Why won't ArcMap 10 snap?

Question: I'm really confused by this. ArcMap will seeminly randomly decide to not allow snapping when editing. Sometimes its only for certain features, sometimes for only parts of the same feature (e.g. one end of a line but not the other, or not along a part of the line). Now its just flat out not letting me snap to anything (yes, snapping is turned on with all options on). Any hints on this one?
Comment: It seems to me that the lack of snapping can be associated with certain MXD files - I just rebooted and still couldn't snap, yet took the same features into a new MXD and the snapping worked.  so there must be features in the original MXD that aren't compatible with snapping, or maybe it is just a bug.
Comment: I get this too. My workaround is to click on a different tool in the editing menu then click back to the tool I was using which seems to bring the snapping environment back to life.
Comment: I've discovered that the feature will snap to other features at the X at the center of the feature. You can move that X by holding down the Shift key while you're using the Edit Tool, where it can snap to vertices or edges.
Comment: Snapping wasn't working when I was editing in an MXD I received from a colleague. I was able to resolve my issue by clicking the drop-down in the Editor Toolbar, selecting Options, opening the General tab, and unchecking Use Classic Snapping.
Answer: There are several steps I use.

Ensure you are Data View NOT in Layout View (thanks MW)
is easiest but don't necessarily try it second.  copy the layer you need to edit, snap to and use for reference (as few as possible) to another document (for editing).
make sure you don't have a definition query.
Comment: +1, excepting ensuring not in Layout View should be first step (easiest to test).
Answer: I discovered that snapping won't work if the layer you're editing is in the Map Document more than once.
Answer: What Brad said (especially make sure you're in data view - focus your data frame or edit in data view rather than layout).
You can also tighten your snapping tolerance.  Under the snapping drop down arrow, select "options".  Change the number value shown in my printscreen below.  Sometimes this works for me.  I've seen instances where this seems to refresh my snapping capability.  Usually, I just don't have my data frame focussed though.
Comment: absolutely this is the solution. re-activate your data frame (even if you are not in layout view). I will try the tolerance test next time it goes away. +1
Answer: I had the same issue, but a friend said that I should use classic snapping to help select the layers I wanted to snap to. The classic snapping was a simple work around to the issue.
Answer: I just usually quit the map I am working on, and then restart it and it typically works again.
What I have noticed is it has trouble when the mxd has too many layers or grouped layers.  I have not checked but I wonder is the cache being to full or needing a purge may help.
Answer: I had this "no snapping" problem, and the eternal blue circle pause when trying to edit.  I had a huge file of contours on my map which were in a different projection than the map.  I got the warning whenever I turned on editing, but I just ignored it.  When I turned off the contours, suddenly snapping and editing worked fine!
Comment: I think that this is a different issue.  Your symptom is ArcMap working hard to figure out all possible things that can be snapped to whereas the question makes no mention of the working indicator being visible.
Comment: Actually this very well could have, at times, been causing the issue being experienced as asked in the original question.  If it seems to be happening pretty randomly, they may be layers, such as contours or roads, stored on a remote server or network drive that could be having connectivity issues.  Layers like this may never snap, or randomly choose not to snap.  Or, there may be too many layers turned on, as PolyGeo alluded to.  Picking and choosing which layers to turn on/off is certainly a viable workaround if network connectivity is causing your snapping issues.
Answer: I was able to resolve this issue by doing the following:
From the Editor Window --> Snapping --> Snapping Window and set the Snapping Environment.  I was able to snap my vertices to the specified layer this way.
Answer: Uncheck "Use classic snapping" in the Editing Options of the Editor Toolbar.  This will allow you to use the Snapping Toolbar
Answer: An MXD that snapped yesterday might not snap today.  That is why I sometimes revert to Classic Snapping.
Mike's simple answer (for which he was chided) provided the best clue for my problem today.  I didn't want to remove occurrences of my line data because the symbology varied.  So, I tried moving the layer I was editing higher in the Table of Contents and classic snapping worked.
Try this to see if the layer you are snapping to is recognized by ArcMap.  Use Classic Snapping.  Then open the Snapping Window to see if that layer is listed.  If not, move it higher in the TOC.
Answer: I had an issue where the editor would not even select a certain point feature. I would have to select it with the "Select Feature" tool and then it could be moved but it would still not snap to the line feature.
Not sure why this worked but I turned on a different point feature and was able to select it with the editor and could snap it. When I went back to the orginial feature I wanted to snap it worked.
Answer: I had the same issue, and the only solution that I found was to only select the specific snap one at a time, for example, only activate "end point snap" and deactivate the others, I hope this works.

Why won't ArcMap 10 snap?


teaching tag: remove?

Question: The teaching tag looks to be a 270 or so questions, all, uniformly, off topic or nonconstructive. Shall we apply the usual mechanism?
Comment: With the homework tag.
Answer: teaching should be burninated, as it seems to just give information about the context in which the question is asked, not about the question itself.
Before burninating the tag, any questions that need to be closed should be closed; it would be very difficult to find the questions that need closing after the tag has ceased to exist.

teaching tag: remove?


Understanding Android: Zygote and DalvikVM

Question: I am trying to understand how Android launches applications. The question is how (and why) does the Zygote fork a new Dalvik VM?  I do not understand why it is not possible to run multiple applications in the same Dalvik VM.
Answer:
Q.  how does zygote exactly fork Dalvik VM?

Short Answer:
The Zygote process cold boots a Java VM on system start up. It then listens to a socket for incoming commands. Other processes (e.g. ActivityManagerService) write commands to this socket whenever a new process is needed for an application. These commands are read by the Zygote process which calls fork() as necessary. Child processes get a pre-warmed VM in which to run. This is how Zygote forks the Dalvik VM.
Long answer: After the kernel is loaded, init.rc is parsed and native services are started. Then /system/bin/app_process) is run. This eventually calls AndroidRuntime.start(), passing it the parameters com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit and start-system-server.
The AndroidRuntime.start() starts a Java VM then calls ZygoteInit.main(), passing it the parameter start-system-server.
ZygoteInit.main() registers the Zygote socket (which the Zygote process listens to for incoming commands, and on receiving new command, spawns a new process as requested). It then preloads a lot of classes (as listed in frameworks/base/preloaded-classes, over 4500 in Android 8.0) and all the system-wide resources like drawables, xmls, etc. Then it calls startSystemServer() which forks a new process for com.android.server.SystemServer. This fork is special and is not done in the same manner as the usual forks the Zygote performs on behalf of requesting processes.
After SystemServer is forked the runSelectLoopMode() function is called. This is a while(true) loop which establishes a ZygoteConnection with the Zygote socket and waits for commands on it. When a command is received, ZygoteConnection.runOnce() is called.
ZygoteConnection.runOnce() then calls Zygote.forkAndSpecialize() which then calls a native function to do the actual fork. Thus, like in the case of SystemServer, a child process is created which inherits a pre-warmed Dalvik VM for itself.

Q. why it is not possible to run multiple applications in the same
  Dalvik VM?

This is a design decision as far as I know. The Android guys just decided to fork a new VM per process for security via sandboxing.
Comment: About "Q. why it is not possible to run multiple applications in the same Dalvik VM?" Dosn't this exact thing happen when you ask for components to run in a same process with android:process="" Also this can be done by using android:sharedUserId=""
Comment: "AndroidRuntime.start() starts the Java VM" didn't you mean `Dalvik VM`?
Answer:
No. Dalvik doesn't span processes.
However, the Binder IPC mechanism can do a very convincing job of making objects appear to migrate to a different process and its Dalvik instance. Also, the memory management is very good about sharing read-only pages across all processes that need them. The Dalvik process hosting a typical app is forked off of zygote with all the common android libraries already mapped, so new unique copies don't have to be opened.

Source: Do apps using multiple processes share a Dalvik instance?
Also check these links:
http://davidehringer.com/software/android/The_Dalvik_Virtual_Machine.pdf
http://commonsware.com/blog/Articles/what-is-dalvik.html
Answer: Zygote is also used to share the system drawables with all the apps.
This allows the system to load the bitmaps for buttons only once for
instance.
Comment: That cuts both ways: Zygote loads a down level version of OpenSSL. An app that expects to load *its* version of OpenSSL is often stuck with the down level version because Zygote already loaded it before the fork. That includes FIPS Capable versions of OpenSSL, where the app is trying to use validated cryptography.
Answer: Just to add one more point to answers above when zygote does a fork on receiving a command it uses copy-on-write technique. Memory is copied only when the new process tries to modify it.
Also the core libraries that zygote  loads on startup are read only and cannot be modified. So they are not copied over but shared with new forked processes.
All of these led to quick startup and less memory footprint.
Answer: Zygote isn't really bound up with Dalvik, it's just an init process. Zygote is the method Android uses to start apps. Rather than having to start each new process from scratch, loading the whole system and the Android framework afresh each time you want to start an app, it does that process once, and then stops at that point, before Zygote has done anything app-specific. Then, when you want to start an app, the Zygote process forks, and the child process continues where it left off, loading the app itself into the VM.


Film Predubs: real or virtual?

Question: So when you are predubbing do you/your re-recording mixer print stems & replay those in the final mix, or do you just write automation and all the original edit tracks runs live?
If you could qualify your answer with the type of mixing desk being used, and what the impact of conforming has on your approach that would also be valuable.....
Answer: I have always printed stems with all the panning and relative levels and print those down into various types multi-channel stems based on the content type. I also try to keep harmonically similar content on different stems as well that way there are less EQ changes needed during the re-recording stage.
I believe the only reason I've been able to get away with the panning is because I have always been the re-recording mixer on the projects I have worked on as well.
All the mixing was generally done "in the box" with Pro Tools since I've always used a D-Control or nothing at all since I reached a stage where I was mixing.
If you have any more specific questions I'd be more than happy to answer.
Answer: Generally I think everything has to fit the individual project and if that means no predub at all or what ever, than I would try to go that way. But in the last couple of years I had a strong tendency in regards to recording predubs.
So normally I try to print dialogue and foley predubs. Though lately I also tried keeping foleys virtual which worked pretty well and makes the M&E process easier.
The reason for me is that I tend to work very heavily on the production tracks to get them just how I like them, which might involve a lot of processing and outboard. So a Dial/Foley Premix session easily pushes an HD3 to its max with me, if I have to mix in the box.
On the other hand I have not printed FX or Ambience predubs in many years now. With remote faders or groups and the likes it is so easy to keep a "fresh" layer of logic for the main mix that today it would feel like a real restriction to physically print the predub.
This method works for me in all kinds of setups:
1)complete mix in Pro Tools.
2)predub in ProTools (or just parts) - main mix on a desk (Harrison or Euphonix mainly here).
3)all on the desk.
I have to admit, that conforming is not a big issue too often for me. Depending on the amount of changes you'll have to decide, if you want to conform just the recorded predubs or the source session and then print again. In any case I keep a bunch of spare tracks on the dialogue system in the main mix in order to be able to always go back even to the Avid tracks and just restart from scratch, if necessary and wanted.
There are more whys, pros and cons, but I feel it might get a bit too long here.
Answer: I haven't used a console since 2004, and I try to keep everything virtual until the end. I live and work in Denmark, Europe, so the productions are smaller than in the US. Normally I can have all my tracks virtual and online with plugins and stem busses on two HD3 rigs, which is what you normally find in mixing stages here in Denmark.
Normally we are two mixers working at the same time. If I am the supervising sound editor / sound designer / re-recording mixer (in Denmark the sound crew is smaller than in the US), I have the dialogue, music and sound design stems on my rig, and my fellow mixer has the rest (bg's, fx and foley) on his/her rig.
The duration of the mix is typically 2-3 weeks. I try to go through the film 3 times over this period. I don't do dialogue/foley predubs. In 3 weeks I would do a rough mix of everything the first week, a detailed mix the next week and a final mix the last week. There will be around 2 screenings during the mix, where the producer and the editor and a pair of fresh ears will be invited. The director will hang around most of the time, not so much in the first part of the mix, and more in the end.
I have tried to do dialogue predubs, but it sucks the energy out of me, and since I am in command I do it my way. I need the mixing process to stay fresh until the end.
I print the stems during Dolby transfer, and I make the M&E in an editing room afterwards, by opening up the dialogue and foley stems again. I never use outboard equipment for reverbs in the dialogue/foley stems, I only use the same plugins I have in my own editing room. This way I get an extra day or so of creativity in the mixing stage.
Re-conforming is pretty simple when you are staying virtual.

Film Predubs: real or virtual?


How to boot a already install linux distribution from vmware?

Question: I've installed two systems:window xp and ubuntu.
And vmware is installed in windows.
Is it possible to enter ubuntu from vmware,while of course I'm still in windows?
Answer: Wow, your question is like a puzzle - trying to untangle the seemingly random combination of letters into a series of sentences.
It looks like you have installed some version of VMWare (Workstation, Server, Player - which one? which version) installed on top of some version of Windows. The Windows machine may also have a copy of Ubuntu installed on the same disk allowing selection via GRUB - is that right?
If that's right then you can run Ubuntu from it's own partition but it's reasonably hard to do. THID is a link to a guide on how to get a local Windows partition to run as a VM, the principal is the same but varies obviously, it's the best guide I've come across.
If I've misunderstood your question then I'm afraid you're going to have to rewrite it to make it clear.
Comment: Just edited to clarify.
Comment: not much difference to be honest, does my understanding of the problem sound correct?
Answer: I think you're asking if it's possible to give direct disk access to a "VM" in VMware that happens to already be a "real" install?
If that's the case, then I do not believe it's possible.


Are there any interesting questions we could ask about GLBSE?

Question: I think it is one of the more interesting questions, yet it hasn't been mentioned here. Can you think of interesting questions to ask regarding GLBSE?
Comment: @StephenGornick - It's primarily Bitcoin, so I consider it on topic.
Comment: Wouldn't GLBSE be off-topic?   It is an exchange that happens to have shares denominated in Bitcoin but it isn't using Bitcoin technology necessarily.
Answer: Well, the basics are always a good place to start: "What is GLBSE", "How do I use GLBSE" etc. It is one of the more interesting topics but unfortunately so few people use it or know about it that most don't even know the questions to ask. I'm sure even posting an intro question or two will spark others to look into it and ask more questions though.
Comment: http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/498/what-is-glbse-how-does-one-use-it


The big bang and our expanding universe

Question: The Hubble telescope can see the light from the big bang.My question is if our universe is expanding that would make everything that's in front of our solar system be in the future? And also can Hubble see ahead of our solar system and does the bang big light ends behind our solar system?
Comment: You would do well to do some investigation. Several of your assumptions such as "Hubble can see light from the big bang", are not true. And there is no "in front of our solar system"
Answer: There are a couple of misunderstandings here. Let's take one at a time:

The Hubble telescope can see the light from the big bang.

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) doesn't actually see light from the Big Bang. HST has several instruments on board, both for imaging and spectroscopy, but they all operate in the infrared, optical (i.e. "visible to humans"), and ultraviolet wavelength range. When you mention "light from the Bing Bang", I suppose you're thinking of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB), which is light emitted 380,000 after Big Bang. This is "the closest" we can get to Big Bang (yet). HST is unable to detect microwaves; instead we have other telescopes for that, the most recently-launched being Planck.

My question is if our universe is expanding that would make everything
  that's in front of our solar system be in the future?

The expansion of the Universe is one of the most difficult concepts to get one's head around. But firstly, Big Bang wasn't an explosion, hurling matter outwards from a central point in an otherwise empty Universe. Galaxies, on average, don't travel much through space. Rather, they lie relatively still in space, but space itself expands. The distances between galaxies increase all the time, and previously, before galaxies were formed, the distance between atoms and other particles increased. An often-used analogy — which you shouldn't take too far — is a balloon with dots painted on. The dots are fixed on its surface, and when you blow it up, the distances between the dots increase despite the dots still being fixed.
Secondly, your question seems to confuse space and time. Even if the expansion were an explosion, we would travel through space, and yes, you could say that we travel through time as well, but saying that the future is "everything in front of our Solar system" doesn't really make sense (to me, at least). What's in front of you when you travel through space is just more space; you can look at it before you get there, but that doesn't mean you look into the future (in fact you look at the past, since the light you detect with your eyes has spent some time traveling toward you).

And also can Hubble see ahead of our solar system

It depends what you mean by "ahead". It can definitely see things outside the Solar system. The Solar system consists of one star and it satellites (planets, comets, asteroids, etc.) out of the few hundred billions that make up the galaxy we call the Milky Way. Our Galaxy is itself only one out of at least some hundred billion — and quite possibly infinitely many — galaxies that float around in our Universe. And yes, HST can see many of these. But if by "ahead" you mean "into the future", then the answer is no.

and does the bang big light ends behind our solar system?

As mentioned above, the Big Bang light — or the CMB — was emitted shortly after Big Bang. That means that it has been traveling for 13.8 billion years through space. Light travels one lightyear per year, but since the Universe is expanding, the distance that the CMB has traveled is more than 13.8 billion lightyears; in fact it's some 46 billion lighyears. This is the most distant "thing" we can see, way, way beyond the Solar system which for comparion is of the order of one lightyear large.
Comment: I am tempted to edit your answer to remove the "*— and quite possibly infinitely many —*". Your answer is great, but I think that this little excerpt is problematic and should be removed. If we would have infinitely many galaxies out there, then we would need infinite space to accomodate them, and since the space expands at a finite speed since the Big Bang, the space has a finite size and thus a finite number of galaxies. Or perhaps, I just failed to understand what you meant with that.
Comment: @VictorStafusa: You're right that an infinite number of galaxies would need an infinite space to accomodate them, but nothing disallows an infinite space; in fact observations seem to indicate that our Universe happens to be infinite (since $\Omega_\mathrm{tot}$ seems to be unity). I know this possibility can be hard to accept, but it is nonetheless the case. If indeed the Universe is infinite, then it was "born" infinite. And _if_ it had  been born finite, it would stay finite.
Comment: I fail to see how a theory about an infinite space and an infinite number of galaxies could be compatible with a theory of space expanding at a finite velocity (likely lightspeed) in a finitely distant past out from a singular point. Also, I fail to see how $\Omega_{\text{tot}}$ being a unity is compatible with a Big Bang theory. You could argue that the Big Bang theory could be false, but this would defeat the entire point of your answer.
Comment: You seem to have an inaccurate, but very common, understanding of Big Bang and the expansion of space. Big Bang wasn't an explosion of matter from a central point. Big Bang was the creation of space, finite or infinite, and the subsequent expansion of this finite or infinite space. This expansion makes the distance between particles increase at rate that is $\sim$proportional to their distance such that, below a certain distance, particles recede from one another at $vc$.
Comment: Also, $\Omega_\mathrm{tot}=1$ is completely compatible with Big Bang and in fact is the (currently) favored value. As I said, I admit the the notion of a universe that starts out as infinite is difficult to get one's head around. I think one of the reasons is that it is best described mathematically, since physically we tend to picture this for ourselves and create 2D analogies, which are bound to fail.
Comment: I personally think that the universe has some curved and closed 3D topology, possibly a "hypersurface" in a hyperspace with 4 or more dimensions. Something very far from 2D analogies. Anyway, I will stop the discussion here, because it is already very off from both the question and the answer. I personally still have some skepticism about the infiniteness of the universe, but I will try to think better about it with time.
Comment: Yes, scepticism is not encouraged on this site ;-)

The big bang and our expanding universe


Finding Data Tables in Excel

Question: I have inherited a spreadsheet which contains several data tables. I know this because when I recalculate the spreadsheet takes time to recalculate the tables, and shows this in the recalculation notifier. Is there a systematic way to locate these data tables, similarly to locating links ( the spreadsheet has > 50 worksheets, so just searching sheet by sheet would be a little tedious).
Answer: You haven't said / tagged what version of Excel you are using, but since you call them Tables, not Lists, I assume it is 2007 or 2010.
If you go to Formulas tab of the Ribbon > Name Manager you will see Table names listed amongst other defined names.
They show a different icon next to them, but to make things even clearer you can use the Filter button at the top right to show tables only.
As you work out what they do it is with renaming tables to sensible names (from the Table Tools > Design ribbon or the Name Manager) and possibly adding comments about their purpose to remind you later (do this in Name Manager > Edit)
Answer: In later versions of Excel you can:
<code>Home -> Find & Select -> Go To
</code>
This will bring up a list of named items, including tables, that you can then navigate directly to
Answer: If the Name Manager shows no tables and a ctrl+F search for "=table" yields no results, but you are still calculating data tables, check for hidden tabs in your workbook that may include data tables.
That was the source of my problem.
Comment: Searching is made easier if you include the leading paren when searching formulas, like this: "=TABLE(". That way you don't catch any tables/lists with default names like "Table12".

Finding Data Tables in Excel


Can file snapshots aid in detecting malware?

Question: I noticed certain programs have a feature that can have a 'snapshot' of a file from a certaim time and compare it to a more recent snapshot of the file. If one's system has a snapshot of a program when 'first' downloaded and  it can compare  this to the program 'as it is now' and if there are any changes this might indicate the file is corrupt and it could be marked for possible removal. So could this comparison feature be used to determine if a file is corrupt?
Answer: This is not likely to be very effective in practice.  Malware might corrupt the file before you were first able to take a snapshot... or, more realistically, it might corrupt the snapshot you have taken, so that the snapshot matches the current version of the file.  It is difficult to defend against that attack.
So, while your idea is not a bad one, it has significant limitations that might render it not terribly useful in practice.
This also assumes that the underlying file is one that should never change.  Of course, in practice, for any given file, there are valid circumstances when the file should be allowed to change.  So this means you'd need some way to recognize valid, legitimate changes to the file.  This starts to get a bit more complex to implement.
You might take a look at Tripwire, which is a system that does something like this -- except it keeps only a cryptographic hash of each monitored file, rather than a full copy of the file.
Comment: Furthermore, I think you must define some check or heuristic to distinguish legitimate changes on files from malicious ones. Think of script files, which are executable, but not are not binaries that should not change. And I can replace a script file remotely, e.g., via scp so that you cannot easily distinguish this from malware loading a malicious version of that file.
Comment: This is not very effective against smart malware, but it is very widely used (a lot of antivirus software does this kind of checks), and it is effective against some malware (not all malware is smart).


Origin of custom of syllable-final accents

Question: What is the origin of the Italian custom of only writing accents over the last vowel of a word?
Comment: Welcome to Italian.SE!
Comment: Have a look at [this answer](https://italian.stackexchange.com/a/2350/707).
Comment: In Latin syllable stress is never on the last syllable. However, I have the impression that at least in some words which now are stressed on the last syllable in Italian (città), the original latin word (civitate?) had one extra syllable. Could the modern use of a syllable final acute or grave accent emphasize this difference to readers. In other words, unlike in Latin, certain Italian words can indeed be stressed on the ultimate syllable?
Comment: @egreg: Are you able to answer this question?
Answer: In general Italian words have kept the accent that had the Latin words of origin.
Some important changes were the followings.
The maintenance of the original position of the accent has not occurred in some compound verbs, in which the phenomenon of recomposition occurred: whenever the basic verb was recognizable, the speakers restored it in its original form and accent: for example in renŏvat, the base verb nŏvat was recognized and we had rinnòva.
In the transition from the perfect (latin) to the passato remoto (italian), in the third person singular we have phenomenons like:

amav(i)t>amaut>amò
finiv(i)t>finiut>finìo>finì

The fall of the output (i) determines, in the perfect of the verbs of the first conjugation, the formation of a secondary diphthong  au and then the monophtong [ɔ], whence the final truncated form amò. In the perfect of the fourth conjugation, the same fall of (i) and the passage from the unstressed u to o produce the ending io, with subsequent fall of the final o by analogy with the first conjugation.
The Latin had various alternative forms to the synthetic future.
Among these, it was fortunate the form contructed with habeo with the meaning I have to: so for example laudare habeo> laudar(e) * ao> lodarò > loderò. The same for the other persons.
In many words, the apocope by haplology occurred, that is the elimination of a syllable when two consecutive, identical, or similar syllables occur (nu(tri)trix > nutrix).
For example

bon(i)tate(m)>bontate (syncope of the intertonic vowel) > bontade (sonorization of t)
civi(i)tate(m)>cittate (syncope of the intertonic vowel) > cittade (sonorization of t)
virtute(m)>virtute>virtude (sonorization of t)

It was very easy that these words (like many others, on the other hand) were followed by a functional element like the preposition de, ancient variant of di: bontade de Marco, cittade de Roma, virtude de Cristo, etc. Thus, they came to determine the sequences in which there were two consecutive syllables de, the word final and the preposition. This repetition was avoided with
the haplological apocope of the first -de: bonta(de) de Marco, citta(de) de Roma, virtu(de) de Cristo, and thus we had bontà, città, virtù.


Beyond Raspberry Pi?

Question: Is it possible to expand the scope of our Raspberry Pi SE site to include other, similar single-board computers?
Comment: It's been discussed [before](https://raspberrypi.meta.stackexchange.com/q/567/19949) (and [related](https://raspberrypi.meta.stackexchange.com/q/738/19949)) but there is nothing wrong in going over the old arguments again and re-evaluate. Merry christmas.
Comment: OK - I called myself looking before posting, but apparently wasn't thorough :P Anyway... FWIW, since those questions, Arduino has their own site now, and IMHO, it is "too different" from RPi to make a "merger" practical. However, there are a number of SBCs that a) run Linux, and b) provide IO for controlling external devices. BeagleBone (maybe others?) even use ARM processors. What would have to be done to enlarge the scope? Would it dilute resources/reduce answer quality to expand?
Answer: Not an answer right now, but here are some previous discussions on this topic in historical order, most recent first (there are probably more, I have not finished looking):

Where would you post questions about boards like BeagleBone, pcDuino
What would you think about broadening the topic to include Arduino, Robotics and Embedded Systems in general?
This one was posted a day after:
are banana/orange/etc. questions on topic?
Can we ask questions related to banana pi here?
Should this site merge with the Embedded Programming & Design Proposal?
Questions about other ARM-based computer?
Can we rename this site to be more inclusive of Linux ARM hardware?

Briefly, this is something I wanted to see happen (allow all dev boards) up to and slightly beyond my first becoming a moderator here 5-6 years ago, until a couple of people convinced me otherwise.  I'll take time to summarize why I still feel that way later -- all this doesn't mean I think further discussion is not worthwhile.
Comment: Good answer (non-answer? :)... you've captured the essence (or at least the history) of the discussion. And it's an interesting discussion with valid pros and cons. IMHO, the oldest & the newest questions/discussion cover the salient issues most clearly. I'd like to try the 'expansion', but perhaps limited to one or two boards. My arguments boil down to this: 1. The 'character' of this site is well-suited to a bit of scope increase, 2. We don't strictly follow the 'exclusive RPi' charter now, 3. Some (me for exmpl) find RPi itself growing a bit stale; we could be about 'solutions' instead of -
Answer: Banana, Orange & Orange all have their own websites and Forums. Beaglebone (despite its apparent popularity) doesn't seem to have even this.
What they lack is a group of dedicated users (at least to judge from their websites)
They are all derivatives, attempting to piggyback on the RaspberryPi popularity.
They may have some advantages in hardware, but little, if any, software support.
We all support (directly or indirectly) the Foundation's work by purchasing hardware, subscribing to publications etc. If people want to make use of RaspberryPi hardware or software the answer is simple - buy a Pi.
There is nothing wrong with these devices, but you have to ask what would questions about these boards add to this site?
Already the majority of questions on this site are strictly off-topic (Linux questions, 3rd party hardware, electronics questions, general "design my project for me questions" etc).
The last thing we need is a set of questions about how to adapt RaspberryPi solutions to incompatible hardware. The few questions we get about these platforms (before they are closed) seem to be low quality and lacking research.
Any questions about ARM processors would probably be OK, but these are rare.
PS Many of the links ask where you can get support for these other fruit - it is not our responsibility to find support for their chosen hardware.
Comment: Minor point: *"They are all derivatives.."* Not sure if you intended to include beagleboard in that but it was around for a number of years before the Pi.
Comment: Hmm... "support the Foundation's work"? Maybe that's something that you wish to do, but that's not what I'm doing here. I'm here only because it's a congenial environment mostly, and most importantly: I learn. And since you ask, I think that these boards could add ***diversity*** here; the hardware diffs certainly open up possibilities for new/improved solutions. I know I'd learn and benefit from these differences.

Beyond Raspberry Pi?


Is there GIS Video "that Mom can understand"?

Question: Working as a professional within the GIS discipline, I often find it challenging to describe to people what GIS is (in a face to face conversation).  Telling them that GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems, which encompasses a set of technologies that can be used to analyze, map, and organize spatial data is a bit over most people heads.  On the contrary, telling people that GIS can be used to make maps on a computer falls far short of its many potential uses.  With this, I'm looking for some effective video examples that one could show somebody that explain both in words and visually what GIS is, and how the technology is utilized (something your Mom could understand :))?
Comment: I tend to use the "I make maps" line because trying to explain it is over peoples heads most of the time.
Comment: I put together apower point presentation called 'What is GIS', about 5 years ago as I was so fed up explaining to people what I did. I now get asked to present it to clients as it clearly demonstrates what it is, and what it isn't. I'll try and get it to dropbox and you can have it, and add to it if you like - Having just moved house, it may take a day or two as it is stored on a hard drive of mine.
Comment: +1 It would be great to see a _GIS in plain english_ similar to the [Google Docs in Plain English](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA).  The cut and paste they use reminds me of what cartography lab was like in pre-computer days.
Comment: Watched that Google Docs in Plain English video then read the comments. Why I do I always fear for the world when I read youtube comments.
Answer: I love the Geospatial Revolution series of videos from Penn State University.
It's a beautifully produced set of videos showcasing some everyday uses of GIS.
Comment: that's the one I like!
Answer: What is GIS by ESRI: Short and informative, with understandable images and use cases, and a groovy introduction music. Otherwise, just say: "GIS technology is kind of like Google Earth, but beeetter".
Comment: +1 Heh. That's what I do. "You know Google Earth? It's like that, but usually more specific. And you can do more stuff with it." Usually I get "Oh. Huh. Okay." (Meaning "I don't really get it, and you're probably a nerd.") If they really want to know more, I list some examples of specific systems or studies using GIS. Just keep it concrete and practical and most people will get the general idea. It's not rocket science, it's just not the way people usually think about the world.
Answer: Perhaps it doesn't show exactly the current state of GIS (at least it doesn't look like that in my organisation so far ;]) but I really enjoyed video from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on Precision Information Environments. Quite a lot what is happening there is either directly or indirectly related to geospatial technologies (of the future). (via @IJHGeo)
For more rigorous approach to definitions and concepts have a look at Defining a GIS: Essential GIS functions from users presentation from FOSS4G2011 conference.
Answer: Also see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDVNBDIVUZo -it explains what it is, what people do and what the world would be without it.
I am working on one for aboriginal children. See https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/112545/what-is-gis-for-indigenous-peoples
Answer: The 2014 version of ESRI's "What is GIS?", part of the E380 series, is presented in an up-beat, easy to understand way, with relevant examples that "Mom" can understand.
And it's only 1 minute long, so you won't lose their attention.
Video link available at: http://video.esri.com/watch/3623/what-is-gis_question_
Answer: My 2 cents;
'governmental' videos from the Swiss Federal Office of Topography, with a slightly wider coverage and oriented toward national cartography, but done in a way almost everyone can understand:
[EN] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xLQHE7fKI8
[DE] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9x_y0_w-OM
[FR] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJg3XVJHhV8
[IT] : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEsRNmpuqQ4


I have found ports on my Samsung smart tv running a display service. What can I do with it?

Question: I have a Samsung Smart TV running Tizen OS, and out of curiosity I scanned it with Nmap. I found multiple open ports. One of those ports is running a "display" service. Does this mean it can cast its own screen, or that i can cast my screen to it?
Comment: Weird the you obscured the port but not the service name. They correspond 1-to-1 in most cases, including this one.
Comment: Something to keep in mind with nmap is how it decides what service is running on a port. The first page of the documentation has some good examples of why this detection matters, https://nmap.org/book/vscan.html . In your case, nmap is probably right about it being a display service, but it's worth understanding what options your GUI tool might be using and if you really need to know what services are exposed how to probe or verify them more accurately.
Comment: I've nmapped my home network and found many open ports on my Samsung Smart TV, including one that nmap labeled as Bitcoin, as well as my printer and various other IoT on the network. The things I **don't** want speaking out of turn, I put in my router's MAC blacklist. My printer works fine locally but can no longer phone home about ink and status. I also blacklisted my TV. This of course eliminates most of the "*smart*" functions, but my Roku device handles all that and my TV no longer reports on what I watch via antenna or other devices. The TV also no longer forces unknown firmware patches u
Comment: @David Schwartz, I had no idea that they were linked. I was trying to be safe, now I realized how dumb that is. I'm 13 years old and new to this networking and security stuff.
Answer: While this isn't strictly a security question, I'm unsure if the Stack Exchanges for Super User or Networking would take this, so I'll just answer it quickly:
Depending on your options, nmap will return different results for ports because different steps for service reconnaissance are taken. Since you seem to use a GUI to nmap and are asking a security beginners question, I'm assuming it's the default options, untweaked. In this case, per /usr/share/nmap/nmap-services this is:
 display 7236/tcp        0.000000        # Wi-Fi Alliance Wi-Fi Display Protocol

If the port does in fact match (unfortunately, you did hide that information from us), this is probably a Miracast instance.
From there you can see the direction the display sharing is supposed to work (emphasis mine):

Miracast is a standard for wireless connections from devices (such as laptops, tablets, or smartphones) to displays (such as TVs, monitors or projectors), introduced in 2012 by the Wi-Fi Alliance. It can roughly be described as "HDMI over Wi-Fi", replacing the cable from the device to the display.

TLDR:

Does this mean it can cast its own screen, or that i can cast my screen to it?

The latter.
Comment: See https://www.samsung.com/sg/support/tv-audio-video/screen-mirroring-samsung-tv-with-mobile-device/
Comment: Samsung has an app called smartthings, that does this. Enabling you to cast from a smartphone or likewise to the tv. It has some restrictions on what you may cast. But just confirming the above answer from a former salesmans perspective.


Who were the famous moral nihilists (philosophers) of 20th and 19th century?

Question: If existential nihilism claims nothing has meaning does it also take moral values in to account?
Comment: What's the connection between your question title and body?
Comment: Bad faith is negation of self , but freedom , my question is did Sartre believed existence of objective morality or the way we define criminals as criminal is meaningless.
Comment: Hope you can understand and please answer this query.
Comment: They are two distinct questions, that was the point of curiousdannii's comment.
Comment: I edited the question later since before my question was not understandable and I cannot post further questions so I try to develop my present questions.
Answer: 'Nihilist' was generally applied as an insult, especially around morality - it was first used to insult the rationalism of Kant (who I think no one could call a nihilist now!). It got used somewhat like an atheist equivalent of a Christian calling someone a 'godless heathen'. In Russia it began to be taken up by some of the Russian anarchists of Marx's generation, really because people tried to tar them with that word and they took that 'shocking insult' and said, yes, that is our view. They expanded their rejection of all current political authorities to reject all then existing philosophical authorities on morality.
With Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger, nihilism began to take on it's modern meaning, not simply rejecting authority of current structures of thought especially on morality, but rejecting objective value to the sway of implied compulsion of any structure of thought (still the word nihilism alone usually means moral nihilism, and conditionals are added like existential nihilism, for rejecting the universality/objectivity of rationality and intelligibility). These three philosophers did not advocate for nihilism, and it's wrong to call them nihilists.
Kierkegaard saw his interpretation of nihilism, 'leveling', as a challenge rather than a really tenable position. Almost Neitzsche's entire output can be viewed as grappling with nihilism which he saw as inevitable following the losing of sway of Christianity (which had been held more by force, than philosophy) A good article on: Whence Comes Nihilism, the Uncanniest Of All Guests.
Nihilism in earnest in the modern era (Buddhism or at least some schools of, are examples of ancient nihilist thought) begins with postmodernism, what Baudrillard called a 'nihilistic era'. Foucault rejected rationality as fundamental, saying all truth claims are also power claims, so any attempt to have universal morality is a power-grab, and deeply suspect. Like other postmodernists he switched to examining and picking apart texts and claims, rather than building new structures of thought for others to occupy. Kuhn looked at science as fundamentally sociological, and it's 'truths' as embedded in and limited to specific eras and perspectives, which he called paradigms. Still, these postmodernists are called nihilists by others rather than themselves (Foucault didn't even accept being called a postmodernist, another term which is vague & most often used by critics of it).
Antinatalists and advocates for voluntary human extinction or the extinction of all life, are more recent examples of schools which are typically called nihilist, because they reject what others see as a universal value, in this case of life. But similarly, don't identify as nihilist.
Comment: But most sources say Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and Heidegger, these people are nihilists.
Comment: @PallabBehariChaklanabis: Indeed they do. As I say Kierkegaard was not opposed to nihilism. Nietzsche was, but saw it as almost inevitable. Heidegger saw revealing the nihilism of a metaphysical system as the only reason to reject - putting that emotional reaction over analysing it's truth. So, they are philosophers *of nihilism*, but not nihilists or advocates of nihilism, which is an essentially negative position, which arguably can't be advocated without violating the stance advocated, at least in the case of existential nihilism (Nagarjuna gets around this though).
Answer: Here is a take on nihilism you may find interesting:
Heidegger, Contributions to Philosophy 72. Nihilism, page 109

Thinking in terms of "goals" (the long misunderstood τέλος ["end"]
  in the Greek sense) presupposes the ἰδέα and "idealism". Therefore,
  this "idealistic" and moral interpretation of nihilism remains
  provisional, despite its essentiality. In aiming at the other
  beginning, nihilism must be grasped more fundamentally as an essential
  consequence of the abandonment by being.

That is to say, there really are no goals, but to pretend there are (in 'abandonment') is the real nihilism, (described here).

... no one surmises that precisely this consideration — or, rather, its
  underlying attitude and comportment towards beings — is the genuine
  nihilism: the unwillingness to acknowledge the lack of goals.
... the deliberate turning of a blind eye to human goal-lessness, the "ready to wear" avoidance of any goal-setting decision ...

Note the "moral interpretation" is dismantled in the first paragraph.
The new nihilism is a type of dereliction and apathy for which Nietzsche and Heidegger are not advocates but vigorous opponents.


Does DXA 1.4 work with the CIS 8.1.0 services?

Question: DXA 1.4 comes with the SDL Web 8.1.1 CIL (Content Interaction Library). Is the 8.1.1 version of CIL compatible with the 8.1.0 CIS (Content Interation Serivces)?
Answer: Yes, that's one of the reasons why the release dates were coordinated.
Comment: Are all CIS en CIL micro versions interchangable by design? So can I use a 8.1.0 CIL with a 8.1.1 Content service too? And in the future with 8.1.2 CIS?
Comment: Yes, that is the idea; we won't be changing the contract in a non-compatible manner (for sure not in Patch Releases). The general idea behind Service Oriented Architecture is that client and server are loosely coupled (and versioned).
Answer: To elaborate a bit on Nuno's Answer: the release dates were coordinated to ensure that DXA 1.4 could build upon CIL 8.1.1.  We have also tested it against CIS 8.1.0, though.
Note, however, that there were several defects in SDL Web 8.1.0 which required hotfixes to make DXA 1.3+ work properly (in particular with XPM, see DXA 1.3 docs). These hotfixes have been included in 8.1.1, so I would strongly recommend to upgrade to 8.1.1.


Variation of 100 Gold Coins Puzzle

Question: You are blindfolded (and you can't see a thing).
There are $100$ coins lying on a table. Of these coins, $80$ are tails-up and $20$ are heads-up. You need to divide them into two groups of $x$ and $y$ each (with $x+y = 100$). You can pick any coin and flip it (if it is tails, it will become head and if it is head, it will become tail), but you can't see so you don't know which coin you are flipping. In the end, both groups should contain equal number of heads.
Answer: The trick is simple:
When dividing, make the first pile as big as the number of heads-up coins, i.e. 20.
That first pile now contains an unkown number of heads-up coins, call that number n.
The second pile of 80 coins contains the remaining 20-n heads-up coins.
Now flip all coins in the first pile and both piles will contain exactly 20-n heads-up coins, regardless of the value of n.

Variation of 100 Gold Coins Puzzle


How to properly use the Using Statement with SharePoint Objects

Question: What is best practice with the Using statement when working with SharePoint Objects.  When and how should you use the Using statement, so objects used are disposed, etc?
Answer: The key is if your code creates an instance of an SPSite or SPWeb you must dispose of it. However, if you use an instance from SPContext.Current you should not dispose of it. i.e. Dispose of what you create, whether that is directly or indirectly.
Example of creating your own instance, so using is required:
using(SPSite site = new SPSite("http://server"))
{
}

Example of using an existing object from the SPContext, so using is not required:
SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;
SPSite site = SPContext.Current.Site;

Example of creating your own instance of an SPWeb by calling OpenWeb():
using(SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Site.OpenWeb("http://server/mywebsite"))
{
}

Also, be careful to dispose of objects even if an exception is thrown, by putting the dispose call in the finally block.
try
{
   site = new SPSite("http://server");
   web = site.OpenWeb();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
   //handle it
}
finally
{
   if (web != null)
      web.Dispose();

   if (site != null)
      site.Dispose();
}

These are just a few examples, but there are many others. Here is a good reference.
In addition, you can make use of the SPDisposeCheck tool.
Comment: +1 Regarding your exception example, if you use a `using` statement it is the same as a `try..finally`. See also: [Does a C# using statement perform try/finally?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2710032/does-a-c-using-statement-perform-try-finally).
Answer: There is a best practices guide from microsoft about when to dispose which objects (SPSite, SPWeb):
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee557362(v=office.14).aspx
Also there is a dispose checker tool provided by microsoft:
http://archive.msdn.microsoft.com/SPDisposeCheck
Answer: The golden rule seems to be: If you own the object (i.e. created it by using the new operator), then you dispose of it. If the object comes from another object created by SharePoint object model itself, then you don't. Use SPDisposeCheck to be sure as Laurie indicated.
Answer: While the above answer are all fine, I just want to add some stuff for clarity.
To see if the object you are using needs to be disposed, you can check the MSDN reference of the class (press F1 when the cursor is on the declaration in VS) and check if the class implements IDisposable. If so, only dispose of the object if you actually made the object (with either a new statement, or an OpenXXX() method or similar).
The try-catch-finally construction is never needed for these objects if you use the using statement, because in compilation the using statement will be converted to a try-catch-finally constuction as seen in Laurie's final example. The using statement is preferable because it is much more elegant and will make your code more readable.
The SPDisposeCheck seems like a nice tool, but with a bit of common sense you will probably not need it.


single zone house with forced hot water only heating on one side

Question: I have a single zone in my house with forced hot water only heating on one side of the house.  What am I doing wrong?  I have bled the pipes many times and still not heat on one side of the house
Comment: Did it ever work, or a has it always been like this?
Answer: 99.5% you need to bleed somewhere you haven't found yet, or you need to bleed more. It's almost always an air bubble.
0.3% there's a misadjusted valve to blame. If you don't know what a balancing valve looks like it may not be obvious that it is a valve.
0.2% there's an actual blockage. I've seen a 1/2" pipe elbow that had less than 1/16" space for flow due to some VERY enthusiastic soldering (it was nearly plugged with solder), in the bizarre examples line. But this is chasing the tiny odds.
I happened to have camera and the fitting in question from my junk (perhaps "plumbing trophies") box and recall that I want to show it. Trigger warning "terrible plumbing."

The little gap at the bottom of this picture was the only passage for water in this fitting.
Another possible blockage - if it got really cold before you turned the heat on, there's a frozen section on the one side. In some houses that's more like 25% odds due to terrible heating system design and poor insulation.
If you can't sort it yourself, calling in a pro can make sense before things DO freeze up.
Comment: "Enthusiastic soldering"  But the solder keeps disappearing into the little crack, shouldn't I just keep feeding it more?
Answer: Are you sure the circulation pump is actually circulating?  You might have a very slow gravity induced flow.  If so you'd likely have each room down the line receive somewhat less heat than before.
Comment: The problem I have I don't believe is gravity flow. I have a 1" feed that goes down the middle of the house, 18" before the end of the house there is a tee that goes to two 3/4" pipes. One way goes to the front of the house the other to the back of the house. The front has heat the back doesn't.
Answer: Sounds like you have a hard-to-find or hidden shut-off valve in the pipe for the back of the house that someone closed to save money. If the front of the house is heating then the pump is working, which means it is not air-locked and you separator is working fine.
If you have vertical radiators, there might be a bleed valve at a high point in the back circuit or on a radiator that is full of scale or needs replacing. If you have perimeter heat there probably isn't a bleed valve since you have a pretty flat system. So, if the back circuit was unrestricted it should have water flowing through it.
So, I believe you have a major restriction or a closed valve.
Answer: Fill the system with water. If you're bleeding & just not hearing air purge & seeing no water, then it's very low on water. On the other hand, it could be that your expansion tank's bladder is blown or that you just need to pump it up, usually just to 7-psi or so.


How to find the gas and gas price for truffle.js with large files?

Question: this might be a basic question, but I was trying to deploy a large smart contract with multiple solidity files within it using Truffle and I cannot seem to be able to find a correct gas or gasPrice for the truffle.js file. Everything compiles, but when I try to migrate I continue to get the error "The contract code couldn't be stored, please check your gas amount". I know that there are gas estimates in the build folder, but the contract I am trying to deploy is rather large and it would take forever to go through all the .json files in the build folder and add up all their gas estimations. Can someone give me a basic idea of what I should do here? Thanks!
Answer: if you are using Mocha framework for testing the smart contract using truffle you can use eth-gas-reporter. just write a test for deploying the above mentioned smart contract and the test result will show the amount of gas this function will need approx.
Comment: Good first post!


In my previous life I was ---

Question: I can accept the concept of Reincarnation in Buddhism . That is , after a person died  , then he/she will reborn again as human , as animal , or even as God , in the same / different Realm. But there's one thing that to me is weird . In my previous life I was a mosquito ? , a flea ? , a worm ? , a bacteria ? , a bamboo tree?
Comment: Forgive my english...
Comment: Hello and welcome to Buddhism SE. Please ask a question.
Answer: Technically speaking... (the devil is in the details!)

You can only 'reincarnate' into a sentient being. Mosquitoes, fleas, and worms are, in general, considered sentient beings in Buddhism. Bacteria (not an animal) and bamboo trees (a plant) are not. One might discuss if it's possible to 'reincarnate' as an amoeba (technically an animal — from the perspective of Western biology, at least), but I'd guess that one would require at least a minimal nervous system with a few cells in order to classify as 'sentient'. Then again, I might be wrong, of course!
'Reincarnation' is a Western term coming from a Christian tradition, with a very specific meaning, so it may lead Buddhist practitioners into the mistake of thinking that somehow their minds will be put into the body of a flea or a mosquito; in practice, it's both more complicated and much more simpler than that, and I'll give you the analogy that my own teachers gave me:

Think of a series of candles, all about the same size, the first of one is lit. The light of that candle represents a sentient's being life. Now, eventually, the candle burns out — and you might have to transfer the flame to the next candle using a stick of wood or something. The next candle might outwardly look like the first one, and from the perspective of someone on the room, there is still light around — even if it might come slightly from the left or the right, or be slightly stronger or weaker because even outwards-looking 'identical' candles will have some difference at the molecular level and thus there will be a difference.
You can repeat the process from one candle to the next, and there will always be 'light' while you keep one flame going, but eventually, there will be no more candles to light.
This symbolises how a stream of consciousness works across 'lives'. All the candles give light — but the light is not exactly the same, because each successive candle is slightly different than the previous one. Each candle is its own distinct object — symbolising different bodies if you wish — and there is no shared material/physical components between each candle. Because there is a succession of flames — the previous one becoming the cause for the next one, and so forth we can say that what you do in one life will influence — 'cause' — the next life. But each is started 'from scratch' in the sense that each life is separate and distinct from the previous one, even if it's in very small details (i. e. even two consecutive human lives will be quite different!). There is technically 'nothing' passing from the flame of one candle to another (this is where the analogy fails because it requires the stick/match/a bit of paper etc.), except this very abstract notion of 'light': i.e. all candle flames produce light, and the flame from one candle is the only cause for kindling the flame of another candle, so there is a cause-and-effect tying all candles together (this is the stream-of-consciousness which 'ties' together different lives through a causation effect). And finally, when one reaches awakening/enlightenment, there will be no more candles — no need to 'reincarnate' again, if you wish. So there will always be an end to the cycle of reincarnation; the role of Buddhist teachers is to get as many people to get out of that cycle as fast as possible (through teaching their students the means to do so, of course)!
Is this a confusing analogy? I think so; it is one supposed to make us think a bit. For instance, it's true that you have been a mosquito or a worm on previous lives, but you have no recollection of that — this is simply because not only each candle is physically different, but because its flame is different, so you cannot 'look back' to how you were in the past. Nevertheless, there is a connection: what you did as a mosquito back then has influenced what you are today (in exactly the same way that what you do today will affect you tomorrow — even if you don't notice it in most cases). Of course, a poor mosquito will have little knowledge of how to behave in order to get a 'better' life in the future (what makes you a 'good' or 'bad' mosquito...?); however, you, as a human being, have the ability not only to influence what your next life will be (it only depends on what you do in this life), but, even better than that, you have the abilities and capacity to break free from the reincarnation cycle altogether! When that happens, you can spend the rest of eternity in any form whatsoever and have the ability to watch from afar how flames go from one candle to another... while Buddhas cannot directly influence how that happens (even Buddhas cannot change the causation effects on other beings!), they can certainly help us out with tools and methods to figure out, on our own, how to break free from the cycle of reincarnation.
Patience, young grasshopper, you're on the right path!
Extra bonus: just by following the Buddha's path will give you another chance as a human being. And you were so fortunate to find the Buddha's path and a teacher on this life because, well, you did great on a previous life! Perhaps, as a mosquito, you might have bitten a Buddha by accident — thus creating a bond with a Buddha, which has ultimately led you to be 'reborn' as a human being able to study the Buddhadharma, think about it, and meditate. So rejoice!
Answer: To understand what is reborn, look to what is craved:

SN12.23:4.6: I say that rebirth has a vital condition. And what is it? You should say: 'Continued existence.' I say that continued existence has a vital condition. And what is it?  You should say: 'Grasping.' I say that grasping has a vital condition.  And what is it?
SN12.23:4.14: You should say: 'Craving.'

Craving is a vital condition for eventual rebirth. This is why care must be taken with intention since we perpetuate what we grasp at. However, if we long for the spiritual life, eventually our wishes cease. As does rebirth.

In my previous life I was ---


How secure is Tor?

Question: I'm a newbie at this and just wanted to know how secure Tor is.
I know that sounds a bit vague but any info will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Answer: It depends on what you are using Tor for, and who is your adversary. So in some case, Tor is not secure enough, and in other cases it can just do the job.
For instance, Tor uses asymmetric enryption with 1024-bit RSA keys. Those keys are considered weak nowadays (and perhaps breakable by a global adversary such as the NSA), but they are changed often, and the Tor project keeps using them as to not overload many of the weaker nodes running as Tor relay nodes (so itis Security vs Usability).
There are other aspects you may or may not interested about in terms of Tor security, but you should probably start (if you haven't already) reading documents and advices like How Tor works and The best security measures while using Tor.
Answer: There is a difference between anonymity and security, Tor promise to provide anonymity, but does not promise to provide Security, although, it aims to provide security.
Tor does not promise secure communications, but it aims to provide security. Encryption is only used to provide anonymity between nodes, be advised that your data is not encrypted otherwise. This is the reason it is highly recommended to use "https" enabled websites while browsing with Tor. HTTPS will help to make your communication secure. If you use a Tor browser, there is a add-on which attempts to use https version of the sites if possible in an attempt to aim for security. The only exception to that is when you visit hidden services. In this case you will not leave the Tor network, and thus, you are always between the nodes. Since you are always between the nodes and encryption is provided between the nodes when using Tor, your communication is secure. Of course you must provide the information to destination site in decrypted format, so that the site can understand the requested information and answer your request. Thus, the destination site can be a honeypot and snoop on you. Hidden services or clear sites all have a potential to be a honeypot. The other thing is that, these sites maybe compromized without their consent or knowledge, But this phenomenon, still would have same effect as sites that are designed as honeypot as far as user is concerned.
Comment: Careful here! "Security" is a broad term, and Tor does indeed aim to provide "security". It sounds like you want to use the term "confidentiality" here?
Comment: @RogerDingledine, Thanks for the comment. I have edited the answer.

How secure is Tor?


Installing Laravel

Question: I am on a windows 8 machine and I'm trying to learn laravel. I copy and pasted my PHP folder from C:\xampp to C:\php, installed composer, ran composer install  then composer create-project laravel/laravel learning-laravel. So far everything was created so I went into the directory and tried to use 'php artisan serve' and got the following error.
C:\Users\denni_000\learning-laravel>php artisan serve
Warning: require(C:\Users\denni_000\learning-laravel\bootstrap/../vendor/autoloa
d.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Users\denni_000\l
earning-laravel\bootstrap\autoload.php on line 17

Comment: can you get `c:\>php --version` output in command prompt? if not, you need to add php to `PATH` Environment variable so that you can access it from `cmd`
Comment: try reinstalling Laravel or try to tell us what file is missing
Answer: Why you copied php folder

download composer install it.
download laravel latest version and store it on your xampp/htdocs/laravel
and run cmd with composer install command

For more follow install laravel on windows xampp
or Laravel 4.1 installation with composer in xampp
Comment: Since it worked, maybe you could consider accepting the answer!
Answer: Follow the installation guide from Laravel

Install Composer:
Like Laravel.com says: "Make sure to place the ~/.composer/vendor/bin directory in your PATH so the laravel executable can be located by your system."
Type the following statement in the command line:
composer global require "laravel/installer=~1.1"

Create a fresh Laravel project in a specified directory with the "laravel new" command:
laravel new blog

You can also create a Laravel project using composer, like such:
composer create-project laravel/laravel --prefer-dist

Answer: For windows Simply download Laragon which includes latest php 5.6.7, Apache, Mysql, Redis, Memcached an alternative to Xampp or Mamp with small size. Easy to install laravel and create project with auto create virtual host by it. Thank you.
Answer: U need to go to the directory where laravel is installed and run the following command.
composer update

Answer: Install Laravel 4.2 with composer:
sudo composer.phar create-project laravel/laravel project-directory-name 4.2 --prefer-dist

Answer: Here is a different way to setup laravel, may be you guys will like it
Step 1:
Clone https://github.com/laravel/laravel or you may download zip also.
Step 2:
Navigate to downloaded folder in command prompt and run composer install
Step 3:
open the folder and rename .env.example to .env and update the credentials mentioned in file.
Step 4:
After these steps if you navigate to the directory from web-server it will cause an error No supported encrypter found. The cipher and / or key length are invalid. to fix this just run php artisan key:generate
Done!
Hope you guys like this way :)
Answer: You need to install all the laravel required dependency.
To do that, you need to tell composer to install everything needed.
Below is the command to use to install that's required in laravel composer.json.
composer install

Answer: If you want to learn laravel I seriously recommend you use laravel homestead with vagrant.
For this you need to:

Install virtualbox.
Install vagrant.
Install git.
Install ssh.exe (Download msysgit and copy the content of bin folder to git bin folder).
Install Homestead on Vagrant (Follow the steps on laravel/homestead documentation page).
Install Laravel on Homestead (Follow the steps on laravel/installation documentation page).

This method apply to Windows, Linux or Mac, only change the step 4 on linux or mac.

Installing Laravel


Do you also say 「もしもし」 on Skype?

Question: Is 「もしもし」 only used when you cannot see the person you're talking with (I once heard that it's somewhat akin to "Anyone there?", which wouldn't make much sense if you could see your conversation partner) or do you also use it when making video calls?
Answer: もしもし is like "Hello" and it's used in two kinds of situations:

As the very first word of the call ("Hello, this is Tanaka speaking.")
As the word to check if the other person can hear you, when the line is noisy or unstable ("Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?")

In video calls, you can still safely use もしもし in the second situation. In the first sense, and in a video call, I feel もしもし is probably not very common. Many people probably use other nonspecific greetings like おはようございます, どうも. But some people may use もしもし, and it's not that strange.
Answer: もしもし is a kind of signal to start talking, so it is not strange to start conversation with it. In this usage, it may be a bit strange on Skype.
もしもし is used if you want to make sure your conversation partner can hear you.
In this usage, you can say もしもし.
Answer: You definitely do use it on Skype, but only for audio only calls, not when you also have a video feed and can see the other person. It's usually followed by 聞こえますか? (can you hear me?) when on Skype. Normally on the phone you wouldn't bother asking 聞こえますか? after you say もしもし because もしもし is already intended to serve that purpose of signalling that you are on the line and are ready to talk but is the other person? But when it comes to Skype you get connection problems and problems with headsets not being configured right, so you tend to also add in 聞こえますか? to explicitly check if the other person can hear you. If it's a video call and you can see the other person just greet them like you would in person.

Do you also say 「もしもし」 on Skype?


Lumia 535 video audio fm sound stops suddenly

Question: My Lumia 535 video, audio, FM sound stops within 10 seconds from the start, when I am using use headset. My phone plays video,audio fine with the speakers. Problem occurs only when headset is used. Video, audio pauses when the sound stops if headset is used. Is it due to loose headset contact? I have tried 3 headsets, all having the same problem, the headsets are fine. It is really bothering me. Please help me.
Answer: The problem is not the headset as you have mentioned using 3 different headsets. The problem may be in your phones audio jack.
As far as I see any software errors such as turning on battery saver mode will affect playing music via speaker phone also.
The only viable solution may be to take your phone to nearest Service centre.


How can PDE matrices be identified?

Question: I need to include experimental results for lots of PDE (partial differential equation) matrices in my research work. How can I identify PDE matrices? For example, matrices in the UFL Sparse Matrix Collection.
Answer: For the UF sparse matrix collection, you can search for "PDE" in the keyword section and 8 results will appear. The notes section for many of the entries will indicate the provenance of the example.
Another strategy you can employ is to look at examples in packages like PETSc, FEniCS, deal.II, and others that are commonly used to solve PDEs. It should be possible to modify the code in these examples to write the coefficients of linear systems to disk to get additional examples of "PDE matrices".
Comment: Indeed, you could just take the example programs of deal.II and in the `solve()` function of each of them just do something along the lines of `system_matrix.print(std::cout);`.

How can PDE matrices be identified?


Vim: Terminal-to-terminal copy&paste?

Question: I am trying to copy a large block of code (with indentations preserved) from one vim terminal into another. I was wondering if there was a straightforward way to do this?
Would this be considered a vim functionality, or a property of the terminal?
Answer: A lot of things are missing from your question: Which terminal emulator do you use? On which platform? Is Vim compiled with clipboard support?
I'm on Ubuntu, running Vim 7.3 with clipboard support in Gnome Terminal so YMMV.
I'm able to select a block of code with V in one Vim instance in one terminal window and put it in another Vim instance in another terminal window simply with a middle-click. Without the mouse I'm able to yank the selection to the system clipboard with "*y in the first window and put with "*p in the second window.
You might need to do :set paste before pasting your code block and :set nopaste after.
Also, why do you use two different Vim instances in two different terminal windows when Vim has split windows buit-in?
Comment: WOW thanks a lot for all this information. Just wondering, but what do you mean by "clipboard support" and "system clipboard"?
Comment: Also, if you could let me know more about the Vim split-window thing that'd be really really helpful
Comment: Vim can be compiled with or without clipboard support: if "with", Vim is able to talk to the system's clipboard and you can yank/put stuff in and out of Vim to/from other apps. If "without", well you can't do any of it. You can check what options were used at compile time with `:version`: `+option` means it's available, `-option` means it's not. Try `:help clipboard` for more info.
Comment: Windows in Vim is too deep a topic for a SU comment. `s` or `:split` will split your window in two horizontally and `v` or `:vsplit` will split your window in two vertically. Use `hjkl` to navigate between window and so on. As usual, `:help window` is your friend.
Answer: You should be able to copy from one terminal holding Shift while marking with the mouse and pasting to the other terminal with either middle-click or Shift+insert.
Comment: That should work, too, but to preserve indentations, you'll need to execute `:set paste` in the target Vim before pasting.
Comment: Shift+"insert"? do you mean the button "insert"?
Comment: Correct; the insert button.
Answer: If you're using a standard terminal such as GNOME Terminal or xterm and a properly-configured Vim, this should just work. That is, you should be able to use your mouse to select the text you want to copy, then click the middle mouse button in the target Vim and the text will be pasted.
If the block is too large to be easily selected with the mouse, you can select the text from the keyboard instead. Move the cursor to the first line of the block, type V, move the cursor to the bottom of the block and type "*y. Then you can paste that text either with the mouse as before, or by typing "*p, or by executing
:put *

If this doesn't just work, the most likely reason is that the Vim you're using in a terminal was not compiled with support for X, so it can't communicate with the X server. You can find this out by executing
:echo has("x11") has("xterm_clipboard")

If your Vim was compiled with both of those features, the result will be "1 1".
If your Vim doesn't have those features but you have gvim installed, one solution is to run gvim in terminal mode as
gvim -v

Answer: There are several pieces to this puzzle that must work-together to make copy/paste work.
First, the "terminal" must have a way to exchange data from one session to another... Most of the time, this is handled by a GUI manager of some sort... (XORG/Windows/etc...) which implements some sort of "clipboard" functionality.
Second, the "terminal" application itself must be able to interact with whatever clipboard interface exists... to keep all "terminals" in sync...
Third, the shell (bash/ash/dash/csh/etc...) needs to be able to access the terminal's clipboard APIs...
Forth, VIM needs to make use of the clipboard APIs provided by the shell it's running in.
Any one of those failures can mean that your application can't make use of any sort of clipboard between terminals.
All that being said... there are some "standardized" API calls for the clipboard... so assuming each bit has done it's job properly, it should work.
Now... there are some handy tricks to simply get the job done without worrying about all the clipboard crap... which is probably what you want to begin with...
VIM will let you copy text and export it to a file and then on another console import the text from that file, and here's how:
First: make sure you're not in "edit" mode... (press escape key) and move the cursor to the place you want to start copying and press the v key.  Go to the end of what you want to select... and press y.
If you want to paste a copy in the same document at this point... just move the cursor to wherever and press p ... but since we're copying to another terminal, we'll need to open a new file someplace else to paste into... like this:
:e ~/temp-file

then press p to paste the text... :w to write it.  then do a :bp to close that temporary file & go back to the file you were working on...
Now, on the other terminal, simply go to the spot in the file you want to paste into (not in edit mode)... and do a :r ~/temp-file to read the contents of that file into your current document.  When you're all done... make sure to delete the temp file.

Vim: Terminal-to-terminal copy&paste?


Can I apply for Romanian and Bulgarian transit visas from Turkey as a non-resident?

Question: I'm a Saudi national. I will ship my bike to Turkey and travel to it by air. I will have a Turkish visa of course. I will then travel on road to Bulgaria aiming to reach Romania. Do I have to apply for visa prior to reaching there or I can get it on road from both borders? I will stay travelling for a month at the most.
Comment: Saudis need to get a visa to enter Bulgaria, and they need to apply for it beforehand.  You would be turned back if you tried asking for it at the border.  Also, you wouldn't qualify for a transit visa if you are travelling by road through the country. Same thing for Romania. So I am voting this as a duplicate.  The canonical points to the Bulgarian rules and Saudi nationals are included as a line item.
Comment: @GayotFow What do you mean with 'you need a Schengen visa'? Even if a Schengen visa with some exceptions entitles you to enter Romania and Bulgaria as well, another Schengen state is unlikely to issue a visa for travel only to Romania and/or Bulgaria (neither country is member of the Schengen area).
Comment: All part of the service. Please be careful, you have 3 questions and 3 flags against them. You may find yourself banned.  So read the FAQ if you think the site is something you want to use on a continuous basis.
Comment: "Also, you wouldn't qualify for a transit visa if you are travelling by road through the country. Same thing for Romania."
So, do you mean that also if I get the tourist visa for both countries I can't get through on road either?
Thank you for the answer.
Comment: The alleged duplicate question does not address peculiarities of this specific situation. It could be adequate for the OP to obtain a Bulgarian visa, since he might be allowed to enter Romania on a Bulgarian visa as well. Romania allows holder of Bulgarian visas to enter, but not the other way around.
Comment: Now I'm confused a bit. @Tor-Einar Jarnbjo says I can enter with a normal visa. And (Gayot Fow) said I need a Schengen visa. Can you guys clarify more please. To enter by road, to bulgaria, should I get a Schengen visa or a normal tourist visa?
Thank you guys for helping me. I really appreciate it.
Comment: @FaisalTM I am confused as well. Instead of answering my comment, Gayot Fow seem to have just deleted his incorrect comment. Unless the question is reopened, it is not possible for me to write a proper answer. I've flagged the question. Perhaps a moderator will take a look at it.
Comment: @FaisalTM, I don't think it's confusing, you have two options: [1] get a country specific visa for Bulgaria or [2] use an existing Schengen visa issued by one of the full member states.  Either one of these will work, not sure what Tor-Einar wants to give as an answer for other options, so let's wait and see...
Answer: Since 1 January 2007 the Republic of Bulgaria has been applying the European Union's Common Visa Policy, subject to the terms of the Accession Treaty. One thing that means is no distinct Transit visa (except for airport transit - Type A). So you need a Type C, Uniform Schengen Visa (short-term) for a short stay for the purpose of transit or a planned stay, unless exempt. I'm afraid Saudi nationals are not exempt.
Since as not a permanent resident you may have great difficulty† (in effect, the answer to your Title question is "no", not transit, not C) in applying for a visa while in Turkey you may want to apply through VFS-Global in Saudi Arabia, where you may choose from a centre in Riyadh or Jeddah. You may lodge an application up to three months in advance of the planned time of your arrival at the Bulgarian border.
For Romania you would have completed all the hard work:

The holders of visas or residence permits issued by Bulgaria, Cyprus or Croatia.

are excused a Romanian visa.
The above assumes your time in Bulgaria and Romania will be less than 90 days - and does not consider how you might be returning from Romania.
† see
Answer: You will only need a Bulgarian OR Romanian visa, NOT both. Apply through the country you'll be spending the most time in.
As stated by Timatic, the database used by airlines, about Bulgaria:

Visa required, except for passengers with a C visa issued by
  Croatia, Cyprus, Romania or a Schengen Member State
  valid for the period of intended stay. They are
  visa exempt for a maximum stay of 90 days

And for Romania:

Visa required, except for passengers with a C visa issued by
  Bulgaria, Croatia or Cyprus valid for the period of intended
  stay. They are visa exempt for a maximum stay of 90 days.

Visas are only issued at the border if you need to enter for an important emergency (such as a funeral), didn't have the time to get a visa in advance, and can prove it.
In addition, the Bulgarian embassy requires you to be a Turkish resident. The Romanian consulate doesn't say anything on their website about this, but it may well be the same there.
As such, it is strongly recommended for you to get the visa (either Bulgarian or Romanian) before leaving Saudi


ethers gone after restarting ethereum mint

Question: I was mining on test-net miner and was trying to send ether to coinbase for the first time just to test a transaction but the transaction never sent and is still showing pending transaction. After restarting ethereum mint all the ethers are gone, all of this happened while the nodes were not fully synced it was syncing for a couple of days and still not done yet. Are my ethers really gone, can I still retrieve them? if I check my balance on etherscan.io it says balance 0.. I am not sure if my address has changed or not I did not keep track.
Answer: Ether from Test-Nets cannot be sent to accounts on the main net, where the coinbase accounts are running on.
Successfully mining a block means having it confirmed by the network, and this is unlikey to happen if you mined it while not fully synced yet. So keep in mind: Sync first, then mine, and do not mix up test-nets with the main net.
Comment: I was synched at one point that's why start mining was available,  is there a way to move mined eth balance to other accounts on the main net?
Comment: It is not possible to move ETH between different networks. However, of course you can transfer ETH between accounts on the same network. I hope this answers your question.


Camellia Key Schedule

Question: Camellia is widely used, an international standard now. Its key schedule seems to be too simple compared to other famous ciphers like Twofish and CAST-256. What are the prerequisites for the key schedule, and does Camellia's key schedule have them?
Answer: This question and answer covers the requirements of a key schedule.
I could not find a simpler description of Camellia then this rfc
The following excerpt outlines the key schedule. Addressing only the 128 bit cipher for simplicity:

128-bit key K:

KL = K;    KR = 0;
...

The 128-bit variables KA and KB are generated from KL and KR as
follows.  Note that KB is used only if the length of the secret key
is 192 or 256 bits.  D1 and D2 are 64-bit temporary variables.  F-
function is described in Section 2.4.

   D1 = (KL ^ KR) >> 64;

   D2 = (KL ^ KR) & MASK64;
   D2 = D2 ^ F(D1, Sigma1);
   D1 = D1 ^ F(D2, Sigma2);
   D1 = D1 ^ (KL >> 64);
   D2 = D2 ^ (KL & MASK64);
   D2 = D2 ^ F(D1, Sigma3);
   D1 = D1 ^ F(D2, Sigma4);
   KA = (D1 << 64) | D2;
   ...

The 64-bit constants Sigma1, Sigma2, ..., Sigma6 are used as "keys"
in the F-function.  These constant values are, in hexadecimal
notation, as follows.

Sigma1 = 0xA09E667F3BCC908B;

Sigma2 = 0xB67AE8584CAA73B2;
Sigma3 = 0xC6EF372FE94F82BE;
Sigma4 = 0x54FF53A5F1D36F1C;
Sigma5 = 0x10E527FADE682D1D;
Sigma6 = 0xB05688C2B3E6C1FD;

64-bit subkeys are generated by rotating KL, KR, KA, and KB and
taking the left- or right-half of them.

It appears the first part of the key schedule is a Feistel network as well: The right half is combine via XOR with F(left half, key), using a constant (SigmaN) for each of the keys. Then this process continues alternated, and some key additions are applied.
Actual round subkeys are generated via simple rotations of the result of the above. So recovery of one subkeys bits provides partial knowledge of the bits of other round subkeys.
This would appear to classify as a type "1B" key schedule, according to the classification system presented in this paper.
The strongest key schedule classification is "2B". For more details on the classification and what exactly it indicates, consult the paper linked at the top of this answer.
Answer: The aim of key schedule design is to prevent key-based attacks such as :

related-key attack 1: the attack is not possible due to rotations in the key schedule . The best best related-key differential characteristic  byte-Camellia is 20 active s-boxes on 8 rounds (out of ) 2.
slide attack , rotational attack 1: they are not possible because of constants in the key schedule (6 sigmas).
whitening (pre and post) 3: the aim of whitening is to strengthen against brute force attacks 4.

The Camellia algorithm uses $FL$ and $FL^{-1}$ to prevent connection of weak sub-keys between rounds in differential and linear cryptanalysis as shown in comparison of the number of active boxes  with/without $FL$ and $FL^{-1}$. it is has also complementary property.
In general , I do not think Camellia key schedule is too simple,. it does the job along with other considerations such implementation on multiple platforms
Comment: I don't believe whitening (as traditionally used in block ciphers) is intended to strengthen against brute force attacks. As the Wikipedia page you link to even states, most modern ciphers re-use existing parts of the key for whitening, which does not strengthen against brute force attacks but can resist cryptanalysis.

Camellia Key Schedule


How do you deal with you losing your concentration

Question: How do you do deal, with losing your concentration during a chess match? Then making a bad blunder? I constantly lose concentration.
Comment: In OVB or online? Which format?
Comment: The games are usually online.
Comment: What's the usual time control? Are these like 5 minute games, or longer ones, like 30 minutes?
Comment: 30 minutes, I tend not to be able to properly put up a fight in 5 minute matches. Whereas, I don't use the time up in the 30 minutes, I constantly lose my attention, then get beat. At the start of the match, I feel concentrated, then just lose it.
Comment: Either more coffee or less coffee depending on the cause.
Comment: I feel your pain. As a sufferer of misophonia, and a club player, I'm in the unfortunate situation that my club often offer tea and biscuits to players about one hour into matches. I usually play well until all the crunching starts, and often blunder soon after.
Answer: I started writing this before your comment that it is online chess. My answer is geared more toward over-the-board tournament chess. I will add a little blurb specifically about online chess at the bottom, but a lot of this applies to both.
There is a lot to your question. Primarily how you deal with it comes down to experience and practice. The unfortunate part is that everyone gets that experience all too often. The initial key to not getting into that situation as often is to try to stay calm and relaxed when you play, and use your time wisely, and do not get into deep time trouble.
The first question is how bad is the error? If it is bad enough that you lose the game, you have to just put it behind you, and prepare mentally for the next game. I find that while I take the game seriously, because it is not my profession, I do not take it too seriously, and therefore, I can put it behind me easily. Do not beat yourself up over something that you can no longer control.
If it is a mistake during the game, and not so bad that you lose, that is different. It is important to mention that sometimes you will make a losing mistake that is not obvious to your opponent, but you see it. It is important to keep an absolute poker face so you do not clue your opponent in that there is something there. When you make that type of error that you have to get in the habit of buckling down and trying that much harder at the board until the end of the game. Staying as positive as possible is important.
Other ways you can cut down on such "accidents" are making sure that you sleep and eat well. I would be careful of eating a lot of carbohydrates, or you might go into a fog that I call a "carb coma". I also think that reading short exciting games without a board, but absolutely keeping the position in your head, will help your concentration before you even sit down at the board.
For online chess, you will lose games…a lot of games, but they really do not matter much, so put it behind you, and click rematch, and move on to the next game.
In the end, practice, practice, practice.  Good luck!
Comment: +1 for Do not beat yourself up over something that you can no longer control. because that's not just an over-the-board chess thing, not just a chess thing, but a life thing.
Comment: For the kiddies modern technology such as tv with commercials all the  time and short attention between them trains them to be UNable to sit and focus for long times.  Being addicted to social media and cell phones also exacerbates the problem.
Comment: I agree with PhishMaster on "reading short exciting games without a board" my  practice is to attempt to follow variations in my head even when I have a board and only use the board when I get lost.
Answer: First and most important is Your physical form.
That's where most opinions on chess and good chess players are wrong - all top chess players take care of their physical form - very popular are swimming, tennis, table-tennis, football(soccer for Americans).
Also you have to sleep well, enough but not too much. Don't eat too much before game - also makes you sleepy. In classic game stand-up and have a walk every now and then to make blood circulate.
Being fit helps you to keep concentration.


Get sent emails copy in inbox

Question: In Gmail, whenever I send an email I want to get a copy of the message that I sent in my inbox, 100% of the time. How can I do this?
Answer: You can set up a filter for messages sent from: [yourself], and check Never send it to spam.
This will put all sent emails in your inbox automatically.
Comment: This is the best solution here by far. In fact, I had done this but did not realise it was the reason my sent emails were in my inbox, which i really like as I had made the filter for another reason.  All the above work-arounds are not as good as this one.
Comment: Appreciate this answer! :)
Comment: Do you mean to put the literal string "[yourself]" into the Filter "From" box?  Because that seems wrong, at least in the web app.  Using a value of "me" makes marginally more sense, maybe, or did you mean that your actual email address(es) should go here?
Comment: Update: "me" seems to work.  Alternatively you can start in the search bar with "from:me".
Comment: I'd guess they meant actual email address. I found this post because I'd set my own email address as never to go to spam, having used a different mail server to send email from my own email address and having had to dig it out of spam. Getting a copy of every sent item in my inbox as a result wasn't what I expected.
Comment: I don't know why, but it works! Checked against GSuite.
Answer: I have not found a way to add the inbox label to all outgoing messages. But you can use "multiple inboxes" to get sent mail to the top of the window

Go to settings/Labs and select "Multiple inboxes"
Save Changes
You should now see a "Multiple inboxes" tab in settings.
GMail will let you specify a search query. In the first box enter "is:Sent Mail" without the quotes.
Set the maximum page size to a larger number. It didn't complain about using 50, but I don't know if there is a maximum value.
Optional: Set "Extra panels positioning" to Above the inbox. This will put the "Sent Mail" label above the main inbox.
Save changes

There may be a couple of second lag the first time you go back to the main page, becuse it has to execute the new query.
It does the job with a couple of issues:

Each inbox has its own < and > button to move through the list
Each inbox has its own "view all" button which jumps you to the label
The gear button is only on the tool bar above the main inbox section.
Answer: As a previous person answered, create a filter on emails sent from your email address. For the action, select 'Never send to Spam'. I do not know why the person was downvoted, but I have used this technique with no problems for years. I just set up a new account and verified that it continues to function as before.
Comment: Previous person? who? This should be a comment on the answer you are referring.
Answer: You can't mess with the default inbox view, unfortunately.
My solution was to search for: "in:inbox OR is:sent", then bookmark that URL.  You will notice that by default, the regular emails have the "Inbox" label, and the sent emails lack the label.
Answer: Not sure, if Gmail has a tool for that but i just sent the copy of the message back to me using the Add Bcc in the compose window.

Get sent emails copy in inbox