What is the rate of loss of vitamin C in fresh vegetables?

Question: If I keep fresh vegetables in the fridge, how quickly is vitamin C lost? What is the rate of loss in percent per day, or any other relevant measure?
Comment: Vitamin C is not lost, there is no magic happening, it is just consumed  by cells trying to protect themselves from dying. You typically see a 50% reduction within 7 days, and then the loss rate reduces as the cellular processes stop. For many vegetables the loss rate is much less if kept chilled. Most food books that publish vitamin C levels do so at X days after harvest, to simulate the normal farmer to consumer process (check the fine print). Either way a normal balanced diet will provide way more vitamin C than required with 7 day old vegetables
Comment: Hello Joshua. The question hasn't been asked, because nutrition is mostly off topic here. We do deal with a very limited range of nutrition questions, but you'd have to be very specific. We never do "nutrients" in general, because different people care about different substances. I edited your question to be specifically about vitamin C only, else it would have been closed. But I'm not sure you'll get an answer even now.
Comment: I was reading this prior and during the edit, and witnessed both versions.  I'm not sure the edited version holds true to the original intent. @Joshua - please clarify.
Comment: Here is my question:
I know that Vitamin C is lost through contact with air and heat. (but since we are dealing with fresh vegetables here, heat is out of question here)
But what is the RATE of this loss? Like, 20% every day, etc.

Thanks again
Comment: That was the answer I was looking for :)

Thanks a lot,
Also, any sources/articles related to Vitamin C loss is highly appreciated
Comment: Heat isn't out of the question - how the vegetables are stored will affect their metabolic processes and how much of their nutritional content breaks down.  @TFD's guideline is a good rough estimate, but it's tough to be at all accurate without considering the specific produce, how it's stored, and so on.
Comment: I have another concern:

I store my parsley in glass jars (after I make sure leaves are dry) filled with several inches of water at room temperature.

Does this mean Vitamin C is lost in contact with air?
Answer: To put it simply, it's lost exceedingly rapidly. Can we scientifically measure the exact amount of the reduced form of vitamin C in produce over time? Yes, we can. Have there been studies and papers published that have done this? Yes, there have been. Are these results relevant? Yes and no.
These results allow us to draw certain conclusions about the loss* of vitamin C after produce has been harvested. We know that plant cells are constantly biosynthesising vitamin C (through a chain of biochemical reactions involving glucose) and at the same time using it in oxidative processes. By harvesting crops we're taking away a part of this natural oxidative loop and plant cells begin oxidative changes leading up to oxidative stress. The results of these studies confirm the theoretical knowledge we posses about oxidative cell cycles but there is no deterministic way we can deduce or even estimate with high precision the exact percentage of vitamin C that gets used up in the processes we observed. The loss rate is too specific to individual crops and the conditions in which it was harvested and since preserved. You could try to extrapolate the results of such studies (as the one linked below) to the produce you keep in your fridge but you would most assuredly get highly varying results.
*Please note that vitamin C is not lost, it is just transformed into a different form (oxidative form) during the oxidative processes that take place inside plant cells.
What we know for sure is that by reducing the temperature we slow down the oxidative processes that change the plant cell's biostructure, molecules and function. We can take cold inhibition to an extreme by deep freezing produce which virtually stops these deteriorating processes.
This answer has already run a bit longer than I originally planned but I thought giving you some background to the biochemical processes that take place might be useful. Lastly I'd like to give you a practical example of exactly how vitamin C oxidation (even visually) deteriorates produce.
Half an apple, where the left side has been artificially treated with vitamin C:

Relevant links: (1)
Comment: Thanks for the informative comment, Looking at the picture can we say that if a color is retained, vitamin c is mostly there? For example i can keep herbs like parsley and dill in cool airtight bags wrapped for a week after which they have their full color, can we imply that vitamin c losses have been minor?
Comment: @Joshua No, unfortunately, we can't make such an implication as the discolouration is not solely attributed to vitamin C oxidation - the produce could look great and have a low reduced form vitamin C content, but it can also look poorly and have a high reduced form vitamin C content. It's virtually impossible to tell without doing a full scientific study per harvest (produce from the same harvest will most likely 'lose' vitamin C at approximately the same rate).
Answer: Vitamin C is not lost, there is no magic happening, it is just consumed by cells trying to protect themselves from dying
You typically see a 50% reduction within 7 days, and then the loss rate reduces as the cellular processes stop
For many vegetables the loss rate is much less if kept chilled. Most food books that publish vitamin C levels do so at X days after harvest, to simulate the normal farmer to consumer process (check the fine print)
Either way a normal balanced diet will provide way more vitamin C than required with 7 day old vegetables
Answer: It is lost quickly!  As soon as it is picked, it begins to lose C, but I don't know at what rate.  Heat and light affect the loss.  Long ago I read a study about how fast oranges lost their C and why frozen O.J. may actually have more C - it is often processed faster and flash-frozen whereas an orange may sit around a week or two before being eaten.  The study showed that the orange lost about 10% of C within the first few hours of being picked.
Comment: I've removed a little of your answer which discussed health issues; health is off topic here.


How can I attach to drywall with aluminum studs?

Question: First, how can I find the studs? My normal and good stud finders are mostly baffled. Second, what should I use to anchor into them? I'm thinking some sort of self-expanding toggle bolt?
Comment: If you're not looking right at the studs what are you looking at? What are they behind that you are trying to locate them?
Also, aluminum studs??? Are you sure they are not standard steel studs? Either way, regular fine thread drywall screws are all you need.
Comment: a metal detector tuned for aluminum should work
Comment: What is it you wish to attach?
Comment: Keep in mind that the aluminum studs should be place center on center every 16". This means the first stud in a wall is 15 1/4 inches to the center of the 2nd stud.  This allows for butting the drywall to the wall.  If this is done all your studs are exactly 16" inches to the center part to screw in.
Answer: In North America, studs are usually installed 16" on centre, regardless of whether wood or metal studs are used.  (Commercial interior walls may have different spacing.)  If you can't find the stud with your stud finder, look for a plug or switch on the wall - they will be attached to one side of the stud and then start from there.
Just use normal fine-thread drywall screws.  Drywall screws are available in coarse thread for wood studs, and fine thread for metal studs.
PS: Are you sure the studs are aluminum?  All metals studs that I have seen are galvanized steel.


what does "consensus call" mean?

Question: Can anybody explain what "consensus call" means in this sentence for me -
To be sure, a recession is not the consensus call on Wall Street, with projections in recent days showing increased optimism?
Thanks a lot.
Answer: To "call" something can be to predict it, or make a judgment on it.
For instance: if there is an election and the candidates seem to have a similar number of supporters, then people who predict elections might say that the election is "too close to call".  But if candidate X is clearly ahead, even though the election hasn't happened it might be said that those making predictions are "calling the election for candidate X".
The "consensus call" here is the "prevailing opinion on the likelihood of a recession".  Due to recent optimistic information, the consensus is not to "make the call" that there will be a recession.
(Note: In finance terminology, there is another meaning of call... in terms of a kind of stock option:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_option
...but this isn't talking about that.)
Answer: A consensus is when most people agree on a decision.
A call (in market terms) is a forecast on the future.
A consensus call is the same market call made by a majority of market watchers (analysts, strategists, portfolio managers).  Having a consensus leads to herding where most market participants will do the same thing at the same time. To do the opposite of the consensus is to be contrarian.
In your example, the projection is the forecast.  When a recession occurs most participants will be gloomy in their outlook, however, your example is saying that there is increased optimism in projections which means most people (the consensus) do not think a recession will occur.
As a side note, the consensus can be horribly wrong at times, especially at turning points.

what does "consensus call" mean?


Dynamic Confirmation email for forms (Wordpress)

Question: I have a wordpress form and there are 3 possible emails that i wish this to be sent to depending on one of the choices they choose. Is there a way to have dynamic email confirmations depending on choices in the form.
Example - working on a form for a catering service for 13 stores. There are 3 district managers for the 13 stores. In the form the user selects what store they wish to be catered from and i am wondering if there is a way for me to set it up so that once the form is completed the corresponding district managers gets an email.
Answer: sure, you can use a dropdown tag field with pipes.


No-Code Sandbox solutions NCSS template for visual studio

Question: I working on an solution for SharePoint Online, and would like to be able to not have a virtual machine for developing the NCSS parts of the project. But with the Visual Studio template I would have to work offline and do a publish to see the results. Are there some extensions for Visual Studio to be able to work with sandbox solutions without having to install SharePoint?
Answer: If you create a string value named "SharePoint" set to "Installed" under the registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\15.0 you will be able to create sandbox solutions without having SharePoint installed. (You'll also need to install Office Developer tools for Visual Studio)
You will still need to publish the solutions and upload to SharePoint Online in order to test.
Source: http://toastertech.com/2015/01/create-sandboxed-solutions-without-sharepoint-installed/


Difference between Linear control theory and non linear control theory? especially topics/contents wise?

Question: Although I know that a linear systems is the one that follows principle of superposition but I want to know what topics/contents do we study in each of both categories linear control and non linear control?Please kindly give some examples of both categories
Answer: It is not entirely clear what you are asking exactly, so I'll try to answer as best as I can. In linear control we consider systems described by linear differential equations subject to holonomic constraints (based on position). An example for such a system is an RC network.
The benefits of having a linear system is that the principle of superposition applies. So you can add the inputs together to get the output. In a non-linear system this is no longer true. In particular in becomes difficult to take derivatives while remaining on your constraint surface, which can now be dependent on the velocities (non-holonomic). This is prevalent in mechanical systems with inertia. After all, you cannot stop a car instantaneously.
In non-linear control we construct manifolds (Riemannian or Symplectic) and use the tools of differential geometry to steer the system to the desired state. A typical example is a vehicle. The problem with the non-holonomic constraints is that the constraint surface moves with changes to the velocity. So it is difficult to get back to it after you do numerical differentiation in Euclidean space. If you calculate the constraint force needed to get back to the constraint surface, the velocity will change and the constraint surface will move such that you are no longer on it. Hence the need to ensure that you do not leave it through the tools of differential geometry.


Removing background and keeping transparencies in Photoshop

Question: Is it possible to remove the black from an image like this in Photoshop so it is only white but respect the transparency? I am aware that a Screen blending mode would give this effect but I need to completely remove the background and import it in another program as a png with no background.
Answer: If you need to save/export an image with only the white and transparency...

Select > Select All
Edit > Copy
Fill the layer with white (trust me)
Add a Layer Mask to the layer
In the Channels Panel (Window > Channels), Turn on visibility and highlight the mask channel
Edit > Paste(As seen in the animation below, if you fail to turn on visibility for the mask channel the "paste" will create a new layer.)
Click the Layer thumbnail in the Layers Panel

Save and you should have white with transparency.(Additional layer added in animation simply so things are visible.)

For internal editing in Photoshop ---
(I realize you mentioned this in the question. Simply being complete.)
Change the Blending Mode to Screen and only the white will show on layers below.


Why are Shocklands better than Guildgates?

Question: I recently read a review about Return to Ravnica and the reviewer says that, for example, Temple Garden is way better than Selesnya Guildgate. Can someone point out the reasons behind that? Additionally, why is Temple Garden called a Shockland?
Answer: Shocklands (which allow you to "Shock" yourself in order to get an untapped land) have many advantages:

Good color depth without loss of tempo. Oftentimes, getting your land into play untapped is worth two life; shocklands give you the option to set that up.
Excellent color-fixing with fetch effects.

The synergy between shocklands and fetchlands is what makes Modern mana bases so strong. I can crack a Misty Rainforest and get any of these color combinations: W/G, W/U, U/B, U/R, U/G, B/G, R/G. See this answer for more information about the shocks + fetches style of mana base.
We can have four- and five-color decks in Innistrad/RTR Standard thanks to Farseek's ability to fetch any of the ten shocklands.

Shocklands interact positively with other cards that care about basic land types as well. In particular:

Shocks power up M13 and Innistrad "buddy" lands (like Sunpetal Grove), which require you to have lands of specific basic land types in play. In a three-color deck, a single shock in play is sufficient to make every single one of your "buddy" lands enter play untapped.
Shocklands have powerful synergy with "Kird Ape" creatures like Wild Nacatl (which was once banned from Modern for being too consistent of a 3/3 on turn 2) and Flinthoof Boar (which saw tournament play in Standard Gruul decks).
Answer: Flexibility. If you choose to have the land enter tapped, then the cards are no different, but only Temple Garden gives you any choice at all. The difference from being able to use that mana on the turn that you play it may amount to less life lost than the 2 you pay to have it enter untapped.
Shock was the quintessential burn spell for a while when WotC thought that Lightning Bolt was too quick and powerful. Shock was released in multiple base sets, and since it deals 2 damage, people called the cycle of lands that deal 2 damage to you Shocklands.
Comment: You're also correct; having the types Forest Plains also makes the shocklands slightly better, because they interact with other cards that care about those types. In some cases, that can be a disadvantage though, like if your opponent has a creature with Forestwalk.
Comment: I thought it has something to do with the 2 land types in their name (Forest Plains for example).
Answer: Adding to user1873's existing answer: as you say, the fact that Shocklands have the same land types as basic lands (e.g. "Forest Plains") is huge.  It means you can fetch them up with Fetchlands, or any other spell that looks for a Forest or a Plains (though not of course "a basic Forest", or "a basic Plains').
A manabase judiciously combining both Fetchlands and Shocklands is pretty close to the ultimate way of having the right colour of mana available exactly when you need it, in a 3+ colour deck.  And if you're using fetches to get your Shocklands at the end of your opponent's turn, the "comes into play tapped" restriction isn't even a drawback, at that point.
Comment: @ikegami Currently that's 0 Constructed playables. Dragon's Maze might change that but it seems unlikely.
Comment: And the other hand, Temple Garden is not a Gate, so stuff that looks for Gates won't see it.
Answer: Shock lands get their name because of the spell "Shock", which deals 2 damage to target creature or player. With the shock lands, in order to get them into play untapped, you have to hit yourself with a shock. Shock lands are so expensive becuase of mana fixing. Anything that is invunerable (lands are the hardest thing in MTG to kill, except emblems) and can help you get the colors you need to the battlefield, will be worth a good portion of money. The cost is increased as well becuase of the shock lands' synergy with the "fetch lands". These are lands that can grab other lands. The shock lands are the only nonbasic lands with basic land types in their card type, so they are the only non-baic land that the fetch lands can fetch you.


How does a taildragger steer (taxi) differently to tricycle gear?

Question: I'm aware that there is a difference of some sort. Does a taildragger inherently require more room than a nose gear to taxi around a corner?
Comment: Only in the sense that your typical nose dragger can usually swing the tail over the various airport edge lights & the tail dragger usually can't.
Comment: No, it really doesn't. As to how it physically steers, that is dependent on the aircraft, some use only differential braking and a caster tail wheel while some have steerable tail wheels. Either tail dragger or tricycle, usually the pivot point of the aircraft is the same, between the main gear, so the turning radius isn't really affected.
Answer: It very much depends on the tail-dragger. Many vintage aircraft don't have wheel brakes at all and steer using the rudder, which has the tail wheel or skid attached to it. On these aircraft, steering is ineffective at low speeds, just like when steering a ship with a rudder. Unlike on a ship, you can increase your steerage by adding a burst of power and using the slipstream over the rudder to push it sideways. Very experienced pilots can turn almost on the spot at very low speeds this way, but in a tricky situation it's a judgement call whether to make a wider turn at low speed or add power and risk speeding up. For this reason it's good to have a little extra room, to make sure you can stop completely at any point and still have room to make the turn.
Dan Pichelman makes a good points in the comments. If you take a tricycle and a tail-dragger with the same turning circle, and look at the tyre marks on the ground, the tail-dragger's marks will be much bigger. That tail wheel right at the aftermost point traces out a huge circle, while the tricycle's wheels are very close together. For this reason, you need the whole turning circle to be free from obstacles such as edge markers and lights, while a tricycle can do a full turn with its tail overhanging any obstructions.
One more taxiing issue is visibility. Tail-draggers (again, especially earlier ones) are nose-high on the ground, and the engine cowling tends to prevent the pilot seeing straight forward. There have been many incidents of tail-draggers taxiing right onto smaller aircraft or obstructions straight ahead of them. (It used to be very common with Spitfires.) To avoid this, pilots are taught to weave as they taxi, so they can always check the ground ahead by looking either side of the nose. (Think of it like the clearing turns you make on a long climb.) While a tricycle might go straight along a taxiway it can only just fit into, a tail-dragger wants a much wider taxiway so that it can weave like this. You also need to plan how you're going to make the weave go into a turn when you reach a corner: if you got to the corner as you'd weaved right over to its inside, pointing towards the outside of the corner, you'd need much more room to make the turn.
For all these reasons, while it's entirely possible for a good pilot on a good day to make turns just as tight as a similar-sized tricycle aircraft, it's a good idea to allow a larger unobstructed space on straights and corners if you're expecting tail-draggers, especially students.


Why are undergravel aquarium filters no longer popular at stores?

Question: I recall that when I started fish keeping, there were basically two choices for filtration: under-gravel filters and hang-on backs. There were also expensive canisters for people with large setups. When I visit Petsmart and Petco, I find few options for under-gravel. They just sell a single one-side product, I think only suitable for a 10-gallon tank. Why is it so rare to find these nowadays?
Answer: People consider them obsolete.
Under gravel filtration is an old technology, and seems to be going out of favor for newer types of filters, to the point where under gravel filtration has become a point of controversy among people who keep aquariums, with many arguing that they should no longer be used at all.
The arguments against them seem to boil down to:

They tend to get clogged over time.
They are inconvenient to clean, sometimes requiring a teardown of the tank.
Newer types have better filtration.
They aren't good for growing live plants.

However, it seems not all of these arguments are necessarily true. For instance, the problem with clogging can be prevented with proper cleaning, and not overpopulating the tank with fish, and not all aquariums necessarily need something more complicated.
There are also other points in the under gravel filter's favor, such as it being cheap, simple, reliable, and since they are largely hidden beneath the substrate, they look nicer than many other filters.
Answer: Under gravel are cheap so the dealers have made them "politically undesirable". I expect in fresh water , depending on fish density, type, and food ,etc, the gravel may need to be cleaned . I found them to be great for salt . With aragonite/crushed coral/limestone gravel the water flowing down through the gravel picks up calcium which is necessary for water chemistry.  My calcium stayed at 500 ppm and I never added kalkwasser ( calcium lime water) which is required without a undergravel filter. And all sorts of creature live in the gravel and eat debris. I enjoyed taking a flash light when it was dark and watching the activity in the gravel. I never cleaned a UGF in salt water. Unfortunate I have not seen (larger) live animals in fresh water gravel.


How do I control a servo using a beaglebone black running ubuntu

Question: I  have a BeagleBoneBlack and would like to use it to control a servo for my robot. I'm mostly programming in ros and as such am looking preferably for a c++ solution. Is there an easy way of controlling a servo on a BBB running ubuntu 14.04 on the kernal 3.8? Most tutorials I have tried referred to files I did not have so I'm unsure.
Answer: It's python but easy to install: https://learn.adafruit.com/setting-up-io-python-library-on-beaglebone-black/pwm. Otherwise you can fopen files in the device tree and write to them, or you can open /dev/mem and directly access the registers for the PWM drivers.
I strongly recommend using the first method it is far easier than the third and basically the same as the second just far more tested and probably well written.


Is avoiding significant advantage by an specific hardware an active goal of the Monero developers?

Question: Given that significant advantages in a specific hardware leave out a lot of people that don't posses that specific hardware and leads to mining centralization, is there an active effort to improve the mining algorithm used in Monero to avoid this and harvest the computational power from many devices?
Comment: The question is quite unclear. In particular "improve" can have multiple meanings depending on your perspective. What exactly would you consider an improvement? From our perspective, the CryptoNight algorithm was designed to be ASIC-resistant. In that case "Improve" would mean to make it more resistant. "Hardware-agnostic" implies the opposite, that the algorithm can run well on anything. Pretty sure that's a non-goal.
Comment: What I'm trying to say with "hardware-agnostic" is that no specific hardware obtains a significant advantage over other hardware. Like trying to find a balance. In this sense this would include ASIC-resistance, since it would not make much sense to build ASICs if they don't give you a significant advantage over more general processors.
Comment: @ch4r4c73r can you edit your question based on the comment you just made and differentiate it from the existing ASIC resistance questions? http://monero.stackexchange.com/search?q=asic
Comment: Is that better?
Answer: Based on above comments ... No. CryptoNight is the exact opposite of what "hardware-agnostic" means. In particular, CryptoNight is designed to run best on CPUs, and run less efficiently on GPUs and other accelerated compute devices.
An algorithm that is truly hardware-agnostic would run efficiently on any compute device.


One string sharp when fretted

Question: I'm having trouble with my Epiphone SG G400 Pro. The 3rd string is sharp whenever I fret from the 1st - 12th frets. It's a tune-o-matic bridge and the saddle is as far from the nut as it can go. It's strung with the set of 10s that came on it from the factory. If it were the truss rod, wouldn't that affect all the strings? What might the problem be? The nut? Just been built badly?
Answer: It's the nut. Both the nut and the saddle affect Intonation. A compensated nut is used in higher end guitars to make adjustments for this. Moving the saddle with a tune-o-matic affects each string proportionally. By changing the saddle each note is shifted relative to it's starting position.
There are a variety of problems in how the guitar was built that would lead to sloppy intonation.
Answer: I agree with max dickinson:  likely to be the nut.
If it's sharp all the way up the neck, when open tuning is fine, then the problem is probably the 'reference point' it's starting from (the nut).
It's possible that the groove in the nut for the 3rd string is angled such that the string is in fact resting on the far end of the nut, rather than the bridge end.
That is: The string comes from the tuning peg, acrodss the nut and rests on a high point. Usually that high point is nearest the frets, but if it's cut or worn badly then it could be that the high point is nearer the tuning peg, thus making the intonation ourt for the whole fretboard.
I'm not sure how you can check this other than a visual inspection

One string sharp when fretted


Rpi to read windows and SAMBA folder files

Question: I want to use a NEW RPi 3b+ to play music files hosted on another RPi and Windows a PC.
The RPi with media files runs a SAMBA server with a 4TB HDD with all music and other files on it. The RPi also acts as a NAS drive.
The NEW RPi will also cycle through web pages (using Chromium with a plugin) from 3 webservers on my LAN (Also RPi's - monitoring Solar production and power usage etc)
Now the question:
On the NEW PRi, Besides VLC Media Player, and speakers,  what software do I need to install and configure to be able to connect and read any SAMBA server AND any Windows shared folders?
Thanks for the help
Frits
Answer: If you want provide files to clients then you want Windows as SMB SERVER:

If you want your RPi to access to an SMB server, then you want RPi as SMB CLIENT (testparm, smbclient, nmblookup ... and other binary are provided when you install samba package):

Adapt according to your needs ...
If you want to use a name in place of an IP address for the network access, you must configure a domain name server.
Comment: Ephemeral,  Thanks a lot. Got it working now.
Mounting works fine in fstab.

https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/40974/access-network-samba-share-from-pi-client

How can I automate :
sudo mount -a.

I tried adding in fstab, but mapping does does happen
Comment: @user4742250? You're welcome. You want to auto-mount at RPi and network connectivity starts-up ?
Comment: For some or other reason the RPi hangs after a day or two continues music play.

I have managed to schedule a reboot in cron to happen at midnight.
Directly after that I have also added a task to map the drive.

I am unable to create a cron task to start playing the shortcut that is on my desktop.

How do I do that?


Automatic backups for MySQL Workbench

Question: Is there a way to schedule AUTOMATIC backups for specific tables in MySQL Workbench?
Comment: What is an "automatic" backup? Or do you just mean that you want to schedule backups?
Comment: MySQL workbench isn't a backup tool in itself.  You'll need to give us more info on what version of MySQL, what kind of server it's on (e.g. Windows, Linux), what access you have to the server before we can really help.
Answer: MySQL Workbench is a client querying and modelling tool and a very good one at that - it's purpose is not to perform server tasks - that's the job of the server. You can perform manual backups using Workbench, but I'm assuming that's not your long term goal.
There are many ways you can perform backups. Take a look here for 10 of them. Some of the solutions are OS dependent - basically, you have more choices if you're on Linux/*nix than on Windows (which are you?). Also, it depends on whether your tables are InnoDB or MyISAM (hope it's InnoDB!).
Two (other Open Source) backup solutions not mentioned in the post above are Percona's XtraBackup which can be cron'd or Zmanda's (which was mentioned in the High Performance MySQL book by Schwartz et al.). Another solution would be MyDumper - again a Percona backed tool (except this one also copes with MyISAM tables).
If you're familiar with *nix and file systems, then maybe an LVM solution might be for you? Try here.
I would advise you to study the solutions available and do some testing and see which one best suits your requirements.

Automatic backups for MySQL Workbench


Pronunciation of "Celt": /kɛlt/ vs. /sɛlt/

Question: Both /kɛlt/ and /sɛlt/ are considered acceptable pronunciations of the noun Celt and similarly of the adjective Celtic. Is there a reason for the different pronunciations? Which is the more common? Is each variant perhaps particular to a geography? Scottish vs. Irish, maybe?
Comment: In my experience, soft-C Celtic is a Scottish football club. All other usages are hard-C Celtic. But I believe the word may be used differently in the linguistics community.
Comment: There's a soccer club in Stalybridge (Greater Manchester) called Stalybridge Celtic, pronunciation as for the Glasgow club. They have famously good pies, but that probably has little bearing on pronunciation.
Comment: *Celtus*, *Celti*, *celticus* are Latin, representing Greek *kelt-* and originally pronounced with a /k/; but this changed in the Romance languages through the process of palatalization before entering English. The Celtic peoples I know of use forms with /g/: *Gaul*, *Gaelic*, *Galicia*, *Galatians*.
Comment: The NBA team in Boston, Massachusetts is always pronounced with the /s/.
Comment: @Stoney The similarities are treacherous: _Celtic_ isn't related to Gaulish, Gallic, and Galician, which isn't even the same as Gaelic, to make things worse…
Comment: @JanusBahsJacquet I didn't intend to suggest that they are, but obviously I did! ... And if I remember correctly, *Gaul* has nothing to do with with L *Gallia*, *Galli* either, but is a descendant of the Germanic word meaning 'foreigner' ancestral to *Wales* in Britain and *Wallis* in Switzerland.
Answer: According to OED 1, Celt is first recorded in English in 1607, probably Anglicized from Latin. At that time it designated the peoples whom the ancients called Celtae (Latin) or Keltoi (Greek): the Gauls and those of Spain and Northern Italy "believed to be of the same language and race". Celtic first appears in Blount's Glossography as a French word, Celtique, defined as "pertaining to the people of Gaul". The modern sense arose in the 18th Century; it

began in French, and in reference to the language and people of Brittany, as the presumed representatives of the ancient Gauls: with the recognition of linguistic affinities it was extended to the Cornish and Welsh, and so to the Irish, Manx, and Scottish Gaelic.

(That recognition, it might be remarked, was in great part due to the labours of the undeservedly neglected Welsh naturalist, antiquarian, and Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum Edward Lhuyd (his reformed spelling of the name "Lloyd"). Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica, 1707, laid the foundations of Celtic linguistics and contributed to his countryman Sir William Jones' epochal recognition, three generations later, of the kinship of what we now call the Indo-European languages.)
There is no reason to think that the pronunciation at that time was anything other than  /ˈsɛlts/, as in both French and contemporary Englishing of Latin. Scholarship had generally recognized at least as early as Leibniz (Collectanea Etymologica, 1717) that the name should "properly" be pronounced with a /k/ (the characterization suggests that the usual pronunciation was with /s/), and spellings with /K/ begin showing up among speculative antiquarians at the end of the 18th Century. These spellings gain a modest currency in the 19th century, but (according to NGrams) never offer a serious challenge to spellings with /C/.
We may presume, I think, that in the 19th Century the pronunciation with /s/ likewise dominated that with /k/. OED 1 (the Cast-Clivy fascicle was published in November 1889) gives this pronunciation first, followed by "Also Kelt (kelt)."
Since the 19th Century, spellings with /K/ have almost disappeared; but my experience is that pronunciations with /k/ have gained ground over the last 50 years.
The pronunciation with /k/ has existed as a minority variant alongside the pronunciation with /s/ for over 200 years. As The Celtic Wiki hints, it is mere linguistic politics to stigmatize either as "ignorant".
Comment: @tchrist  *That* says a whole bunch of stuff, some of which is correct, some of which is conjecture, and some of which is pure rubbish. The relationship between language and "race" and "culture" is always tenuous (as *OED 1* acknowledged in 1889). But there is certainly a language family which the scholarly literature names *Celtic*, and its branches are demonstrably related to the language attested in Roman-era inscriptions in the areas where the ancients said the *Celtae* lived. In any case, I confined my remarks to the origin and development of the term's English spelling and pronunciation.
Comment: Great summary. The point that is never clearly stated up front in all these discussions is that *Celt* is not a label the ancient people we are talking about used themselves, but a word used by *other* ancient Europeans to describe them. The Greeks called them *Kelts* and this was later latinized into *Selts*. This is why the assumption by some people that they are being more correct by using *Kelt* rather than *Selt* because they believe it is more "Celtic" (more authentic to the Celt's language) is wrong. Either pronuciation can be justified, but neither is the Celtic pronunciation.
Comment: [This says](http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_the_Gaels_and_the_Celts): **There is no such thing as a Celt.** There are artefacts of Celtic design and there are languages that are described as Celtic: Welsh, Gaelic, Breton and Gallego... There is no demonstrable link between the Celti or Keltoi of Classical sources and the people who live in Scotland, Ireland, Mann, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany or Spain, popularly identified as Celtic areas today, or indeed their kin elsewhere in the world. These can claim descent from Britons and Cymry or from Gaels and that's about it.
Answer: Following the rules of English pronunciation, the sound of "C" is based on the following vowel e.g. celery, city, cat, cot, cut.
Comment: Yes, but there are exceptions like *sceptic* and *soccer.* How can we tell if *Celt,* like these words,  is an exception to the rules?
Comment: English has no rules.

e.g. "I before E, except after C"

This is a famously weird rule, which is more often wrong than right.


Application Migration to Dapper.net from EF4

Question: I am working on a large WPF application with Entity framework4 now client is asking to migrate application from EF4 to Dapper.net. I am not sure about feasibility & business gain of this migration task as following features of EF4 are missing in Dapper:

Change tracking
Lazy-loading
Eager fetching
Cascades
Identity map
Unit of work tracking

please suggest me on this or if other better micro ORM exists for WPF applications.
Answer: EF4 and dapper are different tools with different goals and different features. Indeed, it is pretty common to see dapper and tools like EF working side by side (sometimes even against the same object-model) - particularly when you aren't using all the things you've listed in the bullets; for example, a lot of "display" code (showing pages to the user, etc) tends to not use those things. For read-only code, it can sometimes be embarrassingly simple to switch in a dapper implementation - just write some SQL and away you go.
However! When it comes to code that does use the features you've mentioned, this is a much more fundamental change; it isn't really "migrate" so much as "re-implement". Without things like change tracking, your own code would need to be a bit clearer about what operations each process is performing. This is actually a good thing, IMO, but is not trivial to retrofit into an existing codebase. If starting from scratch (or: new tables etc in an existing model), it is generally very easy.
Personally, the approach I would take here is first to look at your key data fetch operations (especially high frequency, complex query, or large volume) - and consider whether they could be replaced with dapper-based read operations; especially if read-only. You can probably get some huge wins with minimal work. Profiling would be important, and tools like mini-profiler might help. I would not personally start ripping out an existing, working data layer for the rest of it - that seems like inventing work for the sake of it; and it will be complicated (swapping out an ORM is not a trivial thing).
I would, however, put some serious thought into updating to a more recent version of EF ;p
(oh, and if it matters: I'm the primary author and maintainer of dapper)
Comment: Thanks for reply. You mean to say that only for read only views we should use dapper & let dapper & EF work side by side. I do need concurrency management & changetracking in my application. pls suggest.
Comment: @user1103378 to be clear: I'm not saying dapper should only be for read-only views; heck, virtually all of our **new code** that does data changes has used dapper for the last few years; what I am saying is that *changing between* ORM-based change-tracked writes, versus micro-ORM explicit writes (regardless of which ORM / micro-ORM) - is not trivial. As such, I wouldn't choose to do so casually, or on whim. If it absolutely has to happen: then sure, it can be done - but it could be quite a lot of work.
Answer: In my opinion, the crucial question is why your client want you to migrate this project to another framework.
If she wants you to perform this migration because of poor performance of some functionalities or modules then you could take Marc's approach and migrate only critical parts of your system.
In some of my company's projects we use Dapper side by side with full-blown NHibernate stuff and it really works. Especially in reporting and batch processing when you probably want to call stored procedures instead of simple CRUD operations.
If you decide to follow this path, I'd suggest you to consider using "Unit of work" pattern to enable EF
and Dapper to work on same database connection (I've bloged about this matter some time ago).
Of course you have to keep in your mind technical differences like that Dapper (in opposite to "full-blown" ORMs like EF or NH) does not have concept of session and "dirty" objects modified by EF should be read by Dapper only after flushing changes to DB.


Do a 160-bit SHA-1 hash and a 160-bit slice of a SHA-256 hash have the same strength in terms of collision-free?

Question: Take OpenPGP fingerprint for example. If the 40-digit hex standard remains unchanged, would it be helpful to upgrade SHA-1 to SHA-256 (but only taking the last 160 bits), in terms of reducing the risk of collision?
Comment: Using a reduced output hash may also help against length extension attacks (applicable for both SHA-1 and SHA-256). Those require a secret key to be used and are therefore not considered when taking a fingerprint of a key pair, but they may be of interest of other readers drawn here by the title of the question.
Comment: FYI To my own surprise I figured out how to take a PGP fingerprint [here](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/32087/how-to-generate-fingerprint-for-pgp-public-key) (found by an Internet search :P). As it does not contain any identifiable information of the user, it is possible to try for fingerprint matches of a large amount of keys, e.g. pulled from an online key server.
Answer: SHA-1 is broken in practice in terms of finding collisions. This shattered attack (identical-prefix collision attack) requires roughly $2^{63.1}$ SHA-1 evaluations and this is approximately 100,000 faster than finding collisions with generic birthday attack on 160-bit output that has $2^{80}$- time complexity. That is, for a hash function with $\ell$-bit output we expect at least one collision with a 50% probability within $2^{\ell/2}$ outputs.
There are no attacks on SHA-256 trimmed to 160 bit better than the generic collision attack due to the birthday attack. Therefore they are not the same in finding collisions, in this case, SHA-256 trimmed to 160-bit has better security than SHA-1.
The attacks on SHA-256 or similarly other iterated hash functions are performed on reduced rounds. We don't expect weakness on the trimmed version of well designed cryptographic hash functions. Except for the resistances which happens naturally. If such a weakness exists, it can represent a weakness in the designs of the hash function and this could be used to attack the full version.
Note that NIST deprecated the use of SHA-1 in 2011 way before the actual attack. 160-bit hash output is no longer considered secure. If you consider that Bitcoin miners reached $\approx 2^{92}$ double SHA-256 hashes per year in 06 Agust 2019, 160-bit is no longer secure, or even 180-bit. The hash rate $2^{92}$ for a year is for the double SHA-256 hashes. Therefore they can calculate $2^{93}$ SHA-256 in a year.
note: I've re-check the current hash rate of Bitcoin miners, it is was 80.294 Exa Hashes/s (1 exa is one quintillion (1,000,000,000,000,000,000) ) in 06 Agust 2019. It reached 110.6056 Exa on 23 October 2019, unfortunately, or hopefully, this is still $\approx 2^{92}$. In a second, this makes $2^{67}$ double SHA256 calculations which means, they can break the DES key less than a second or any 64-bit block-cipher.
Comment: Also note that trying to find a key pair that matches the fingerprint of a particular key is still very (prohibitively) expensive, as the birthday bound would not apply. However, you could worry about large organizations trying to find key pairs that could match large amounts of key pairs. Shattered attacks don't work for pre-generated key pairs. So although above answer is correct w.r.t. collision resistance, there are quite a few things to consider when it comes to fingerprints (for OpenPGP compatible keys).
Comment: Now there's a demonstrated chosen plaintext collision too.
Comment: @Maarten-reinstateMonica Thank you for the addition.


Can I use my existing Canon lenses on an EF-M camera body?

Question: Canon recently introduced the Canon EOS M, mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. It uses a new EF-M mount and is available as a kit with an EF-M lens in some regions. I have existing EF and EF-S lenses from my Canon 40D, will these work fully on the EF-M mount camera?
Comment: you might want to look at this newsletter from canon, featuring all the M product range.
[Canon newsletter](http://canonctd.cusa.canon.com/ctd/lu?RID=1-6UGICR&CON=1-2MJ3-211&PRO=&AID=&relayIds=T&OID=1-6SA9F8&CID=1-6SA9G2&COID=1-6SA9G7&T=http://www.usa.canon.com/app/emails/eosjuly12v?WT.mc_id=EM1207EO05005&Z=83934f45aae38512a0c583867c2289f1&TN=Web%20Version&RT=Clicked%20On%20URL)
Answer: Canon also announced the Canon Mount Adapter EF-EOS M when they announced the EOS M camera. The adapter is said to be available in October 2012 for $199 USD. It is compatible with the full range of EF and EF-S lenses that are currently available. This also includes the full range of third-party lenses that currently work with the available EOS bodies.
The adapter specifically extends the EF-M flange distance(bayonet to the sensor) from 18mm to 44mm that the other Canon DSLRs have.
One nice feature of the adapter is that it has a built in tripod mount. This can come in handy when mounting a larger lens to the smaller EOS M body. One example of a very large full size lens being used with the adapter can be found here, where they test it with an EF 800mm prime lens.
So any lens that you have that works with the Canon 40D should have no problem with the EF-M mount EOS M camera body, using the adapter of course. This means full functionality such as autofocus and lens information. I have yet to test out the implementation to see how autofocus actually performs with this setup, but early reports seem to be positive from what I have found.
Answer: Canon says yes. Some big lenses are going to look really silly on that tiny body.
The M has a different type of auto-focus, more like video cameras and less like other DSLRs. Many pocket cameras have really slow auto-focus.
I'd wait until some reviewers have had a chance to actually test the production models and see if the AF performance is good enough.
Comment: I think that all but the smallest prime lenses and the new EF-M lenses are going to look silly!
Comment: extreme silliness: http://www.canonrumors.com/2012/07/canon-eos-m-ef-800-f5-6l-is/


Why isn't there a FROST-like cold boot exploit for iOS?

Question: I know there's a cold boot attack for Android called FROST (Forensic Recovery Of Scrambled Phones).  But there doesn't seem to be one for iOs.  Why is this?  Is it because iOS is inherently more secure and more resistant to such attacks?  Or is it simply because no one has bothered to write an exploit for the iPhone because they can get the unencrypted data from the cloud?
Comment: I'm not an iOS guy so I can't be certain but I wonder if it has to do with the Frost attack requiring a hacked bootloader.
Answer: The attack simply does not work on iphones. Main reason being iOS performs key wipe on the RAM, so it is not possible to retrieve any key via cold boot attack. You may find this link useful. Note also that this attack was based quite some time ago on Android 4.0
http://www.slideshare.net/DaiYang/main-29642969


Using Windows Media Player SDK in a commercial software

Question: Does anyone know what license does the Windows Media Player SDK use? I am implementing a video player to commercial software written in Visual Basic and I couldn't find any license information regarding the Windows Media Player SDK. In the program I am using WMPLib and Windows Media Player ActiveX component and was wondering what I need to be able to sell this software. Do I need a license for this?
Answer: It does not offer such a license. You would need to contract Microsoft legal via their website. It is a normal closed product.


Split mesh at a specific point

Question: I'm wondering if it'd be possible to make a script for splitting meshes to simple shapes at a certain point. Split it to prevent vertex A and B to exist in the same object.
Comment: Coul you spend a few more words about what exactly are you trying to achieve? What would the final mesh be in your example?
Comment: The upper part would be one object, the lower second. I need to automate splitting the meshes this way so an application I use (which reads only vertex points) knows what to do. If I put the vertex points as-is, the application would see a cube because it would connect all the vertices to each other.
Comment: Thanks for the clarification. A few more questions: how to recognize where each mesh should be splitted? what if the mesh is a sphere, a torus...? which tasks are you exactly trying to automate?
Comment: It'll be used as a collision mesh. The structure of the collision mesh is structured as shapes. Each shape has few vertices that are interconnected. I need to appropriately split a complex shape to match the collision accurately. Spheres shouldn't be a problem, though toruses could be troublesome. Thankfully it'll be mostly really simple shapes, like a room.
Answer: Nevermind, I did some research and found out 'convex decomposition' is what I want. I ended up using V-HACD Blender addon.

Split mesh at a specific point


USB Win 7 boot disk shows in rEFInd but booting from it loads BootCamp partition instead

Question: I'm having issues with my BootCamp installation of Win 7 Ultimate and want to troubleshoot it using a USB Win 7 boot disk. I created the USB disk in yet another Windows system in Parallels Desktop, using an ISO of my Windows 7 DVD and the USB/DVD Download tool available from Microsoft. When I reboot the computer, the drive shows up in rEFInd, but if I try to boot from it it just loads my problematic Windows installation (with Boot Camp as the C: drive). Any ideas what I should try next?
Comment: Try bypassing rEFInd by holding alt down instead, and selecting the disk.
Comment: It doesn't show up at all if I do that. The question is now answered, and separately I solved the issues with Windows 7.
Answer: You have not provided enough information to precisely answer your question. Therefore, I will try to cover all the bases. Older Macs can not boot the Windows installer from a USB port. Generally if your Mac was shipped with an optical drive, then your Mac is one of the older models. Another way to tell, would be to try and create the USB installer using the Boot Camp Assistant application. If you can not, then the application knows you have such a model. You may read, elsewhere, that it is possible to edit a info.plist file to fool the Boot Camp Assistant into allowing you to create the USB Windows installer. Just because you can succeed, does not automatically mean your Mac will be able to boot from USB drive.
Again, just because rEFInd detects your USB Windows installer, does not mean your Mac can boot from the device. The tool rEFInd is a boot manager, not a boot loader. It can only override the default boot partition or device setting. The Mac firmware still preforms the operation of booting from a particular partition or device.
I believe the Windows USB installer created, using the  tools provided by Microsoft, produces a installer that will not work on any Mac. I believe this to be true, regardless of the year the Mac was made. Also, for the newer Macs, the "Boot Camp Support Software" is suppose to be transferred to the USB drive before installing Windows. The allows the Windows installer the choice of substituting software, such as drivers provided by Apple and other venders, during the installation process.
As for where to go next? This depends on the model/year of your Mac and the version of OS X you have installed.
Comment: Although my iMac 9,1 is an older Mac, I *believe* I initially installed Windows 7 using a USB disk. I might be wrong. I will try using the plist editing trick next time I have problems (I managed to solve the issues from within the installed Windows OS). Great answer, thank you.


what should be done to chametz on a shabbat day

Question: If one failed to search for chametz on 14 nissan, one has the obligation to search the next day. And again, if one failed, one has to search, even on the festival itself and during pesach (from our heritage eliyahu kitov ). Knowing that this year, our pesach begins on Friday night, if one failed to search on Thursday night and all of Friday, should one search and burn the chametz on Shabbat?
Comment: http://esl.about.com/od/englishgrammar/a/a_punctuation.htm
Comment: Burn chomets on shabbos ! never!
Comment: Regarding this year, which Shabbat are you asking about? Is this in Israel or America? There are three possible cases you are asking about. VTC as unclear.
Comment: I hope you have seen the calendar that our pesach coincide with shabbat if its wrong than ypu may refer to chabad calendar
Comment: If they sold all their Chametz to a non-Jew then it might be forbidden to destroy the non-Jew's property http://hebrewbooks.org/pdfpager.aspx?req=20026&st=&pgnum=208
Answer: This can be similar to the situation of Pesach 5765, in which Erev Pesach was Shabbos and there was chometz (such as the rolls for lechem mishna) that could not have been destroyed on Friday. The chometz is muktzah and must be covered until after Shabbos and then burned. Note that moving it or covering it are subject to the rules of muktzah which is not the subject of this question. This is also the situation in which one finds chometz during a regular Pesach during any time that biur is forbidden (such as Yom Tov).
There are actually those who say that this depends on the contract that one used to sell the chametz before Pesach. I will summarize that situation after the initial quote.
797. Finding Chometz on Pesach

HaShoneh Halachos emails include two halachos per day, seven days a
  week (emails for Shabbos and Yom Tov are sent in advance). Material is
  based upon the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, with occasional elucidation from
  the Mishnah Brurah abd other sources. The text is not a direct
  translation but a paraphrase into easy-to-read, conversational
  English.
111:17 If one found chometz on yom tov, on Shabbos of chol hamoed, or on
  Shabbos that is erev Pesach – on any of which he would not be
  permitted to handle the chometz because it is muktzeh – he should
  cover it with a vessel until after yom tov or Shabbos, then burn it.
  If it was found on the last days of yom tov so that after yom tov,
  Pesach will be over, he burns it without a bracha, even if it is more
  than a k'zayis.

There are those who say that the chametz can be put in with the Chametz that had previously been sold and the chatzer would be koneh it. Others say the chatzer would not be koneh it and it must be destroyed. There are those who say that the contract to sell the chametz would have included the chametz that was found, and as such it belongs to the non-Jew to whom all the chametz in the house was sold. As a result, it cannot be destroyed as that would be theft from the non-Jew. Others say it can be destroyed as the non-Jew would not be makpid on its destruction and the Jew would be purchasing the entire chametz (including what had been destroyed) back at the original price.
In any case, it must be handled in accord with the laws of muktzah and covered until after Shabbos or Yom Tov. If necessary it can be kicked into a corner with a shinui before being covered.
Chametz Found on Pesach

Q:  Last year someone discovered chametz in his house on Pesach. He
  asked whether he should put it away with the rest of the chametz that
  he sold to the gentile so the gentile would acquire it, or must he
  destroy it?
A: The method of acquisition that you describe is called kinyan
  chatzer and involves one's property acquiring possessions on his
  behalf. There is a debate regarding the efficacy of a kinyan chatzer
  for a gentile. The mechanism of this proprietary act is that one's
  property works as his agent and the halachic principle of agency does
  not exist for a gentile (see Ketzos 194:3 and Nesivos, introduction to
  200). In this circumstance, when one discovers chametz after it is
  prohibited, it is not possible to sell it, and declaring it ownerless
  or throwing it in the trash would not be effective. The chametz must
  be destroyed (O.C. 446:1), and preferably it should be burned (M.B.
  445:6).
The truth is, however, that nowadays, even though the chametz was not
  placed where the chametz that was sold to the gentile is stored, it
  was, nevertheless, sold, and belongs to the gentile. The reason is
  that the contract that one signs to sell his chametz to the gentile
  includes even chametz that is not stored in the designated area.
  Therefore, the chametz that is found should be placed where the rest
  of the sold chametz is stored (since it is prohibited to leave the
  chametz in an area not rented to the gentile out of concern that one
  will inadvertently eat it — O.C. 440:2). On Yom Tov, when chametz is
  muktzeh, it should be pushed into that area in an unusual manner.
Moreover there are authorities (Mikra'ei Kodesh, Pesach 1:74) who
  write that nowadays when people sell all of their chametz it is
  prohibited to take the forgotten chametz to burn it. The reason is
  that if one were to physically take the chametz to burn it he would
  actively violate the prohibition against owning chametz, because he
  thus becomes a thief and is responsible to return the chametz to the
  gentile who purchased it (see Magen Avraham 586:5, which states that
  one who steals chametz from a gentile is responsible for it and it is
  considered his chametz by virtue of that responsibility). Although his
  intent is not to steal in order to assume ownership, nevertheless,
  even taking another's possession with the intent to destroy it is
  categorized as theft (B.K. 98a).
Others contend that although it would seem that one may not destroy
  the chametz, since it belongs to the gentile, he is permitted to burn
  it. Although the sale of the chametz is certainly valid and binding
  and one may not cancel that sale, nevertheless the gentile's intent
  when purchasing the chametz is to assist the Jews who plan to
  repurchase it. Whatever money the gentile spent to purchase the
  chametz will be refunded after Pesach when he resells it to the Jews;
  if a piece of chametz is burned, it will not affect that sale. Since
  the gentile is not particular whether a piece is burned or not, it is
  not considered theft for a Jew who finds it to take it to burn.
  Therefore, according to this opinion, someone who does not want to
  rely on the sale of chametz for actual chametz may burn chametz that
  he finds on Pesach (Shevet Halevi 9:116; Kisei Mishpat 187).
Comment: What do you mean its muktze but to put aside and cover how do you expalin this and can you please provide the source of this
Comment: @Yamin There are halachos of muktzah that discuss when something that is muktzah can be moved and put in some placed that it does not interfere with other items and other cases when it must be covered in place. I will change the posting to be a little clearer.


Flash CS6 How to create 3D extruded text?

Question: Anyone know of some tutorials or walk-throughs on how to animate 3D rotated/transformed text in Flash Professional CS6?
I cant seem to find any. (Googled)
I am trying to make an animation of some extruded rotating text.
Comment: Are you willing to use/try Actionscript snippets? Or do you only want to do it in the Flash IDE?
Comment: @poepje, I am very keen to try Action-script snippets. :)
Answer: Use Illustrator
Effect > 3D > Extrude and Bevel
Then you can mess with the settings in there.
Make sure you try out the text with and without a stroke as that will effect its appearance.
You can also try this out in After Effects - which has a lot more features. But it is not as easy to set up.

Here is a tutorial:
http://designinstruct.com/graphic-design/text-effects/a-guide-to-creating-3d-text-in-adobe-illustrator/
Comment: This does not help with animating the text in Flash though does it? As the text can only be imported into Flash in 2D?
Comment: @Ezra You can import that as movie file mov.
Comment: But u can't manipulate the mov file as 3d text can u?
Answer: You can use actionscript. However you would find it far more easy doing this in an external program and importing that inside Flash.

You can make a text rotate animation in Adobe After effects & import
  that inside a movie clip in your flash project.
Answer: In ActionScript, the basics of doing this is quite simple. There are three versions of AS, you'd do best to use AS3 (common abbreviation of Actionscript 3) if you're going to learn it from scratch anyway.
As for AS3, make sure your .fla file is in AS3 format. You choose this when creating the file. Then, to add the AS3 code, you can either put this in an external .as file, or in the 'action panel' within the .fla file. For the sake of ease, if you don't know how external .as files work, I'd go with the second option.
You start by giving the text or image that you want to rotate an instance name. Select the text, then in the Properties tab (somewhere in a sidebar probably, depends on your Flash UI layout), fill in an instance name. It can be anything, but always try to avoid standard things like 'text', since this is already an AS3 predefined type. You could use myText or texty for example.
Then select the frame where you want the code to run. When selected, press F9. The actions panel will open up, here you can put the AS3 code. Frames with AS code in them show a little 'a' in the timeline.

For rotation, there are four methods that you can use.

rotation
rotationX
rotationY
rotationZ

X, Y and Z are the three axes/dimensions that you can rotate an object along to. As far as I know, rotation and rotationZ are the same. To avoid confusion, you'd do best to use rotationZ instead of rotation.

All you have to do to make the text/img rotate, simply put myText.rotationZ = 100; in the actions panel (where myText is the instance name and 100 is the amount of degrees the text rotates).
If you want the text to tween between two rotation points, you can do this in the timeline (select every frame between two or more keyframes, then right click > classic tween) or with the Tween class. For the latter, you might want to learn the basics of AS3 first, since this is a bit more complicated.


How are synthesizers used in music production?

Question: If you record sounds from your synthesizer into a DAW then aren't you just recording the audio? Wouldn't it be better to record midi information so that you can then fix any mistakes when you record. And if that's the case, are synthesizers ever used in music production or is it pretty much all usb based keyboard midi controllers?
Comment: MIDI cotrollers don't produce sounds per se themselves. They produce the propensity to let any sound chosen to make that sound - starting whenever, lasting for as long as told, decaying as instructed, etc. So the synth becomes whatever instrument is  chosen for MIDI to command. or have I missed something?
Comment: Your question seems to imply that you think that you can't send MIDI information to synthesizers?
Comment: @topomorto basically the question stems from if I should get an m-audio midi controller vs roland juno synthesizer, as an example. if the plan is for music production then why get a synth if I won't record it's sounds. my impression is that people use keyboards to record midi not audio.
Comment: @foreyez it's true that it's pointless to get a synth *if* you don't want it's inbuilt sounds. But if you get a synth whose sounds you do like, you can record them, and you can control them by MIDI just as you would a built-in software synth. The possible impediment to using a synth controlled by MIDI with a DAW is how to mix the sounds together, but you can control a hardware synth with MIDI just as you can control a software synth.
Answer: You can produce music without a DAW, and synthesizers don't have to be played live by a human player. There's this thing called MIDI, introduced in 1982. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIDI With MIDI, devices can send instructions like note-on/note-off to each other, effectively playing the other device. A device called sequencer can play a synthesizer by sending MIDI messages. How the sequencer gets its sequence can vary a lot. The sequence data can be recorded from a live performance or it can be "programmed" in various ways.
Back in the day, before the advent of integrated "digital audio workstations" that have MIDI sequencing and audio recording in the same package, sequencers were used for playing synthesizers, and the result was either re-played all the time until it was committed to multi-track tape, or sometimes in smaller productions up until a final mix straight to two-track. Analog or digital. If a multi-track was used, the MIDI sequencer and the tape were synchronized using an analog sync pulse recorded on one track, so the MIDI sequencer would play the synths in time with the rest of the production, as if it was a very accurate musician obeying all play/stop/ffd/rew commands. Before the synth parts were committed to tape, the MIDI data was editable in the sequencer.
The signal path in a no-DAW separate sequencer, synths and tape setup could have been for example:
tape (sync pulse) --> sync in --> sequencer --> MIDI OUT --> synth --> mixer --> tape
The sequencer does not have to be a computer program. There are stand-alone hardware sequencers that can sync to external sync pulse coming from tape.
Even today with DAWs, all the same logical components are there, so you can let a sequencer play external hardware synths via MIDI OUT together with the multitrack audio. And you can commit the synths' audio output to tape or "tape" when you feel like it.
In an external hardware synth setup the devices could be connected for example like this:
sequencer (inside the DAW) --> MIDI OUT --> synthesizer --> audio interface --> mixer (inside the DAW) --> tape (inside the DAW)
In a purely inside-the-box setup the devices are like this:
sequencer (inside the DAW) --> MIDI events (inside the DAW) --> synthesizer (inside the DAW) --> mixer (inside the DAW) --> tape (inside the DAW)
To answer your specific questions:

If you record sounds from your synthesizer into a DAW then aren't you
  just recording the audio?

Yes. But what is playing the synthesizer? You or a sequencer? If it's you, playing a MIDI keyboard, you could still record the MIDI data along with the audio. And you could mic your keyboard to record the mechanical noises, and you could record a video of your playing as well. Several tracks of different types of data recorded in one go at the same time.

Wouldn't it be better to record midi information so that you can then
  fix any mistakes when you record.

It might be better, depending on what you want. If you know there's no "we'll fix it later", you'll have to play better, and it will affect your performance. On the other hand, why record anything at all? You could just as well clickety-click all the correct MIDI events in the sequencer, or have the data generated by a computer.

And if that's the case, are synthesizers ever used in music production
  or is it pretty much all usb based keyboard midi controllers?

Synthesizers are used in music production. For example, I like the sound and feeling of Nord's Hammond emulations much more than anything available in the software plugin world, so I play my Hammond parts live, just like I play actual guitars if I want a genuine guitar sound.
Comment: that's a good point that I could record midi information in addition to the audio, I wasn't aware of that capability. maybe that way I could get some kind of notes for bass or pad along with the sound that I get from the synth.
Comment: "all play/stop/ffd/rew"… only once we had SMPTE code capability, much later. Before that it was always "from the top" using FSK :\ Even by 84, most synths didn't yet have MIDI [I even had a prototype DX7 at one time without MIDI] & we didn't really get 'usable' MIDI sequencers until 85 - Notator/Pro 24 etc] CV/Gate was always a total PITA to use ;)
Comment: @Tetsujin Thanks for the historical perspective. :) I wanted to describe a situation where basically all of a modern DAW's components and abilities are present, but as separate hardware components. I started doing sequencing more seriously with Cakewalk 2.0 for DOS, Roland MPU-401 and that sort of stuff, and I think by that time all of the sync facilities already existed. I'm not 100% sure but I think I used a Fostex multitrack tape machine that was able to follow commands and rewind when told to. At least that's the general idea and you could think that the same components are there in a DAW.
Comment: I could chew the fat on this all day ;)) Basically my 'music career with synths' started around 1979/80, pre MIDI, pre-Linn drum… pre a lot of things, so I saw them all arrive one after the other until we had 'useable' sequencing by about 85, & during which time I had my Rhodes Chroma retro-fitted for MIDI -  starting with Pro 24 on Atari [later to become Cubase] though even that relied on FSK initially. SMPTE required an extra hardware box which came later. From the release of the DX7 onwards, pretty much everything then came with MIDI.
Answer:
If you record sounds from your synthesizer into a DAW then aren't you just recording the audio?

Yes.

Wouldn't it be better to record midi information

Only if you can get exactly the sound you want from your MIDI chain.

are synthesizers ever used in music production

yes. Jean-Michel Jarre uses analog synthesizers to achieve effects that may be difficult to replicate in the digital realm. He even does this on tour, despite the problems of keeping a 30 year-old piece of analog electronics running reliably.
Answer: The other answers address the rest of your questions, but I just wanted to reply to

are synthesizers ever used in music production

by suggesting that you listen to the incredibly inventive work of Brian Eno.
You can start with his first solo album and just keep going chronologically, and he's also great in the short-lived supergroup "801" which yielded this classic album 801 Live
(After his art/prog rock beginnings with Roxy Music he also became a go-to producer, helping make albums with Bowie, Talking Heads, Devo and more. He's one of the most influential names in ambient music.)
Comment: Ironically, BBC Radio 2 just had a program last night about Giorgio Moroder, who they reckoned was the first person to do a fully-synth pop record. Although before that, anyone into synths should be looking at the work of Delia Derbyshire and Daphne Oram in the 60s, who were *way* ahead of Eno.
Comment: @Graham - Thumbs up for Moroder - Son of my Father, Chicory Tip [though I'm not certain Popcorn wasn't before that, but we can ignore that for just being so irritating ;-)) & let's not forget I Feel Love, Donna Summer, though much later, 77 iirc Though you can't ignore Wendy Carlos's early influence either.


What is the difference between pipe section, hot-finished, and cold formed circular hollow section?

Question: I was reading a steel catalog and saw that it categorizes steel sections separately into pipe section, hot-finished circular hollow section, and cold formed circular hollow section. Given the same design strength, for example S355, is there any fundamental differences when designing a section of say, 610mm depth and 10mm thickness, using steel material from these three categorizations?
Answer: The geometrical tolerances are usually smaller for cold-formed sections.
The material properties and also be different. For example the final grain structure of the metal will be different, and cold-formed sections usually have higher residual stresses than hot-formed.
Surface finishes like galvanizing can only be done "hot."
This contains quite a lot of relevant material (too much to summarize here): http://www.condesa.com/pdf/en/TUBO_ESTRUCTURAL_CASTV3.pdf
Without more context, one difference between "pipe sections" and "circular hollow sections," could be their intended use. A pipe would typically be used to contain a fluid, and therefore would be have a specification for maximum internal pressure, and tested against leaks. A "hollow section" is just a structural component.
"Pipes" usually have circular sections since that is the most efficient use of material to resist internal pressure, but "hollow sections" can also have other shapes such as elliptical, rectangular, etc.
Comment: The difference between pipe and "circular hollow" may be one of structural usage. Hollow sections are sold as pipe when intended, rated, and tested for fluid transport. Other hollow components, not intended for fluid transport, are often called tube. Perhaps in this instance "hollow section" is used to offset it from pipe in the same fashion. My assumption would be pipe for fluids, "hollow section" for construction. Tube and pipe may have the same mechanical properties, but pipe is (should be) guaranteed not to leak, while tube is not guaranteed making it less costly.
Comment: @starrise Thanks - I've edited your comment into my answer.


iPhone Caching Issue

Question: Okay, here is what I am experiencing. I am building a mobile app with HTML/CSS/JS, and testing it mostly on iPhone before porting to app store with phonegap. But, I am having caching problems when I go into the app (I've added it to my iPhone with the "Add to home screen" feature). It doesn't show the last saved updates immediately like it does when I refresh in the browser. The one thing I am noticing though, is it seems to cache for about an hour or so, and then update. So I'm wondering, does Apple set the cache to save and update on a time schedule, and if so can I disable that? I would prefer to just disable cache while developing. Thanks!
Answer: Have you tried clearing Safari manually
Settings -> Safari
Then select Clear Cookies and Data
Then in that same settings panel, at the bottom select Advanced -> Website Data and delete the appropriate data.
In your HTML, disable cache might work?
http://www.i18nguy.com/markup/metatags.html

iPhone Caching Issue


Composing two one-way functions such that the result is not a one-way function

Question: Is it possible to have two distinct one-way functions (called, say, $h$ and $g$) such that their composition $h \circ g = [\, x \mapsto h(g(x)) \,]$ is not one-way?
Comment: @ebad Is traditional function composition (introduced in Ilmari's edit) what you were looking for or can the composition operation be something different?
Comment: You mean "two", right?
Comment: if this was possible, wouldn't the one way function be broken since it's not ONE WAY. also isn't this kind of Asymmetric cryptography?
Comment: There are many properties of a one-way function. Can you break any with the composition to satisfy the requirements, or is there a specific property (e.g., one-wayness) that must be broken?
Comment: BTW, see [this](http://cs.stackexchange.com/q/7076)
Comment: dear mikeazo suppose we have two functions such as $h$ and  $g$ with tow condtions.$\new$ first : they have to be one-way and the second :they have to be distinct $\\$
Answer: The function $f$ introduced by Maeher in this answer to a related question should also do the job here (as both $g$ and $h$).  For convenience, let me quote that answer here:

Assume that a one-way function $h$ exists where in- and output length are the same. We call this length $n/2$. I.e. we have a one-way function $$h : \{0,1\}^{n/2} \to \{0,1\}^{n/2}.$$
From this function, we now construct a new function
$$f : \{0,1\}^{n} \to \{0,1\}^{n}$$ as follows:
$$f(x_1\Vert x_2) = 0^{n/2}\Vert h(x_1),$$
where $|x_1|=|x_2|=n/2$.

As shown in Maeher's answer, $f$ is one-way if $h$ is.  However, $f(f(x)) = 0^{n/2}\Vert h(0^{n/2})$ is constant, independently of $x$ (except for its length $n$), and thus finding pre-images is trivial.
Comment: Ps. If you really must have two *distinct* one-way functions, you could always, say, use $1^{n/2}$ instead of $0^{n/2}$ for one of them.
Answer: Ilmari's answer is incorrect.
$f(f(x))$ is not equal to $0^{n/2}\| h(0^{n/2})$. Instead it equals $0^{n/2}\| h(h(x))$ which is not necessarily easy to invert. In particular, if $h \circ h$ is also one-way then $f \circ f$ would also be one way.
Comment: If this answer is incorrect I would remove or rewrite it. The normal way of disapproving is to downvote. But I admire your guts, I would not trust myself to go against Ilmari when it comes to equations ;)
Comment: Sorry, the answer is actually correct since $h$ is applied to $x_1$ and not $x_2$. My bad.


tx and rx model supporting all data rates

Question: i am trying to build complete tx and rx path which can support varies data rates. for example if my data rate have to support from 10 kbps to 1000 kbps.
Can i keep the baseband processing fixed for all the data rates same. what i mean is using a CIC filter in tx and rx which always results in processing
4 samples/symbol. or should i use a resampler in the timing recovery which will result in the desired rate?
Comment: There are so many considerations to this Mark and many ways to approach it, notably the bandwidth of your channel, your SNR and path loss model and how complex you want to make your receiver. If you want to keep your receiver identical, then you can in simplest form just repeat bits to send at the lower rate. You will be better making use of data encoding for the lower rates and achieve higher SNR performance at the trade of receiver complexity. You can also change your modulation pattern for different rates.
Comment: @Dan  Ignoring SNR , bandwidth, and keeping the modulation fixed which method is better CIC or resampler? or is there any better method?
Comment: CIC is a resampler. Is your question specific to approaches to resampling? Data rates aren't typically changed by resampling in any event - the data rate sampling is determined in the timing recovery of the receiver regardless of the sampling rate on the waveform. With lower symbol rates, you can resample the waveform to lower sampling rates, typically 2 samples per symbol or more,  if that is what you are referring to?
Comment: @Dan Probalby I should explain my issue with an example. Assuming 16 Msps sampling rate , If my symbol rate is 1 Mbps then i can  downsample from 16 to 4 mbps so that my samples/symbol is 4. If my symbol rate is 10kbps then i can downsample from 16 Mbps to 40 kbps(400 times) so that my samples/symbol is 4. In this way i can maintain 4 samples/symbol for all data rates just by changing the CIC ratio.Is this the right way to change the CIC ratio or keeping the CIC ratio constant should i resample it in the timing recovery block so that the model can support all data rates?
Answer: In general terms, it is usually advantageous to down-sample to the lowest sampling rate wherever possible- all things being equal it would be better to reduce to a lower sampling rate earlier in the receiver processing - for purposes of reducing resources required, power dissipation, etc.
The OP is using both a CIC and timing recovery block where the opportunity to change the symbol rate can be done in either location (for example to 4 samples per symbol in any case). Here the preferred approach would likely be in the CIC, to the extent that all subsequent blocks can run more efficiently, with the same performance metrics, at the lower sampling rate. If any such block would require or be improved with a higher sampling rate, then resampling further downstream would be preferred. This would be clear in the detailed implementation and specific to that. Also note that a CIC introduces a passband droop that may need to be compensated for. This can be easily implemented with a 3 tap FIR filter as I have demonstrated at this post.
how to make CIC compensation filter


What are comments underneath answers for?

Question: This is to try to explain why some comments (posted underneath answers) are permitted, while others are not; and why some "discussions" or "debates" are permitted, and others are not.
Answer: Comments are difficult. Comments can help clarify an answer (which is good); but long discussions distract from the answers; and criticisms can become impolite and controversial (which is bad).

Comments are officially described in the Help Center topic Comment Everywhere -- which
includes subjects like, "When should I comment?", and, "When shouldn't I comment?".
There's also A guide to moderating comments -- which is more detailed, and which explains how Stack Exchange thinks comments ought to be moderated.

Stack Exchange permits comments but doesn't encourage them. Commenting is a privilege (for experienced users). Comments can be troublesome for moderators (and require moderation).

Several types of comment
I think there are several types of comment, i.e. questions, suggestions, criticism, etc.
And I think that the best (i.e. the politest, most constructive, most inoffensive) form of comment are "questions" and "suggestions" -- usually better than "criticism".
Questions -- a question is a comment like:

I didn't understand X?
What did you mean when you wrote Y?
Can you give a reference for that quote?

The proper response to a question might be:

Post a comment to answer the question
Or (especially if the answer is long), edit the answer to answer the question
Or just ignore the question (don't answer it)

Suggestions -- a suggestion is a comment like:

I think this answer would be improved if you explained X

The proper response to a suggestion might be:

Edit the answer to include the suggestions
Or just ignore the suggestion

Criticism -- a criticism is a comment like:

I think this answer is wrong because X
I think this doesn't answer the OP's question which was about Y

The proper response to a criticism might be:

Edit the answer to improve it
Or just ignore the criticism

Note that the Help Center says,

"Leave constructive criticism that guides the author in improving the post"

A comment like "You're wrong as usual" is obviously not "constructive"; and it's not about the post either (instead it's a comment about the person, which you probably never should).
Thanks, and Chat -- these are comments like, "Great answer!", and, "That reminds me of X!".

How to respond to a comment
If someone posts a comment under your answer:

You may want to edit your answer to address the comment
You're not required to edit your answer1, and you may ignore the comment
Maybe you should ignore the comment, unless you can see how to use the comment to improve your answer
You may flag the comment as unwanted (e.g. "rude", "obsolete", or something else) for a moderator to delete

1 (except, very rarely, if the comment is phrased as a command by a moderator)

Several types of discussion

"Discussion" -- you can discuss a comment (by posting another comment in reply)
"Extended discussion" -- a discussion is on-topic (and might be seen as a helpful addition to an answer) if it's talking about the answer to the question; but discussion is "off-topic" or "extended" if it's talking about something else that's not directly related to the answer and the OP's question.
Some "Extended" discussion is tolerated (it's even welcome, if it's useful and is being enjoyed by all participants) but may be moved to a chat room.
Please remember that the main purpose of Stack Exchange is to answer the OP's question. If your discussion or argument isn't interesting to the original question, and interesting to the OP who asked the original question, you probably shouldn't be posting such comments.
"Arguments" -- comments such as, "you're wrong!"2, and so on aren't really welcome or useful. If you only "argue", rather than "discuss" or "question", then it's probably better to stop posting.

2see also Can you keep "you" out of hostile comments? for example

How to post criticism
IMO the best (i.e. the politest, most constructive, most inoffensive) form of comment are "questions" and "suggestions" -- usually better than "criticism".
But a permitted form of criticism or argument is like this -- i.e. very short:

Someone posts an answer
You post one comment as criticism, which says "I think this answer is wrong for reason X"
The person who wrote the answer may (or may not) post a reply to your comment
You don't post again (in reply to their comment) -- because that would be an argument, and you already said what you thought was necessary (about the answer) in your first comment
N.B. that (because you don't reply to the comment) the author of the answer is allowed to have the "last word". If you want to have the last word, then post a separate answer of your own.

I haven't mentioned that any comment and all discussion should try to be polite -- I hope that goes without saying. If you feel you should criticise an answer, I draw a line between criticising the answer (on-topic, permitted, but in small doses only like a single comment) and criticising the person (which is usually off-topic, and may be offensive even small doses).
Comment: @Bonn Unfortunately I don't understand what the two of you were arguing about, so I can't really help to clarify that, nor take one side or the other. I posted an answer of my own and that's all I have on that topic.I thought the two of you weren't having a good discussion (friendly, helpful, informative, cooperating to help clarify an answer), and I want to (at a minimum) give you permission to not have that kind of discussion (e.g. by ignoring a comment instead of engaging in any unfriendly discussion).
Comment: @Bonn Yes it often seems as if he's sure he's right. If he posts a comment, he's not asking a question, he already thinks he knows the answer, and (unless you want to ask about and better understand what he's thinking) there's therefore maybe little benefit in discussing the comment with him -- you won't be able to tell him anything he doesn't think he knows already. So, if you find his comment helps you to improve your answer, then go ahead and improve your answer; and otherwise maybe ignore the comment (or flag the comment) instead of trying to discuss it.
Comment: `he shouldn't reply on my answer` Yes I eventually moved all the comments under your answer, to a chat room. They didn't seem to be adding much value to the original answer.
Comment: Very useful answer. Thank you Chris.
Comment: How can I describe to this, because I answer it all, but he didn't read >> No. This is unrelated to what i posted. Just because there is external kaya does not mean 'sakkaya ditthi' refers to external kaya. 'Sakkaya' is not found in MN 10 therefore your idea sounds very wrong & mistaken
Comment: What  you will do when you showing the same structure to someone, then he said it is not the same without any description like that, such as I showed him Mn 10 sacca-pabba and  SN sakkāyasutta with use the same structure?
Comment: Do you know, when he comment on my question, he show himself like "I know. I can understand everything what you say". But when I answer in pali or something new for him, he ignore it, and never try to understand everything which new for him.
Comment: I never act like that, when he told me what is new for me. I try to learn and prove it. When he doubt me and ask I open his source in pali, thai, english, roman, to answer him.
Comment: But when I reply to his answer, he just read through my reply. It is not fair. I have to recite&contemplate&search&compare before I will reply his comment on my answer. I use a day to a week per answer, then he distort it like a child without proving in pali.
Comment: It is not the first case, he always do not read my reference, which is sutta, carefully, such as the last one >> On DW, someone told you sakkaya is not kayanupassana because sakkaya is dhammanupassana, – Dhammadhatu 11 hours ago
Comment: But I wrote:  "Sutta. Ma. Mū. **Sacca-pabba** of Satipaṭṭhānasuttaṃ". So, he often reply through, but he never prove the reply back reference carefully in pali.
Comment: So, I wrote: "Also, you can debate me. So if you can do, why I can not act like you?", because if he can reply me a low quality comment, why I can act like him?
Comment: It is fine, if the commentator prove the reply back carefully. But he is not.
Comment: He made  unfriendly discussion to me first, such as He ask me a description of my reply, then I give him links to compare but he never compare those links in detail. Then he just say "it is not the same", like a child who close his eyes to prove the truth. If he don't want to know, he shouldn't asked. I take a day to answer, he take a minute to ask a irrelative reply, then close his eyes and eyes. It doesn't fair.
Comment: And I do follow you. I wrote what I disagree with him on my own answer. But he still not. He come on my answer and wrote a irrelative reply, then close his eyes to prove what I reply back, **before me**. If he can't try to prove my reply-back as what I wrote, **he shouldn't reply on my answer. He waste my time.**
Comment: @ChrisW I will do follow you. I will write "I answered above". However, I should not report him, because his answer is general of the westerner, so it looks the reporter is idiot for the general western administrator.  The practitioner never act like him. **I.e. I already thinks I knows the answer, but I still try to prove his reply on my answer as it is, because I have to be mindful that I could be wrong**. We open our mind to get&give the best advantage to the world. I listen you, you listen me, to make the best to the world. So why he often told me like I am not practice myself in dhamma.


Do we need a tag for each punctuation mark?

Question: Do we need a tag for each punctuation mark when there is already the tag punctuation?
Answer: At this point, I see no harm in having separate tags also. It seems very few questions have more than two or three tags anyway, and this could help make searches more effective.
Comment: btw, I also don't see any harm, I am just not sure how it would make it more effective
Comment: I don't see any harm either. I think that using a different tag for each punctuation mark is less ideal. If somebody is interested in the use of the comma, and would looks for each question tagged with _comma_, he would miss the answer given for a question tagged with _semicolon_ where it is explained that in a specific case the comma should be used instead of the semicolon. IMO, it's not ideal to tag a question with _comma_ for the fact that one of the answers contains the word _comma_.
Answer: From the use cases point of view, it seems unlikely someone would want a cloud of 'comma' related entries for polishing their skills with commas; or the dreaded colon v. semi-colon learning curve. However, as my poor skills of punctuation may show, I can imagine someone looking to improve their overall knowledge of punctuation and its usage.
As such, it seems to me that by consolidating specific marks in a 'punctuation' tag would be preferable to letting questions about individual marks hang out on the fringe with a useless tag. Obviously synonymizing (sp?) tags is another option, but if it's a black/white choice I find 'punctuation' to be more useful.
Comment: I'm assuming that both `[punctuation]` and any more specific tag would be applied to the same question. Otherwise, yes, that would tend break it up into fringe groups.
Comment: @mmyers: It seems that there are questions using a tag specific for the punctuation mark, but not the tag _punctuation_; see the questions tagged with [comma](http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/comma), for example.
Comment: @kiamlaluno: These things happen. Fortunately, we are free to fix those cases (2 of them currently wrt. `comma`) by adding the missing tag!
Answer: Yes, if the tag is to be any use it is very good to have a tag for "semicolon" so that people can find out what questions have been asked about this and don't repeat the same questions.


Gurggle noise 02 for escape

Question: I have a 2002 ford escape I was driving and heard a gurggling noice very low. No overheating and didn't hear anything when I cut the car off it doesn't stay. Could the be a gasket?
Answer: The vehicle likely has air trapped in the cooling system, perhaps in the heater core in the dashboard. Gurgling results, and can often be heard in the passenger compartment.
You will have to bleed the cooling system to remove the air. I'm not familiar with the cooling system on this vehicle, and can't advise how to do it.

Gurggle noise 02 for escape


Drawback of interest economically

Question: Since Islam is a natural religion, What is the drawback of interset economically. Suppose a bank pays me 10% interset on my original, what is the ugly side of this?
Answer: One of the most apparent drawbacks of interest based economy is that it enables accumulation of money in the hands of few people. Interest also decreases purchasing power of money and causes inflation.
In a healthy economy cash flow needs to match with that of goods and services. See, for example, "Circular flow of income" for a simplified reference model. Goods and services flow from producers to consumers, capital/cash flows from consumers to producers.
Suppose that total cash in an economy is 100$, 10$ out of which belongs to banks (i.e., sum of all financial institutions that operate on interest). Now, assume that banks lend all of their capital with 25% interest. After a one total circular flow, the society (i.e., individuals and companies that have borrowed the money) will need to return 12.5$ (10 + 2.5$) to the banks. After the second round the society will need to return 15.625$; after the 3rd - 19.53125$; after the forth - 24.4140625$; and so on, after 11th round that sum will become 116.4153218$. That's, someone(s) in the society will be in debt (16.4153218$) and go bankrupt because there will be simply not enough money in the economy to pay the debt.
Now the main problem.
Since all the money in the said economy is now property of banks, they will start to abuse their power (as is the case now in the world) by controlling the money flow. The banks will/can divert the cash flow to bubble economies which do not produce any goods or services. As a result total sum of money in real economy decreases and more individuals, companies and even countries go bankrupt (that, of course, will be shown to people as an unforeseen disaster). To "solve" this deficit problem, central banks of governments issue/print new money which are again will be given under interest. Such artificial increase of money supply decreases purchasing power of it and leads to inflation.
Comment: +1: not referenced but Beautiful example used..
Answer: From an 'uneconomic' point of view:

Interest, gambling, insurance and theft are all haraam according to Islam.
When I think about theft myself, and what makes it 'theft', I think of it as an uneven exchange of value.
Interest, gambling and insurance are all uneven exchanges of value, i.e the value you put in is not exactly the value you get out...it might be more or less.

That is why, in my opinion all 4 are classified haraam. The drawback to interest on society would be the same as the drawback to theft.

Drawback of interest economically


Would a Polycom video camera be suitable for astrophotography?

Question: Have Polycom FX video conference camera 1024 x780. Could this be used for astro photography? Just curious for a project. Appreciate input.
Comment: For what it's worth, my first concern would be the resolution.  When you consider that your subjects are basically tiny little specks, a low resolution format would be suboptimal and would greatly limit what you could do with it, especially if it has a wider focal length.
Answer: You can use the camera for high resolution astrophotography of the planets for example, if you also have a telescope and you're willing to take the camera apart.
Some (paid) tutorials can be found here http://www.damianpeach.com/dvd.htm, but you can easily find more info online about the topic. The learning curve is very steep and I'd recommend that you use a specialized camera for this topic as well, some of the cheapest are roughly 100$.
For other types of astrophotography such as landscape astrophotography it's a waste of time to try and use the video conference camera.