How can I get public files path in javascript files?

Question: I want to display files present in the public folder(sites/default/files). So in the module file when I click on a link it will call to js function, How can I get all file names which are present in the public folder in js file.
Comment: Why don't you just point to that exactly file instead of trying to get all the files present in that folder?
Comment: Means, full path to that files.? How can I hyperlink to the path while displaying the file names. I am displaying something like this,  $data .= '' ."--". $filenames .''; so how can i  give full path in backend.
Answer: It depends where you are storing all your files, to use the base url of your site you need to do this:
<code>$base_url."/sites/default/files/xxx.jpg"
</code>
If your files are inside some theme:
<code>$base_url."/".drupal_get_path('theme', 'name_theme')."/images/xxx.png
</code>
If you are using files with public://, use this:
<code>$uri = $your_file_name; // Example "public://xxx"
$path= file_create_url($uri);
</code>
I hope it works in your case
Comment: Thank you, It works fine. your solution will display the full content of the file in browser, but how can I get the popup asking that save file or open file??
Comment: No problem, if you are using HTML5 on your site you can use this tag:
Comment: This will open in new tab, but I want to show the popup before displaying the file content. Just now i have asked question please refer this url: http://drupal.stackexchange.com/questions/210829/how-to-show-popup-for-save-or-view-the-file
Comment: you can't really accomplish this, you can force the tag "a" to do either one way or another, but not both, because it depends on the plugins and components of the user that has installed in his computer
Comment: I thinks that depends upon file extension. Because for .csv files it will show popup, nut for .xml,.txt it will not show the popup. So you know how can show that popup to here also?


Symmetry of the Polyakov action?

Question: Let us look at the Polyakov action for a string moving in a spacetime with metric $g_{\mu \nu}(X)$:$$S_P = -{1\over{4\pi \alpha'}} \int d^2 \sigma \sqrt{-\gamma} \gamma^{ab} \partial_a X^\mu \partial_b X^\nu g_{\mu\nu}(X) \tag{1}$$ and suppose there exists a Killing vector $k_\mu$ in spacetime satisfying Killing's equation
$$\nabla_\mu k_\nu + \nabla_\nu k_\mu = 0.\tag{2}$$
Does this lead to a symmetry of the Polyakov action?
Answer: The answer is: Yes, the Polyakov action is invariant under a Killing symmetry in the target space.

Hints: Perform an infinitesimal variation
$$ \delta X^{\mu}~=~\varepsilon K^{\mu}(X) \tag{A} $$
in the target space along the Killing vector field. Here $\varepsilon$ is an infinitesimal parameter.
Show that the induced metric
$$ (X^{\ast}G)_{ab}~:=~\partial_a X^{\mu} ~\partial_b X^{\nu}~ G_{\mu\nu}(X)\tag{B} $$
is invariant under the infinitesimal variation (A)
$$  \delta(X^{\ast}G)_{ab}~=~0.\tag{C}  $$
Conclude that the Polyakov action is invariant as well.
Further hints to eq. (C): Use that
$$ \partial_a \delta X^{\lambda} ~=~ \varepsilon\partial_a X^{\mu}~\partial_{\mu}K^{\lambda}, \qquad \delta G_{\mu\nu}~=~\varepsilon K^{\lambda}~\partial_{\lambda}G_{\mu\nu}.\tag{D}$$
It is easier to use the Lie derivative definition of a Killing vector field
$$0~=~({\cal L}_K G)_{\mu\nu}~=~ K^{\lambda}~\partial_{\lambda}G_{\mu\nu} + \partial_{\mu}K^{\lambda}~G_{\lambda\nu}+G_{\mu\lambda}~\partial_{\nu}K^{\lambda} \tag{E} $$
rather than the equivalent eq. (2).
Answer: Killing vector fields correspond to infinitesimal isometry generators of the spacetime manifold and any physical action including the Polyakov action should be preserved under it. In fact, any physical action should be invariant under the (infinitely) larger group of diffeomorphisms of a manifold. Isomotry transformations are just a finite subset of these diffeomorphisms.

Symmetry of the Polyakov action?


How to define a good highlight face

Question: I would like to use global-hl-line-mode, but some of my themes lack a good highlight face. Is there a general way to define one (that's not inverse-color)? I would like to maintain syntax highlighting, which has broken in my attempts.
Comment: What exactly do you mean by "way to define"? Are you asking about suggestions for the appearance? About how to define a face that gives a given appearance? About how to make a face definition supersede the effect of a theme's face definitions? Have you tried customizing the face used by `global-hl-line-mode`? In sum, please specify the question more clearly - it will help people help you.
Answer: This is really a matter of opinion, but I have always found that that making the hl-line have a slightly darker background than the default is best.

I would like to maintain syntax highlighting, which has broken in my attempts.

If you want to maintain syntax highlighting, make sure that hl-line face's :foreground attribute is nil, then set the :background attribute to what you want.
Here is what it looks like for me with these settings:
(set-face-attribute 'default nil :background "gray15")
(set-face-attribute 'hl-line nil :foreground nil :background "gray5")

By the sound of it, you don't want hard coded colors because you will be changing themes. You can have emacs automatically set the :background of the hl-line face to a color slightly darker than the current default :background like this:
(require 'color)

(defun set-hl-line-color-based-on-theme ()
  "Sets the hl-line face to have no foregorund and a background
    that is 10% darker than the default face's background."
  (set-face-attribute 'hl-line nil
                      :foreground nil
                      :background (color-darken-name (face-background 'default) 10)))

(add-hook 'global-hl-line-mode-hook 'set-hl-line-color-based-on-theme)

This will set the face's background to a color 10% darker than the default background anytime you enable global-hl-line-mode

How to define a good highlight face


Conditional Maximum Likelihood - How is marginal probability of inputs are independent of the parameter we are estimating?

Question: I am reading "A Primer in Econometric Theory" by John Stachurski and reading the part on Conditional Maximum Likelihood. There I have seen the same kind of maximization I have seen before in other sources too: In order to estimate the parameter of a distribution, author uses conditional maximum likelihood  and he does not take into account the marginal density of inputs when maximizing the objective function. I have seen it being done before, but he openly says marginal density is independent of the parameter we are estimating. Let me explain what I am asking:
Suppose we have inputs and outputs in our model, $x$ being the input and $y$ being the output: $x_1, x_2$...$x_N$ and $y_1, y_2$...$y_N$. They come in pairs. Each observation $x_i$ is probably a vector but $y_i$ is just a scalar. Our pair is $(x_i, y_i)$. Our aim is to estimate $\theta$ in $p(y|x;\theta)$ in order to pin down the conditional density of $y$ given $x$.
So we maximize the following condition:
$l(\theta) = \sum_{n=1}^{N}\text{ln}\,p(x_n,y_n;\theta)$ where $p$ is the joint density of $(x_n,y_n)$.
Letting $\pi$ be the marginal density of $x$, we can decompose the joint density as:
$p(x,y;\theta) = p(y|x;\theta)\pi(x)$.
Here author says the following:
"The density $\pi(x)$ is unknown but we have not parameterized it because we aren't trying to estimate it. We can now rewrite the log likelihood as
$l(\theta) = \sum_{n=1}^{N}\text{ln}\,p(y_n|x_n;\theta) + \sum_{n=1}^{N}\text{ln}\,\pi(x_n)$
The second term on the right-hand side is independent of $\theta$ and as such it does not affect the maximizer"
And he goes on just maximizing the first part, the conditional probability.
Here is my question: Is not $\pi(x)$ dependent on $\theta$ somehow? My thinking is convoluted but both $p(y|x;\theta)$ and $\pi(x)$ are derived from the same underlying joint density: $p(x, y;\theta)$. $\pi(x)$ is just a short hand for
$\pi(x) = \int p(x,y;\theta)dy$ which is clearly dependent on $\theta$. Once you plug this into your maximization problem, it becomes:
$l(\theta) = \sum_{n=1}^{N}\text{ln}\,p(y_n|x_n;\theta) + \sum_{n=1}^{N}\text{ln}\,\int p(x,y;\theta)dy$
Now the second item is also dependent on $\theta$ and need to be taken into account when maximizing wrt $\theta$. Am I missing something here?
Thanks
Answer: It really depends on the way you set up your model. For example, this is a perfectly valid model:
$$
X \sim N(0, \sigma^2) \\
Y|X \sim N( \mu, \gamma^2)
$$
Then, we may write $\theta = (\sigma^2, \mu, \gamma^2)$ and so:
$$
p(X,Y;\theta) = p(Y|X;\theta)p(X;\theta) = p(Y|X; \mu, \gamma^2) p(X|\sigma^2)
$$


Passagio Points & Vocal Breaks

Question: What the purpose of a singer or vocalist knowing the different breaks in their passagio. Does knowing your passagio points reveal what voice you're in?
Answer: Knowing where the breaks between the passagi exist means a singer can match their range to the tessitura of a song, so it can all be sung in a key that works best. It may be that the singer wants the same tone all through, or possibly wants the higher notes using a different voice, at which point, the key for the piece may be a tone or two higher than the first example. Ease of singing and vocal tone.
Answer: The locations of the breaks can hint at what your ideal voice type might be.  The concept of a "voice type" is somewhat arbitrary but generally seeks to classify singers with other similar sounding singers, either by vocal colour, effective vocal range, technical abilities (read: speed on melismas or trills, etc), or some combination of the three (among other things).  One ideally wants to sing in a range that is comfortable and that allows the voice to sound the same throughout the entire vocal range.  Knowing where one's passagio(i) is/are helps one technically, but indicating where in the range one needs to "prepare" for the break by bringing in some of the vocal sound from the "other side of the break" to smooth out the transition and eliminate any jumps or bumps in the sound.  In addition, greater airflow is often required around the break to assist in this transition.  The position of the break is not a hard and fast determinate of your voice type, and only by working with a skilled voice teacher can you ultimately find the voice type best suited to your instrument.  The big thing to remember here is that voice type is almost exclusively used to classify singers for opera roles.  Outside of the opera world, you just sing whatever you sound good at - and that might mean singing pieces from more than one voice type sometimes - especially if your voice sits "in between" traditional opera voice types.
Comment: If it seems like I ignored the classifications of "Soprano", "Alto/Mezzo", "Tenor","Bass" it's because those are pretty vague classifications.  Because you might be a "Lyric Baritone" - which might mean that sometimes you might sing with the Tenors in a choir, and sometimes with the basses.  And with respect to Broadway stuff, anyone who isn't a deep bass is called a Tenor - and most roles are just the high baritone range of traditional classical classification....soo.....work with a good teacher to find your best fit!

Passagio Points & Vocal Breaks


What Freshwater Fish Are Affected By Magnetic Fields

Question: I am interested in knowing which freshwater fish are affected by magnetic fields.  I've heard that Lake Sturgeon are, but would like more references. This is for a project that will have buried 3 phase power cables.
Answer:
Sockeye salmon species definitely do, although admittedly the interesting salmon are those that spend significant time in the ocean.
Here's some evidence that carp can.
Raindbow trout are also capable.
Zebrafish are also able.
Japanese eels too, of which some are freshwater.


Lightning Conductor Working

Question: During a thunderstorm charges collect on clouds until a field which is more than the air's dielectric strength is created. Because now there is a potential difference between the ground (0 Volts) and the clouds, electric current flows through the now conducting air. If there is a building, it is conducting and thus at same potential as the earth - as is its lightning conductor. So when there exists a potential difference between the clouds, and the lightning conductor and building both, why does current only flow through the former? My teacher said it's because the lightning conductor is closer to the clouds, so the resistance of the conducting medium air (which is proportional to length) is lesser, the current that flows through to the conductor is greater so it conducts away most of the charge. But the conductor is not very much closer to the cloud as compared to the building - it's only a bit taller. Also the charges on the cloud I think are too high to be conducted away quickly by just the conductor so none are left over for the building to conduct - the charges will I think (if this were the real explanation) flow through both the same time and not wait till most was conducted away by the conductor. What exactly is the working of a lightning conductor?
Comment: resistance of lightning rod is also much lower than building materials. there is also active models which senses charge buildup and uses opposite charge to increase the probability of lightning striking the rod http://www.google.com/patents/US6980410
Answer: The lightning conductor provides a very low resistance path between the top of the lightning conductor rod via a substantial strip of metal to the ground so that the current as a result of a lightning strike does not flow through the building to which it is attached.
However that is not the end of the story in that the electrical length of the lightning conductor rod can be thought of a being larger than its physical length.
A large electric field will make air become a conductor and the electric field around sharp objects is larger than that where the surface is flatter.
Around the top of a pointed lightning conductor rod charges are induced by the charge on the clouds above.
When the induced charge is sufficiently large the air around the point of the lightning conductor becomes conducting thus extending the effective length of the conducting path of the lightning conductor.
Modern lightning conductor rods are now made with slightly rounded points because it has been found that although the electric field produced by a charged rounded point as compared with a changed sharp point is smaller the region over which the air is a conductor is larger.  So air is conducting over a larger distance above the lightning conductor rod.
Of course the ionisation of the air around a lightning conductor rod increases the chances of lightning striking the rod but that is considered to be safer to have the lightning conductor rod than just allowing the lightning strike in a more random fashion.
There is another benefit of the lightning conductor rod in that in making the air around it a conductor it can thus contribute to the discharge of the clouds without lightning being produced and so reduce the chances of a lightning strike..
Answer: I calculated it.As you may know it is because of different resistance that building and  conductor have.
what your teacher said is true but not effective really.
Answer: The highly charged clouds, charged with high density of electrons on the outer layers of the clouds (in ionised state), induce opposite charge around the lightning conductor almost equally opposite to the potential of charge in the cloud.  This makes the lightning to get attracted towards the accumulated opposite charges around the lightning conductor, which, in a way, creates a virtual path for the lightning to drain out the high potential electric charge along the conductor.

Lightning Conductor Working


MacOS utility similar to Vim's Leader

Question: One of the things I love about Vim is the leader key and the ability to create macros with it. The leader key concept is that it is a hotkey (I use ) that initiates a command based on the next keystrokes entered. It's very similar to a multi-key shortcut except the keys are not pressed together and the sequence of keys is what matters.
For example, I can set ,o,f to "Open File". Then I would press and release , then press and release 'o', then press and release 'f' and it would display an "open file" dialog. I find this much easier than remembering sometimes arbitrary shortcuts. For instance, I can use ,c,f to close a file and ,n,f for New file. Using sequences of keys opens up many more options to find something intuitive.
I bet a lot of people are wondering what about when you want to use the spacebar. I would set ^ or something as the leader key. Similar to how CMD brings up Spotlight.
Is there any utility for MacOS which allows me to specify such keystrokes to arbitrary commands? Keyboard Maestro looks very powerful but I haven't found a way to combine their triggers.
Answer: I found a few ways to do this with Keyboard Maestro. The best way I found so far is to assign all of my macros to use the hotkey I want to use for the leader key. When KM detects a conflict with the hotkey, it brings up a conflict palette which lets me narrow down the number of macros by typing them. Pretty neat

MacOS utility similar to Vim's Leader


Cohen's d for 2x2 interaction

Question: I have a significant 2x2 interaction in a between-subjects design.  I would normally report omega-squared as my effect-size measure, but I've been asked to provide Cohen's d instead?  Can Cohen's d be computed for an interaction?  If so, how?
Answer: You can translate pretty much any of the effect sizes to Cohen's d, so start with omega and work your way over.  Equations are available for them all online... the wikipedia page for effect size is good for this.
In your particular case though you can get a numerator for cohen's d as (a1 - b1) - (a2 - b2).  That's the simple effect of a 2x2 interaction with, a and b as the variables (e.g. sex and handedness) and the numbers are levels of the variables (e.g. male / female and left / right).  Your denominator is just the square root of the MSE from the ANOVA*.
*assuming homogeneity of variance
Comment: I think that a more appropriate effect size is $d=((a1-b1)-(a2-b2))/2\sigma$, where $\sigma$ is the RMSE, as I explain in my answer here: http://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/179098/cohens-d-for-2x2-anova-interaction/179102#179102
Comment: Your answer might be handy for power calculations but that's not what Cohen's d is for. It's for equivalent interpretation of effects. Cohen never specified the math, only that it be counted as number of standard deviations and your version of it does not do that. Your d for an interaction will violate the consistency of interpretation that is the entire purpose for the *standardized* measure. You might want to look at the arguments for and against different ds for effect sizes in repeated measures design to get a flavour of the problem you're introducing.
Comment: Actually I think you have it exactly backwards: the effect size that I define is comparable in size/interpretation to the classical definition of d, as well as to how d is typically defined for main effects in the 2x2 context (where one typically ignores the other factor in computing d), while yours is not. See my arguments that I linked to at the bottom of my post. One of the big issues is that, unless you divide by an additional factor of 2 to account for there being twice as many means, then the variance of this measure differs from the classical d, rendering it on a different scale.
Comment: It was never about the variance of `d`. You might want to vet this argument a different way than the comments on an answer. Perhaps construct your own question about it. That seems the best idea.

Cohen's d for 2x2 interaction


Why is "idea" sometimes pronounced as "idear"?

Question: I know that idea is pronounced as /aɪˈdiə/, but I've meet several people in real life who put an 'r' at the end of the word. How come?
Comment: Because they're from Massachusetts.
Comment: The Wikipedia link from elsewhere on this page deserves a more prominent placement: [Linking and intrusive R](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R)
Comment: I had a math professor who pronounced "alpha" and "beta" as "alpher" and "bay-ter."
Comment: I was asking this myself, too, but not with people rather from UK than from Massachusetts.
Comment: @ThomasAndrews For the record, in BE "beta" is pronounced as "beeta", with the long e.
Answer: In practically all dialects of (British) English, the word "idea" would generally be followed by an 'r' sound when followed by another word beginning with a vowel. So for example in saying "it was his idea and decision", this would usually be pronounced "idea-r-and decision". The phenomenon occurs in many places where you have a word ending in a vowel followed by another word beginning with a vowel and they are 'closely linked' syntactically, e.g. "law-r-and order", "Canada-r-and America", "he took the law-r-into his own hands" etc.
This occurs essentially because it's a natural phenomenon of language to have some strategy for 'linking' words together. These strategies tend to make it more likely for syllables to have a consonant in their onset, and there's some evidence that languages universally "prefer" this. French has a similar phenomenon involving 'latent' consonants (principally [z]), Spanish allows vowels to 'merge' into the same syllable, etc.
Update: there seems to be some disagreement about the exact extent of this phenomenon. In his article in the Blackwell Handbook of English Linguistics, Michael MacMahon (2008) describes it as:

"now very common in many accents of non-rhotic British English"

though without giving any actual data. Gick (1999), one of the articles referenced by the Wikipedia entry mentioned in Peter Shor's comment below, observes:

"[...] the available data, which has centred almost exclusively on only two dialects: Southern British Received Pronunciation [...] and the dialect of eastern Massachusetts [..]. No other r-intruding dialects have been described which provide evidence bearing conclusively on the controversy."

However, I think by "the controversy" here, the author means "how the phenomenon is to be analysed phonologically" rather than whereabouts the phenomenon actually occurs. What seems to have happened is a few studies have focussed on certain specific dialects, but we shouldn't conclude from that that the phenomenon occurs only in those dialects.
Comment: In my idiolect, this is not true, and I don't know anybody who uses an *r* as an interfix between words. I am confident that this is not a feature in practically all dialects of English.
Comment: This only happens with some non-rhotic accents. Those of England, New England, New York and Australia, in particular. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linking_and_intrusive_R#Linking_R) says that linking and intrusive 'r's do not occur in the non-rhotic accents of the American South, and I think they only occur in rhotic accents in regions (like Boston) where people are accustomed to hearing non-rhotic accents.
Comment: I don't think this is true. Is it possibly regional?
Comment: I thought that it was a very general mistake of Danes when they speak English. Alas, I have heard Alan Moore pronounce it as "idea-r"! It may be a British dialect but how it made its way to Denmark still baffles me.
Comment: Sorry, I think you may be right that I need to retract that slightly: it's common in practically all dialects of *British* English, but I think you could be right that it's not so common in e.g. the US, where a glottal stop would maybe be more common as the 'liaison consonant'.
Comment: @Neil: The liaison consonant, if there is one, is usually a glottal stop after /ɔ/ or /ə/ in the U.S. (There isn't always one, for example, in the word *drawing*.)
Comment: To keep ID and idea apart?  "Show me your idea and I'll let you go," the police officer said. Freddy showed him how he thought the burglar opened the door, after which he could go home."
Answer: Adding r's to the end of words is something odd I first noticed as a child with my grandmother.  Idea became "idear," "Ella" became "Eller," etc. I assumed it to be part of her Southern upbringing until I heard Billy Joel sing about "Brender and Eddie" in the "Ballad of Brenda and Eddie" segment of his "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant."  Apparently this goes up into Maine!
This most likely has its roots in hypercorrection.  Much as some Cockneys began to worry about "dropping their h's" such that some adding them to the beginnings of words that actually do start with vowels, one can observe that R's are dropped at the ends of most words in Received Pronunciation British English.  Accents from the Atlantic states, whether Northern or Southern, ultimately derive from England, and so this probably originated with people from less literate times adding r's in their heads to words that didn't actually end with them.  After all, they were used to not hearing the final consonant in plenty of words that actually DO end in r's.
Comment: It's conservation of r's. People who pahk their cah in the Hahvard yahd must name their daughters Leaser and Linder.
Comment: I've no idea if it's true or not, but I really like the *hypercorrection* hypothesis!
Comment: I've just watched an interview with Jon Anderson (from legendary British band Yes), and he was using "Idears" at least ten times in ten minutes.
Comment: The word *idear* seems to be singled out for hypercorrection. My hypothesis about this is that the phrase *"idea of"* occurs [so often](http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/graph?content=idea%2C+idea+of&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3) in English that people with non-rhotic accents are used to pronouncing an 'r' at the end of idea, because there is an intusive 'r' in the phrase *"idea(r) of"*.
Comment: @DavidSchwartz That is so funny and clever! Wow. I can't stop laughing!
Answer: It's likely because those speakers have pronounced rhotic accents, which means that they generate an 'r' sound as part of certain vowels.
Edit: It's also common in non-rhotic accents to have an 'r' appear in certain circumstances. I just realised that I say "idears" not "ideas".
Comment: @Neil Coffey: You'll find a lot of people in the west country who would put an r anywhere it can possibly fit.
Comment: As far as I'm aware, speakers of rhotic accents like non-rhotic speakers wouldn't put an -r at the end of "idea" as a blanket pronunciation, but would in cases of liaison a I mention, e.g. "idea-r-and decision" (just like other speakers).
Comment: @Marcin Indeed.  I heard a radio ad for a car warsh last time I drove through Montana.
Comment: @Mootinator: Car warsh (rhymes with Porsche) is a special case ... it's a Midwestern pronunciation which I think has nothing to do with idear (a New York/New England pronunciation).
Comment: @Marcin, I was thinking of the same thing. I grew up in Indiana with family in KY and TN. I would have spelled "wash" and "Washington" as "warsh" and "Warshington" based only on what I heard.
Comment: Is this anything more than just repeating the observation that prompted the question?
Comment: Why yes, it is.


trac: modification roadmap thru style.css doesn't work

Question: I'd like to add new group on the trac roadmap progress bar. To do this I've modified trac.ini file with:
# Definition of an 'rejected' group:
rejected = rejected
rejected.order = 2
rejected.css_class = my
rejected.label = rejected

where I've associated to css_class atribute value my.
Next I've created style.css file with one line only:
table.progress td.my { background: blue; }

The file style.css is read however the colour is not applied.
When I change back to the default one i.e.
rejected.css_class = new

the progress bar is updated and displaying yellow colour as expected.
However, it not displaying when I use
rejected.css_class = my

Any ides why?
Answer: Remember that CSS styles will override each other depending on the order in which they are encountered.  The page may be loading your custom style correctly, but if another stylesheet is loaded after your style.css and that stylesheet includes any styles that conflict with yours, then the later stylesheet will override yours.  Double-check that your custom stylesheet is being included and isn't being silently overridden by another stylesheet (I find the Firebug plugin for Firefox to be helpful in tracking down these sorts of issues).
Answer: First, for reference, the authoritative documentation on the subject is in trac.edgewall.org's wiki.
Now, did you try with other color expressions, like the common hex values, i.e. #BAE0BA (green Trac default for closed)? You could even try to set the full range of values for the background key like none repeat scroll 0 0 #BAE0BA.


Is storing URL-encoded text in the database a good idea?

Question: I need to store (possibly long) text in a MySQL database. The text may contain special characters and non-latin letters and it should be possible to perform full-text-search on it. MySQL 5 can't store such characters (but it will be possible in MySQL 6), so I though about URL-encoding the text before storing it and decoding it after fetching it.
Do you think it is a good idea? Did anyone do something like that? Do you have alternative solutions?
Answer: Why not use Unicode, encoded with UTF8 - MySQL 5 supports it
Comment: Because some of the problematic characters are not UTF-8, but UTF-16, which MySQL 5 doesn't support.
When trying to store such characters through JDBC they are stored as '?' and when trying to do it through MySQL Administrator it throws an exception.
Answer: Not a bad idea.
Rather than (only) decoding after fetching, you should also plan for a process to url-encode any search terms prior to building the search query. If your app-side logic has usage functions which filter all data through the encoding/decoding process, then you shouldn't have any misusage slip through the cracks.
Also, is it possible that a VARBINARY data type would dodge the problem? (I could Google this part myself, but it's late and I'm sleepy. Just helping brainstorm, bedtime now.)
Comment: You're right about the need to come up with a way to encode/decode everything, I'll think about a way to implement it.

I thought about using VARBINARY and BLOB fields, but it's not possible to do full text search on these types.
Answer: MySQL's Unicode full text search is smart enough to search for related characters like "á" and "ä" when searching for "a". So, I'd not store URL encoded text, but use MySQL's options.


How to include packages into my configuration?

Question: a total newb when it comes to spacemacs. Firstly I just want to get spacemacs to work properly and I have the issues regarding the missing wrapping feature like in the following link (Make visual-line-mode more compatible with org-mode). So now I tried out some things but I could not apply these packages easily in my config. Do I have to read the whole spacemacs layers documentation (http://spacemacs.org/doc/LAYERS.html) for this now, or is there a more straight forward way to configure my editor (like I am used from vim)?
Comment: "So now I tried out some things but I could not apply these packages easily in my config." What did you try?  Exactly what problem(s) did you encounter?  At present your question is too vague.
Comment: Don't explain your question in a comment: edit your question to make it understandable.
Comment: Its not something worth mentioning in my opinion. I actually tried to  add the lines 'visual-line-mode' and 'adaptive-wrap-prefix-mode' in my user-config and in my layers section to the 'dotspacemacs-configuration-layers`-variable. In the layer section it threw an error, in the user section it just did nothing.
Answer: The answer I was looking for: Just add them to the dotspacemacs-additional-packages variable in dotspacemacs/layers.


Mount a filesystem read-only, and redirect writes to RAM?

Question: Is it possible to mount a loopback file as read-only, and redirect all writes to RAM?
Answer: It is possible using a union filesystem layer like aufs.
Demo:
Create a filesystem image
# dd if=/dev/zero of=/tmp/image bs=1024 count=1024
1024+0 records in
1024+0 records out
1048576 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0028428 s, 369 MB/s
# mke2fs /tmp/image
...

Mount it, populate it
# mkdir /tmp/imgmnt
# mount -o loop /tmp/image /tmp/imgmnt
# echo hello > /tmp/imgmnt/hello.txt
# umount /tmp/imgmnt

Mount it read-only
# mount -o loop,ro /tmp/image /tmp/imgmnt
# echo blah > /tmp/imgmnt/hello.txt
-su: /tmp/imgmnt/hello.txt: Read-only file system

A small RAM filesystem
# mkdir /tmp/rammnt
# mount -t tmpfs -o size=1M none /tmp/rammnt

Combine both
# mkdir /tmp/combined
# mount -t aufs -o br:/tmp/rammnt:/tmp/imgmnt=ro none /tmp/combined

That mount option to create a new "branch" (br) by stacking /tmp/rammnt (read-write) on top of /tmp/imgmnt (read-only). This "branch" is made visible as a (read-write) filesystem on /tmp/combined.
(See the aufs(5) man page for all the details.)
Now all that's done, here's what you have:
# ls /tmp/combined
hello.txt  lost+found
# cat /tmp/combined/hello.txt
hello
# echo bye > /tmp/combined/hello.txt
# cat /tmp/combined/hello.txt
bye

# cat imgmnt/hello.txt
hello
# cat rammnt/hello.txt
bye

So the writes "stop" in the tmpfs filesystem, they do not attempt to propagate back to the loop-mounted image file.
You could have used a plain directory (on a read/write filesystem), or possibly a directory under /dev/shm if that works for you, instead of creating a specific tmpfs for that.

This technique (or variations thereof) is used by some distribution LiveCD. The Wikipedia aufs entry lists a few.
Comment: +1 thanks! A question: (1) is it possible to do this with `fstab`, such that the mount point is `/`? (i.e. so the system boots from a discardable image, pretty much.)
Comment: I don't think so. If you want to do that for `/`, I believe you're better off with an initrd (that's how it is done for livecds I believe). You might be able to do it from an init script though that sounds tricky.
Comment: `fallocate` may be better than `dd` if your filesystem supports it (ext4 does).
Answer: Update:
It seems there are 2 other simpler ways to do this on Ubuntu (at least the later versions):

sudo apt-get install overlayroot followed by setting overlayroot="tmpfs:swap=1,recurse=0" in /etc/overlayroot.local.conf.
sudo apt-get install fsprotect followed by passing fsprotect as a kernel parameter

I finally figured out how to do this with the root filesystem (in Ubuntu 11.04)!
The steps for making a system bootable are simple. I used this guide in combination with this guide and a bunch of web searches to figure out how to get it working properly, without bugs.
Summary:

Run:
sudo apt-get install fsprotect apparmor-utils

Save this to /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-bottom/__rootaufs. I don't think the name actually matters, but the beginning __ might be used for ordering purposes, so if you change the name, you might want to keep the underscores.
(This is a copy of this file.)
#!/bin/sh -e

case $1 in
  prereqs)
    exit 0
    ;;
esac

for x in $(cat /proc/cmdline); do
  case $x in
    root=*)
      ROOTNAME=${x#root=}
      ;;
    aufs=*)
      UNION=${x#aufs=}
    case $UNION in
      LABEL=*)
        UNION="/dev/disk/by-label/${UNION#LABEL=}"
        ;;
      UUID=*)
        UNION="/dev/disk/by-uuid/${UNION#UUID=}"
        ;;
    esac
      ;;
  esac
done

if [ -z "$UNION" ]; then
    exit 0
fi

# make the mount points on the init root file system
mkdir /aufs /ro /rw

# mount read-write file system
if [ "$UNION" = "tmpfs" ]; then
  mount -t tmpfs rw /rw -o noatime,mode=0755
else
  mount $UNION /rw -o noatime
fi

# move real root out of the way
mount --move ${rootmnt} /ro

mount -t aufs aufs /aufs -o noatime,dirs=/rw:/ro=ro

# test for mount points on union file system
[ -d /aufs/ro ] || mkdir /aufs/ro
[ -d /aufs/rw ] || mkdir /aufs/rw

mount --move /ro /aufs/ro
mount --move /rw /aufs/rw

# strip fstab off of root partition
grep -v $ROOTNAME /aufs/ro/etc/fstab > /aufs/etc/fstab

mount --move /aufs /root

exit 0

In /etc/default/grub, find the line that starts with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT, and inside the quotes that follow, add the parameter aufs=tmpfs.
Bonus: If you need to occasionally turn off the redirection temporarily, simply remove this argument from the kernel parameter list. You can probably do this by holding the Shift key when the system is booting, to show the GRUB menu; then press e to edit the parameters, and just erase the aufs=... parameter from the list.
Append these lines to /etc/sysctl.conf. (Warning: Potential security risk.)
kernel.yama.protected_nonaccess_hardlinks = 0
kernel.yama.protected_sticky_symlinks = 0

Run these lines:
sudo aa-complain dhclient3
sudo chmod 0755 /etc/initramfs-tools/scripts/init-bottom/__rootaufs
sudo update-initramfs -k all -u
sudo update-grub

If everything went well, when you reboot, you will be doing so into a temporary file system. The RAM part will be at /rw, and the disk image will be at /ro, but of course it will be read-only.
Nevertheless, if you have booted into a temporary system but need to make a permanent change, you can re-mount the /ro file system by saying
sudo mount -o remount,rw /ro

to make it writable, and then you can make whatever modifications needed to that directory.
Answer: Yes, by unionfs, see unionfs.filesystems.org. You have mount first read-only filesystem, and as second read-write RAM filesystem through unionfs.
In Ubuntu you can find the unionfs-fuse package, which is another implementation of the same things, but in user space, not as a kernel module.
Answer: You can also do this on the device level, without a unionfs like aufs. See device-mapper snapshot-origin.


How to redeem deposits to my wallet

Question: A couple of days ago I installed bitcoin-qc and loaded the latest block from eu1.bitcoincharts.com/blockchain/. Then to test it out I withdrew a small amount of BTCs from my mtgo account to the address that appeared in the client upon install. Not having received anything yet, I today went to blockexplorer.com and search for that address. The record shows "First seen?: Block 164269 (2012-01-28 19:37:08)" and "Received transactions: 1", but also says "Public key?: Unknown (not seen yet)". The client says today, "Catching up... Downloaded 164146 blocks of transaction history. Last received block was generated 2 days ago". Do I have to send a public key separately? If so, how do I do it? Thanks for taking the time for a beginner.
Comment: This question probably would be better worded as "How do I find out whether the bitcoin-qc client has completed the block chain download?"
Comment: I'm not sure that this is a coherent, non-duplicate question. Thoughts?
Comment: @HighlyIrregular - I think the block chain download is only part of the question. It also deals with the interesting topic of public keys and "what do I need to do in order to get my Bitcoins in my wallet?", which might not be obvious to everyone.
Comment: @ripper234 I think it raises a new problem, but it could be better if it was to be a token question for this problem. I'd personally try to solve this problem first, then close the question and create a new exemplary question about such issue.
Answer: Your client won't show the transaction until it's received the block the transaction was included in. This website has the block count in the header: http://bitcoincharts.com/charts/
Right this moment, there are 164472 blocks (and I'm responding to your question quickly) so there's clearly still some downloading to do. Try to determine whether the block download is still occurring, and work from there. There should be a percentage complete figure for the block download in the bitcoin-qc client.
Answer: You have to wait until the client catches up to the current block (or at least to the block when you sent your transaction). Then the transaction will appear in your wallet.
As for the public key, in most cases it will not be known to anyone until you actually spend some Bitcoins. Details as to why are a bit complicates (you can find them here), but the general idea is quite simple.
When you generate your Bitcoin address, first you generate a private key. From that, you can calculate the public key, but the calculations are designed, so they would be one-way (you can't calculate the private key from the public key). Then, the public key is transformed using SHA-256 and some manipulations into the canonical "Bitcoin Address", and those operations too are one-way. But in order to spend coins, you have to sign a transaction with your private key, and show everyone your public key so they can decode it (this is when your public key becomes known). At that moment anyone can verify what address that public key belongs to (to know if it has any coins), and that you issued the Bitcoin transaction.
In short, wait until your client fully synchronises and you will see your transaction. No action is required on your part in order to receive Bitcoins once the transaction is sent.
Comment: @high - My first install bitcoin-qt was taking forever to collect the blocks. After reading the FAQs for the client I reinstalled, first putting the then-latest block and bitindex.dat into my AppDAta\roaming\bitcoin folder (I working in Vista x64). But that reinstall didn't show a progress bar, only the "Catching up.." note in the tray at lower rt. of the GUI. And it's stalled at 164146 blocks; it made a jump on one restart yesterday, but nothing since. Clearly something's amiss. I hate to reinstall as I'd lose the address that does show up at blockexplorer.
Comment: @high - Correction: I meant to say that after I reinstalled, I put blk0001.dat & blkindex.dat into my AppData\Roaming\Bitcoin forlder, and _then_ restarted the client. That's when I saw the progress bar was missing.
Comment: @user1000 As long as you keep the wallet.dat file, you will have the correct addresses. Personally, I haven't tried using a pre-downloaded blockchain, so can't help you with that asides purging the Bitcoin data folder (without wallet.dat) and trying over.
Answer: [The site doesn't seem to be accepting my comments tonight, so I'll try this.] I found that loading the last block build was masking the real problem. Starting from a fresh install, with appdata empty, I got the progress bar back. But I see that the client was not just slow, it was making no connections at all. Fixed that by setting the port properly in my router/modem firewall as well as the machine firewall. Now bitcoin-qt tells me that it's up to date. Pasting the previous wallet.dat over the new one shows my received coins address as expected. Yet I still don't see the received coins, even though blockexplorer.com shows them to be in the blockchain. Sorry to be still so dim, but what to do next? As I say, the client has been up to date for a day now, through several restarts of bitcoin-qt.
Comment: You can always edit your own questions though, even at 6 reputation.
Comment: Arrgh - So I just paid myself another tiny test amount - this one wnet though i a few seconds  as expected. I guess recovering past depostis to the wallet by loading the old wallet.dat into appdata doesn't work, at least on my machine...
Comment: From what I understand, you first downloaded the blockchain and then put the wallet.dat in the data directory. That won't make Bitcoin automatically scan the blockchain for your transactions (it was checking for them when downloading it), you need to start it with -rescan flag as far as I know.

How to redeem deposits to my wallet


Where can I find the Daedric bow?

Question: I've become accustomed to archery and want a bow with a bit more style, if someone could give me the starting quest and location of quest-giver that'd be great, or, if I have to find it, possible locations would help too.
Comment: See: http://uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Daedric
Answer: There are several ways to get the Daedric Bow, unfortunately none of them are from quests.

At level 46 and above Daedric Bows can be found random in chests and can be dropped after killing Revered and Legendary Dragons.
At level 47 and above Niranye in Windhelm(must be available as fence) and Tonilia in Riften sells Daedric Bows. At the Brood Cavern
one can be found by a dead archer and one can also be found on the
counter of Syndus' shop in The Ragged Flagon
Smithing - At the smithing level of 90 and the Daedric Smithing perk you can create a Daedric Bow at a forge of a Daedric Heart and
three Ebony Ingots.
Atronach Forge - You can also create a Daedric Bow using the Atronach Forge.  This requires a Sigil Stone, which can only be
obtained via the Conjuration Ritual spell. You will also need one
Daedra Heart, one Ebony Bow, one Centurion Dynamo Core and one empty
or filled Black Soul Gem.

You can read more at the Elder Scrolls Wiki.
Comment: I just found a daedric bow in a master chest at lvl 30, I didn't think this was possible but. It just happened
Comment: @user78028 GG. GG, indeed.
Answer: Alledgedly...
Unenchanted Daedric Bows will begin to appear throughout Skyrim at level 46 and enchanted bows can be found at level 47, albeit very rarely. These locations include:

Found as random loot in chests.
Enchanted bows dropped as random loot by Revered or Legendary Dragons.

Fixed locations

Niranye in Windhelm often sells enchanted bows after level 47 once she is available as a fence.
Tonilia in Riften often sells both unenchanted and enchanted bows after level 47.
Brood Cavern, one by a dead Archer, available after level 47.
An enchanted bow may be found on the counter in Syndus' shop in The Ragged Flagon after level 47.

Thanks to the Elder Scrolls wikia for the info.
Comment: So nothing below that level? Alrighty then I'll just have to work with me Dwarven bow for now, thank you.
Comment: @Knox if you purely want the look, you can look into summoning a bound bow to use in the mean time.  Also, if you hit 90 in conjuration you can craft one using the atronach forge.
Comment: Also while the damage isn't quite there(one point short at Ebony:Fine) you do also get a quiver of 100 Bound Arrows each time you cast the spell(which are equivalent to Daedric arrows in damage). That combo could be a lot more potent than your dwarven bow and whatever arrow you are using. It also requires no perks(though if you have trouble casting this adept conjuration spell the Necromancer amulet will let you do it at the start of the game). Tome is free at Fort Amol:Prison under a lamp in a bucket. If you get Novice Conjuration and Mystic Binding, the bow will equal Daedric:Exquisite(+5).
Answer: The best way to guarantee a daedric weapon is to forge it yourself. Of course, you will need the daedric smithing perk. The bow requires a daedra heart and three ebony to forge.
You can also drop a daedric weapon in random loot starting with the level 46.

Where can I find the Daedric bow?


Surfing the web anonymously

Question: What is the best, fastest, safest way to surf the web anonymously, and how much anonymity can you really achieve?
Answer:
Use Tor
Use Firefox with Adblock and Noscript
Uninstall all plugins and extensions you don't need, things like Flash, Silverlight, Java, etc.
If a site offers a HTTPS version, use it.  (HTTPS is encrypted, unlike HTTP)
Delete your cookies  between sessions.
Don't give any personal information away.
If your ISP offers a dynamic IP address, use it.  Release and renew your IP between sessions.
Enable Firefox's private browsing feature.
Install the RefControl addon and set it to block HTTP referrers.
Use the User Agent Switcher to send a blank user agent, or spoof a completely different browser.  (For example, if you're running Firefox on Vista, send IE7 on XP.)
Comment: I always thought the MAC doesn't propagate after the first routing device?
Comment: + Use application that changes NIC's MAC address on bootup.
Comment: Expanding on point 4, this can be automated now for some sites by using the addon [HTTPS Everywhere](https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere) from the EFF.
Comment: @Arjan: I think you're right; TCP/IP doesn't transmit MAC addresses, otherwise most online apps like forums would use MAC address bans instead of IP bans since most internet users have dynamic IPs.
Comment: I would add [Ghostery](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ghostery/) and [Redirect cleaner](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/redirect-cleaner/), to this list. Also check [EFF's Panopticlick](https://panopticlick.eff.org/) to check your uniqueness. As a last solution: use [different profiles](http://www.go2linux.org/linux/2011/05/firefox-profile-privacy-or-have-two-google-accounts-once-1061.html) in Firefox to separate privat browsing and using gmail/facebook/twitter.
Comment: Using a blank user agent is less anonymous than using something like Firefox that has lots of users; likewise with disabling JS. It seems like you're more anonymous if you disable JS and don't let Google track which search result you click on. But anonymity is ultimately about not identifying yourself, not hiding non-self-identifying information. Doing things that cause you to stand out from the crowd would make you easier to track.
Comment: I would consider timing considerations if you are really paranoid/"tinfoil hat".  From a residential connection, one thing an adversary might do is compel your ISP to cut off your connection for a time in order to correlate whether connections made to a remote system are from you.  Try not to do anything on a predictable, regular schedule over Tor, such as software updates.
Comment: Also disable Microsoft's NCSI if you are using Vista or Windows 7.  It contacts Microsoft's servers every time your network adapter goes up or down.
Answer: Installing the Tor Bundle includes the TorButton Firefox extension, which won't allow plugins like Flash - these plugins could leak your identity, even when using Tor.  For example, a Flash app could determine the local IP and send that information back to the server, so even if it's being sent over Tor, you're still hosed.  So use Tor, Tor is good, but don't use any unsafe plugins.
To be certain that browsing history isn't saved on a hard disk, you can boot from a Linux Live CD and run Tor from there.
Answer: Not a direct answer to your question, but: when using Flash, then read some details on How to automatically remove Flash history/privacy trail? Or stop Flash from storing it?...
Answer: I would imagine you mean not keeping your information from being stored on your computer, but being stored on everyone elses. For the former, just use private browsing mode, which is now in every major browser.
For the latter, there are a few things you can do.

Encrypt your connection
When asked to be "remembered" by sites, don't
Use proxies
Don't have a Facebook/Twitter/whatever

Other than that, I do not know.
Answer: If I wanted to surf the web anonymously, I'd focus on 3 main areas:

concealing my identity

concealing my offline identity (physical location, ISP accounts, billing info, etc.)
concealing my online identities (email address, forum account, social media accounts, etc.)

concealing my activities online

server logs
forum messages, messages posted by facebook apps, etc.
tracking cookies and other user tracking/profiling technologies
packet sniffers and untrusted networks

concealing my activities offline

browser cookies, browser caches, web history, autocomplete, saved passwords, etc.
bookmarks
keyloggers, trojans, etc.

The main ways to achieve these goals (in order to preference) are:

don't leave a track in the first place

Not creating any evidence of your activities at all is practically impossible in most circumstances, however, using throwaway accounts, disabling tracking cookies, and not using services known to have poor privacy policies (or help governments illegally spy on their users) is a good start.
Also avoid using public terminals you can't be sure are clean of keyloggers, spyware, etc. Need to use a public terminal? How about booting up a live CD/SSD? If you're even more paranoid, bring your own USB keyboard.
Anonymous proxies and anonymity networks like Tor are good tools since your physical location (and thus your physical identity) is never connected to your online activities. Though you can still leave an online trail and potentially do something that reveals your offline identity, such as logging into an account tied to your offline identity.

hide yourself using encryption

If you can use end-to-end encryption, and especially if even the service provider at the other end is unable to access your data, then there may be evidence that you were online, but no one can tell what you were doing. Here I'm using the term "encryption" generally. You can even disguise your data so others can't tell what you're really doing. But don't do something stupid like use HTTPS everywhere but then transmit your password in plain text when using FTP or send an email over an unencrypted connection.
You can even use encryption to hide your activities offline by using full-disk encryption. Even if you don't save browser cookies/histories, you probably still keep bookmarks and so on. If you use a password manager for your online passwords, it might be a good idea to keep the password database in a separate hidden volume.

cover your tracks after the fact

Obviously you can't break into a data center to erase your online tracks, but you can still use private browsing/incognito mode so that your browsing history/cache/cookies/etc. are erased as soon as you close the browser. (Note: this doesn't work with Flash cookies. And although many companies, including Clearspring, Quantcast and Hulu were sued for using Flash cookies for tracking, it's still used by many, including Hulu.)

hide yourself in the crowd

Most website operators enable basic logging out of necessity. However, the sheer volume of traffic they receive can provide a certain level of privacy if you don't stand out from the crowd. That's why Panopticlick measures your browser's uniqueness. Likewise, if you use a public internet connection that lots of people use and your usage patterns are ununique, then it'll be very hard for others to identify your tracks amongst the noise.
Shared public accounts can be handy for this as well. Usually such accounts are simply a way to bypass compulsory registration, but if thousands of people are sharing a single account, it's hard to tie one person to a specific activity.
Comment: 1c.) When using IPv6, ensure you're not [transmitting your MAC address](http://superuser.com/questions/243669/how-to-avoid-exposing-my-mac-address-when-using-ipv6).
Answer: http://anonymizer.com/
Answer: Different anonymity services exist for what type of anonymity you are looking to achieve.
Want to change your IP?

Use Proxies and Tor
Free Public internet hotspots

Want to surf on a machine without leaving a trace?

Use the measures that MiffTheFox mentioned

Also something that has not been mentioned yet is VPN services. These usually cost $$$ and money can always leave a trail back to you depending on how you spend it. It all depends on how much you trust your VPN provider.
There are some other ways of getting anonymity but these cross the lines of what most countries consider to be illegal.
Comment: I would second 'use a public/unsecured wifi hotspot'
Answer: There is no real way to be completely anonymous on the internet.
You can use Tor, change your IP all the time, delete all data left behind, but given enough time, it can always be traced back to you. So yes, for simply hiding one or 2 sites you visit, a proxy and all these other good idea work fine.
But if your not supposed to be doing it, legal reasons or whatnot, just remember, they can always fun you given enough time and enough subpoenas will always find you.
Comment: You use an anonymous connection like open wireless networks or prepaid mobile internet cards, strong encryption, and secure services (service providers that either don't keep or anonymize their logs) so that there's no one to be subpoenaed. Perfect security may be impossible, but good enough security _is_ possible, even against governments.
Comment: Even with that, browser plugins, IP address, fonts even can provide a unique identifier for almost any computer in the world. Yeah it might be anonymous for the most part but if someone can test your computer versus a known ID, your screwed.
Answer: You can use TOR + your internet provider proxy + web proxies.
You can also try freenet but its more like a private network.
Answer: Use TAILS, The Amnesic Incognito Live System from https://tails.boum.org/ via either burning the ISO file to a Live CD or a USB flash drive.  It incorporates all apps such as email for use over Tor, and appears to release every couple of months.  It uses a Debian Linux release with a Firefox derivative (version 10+) that is heavily modified to protect privacy along with the Ad Block Plus and NoScript Firefox add-ons and uses Vidalia, a GUI controller for Tor.  They are working on producing a persistent storage (USB related) in a future release.
Answer: I'll add Privoxy to the list.

Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. Privoxy has a flexible configuration and can be customized to suit individual needs and tastes. It has application for both stand-alone systems and multi-user networks.
Answer: If you're talking about not identifying yourself, your IP address and browser, etc, to websites, then Proxify may be of use.
Answer: UltraSurf is fast, free, and very easy to use.
Answer: Using a virtual machine could help out; though it doesn't really hide your ISP, it just produces another one... Could be something you could try out though.
Comment: No. A virtual machine, by itself, will do nothing to hide your ISP (ISP = Internet Service Provider). It will also do nothing to hide your public IP (Internet Protocol) address, although it will change the one used internally on your local network. The most that would do is allow you to tear down the virtual machine to erase any traces of activity on your hard drive, but it would have to be used in conjunction with other methods to hide your IP (such as Tor or UltraSurf).

Surfing the web anonymously


Unlock nokia lumia 630 with smashed screen to access contacts

Question: the title pretty much says it all.
Is there any app on pc where I can type in my screen pin or something?
Thanks.
Answer: You should find your contacts are synchronised with the primary Microsoft Account that you used when first setting up the phone; So the steps to access them on the phone start with getting the screen fixed, if the handset is hard reset before returning to you, simply set the phone up again with the same account, and all your contacts (and much more if you enabled back-ups prior to the screen being damaged) will be restored.


Learning to trade iOS user friendly crypto wallet safety when stored in and transfer for trading or use to purchase or get cashed

Question: iPhone users best crypto wallet in bitcoin currency trading and transfer for easy access to use and keep safe deposit and profits as a new and first time trading experience  to the trading crypto currency and forex markets and stock exchange
Comment: I'm trying to get my money back from a brokerage account which I used my debit card to purchase bitcoin for first deposit to open my trading account, and then I was told to buy as much bitcoin as I can and I wanna understand how I can buy bitcoin currency with bitcoin currency and because it's a brokerage company does that mean I have a wallet already or not? Because they want me to get a wallet so they can return my money back in bitcoin currency and then close my account.  What should I do with this situation please help me
Answer:
Choose a wallet program/app from a reputable list such as https://bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet
Install that wallet program/app on a secure clean PC or phone (as appropriate)
Get the wallet to give you a receive address (nowadays wallets issue a different address each time)
Get your brokerage to transfer money to that address
Get them to tell you the transaction-ID and check that in a bitcoin explorer

I was told to buy as much bitcoin as I can

That's a bit of a red flag.

I wanna understand how I can buy bitcoin currency with bitcoin currency

That doesn't make sense. Its like buying dollars with dollars. No one does that. Unless some of those dollars are fake dollars or hot dollars. See Fungibility
You can transfer money from one wallet to another. In your case that might be transferring money from your broker's wallet to your wallet.
It can be confusing because some exchanges/brokers etc label an account a "wallet" when it isn't (a wallet holds a private key that only you know, this isn't the way most exchange/broker accounts work, they hold the keys not you)

first time trading experience to the trading crypto currency and forex markets and stock exchange

Just remember you are jumping into a pool of very hungry, very experienced, well equipped sharks. Don't "invest" any money you would not be happy to lose.


What is the key for the curve modifier to work properly?

Question: I created a snail-shaped curve using Bezier curve, and a straight tube using BMesh. I hope to deform the shape of the tube, so that its long axis follows the path of the curve, but the modifer does not give me the right outcome, no matter which axis I chose (neither did the translation work). Is there anything I missed? What is the key for it to function properly?
The file is attached here:
Answer:
It will simplify if you set the origin of both your objects to their geometry (right click and Set Origin to Geometry)
Once done, put the 2 objects at the same location (select one object, press ShiftS > Cursor to Selected, select the other object and ShiftS > Selection to Cursor)
Create some edge loops all along your tube if you want it to bend
Give it the Curve modifier with the curve as Object
Comment: Thanks very much for your response! It worked! Now I just need to find a way to script it so that it can be more efficient in future because I may need to do it quite often.
Answer: Your object needs to be subdivided down its length to be deformed by the curve. The Curve modifier does not generate vertices, it can only move them about, and 2 vertices will always be joined by a straight edge.
Beyond that, you might want to follow the steps in this recent answer. Your scales are OK, but the other steps may help you out.
BUT...
The main point of this answer is to suggest that you may not need to deform an object down this curve at all. If your profile is circular, you can use the curve's native Bevel, accessible through its Data tab > Geometry panel. The curve can generate the circular geometry by itself, and you can convert it to a mesh whenever you like.
If you need to change the profile's radius on the way down the curve, you can AltS scale the profile at any control point. In the  Active Spline panel, you can change the way the radius is interpolated between control points.
Comment: @yggthir   There are two ways, apart from modifiers, that the radius of the tube might not be the measurement displayed in the Geometry > Bevel > Depth field: Object-Level Scale, and the per-Control-Point (Edit mode)  Radius. Both are multipliers of 'Depth'. You can always convert the curve to a mesh for further editing.. e.g  duplicating parts of the surface to make features.
Comment: Thanks so much for your response! Yes I know about increasing the bevel to convert it into tube: I added a bit of depth to the curve so that I could see it more clearly. The problem is: 1) I am not sure how large the depth represent, so example I added 10 mm to the curve (assuming my dimension setting was correct), but it was still barely visible; in comparison, my tube was supposed to be 0.18 mm and it was already way thicker 2) I also need to create patches around the tube to be bent along the curve as well. Therefore, I thought using a curve modifier for them would be more feasible.


Why do we call it "production"?

Question: A coworker was wondering this today: "Why is it that in our industry 'production' means 'final, deliverable product'? You know, like if a movie is 'in production', it means they're currently filming it, not that that it's done and audiences are watching it."
Comment: Why make such a production over it?
Comment: Um, in our industry "production" doesn't mean "final, deliverable product" and I've never heard it used like that. It means "has gone live, and is being used to accomplish the business purpose it was built for". It may or may not be "final"; that's orthogonal.
Comment: The word "production" refers to the production of bug reports, which you will receive plenty of, when you go live.
Comment: But in movies, a finished movie is called a production is it not?
Comment: Ah, thanks for adding the etymology tag, ed. This is definitely a question about the origin of the term, not about what it means. Perhaps the "semantics" tag wasn't appropriate.
Comment: This should be asked on [English.SE](http://english.stackexchange.com/)
Answer: I think the term "production" has come from other industries like automotive or electronics, where once a component/product is ready to be used, it becomes part of producing/usage in something bigger like in a "production line" or "construction pipeline". In software the term "production environment" might hold parallel in the sense that people use this software deployed in production to do something that important etc.,
Comment: "Production" means the software's being used to "produce" something of value.
Comment: Actually, the term "production," with respect to computation, dates back to a time when information processing was a production process that required a lot of manual intervention.  Information came into a shop in paper form (coding sheets) and was sent out in paper form (reports).
Comment: This answer makes intuitive sense, but it doesn't attempt to trace the etymology of the term _production_. So I'm not sure it's actually as correct as it it seems at first glance. In contrast, [bit-twiddler's answer](https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/a/68148/69268) gives a historical origin for the term.
Answer: The term dates back to the time when the field was known as "Data Processing."  Back then, users did not perform their own data entry.  Instead, they filled out coding sheets that were punched onto decks of punch-cards by data entry personnel.  These card decks were physically queued up for processing by a person known as the "production scheduler."  All software ran as part of a batch job stream at that point in time.  The production scheduler was responsible for prioritizing jobs.  He/she produced a daily of list of jobs that were to be run by computer operations.
Computer operations was a 24x7x365 production environment when I first entered the field.  Glass houses were not the typical "lights out" self-operating data centers that they are today. Instead, they were inhabited by computer operators who started jobs, fed card decks, hung 9-track tapes, mounted/dismounted disk packs, and pulled listings from high-speed impact printers.  The nastiest job of all was running a bursting machine.  A bursting machine removed carbon paper from multipart fanfold paper.  Bursting carbon paper from multipart fanfold paper is the reason why one often sees computer operators wearing lab coats in old data center photographs.
Answer: S. Lott really hit the nail on the head but unfortunately only posted a comment.
The nuance that people seem to be missing here is that the word production does not refer to the state of the software itself but how the software is being used.
You might have the exact same build of the software, byte-for-byte, running in production and testing environments.  The only difference between the two is what's being done with it.  The version in production is being used to produce something - transactions, reports, bills, whatever.
A test or staging environment might "produce" those things too, but only in an abstract sense; since the output from those environments would simply be thrown away, what it's producing is more like a simulated product than an actual product.
Remember, most businesses are not development shops, and therefore the software is not the product.  The software is a tool used to create that product.  It is "in production" in the same sense that a power generator or assembly line is in production, i.e. because it has real output and that output is being sold and/or used to run the business.
In fact, "production" does not mean "final, deliverable product" at all.  The correct term for a final deliverable is a release, or RTM.  You never use the word "production" for shrinkwrap software.
Comment: Supporting evidence: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1434898 In this paper, the software is being used in the _production_ of results (the paper is actually about electronic faults in the computer). Relevant quote:

> If, as I understood you to say, you try to continue production after an intermittent malfunction is detected but not cured, how do you know whether the resulting production is of any value?
Comment: Aforementioned paper is from 1953.
Answer: In many industries, the term production does in fact refer to work with a live, usable product. Assembly lines are also called "production lines" because even though the products are being built by workers, the designs are finalized. There is no more "development" being done. You could equate this back to movies as well -- before production there are a number of steps that have to occur first: writing the scripts, storyboarding, etc., etc.
Answer: I think it is an abbreviation of "production environment". For enterprise apps, there is development environment and production environment. The latter is where the real, live company processes are run. So when you deploy stuff there, it is live, and any mistake costs hard cash.
(There may also be test environment(s), and a staging environment, which is usually identical to the production, but not live, so one can perform user acceptance testing (UAT) of new features/releases on it before going live.)
Comment: This merely begs the question *why production environment?* How has production come to signify where "finished" (obviously no software is truly ever finished) software goes?
Comment: How does this explain the *origins* of the term "production environment"?
Comment: am i mistaken to understand that this topic was asking the difference between production and development in regards to software development? I started on my answer right after you.
Answer: I would guess that it goes back to when software was sold on disks. Those disks had to be 'produced', so the version of the software they were using was the 'production' version, copied from the 'production' server.
Since the core concepts of software are the same whether it's shrink-wrapped or hosted, you still have a 'production' server.
Comment: The word is far older than any sort of disks software was distributed on.
Comment: I don't know if this is where the term originated, but it makes sense for software that's distributed to clients (even if it's not on discs anymore). For web apps, the term "Live" always made more sense than the term "(in) production" because there's only one running (or "live") instance of the web app that all the clients log in to.

Why do we call it "production"?


Why Krishna is called Kunj Bihari?

Question: I want to know why Lord Krishna is called Kunj Bihari.
Comment: http://www.krishna.com/forums/what-does-kunja-beehari-mean  You can see this.
Comment: Lord Krishna is called Kunj Bihari beause Bihari means who always go to spend time like Krishna everyday went to spend time with Radha. There is also the word Kunj because Kunj means so much beautiful garden and Krishna went to spend time with Radha in a beautiful garden.
Answer: This name comes from "Jaya Radha Madhava", a poem by the Gaudiya Vaishnava Acharaya Bhaktivinoda Thakur:

(jaya) radha-madhava (jaya) kunja-vihari  (jaya)
  gopi-jana-vallabha (jaya) giri-vara-dhari  (jaya) jasoda-nandana
  (jaya) braja-jana-ranjana  (jaya) jamuna-tira-vana-cari
Krsna is the lover of Radha. He displays many amorous pastimes in
  the groves of Vrndavana, He is the lover of the cowherd maidens of
  Vraja, the holder of the great hill named Govardhana, the beloved son
  of mother Yasoda, the delighter of the inhabitants of Vraja, and he
  wanders in the forests along the banks of the River Yamuna.

So it refers to Krishna's romantic pastimes amidst the groves of Vrindavana.
Comment: Literally 'Kunj' means Arbour, ie, a shady garden alcove with the sides and roof formed by trees and 'Vihari' means who goes there to spend time. So, 'Kunj-Vihari' means Lord Krishna, the one who goes to or likes spending time in the beautiful gardens which are shady from different sides.

Why Krishna is called Kunj Bihari?


What is a active wallet vs inactive

Question: In Apr. empower had an airdrop that they said only wallets that had .1 ETH. would get it. Was that the customary requirement in Jan when the crypto blockchain was jammed?. And wasn't that lowered to .01 by most exchanges by Feb?
I suspect they were using old rates from Jan. They made everyone has .1 ETH due to their ineptness I figure.
Is there a chart or data that shows what was customary at different times?
Answer: Airdrops are completely up to the company putting them on. They can choose to distribute their token to someone holding 100 ETH, 1 ETH, 0.00001 ETH, etc. There is no "customary" airdrop usage statistics.
In terms of the blockchain being jammed, the only thing to consider is how many transactions are going to take place and how much are you willing to spend. If there is no traffic on the network, you can airdrop tokens to thousands of users for very little money (gas) (

By choosing to send to only accounts that have at least 1 ETH in them, you are eliminating a decent chunk of accounts from receiving an airdrop, saving you some money.
Comment: I guess empowr choose .1 to eliminate the poorest? I still think they think it is the amount most exchanges use as min. That is where I said customary min.

What is a active wallet vs inactive


What does prolific mean?

Question: The Oxford dictionary says that it means plentiful.
Can it be used to express a connotation like "Very talented and prolific singer"?
Answer: "Very talented and prolific singer" is a perfectly normal use of the word prolific. It means a singer who wrote or performed a lot of songs (prolific) and who did that well (talented).
Prolific alone is only an indication of quantity, not quality, even though prolific tends to be slightly laudative. You can say that someone is a "prolific but mediocre singer".
Note that prolific generally means "which produces a large amount" or "which gives a large amount", not "which contains a large amount".
Answer: Yes, "prolific" means someone who is prolific produces a lot of something, especially works of art, books, etc. for example:

Since then, Hull has became hockey's most prolific scorer.
Answer: Not an incorrect usage but not the best wording either. Since prolific essentially means "produces many", is the writer of this sentence meaning that the singer sings often? (Prolific doesn't mean often.) Sings many songs? etc. The sentence isn't totally clear.
Comment: I would interepret "prolific singer" to mean their songs are heard often on the radio. NOAD mentions in its definition of _prolific_: "(of an artist, author, or composer) producing many works : _he was a prolific composer of operas_." With that in mind, I'd say that Elton John, Bono, and Billy Joel are prolific singers. An antonym might be _obscure_, e.g., Liz Longley is an obscure singer.
Comment: I would interpret this to mean that the singer is, as many are, also a songwriter, and has written many songs.

What does prolific mean?


How do chess players keep records of their previous games?

Question: How do chess players keep track of their past games for training? Special motifs, instructive mistakes, comments on positions and so on? Writing down moves on paper seems anachronistic to me, especially when many online games are played. It also doesn't allow for quick computer analysis or searchability.
Answer: There's a plethora of chess software that support saving, querying and updating games played. From the commercial ChessBase to open source equivalents like SCID on PC, ChessX and Tarrasch. They all support database facilities that allow games to be added, searched by tournament, player, position, pawn structure, opening, in some cases even by tactical motif and strategic themes. And with plugins for various chess engines, analysed and blunder-checked.
For a player's own games, if the tournament is run by a good set of arbiters, then the games will make their way to The Week In Chess weekly chess databases that a player can download and open in their chess database software. Players can also enter their own games into their personal chess databases that can be queried, searched, analysed and dissected in the very same fashion.
For online chess playing sites, player's games can be downloaded individually or as a collection and opened in their chess software.
These chess databases and their software are flexible enough to create subsets or aggregates of other chess databases, so a player, or trainer, can typically create their own personal/private databases formed of games or positions that meet their training needs.
Answer: Writing games on paper is the most practical way for an on-the-board tournament game. There's nothing anachronistic about it.
What most players will do is then store the game in a digital format like a ChessBase database and analyze it there.


Merge wifi-hotspot and wifi-tethering?

Question: Obviously both are the very same thing. I'd suggest to merge them and converting the remaining one (depending on which is the merging target) into a synonym.
Comment: This came up a while back (in 2010, it looks like): [wifi tags - are wifi-tethering and wifi-hotspot redundant?](http://meta.android.stackexchange.com/q/132) It might be worth revisiting, though.
Comment: Agreed. And as to Matt's answer there: one could still use two tags (e.g. wifi-hotspot and tether) if really necessary. Though I'd say most people don't distinguish the two. Is there really a technical difference between the two terms wifi-tethering and wifi-hotspot? I'm not aware of any (except you'd count an ad-hoc connection not as a hotspot, which might be an argument -- but still could be pointed to by using two tags then: wifi-hotspot and ad-hoc-networks)
Comment: I guess tethering over an ad-hoc connection may, from a technical standpoint, be different than a hotspot, as it wouldn't really be an AP in that situation. It would be essentially behaving like one, but I suppose it wouldn't *really* be one. I'm not sure if that alone is a convincing enough reason to leave them separated or not, though.
Comment: Exactly my point: only hair-splitting makes a difference here. And those who insist on *that* difference are rather discussing it at other SO "branches" (oh, there isn't a Networking SO? I thought there was...). So 1:0 pro merging the two :)
Answer: I believe that these are actually different things:
wifi-hotspotcould represent any wifi network, or a public 'wifi hotspot'.
wifi-tethering would mainly represent the actual process of tethering, or creating a hotspot.
As such, I don't think they should be merged.
Comment: As said: when concerned about the *process*, one could use `wifi-hotspot` and `tether` to indicate this. Too many "similar" tags are IMHO not that helpful -- it gets harder to utilize them for searching, as you first need to figure out which are available. But OK, that's *my* opinion...

Merge wifi-hotspot and wifi-tethering?


can a 16 year old travel to Russia alone? (with both russian and us passports)

Question: traveling by finnair, can a 16 year old travel to st. petersburg, russia alone? I have both russian and usa passports on me and last year when I traveled with my parents back to the us, we asked some airport customs/passport checker lady (excuse that.. i don't know what its properly called) in russia and she said I can travel to Russia alone but I need to be 18 or older to go back to the us alone (my moms traveling there on a later date so that's not an issue) I just want to reassure that that is the case and it hasn't changed within the year
Comment: As a rule, citizen of a state should be able to enter this state whenever what. I'd say what is more curious is how you will accommodate on having entered, without elders.
Comment: I'm staying with my cousin, she'll be picking me up from the airport, I speak russian very well I can get around fine
Comment: People checking passports are often called "immigration officers" in English.  A less specific term is "border guard"  or "border officer."  Checking passports is strictly speaking not a customs function, but customs and immigration functions can be (and often are, especially at land crossings) combined in one officer.
Answer: Yes you can travel alone, but as you have US and Russian citizenship you should note this advice from the US Dept of State Bureau of Consular Affairs https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/international-travel/International-Travel-Country-Information-Pages/RussianFederation.html
"Minors who also have Russian citizenship and are traveling alone or in the company of adults who are not their parents, must carry a Russian passport as well as their parents' notarized consent for the trip, which can be obtained at a Russian embassy or consulate, or a U.S. notary public. A consent obtained in the United States from a U.S. notary public must be apostilled, translated into Russian, and properly affixed. Authorities will prevent such minors from entering or leaving Russia if they cannot present this consent."
Comment: Strictly speaking, a notary does not provide the consent but only certifies that the signature of the parent signing the consent is genuine.  I doubt that's a sufficient quibble for a downvote, however, much less an unexplained one.


Flickering water effect

Question: I have downloaded completely different samples with water effects (in XNA) and I've noticed that they all exhibit a common problem: when the camera direction (only the direction, not the position)  moves, a noticable and annoying flicker occurs where the water meets terrain. I'm curios to find out more about this. Why does it happen? Does it have a name? And what can I do about it?
Comment: Wild guess: maybe your near plane is too close to the camera. This limits the effective resolution of the Z buffer.
Comment: Could you link to one of these samples?
Answer: It's named Z-fighting. You can google a lot information about it. For example here on wiki. In short: your water and terrain plane are in the same distance from camera (they are coplanar). If you move your camera (direction), float results differ a bit, so sometimes (I mean: some pixels) it chooses water to be drawn, sometimes it chooses terrain.
And you can solve this problem easily - just move your water plane a bit above or under the terrain, if they have the same "height" (they are coplanar).
Comment: The above guess is probably the best one given the details we have. We need a picture or video
Comment: But the terrain and the water are not "particulary" coplanar. I've tried to put spheres in the water with 1/4 of them abouve the water and got the same effect too? Althogh I may really be plain z-fighting I'm seeing (which I do know about) - I have no clue on how to fix tihs (and neither have the authors of those effects I've tried, I gusee. Or it doesn't bother them...)
Comment: No. It is not Z-fighting. If it were Z-fighting I would see it on pixel level. But the effect I asked about (and see in several samples) seems rether to happen on a vertex level. Once I figured out how to do recording I'll be back!
Comment: You can use this online service for recording apps or desktop: http://www.screenr.com/
Answer: It is floating-point prcision error, you can fix that by not changing view matrix, if it has change only for little, if X or Y mouse rotation is less then 0.1 then use old view.
Answer: This problem can also be solved by using a logrithmic z-buffer which can be done in your shader, and is very very easy to implement.
Comment: More details would make this a better answer.

Flickering water effect


What are the external airflow requirements for portable and window AC units?

Question: I have a window well in a basement where I'd like to setup a portable AC unit (~10000 BTUs). There is a cover that I need to keep in place to avoid water collecting in the window well, but I could possibly keep this open a bit. How do I calculate the threshold for the exhaust of this hot air?
Comment: Besides exhausting the hot air, you'd also have to assure a supply of cool air.  Cracking the cover won't cut it.  You'd have to either install some forced air handling, or get a hose type a/c and install its hoses through the cover, taking care to protect them from inclement weather.
Answer: You would be far better off building a roof type structure over the window well that is well above the window well and projects far enough out around the edges of the well that rain water does not enter the well.
Trying to jury rig a scheme to keep an existing lid open "just enough" sounds like a recipe waiting for disaster. Either it will be left closed with the AC unit on and it will overheat and kill itself due to inadequate air flow. Or the lid will be left open an flood of water will enter the well and try flooding through the AC unit creating a potential safety hazard.
Comment: In the end I got a built a frame for a window unit so it could be secured in the odd-shaped casement window in another part of the room. This took some work to secure, but it works well and looks pretty good. The frame distributes the weight nicely, and there are no airflow problems.
Answer: I think I'd suggest looking for alternatives which don't involve that window well. Perhaps a ducted A/C would let you  install the ducts through the wall above the sill (as you would a dryer's output).


SQL Server full upgrade

Question: our current SQL server is on windows 2003 32bit hence we have planned to rebuild the server from scratch in 64bit, however we have got about 200 databases running in the server so i may have to backup everything at ones and restore them after the 64bit windows installation. is there any easier way to restore all these databases in bulk or any safest options would appreciated.
Answer: Use SQL itself to generate your backup and restore scripts. You'll have to handle MASTER and MSDB first via the documented means to get user accounts, but otherwise, you do something like this (not tested code):
<code>/* script to generate backup script */
    use master
go
select 'backup database ['+ [name] +'] to DISK=''\\myserver\mypath\' + [name] + '.BAK'' WITH COPY_ONLY, INIT'
    from sys.databases where name not in ('master','msdb','tempdb','model')

/* generate restore script */
    select 'restore database ['+ [name] +'] from DISK=''\\myserver\mypath\' + [name] + '.BAK'' '
    from sys.databases where name not in ('master','msdb','tempdb','model')
</code>
Run that in query analyzer, then paste the results of each part into a new query editor window and save. This is the safest way to do it I think, and the whole thing can be run scheduled and automated (with someone monitoring progress of course). You obvously need to shut off client access on the source server before these "final" backups. You will have to adjust the restore portion if your drive layout on the new server is signifgicantly different.
The fastest way would be to install SQL server with the same path and drive layouts, then simply shut down the source server and copy all the files over into the same locations on the new server (including master, etc.). This has worked for me in the past, but restoring master to a new server this way isn't totally trouble-free depending on evnironmentals (nor is it officially supported by MSFT I think). It should work as long as you have the same SQL Server edition, version, and service pack + patch level, even if the source is 32bit and destination is 64bit.

SQL Server full upgrade


Why do wisdom and forgiveness require grace

Question: Two blessings of Shmona Esrei mention grace (חנן) while the rest do not.  The fourth blessing (אתה חונן) mentions this root three different times.  The sixth bracha (סלח לנו) concludes with it .  Why do these brachot rely on G-d's grace or free and undeserved gift, whereas the rest do not?
Comment: I found the M.Y. question that I asked a while ago about *Chonen Hada'at*. I edited it, in the answer, here.
Answer: Regarding the 1st bracha, Chonen Hada'at, see answers to this question. The focus and title of the question is different, but I think the answers, there, address your question. If not, please inform me.
Regarding the 2nd bracha "Selach Lanu", Excerpting some ideas from this article:
Nusach Eretz Yisra'el does not have the word "Chanun" at the ending. This started to appear from the times of Siddur Rav Amram Ga'on. Why was this inserted?

Abudraham - Aligns with the theme in Tehilim 148:8 "G-d is gracious and merciful"
Siddur Hagr"a - According to theme in the verse from Shemot 33:19, "I will be gracious to whom I shall be gracious and have mercy on those I shall have mercy." This means that G-d is gracious to a sinner the 1st time he sins even when He knows that he may sin again.
There was a time when the 13 Middot and Selichot were inserted at this point during fast days (See Shulchan Aruch 566:4). See p. 2 of the article for explanationon why the concept of Chanun became part of Selichot, which would explain, in terms of how it got into the bracha, itself.


If I want to apply a filter to an Image should I use the IIR or FIR filters?

Question: So I have discrete pixel values in the image and each row or column would make a signal. I would like to filter some of the rows or columns to remove high frequency components from them. Should I use the Z transform (difference equations) or work with the FFT of the data to perform the filtering?
Answer: Some important vocabulary first to get the terminology right:

DFT - Discrete Fourier Transform. This is a transform. It is quite computationally intensive. ($O(N^2)$).
FFT - This is an algorithm that makes computing the DFT very fast. ($O(N \log N)$)
Z-transform: This is just a mathematical generalization of the DTFT - it is not an algorithm. When $z = e^{jw}$, then we have the DTFT. Moreover, the DFT is a (uniform) sampling of the DTFT.

So from a practitioner's standpoint, what you will use in your filtering technique is the FFT - at least with a lot of classical techniques. This is because as stated above, the FFT is an algorithm.
In relation to implementing actual difference equation VS doing your filtering via FFT: Most of the time, implementing a convolution is done via the FFT, because of the computational simplicity. There is a point however at which it becomes most efficient to perform a convolution directly, but that is only if your image/signal sizes/lengths are really small.
Comment: @PeterK. Yes, hopefully this will elucidate the taxonomy somewhat so that it can help them massage the question.
Comment: Yes, the OP seems confused. I *think* what they are asking is whether they should implement filtering using the FFT or just do the time-domain implementation of the linear, constant-coefficient difference equation.
Comment: Right sorry, @PeterK. is correct I wanted to ask is it better if I use difference equations to do the filtering or perform some manual multiplicative filtering on the FFTed data.
Comment: @user1084113 See my edit.
Comment: @user4619 I'm sorry I should be more clear, performance is not an issue, say if I was to implement a second order high pass filter through difference equations (bilinear transform of H(z) then use the digital biquad generalization to get y[n]) VS FFT the data and window past a certain frequency (retain all values above a certain frequency and make the rest zero) which of the two approaches would yield better results?
Comment: @user1084113 You are really just asking which filtering method is better, IIR, or FIR, for filtering for images. Please edit the question to ask this.


How to manage, link and track conversion of manual to automated test cases?

Question: We are maintaining our test cases in testlink. For a given sprint we write functional test cases for features and regression suite update accordingly. Now we are in the process of starting automation. Our plan is to convert regression suite to automation. How to maintain the mapping between regression manual test cases and automation Test suite test cases. How to maintain this frequently
Answer: I will suggest a possible path for some folks in this situation.
This may not work for all situations.
Plan for the future, don't just repeat the past
If you simply convert the manual cases to automated ones you will solve one problem but create others.
You will reduce the need for manual testing but you will:

Introduce the need for quality engineer to maintain the automation.  Engineers are expensive.
Create flaky, brittle UI tests.  UI tests fail intermittently in every place I've worked
Miss a perfect opportunity to start doing Agile Testing and dividing up tests into Unit, Integrated and UI
Miss the huge benefits that come from manual testing when humans spot things that are awry
Likely still want to do some manual testing in an exploratory charter approach

You may get push-back to this saying we'll do that in phase II
Phase II doesn't usually happen in my experience.
Answer: I would delete the manual test case after it has been converted into an automated test.
Automated tests should be run automated at least before deployment, preferably after each change.
Keeping the mapping feels as administration for the sake of administration. Therefor I would like to challenge you to think about if you really need it, probably you don't. Yagni!
Comment: Additionally, it's always good to remember that one cannot automate testing strictly (just the checking part). Depending on how these documents are written, I would say that instead of removing, one should edit them, based on risk analysis.
Comment: @JoãoFarias Sounds like unrelated to this question. Not sure how you are going to convert exploratory charters to automated tests. Lets stay on topic.
Comment: @JoãoFarias A manual regression suite is also just checking, not?
Comment: I would call a folder with exploratory charters a "manual suite"; and it's definitely not only checking.
Comment: In our suite , we still keep the manual test cases as a documentation of the automated cases so new members can have a quick look at the manual test cases before diving in the automation code.
Comment: Also those test cases help in communicating with Business analysts for test reviews.
Comment: Use a tool such as Cucumber or RSpec and your test run output WILL be your documentation.  Maintaining two sets is not a good approach me thinks. It's like maintaining comments in programs in some ways.   Comments Feel good and are hard to stop doing, but change you must do and from my old COBOL days, changed I have.
Answer: Simply introduce an automated label - add it to a test case that is fully automated and does not need to be executed manually. Your manual regression set will get smaller each sprint as more automation will be in place.


Whats that sound my amp makes?

Question: i have an electric guitar (Fender Stratocaster classic series 50's mexican) and a Fender Champion 40 amp. Everytime i put my amp on and turn up the volume it makes a really buzzy sound. I figuered out that this happens when im close to my laptop witch i usually play! Any good solutions except from change my laptop ( also it hasnt got any battery if that makes any sense, its always plugged in)! Thank you!!
Comment: Does the sound change significantly when you choose different pickup combinations with the 5-way switch, or does it stay mostly the same?
Comment: im sorry! the sound comes from the amp.
Comment: it changes a bit. the buzzy sound is louder on the neck pickup but its also loud on the other 4
Comment: yeah thats what happens!!! Thank you!! im about to check it!!! :)
Comment: @ToddWilcox  : This question is not really a dup, because there is a computer involved, which, based on the question, may be the source of the problem. If so, grounding will not help and you'd need some awfully good shielding to keep out noise from a poorly executed switching power supply, the bane of many an audiophile or radio enthusiast.
Answer:
( also it hasnt got any battery if that makes any sense, its always
  plugged in)

Your laptop generates some electronic noise that could get pulled in by a nearby audio device, but that would usually be only at close range - a foot or two.
Your #1 suspect is the power supply of your laptop - such power supplies can be very noisy over a considerable distance, if they aren't well designed to squelch electronic noise.
If possible, put your laptop on batteries and see if that helps.
Comment: @chris - first let's see if I'm right. :)

Whats that sound my amp makes?