit an IV as a custom HTTP header?

Question: Considering an AES OFB encryption algorithm, suppose that I'm sending a message over HTTP (not HTTPS) and my message body contains the cyphertext. I'd like to know if transmitting a random initialization vector as a custom HTTP header is considered a bad practice, having into account that it's conventionally appended to the beginning of the cyphertext.
Answer: From a cryptographic standpoint, it doesn't matter how you transmit the IV. You can send it as a header, in the message body, as the path in the request method, or even the URG pointers in a few TCP packets. From the perspective of the encryption process itself, it doesn't care how it got the IV, no matter how silly the transmission method used, as long as it got it in the end.
From a web development standpoint, it's bad practice to include data that is applicable to the payload in the headers. Sending an IV in a custom HTTP header slightly increases overhead when compared to simply prepending it to the ciphertext and sending it all. You don't even need an elaborate serialization format. Just prepend the fixed-size IV and call it a day. This has the additional benefit of not breaking the HEAD method, which requests the HTTP headers but not body. I can't think of any reason why you could possibly want the IV sans ciphertext.
Comment: +1 for added complexity of splitting it up; the IV belongs with the ciphertext, so put it with the ciphertext.
Comment: 7z puts the IV in the file along with the Salt - https://github.com/kornelski/7z/blob/master/CPP/7zip/Crypto/7zAes.cpp
Comment: @Todd "In the file" essentially means that it is put there with the ciphertext.
Comment: agreed - inline is fine. My link was added as evidence that supports your answer. If 7z does it "inline", then it should be considered secure for the OP context.
Answer: The alternatives to sharing a random IV are:

Share a static IV - eg. hardcoded into the app. This is the worst alternative, because it will weaken the encryption overall. Salt helps, but IV is also important to make it take longer to crack.
Share a common method to derive an IV - eg. from the password. This is probably better than [1], but don't trust this alternative. The IV is supposed to be totally random, so use a secure random generator.

It might feel wrong to share the IV (as well as the Salt), but it's the only way to have a very random IV as required. You will absolutely be using the same key for each encryption session, but with a changing IV (and Salt), you can be sure that the ciphertext will always be different for the same plain text, and therefore an attacker won't see
By the way, it's possible to share the Salt longer term, but make sure the IV is always different for each new encryption session. And don't worry, this is practiced by 7z - github.com/kornelski/7z/blob/master/CPP/7zip/Crypto/7zAes.cpp


Black spots on the stem of my mint plant

Question: Its been a while that i brought this mint plant and it appears to have gotten black spots on its stem what to do?.Note the plant is in an ac room and i dont give it direct sunlight but it gets the sunlight from the window behind it also i water it if its looks dry or after a few days. Thank you
Comment: Need to know which mint this plant is and a picture of the entire plant.  Where it is growing, indoors out of doors in the sun under a porch roof???  Are all nodes black like this?  Oh I see one that is not.  What do you do for watering?  Is this in a pot?  With drainage?  Fertilizer?  Please send a few more pictures!!  Quickly!
Answer: I think you're saying your mint plant gets daylight, but doesn't ever get any direct sun - if that's the case, its not ideal, mint is a herb and appreciates some direct sun.
You haven't said what the plant is growing in, but as you're keeping it indoors, I assume its potted. If the pot doesn't have drainage holes,  or is standing in an outer container in which excess water sits, that may explain what's happening, because it looks as if your plant has a fungal infection which is likely coming from the root, though its hard to be sure because so little of the plant is visible in the picture. You may want to post a couple more photos showing the whole plant and what it's growing in.


I was out of work for 2 months, I have a firm offer now. Does that improve my chances of getting another offer, before I join?

Question: I was wondering if somehow, subtly, I can let recruiters know that I already have an offer (on my resume/ LinkedIn headline etc.), would it improve my chances? Because it has been my experience that recruiters are hesitant to consider applicants who are not working at the time of application. If yes, how to convey this ? I'm based out of India
Comment: If you wanted to subtly hint at having other offers, without providing any proof, what is to stop others from doing the same, but lying? One good thing to say might be something along the lines of "I don't have any other offers yet, but have been talking with several other firms".
Comment: @JoeStrazzere The current offer requires me to relocate with no assistance being provided by the company. Currenty, I live in a metropolitan area, so I'd like to get a similar job nearby, if possible. If I get a new offer, I can legally reject the earlier one
Comment: @Prodnegel I understand your point, but that can be clarified to the interviewer if s/he shortlists me and initiates a call/email.
Comment: @JoeStrazzere Thanks. I have about 2 weeks to join.
Comment: Call up recruiters and tell them? You're right that they shy away from people without offers, as a general rule.
Answer:
I was wondering if somehow, subtly, I can let recruiters know that I already have an offer (on my resume/ LinkedIn headline etc.), would it improve my chances?

Well, let's assume you do find an adequate way of communicating that you already have an offer to recruiters - they could take a few approaches:

They suspect you're lying and/or it makes you sound desperate, which doesn't really bode well in either case;
They believe that you have an offer, but they have a job they think you'll prefer so they'll put a lot of time into trying to find a job that's a better fit;
They believe that you have an offer, and so decide that they stand a greater chance of success working with those who don't.

You seem to be hoping the second option here would be the one they'd take, but I'd say the other two are both more likely. If you don't want the job in the first offer, just decline for the reasons that you've given here (you'd have to relocate with no expenses provided for doing so). If they then ask if you're interested in other similar work, I think then is the time to reply with "Sorry, I've already rejected an offer for another company based on the need to relocate without compensation; I would however be very interested in similar opportunities nearby."
tl;dr - It's more likely to hurt, rather than help your chances.
Comment: Thanks for the detailed answer, it gives me a lot of insight into what could be thought from the other side. I'll then need to accept the offer I have, start working, and keep applying to new positions as they come. I'll have to probably ignore the small probability case of landing up a better job just by using this offer as a leverage
Comment: -1 not really answering the question?


Is it possible to irrigate a bonsai with a drip system?

Question: I recently acquired a bonsai and am nervous about the danger of over- or under-watering. Is it possible/feasible/worthwhile to build some sort of drip system to keep the soil at a constant humidity? Or is the moistening/drying process necessary for the health of the tree?
Answer: If you have good drainage, you don't need a drip-system. Just water it daily in growing season, and surplus water will drain from the soil. Bonsai is practiced for thousands of years, before any dripping system hit the market. If you have indoor bonsai in winter (dormancy period), you might want to keep it colder (~15 C) and water it less in this period.
Answer: Hmmm, let's imagine a technologist and an economist in conversation regarding this issue:
Technologist: We have lots of sensors available to us to provide input into a neural net which can decide whether to drip or not and how often. It's just a matter of deciding what features (inputs) to use to make that decision. We could use temperature, humidity, soil moisture level, type of plant, porosity of the potting medium, light levels, season and so on. It's all do-able these days, and we can implement it in stages, asking for recommendations from the NN, and whether the adult supervision is in agreement with the suggestion or not this then becomes a data point we can use for supervised learning. The NN can handle both the constantly moist and dry-moist-dry situations with software. Simple!
Economist: The big problem I see is the risk of things going wrong as the learning is taking place or after implementation. Bonsai plants are designed to be unique items which have longevity and high value. One bonsai can be worth thousands and we can't afford to make a mistake. Sometimes the plants are so valuable they cannot be replaced without re-starting from scratch, so insurance would be expensive. What are the chances of your sensors giving a wrong reading? For example when sensing soil moisture you are measuring electrical conductivity, and this is a function of soil type, moisture and dissolved salt levels.
Technologist: ah but you see the neural net, given enough information, can sort all of that out automatically. With smaller computers than we have today we sent people to the moon and back!
Moral: It is probably do-able, but would require a very free-draining potting soil, a special neural net for each plant and frequent supervision for the sake of peace of mind.
Answer: This can be done without any technology more sophisticated than a water source and a wick.
It is called capillary or wick irrigation and works best for plants that are not succulents or require a dry period like cyclamens.
The wick can be made of cotton or polypropylene and should be six to eight inches long.  Use a knitting needle to push the wick into the root ball.  Put the other end into a water container.  Water to make sure that the wick is wet enough to move water up from the reservoir into the root ball.
This method ensures that the plant will never be overwatered but does need the reservoir to be topped up.  When done indoors moss can get out of hand on the wick.
Products are available from many vendors. I have used this product indoors and out and it worked well.


Find messagebox string with ollydbg

Question: For some reason i can't find any string matching the MessageBox text of a program when searching with "search all reference strings" , why is that?
Answer: There are many, many possible reasons:

the MessageBox text may be combined from several shorter snippets before being used
the text may be hidden in the resource part of the executable
the text may be loaded from a resource file at runtime, possibly depending on the language of the windows installation
the text may be in the executable file in an uncommon format; for example, if the software was written in chinese first, then translated to english, the strings may be in some UTF-16 or even UTF-32 format instead of the more common ASCII/UTF-8/ISO-8859-X formats
the application may be a client/server application, where the client retrieves the text from the server, and never stores/produces it itself
the text may have been deliberately obfuscated/encrypted in the executable file, to prevent people with ollydbg searching for it
and much more that doesn't come to mind right now.
Comment: It probably has to do something with networking, as it checks if updates has been found.
Comment: @CorneliusAurel: well the string could also be retrieved from the update server, when checking for an update, sure. But you provide too few details to be able to tell the exact cause. Unless you improve your answer a lot, Guntram's answer is along the lines of what you can expect. And a good answer at that.
Answer: Probably you can't find the string you are looking for because strings are encrypted in that executable.
This is a common thing, and is done in the attempt to make the life of reverse engineers much harder.
It can be a simple encryption like xor-ing the strings, or some much more complex encryption.

Find messagebox string with ollydbg


Wood posts: install on concrete slab OR dig hole and bury them?

Question: I am putting a shade sail up over a concrete slab that buts up against the back of the house. I am going to attach the sail cloth to the house (brick), and then put up 2 posts for the anchor points away from the house. I'm wondering if I can just put up 4X4 posts and anchor them to the concrete slab, or whether I need to install the posts by digging the holes just beyond the slab and bury them in concrete? Can the posts being mounted on top of the slab hold up to the tension or is it safer to go with the dig post holes and bury them?
Thanks for your help!
Comment: bury your posts. See my answer.
Comment: Digging a hole 1ft to 2ft is the minimum and up to 3 to 4 ft depending on the post height and frost conditions of your area.
Answer: 1: Can the posts being mounted on top of the slab hold up to the tension ?

Since you are only talking about placing the 4 x 4's above the slab
  with no other means of support other than the mounting to the slab -
  your shade sail will eventually fall if not right away.

2: Is it safer to go with the dig post holes and bury them?

Digging your post holes into the ground and bury the poles will work
  you should dig at least 1 to 2 feet.

Additional Suggestion and Info:
Given you might be using wood, I will make a suggestion wood has many flaws in the outdoors under the sun - if you are in Florida you will notice how rapidly a pretty wood fence turns into an ugly repair project. I will suggest engineered plastic 4 x 4's not only can you bury the 4 x 4 in the ground, but also pour concrete down the hollow center giving you a very stable post. The plastic engineered 4 x 4 will last in the wind, the heat, the humidity and the rain.
How do I know ?
I have made a single pane privacy fence for a home in Florida. The posts have endured 3 Hurricanes and 19 years of grueling summer heat and high humidity. The posts still look good - almost like new and are holding just fine!


SharePoint 2013: "Shared With" gives "Unexpected response data from server"

Question: After a considerable amount of headache with a strange server configuration I inherited from the past SysAdmin, I managed to clean up old installations of SharePoint on our Windows Server 2008 R2 system here in the office.
More headaches and unplanned restarts later, I finally have the prerequisites for SharePoint 2013 installed, and have it set up and configured. I began importing data from our old SharePoint site hosted on our GoDaddy account. A few memory limiting configuration changes later, I get everything functioning at a reasonable speed, looking the way I want it to, etc.
So now I'm copying data into the new SharePoint site, and I've started setting permissions on different items using the "Share" option.
As I go through, I'm finding that I cannot view the "permissions" using the "Shared With" option. It immediately throws the "Unexpected response data from server." message.
I'm also having issues with viewing users and groups as I'm sharing. I keep getting the "Sorry, we're having trouble reaching the server." error.
I've seen many different guides say that it's because the server is low on resources, but I've managed to get 6GB of ram freed on the server, and neither the processor or disk are experiencing high levels of usage at the time.
Hopefully someone has some hidden insight on this, I've looked through several different guides that haven't brought me any information. I suspect that it may have to do with my Alternate Access Mapping settings, as I'm accessing it from both inside and outside of the network with different DNS mappings. I don't get any error when I'm accessing it since making the configuration changes to include all of the methods I'm using to access the server.
The site is served from the local server, at sharepoint.domainname.com where sharepoint is a mapped A record from the DNS Server. The site also hosts remote.domainname.com, but not www.domainname. The site is setup with host headers for servername.local:31415, servername:31415, sharepoint.domainname.com:80, and sharepoint.domainname.com:31415
These are mirrored in the Alternate Access Mappings in the SharePoint configuration.
Is there something I may have missed in configuring these that may cause the issue? I'm going to do some additional testing from the original host header mapping for the site (sharepoint.domainname.com:31415), to see if that resolves some of those issues, I'll report back with my findings, but I thought I'd get the question out there in case there's some insight you could provide.
Thanks in advance!
Edit:
I've done some more troubleshooting. I've connected to the site using multiple different host headers, and still receive the same error. I do have an additional error being presented that might also have something to do with it.
When opening up the SharePoint Designer to run a diagnostic on the server, I found that I was unable to open the site. I was presented with the "Server could not complete your request" error with a blank details box. There aren't any errors logged on the server in any of the log files. IIS, Event Viewer, etc. don't show any additional errors at the time the request was made.
Comment: Simply open a command prompt and do an iisreset may fix it.
Answer: This might be your solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2758431
I had this bug, it was a nasty combination of Office 2013 document read only, cannot see with who the site is shared, cannot update task list in quick edit, no visual studio access to the site and no SharePoint designer access to the site.
Answer: I've seen this quite a bit when the client.svc simply stopped working for a particular site. Usually restarting IIS would fix it, but in some cases you might need to double check that all the required application pools are actually running.
Comment: Restarting IIS worked for me: SharePoint 2013, SSRS 2014, Server OS 2012, and my application pools had no trouble starting. Upvote for Dylan Nicholson! Thanks!


Why did Allah gave powers to the angels and jinns, but not to humans?

Question: I'm wondering why Allah swt gave powers to angels and jinns like teleporting to other places, and turning into animals or other things. But he did not granted us human beings those powers. Is there a specific reason for this?
Comment: Who are we to discuss Allah's Will.
Comment: @Medi1Saif Best answer in the form of a comment, and I will add your answer after my answer as we are no one to question the will of Allah, glorified and exalted he is above any human or jinn intellect.
Answer: Allah wishes whomever he gives power. He gave some powers to the prophets. Humans and jinns have the freewill but the angels don't have that. Angels are 100% obliged to Allah. They don't have freewill. Humans are the best creation of Allah (SWT). If you do good deeds you are superior to other creations of Allah and if you do bad deeds you're inferior. Allah can give powers anyone he wills.
Jazakallah Khairan
Comment: "Humans are the best creation of Allah (SWT)" - Can you give a reference for your claim?
Comment: @Ahmed One of the reasons for that is the sending of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in humans. Allah says in the Qur'an that "We have not sent you [O Mohammad] but as a mercy for **all of the worlds**. Clearly, a creation of Allah that is mercy to both, the heavens and the earth would be the greatest of all creations, and this creation of Allah was sent among humans.

Because of this, most scholars reach the conclusion that humans are the best creation of Allah, because Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was sent amongst us.
Answer: Allah has given power to all of his creations
What do you mean by power ? The meaning of power can vary from anything from strength to electricity.
As I understand it , Allah has given power to all of us.
For this context, I will only take Jinn and Men, as angels are irrelevant as they have no free will. Allah has given different powers to men and jinn.

To Jinns He has given strength of the body

And to Men He has given intellect of the mind.

A man is more intelligence than a jinn. An adult Jinn is like a Human baby when it comes to intelligence. Jinns do stuff like Teleportation and Transfiguration by their Strength of Body .
Humans are the best of Allah's creations because we have a higher intelligence than Jinns so we can utilise our free will to a great extent. We have transformed the surface of the Earth  ! Can Jinns build houses and buildings  ? Can they build rockets and aeroplanes ?
NO!
Have you ever wondered why Iblis was jealous of Adam  ?  He was jealous because Adam was more intelligent than him! Adam may have had a far inferior body than that of Iblis but his intelligence was a thousand fold better!

When Allah created Adam, He taught him everything. Then Allah showed the angels,Iblis and Adam some objects. Allah asked them to tell the names of the objects. The angels didn't know ! Iblis didn't know!  But Adam  ( Ali ) did!

And that's why we are the best of Allah's creation  !
Allah knows best.
Comment: "Humans are the best of Allah's creations ..." - Can you provide a reference for your claim?
Comment: @Ahmed One of the reasons for that is the sending of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) in humans. Allah says in the Qur'an that "We have not sent you [O Mohammad] but as a mercy for **all of the worlds**. Clearly, a creation of Allah that is mercy to both, the heavens and the earth would be the greatest of all creations, and this creation of Allah was sent among humans.

Because of this, most scholars reach the conclusion that humans are the best creation of Allah, because Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was sent amongst us.
Comment: @SyedMohammadSannan Prophet Muhammed (SAW) was sent for both humankind and jinn kind. There are references to this in many Hadiths.
Comment: @Ahmed Yes I know but that only supports my statement more. That someone who was sent as a Prophet for all beings and a mercy for all the worlds (earth, heavens, and whatever that is between them) must be in the best of the species. That is actually the reason humans are the best creation of Allah, because of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) being amongst us. Had there been a greater creation, Allah would've sent him (PBUH) in that species.
Comment: @SyedMohammadSannan "Had there been a greater creation, Allah would've sent him (PBUH) in that species." ... sorry but then by that logic even the Jinn are included and that would nullify your claim. Moreover, in the Quran, Allah states he has blessed Humans over "most of His Creations" ... if you get a chance look into the tafsir of Quran 17:70 ... it is matter of ghaib for us.  Therefore it is better for a us to adhere to that which is mentioned in the texts and not go beyond that. Barakallah fi :)
Comment: @Ahmed What do you mean that even Jinn are included? The Prophet (PBUH) was sent for the entire universe, the heavens, earths, and whatever that resides in or between them. IF THE PROHPET (PBUH) is a blessing for all of the worlds, which means whatever Allah had or will create then why is it so hard for someone to understand that he would be sent amongst the best species? The Prophet (PBUH) was sent **amongst** humans and **as a human** but as a Prophet **for** all creations, and he was a blessing for everything and everyone, even including angels.
Comment: @SyedMohammadSannan " The Prophet (PBUH) was sent for the entire universe, the heavens, earths, and whatever that resides in or between them. " , "The Prophet was sent amongst humans and as a human but as a Prophet for all creations, and he was a blessing for everything and everyone, even including angels" ... Brother again you are making several claims without any evidence. There is a lot of more to the universe than those reside on our planet. And I'm not even sure why you included angels. I'm not here to argue. I pray inshallah that you get the time to read into the tafsir for more details.
Comment: @Ahmed Brother, did you read my answer fully? I gave my evidence in that answer.
Answer: Assalamoalikum.
There is no such thing as "power" without "knowledge". I am gonna use these Quranic verse to back my upcoming claims.
He said, 'O Council, which one of you will bring me her throne, before they come to me in surrender?' [Quran 27:38] An Ifrit of the jinns said, 'I will bring it to thee, before thou risest from thy place; I have strength for it [Quran 27:39] and I am trusty.' Said he who possessed knowledge of the Book, 'I will bring it to thee, before ever thy glance returns to thee.' Then, when he saw it settled before him, he said, 'This is of my Lord's bounty that He may try me, whether I am thankful or ungrateful. Whosoever gives thanks gives thanks only for his own soul's good, and whosoever is ungrateful -- my Lord is surely All-sufficient, All-generous.' [Quran 27:40] He said, 'Disguise her throne for her, and we shall behold whether she is guided or if she is of those that are not guided.' [Quran 27:41] So, when she came, it was said, 'Is thy throne like this?' She said, 'It seems the same.' 'And we were given the knowledge before her, and we were in surrender, [Quran 27:42]
It says in these verses that a strong Jinn said he was able to bring the throne of Queen of Sheeba before Suleiman (AS) gets up from his throne. On the other hand, a man, a human, who had knowledge from the scriptures said "I will bring it to you before the blink of your eye."
This man according to scholars was known as Asif Ibn Barkhiya, who was a Muslim but not a Prophet.
We learned from this Ayah that Allah blesses his certain servants with knowledge of certain things, that we normal people consider as Karamaat (Miracles, but done by a non-prophet). They don't get Wahih (direct revelation from Allah or his angels) but they simply discover the way to do it by the will and blessings of Allah.
So this proves that there is some knowledge not known to normal humans which do allow humans to do things far superior to Jinns, and are only given to either Prophets of Allah or his blessed servants.
However, the actual reason Jinns can do these things without any special knowledge sent to them from Allah is because they are solely energy, as mentioned by Allah that they are created by the purest fire. Energy can transform into any state, that is the reason Jinns can travel at higher speeds, are physically stronger than us.
On the other hand, humans are both, matter and energy, we have a defined state that we cannot bypass unless by the will of Allah and blessed knowledge from him.
As for the angels, they are not for comparison as they do not fall under the classifications of what can be explained by us, energy or matter. They are instead made by Noor (light) and we don't know much about the light that angels are made of BUT they act according to the commandments of Allah, they do exactly and specifically what Allah orders them to do, not more not less, so it would be clear that these "powers" and whatnot is provided to them directly by Allah to carry out whatever tasks they have been assigned with.
We, humans, are the best creation of Allah because Allah sent Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) among us. And Allah says in the Qur'an,
And We have not sent you but as mercy for all the worlds. [Quran 21:107]
If the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) is a mercy for all the worlds (Heavens, earth, Jinns, angels, mankind, all that Allah has made) then it must be that he would be the best of the creation, and this best of the creation is sent among humans.
If the best creation and mercy to all the worlds is sent amongst humans then humans are the best species.
At last, I would like to state what @MediSaif said, which is "Who are we to discuss the will of Allah?" he is far exalted above the understanding of human intellect, he is the all-wise all-knower.
Allah knows the best.
Comment: There is no power and no strength except with Allah (Sunan Ibn Majah)
Comment: @ahmadnazeem Yes I agree, but how is it relevant to my answer?


Shell console clearing

Question: Is there a way to clear up what is displayed on the shell console (in ubuntu linux) in just a single key or two? When I get flood of lines from grep and that exceeds the height of the window, I want to quickly scroll back to the position where I typed the command after the prompt. I can do so if I had opened a fresh terminal before I type the command, and just go to the initial position. But if keep using the same terminal window, I have to manually find the position. Ctrl+l is not an answer because it just scrolls, and the contents of the terminal remains. I cannot use less because the colored output of grep does not show up in color.
Comment: `cls` in DOS clears the contents of the console and returns you to a blank screen with a fresh command prompt.
Comment: No, `clear` is the counterpart to `cls`.  `reset` does more.  Both will probably work, but based on your description, `reset` is overkill.
Comment: I'm mildly confused.  Are you looking for something similar to `cls` in DOS?
Comment: I am not familiar with DOS, but if that allows you to clear the window and have your scroll bar at the top position, then that is what I want.
Comment: @lszi I see. It's the counterpart to 'reset' that Faheem gave?
Answer: The
reset

command, which is part of ncurses, and is
located in the ncurses-bin package on Debian, will completely clear the console. Is that what you want?
Brief summary of reset from the man page:

reset sets cooked and echo modes,
  turns off cbreak and raw modes, turns
  on new-line translation and resets any
  unset special characters to their
  default values before doing terminal
  initialization the same way as tset.

As discussed in https://superuser.com/questions/122911/bash-reset-and-clear-commands, and as pointed out by Erik in Shell console clearing, clear will just clear the screen, reset will (as bignose put it), "reset your terminal when it gets messed up by control sequences". Personally, I'm good at messing up my terminal, and when I clear it, I'm not looking to get anything back that was there before, so I just use reset. But ymmv.
Comment: How is that different to `Ctrl+L` for the purposes of this question?  The user didn't mention terminal corruption, and otherwise it's equivalent as far as I can see.
Comment: @Mikel I tried `Ctrl+L` but it did not clear the terminal.
Answer: I usually just use:
clear

From the clear man page:
clear clears your screen if this is possible.  It looks in the environ-
ment for the terminal type and then in the terminfo database to  figure
out how to clear the screen.

clear ignores any command-line parameters that may be present.

Comment: @Mikel It just doesn't work. The line is scrolled up, and the cursor is at the first visible line, but the the scroll bar is positioned at the bottom.
Comment: I tried it, but it does not clear the terminal.
Comment: @sawa: Ah, I see what you mean!  I was using PuTTY, and it was the same, but in Gnome Terminal there is a difference.  Thanks for explaining.
Comment: @sawa: Can you provide a screenshot?  I still can't understand from your question why `clear` or `Ctrl+L` don't work.
Answer: It's not an answer to your question, but you can use less, and maintain your color see:  https://serverfault.com/questions/26509/colors-in-bash-after-piping-through-less
hint:

$ grep --color=always foo bar.txt | less -r
Answer: You can try this command:
tput reset

Shell console clearing


Luggage lockers in Reno

Question: I'll have a 4 hour transfer in Reno, Nevada, United States, from bus to train.
Amtrak report that the train station has no luggage lockers.
Greyhound have no information about the availability of luggage lockers.
Is there any luggage locker service at or close to either the Greyhound or the Amtrak station in Reno, Nevada, United States?
If not, what other options do I have for storing luggage for several hours?
Comment: You can check-in your luggage on the train (it's offered at Reno station). But it means you have to leave the train in a station that also offer checking luggage. And it also means you will not need this luggage on board.
Comment: @Vince Although not an answer that's an interesting idea (I do leave the train at a station offering this option).  I suppose it also means I will need some more time before I get my luggage after leaving the train, but that's not a problem.  Certainly an option I will consider.
Answer: It has become quite difficult to find left luggage facilities in transportation centers in the U.S., but you can speak to the bell desk at any major hotel and ask them to hold bags for you. In a large hotel, the bell desk will operate more or less independently of the front desk, and not care too much whether you are a guest at the hotel or not.
You should receive a claim check. There is usually no charge; however, you are expected to tip the clerk for retrieving them from storage when you return, a bare minimum of $1 per item ($2 or more in places like New York or Las Vegas).

As far as I can tell, the Reno train station no longer accepts left luggage, but as Vince noted in his comment, most long-distance Amtrak trains have a baggage car, and will accept checked luggage. You will not be able to retrieve this bag until you reach your destination, however, so it may not be an answer to your need.

Luggage lockers in Reno


How can I play Civilization V multiplayer with one copy

Question: I want to play Civilization 5 with my younger brother. I own a copy of the game, but my brother does not. On Steam I have shared the game with him, but he can not play the game at the same time as me. Me and my brother are on the same WiFi. I have heard there is a way to do this which has something to do with offline mode?
Comment: don't downvote this, if you don't know about hot seat mode. it's 100% legal. not even grey zone.
Comment: @OttoV. Generally, telling people not to downvote something means it happens more.
Answer: I'll give you a couple solutions that fulfill the spirit of what Steam allows for sharing a single copy of Civ V.

Simple Hotseat mode:  You play on a single computer playing a game of musical chair.  Passwords for each player help minimize the chance of information bleed between turns.  This technique is a bit faster and has the added bonus of built-in calisthenics.
Giant Multiplayer Robot:  Think of it as multi-machine or even multi-time-zone Hotseat.  You each download the GMR client.  When it's your turn it will download the save, and launch Civ V for you.  The client can also be configured to automatically close Civ V when you save at the end of your turn, so that your brother can use it.  With in-home-streaming configured, you don't even need Civ installed on the 2nd machine.  Family Sharing may also need to be set up between n+1 accounts; Owner (Steam) + n Player (Steam & GMR) accounts.  I haven't tested all of the details of this as all my friends have their own copies of Civ V.  While slightly slower, this solution allows you to ask for advice here while your brother is taking his turn. ;)

I can't think of any other solution that would not put your Steam Account(s) (and any attached games) at risk...
Comment: calisthenics? Oh, you mean movement to get in and out of the seat.
Comment: For those who desire to conserve personal energy, a couple of good rolling chairs can reduce the calisthenics required.
Answer: Another solution would be using the family mode steam provides.
Civilisation V still provides a "LAN" multiplayer.
All you would have to do after having setup the family mode on your brother's computer, would be to launch steam offline on one of your computers, launch Civ 5 and create a LAN game.
I'm not certain this will work since Civilisation could rely on another layer of protection to prevent two people with the same license accessing the same game.
I can not assure you that it is fully compatible with Steam TOS since the family mode should only allow one people to use the shared library at one time (the main owner of the game always getting priority).
Comment: @coteyr i tink that only the person that gets the game via family share needs to be online to play it. The person that owns the game can be in offline mode. So it should be possible that both play at the same time
Comment: I'm not sure whether you're able to use the Civ 5 multiplayer features in offline mode.
Comment: The LAN mode is available for sure, we used it with some friends (each one got it's own copy of the game) to play on a network which did not allow access to steam servers.
Comment: Does family mode work in conjunction with offline mode, I thought that in order to launch a family sharing game you had to be online.
Comment: This idea, should it work, is definitely not in the spirit of Steam's TOS.  Heck, I'd sooner gift my brother a copy of Civ V than risk the value of my whole account.
Comment: @tjd Well, Civ 5 is quite cheap nowadays, the game and all the extension pack can be found for less than ~10$ (found it at 8€40 + transaction fee)
Answer: A single copy of Civilization 5 purchased on steam can be used on multiple computers within the same local network (LAN) without too much drama. Another answer mentions family mode but it's optional.
After you installed steam and the game on all machines within your LAN, make sure that:

You specified different Nick Name in the Local Network section of Multiplayer Options on each computer you would like to play the game on together

You have correct Firewall settings. I suggest that for testing purposes just temporarily shutdown you Firewall, you can fine tune the firewall rules later

Put steam in the offline mode. Offline mode will prevent Internet Games, but Local Network Games are supported in the Offline mode

If you have more than one network adapter with different IP addresses, which is relative rare, but does happen, e.g. in case of VPNs or wired and wireless connection at the same time, the game just picks up one. If it's the wrong one, that is if it's not one your LAN is running on this will not work. Disable all the network adapters but the one, that you are using for your connection

After this is done, use Multiplayer, Standard, Local Network to host the game on one machine, and to join on others.
Note: you mentioned that you and your brother are connected with WiFi, in some rare cases WiFi could have client isolation feature turned on, which would prevent different devices on that network to talk to each other. Make sure that this feature is not enabled on your WiFi
This is where you set up your nick, different on each machine:

This is the top left of your Steam window, where you go to offline mode

This is your Windows 10 Network connections Window. You will have a different set of adapters there. Search for (type) "Network Connections" in the start menu. Note how everything but your main LAN connection is disabled.

This is assuming that you are using Windows Defender firewall and not a different Firewall. You might need to find instructions for your own Firewall in order to temporarily disable it.


Singapore Tourist Visa for Indian in USA with F1 Visa

Question: I'm an Indian citizen studying in the United States on an F1 visa. I am traveling to Singapore with my parents for 4 days. How do I apply for the Singapore tourist visa in the USA? Is the process for me exactly the same as any other Indian citizen?
Answer: You are here in the US with a multi-entry non-visitor visa, this is generally acceptable for consulates to allow you to use their consular services (ie visa request) here in the US. You would lodge an application with the nearest diplomatic mission.
You can find a list of Singapore Missions in the USA here.

San Francisco (consulate)
Miami (consulate)
New York (consulate)
Washington DC (embassy)
Answer: Since you have US visa, you are eligible for Visa Free Transit Facility, if you are transiting Singapore for less than 96 hours. That means, you can enter Singapore if you are visiting a third country along.
Details and eligibility: https://www.ica.gov.sg/enteranddeparting/before/enteranddeparting_before_vftf
However, you can apply for Singapore Visa via travel agencies in US, as most probably they won't accept a walk in requests. Singapore usually provide 1 month and above visa for tourism and social visits. Apply for multiple entry visa even if you are not using, as it costs the same.