Please help with this query! Need to get taxonomy terms of related nodes

Question: I've inherited this code that runs on our home page. It's used to do a custom display of specific pieces of related info. Here's how things are set up:
We have an article. It has a series of node reference fields that allow us to link related images (actually nodes themselves, which contain a headshot and some text; it's not an actual attached image.) Each of those headshots has a thumbnail created via ImageCache so that we can display a small version in search results and on list-type pages.
We have a new requirement that if the related image node for a specific article has a certain taxonomy term (tid) associated with it, it should display differently than other images.
The existing query (which I did not write) looks like this:
SELECT DISTINCT n.title, nr.teaser, n.nid, DATE_FORMAT(FROM_UNIXTIME(n.created), '%M %e, %Y') AS date, f.filepath AS image, cfri.field_related_images_nid as image_id

FROM node n JOIN node_revisions nr ON n.nid = nr.nid
LEFT JOIN content_field_related_images cfri ON (n.nid = cfri.nid AND cfri.delta = 0)
LEFT JOIN content_field_att_file cfaf ON cfri.field_related_images_nid = cfaf.nid
LEFT JOIN files f ON cfaf.field_att_file_fid = f.fid
JOIN term_node tn2 ON n.nid = tn2.nid

WHERE n.status = 1 AND n.type = 'article'   AND nr.body LIKE '%kimberly-clark%' AND tn2.tid = 143 ORDER BY n.created DESC LIMIT 3

This returns a recordset that looks like this:
TITLE         |  TEASER           |  NID |  DATE            |  IMAGE                            | IMAGE_ID
==========================================================================================================
Exec Profile  |  Could you please | 67491 | April 29, 2011  | sites/default/files/kcjones.jpg   | 67572
Unilver Ads   |  Unilever topped  | 67421 | April 20, 2011  | sites/default/files/unilever.jpg  | 66889

This is all well and good. But what I need to do is (in the same query, somehow) also return the tid that goes with the image_id from the term_node table. On its own for a single image node that query is simple:
SELECT tid FROM term_node WHERE nid = 67572

But how do I modify the existing query to bring in the tid based on the image_id found in the main part of the query? I'm guessing I need some kind of subquery, but this is stretching the limits of my sql chops...
Answer: You already have the {term_node} table joined in your query so I'm pretty sure you should just be able to change your first line to include tn2.tid. Try this:
SELECT DISTINCT n.title, nr.teaser, n.nid, tn2.tid, DATE_FORMAT(FROM_UNIXTIME(n.created), '%M %e, %Y') AS date, f.filepath AS image, cfri.field_related_images_nid as image_id
FROM node n JOIN node_revisions nr ON n.nid = nr.nid
LEFT JOIN content_field_related_images cfri ON (n.nid = cfri.nid AND cfri.delta = 0)
LEFT JOIN content_field_att_file cfaf ON cfri.field_related_images_nid = cfaf.nid
LEFT JOIN files f ON cfaf.field_att_file_fid = f.fid
JOIN term_node tn2 ON n.nid = tn2.nid

WHERE n.status = 1 AND n.type = 'article'   AND nr.body LIKE '%kimberly-clark%' AND     tn2.tid = 143 ORDER BY n.created DESC LIMIT 3


Is it safe to give credit card information by email?

Question: I had hired a shipping company and now they want me to send my Visa Card information by email to pay them. The method of payment was never discussed prior to them shipping my boxes. They did a good job and I want to pay them but I'm concerned sending my credit card information by email is unsafe. Are my concerns founded? Would telling them the information over the phone be any safer?
Comment: Yes, the phone would be a lot safer. In case they insist on email, it would be good to make sure what email is definitely the right one. Once the details are sent by email, and similarly on other occasions, it would be good to get new card within 6 months, like not keeping the same for next 2 years.
Comment: It would be preferable if the person had PayPal or something. You shouldn't send info over email, and preferably not phone calls either.
Comment: depends on the email(s); gmail to gmail is fairly secure...
Comment: i would link them to a place where they can fetch the info, then delete it asap. or you could meet up with them on something like https://nadachat.com and use chat to send them the PW without logging anything
Answer: It is a violation of their merchant agreement
All credit card merchants are required to conform to PCI-DSS which spells out rules for handing credit card data.  If you check the PCI DSS standards, you'll find the following:

Never send unprotected PANs by end-user messaging technologies (for example, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, etc.).

(The "PAN" is the CC number, a.k.a. Primary Account Number).
They should not be asking you to send credit card information over email if they are a legitimate authorized merchant.
See also this answer.
See also this PCI DSS cheat sheet (check the sidebar on page 2).
If the vendor loses PCI-DSS compliance (and you can lodge a complaint and possibly trigger a painful PCI-DSS audit by calling Visa corporation) then they will lose their ability to process credit card transactions.
P.S. No, it's not safe.
Answer: No. Is not safe.
If you already payed using an online payment service and they need to confirm that you are that person you cans send a picture of your credit  card but:
- send picture with only the front side that contains the card number and
- cover the card number without the last 4 digits
You should not provide any information that could be used in a malicious way like full credit card number + ccv/cvc or other details like pin number.
If you have any trust issues then you should consider using another payment type, like bank transfer.
Using the phone would make it "safer", but this means that you trust the person over the phone.
That person may use a sticky note/paper to note your details and i think is not necessary to develop what could happen.
No one should be able to use the card if they don't have the proper credentials and no one should have your card credentials.


Lone pairs in MO theory?

Question: I have learned that non-bonding MOs are lone pairs. However when considering the MO diagram for the $O_2$ molecule, I do not see any non bonding orbitals yet there are two  lone pairs on each oxygen atom. Where do these come from?
Answer: Short answer:
Non-bonding MOs are usually lone pairs, but a lone pair does not necessarily mean there is a non-bonding MO.
Long answer:
You are trying to match what you learned from Lewis structures to the orbital picture. In general, that does not work (there may be exceptions).
Let's look at the MO diagram:

It is tempting to assign the bonding $\sigma_{2p}$ to the first (sigma) bond in $\rm O_2$. The two $\pi_{2p}$ bonding orbitals would then results in 2 $\pi$ bonds, hence we get a O-O triple bond. The further two electrons in the anti-bonding $\pi_{2p}^*$ orbitals could be assigned to one oxygen each, thus we have a biradical. The remaining two electron lone pairs might be assigned to the two $\sigma_{2s}$ orbitals. This is actually one of the two valid Lewis structures for $\rm O_2$.
(The other possible Lewis structure has only a double bond and two lone pairs at each oxygen atom.)
The problem is that the lone pairs are ascribed to only one atom, but the MOs are delocalized over the molecule. Thus there is no direct relationship between them. A non-bonding orbital is usually just an atomic orbital, which you may thus ascribe to a lone pair. But that does not mean each lone pair leads to a non-bonding orbital.
It is however possible, to localize the molecular orbitals (by making appropriate linear combinations of MOs) in such a way you get atomic orbitals, which you might match again with the lone pairs. The thing here is, that there are many different sets of orbitals which are all valid descriptions of the bonding situations.
Also note, that MO diagrams are just a simplification as well.
Source of the MO Diagram
Comment: As you started to mention, linear-combination of atomic orbitals (LCAO) with each molecular orbital being required to obey the rules of the full group ($\text{D}_\infty$) for $\text{O}_2$ using only the atomic orbitals designated in the subscripts of the MO. A better choice of orbitals would be using the natural bonding orbitals (NBO) derived from an accurate wavefunction. In either case, some should appear to be more bonding, while others are less so.
Comment: Actually, I was not talking about LCAO, but about linear combinations of *molecular* orbitals, which in turn are usually (but not necessarily) linear combination of atomic orbitals. I am not so familiar with NBOs, but I think, simply put, they are a variant of the localized orbitals I was referring to.

Lone pairs in MO theory?


Difference between on hold and closed question

Question: Can someone explain to me what is the difference between a question put "On hold" and one that is "Closed"?
Answer: "Closed" and "On hold" are the exact same thing in all ways except one: in the first five days a question is closed, we write "on hold" instead of "closed." For the full backstory, see  I propose changing the term "closed" out for... something else and Every "close" has its thorn: replace "close" with "on hold" for the first five days on Meta Stack Exchange.
Also note that the help center page that David linked from SO has an equivalent on this site: https://magento.stackexchange.com/help/closed-questions
Answer: So from stackoverflow

Why are some questions marked "on hold"? Questions that need
  additional work or that are not a good fit for this site may be put on
  hold by experienced community members. While questions are on hold,
  they cannot be answered, but can be edited to make them eligible for
  reopening.
Questions that are edited within five days of being put on hold are
  automatically added to a reopening queue for community review.
  Questions that are not reopened within five days will change from [on
  hold] to [closed].

So it seems question that are flagged go into onhold for clarification and then after 5 days go to closed.
I am sure Mods can close directly and it appears that some reasons for closing question go to on hold and some go to closed. Unless I am writing this on a Monday morning in which case all this could be part of the Garfield Effect.
Comment: Thanks. I searched for an answer to this on SO, but it seams that the week-end killed my search skills.
Comment: @Marius weekends are fine for me, but Mondays are normally terrible so I am surprised I found this today :) http://sphotos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/538061_10151430389520847_1063128657_n.png


ENCASE Forensic: Detect if someone ran CCleaner or CleanUp software

Question: I have Encase. and I'd like to know where can I find if someone ran CCleaner Or CleanUp software to erase evidence.
Answer: You could look through either the UserAssist registry entries for each user (located in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\UserAssist), or check the prefetch files (located at %SystemRoot%\Prefetch).
Both maintain a list of run programs on the machine including the last time they were run and the number of times said program was run.
Further reading:

Prefetch
UserAssist
Answer: Some times the lack of evidences is evidence in it self.  If you find sectors with absolutely nothing in them, it is possible that the Cleaner Tools have been used.  Almost all disks will have left over data in the unused sectors.  You might be able to use this method to determine if large chunks of Data were removed.
Comment: One could easily argue that the sector is containing random data because it used to be part of swap.


Dataset for directed graphs classification

Question: I want to evaluate some algorithms for the directed graph classification task. Therefore, I'm looking for directed graphs data sets (preferably without node or edge features) as benchmarks.
Do you have any ideas for datasets that could fit?
Comment: I think it would be much easier if you could first identify some applications of this type of classification, and then look for the datasets corresponding to these applications.
Comment: Have you gone to the literature on directed graph classification?  What are researchers using?
Comment: Mostly datasets for clustering
Answer: The Stanford Network Analysis Platform (SNAP) share a variety of widely used graph datasets.  There are datasets for Large Networks and Biomedical Networks.  You can see that there are many that are directed and most do not include features (if I remember correctly).
Comment: Correct me if I'm wrong, but all the graphs there for the graph classification task are undirected.
Comment: You are right, my mistake.  I will leave the answer in case others are interested in adapting the other directed graph datasets for a classification task.
Answer: In Chapter 11 - Transitivity, structural, balance, and hierarchy, of the free online book Methods for Network Analysis, there is a picture how triads of nodes are be classified.
Scroll down to section "11.4 - Calculating a triad census" to see the figure and the names that I mean.
(the first part, the number before the "-" is a counter.)

Obviously, this classification is different from a machine-learning classification (=prediction) task.
However, if ML classification is your use-case, then I have no dataset examples. But the book in the same chapter, but section "11.5 - Random graphs galore!" also shows how you can create your own synthetic directed graphs with R and igraph.
Then you can control and know the size and the properties of the graph in advance. Perfect for prediction tasks and algorithm evaluation!


Longer or shorter focal length for good IQ for low light portrait photography?

Question: I have a theoretical question. Consider two lenses with same f-ratio but one has a larger focal length than the other (say 200 mm vs 50mm). Which lens would give better image quality when shooting portraits in low light considering the same composition, same lighting conditions and same f-ratio? Camera shake, hand-holding, motion blur is neglected.
Comment: How do you define "image quality" ?
Comment: What has led you to believe that focal length, keeping all else constant, would have anything to do with image quality as judged by SNR? Sorry if this seems brash - it just seems to me like you've got a misconception somewhere.
Comment: @SumanVajjala The larger entrance pupil is exactly offset by the higher magnification of the lens, which spreads what light it collects over a larger area. Or to look at it another way: It's angle of view is smaller, so it is gathering less light (due to the smaller area it is gathering from) and thus the opening must be larger to maintain the same amount of brightness projected onto the lens.
Comment: @Hueco From the SNR metric.
Comment: @Hueco I do not think you are brash :) I thought, the longer focal length will collect more light than the shorter one for the same f-stop due to larger irix opening diameter. But, if the composition is kept the same then due to inverse square law the longer lens will see less light. So, I am not sure what would happen. Please note that this is just a technical question (and perhaps of no practical value) and the lens, sensor, etc are all considered ideal.
Comment: No worries on the applicability of the question: how a lens collects light is perfectly applicable to photography.
Answer: "Image quality" commonly includes factors such as sharpness, resolution, distortions, aberrations, flaring, ghosting, etc. If all of these are identical between lenses, there would be no difference in image quality. In practice, it's unlikely you would have lenses that are exactly the same except for focal length.
There would also be no significant difference in low-light performance because you have posited that max aperture would be the same.

The F-stop system already accounts for light lost over distance. With the same F-number, lenses with longer focal lengths have physically larger apertures. (200/2 = 100) > (50/2 = 25).
There can be light transmission differences among lenses (T-stops). Focal length alone is insufficient to predict the T-stop of a lens.

There are two ways to achieve "same composition":

Move the 50mm lens closer to the subject. Some details will be relatively closer (noses) to the lens than others (ears). The closer details would be slightly easier to capture than the farther ones. However, it's not necessarily the case that the pores on people's noses are more important than those on their ears. Overall, such differences average out.
You may also consider the perspective change caused by viewing the subject from different distances to be a factor in "image quality".
Use both lenses from the same position and crop the image taken with the 50mm lens. This will result in a loss of resolution. Grain or noise may also appear to be increased. Many would consider these to be reduced "image quality". However, the variance between center and edge would be reduced. Some people consider that improved "image quality".

Other factors:

Camera shake is more likely to affect a 200mm lens than a 50mm lens, even on tripod.
With great distances (miles/kilometers), the atmosphere itself will affect image quality. For distances typical of portraits, the effect should be insignificant.
Comment: The exception to the rule for light capture is in photographing point light sources, like stars (https://photo.stackexchange.com/questions/96210/the-right-aperture-for-capturing-stars)
Comment: @Hueco Not sure what to make of that.
Answer: When imaging under feeble light conditions, need to use a large lens opening like f/2.8 or f/2 or f1.4 etc. Thus large f-number are a requisite, they capture more light. As alternatives, you can set the ISO high or use slow shutter speeds.
However, the key point that you are seeking: The f-number is a ratio that intertwines the focal length of the lens with its working iris diameter. Now a ratio is a dimensionless value. In other words, a lens set to f/4 affords the same exposure regardless. A 1000mm lens set to f/4 delivers the same exposure as a 25mm lens set to f/4. This is true for giant telescopic cameras as well. Thus there is no exposure advantage based on focal length differences.
However, portraiture is both an art and a science. As a general rule of thumb, facial distortion that results when working in too close is undesirable. A moderate telephoto fills this bill. Such a lash-up, 2X or 2.5X of normal focal length forces the photographer to step back and this deed greatly improves the resulting image of the human face. Let me aid, there are no rules in art, you are free to do your own thing.
Comment: Hi.Thank you for the reply. As the 1000 mm f/4 lens will have more iris diameter than a 25mm f/4 lens, shouldn't it be collecting more light? Please tell me if I am missing some key information.
Comment: Yes - a larger working diameter lens collects more light. However, longer focal lengths yield larger images (higher magnfication)  that spreads the light energy out over more surface area at the focal plane thus less light energy at any given point.  Each doubling of the focal length results in a 4X light energy loss. The f-number system is a ratio that takes all this into account.  Lenses set to the same f-number as another, deliver the same light energy (exposure) regardless of the dimensions of focal length or aperture diameter.
Comment: Thanks Alan. I understand now. I also thought that to keep the composition same, one has to move back for the longer lens, thus, inverse square law comes into effect and cancels out the aperture advantage. Is this reasoning correct?
Comment: The camera lens acts like a slide or movie projector in that it projects an image of the outside world onto film or digital sensor. Consider – If a slide projector is moved, further away from a wall, the projected image increases in size. Double the distance, projector to wall and the image doubles in size. This is a 4X change in image surface area. Thus a 4X loss in image brilliance. You must open the iris 2 f-stops to compensate. Image was 4 X 4 now 8 X 8 a change of 4X in area. Same exact thing happens when you double the focal length i.e. 4X loss in image brightness,
Comment: Thanks a lot Alan. I understand this now.
Answer: The f-ratio defines the relation between the emitted light density on the scene and the arriving light density on the sensor.
The distance and focal length and crop factor and pixel size all are already compensated in that calculation.
That is important, for example, for placing off-camera flash.  If you configure flash strength and distance for a certain ISO/f-ratio pairing, this ISO/f-ratio pairing on the flash will work with the same ISO/f-ratio settings on the camera regardless of where you move with the camera.
It also means you can hold a light meter before a spot of the subject that you want to meter in at nominal exposure, determine ISO/f-ratio for that spot of the subject, and then move with the camera to a different position and take the photograph with those settings.
If your camera has an exposure lock button, you can expose for a detail of the scene, then move to a different distance and take the shot.
Answer: The shorter FL lens is most likely to generate images with better technical IQ for two reasons.
The first is because the lower magnification reduces the impact of motion (camera shake, subject motion, handholding)... but you said you want to ignore that.
That leaves the second reason... in order to record the same subject composition the lens must be nearer the subject. This means the details are presented physically larger to the lens, which requires less lens resolution in order to see/transmit them, and less sensor resolution to record them.
I.e. if you want the greatest detail/resolution then get as close as possible (e.g. macro w/ a 50mm on extension tubes)...
But the 200mm and 50mm images would be very different in other aesthetic considerations, such as how much BG is included and how blurred it is.
Comment: You will need lenses of equally high resolution (lpmm) to capture equivalent details. As long as framing is the same, details will be about the same size relative to the frame. Consider how resolution is measured with a test chart. The chart is photographed to fill the frame with distance depending on the focal length of the lens. When photographing people, perspective will move some features (noses) relatively closer and some farther away (ears). But it's not necessarily the case that the pores on people's noses are more important than those on their ears.
Comment: Yes, but you are asking much less of a shorter lens focusing on a target/subject at a shorter distance. The ultimate limit of lens resolution is diffraction; and the minimum size detail that can be resolved w/ a given amount of diffraction (F#) depends on their angular separation. If you take two diffraction limited lenses at the same F# they can resolve the same minimum size detail at the same distance; only the shorter lens will resolve them as smaller details on the image plane. If you move the subject/target closer, then the angular separation of the details increases.


Inventory Updates for disabled items

Question: We are looking to place product across various marketplaces, but for internal reasons cannot keep these items active on our main site. Will the inventory for these items update in Magento even if they are disabled? Unfortunately we have not sold any of these types of SKU's in our marketplaces, and are looking at software that will pull our inventory direct from Magento. Version is 220.127.116.11
Comment: Can you explain more what you mean by main marketplace ? How are you selling the products from within Magento. If a product is disabled it will not be visible via the website store views. However if you are talking via the API you may still be able to decrement stock from a SKU
Answer: The simple answer is yes.
Assuming you are using the standard Magento Import/Export (API will work as well), if you are sending product data for products that are disabled in Magento, they will still update.

Inventory Updates for disabled items


Generating string primary keys with sequence in SQLAlchemy

Question: I need improvement on solution to the following problem:

Generating random string keys in SQA is relatively simple, something
  like:
request_id = Column(String, default=lambda: uuid.uuid4().hex, primary_key=True)

However, I need to to get request_id have format like
  DIVISION_ABC_REQUEST_223 (this is because PK is also supposed to be
  good for human consumption -- that key will be sent around in emails,
  copied/pasted, etc, but it also should be usable for regular SQA/SQL
  queries as a typical PK), with integer suffixes ideally following a
  normal (ordinal) sequence.
(the backend DB is Postgres)

I found a solution, if a bit wasteful:
class WorkPackage(Base):
    __tablename__ = 'work_package'
    int_id = Column(Integer, primary_key=True)
    wp_prefix = Column(Unicode, default=u'DIVISION_ABC_REQUEST_', primary_key=True)
    data = Column(Unicode)

    @hybrid_property
    def wp_id(self):
        return self.wp_prefix + str(self.int_id)

    @wp_id.expression
    def wp_id(cls):
        return cls.wp_prefix.concat(cls.int_id)

wp_id.expression uses concat (a ColumnOperator that produces SQL concatenation operator ||).
It works in the sense of automatic PK creation in desired order and for querying by the wp_id attribute.
However, the silly aspect is that obviously there's a single column filled with the same prefix over and over.
The obvious problem here is that wp_prefix is a column for a single reason: so that I could use its concat method.
I would like to change it in such way that the wp_prefix column is unnecessary (e.g. it could be SQL concatenation of a string and int_id column).
I do not know how to construct SQLAlchemy Core expression that would achieve this without using column method.
Answer: literal_column("'DIVISION_ABC_REQUEST'").concat... (note the double quotes, since you want an SQL string expression).
literal_column() essentially means "I hand you this string which is a valid SQL expression and can be used in any column expression-ish context".


The difference between "retail" and "sell".

Question: I'm having a hard time  differentiating  the verbs "to retail" and "to sell". What's the difference between those two?
Comment: In many contexts there's no meaningful difference. But in some contexts *(Don't sell yourself short, We lease a retail outlet in the High Street)* only one is normally used. As a rule of thumb, the more common word ***sell*** has broader "reach", where ***retail*** is much more restricted to *selling goods to the general public (in return for **money** or equivalent), as a commercial activity*.
Answer: To retail something is to sell it in a specific way.
These are from Merriam-Webster:
Retail:

1 : to sell in small quantities directly to the ultimate consumer

Wholesale:

: to sell (something) in quantity usually for resale

In both, something is being sold. The difference is in the quantity sold and to whom it is being sold.
In short, when you sell something it can refer to either a retail or wholesale method of sale.

As mentioned in a comment to the question, sell can be used figuratively, in a sense inappropriate to either retail or wholesale.
Sell is also often the more idiomatic word. Except in particular contexts, it would be strange to hear one of the other words used.


Is there an explanation for the number of planets in the federation?

Question: In the Star Trek universe the Federation seems to encompass a lot more (habitable) systems than the Romulan and Klingon empires relative to its size. Was this ever explained in the show?
Comment: Looking at the map, I think there are many, many systems in the other unions/empires that are just not shown. There is no reason to assume that the density of inhabited systems changes with borders.
Comment: @tmh - It's a multi-page picture that's been stitched together using photoshop. The numerals are the page numbers from the book.
Comment: @djf: Given the scale of the map (bottom right), the map does cover less than 300 ly. (Damn, inhabited space in Elite: Dangerous is larger than that...) Heck, even "known space" (upper right) is less than 1500 ly across. Given the radius of the Milky Way at ~50000 ly, I find it hard to believe that star density gradients are at work here. More likely, there are many more stars in Romulan / Klingon space that "we" (Federation) just have never heard of, since "we" aren't allowed to fly around there charting out systems.
Comment: What's the deal with the Roman numerals? They don't seem to be related to the four galactic quadrants.
Comment: @Raphael The distribution of stars is not uniform. The density of solar systems in the mikly way decreases from the center out to the edge. This gradient could be perceptible on such a map. Moreover, since the mikly way is a spiral galaxy with four arms it could be argued that the Federation space is aligned with one of the arms of the galaxy. Which could account for the difference, but AFAIK this is never addressed in the show
Comment: @DevSolar yeah you're probably right. I overestimated the extent of the federation
Comment: The real question is, according to this, Sol IX is a member planet. So when did Pluto become another planet OR what other planet is it referring to?
Comment: Probably concerning tmh's comment, quadrants I and II are each where the other one should be, going by a normal mathematical coordinate system.
Answer: One possible explanation is that the Federation is much more diverse in regard to member species and the the rights (for colonization) that these members have. That way the range of planets that are inhabitable is much wider.
The Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire and the Cardasian Union are practically single-species empires. Any other species are second-class citizens at best and slaves at worst.
So the Federation has following advantages when it comes to colonization:

Citizens are free to colonize planets without species restrictions
Some planets that would be not appropriate to the "main" species (humans?) can still be colonized. For example a planet that has average temperature of 0 °C will be still OK for some species that evolved on such a planet. Humans on the other side will feel quite uncomfortable there.
(as noted by Richard) When a new member joins the Federation, they usually  have already done exploration of the area around them and they contribute this knowledge. The other empires expand by either aggressive colonization or conquest. In both there is none or little exploration data to be collected and much less people from the conquered species are ready to cooperate in colonization efforts.In the example with Bajor - the Cardasians had to fight constantly with the underground resistance and this consumed their resources - resources that could have been spent on colonization.
Comment: Exactly.  There are a *lot* of star systems in even what would look like a very small area on a galactic map, so it really is how quickly/efficiently/thoroughly you explore and colonize that determines how many planets you have, not how big an area of space you control.
Comment: @HarryJohnston ... and how quickly you can plant the flags. As we've seen in Insurrection, the Federation considers all the star systems in their "volume of space" to be their property, regardless of whether those systems actually joined the Federation, and regardless of whether they get any representation. Even when (as in Insurrection) they haven't even *explored* the system in question.
Answer: Who created the map (in-universe)? Note that it is labelled "United Federation of Planets".
In reality, maps tend to be creator-centric, with many biases towards their own region. Especially, if the map is for a region, the surrounding area may be shown in less detail to make it easier to see the detail in the "important" region.
Comment: Ah, yes - I was implying more of an in-universe "creator"...
Comment: The map was created by Geoffrey Mandel for the book [Star Trek Star Charts](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_Star_Charts)
Comment: As far as I'm aware, this map is created from the position of an omniscient map-maker. It shows details that aren't known to any of the races we see on screen, except the various godlikes.
Comment: Point still stands, I think, because most Trekkies are more interested in the Federation than anything else.
Answer: The Federation is inclusive by its very nature. It's friendly. It wants people to join the club. That in itself goes a long way towards explaining its huge territory.
By contrast, the Romulans are isolationists and the Klingons expand via conquest, which is a lot harder than smiling at someone and inviting them to come over for peace and biscuits.
As for the planet density within Federation space, that's almost certainly down to audience bias and intelligence considerations. In how much detail do you suspect the TNG-era Federation knows the "geography" of the Romulan Star Empire? And why would the TNG-era Federation internally distribute well-detailed maps of Klingon space? Nobody's going to be hopping on a transport there to get to work each day.


Change price with modifier, instead of + add to price

Question: I have a gift card that I'm including in my store, and I would like to have the total price change with a modifier, instead of adding a dollar amount to a base price. Is this possible?
Answer: The easiest way to do this would be have a base price of $0 then enter the total amount for each modifier so the price is adjusted accordingly.


How do I know which airports have ILS and for which runways?

Question: I have been into flying for years but something I can't figure out is how do I, as a pilot, know if an airport I am going to has ILS, which runways would have it and why do only some have it but the other side of the same runway does not?  (I.e. RWY 9 has ILS but 27 does not and they use same frequency.) Do I have to look for something specific like localizer vs localizer DME etc.?
Answer: There are published instrument approach procedures for all airports served by an instrument approach.  These are commonly referred to as Approach Plates.  (In paper form). Your local pilot shop should have them, or you can order online.
Just look in the section for the airport you are going to and all the available approaches will be there.  Browse to the ones for the runway in use, and choose one that matches your equipment capabilities.  That's the one you should request with ATC.  (After you get your instrument rating of course!)
If you have a tablet EFB application and the appropriate subscription they can be brought up on your device.
Your question about ILS glide slope not being available on the reciprocal runway has probably been answered before, but the best answer is because it requires a separate transmitter, which costs more money, and needs to be justified based on need and usage.  (I.e. Perhaps the runway without GS is favored by winds when weather is typically clear...)
Comment: It should be noted that the approach plates can usually be found at somewhere on the internet, but to actually fly the approach, you are legally required to get them from an official source, and have the latest update (so that it is clear who is obliged to keep them up to date and liable if they are not).
Comment: That much is obvious, and comes with the training.
Answer: A good place to start getting the info you seek is The Airport/Facilities Directory and NOTAMS give you the actual availability on a day-to-day basis.
Some RWYs have a Localiser BackCourse approach - LOC BC RWXX;
If RW 9 has an ILS, the same Localizer has a Back Course (BC), that lies on RW 27 Approach centerline. Every Localizer has a back course. Obviously it will have the same frequency of the reciprocal ILS as it's the same transmission.
A BC does not constitute an ILS approach, it is a non-ILS approach, or in other terminology it is a non-precision approach. It has no vertical guidance. Minimums therefore would be non-precision.
Here is a  chart for a RW08 ILS, and below that, it's reciprocal RW26 LOC BC:

Another option that you may be looking for, is the "Circle to Land" where you would get a clearance like " Cleared for the ILS Approach 09, Circle To Land 27".
Both the above come with their caveats such as, but not limited to:

BC - procedures/systems to eliminate reverse-sensing of the Localiser deviation bar or localiser 'diamond' during BC approach. Generally, on current generation big jets, as long as the FC (Front Course) of the ILS is set while flying the BC the sensing will be correct while flying the BC chosen from the FMC DATABASE by name. This maybe counter-intuitive to the set-up/flying of a VOR course. In some airplanes the Back Course is set and a BC 'button' is used to ensure correct sensing. You need to check with the manuals and Company procedures.
Circling - setting of Circling Altitude instead of the ILS Decision Altitude as the Decision point by which you have adequate visual reference to continue or go-around.
Circling - may need FAA approval/acceptance as a permitted procedure.

Unless you've already been regular with these procedures, there's never enough prep/ practice you can do.
Answer: If you are trying to find an easy way to locate ILS approaches in your intended area of flight while flight planning, you might try using web tools such as SkyVector. Tapping on any point on the sectional or chart you are using will bring up a list of points of interest. Tapping on an airport name will bring up a list of Instrument Procedures for that airport. It will be easy to find ILSs from there. In the cockpit, where internet access will be sparse, a dedicated tablet app like ForeFlight will do similarly.
Answer: If you are in the UK, the aerodrome plates and information can be downloaded from NATS at this site It's also available in hard copy in publications such as this


Question about electrical service for subpanel in pool house

Question: I have a small existing pool house (built 1988) that has electrical service ran to it from the house distribution panel. Two breaker and two separate sets of wires go to the pool house, 240 single phase power for the pool pump (on one 20 amp breaker) and 120 single phase to provide electric to various outlets, fan, etc. (on 15 amp breaker). The services is buried. I would like to put a subpanel in the pool house to have more local control over the loads. So, if I put a subpanel in the pool house, can I combine (20 amp + 15 amp) the feed on the main bus bar and install breakers? I have never seen this before, but if you combined the hots, neutrals, ground, bare ground, in the subpanel, wouldn't this maintain the same current flow through each lead?
Comment: Not considering other factors, typically 20 ampere circuits use 12 AWG copper, while 30 ampere circuits require 10 AWG. Since your going to have to run new wires anyway, you might want to think about going even bigger, and giving yourself some future expansion possibilities. When installing secondary panels, I often recommend 70 - 100 amperes depending on the situation.  While you might not need that capacity now, you might be thankful for it in the future.
Answer: National Electrical Code says that you cannot connect conductors 1 AWG or smaller in parallel (310.10(H)).  Since it's not likely that the conductors between your buildings are larger than 1AWG, you cannot do what you want.
What you can do, is install a new larger double pole breaker in the main panel. Then install a new set (4 conductors) of larger conductors between the buildings, to feed a secondary panel in the pool house. Then you can feed your branch circuits from the panel in the pool house.
The size of the breaker in the main panel, and the size of the conductors between the buildings will depend on what size service you want to supply to the pool house.
Comment: OK. The problem with installing the larger breaker is the wires from the main house and the pool house are buried. I presume I could determine the lateral wire gauge and determine if it is of adequate size to increase the amps. Does a 20 amp circuit and and 30 amp circuit bump you down in gauge? I would assume it does, but haven't looked yet.
Comment: @BradRodgers Basically you can't do what you want without running new cable, or having the entire building running off the cable for the pool pump. ( that is the whole building will be limited to 20 Amps, which is less than you have now )


SharePoint 2013 Data-View Web Part that Filters on Multiple Lines of Text Columns

Question: We are using the Bamboo Data-View Web Part in SharePoint 2013 to allow users to filter and export results from a single Library and I have just discovered that the Filter is hidden in a column when you have a Multiple Lines of Text in the grid. This makes the tool pretty useless now so I was hoping that someone has come across a better Web Part?
Answer: So the answer is that Multi-line Text fields in SharePoint are NOT searchable or Filterable, end of story. I have found a solution that works. This solution is to keep a SQL Server table update to date with the library data, less the documents of course, and use a nvarchar(4000) column for the multi-line text fields. We will never exceed that number of characters so this works great plus it's much faster than rendering a SharePoint Library!


How to smartly enter information of the CSS Profile and IDAC form?

Question: All need-based financial aid colleges in the USA require filling out the CSS Profile and IDOC Form to determine financial need. Hence it is in the student and his family's interest to show their assets and income to be as low as possible. Can someone provide any helpful tips on how to manipulate the input without actually doing anything illegal? I will be applying from India to USA Universities.
Comment: @user4556274 We ask that comments focus on improving the [question/answer] rather than discussing it or answering it. Comments that do not fit this requirement are deleted, and we encourage you to post it as an answer if you are comfortable doing so. See the meta question [Should answers be left in the comments?](https://money.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2298/should-answers-be-left-in-the-comments) for more details.
Answer:
Can someone provide any helpful tips on how to manipulate the input
  without actually doing anything illegal?

The key is to start several years before the form needs to be filled out, some would say you need to understand the financial aid and scholarship forms before you start to save for you child's education.
The forms from the college board CSS Profile and IDOC Form and the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) treat different types of income, investments, and assets differently. Knowing how they treat those categories far in advance gives a family time to plan the savings and investments to maximize the chances of getting scholarships and grants.
Keep in mind that the best way to maximize the chances of aid may not be the best way to structure your families resources during the time frame your child is growing up. The risk is that you do everything right according to the plan, but still don't qualify for as much aid as you expect.
This is always the dilemma when saving for college. The fear is that more you save the less aid your child will get; but if you don't save anything they can't afford to go to school.
The helpful tip is to on the day you submit the forms fill them all out truthfully, provide all the documentation they require and hope for the best.


When and how should I use articles with names of people?

Question: I used to think that you must always use an article with a person's name if it's preceded with a modifier: the definite article if the quality is permanent or typical ('The conscientious Mike was the go-to guy in the company'), an indefinite article if it's temporary ('Don't mess with an angry Liz'). However, I recently came across a sentence on the BBC where a modified name doesn't go with an article (I'm sorry, I don't want to look for the link, I forgot what article it was). When and how should I use articles with modified names of people?
Comment: Fair enough not remembering the exact page, or article, but why not provide the BBC example? It would make it easier for users to post an answer.
Comment: 'The conscientious Mike' is just shorthand for 'Mike, who was a conscientious person...'
Answer: This answer is based on The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, 2002, pp. 519-522.
Embellishments and the definite article
There are three different kinds of words/phrases that modify a noun/NP: nominal and adjectival attributive modifiers, and determiners. Huddleston and Pullum call these "semantically non-restrictive dependents"" embellishments of the NP (noun phrase) headed by a proper noun. For example:

writer David Foster Wallace

"writer" is a nominal functioning as the embellishment of the noun phrase David Foster Wallace which is also a proper noun and the head of the NP. When this construction is not lead by the definite article, the noun is usually a title or can be considered a title. Other examples in this category:

architect Norman Foster, mother of two Eileen Jones, special agent Cully, nuclear physicist Lord Rutherford (examples from CGEL)

And an adjective can be attached at the front to form an adjective phrase.

well-born Hampshire gentleman John Grant

Nominal modifiers generally occur with personal names and serve to categorise the person concerned. The construction is to be distinguished from the one where the proper name is an appositive: in architect Norman Foster the proper name is head and architect an omissible embellishment, whereas in the architect Norman Foster the head is architect and the propernameisanomissible appositive dependent. We noted above that it is arguable whether appellations should be regarded as part of the proper name or as embellishments; certainly expressions like Secretary of State Colin Powell or Prime Minister Tony Blair, used more extensively in AmE than in BrE... (CGEL, p.520)

The second category I think is most relevant to your examples:

beautiful Italy, dear old Mr Smithers, poor Henry, sunny Italy, historic Virginia;
the inimitable Oscar Wilde, the distraught Empress Alexandra

Adjectives occur as embellishments of proper names in two constructions: in bare
NPs or in ones determined (redundantly) by the.... The bare NP construction is restricted to a fairly small set of adjectives with emotive colouring: beautiful and ugly, young and old, and so on. The determined NP construction allows a somewhat larger range including beautiful, dazzling, incomparable, inimitable, irrepressible, unfortunate, wretched, and adjectives denoting emotional states such as distraught, furious, jealous. Such adjectives can in general modify the head of weak proper names: the ill-fated Titanic. (CGEL)

I put emphasis on the part that's most directly pertinent to your question: when the definite article is omitted, only a small subset of adjectives can be idiomatically used to lead the construction, but if you keep the definite article, a lot of other adjectives can go on there too without sounding strange.
The third kind: determiners

Who's [this Penelope who's been sending you emails]?, [That Senator Fox] should
be locked up, [Your Mr Jenkins] has been arrested again!

The main determiners that are used as embellishments are the demonstratives and
genitive personal pronouns... The genitive indicates a close relationship: your Mr Jenkins suggests that you are a close acquaintance of Mr Jenkins. Often it is a parental relationship: [My Jennifer]has won the school prize again. (CGEL)

Proper nouns without definiteness
Your second example "Don't mess with an angry Liz." indicates that the proper name loses its definiteness. Basically, when that construction occurs the proper name loses its definiteness. For example. when someone says "Russia" we all know what they are talking about: a country, singular and identifiable. But a proper noun can lose their definiteness, and when that happens it either follows a definite article or indefinite article: This is not the Russia that I grew up in. (Here we are talking about a kind of Russia from the past.) We are seeing a new Russia under his leadership. (Again, a set of traits set this version of Russia apart.)
Huddleston and Pullum argue:

In their primary use proper names are inherently definite, and for this reason their heads do not select from the determiner system in the same way as ordinary heads in NP structure. Proper names also have various secondary uses where this inherent definiteness is lost, and where determiners are thus selected in the ordinary way. (CGEL, p.520)

They tease out five uses of proper nouns stripped of definiteness. (CGEL pp. 521-522) The following examples are from CGEL. Unquoted explanation is my own words.
(1) To denote a set of manifestations of the bearer of the name

This is not [the Paris I used to know].
This is [a United States I prefer to forget].
[The young Isaac Newton] showed no signs of genius.

This is the most relevant to your second example. When you say "an angry Liz" you are talking a version or manifestation of Liz that differs from other versions of Liz or her usual self.
(2) To denote a set of bearers of the name

[The Mary that you met yesterday] is my fiancée.
I've never met [an Ophelia] before.
There are [two Showcase Cinemas] in Manchester.
Shall we invite [the Smiths]?
Was it [THE Bill Gates] he was talking about? (Examples from CGEL)

For example, if my friends told me they had dinner with Bill Gates yesterday, I'd say, "Whoa, you kidding me? THE Bill Gates?" Because there could potentially be a lot of people named Bill Gates out there, and I couldn't believe my friends really had dinner with the most famous one that everybody has heard of.
(3) To denote a set of entities having relevant properties of the bearer of the name

We need [another Roosevelt].
She's [no Florence Nightingale].

Say I have a friend named Haley. Haley is really fun to be around but she has recently moved to another country. I tell another friend: "Hey, I miss Haley. We need another Haley!" What I mean is I like the set of traits that make Haley a great friend and I want another person with those traits.
(4) To denote a set of products created by the bearer of the name

The gallery has acquired [a new Rembrandt].
Let's listen to [some Beethoven] tonight.

If someone told me they had a Leonardo da Vinci in their house, I wouldn't think they had the artist in the flesh as a guest or as a mummy. I'd understand they are talking about an artwork by that artist.
(5) To denote a set of copies/editions, etc., of the entity bearing the name

Can I borrow [your Guardian] for a few minutes?
The film was reviewed in [yesterday's Herald-Tribune].

Reference
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, 2002, pp. 519-522.
Comment: What about the second example?
Comment: @SergeyZolotarev With the indefinite article? Basically, when that construction occurs the proper name loses its definiteness. For example. when someone says "Russia" we all know what they are talking about: a country, singular and identifiable. But a proper noun can lose their definiteness, and when that happens it either follows a definite article or indefinite article: _This is not the Russia that I grew up in._ (Here we are talking about a kind of Russia from the past.) _We are seeing a new Russia under his leadership._ (Again, a set of traits set this version of Russia apart.)
Comment: @Eddie Kal Sorry for my negativity but you appear to have answered  "must always use an article with a **proper name/noun**" not "must always use an article with a **person's name**" as asked in the question.   Old Pete is a name; agreed not a proper name but it does for fill the definition of a name "word or words that a person, thing, or place is known by" Yes by by default in some of your examples you are changing from a proper name to a name, however you are not directly addressing the issue of the  Why the **lack of article with a name**
Comment: Please edit your answer to address both my examples (preferably, with references)
Comment: @SergeyZolotarev Done.
Comment: You got 250p didn't you?
Comment: @SergeyZolotarev No. The bounty is gone if not awarded before it expires.
Comment: Wait, doesn't the highest-voted answer automatically get half the bounty if it's not awarded in time?
Comment: @SergeyZolotarev That only happens when a number of conditions are met. I don't remember what conditions though, but there are several of them. Apparently my answer didn't meet them or didn't meet all of them. I think if you'd accepted the answer before the bounty expiration, I would've received the bounty. Well it's fine. Don't worry about it.
Comment: Whatever, I'll fix it
Answer: When you do this, you're categorizing the person to extent that you are giving them a title. The 45th president of the US did this often in their criticism of political opponents; e.g. "Sleepy Joe", "Mini Mike", "Crooked Hillary". In your examples, if the speaker were to change these to "Conscientious Mike" or "Angry Liz", it could suggest that the adjective is an inseparable part of the persona of Mike and Liz.
Comment: I appreciate your use of the singular "their". In this case the gender and preferred pronouns of the 45th president is well known and you could say "his".
Answer:
I used to think that you must always use an article with a person's name if it's preceded with a modifier: the definite article if the quality is permanent or typical ('The conscientious Mike was the go-to guy in the company'), an indefinite article if it's temporary ('Don't mess with an angry Liz'). However, I recently came across a sentence on the BBC where a modified name doesn't go with an article (I'm sorry, I don't want to look for the link, I forgot what article it was).

Q.

When and how should I use articles with modified names of people?

A. It depends on use. If you call you best mate little Pete and your elder brother big Pete you do not use an article with the person's name In this case to put it in a simpler way, the name, Pete, has been replaced by the nick-name little Pete.
A modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that describes something or makes its meaning more specific. Also we should remember that modifiers come before or after a word.

a modifier is just a word(s) that describes another word(s). Also of note, a modifier that comes before whatever it modifies is called a "premodifier," and a modifier that comes afterwards is called a "postmodifier." Ref Grammar Monster

Personal names; As a rule, no article is used with a person's name, including first name, middle name, last name, and nickname. Pets' names are also used without any article.  Ref Useful English

OK  so now lets have a look at use. I am going to introduce you to Puff, the Dragon
Now if we give Puff his full title it is Puff, the Magic Dragon. In this sentence we have modified his name with the use of magic which in this case is an adjective. However now you can see that the use of the definite article is not dependent on the modifier but on the "name". If you remove the modifier and the name needs a definite article (or an indefinite article) then it will require the same if you use a modifier.
Now to take things one step further The definite article is in itself a modifier
the one (The modifier is a definite article.) Ref Grammar Monster
one professor (The modifier is a quantifier.)

The use of Titles and Names
Now we have established that little Pete does not use the definite article but Puff, the Magic Dragon does. Why? Well actually if we use Puff's name he does not use the definite article but if we use his title the Magic Dragon he does. Obviously if an article is not used with a name and an article has been included in the sentence, like in "The conscientious Mike" then, it is being used with the word proceeding the name to make an informal title. Just the same as in Puff "the magic Dragon" your example "an angry" Liz. "An angry" becomes an informal title. However little Pete is just a nick-name even if it is a descriptive name, it is not a title. Likewise, "conscientious Mike was the go-to guy in the company" would make reference to a nick-name Mike had acquired.

Titles, ranks, job titles, and the like are used before or after personal names, as well as without names. On the whole, titles that follow a personal name and titles used without a name are capitalized less frequently in American English than in British English. Ref Useful English

Examples

In 1189, all of Henry's territory went to his oldest son, Richard I, better known as Richard the Lionheart. Ref King John

Edward of Woodstock (1330-1376 CE), better known as the Black Prince after his distinctive armour or martial reputation, was the eldest son of Edward III of England (r. 1327-1377 CE). Made the Prince of Wales in 1343 CE Ref Edward the Black Prince

Surname in the plural
The definite article "the" is required when the surname is used in the plural to show the members of the family together or just the husband and wife as a family.
Example

The Browns have a large house near the lake.... Ref Part 6 Articles with People's Names

The use of Articles with Restrictive and Nonrestrictive appositives, which may, sometimes act as modifiers
Information about people may also be in the form of appositives. An appositive is a noun (or a phrase) that defines or explains another noun in the sentence by renaming it. An appositive stands immediately after the noun that it defines.
Example

Jim Trent, a young pianist, was invited to play at the reception. Ref Part 6 Articles with People's Names

Note

Nonrestrictive appositives (that is, providing additional, not essential information) are set off by commas. Restrictive appositives (that is, providing necessary information, essential to the meaning of the sentence) are not set off by commas.

In the phrase "Lord Byron, an English poet", the phrase "an English poet" is a nonrestrictive appositive. It gives additional information and can be omitted. In the phrase "by the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin", the name "Alexander Pushkin" is a restrictive appositive. It provides needed information and cannot be omitted.

magic, adjective, with special powers: Ref CED Magic
Comment: The answer doesn't address my examples
Comment: @Sergey Zolotarev; "Personal names; **As a rule, no article is used with a person's name**, including first name's" The first names Mike and Liz are used in your examples. Therefore I am sorry I thought I had address this issue. Obviously if an article is not used with a name it is being used with the word proceeding the name to make an informal title. Just the same as Puff  "the magic Dragon" your example uses "**an angry**" Liz.


How do I prevent my iPhone from getting alerts when using Messages on my Mac?

Question: I like to use Messages on my Mac, but it's generally incredibly annoying because every time I receive a message from someone, my iPhone lights up and plays its alert noise, which is a loud ding. I want it to do that in general, but not when I'm actively using Messages on my mac. Is there anyway to fix this situation?  I have considered turning on "Do not disturb" on my phone, but I don't want to because I'm liable to forget I did and then miss important messages.
Comment: Do you use same account on laptop and on ihone?
Comment: Yes. I hadn't thought of using different accounts, but I'd like to be able to receive messages sent to me on both devices, otherwise I might miss something, or my friends will get confused about which one to use.
Answer: Short of enabling Do Not Disturb on iPhone, or disabling notifications for the Messages app on iPhone (even more tedious than remembering to turn Do Not Disturb off), there is no direct way to prevent both iPhone and Mac from alerting you to the same message.
That said, I have noticed that if I am actively using Messages on Mac, after a few minutes I will start getting the messages on Mac first, and if I go to the Messages window quickly enough I will not get the alert on iPhone. Once I stop actively using Messages on Mac, the alerts on iPhone start appearing in a timely manner again. It seems to recognize which system or device you are actively using and delays notifications to the other systems/devices by a bit. The same occurs when I am using iPad - notifications on Mac and iPhone are delayed enough that if I read the message on iPad quickly enough, I will not get the notifications on the other devices.
I am not sure if the above is actually an unadvertised feature or just network delay, but it occurs consistently enough that I am quite sure there is some Apple intervention going on there.
Answer: You can turn the notification sound off on the Mac so that it doesnt irritate you. Also you can choose to only get the notifications if your name is mentioned on the Mac Messages.
All of this can be done in Messages preferences.


Have the in-game Pathfinder Chronicles been published out of game?

Question: I have read about the Pathfinder Chronicles that you can find (printed editions) in the Golarion setting. In Seekers of Secrets you can find the content of some editions summarized but I am wondering whether any of these have actually been printed in full as products I can purchase and/or read?
Answer: Not really, you cannot buy a physical real-world book for the Chronicles. It is meant to be a vessel for research and in-game motivation for adventure.
"This ancient item is described in the PF Chronicle," giving the GM a two part adventure: 1- Find and read the Chronicle 2- Find and retrieve the item.
You can also see the Chronicles as the stories written later about your players' exploits in the world...
Answer: I just saw that many adventure paths have a chapter called Pathfinders Journal where parts of the chronicles can be found. E.g. Curse of the Crimson Throne has 5 pages in each book. This is a good start.
Comment: Sadly, they quit with the journals. But there are dozens of them on several adventure paths.


фашист, бандит and their real equivalent meaning in Russian?

Question: While  фашист and бандит should translate in English respectively to 'fascist' and 'bandit', I have the feeling that their real meaning is much stronger in Russian than in English, indeed "you're a fascist" and "you're a bandit" sounds relatively low in English and these expressions are rather soft or even can be funny in English ( and in other languages ) while they are - I feel - much stronger in Russian ( or is that only Ukrainian ?). Is that impression correct or is that an illusion?
Comment: to most russians(and I mean almost everyone), фашист is a synonym of a "german nazi invader". I don't think I ever had a need to dig up the real meaning of this word prior to your question even though I knew it does not directly translates to the above.
Answer: Фашист in colloquial Russian means primarily a German Nazi (or, through metonimy, any supporter of Nazi or Nazi-like ideology).
The term was widely used by the Soviet media in 1930's, and the German troops which invaded Soviet Union were labeled "German Fascist invaders" (немецко-фашистские захватчики) right away.
In stricter sense of word, it would mean quite the same as English "fascist".
Because of the cultural connotations, the term фашист would be deemed a very strong expression by majority of Russian speakers born or raised in the former USSR. I personally can't imagine a situation where it could be used jokingly.
Бандит means a "gangster", a member of an armed organized crime group. It's a legal term as well. Contrary to its English counterpart ("bandit"), it does not have positive connotations.
More correct translation of "bandit" to Russian would be разбойник. For instance, "good" guys like Robin Hood and Hong Gildong are usually called разбойник, but Al Capone or Tony Soprano would rather be бандит.
It's not quite a strong term, though. For instance, a mother could say он такой бандит! about her child, meaning the child does not behave.
Comment: @Karl: I personally see nothing wrong about naming a dog that.
Comment: >>>where it could be used jokingly  Well, I can. "Получи, фашист, гранату!" can well be used in a friendly banter especially when in conjunction with videogames.
Comment: I called one of my laika dogs 'бандит' and most people told me it was totally inappropriate for a dog ( anyway I saw some dogs have been named like that in the past as well, in USSR times )
Comment: A Ukrainian chiming in. Quassnoi indeed gave accurate enough explanation, "фашист" is a very serious accusation here as well. No local differences about "бандит" either, this is not a strong expression at all.
Comment: Revised comment: In 1930s Soviet propaganda branded various anticommunist movements (including fascists proper) as fascists, not specifically German Nazis. Since June 1941, certainly, *фашист* became to refer to the Third Reich and other Axis powers, and this meaning stuck to the word in popular usage.
Comment: @Zeks: you're right, that's one such usage.
Answer: Well in Russian the term "fascist" is about as strong as the term "sadist". It in fact would mean "ethno-sadist" or "racial sadist" that is a person who enjoys to inflict suffering to other people for pleasure.


Do any home thermostats have an adjustable control range?

Question: I am having trouble with AC and need to replace it soon ; so I have been listening to it cycle .I knew it only stayed on a short time but I just found it runs less the 2 minutes ; that is with temperatures above 90 F and high humidity ( think Houston TX). So - on for 90 to 120 seconds , then off 10 to 15 minutes .The set temperature is 76 F and an infrared thermometer shows about everything in the house is close to 76 except the aluminum window frames are about 82 F. So the AC starts about 75 to 100 times a day in hot weather. No wonder the "start" capacitor has been replaced about 4 times in 13 years. The unit is 5 tons and the house is 2500 sq.ft. I plan to replace it with a 4 ton unit ; but my question is can I find a thermostat that will decrease the number of start cycles .  Then instead of the house temperature cycling from 76.2 down to 75.8 F ( an educated guess)  it will cycle from 76.5 down to 75.5 F.
Comment: maybe it's the position of the thermostat in relation to the airducts. If cold air gets blasted straight at it it's going to measure colder when the AC is on and hotter when it is off.
Answer: "Swing" is the term you want to look for. Some thermostats allow you to adjust the swing which usually changes when it comes on and turns off.  For example, say the swing is set to 2 degrees and the thermostat is set to 72.  It will then turn on at 73 and cool to 70 (two degrees cooler than set temp) then stop.  Some thermostats might use a number that doesn't directly correlate to degrees, but it works similarly.
If you look at the manual for this thermostat it says:

TEMPERATURE SWING
  A thermostat works by turning your heating or cooling system on and off whenever the
  room temperature varies a certain number of degrees from the set-point temperature. This
  variation is the "swing."
  Your system should cycle on about 3 to 6 times per hour. A smaller swing number
  increases the number of cycles, so room temperature is more constant. A larger swing
  number decreases the number of cycles, to save energy in most cases.

It seems that it uses a number from 1 to 9 that doesn't map to degrees.
I just looked at the help page for the smart thermostat I use, and they don't use the word "swing", but instead have a variety of "thresholds" that are adjustable.  So I guess that is another term you can look for.  I highly recommend the Ecobee thermostats, but they are pricy and don't make sense unless you really want high tech.
Comment: Another term, perhaps more familiar to readers outside the USA, for the "swing" is [hysteresis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysteresis).
Comment: @AndrewMorton as an engineer, I'm familiar with the term, but didn't realize it would be found in thermostat manuals or feature lists.  Thanks for pointing that out.
Comment: We used to call the thermostat feature that adjusted cycle length the *anticipator*. It actually warmed up the thermostat's integrated thermometer either more or less (depending on user adjustments), resulting in shorter or longer (thus greater or fewer per time-segment) cycle times.
Comment: I remember the old round Honeywell , the had a small adjustable power resister  My present Carrier does not , and I bought a new Honeywell RTH 2300,It does not have a "swing" adjust. I don't want anything that needs a password.
Comment: Yet another term, one that uses degrees: ***differential***. [Thermostats With Adjustable Cycle Rate Differential](http://www.hvachowto.com/2018/10/17/thermostats-with-adjustable-cycle-rate-differential/) – hvachowto.com - They used to be more or less unavailable in residential. Now I guess it's a thing.


How to take a photo like this where the small object appears big and vice versa?

Question:
So I was wondering is the girl standing very far back or something else...?
Answer: You can't take a photo like this unless you know someone who is very good at creating artificial plants that look very lifelike but are hundreds of time larger than the plants they are emulating. What you can do is create an image like this using elements from two or more different photos and combining them in a way that makes it look like a single exposure.
There is a technique called forced perspective that makes small objects nearer to the camera appear as large or larger than big things that are much further from the camera. But the example you posted is not a case of forced perspective.
Answer: This type of effect would be achieved using post processing techniques.
To create the final image you would layer several individual photos on top of each other, using different blending modes and techniques. You can view these tutorials for more information regarding creating multilayered/montage images: http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/04/how-to-make-a-photoshop-montage/ and http://photoblogstop.com/photoshop/photoshop-blend-modes-explained
The resource images you would need would consist of your model on a plain background (usually studio white)

This will make it easier to cut your model out and transfer it to your montage/multilayered image.
For things like the large leafs and plants you collect various plant materials from a park or forest (an example) and then either photograph them on a white background [similar to the picture above] or scan them into your computer. Again this is done so that they can easily be cut out and transferred to your final image.
Finally you would need to take a picture of the background for your image. This could be taken anywhere.
You would then import all these different images into a program such as photoshop where you can blend them together to achieve the effect you desire!
Here is an example of a photo I did using a similar process:
It's just a matter of playing around and experimenting with the image until you find the effect you were looking for!
[Please note the studio example image is not mine, I used it merely to illustrate an example. All rights belong to the original artist/author]


Credit Card Transaction not appearing

Question: I purchased a few items at a grocery store a few weeks back. When I was going down though all of my monthly purchases I noticed the transaction wasn't there. I got a receipt for the items as well as cash back. The transaction is not in pending transactions or anywhere under payments. I added up my transactions and it is equal to the amount of my payments, so it didn't just get added to the total. Most of my purchases appear under pending almost immediately after purchasing the item and get posted a few days later. I called the credit card and they are not seeing a record of me making the purchase. Did I just not get charged for these items some how?
Comment: @TTT  I have a Discover card and can get Cash back from the grocery store I go to each week. There is no fee for this cash back.
Comment: Taking a stab here... maybe you used a different "debit card" instead of a "credit card"? Usually you don't get cash back from a credit card...
Comment: @TyDarrod - how did you get cash back from your credit card? Normally that doesn't work at grocery stores. If you definitely did this, what kind of card and bank is your credit card?
Comment: Not every grocery store offers cashback with Discover cards, but some large ones do. As far as I can tell, the store (with Discover's approval: the thing does not work with my Visa card) is putting through the entire amount as a purchase amount instead of purchase amount + cash advance, and since credit card companies reimburse the merchant for x% less than the amount being charged, the merchant is eating the fee on the cashback amount since the convenience is a cause of increasing business. The cashback amount is, of course, limited to $100 typically; not the cash advance limit of the card.
Comment: Did you call... **the grocery store**?  (Anyway, put some money aside to pay for it whenever it does show up.)
Comment: TTT, no, I def my CC. I only know this because I went to use my debit card later that day and I found out that it was expired. RonJohn I think calling the store is my next move. I just cant figure how this could've happened?
Comment: @mhoran_psprep good to know! Maybe OP has Discover too. I didn't know that was a thing.
Answer: It's not that commonly known, but businesses are allowed to do what's called "Stand-in processing" or "Store and forward".  This comes up when their connection to their credit card processor is down, but they don't want to just say "No one can pay with a credit card."  Instead, their local system can say "I can't be sure that this card is actually valid, but it's low risk so I'll just approve it."  (Low risk is defined by the business, and usually involves being under a certain dollar amount, chip cards only, or things like that.)
At a later point, after their connection comes back up, they send all those transactions off to the processor, which goes and hits the your bank for authorization like normal.  Under most circumstances, this transaction gets approved, so the customer gets charged, the business gets paid, and it works out the same as normal (albeit possibly a few hours or a few days later than otherwise).  On occasion, the card was actually fraudulent, or the customer just didn't have enough credit left, or something else goes wrong, in which case the business just loses that money.   (There's  also rules around retrying multiple times and various responses, but they're not relevant here.)
The system is generally designed to make it very hard for the customer (or even the clerk) to tell that it's "offline".  After all, if you know that the store is down, you can commit fraud much more easily.  I have even heard of businesses being offline for several weeks before anyone actually noticed.

To bring it back to your situation, I suspect this is what happened here - the connection from the grocery store to the processor went down, but you did a transaction that was small enough that they were willing to let it happen based on the (high) odds that you were a legitimate customer.  Presumably, their connection hasn't come back up and/or they haven't replayed the stored transactions, so your bank hasn't been told about it yet.  It should show up eventually, though.
Comment: I will note that while this seems the best fit for the OP's situation, I'm not sure that Discover allows for cash back while offline, which would invalidate this theory.  But I don't know one way or the other off the top of my head.
Comment: Can merchant-side STIP be done with EMV, or does it all have to be fallback?
Comment: @Acccumulation - It's possible, but there's complications.  If done _correctly_, the terminal tells the card "Unable to go online, but I want to approve anyway", the card would approve, and then it wouldn't even be STIP - it'd just be a local approval that the bank would honor.  However, US-issued cards almost uniformly say "If I can't get online, then don't allow it."  So instead, the terminal can either reply "I got an online approval, but I can't tell you anything else", which the card may or may not accept (and can cause problems when replaying), or ...
Comment: ... or it can say "I couldn't go online, decline."  _Normally_, that'd cause the terminal to display "Declined" on screen, but it's possible to override that.  In fact, "Quick Chip", which is where you put in the chip and pull it back out a second later, even while the transaction is still being rung up, requires doing exactly that.  Either way, all the chip data from the "go talk to the bank" message is stored and replayed later, and the message back to the chip is discarded (since it's long gone).

Credit Card Transaction not appearing


How can i limit disk space usage for one user?

Question: Like..
User john123, you can only use 100mb of my harddisk.
User jake155, you can only use 250mb of my harddisk.
Answer: To restrict hard disk usage per user efficiently we could create a separate partition for each of the /home directories. However then it's obviously not so easy to change the granted space or add new users.
We therefore may use fixed sized images as a container for the users /home and mount these as loop devices (as root):
1 mkdir /media/users/
2 dd if=/dev/zero of=/media/users/john123.img bs=512K count=200
3 mkfs.ext4 /media/users/john123.img
4 mkdir /home/john123

For testing:
5 mount -o loop /media/users/john123.img /home/john123

After having done so we then create our user john123 who will now have 100 MB space available in his /home/john123.
Subsequently the loop devices will have to be mounted prior to login, e.g. by adding this to /etc/fstab:
6 /media/users/john123.img    /home/john123    ext4    loop    0    2

Answer: The standard way to do it in UNIX is through the quota command. It allows you to dynamically change how much disk space each user can use.
See the man page, or google for a tutorial.
Answer: The route to take may be to limit the size of a user's home directory, i.e. limit /home/jake155 to a certain size.  Typically a non-admin user cannot access anything beyond their home directory unless you change permissions otherwise.  This thread discusses multiple ways to do that.


How can one solve the problem of telekinesis in interactionist dualism?

Question: Interactionist dualism states that the mental can effect the brain and vice versa. However, there is the problem of possible telekinesis. If the mind can effect the physical, shouldn't we be able to move things with our mind? What are some ways out of this problem?
Comment: Affecting the world with mind does not imply telekinesis. There is such a thing as limitation. And we can assume there are limitations on mental abilities regarding how much can we affect the world. However, I don't see how this is more a problem than that for a physicalist.
Comment: There is no problem, just because something can happen does not mean that it has to happen, especially in a particular way. Mental causation in any case has to comply with energy conservation, so whatever is caused by the mental has to be energy neutral, which pretty much rules out telekinesis.
Answer: Having a testable prediction from a mind-body theory is not a "problem".  This is instead an advantage, and shows that methodological empiricism can be applied to mind-body.
The tenor of the question seens to assume that telekinesis has been shown to be false.  The opposite is the case.  Here are three of the examples of the telekinesis evidence.
http://deanradin.com/evidence/Radin1991DiceMA.pdf
https://www.neuroquantology.com/index.php/journal/article/view/670
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/286873222_A_faulty_PK_meta-analysis
Telekinesis, as seen in these parapsychology experiments, is a weak phenomenon.  Interactive dualism which is consistent with these results would have to assume a weak interaction effect between mind and matter.


What are myopic and non-myopic policies?

Question: I am reading this paper: A survey on Policy Search for Robotics and I came across these terms. Can someone give an answer, please?
Answer: A myopic policy is one that simply maximises the average immediate reward. It is "myopic" in the sense that it only considers the single criterion. It has the advantage of being relatively easy to implement. A fairly well-known example is the hill-climbing algorithm.
However, a myopic search is particularly vulnerable to becoming trapped at a local optima, and so failing to identify a globally optimal solution.

A non-myopic policy is one which has wider focus, considering other factors. This can greatly improve the success of the algorithm, but is generally more complex to implement.
Answer: You first have to be clear about the core RL terms, to understand myopic and non-myopic policies:

Policy: Suppose each cell in the grid below is a state that the RL agent can be in. From each state, it can transition to another state. Now, the arrows that are given, shows a particular transition it would take from each state to go to another. This depicts a policy that answers (Which direction should I go from any current state?)

Reward: For every transition or a sequence of transitions, the agent gets a Reward for it. It can be positive or negative.

Now, in Reinforcement learning, an agent tries to pick a policy that gives it the maximum reward in the future. The agent might just look 1 step ahead in the future or 1000 (an arbitrary number) steps. If it looks 1 step ahead and based on that picks a policy that gives it a maximum reward, the policy would be myopic. On the other hand, if the agent looks 1000 steps ahead in future and then decides on the best policy, the policy would be termed non-myopic.
In RL, most generally, the number of steps to look ahead in future is determined by the discounting factor $\gamma \in [0,1]$, when the total reward $G_t$ is formulated as:
$G_t = R_{t+1} + \gamma R_{t+2} + \gamma^2 R_{t+3} ...  = \sum_{k=0}^{\infty}\gamma^k R_{t+k+1}$
As you can see, if $\gamma = 0$, the total reward $G_t$ will contain reward of only one time-step ahead in future $R_{t+1}$ (myopic). If $\gamma = 1$, rewards till $\infty$ are considered (non-myopic).
You can follow Dr. David Silver's lecture on RL to learn more: Link


is knowledge in computer science and/or electrical engineering beneficial to audio production?

Question: Also, should i go to school to learn audio production or should I just try to learn on my own through internet tutorials and stuff? If I go to an audio production school it seems that they teach you how to use consoles and how to work in studios, will they also teach me how to make beats on a computer (digital audio workstation), or could I take what they have taught me in school and learn the d.a.w. on my own time? I was thinking instead of majoring in audio production I could major in computer science or electrical engineering and minor in audio production. Would I get enough knowledge in audio production with a minor? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated? Thank you.
Comment: can you expand on why you're asking this on a sound design forum? are you interested in a sound design career (you're welcome to ask for advice! )or audio technical (please look elsewhere, sorry)
Comment: @ArnoudTraa, for someone at the beginning stages of an audio career, the end goal is IMO not terribly important.  Whether you'll end up in sound design, studio production, live reinforcement, etc, having a proper foundation of understanding of sound and the tools we use is paramount.  Getting an answer to that question is useful no matter what the end goal is.  I wouldn't turn someone away from the knowledge they can get here just because they don't know that sound design is their career goal as they begin.
Comment: I think you're right that someone shouldn't be 'turned away' because of a lack of direction. I was trying to make a point about 'sound design' (the name of this stack) and thought bringing it up would help him and this place. But in hindsight my comment wasn't clear about that.
Answer: No, unless you plan on programming DAW software, Computer Science is of almost no benefit at all.  They are not even remotely similar fields.  I say this as someone who studied Computer Science and Electronic Media, Arts and Communications as a dual major in college.  One major was all my math and science courses, the other was all my humanities and social science courses.  They had no overlap at all.  I know both fields and have been doing professional level work in both fields for over a decade.
As for self study, you can learn a lot of technical information online through self study, but there is ABSOLUTELY NO SUBSTITUTE for hands on, and more importantly, ears on learning.  To really develop, you need to learn the music and artistry of sound which you learn from doing it, hands on, and getting critiques to help figure out what works and what does not.
A minor is more than enough to get you a solid start in the field if you intend to do it on the side and not as your main career.  Alternately, you could find local organizations that have people that could take you under their wing.  Getting involved with local community theater for example will generally put you in touch with relatively experienced sound engineers who can help you learn the ropes.
I personally started working as a volunteer with community organizations, then moved up to conference, concert and music festival work and then finally studied as part of my college major (entirely for fun since the money is twice as good for half the time in software development and I like both equally.)  While I was in college, I also got involved with the campus audio production group and the distance education program, both of which gave me further opportunities to learn and hone my skills in addition to my coursework (which was already largely unnecessary by the time I actually did it.)
Overall, if you are willing to put in the time and volunteer with knowledgeable professionals in your area, you can learn everything you need to know without spending a dime, other than gas money and maybe hotel to go to and stay at shows and conferences.  Start out small with people who know a little bit more than you and work your way up if you don't want to spend the money on the degree.
The most important thing is to never forget art first, then technique.  So many people that come from technical backgrounds want to focus on the technique and refine that, but they don't know how to properly use any of it, so their work always sounds cold and unfeeling.  Learn the art of it, learn what it should sound like, then learn how to make it sound that way.
Now that you've mentioned electrical engineering as well, THAT would be useful.  Art is still the most important part, but electrical engineering is super helpful for diagnostics work, particularly for live systems that need to travel and have a tendency to run in to unique problems with setup and configuration at each location.  Having a knowledge of how the systems actually work is helpful for being able to get problems resolved quickly and efficiently.  It lets you understand how the signals and systems work and keep them running smoothly, but it is still highly secondary to knowing what "good" sounds like and being able to tell what you need to adjust to get to that sound.
Answer: Having studied music tech for over 8 years, i now write software, i would say that it is incredibly useful to know about computer science and electrical engineering. Not only will it give you more context as to what all those little electrons are doing. It will also give you some key skills.
For example knowing how to use a console is one thing. Knowing how to pop it open and fix it is another. This would most likely get you many Hit Points when trying to get a job.
In regards to your question of when will they teach you to make beats. They probably wont, Making beats is easy enough. But understanding said beats and EQ's is also really important and learning the basics will make using DAW's a lot easier. Open the mixer in logic and bam you get a console. Open it on Pro tools and bam the same console with the same In/Outs's.
In regards to your decision to major or minor in audio production thinking about what you want to do as a career is the next step.
Do you want to sit in a studio bouncing down tracks for bands, making beats for hiphop artists.
Or would you prefer to build and design hardware and software plugins.
Comment: Fair enough @AJ Henderson, supporting evidence is a bit hard to produce in a situation where experience and opinion are essentially the topics at play. However i do disagree with you, for example this link http://www.gold.ac.uk/ug/bmus-bsc-music-computing/ will take you to the goldsmiths degree course on music and computer science. "You will learn to create your own music software rather than using pre-made products, to further your artistic goals and to help pioneer the future of electronic music and digital audio production." Just like Dub artists use to make their own hardware for delay etc
Comment: -1 only because you said it was incredibly useful to know about computer science but gave no support of that at all.  I agree about the electrical engineering points, but computer science gives no value in audio production, only in writing DAW software, which isn't really audio production.  Even most DSP development doesn't particularly benefit from Computer Science as I understand it.
Answer: What's your goal? Where do you want to eventually be working?
Computer science and engineering are very different than audio production, even if there are similar concepts shared between them.
To most people, I recommend internships over going to school. If you spend your time trying to learn as much as you can through audio engineering books and production books/tutorials, you can apply at a proper studio to be an intern, even if unpaid. You'll learn a ton and you'll meet real working people that might hire you when your internship is finished.
Answer: What I learned at an audio production school was a lot of very useful theory.
We weren't taught how to use a console, we were taught how to learn how to use a console.  For example, we learned how to read the console's schematic block diagram, so that no matter where we ended up, we could, in a matter of minutes (or hours) understand what all the buttons, switches, etc on this particular console did.  Very useful!
We learned about how to listen critically, how to identify different frequencies.  Of course, we also put this theory into practice as well with pink noise and EQing exercises, but to be sure, the foundations of the theories were paramount.
Audio production school would definitely be a useful foundation for diving into sound design, as long as the school focuses on the theory and mechanics of sound and the tools we use to record and mix it.


Handling questions when the answer is no

Question: Some questions from a literal perspective only have a no answer. I've answered some of these by explaining how one can create a compromise solution that brings them closer to what the OP wants. These answers are rarely accepted -- should I bother in those cases?
Answer: Definitely 175%!
Why?

Even if it isn't the exact solution, it is a solution.
Users come here for help - most of them don't care if it isn't done a particular way, they just want it to work.
Because you might just be helping someone who comes along later with a similar question/problem, and then they see that and say "Hey! That might work!" and then they try it and it works!

Why not?
I honestly cannot think of any good, solid applicable reasons not to try and answer a question (there are always edge cases, admittedly mainly when the person is being stubborn and doesn't want a solution, things like that).
Comment: @fragos Usually I make it clear first thing in my answer that it won't answer their question but at least get someone going in the right direction.
Comment: You made good points so I'll continue offering alternatives. There have been times that my alternatives for otherwise no answers have been voted down with comments like "you didn't answer the question." Some question beg a particular answer even though there are alternative solutions.