security performance criteria in employee reviews

Question: Have any of you security professionals been able to get security performance metrics into reviews that managers conduct for their employees?  If so, are there any helpful resources you could share to make that happen?
Comment: What does this even mean? How many times a user opened unsafe email attachments? How many times the user wrote their password on a sticky-note and left it on their desk? "Security performance metrics" is nondescriptive buzzword bingo.

If users consistently perform such unsafe actions as to warrant a review of "security performance metrics", that seems to imply your organization's security policy has far deeper problems than its users violation of it.
Comment: I'd say it could go both ways.  Employees can be penalized AND incentivized.  Personally I'd advocate for the latter.  Consider performance indicators such as quiz results, attended security meetings, their resistance to phishing attacks . . . If a company REALLY believes security is important, it'd be in employee evaluations.
Comment: "If a company REALLY believes security is important, it'd be in employee evaluations" - It already is: if you violate company security policies, you should be disciplined and/or fired depending on the severity thereof. If you give your users quizzes based on what you're teaching them, use those quizzes to evaluate the effectiveness of your training materials & security policy. Evaluating employees on things that aren't directly their job is...ludicrous.
Comment: The problem is that the only thing security policies and actual security share is part of the name.
Answer: I'd like to respectfully offer a different perspective from the perfectly valid answer and comments already here.
I'm reading between the lines a lot, but I believe the original question is trying to achieve quite a good (and difficult) thing - prioritize security awareness at departmental level, with objective measurements of awareness.
The effect being that various managers are kept aware of how good direct reports are with regards to IT security, and there are hard numbers to refer to, not individual incidents. It's not just left as another thing for HR to deal with - you're treating it as training, instead of discipline.
I feel that IT Security is so nuanced that individual managers are better suited to evaluate their direct reports than HR is.
Phishing is much more of a threat to senior managers or financial controllers. It's important that they are "phishing-resilient" because their accounts have access to business critical systems. I'm not fussed if the maintenance crew score poorly against phishing - their accounts are likely to have very few privileges. In contrast, the maintenance crew has to be great at physical security, because they have access to the entire building (which may include switch cabinets, cable runs, etc.)
The metrics part is great because it's better to have numbers from a careful study instead of single-case incidents. But this is the hard part.
To do this you would need a well-designed framework for constant and systematic evaluation of each staff member, AND a "red team" that constantly tries to tailgate into buildings, leaves "malicious" USB drives in employee parking lots, phish employees, email nude-pics.jpg.exe to staff, etc. At the end of the day, you could then indeed construct great objective measurements:

"Resistance to phishing attack": Received 24 test phishing emails, visited the phish page 2 times, entered credentials 0 times,
"Safe treatment of unknown USB Drives": Returned 2 out of 2 "lost" USB drives to the IT Helpdesk.

Excellent, but very resource intensive. You could then gamify the system to increase response by comparing ratings between departments, improvements over time, awards for perfect scores, etc.
If you planned on deriving metrics from non-training, real-world incidents, I would agree that those are much less useful for staff training and awareness.
Comment: I think this is a much better answer than the one by @ChrisLively, mostly for using a red team to create metrics in the first place.
Comment: Overall this is a good answer.  I would just add that you likely want to be careful implementing a "red team".  For two reasons.  The first is that results obtained might eventually be used in the perf reviews of the various managers; which may not be a good thing.  Second is that if it is known when and/or the type of testing such a team performs then I could easily see managers alerting their staff ahead of time thereby defeating the purpose.  To that end it would probably be more beneficial to hire an outside company to run random tests throughout the year.
Comment: I agree entirely. You need a company with vision and leadership to put the metrics to "good" use, and the red team (internal or external) must have integrity beyond reproach. I would also like to add that once the metrics have been proven to be accurate and unbiased, I would have no problem using them for performance reviews - empirical evidence of good or poor security performance is immensely valuable.
Answer: This is an answer simply because the comment system is too short.
I agree with Panther that "Security performance metrics" is essentially meaningless.
Your company should have a security policy and a way to enforce said policy.  Your employee manual should be clear as to the repercussions of violating those policies.  Whether it's a slap on the wrist or outright termination.  At a minimum it should be putting the employee on notice for even a minor incident, with knowledge that a second incident results in job loss.  For any "major" security breach such as handing out their password or, worse, PII to someone that isn't properly vetted, then it should be immediate termination and their stuff mailed to them.
The mechanics for handling such things are already HR 101 so there isn't really a need to add anything else to the review.  "Oh, look you didn't violate our security policy.  Good for you." or "look, I'd give you the raise but you are already in hot water over that nigerian scam email thing.  Try again next year."
Regarding security training, etc, again those should be handled just like other job related training items are - a line item in their folder.  Did they get a pretty certificate with their name on it?  Coolio.  Did they fail to attend any of your mandatory training which they would be fired for missing? -- well, that should sort itself out.
You mentioned "resistance to phishing attack"..  What does that even mean?  "Oh look, I see that you deleted 923,234 pieces of spam mail from your inbox last year.  Good job!"  ::eyeroll::
Yes, this answer is dripping with sarcasm.  Not because I don't find security to be a topic every employee should be aware of.  Rather, I find it to be a topic that should already be handled by your normal employee training, employee manual and existing HR policies.  If it isn't, then you haven't done your job....and there should be a line item in your annual review for that.
Answer: What is it with this obsession on 'phishing resistance'?  What about compliance with the security policies and procedures?  What about spotting and reporting incidents, new risks, new opportunities?  Getting actively involved in information security and risk management activities? Helping out with business continuity planning or testing security functions on new systems? .... There are loads of security-related things that security-aware employees do, and they can all be measured, if that's what you really want to do.
But, really, what's the point?
Take things back a couple of steps: what are the business objectives concerning employee security awareness?  What is the organization trying to achieve?  Somehow, I doubt 'phishing resistance' features on the list at all.  So why measure it?
More likely are objectives such as 'Build a strong security culture' ... and measuring the culture takes us in a totally different metrics direction.
Comment: We essentially agree.  I listed "phishing resistance" as a simple example, not necessarily anything more.  Employees doing stuff that enhances the security culture is a great goal if it can be measured.


How do I improve ASP.NET MVC application performance?

Question: How do you improve your ASP.NET MVC application performance?
Answer: A compiled list of possible sources of improvement are below:
General

Make use of a profiler to discover memory leaks and performance problems in your application. personally I suggest dotTrace
Run your site in Release mode, not Debug mode, when in production, and also during performance profiling. Release mode is much faster. Debug mode can hide performance problems in your own code.

Caching

Use CompiledQuery.Compile()
recursively  avoiding
recompilation of your query
expressions
Cache not-prone-to-change
content using OutputCacheAttribute
to save unnecessary and action
executions
Use cookies for frequently accessed non sensitive information
Utilize ETags and expiration - Write your custom ActionResult methods if necessary
Consider using the RouteName to organize your routes and then use it to generate
your links, and try not to use the expression tree based ActionLink method.
Consider implementing a route resolution caching strategy
Put repetitive code inside your PartialViews, avoid render it xxxx times: if you
end up calling the same partial 300 times in the same view, probably there is something
wrong with that. Explanation And Benchmarks

Routing

Use Url.RouteUrl("User", new { username = "joeuser" }) to specify routes. ASP.NET MVC Perfomance by Rudi Benkovic
Cache route resolving using this helper UrlHelperCached ASP.NET MVC Perfomance by Rudi Benkovic

Security

Use Forms Authentication, Keep your frequently accessed sensitive data in the
authentication ticket

DAL

When accessing data via LINQ rely on IQueryable
Leverage the Repository pattern
Profile your queries i.e. Uber Profiler
Consider second level cache for your queries and add them an scope and a timeout i.e. NHibernate Second Cache

Load balancing

Utilize reverse proxies, to spread the client load across your app instance. (Stack Overflow uses HAProxy (MSDN).
Use Asynchronous Controllers to implement actions that depend on external resources processing.

Client side

Optimize your client side, use a tool like YSlow for
suggestions to improve performance
Use AJAX to update components of your UI, avoid a whole page update when possible.
Consider implement a pub-sub architecture -i.e. Comet- for content delivery against
reload based in timeouts.
Move charting and graph generation logic to the client side if possible. Graph generation
is a expensive activity. Deferring to the client side your server from an
unnecessary burden, and allows you to work with graphs locally without make a new
request (i.e. Flex charting, jqbargraph, MoreJqueryCharts).
Use CDN's for scripts and media content  to improve loading on the client side (i.e. Google CDN)
Minify -Compile- your JavaScript in order to improve your script size
Keep cookie size small, since cookies are sent to the server on every request.
Consider using DNS and Link Prefetching when possible.

Global configuration

If you use Razor, add the following code in your global.asax.cs, by default, Asp.Net MVC renders with an aspx engine and a razor engine. This only uses the RazorViewEngine.
ViewEngines.Engines.Clear();
ViewEngines.Engines.Add(new RazorViewEngine());
Add gzip (HTTP compression) and static cache (images, css, ...) in your web.config
<system.webServer>
    <urlCompression doDynamicCompression="true" doStaticCompression="true" dynamicCompressionBeforeCache="true"/>
 </system.webServer>
Remove unused HTTP Modules
Flush your HTML as soon as it is generated (in your web.config) and disable viewstate if you are not using it
<pages buffer="true" enableViewState="false">
Comment: wait you mean i do lose performance when i e.g. have a view that displays a result set by irritating through an IList and call Render.PartialView("Row", item) for each list item? how much do i lose? or how could i measure the performance gain?
Comment: This is cool.  Uber Profiler link is dead though.  Should this be linked to one of the ORM specific profilers instead?
Comment: @SDReyes - what is the meaning of **pub-sub architecture**?
Answer: The basic suggestion is to follow REST principles and the following points ties some of these principals to the ASP.NET MVC framework:

Make your controllers stateless - this is more of a 'Web performance / scalability' suggestion (as opposed to micro/machine level performance) and a major design decision that would affect your applications future - especially in case it becomes popular or if you need some fault tolerance for example.

Do not use Sessions
Do not use tempdata - which uses sessions
Do not try to 'cache' everything 'prematurely'.

Use Forms Authentication

Keep your frequently accessed sensitive data in the authentication ticket

Use cookies for frequently accessed non sensitive information
Make your resources cachable on the web

Utilize ETags
Use expiration
Write your custom ActionResult classes if necessary
Utilize reverse proxies

Compile your JavaScript. There is Closure compiler library to do it as well (sure there are others, just search for 'JavaScript compiler' too)
Use CDNs (Content Delivery Network) - especially for your large media files and so on.
Consider different types of storage for your data, for example, files, key/value stores, etc. - not only SQL Server
Last but not least, test your web site for performance
Answer: Code Climber and this blog entry provide detailed ways of increasing application's performance.
Compiled query will increase performance of your application, but it has nothing in common with ASP.NET MVC. It will speed up every db application, so it is not really about MVC.
Answer: This may seem obvious, but run your site in Release mode, not Debug mode, when in production, and also during performance profiling. Release mode is much faster. Debug mode can hide performance problems in your own code.
Answer: Not an earth-shattering optimization, but I thought I'd throw this out there - Use CDN's for jQuery, etc..
Quote from ScottGu himself: The Microsoft Ajax CDN enables you to significantly improve the performance of ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC applications that use ASP.NET AJAX or jQuery. The service is available for free, does not require any registration, and can be used for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.
We even use the CDN for our webparts in Moss that use jQuery.
Answer: Also if you use NHibernate you can turn on and setup second level cache for queries and add to queries scope and timeout. And there is kick ass profiler for EF, L2S and NHibernate - http://hibernatingrhinos.com/products/UberProf. It will help to tune your queries.
Comment: Ayende recently blogged about how EF Profiler helped him tune a sample MVC app: http://ayende.com/Blog/archive/2010/05/17/analyzing-the-mvc-music-store-data-access.aspx
Answer: When accessing data via LINQ rely on IQueryable ...
Why use AsQueryable() instead of List()?
... and leverge a good Repository pattern:
Loading Subrecords in the Repository Pattern
This will optimize data access to ensure only the data needed is loaded and when only it is needed.
Answer: I will also add:

Use Sprites: Sprites are a great thing to reduce a request. You merge all your images into a single one and use CSS to get to good
part of the sprite. Microsoft provides a good library to do it:
Sprite and Image Optimization Preview 4.
Cache Your server object: If you have some references lists or data which will change rarely, you can cache them into memory instead of querying database every time.
Use ADO.NET instead of Entity Framework: EF4 or EF5 are great to reduce development time, but it will be painful to optimize.
It's more simple to optimize a stored procedure than Entity
Framework. So you should use store procedures as much as possible.
Dapper provides a simple way to query and map SQL with very good
performance.
Cache Page or partial page: MVC provides some easy filter to cache page according to some parameters, so use it.
Reduce Database calls: You can create a unique database request that returns multiple objects. Check on Dapper website.
Always have a clean architecture: Have a clean n-tiers architecture, even on a small project. It will help you to keep your code clean, and it will be easier to optimize it if needed.
You can take a look at this template "Neos-SDI MVC Template"
which will create a clean architecture for you with lots of
performance improvements by default (check MvcTemplate
website).
Comment: Do you think it is better to run one stored procedure which returns more result sets then run more stored procedures in async mode ?
Answer: In addition to all the great information on optimising your application on the server side I'd say you should take a look at YSlow. It's a superb resource for improving site performance on the client side.
This applies to all sites, not just ASP.NET MVC.
Answer: One super easy thing to do is to think asynchronously when accessing the data you want for the page.  Whether reading from a web service, file, data base or something else,  use the async model as much as possible.  While it won't necessarily help any one page be faster it will help your server perform better overall.
Answer:
Implement Gzip.
Use asynchronous rendering for partial views.
Minimize database hits.
Use a compiled query.
Run a profiler and find out unnecessary hits. Optimize all stored procedures which are taking more than 1 second to return a response.
Use caching.
Use bundling minification optimization.
Use HTML 5 utilities like session cache and local storage for readonly contents.
Answer: 1: Get Timings. Until you know where the slowdown is, the question is too broad to answer. A project I'm working on has this precise problem; There's no logging to even know how long certain things take; we can only guess as to the slow parts of the app until we add timings to the project.
2: If you have sequential operations, Don't be afraid to lightly multithread. ESPECIALLY if blocking operations are involved. PLINQ is your friend here.
3: Pregenerate your MVC Views when Publishing... That will help with some of the 'first page hit'
4: Some argue for the stored procedure/ADO advantages of speed. Others argue for speed of development of EF and a more clear seprataion of tiers and their purpose. I've seen really slow designs when SQL and the workarounds to use Sprocs/Views for data retrieval and storage. Also, your difficulty to test goes up. Our current codebase that we are converting from ADO to EF is not performing any worse (and in some cases better) than the old Hand-Rolled model.
5: That said, Think about application Warmup. Part of what we do to help eliminate most of our EF performance woes was to add a special warmup method. It doesn't precompile any queries or anything, but it helps with much of the metadata loading/generation. This can be even more important when dealing with Code First models.
6: As others have said, Don't use Session state or ViewState if possible. They are not necessarily performance optimizations that developers think about, but once you start writing more complex web applications, you want responsiveness. Session state precludes this. Imagine a long running query. You decide to open a new window and try a less complex one. Well, you may as well have waited with session state on, because the server will wait until the first request is done before moving to the next one for that session.
7: Minimize round trips to the database. Save stuff that you frequently use but will not realistically change to your .Net Cache. Try to batch your inserts/updates where possible.
7.1: Avoid Data Access code in your Razor views without a damn good reason. I wouldn't be saying this if I hadn't seen it. They were already accessing their data when putting the model together, why the hell weren't they including it in the model?
Answer: Just wanted to add my 2 cents. The MOST effective way to optimize the URL route generation in an MVC application is... not generate them at all.
Most of us more or less know how URLs are generated in our apps anyway, so simply using static Url.Content("~/Blahblah") instead of Url.Action() or Url.RouteUrl() where possible, beats all other methods by almost 20 times and even more.
PS. I've ran a benchmark of couple of thousand iterations and posted results on my blog if interested.
Answer: In your clamour to optimize the client side, don't forget about the database layer. We had an application that went from 5 seconds to load up to 50 seconds overnight.
On inspection, we'd made a whole bunch of schema changes. Once we refreshed the statistics, it suddenly became as responsive as before.
Answer: Following are things to do

Kernel mode Cache
Pipeline mode
Remove unused modules
runAllManagedModulesForAllRequests
Don't write in wwwroot
Remove unused view engines and language
Answer: Using Bundling and Minification also helps you improve the performance. It basically reduces the page loading time.
Answer: If you are running your ASP.NET MVC application on Microsoft Azure (IaaS or PaaS), then do the following at least at before the first deployment.

Scan your code with static code analyzer for any type of code debt, duplication, complexity and for security.
Always enable the Application Insight, and monitor the performance, browsers, and analytics frequently to find the real-time issues in the application.
Implement Azure Redis Cache for static and less frequent change data like Images, assets, common layouts etc.
Always rely on APM (Application Performance Management) tools provided by Azure.
See application map frequently to investigate the communication performance between internal parts of the application.
Monitor Database/VM performance too.
Use Load Balancer (Horizontal Scale) if required and within the budget.
If your application has the target audience all over the globe, then use Azure Trafic Manager to automatically handle the incoming request and divert it to the most available application instance.
Try to automate the performance monitoring by writing the alerts based on low performance.
Answer: Use the latest version of Task Parallel Library (TPL), according to .Net version. Have to choose the correct modules of TPL for different purposes.
Answer: I did all the answers above and it just didn't solve my problem.
Finally, I solved my slow site loading problem with setting PrecompileBeforePublish in Publish Profile to true. If you want to use msbuild you can use this argument:
 /p:PrecompileBeforePublish=true

It really help a lot. Now my MVC ASP.NET loads 10 times faster.


Retrieve file from iPhone 4s in recovery mode (No backup)

Question: I have an iPhone 4s that was updated without being backed up first and that contains a voice memo file for a school project that is due tomorrow. The update failed, although the cause isn't known. It was over wifi and the wifi signal was strong and consistent. Maybe the actual internet service cut out. I don't know. Now, the phone has been replaced, so it no longer has cell service either. I've been asked to retrieve the file off of it.
I've tried hooking it up with iExplorer and it won't discover in there. I've also thought of jailbreaking it, but I'm not sure if that requires deletion of all the drive contents. I'm also open to breaking the thing open and somehow mounting the drive on another computer, but I'm not sure if there are adapters available for that or how possible it is. Maybe there's a way to restore and then recover the deleted files? Again, I don't know. I'm not typically an Apple user, although I do have access to Windows, Mac, and Linux OS's if need be.
Answer: You could try out software like phoneview, but I'm asuming you're out of luck if it doesn't boot.
The memory is on the iPhones mainboard, so no way of external mounting.


Slow switch to other applications' windows from Chrome

Question: When I have Google Chrome open and I switch to other applications by either using alt+tab or just mouse, it takes about a second or so to change focus. Same goes another way around - when I try to switch to Chrome, it takes time.
However, when I switch between all other applications, I don't experience any delay. I tried it with Firefox with a dozen of tabs and it's super-fast.
Can it be fixed for Chrome?
I'm trying it on a very powerful laptop(XPS 15 9550) and don't understand if video adapter can be an issue here.
Answer: I started having the same problem with Google Chrome just today (on Ubuntu 16.04).
Switching between tabs on the same Chrome window is fast (just like normal).
Trying to switch focus from one Chrome window to another Chrome window is painfully slow (like 2 second delay).  Similarly slow when switching from a Chrome window to another application (e.g. nautilus), but seems slightly less slow (like 1 second delay).
Switching between other non-chrome windows is normal speed. Firefox is fine.
The only thing that's changed for me is : my dell precision m3800 suddenly thinks I'm connected to a lower wattage power adapter (have tried multiple authentic dell adapters, still same problem).
Normally Dell BIOS slows your CPU down to 800mhz in this state, and  I ended up setting intel_pstate=disable processor.ignore_ppc=1 in my grub config to force it to ignore that (per Ubuntu 15.04 with intel_pstate - low current cpu frequency).


Does EOS have state variables as in Ethereum?

Question: Ethereum and solidity define state variables which are held in the contract. What is the structure in EOS? Is there also a state variable system at the contract level? Is the virtual machine defined as in Ethereum as a deterministic environment in which API calls etc are not permitted and only events link to the outside world (I understand events are not implemented in EOS now).
Answer: To preserve state between different actions or transactions, EOS offers the multi-index DB API, which allows you to create an indexed, persistent table / struct to preserve state. See here for a guide, and here for the API reference.
Excerpt:

EOSIO provides a set of services and interfaces that enable contract
  developers to persist state across action, and consequently
  transaction, boundaries. Without persistence, state that is generated
  during the processing of actions and transactions will be lost when
  processing goes out of scope. The persistence components include:

Services to persist state in a database
Enhanced query capabilities to find and retrieve database content
C++ APIs to these services, intended for use by contract developers
C APIs for access to core services, of interest to library and system developers

Example from docs:
struct limit_order {
  uint64_t     id;
  uint128_t    price;
  uint64_t     expiration;
  account_name owner;

  auto primary_key() const { return id; }
  uint64_t get_expiration() const { return expiration; }
  uint128_t get_price() const { return price; }

  EOSLIB_SERIALIZE( limit_order, ( id )( price )( expiration )( owner ) )
};
...
eosio::multi_index< N( orders ), limit_order,
   indexed_by< N( byexp ),   const_mem_fun< limit_order, uint64_t, &limit_order::get_expiration> >,
   indexed_by< N( byprice ), const_mem_fun< limit_order, uint128_t, &limit_order::get_price> >
    > orders( N( limitorders ), N( limitorders ) );
...

And, yes, EOS doesn't currently allow external API calls from the blockchain, but inter-blockchain communication (IBC) and oracles are the suggested solutions for this in the future, with IBC being actively worked on by BlockOne.


Pros and cons of using a personal assistant service to manage your personal finances?

Question: Does anybody use a personal assistant, virtual (like asksunday.com) or in-person to manage personal finances? If so what is your experience like? My situation is fairly complex and i'd like to save those few hours a month. I just don't feel comfortable releasing so much personal information to somebody (especially foreign company)
Comment: I cannot offer any advice, but I can say that it would be difficult for me to trust someone else with my finances.
Comment: That's what i think too but if i had my own business it would be ok to share it with an accountant. So what's the difference? Businesses operate on a larger scale
Comment: I'm with @George.  I could not do it.  I think the difference between business and personal finances is if the accountant screws it up your business goes under.  If someone else screws up your personal finances you are ruined.  Not a good risk/reward ratio for me.
Comment: I'm not saying you shouldn't explore the idea.  I just wanted to put that out there as a reminder that it is a risky proposition and not one to take lightly.  Other than the person's competence, my biggest concern would be their trustworthiness.  As the saying goes, "trust me with your life, but not your money or your wife."
Comment: @George agree 100%. this is exactly why i am asking. Not taking it lightly. Want to know if anybody actually did it.

@mpenrow if you have a Mom&Pop shop as small business and it goes down it's just as bad as somebody screwing up your personal finances. What i am trying to say sometimes your family grows into a small business but you can't afford a full time accountant.
Answer: Not knowing anything about your situation or what makes it so complex, I would have to agree with the other commenters.  If your accountant screws up your business goes under, but at least your personal finances are safe from that and you'll recover (unless all your wealth is tied up in your business).  If your virtual assistant uses your personal information to take all your money, ruin your credit, or any number of other things, you're going to spend a loooong time trying to get things "back to normal".
If the few hours per month spent managing your finances is starting to add up, I might suggest looking into other ways to automate and manage them.  For instance, are all of your bills (or as many as you can) e-bills that can be issued electronically to your bank?  Have you set up online bill pay with your bank, so that you can automatically pay all the bills when they arrive?  Have you tried using any number of online services (Mint, Thrive, your bank's "virtual wallet/portfolio") to help with budget, expense tracking, etc.?
Again, I don't know your exact situation, but hopefully some of these suggestions help.  Once I started automating my savings and a lot of my bill paying, it gave me a lot of peace of mind.
Comment: I understand there are ways to reduce the work and i understand there is a danger of somebody stealing your information. But it's not really what i am asking. I am asking if people had any experience outsourcing the job of running personal finances. I am sure somebody did. Just want to know their experience.
Answer: Years ago I hired someone part time (not virtual however) to help me with all sorts of things.  Yes it helps free up some time. However particularly with finances, it does take a leap of faith.
If you have high value accounts that this person will be dealing with you can always get them bonded.  Getting an individual with a clean credit history and no criminal background bonded usually costs < $600 a year (depending on $ risk exposure).
I would start out small with tasks that do not directly put that person in control of your money.  In my case I didn't have an official business, I worked a normal 9-5 job, but I owned several rental units, and an interest in a bar.  My assistant also had a normal 9-5 job and worked 5-10 hours a week for me on various things.
Small stuff at first like managing my calendar, reminding me when bills were due, shipping packages, even calling to set up a hair cut. At some point she moved to contacting tenants, meeting with contractors, showing apartments, etc...
I paid her a fixed about each week plus expenses. I would pay her extra if I needed her more (say showing an apartment on a Saturday, or meeting a plumber). She would handled all sorts of stuff for me, and I gave her the flexibility when needed to fit things in with her schedule. After about a month I did get her a credit card for expenses.
Obviously a virtual assistant would not be able to do some of these things but I think you get the point.
Eventually when the trust had been built up I put her on most of my accounts and gave her some fiduciary responsibilities as well. I'm not sure that this level of trust would be possible to get to with a virtual assistant.
However, with a virtual assistant you might be able to avoid one really big danger of hiring an assistant....
You see, several years later when I sold off my apartment buildings I no longer needed an assistant, so I married her. Now one good thing about that is I don't have to pay her now.   ;)
Comment: what kind of bond? Surety bond?
Comment: Yes a surety bond. (also called a security bond) There are several different varieties depending on your needs. Rates are usually 1-4% of the amount the bond is being bought for.
Answer: When you want to hire personal assistants, you must be sure that you are hiring in a trusted company or the person you talk to have been proven by a lot of people. You must be wise in choosing one because these people will handle some of your personal things and data.
Comment: Do you have any actual experience using a personal assistant?


How to root Lenovo A1000 Smartphone?

Question: I tried Kingo Root and Root Genius and some other software but finally failed to root this phone. My phone is Lenovo A1000.
Comment: Welcome to Android Enthusiasts! We will need more information to give good recommendations here. Please [edit] your question and include at least: The Android version it is running.
Comment: For users who flagged this as "Unclear what you're asking": [assume Android 5.0](http://shopap.lenovo.com/in/en/smartphones/a-series/a1000/) if OP doesn't clarify since I don't think Lenovo pushed any update beyond that version.
Comment: I have Android 5.0 and i can't Root this Phone.
Answer: To root a Lenovo A1000 smartphone (Android 5.0), go to kingroot.net and follow their directions to download, install, and run KingRoot.  I downloaded the Android .apk to my Linux laptop and copied it to the phone via adb, but I'm sure downloading directly to the phone (they provide a QR code) would also work.
By the way, add SuperSU to the list of ones that do not work on this phone.

How to root Lenovo A1000 Smartphone?


Check field's data availability in WHERE clause

Question: Can we make a check on WHERE clause of a SOQL query for comparing 2 date fields availability? My requirement is, I want to get the response from query based on data availability on two different fields. I have 2 date fields (Date_A__c and Date_B__c). My requirement is to make a check on a single query that if data is present in Date_A__c, the query should return with its data, but if data is unavailable in Date_A__c, the query should return with Date_B__c data. Is this condition possible to write in WHERE clause.
Comment: You can not do this in a query using just those two field. You can create a formula field that evaluates to the correct value and use that in your query.
Comment: @KhushbooDua why you can not use a formula field in a where condition!?
Answer: You can not do it with SOQL. But you can do it for sure with APEX method use a SOQL query.
A SOQL query reads data from a data store based on conditions you enter. The APEX method returns the data:
public Date myMethod()
{
    MyObject__c m = [Select Date_A__c, Date_B__c
                     From MyObject__c
                     Where CreatedDate = LAST_WEEK];
    if(m.Date_A__c != null)
    {
        return m.Date_A__c;
    }

    return m.Date_B__c;
}

Answer: Yes this is possible using single query.
Make your query
WHERE Date_A__c != null OR Date_B__c != null

and when you iterate over it then simply put an if condition
if(Object.Date_A__c != null) {
    //run code here
}
else {
    //run code here
}

Answer: If you are looking for a purely SOQL query then I think you can create a custom formula field (checkbox) can use that in the query.
Otherwise, you will have to use apex to filter the data which some folks have already mentioned in other comments.


Laying vinyl floor sheets on concrete

Question: I have a concrete floor, which needs work to make it really level (i just poured it). Once I have it level enough I would like to install vinyl sheets for the finished flooring. Is it reasonably easy to make the concrete level enough, and can anyone advise me about what products to use to do this? And then, should I seal the concrete? What is the best sealer to use? I have been told that the glue used for the vinyl will not stick if the concrete is too moist, which is why I assume I need to seal it.  Thanks!
Comment: Making a concrete slab "really level" is done during the initial pour. Proper form work, screeding, and finish-floating the pour can give you a near-perfect level and smooth surface.

 If you "just poured it" but it is too late to properly level and finish, you will likely need float a floor leveler on top. If you do/did not have the skill/experience/knowledge/tools to create a level slab initially, I would argue that you will have the same problems with floor-leveling material.
Answer: Before you decide on the flooring you'll want to do a moisture test. Vinyl floor will not allow any water vapor to escape the slab, so as moisture wicks up through the slab it will become wet below the vinyl. This can lead to mold issues and a breakdown of glues and patching compounds. There are plenty of effective ways to deal with a moisture in a slab, but without a test you won't know which to choose.
Now to the question of leveling the concrete, first step is to map out the slab to determine high and low spots. The easiest way to do this is to set up a rotating laser in the middle of the room, be sure it's sitting level and turn it on projecting a level line around the room (the height you set it at doesn't matter). Next take a straight stick, pole, broom handle, whatever as long as its straight, set it next to the laser and place a mark on it where the laser hits it. Then make your way around the room taking note where the laser is hitting the stick in relation to the first mark. Plot several points around the room (the more the better). Marks above the control line means the floor is low, below means high.
High spot are best ground down, low spots are best filled. Most jobs I've done require both grinding and filling. If you find more low spots than high the more leveler you need, more high then low the less you need. Remember to respect all control and expansion joints, and follow the manufacturer's instructions to the tee to insure a proper job.
Comment: Hello, again. This answer is great, and has lots of good information; even better, it answers an old, unanswered question. But again, the formatting makes it difficult for people to read and understand it. I'll clean it up, but a bit of work by you would let more people benefit from your experience.
Comment: There; I've cleaned it up. You can click the "edited" link above my name to see what changes I made.
Comment: Please: keep contributing! We need people with your expertise and willingness to share. (And, you may want to choose another display name; it's hard to keep track of all the userXXXXXs, and it's nice to recognize returning contributors.)

Laying vinyl floor sheets on concrete


What's the child doing in this picture? Is it called tongue twister?

Question:
In the picture the child is having fun with her tongue. Is it called a tongue twister?
Comment: yes it didn't match but, I fount the "tongue twister on this photo"
Comment: There is actually little reason to believe it genetic, but the process of nerve development and selection seem better discussed in biology.
Comment: Did you look up the definition of [tongue twister](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tongue-twister)?
Comment: Interestingly, the ability to do this is genetic. If you can't do it then it is impossible to teach you to do it. On the other hand if you have the genes you can do it without being taught.
Comment: @TheNate is correct. It's widely believed that the ability to do this is genetic, but it's not, or at least it's not clearly binary. It's very much possible to train oneself (or presumably someone else) to do it. It's plausible that there are genetic traits that make it easier, but I've never seen any evidence to support such a claim.
Answer: No, a "tongue twister" is a sentence that is very difficult to say correctly.
For example:

She sells seashells on the seashore
The sixth sheik's sixth sheep's sick.
Which wristwatches are Swiss wristwatches?

What the child in the picture is doing is called tongue rolling.  See Tongue rolling on Wikipedia for more information.
Comment: The confusion may arise because a (rare) alternative to "rolling her tongue" is "twisting her tongue".
Answer: I can't speak for England, but in America I have always heard people say "She can roll her tongue." Just as a point of clarification, because based on the above, you might think it's appropriate to say "She can do tongue rolling." If you said that to me, I would have no idea what you were talking about, but I might fear it was something sexual.
Comment: I agree, although I think this would work better as a comment rather than a separate answer.
Comment: Really?  I live in America as well, and I always assumed rolling your tongue was the same as rolling "r"s, like in spanish "Perro"


BLDC motor without electronic speed control

Question: I have an ESC and a brushless DC motor. I am interfacing the ESC to the motor, but I am not getting what I want.  Can I directly connect the motor to the battery without taking the ESC into account?
Comment: Of course you can. But what will happen after that is another story.
Answer: No, you can't.  A brushless DC motor is very similar to a three phase AC induction motor.  You need to use a brushless DC motor controller (ESC) designed to generate the rotating field.  A DC motor with brushes can indeed be run directly off of a battery (if it has a permanent magnet field,) as the rotating armature has a commutator to keep the armature developing torque against the fixed motor field.
A brushless DC motor is, as I say, more like a three phase AC induction motor, except that the rotor doesn't turn by developing an induced current and magnetic field, rather the rotor has a permanent magnet which is driven by the rotating field.  If you just apply DC to one of the 3 windings, all you would do is (possibly) move the rotor to align up with the magnetic field from that one winding, and then the winding would (most likely) burn up since it would appear as a dead short to the battery.
Also, most brushless DC motor controllers (ESC) are 'choppers' that limit the current sent to the motor, preventing thermal failure. So if you have a '12V' BLDC motor and connect it directly to a 12V battery (no ESC) not only won't it spin (as mentioned above,) but I'd expect to permanently damage the windings. Since a stationary DC motor generates no back-EMF, the full battery voltage will be continuously passed over one resistive winding, generating lots of problematic heat.
Comment: If you expand a little bit, it would become a good answer..
Answer: No you cannot run a brushless DC motor straight off a battery.  Brushless DC motors are not really DC motors.  The reason they are called DC motors is that their performance characteristics resemble a brushed DC motor (fairly linear speed/torque curve, fairly linear torque/Amp, etc.).
A permanent magnet DC motor can run off DC power because it has a mechanical commutator that physically switches the polarity of the current in the windings so that the magnetic field produced by the windings is always correctly aligned with the magnetic field from the permanent magnet.
A brushless DC motor doesn't have a physical commutator so it needs some method of switching the direction of current in the windings.  That is one of the roles of a brushless motor control. (Note, I'm using the term "brushless motor control" as it is a more general term than "ESC," which stands for electronic speed control.  ESC is a term that is mostly used in the RC hobby community and generally refers to limited-function controls that provide open loop speed control using zero-crossing, back-emf detection algorithms.)
A brushless motor control switches the current in the windings based on the position of the rotor.  There are different ways to determine rotor position (encoder, hall effect sensors, back-emf zero-crossing detection, field oriented control, etc.) but all brushless motor controls require some knowledge of rotor position to function properly.


Will certain types of beer get me more drunk more quickly?

Question: Assuming we're comparing equivalent amounts of alcohol, do certain beers get you inebriated more quickly or slowly? Does the amount of fizz make a difference?
Comment: [The topicality of this question is being discussed on meta](http://meta.beer.stackexchange.com/questions/3/how-much-do-we-want-to-get-into-biology).
Answer: The process of becoming drunk involves becoming dehydrated. So the higher the ABV, and less water you're taking on, the faster you'll feel the effects.
This is why shots get you drunk very quickly: there is little to no extra water in the mix. Other ingredients can add to this affect, and as I've personally noticed, some beers can produce very different "drunk experiences" than others - just like being drunk off wine, beer, shots, or mixed drinks can produce different results.
So, absolutely if you drank half a beer with twice the ABV while your friend drank 1 beer with half the ABV, you'd probably feel drunk faster than him. Assuming you're drinking at the same pace. Less water.
Comment: Actually it's the opposite way around.  Large watered down drinks enter the intestine almost immediately while small strong drinks stay in the stomach. It's the same amount of alcohol, but it gets absorbed much more quickly in the intestine. See [Alcohol concentration and carbonation of drinks: the effect on blood alcohol levels - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17720590/)
Answer: Absolutely, it depends on the ABV like any other alcoholic beverage. You can drink Natty-lights all night like college kids or you can get your hands on one of these bad boys, at 67.5% abv. I highly doubt carbonation has anything to do with it.
Personally, I prefer to drink beer for the taste, not to get drunk. So I'll experiment among many different craft brews.
---- edit ----
Started answering before I saw your edit. I'll keep this up for education's sake.
Comment: Yeah, I said 'equivalent quantities of alcohol', implying if you drink something with twice the ABV, you drink half as much.
Comment: didn't see that before, my bad.
Answer: Carbonation (fizziness) moves the alcohol to your bloodstream faster.  It's why in the USA, they will drink a shot and then chug a beer.  The fizziness in the beer makes you drunk faster.
Comment: Actually, that seems to be only somewhat true, and mostly a myth.  The most significant factor is how strong the drink is, but in the opposite way that one might think: diluted drinks enter the intestine sooner.  "*20/21 subjects absorbed the dilute alcohol at a faster rate than the concentrated alcohol. …14/21 subjects absorbed the alcohol with the carbonated mixer at a faster rate, with 7 subjects showing either no change or a decrease in rate.*" — [Alcohol concentration and carbonation of drinks: the effect on blood alcohol levels - PubMed](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17720590/)
Comment: "*they will drink a shot and then chug a beer*".  The shot by itself would stay in the stomach for a while, where it will be slowly absorbed. The beer dilutes it and causes the stomach to release it to the small intestine where it is absorbed more quickly.


Feature-request: Not allowing [homework] as the only tag to a post

Question: Is it possible to make it so that the site will not accept a post that has homework as the only tag to the post? I know that this problem only comes up rarely (as discussed here, but if we can automatically require that some other tag be added, it might help.
Comment: @Arturo: I think this feature request was essentially declined by Jeff Atwood in his answer on the other linked page.  Specifically he says: "There is no provision in the engine for forcing another tag when a certain tag is selected, and I think this would end up being a crutch to allow meta-tags anyway (or worse, a stealth way of implementing pseudo-hierarchies in tags), so I would be against it."
Comment: Is it possible for someone with some basic SQL knowledge to write a query on data.SE for finding such posts? (There has been a data dump last week, so it is going to be pretty up to date)
Comment: @Eric: Hrmph. I think you're right. Of course, that was some months ago, so things may have changed (just like the "identifying un-accepted answers" was declined at the time as essentially not possible given in the engine, but now is sort-of implemented [though not very well, as far as I can tell]).
Comment: I've tried to make the query at data.SE: http://data.stackexchange.com/mathematics/query/59833/ The query return 36 results. Data are updated once a month, so this might be out of sync.
Answer: As I mentioned before, there really is no provision for this that wouldn't be a bizarre, contorted workaround.
If it truly comes up rarely, as you stated, perhaps human handling is adequate in this case?
If it becomes some kind of epidemic, we can revisit it.


Data wiping. SSD VS eMMC how are they the same and how are they different?

Question: looking into how to properly erasing data from solid state devices is quite the topic with a different answer from just about every webpage I read. I understand there are issues with wiping data from SSDs due to the efforts of wear leveling, but now I read that eMMC supports TRIM, does that mean that eMMC storage will be just as complicated to data wipe as SSDs are?
Comment: @childofsoong - Last time I melted a hard drive, I forgot to stir it, and consequently my friend in data recovery was able to reconstruct my cat videos.
Comment: I can't comment on the actual difficulty of wiping data from the underlying electronics, but I will say this - the only way I would feel secure that data on ANY common storage medium is unrecoverable is if it's ground into a fine powder or completely melted into a liquid (and maybe stirred a bit for good measure).
Comment: @TTT I hope they were good cat videos!
Comment: @childofsoong - Humor aside, what options are there to ground it into powder, melt it, etc while remaining cost effective?
Answer: I don't believe TRIM has a major effect on memory clearing; it's wear-leveling that's the main issue, as it means the OS could 'overwrite' data while it still exists on the physical media. TRIM is just telling the drive that a certain area isn't needed, and the drive can do what it likes with it.
SATA drives (including SSDs) have the ATA-SE commands, which allow you to tell the drive to delete everything on it, including any 'reserve' areas. Whether this is implemented correctly is another question, though. I don't think eMMC drives have this.
As eMMC drives are generally a single package, it's harder to remove the flash chips (or solder onto the pads directly) and read the flash without going through the controller - this could make it slightly more difficult. It's probable that eMMC controllers have debug modes that allow read-out of the flash, though.
I'd have to agree with childofsoong that you can't be certain that it's all gone without complete destruction.
Comment: Is there a definitive list of drives that respect the ATA Secure Erase function/feature? It's my understanding (albeit limited at this stage) that not all vendors may fully implement it as per the standard.


Unable to locate the successfully deployed custom timer job

Question: I have successfully deployed my timer job and it appears in the Central Admin but I cannot find it in Job Definitions or Running Jobs either in the Monitoring option of Central Admin. What could be the cause of this problem??
Comment: did u check the ULS logs or event logs for any possible errors?
Answer: I think you have only deployed the solution (wsp) file of the timer job. You will also need to activate the feature for your timer job.
Go to the Site collection features of your Web-application and Activate your timer job feature from there.
This should start showing your timer job in the list of Job Definitions in the Central Administration.
I hope this helps.
Comment: I think if the timer job was deployed and activated successfully, you ought to be seeing it in the Job Definitions. Are you sure you are searching for the correct name (of your Timer Job)? This should be the one corresponding to the "Title" property in your class constructor.
Comment: I am unable to find my job in the list of Job Definitions. Where should I get this from???
Comment: Ya ur right ... I figured out this problem and now its working fine... thx a lot..... :)
Answer: After deploying solution, go to your solution scope level (Web application/Site Collection) and activate feature. Then on SharePoint Server restart the SharePoint Timer Service.


'More Info' button vs. Making the entire table row a link

Question: I have a large table (14 columns) on my site. I want each row to link to a different page. What is the best way to let a user know that clicking a row will take them to a page related to that row?

Make the whole row a link (javascript/darken row on hover)

Add another column on the far right with a 'More Info' button

I'm afraid that with option 1 the user won't know that each row is a link (if they never hover their mouse over the table) and with option 2 the table becomes too cluttered.
Answer: Use the "More info" link
I lean more towards of using the "More info" link because one of the best UX researchers Luke Wroblewski runs a campaign Obvious always wins. He argues that it is better to always show and make obvious important UI elements on the page, rather than hiding them behind a menu or something else. I trust him because he works with huge volumes of data and makes very informed decisions.
More info link strengths/weaknesses:

explicitly communicates to users that this option is available (its obvious).
users will now what to expect when they click the link - "More info".
it takes up additional horizontal space.

When not to use the "More info" link
The only case I suggest you remove the link is when you need horizontal space in the table to add more columns and your users are using the app frequently (daily, or at least weekly). Frequent users will learn that this option exists and will know what to expect after clicking on the row link.
However, this way we are decreasing the learnability of your app. If the majority of your users are repeated visitors it may make sense to sacrifice learnability for displaying more information in the table. It's not an easy decision.
Answer: From an accessibility point of view, I would recommend the second option, i.e. using a "more info" column. I think this will make it easier to make the table keyboard accessible (see WCAG 2.0).
Note that it should be clear for screen reader users where the link in the column will take them: if you use an image for those links, they will need a text alternative (e.g. ). (See link text in the WCAG 2.0 Techniques.)
I know that the last point may be considered an implementation aspect, but it has an impact on the user experience of screen reader users.
Answer: Which column contains the unique identifier most likely to be what the user is looking for? Place that first and hyperlink it.

download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups


Should tempo markings go above or below 1st/2nd time bar brackets?

Question: Intuitively, I feel like tempo markings should go above 1st (or 2nd, 3rd etc.) bracket lines, but I've seen examples where these go below (inside?) the bracket. Does anybody have a definitive answer as to a conventional way to do this?
Comment: Are you asking about the general tempo marks of the piece, or where perhaps on the repeat the tempo is different that time round? Any particular style/genre to consider?
Comment: Things like ralls, rits, accels... But also "main" tempo markings: Andante, Slowly etc. I know these don't often happen during 1st time bars, but I'm doing some arranging where there are quite a few tempo changes during these brackets.
Comment: Since most tempo markings are above, that's where a reader would expect to find them - especially ones that mark a change. Not 'hidden' inside.
Answer: From Elaine Gould's Behind Bars (pg.182): "Place all tempo indications above the uppermost stave, and above all other performance instructions. They should be well clear of slurs, octave signs and articulation."
As far as alignment goes, she goes on to say that each tempo indication should align with the left-most part of the first notational element to which the tempo applies.
Comment: Having read your answer again (properly!), "above all other performance instructions" is pretty clear. Intuitively this seems right to me. I need to get a copy of *Behind Bars*...
Comment: These "tempo indications" should be stuff like "Andante", "L'istesso tempo", "Presto con fuoco", and other large tempo markings that tend to come with "quarter note equals" indications. The convention I've seen for stuff like "accel.", "rallentando", and "rit." is that they're placed below or between staves, just like dynamic markings.
Comment: Hello both. I'm not talking about them being between staves. Just whether they should be above or below 1st time bar lines. Sorry if my question isn't clear.
Comment: @BobBroadley Yes, it's a great resource!


Connection between bond-dimension of a matrix product state and entanglement

Question: The bond dimension is the dimension of the truncated matrix product state (MPS). Let us assume that I am simulating some many-body system with high entanglement via the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG). At a conference I was attending a few days ago, someone told me that the bond-dimension increases with the amount of entanglement in the system. Therefore, simulating a highly entangled system with DMRG requires a huge amount of computational time. However, how, exactly is the bond-dimension connected to a system's entanglement?
Comment: Larger bond dimension means more entanglement. Think of a 1D MPS as starting as many maximally entangled pairs between "virtual particles" on sites, the number of which is roughly the bond dimension. Then project the virtual particles back to physical states. Apparently the more virtual particles you have, the more entangled the virtual states can get.
Answer: The entanglement of any region in a matrix product state of bond dimension $D$ is bounded by $S\le 2\log D$.  Thus, in order to simulate a system with a lot of entanglement, the bond dimension (and thus the memory and time of the computation) will grow exponentially with the entropy.
Conversely, we know that if for a state $\vert\psi\rangle$ the $\alpha$-Renyi entropy (for $\alpha<1$) of any block is bounded by a constant, then an efficient approximation of $\vert\psi\rangle$ by an MPS exists (i.e., where $D$ scales polynomially in the system size and the inverse precision). This is proven in https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0505140.  The general connection between entropy scaling and the approximability by MPS is discussed in https://arxiv.org/abs/0705.0292, where in particular examples of states with an area law for $\alpha\ge1$ are given which cannot be approximated efficiently by MPS. (Note that for $\alpha=1$, there is (afaik) no translation invariant example.)
Comment: @EverettYou If you cut a region in the middle of an MPS, you get a factor of $2$ since you have bonds on both ends of the region.  If you cut an infinite/OBC MPS in two parts, the bound is indeed $D$.
Comment: @Abhinav I have added the reference, as well as a reference to the paper which contains the corresponding counterexamples.
Comment: Why is there a factor 2 in front of $\ln D$? Given the bond dimension $D$, there are at most $D$ Schmidt eigenvalues of $D^{-1}$, which lead to an entropy $S=-D(D^{-1}\ln D^{-1})=\ln D$. I am wondering why your formula has an additional factor 2.
Comment: Thank you for this answer. Could you add a reference for the converse statement? And are there counterexamples for $\alpha=1$?


StorageWorks 2700 with 2 servers

Question: Is it possible to connect HP Storageworks 2700 with two i/o modules ( A and B ) to two ML350 servers with P812 Smart Array controlers installed - to share the same storage space ( dual domain ). I´ve tried to check several cabling options, but with no success ( with some wrong cabling the server doesn´t have connect to 2700, or both servers connect to 2700 with different ways, so if I add partition on first server, the other server doesn´t see it )
Answer: This kind of two way (and it has to be two way, three way won't work) SAS LUN sharing is possible, others have asked this question on here before by the way. The only real problem you'll get other than possible supportability issues is that you absolutely HAVE to use a cluster-aware file system otherwise your entire filesystem will corrupt almost immediately.
Most people do this kind of block-level sharing using fibre-channel/FCoE or iSCSI by the way.

StorageWorks 2700 with 2 servers


Add screen of a laptop to another one when both are on Windows 8

Question: I have two laptops and I want to add screen of another laptop to my laptop. So that I will be having a wider space to see my stuffs I believe there must be some software/technique to meet my requirement.
Comment: Could you be more clear? Do you want to see the contents of your first laptop in the second laptop? or Do you want to extend the display into the second laptop's screen? so that some events happen in 1st screen and some of them in second screen like playing a movie, which plays half of the movie in 1st screen and other half in 2nd screen?
Answer: Not Possible.
Consumer laptops only have a video out port, never video in. However their is a software synergy that you can use to share the same keyboard and mouse but it can not make them as a one big screen. So the short answer is no it won't work.


Metrizable subspaces of separable spaces

Question: Are metrizable subspaces of separable spaces separable?
Certainly subspaces of separable metrizable spaces are separable but subspaces of separable spaces need not be separable in general.
Answer: The answer is no, if we interpret separable as "has a countable dense subset" (Fedor Petrov's answer appears to have interpreted it as possessing a countable base). Consider the Moore plane, or Niemytzki tangent disc topology, as it is called on page 100 of Steen & Seebach's Counterexamples in Topology. This is a topology on the closed upper half-plane. A neighbourhood base for points $(x,y)$ with $y > 0$ is consists of open discs of radius $< y$. A neighbourhood base for points $(x,0)$ consists of sets of the form $\{ (x,0) \} \cup B_r(x,r)$ for $0 < r < \infty$, where $B_r(x,r)$ is the open disc of radius $r$ with centre $(x,r)$.
The rational points contained in the open upper half-plane form a countable dense set, so this is a separable space. The subspace topology on the horizontal axis is discrete. Now, the discrete topology is always metrizable, and as the real axis has continuum cardinality and every set is equal to its closure, it is not separable. So we have a non-separable metrizable subspace of a separable space.
Comment: @bof thank you, I indeed wrote something, meaningless
Comment: @bof I should emphasize that I do not take that interpretation of the word "separable" myself, or in my answer, and I am well aware that second countability is hereditary for subspaces. Maybe your comment should be directed to Fedor Petrov?
Answer: It looks so. A non-separable metric space $X$ contains a more than countable family of disjoint open sets (namely, balls of sufficiently small radius). If now $X\subset Y$ is a metrizable topological subspace and $\{A_\alpha\}$ is a more than countable family of (non-empty) open subspaces of $X$, for all $\alpha$ choose a point $x_\alpha\in A_{\alpha}$, open $U_\alpha$ in $Y$ such that $U_\alpha\cap X=A_{\alpha}$ and an open set $V_\alpha\subset U_\alpha$ containing the point $x_\alpha$ from a countable base in $Y$. The sets $V_\alpha\cap X$ are all disjoint, thus all distinct --- a contradiction.
Comment: This is just an unusually hard proof of the partial case of the obvious claim that having a countable base is hereditary property.
Answer: Let me support @RobertFurber and contradict Fedor (I enjoyed greatly many of your posts, Fedor, but possibly the general topology is not yet your cup of tea). Indeed,
let $\ \Phi\ $ be the family of all non-trivial ultrafilters in $\ \mathbb Z\ $ (assume, how reasonably!, that $\mathbb Z\cap\Phi=\emptyset).\ $ Let
$$ X\ :=\ \mathbb Z\cup\Phi $$
Let a topology in $\ X\ $ be defined via bases of neighborhoods of points,
where $\ \{z\}\ $ is the only element of neighborhood base of $\ z\ $ for every $\ z\in \mathbb Z,\ $ and family
$$ U_\phi\ :=\ \{\{\phi\}\cup F\ :\ F\in\phi\} $$
is the base of neighborhoods of $\ \phi\ $ for every ultrafilter $\ \phi\in\Phi\ \in X $
Space $\ X\ $ is Hausdorff because of the ultra property (maximality) of the ultrafilters (it's just a beautiful space :) ).
We see that
a.   space $\ X\ $ is separable (countable $\ \mathbb Z\ $ is dense in $\ X$);
b.   the subspace $\ \Phi\ $ is discrete hence metrizable, while it is not separable since it is the only dense subset of itself, and it is not countable--in fact, it has cardinality equal to
$$ 2^{2^{^{\aleph_0}}} $$


What are these kind of beam weapons used by Ghoul Investigators?

Question: What are these kind of beam weapons used by Ghoul Investigators like Kishou Arima, or Mougan Tanakamaru? Are they based on Ghouls like Quinques or are they something completely different?
Answer: By the looks of the first image, it must be Narukami:

Narukami (ナルカミ, Narukami) is an ukaku-type quinque. It discharges condensed Rc cells just like lightning bolts. Possessing a tracking function, evasion of the bolts is next to impossible.

And for the second image, it is the Higher Mind:

Higher Mind (ハイアーマインド(高次精神次元), Haiā Maindo) or Angel Beat (天使の羽ばたき(エンジェルビート), Enjeru Bīto) is an ukaku-type quinque that shoots beams of concentrated energy or condensed Rc cells.
Comment: I think, it is important to mention, that some ghouls posses kagune capable of unique feats, such as generating electricity, and thus, such quinques can be created from them.


What is the difference between Shuttle Adventurer (10213) and Shuttle Expedition (10231)

Question: Beside the age 16+ designation for the Shuttle Adventurer vs the 14+ age designation on the Shuttle Expedition and some different photography they look identical except they don't sell the Shuttle Adventurer anymore on shop.lego.com. Is there any practical difference?
Comment: 10231 has 26 more pieces and was released the next year. I'd have to look into what pieces they are. Perhaps it's something promotional?
Comment: I wrote to the Lego Group about the differences and they sent me the pieces to retrofit my set. Sweet! Thanks Lego!
Comment: @tooshel, that's pretty awesome.
Answer: The LEGO Direct team's answer to this question is on brickset:

Since its release in 2010, 10213 Shuttle Adventure
  has proven to be very popular!  Although the model was designed for a
  16+ target audience, our consumer call center has brought to our
  intention that many younger children have been building and playing
  with the model.  As a result, the Direct team has decided to look at
  the model once more to see what changes could be made in order to
  provide a better build and play experience for a slightly younger
  target audience.   10231 Shuttle Expedition may look similar to
  Shuttle Adventure in many ways, however its build is very different
  and offers several advantages.

The fuel tank has been reinforced with supports to strengthen the assembly
The landing gear is strengthened to function better across many different floor types
The Cargo doors can now be more rigorously opened and closed
The entire build has been reworked to limit opportunities for misplacing elements
Astronauts now have wigs in addition to their helmets (1 male, 1 female).  Face prints are also different.
The new set now has 1,230 elements
New Satellite can be securely positioned on the new mechanical arm 10231 Shuttle
Comment: Wow. Now I really do want to get the Shuttle Expedition just to see how different it is while the build is fresh in my mind. Alas, my Lego budget was blown on trains! Seems it'll be around for a while though.
Answer: Acording to Bricklink:

This set contains 26 more pieces than the original release to correct
  stability issues.

Have a look at the inventory here.
Comment: Bricklink is solid gold for this kind of info. I wonder what kind of stability issues? And why did it go from 16+ to 14+? And why different names? More questions than answers!
Comment: Actually the lower age requirement was the driving force behind the change, and that's why the model was deemed not stable enough as it was. It was just stable enough for 16+, not 14+. Anyway, see Kramii's answer which is authoritative.


pH value change with dilution

Question:
How does pH value change with dilution for the question shown in the picture? I expect the pH value to increase with dilution. Is there any case where the value remains same with dilution?
Answer: You were correct in stating that the pH value would increase with dilution, though this explanation is incomplete. To understand why you must understand what pH actually is. In simple terms, pH is a scale based on the concentration of H+ ions in a volume of a solution. As you likely know, the higher the number, the higher the basicity; the lower the number, the higher the acidity; with pure water being exactly 7 in the middle of the scale. This is where the issue arises. Yes, diluting the acid with pure water would decrease the concentration of H+ in the solution and therefore increase the pH, but only until it approaches 7, the pH of water. It is possible to go higher than that by adding bases, but pure water is specifically mentioned in the question, so that does not apply here. As for your last question, I do not believe that any acids are "immune" to dilution, as one can always add more water to decrease concentration, and therefore increase pH (to 7).

pH value change with dilution


Does a person playing an illegal Draw 4 in Uno still get to pick the color?

Question: If you play an illegal Draw 4, then are challenged and fail, do you still get to pick the color? I know the player who got caught playing the illegal card has to Draw 4 cards, but it's unclear if whether or not they still get to pick the color.
Answer: As per the (2008) Rules sheet from Mattel (emphasis in second paragraph mine):

Wild Draw Four Card - When you play this card, you get to choose the
  color that continues play PLUS the next player must draw 4 cards from
  the DRAW pile and lose their turn. However, there is a hitch! You may
  only play this card when you do NOT have another card in your hand
  that matches the COLOR on the DISCARD pile (but it is acceptable to
  play this card if you have matching number or Action Cards). If turned
  up at the beginning of play, return this card to the deck and pick another
  card.
NOTE: If you suspect that a Wild Draw 4 card has been played on you illegally (i.e. the player has a matching card), then you may challenge that player. The challenged player must show you (the challenger) their hand. If guilty, the challenged player must draw the 4 cards instead of you. However, if the challenged player is innocent, you must draw the 4 cards PLUS an additional 2 cards (6 total)!

The takeaway from this: Since the penalty on this states that the challenged player draws 4 cards instead of the challenging player AND since the rules never state that an illegally-played "Wild Draw 4" card is taken back, the card remains on the discard pile and the declared color remains in effect. This means you can't prevent an unfavorable color change from an illegally-played Wild Draw 4 card.
Official Uno Videogames handle this the same way: the Wild Draw 4's declared color remains in effect (at least one version recolors the Wild cards after a color's been declared to make it clear what color the top card is).
Some rule revisions, such as the 2003 Rules Sheet from Mattel, also specifically refer to playing a Wild Draw 4 while still having cards matching the current color as bluffing.
Answer:
Wild Draw Four Card - This is the best, meanest, most sneaky card to have. Not only does the player get to call the next color played, but the next player has to pick 4 cards and forfeit his turn. There is a hitch, however (of course): you can only play this card when you don't have a card in your hand that matches the color of the card previously played.
  Note: A player may have a matching number or word card of a different color in his hand and plays his "Wild Draw Four" card.
If a player plays a Wild Draw 4 card illegally and gets caught, he must first show his hand to the player who challenged. If guilty, he must draw 4 cards. If not guilty, the challenger must draw 2 cards in addition to the 4. The challenge can only be made by the person required to draw the four cards.

uno rules
Notice that the penalty does not indicate the card illegally played should remain in play. The only guidance in the rules is derived from the initial statement that you cannot play this card. The only interpretation I see is to remove the illegally played card from play since it could not be played and to instead play another card. That results in no choice of color having been made. To do otherwise would encourage this illegal play.
Comment: Actually the rules do make it sound like it allows illegal play with the sentence "If a player plays a Wild Draw 4 card illegally **and gets caught**" That phrasing practically encourages players to try it and not get caught. Playing illegally has no penalty on its own, getting caught does.
Comment: The rule also doesn't indicate that it shouldn't remain in play just says that the person who improperly played it will draw 4 cards instead of the person that was supposed to.
Comment: @JoeW But it also does not say it should remain in play, which is why I would see one falling back to the statement of when that card can be played.
Comment: You are missing my point as the rules don't say anything about what should happen to the card after it was illegally played just what happens to the player for playing it,
Comment: I see your point that the penalty rules says nothing about if the card should remain or not. That is why I argue you must return to the rule about when the wild draw 4 can be played to determine for any guidance. That rule indicates it cannot be played. Not that it can be played illegally...
Comment: There are a couple revisions of the rules (including the 2003 revision from Mattel) that specifically refer to playing a Wild Draw 4 while having matching color cards as "bluffing" and thus technically a legal play. However, challenging a Wild Draw 4 also remains legal even under those revisions, and the penalty is the same.


When learning a song on guitar by ear, how do you find the chord placements?

Question: For instance, let's say you're learning Stairway to Heaven - how do you figure out what the chords are? Because, that whole intro for the most part are single frets being played and you wouldn't know what chord shape to use.
Comment: I think the simplest answer is: ear-training. Also, a song can have a part where there aren't any chords and the guitarist is playing only a melody
Comment: The intro to Stairway to Heaven is all arpeggiated chords. They are chords played one note at a time but if you play them in the right place the shape of the chord you are playing becomes clear. [tab](http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/l/led_zeppelin/stairway_to_heaven_tab.htm)
Comment: It is experience. Look at sheet music for Stairway to Heaven and recognize the chord shapes that can be used on the fretboard. You will hear other songs that use similar shapes and actually recognize it by ear.
Comment: *You* might not recognize the chords but believe me plenty of well-trained musicians do.
Answer: the first thing to do would be to know your notes, what key they are playing. this will shorten the list of possible chords to search for.
second,figure out notes from one phase, write the notes down and see what chords does these notes form in your key then try to play the chord over the song to see if it match. most of the times, you will find that there are more notes played, like AddChords and susChords. when you figure out the basic chord these notes can be easily introduced later on.
Of course this will take some time first, but with proper training and experience you will figure songs all out just by listening to them later on.
Answer: First figure out all the notes in the section and what chords/riffs are played. Then find out where they fit best on your guitar so you can play them easily. Two players may play the same part using different chord shapes and note fingerings and still be playing the same notes. The exact shape/position doesn't matter as long as you are playing what you need to be playing.


VW Golf fuel filler cap will not unlock

Question: The fuel filler flap on my 09 VW Golf estate (diesel) will not unlock. I have tried locking and unlocking the car which should relase the filler flap but it remains locked. The owner's manual says there is no method of manual relase on this model. Can anyone suggest how I can get it open?
Answer: Have you checked for a blown fuse? You may also be able to reach the release either by reaching into the wheel well or removing an interior panel. Another option is that the latch is released but the spring that pops the door open is broken. Have an assistant try to open the door while you actuate the switch.
Comment: Agree'd. I would check for a blown fuse / bad relay. I had a similar issue on my 01 VW Beetle. My fuel door switch failed and I couldn't open my fuel door.
Answer: Locking and unlocking the car while applying a little pressure on the flap worked for me .  Repeat if it doesn't work the first time.
Comment: Thank you, this resolved things for us. Much appreciated
Answer: Get in the car and lock all doors using the switch on the drivers door. Then unlock all doors using switch on the key. I found that this worked and the flap would then open when pushed as normal.
Comment: Kindly explain what kind of voodoo is this? :)
Answer: I had this problem with my 2013 Passat wagon.  I took the car to the dealer and the mechanic repeatedly pressed the unlock on the remote while at the same time pressing and releasing the fuel flap.  It worked.  He explained that the flap lock can fail in a number of ways.  In my case it just got stuck and the press-release was sufficient to solve the problem.  In other cases the lock can actually break in which case you just have to take it to the dealer to get replaced.  I'm getting it replaced at the next service.
Answer: For any one who has found this thread and is still stuck, I solved this by:
Getting a tyre lever inside the fuel cap and gently forcing it open a bit whilst repeatedly pressing unlock on the key fob.
Once its open you can look into preventing it from happening again. I ended up taking the whole fuel cap section out and duct taping a bit of metal in the way of the lock to physically prevent it from being locked again.
This obviously means the fuel cap will never lock so bit of security risk but its a great solution in the mean time.
Answer: Some people have had a relay get reversed on them, that is, they locked their Golf only to find that the fuel flap was unlocked. Give this a try, and also try locking and unlocking your golf several times to attempt to reset things.
Answer: With filler flap in the open position, lock doors using key. You will now be able to open and close the filler flap freely. Thereafter you must remember to release the flap before locking the doors. The only downside is that although the flap is closed, it will not be locked.
Comment: Welcome to the site, David. Good to see you jumping in to help answer questions. Just an FYI, this question is more than 5 years old. Chances are good you will not get a response from the OP.
Comment: @CharlieRB - It's all good. Remember, the information which is presented here is not only for the original user, but for anyone else who may come looking. If David has information which adds to or actually answers the question, so much the better. Don't be afraid to do it yourself! :o)
Comment: @Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2 - Yep, I know. No problem with new answers to old questions, I was just letting the new user know they might not get a response due to age. Trying to be helpful and encouraging.
Answer: Pressing unlock more than once did it for me, nothing else worked, almost tried prying the whole cap off!

VW Golf fuel filler cap will not unlock


What's the minimum recommended compressor HP/PSI to spray paint?

Question: I have a little compressor that I use for a small brad nailer and blowing up tires. Is there a minimum PSI or horsepower that I need to be able to get to in order to spray paint with it?
Answer: Paint sprayers have a pretty low PSI requirement.  I'd be more concerned about the CFM (Cubic feet per minute) rating of your compressor.  That would indicate whether it can compress the air fast enough to keep up with the sprayer.
Answer: Like Eric said, CFM is the important thing, and most small compressors have a low (< 1 CFM @ 45 PSI) output. For doing anything besides light airbrushing (and I mean the artistic kind), you definitely want something with a greater output. In addition, most paint sprayers will tell you what their consumption is, i.e. 1 CFM @ 45 PSI or 2 CFM @ 90 PSI or something like that. It really depends on the airgun because you have HVLP (High Volume, Low Pressure), HVHP, and LVLP (those are rare). But they'll have a sticker or marking of some sort to tell you what they need.
For painting, you really can't use a smaller compressor, you'll need a larger one, probably at least 15 gallons (they tend to have a large enough motor). Just match up the paint gun to the compressor.
Answer: As others have said, spraying paint is usually NOT a pressure thing, but VOLUME of air. A typical spray gun will require low pressure, and HIGH volume, FAR more than any standard compressor yields. This one, for example, requires between 0-70 PSI, but 12 CFM. 12 CFM is far more than ANY standard compressor provides, not even in bursts. Or, this one, requires 10-14 CFM. And those numbers are always the minimum. For safety, you need to be higher than that, or the compressor will be constantly working to keep up, or you might need to stop periodically to let it catch up.
Spray guns give you the hint, if they are labeled HVLP. This stands for "High Volume, Low Pressure".
No pancake compressor will give you that volume. No small electric one will suffice. You need something brawny, with a large tank to store the air. A 2-stage compressor will be best here. Don't get something that provides ONLY 12 or 14 CFM. Look for something that will give you at least 16-20 CFM. These compressors are not cheap either.
Next, there is a factor that nobody has stated. I recall that paint sprayers need dry air. Compressed air has water in it. This water will cause a great deal of pain if you don't remove it. So you will need an air filter to catch the water and remove as much of it as you can.
There are also airless paint sprayers. For example, here. I would strongly suggest you look at one of them instead. (I'm not talking about the cheap Wagner models you can buy for $60 at the home centers, but an airless pump that will cost ten times that.)
Finally, there are airbrushes. These are small tools, often designed for fine work. Craftsmen who make models are often the users of these tools, although they can be used in the auto painting industry too. Depending on the brush, small ones can be found that need as little as 20 PSI, to those that need 100 PSI. Airbrushes are typically low volume tools though, so most compressors will suffice. You still want dry air of course, so a filter to separate out the water will be important. (I have a friend who did his air brushing by blowing up a spare car tire at a gas station. Take the spare tire home, and this provided sufficient air for his model work.)
Answer: When you go shopping for a compressor with more 'puff' as mentioned above, you should also bear in mind oil. If you run regular tools which are oiled (I oil my nailers pretty much every day), your airlines will be contaminated with oil, probably water too.
You'll need a oil and water trap plus some new lines that you'll only use for painting. A half decent pressure regulator is a good idea too, so you can fine tune the pressure output easily.
Answer: The spray gun should have a min/max PSI rating on it (or in the manual), if your compressor can go that high you're good to go. Although if it's a small compressor it's going to be running quite a bit to keep up with the expended air from a paint gun and you may run into trouble if you don't have enough pressure.
Comment: This one http://www.amazon.com/Air-Mini-Paint-Sprayer-Gun/dp/B002BK2KMI only needs 20-40 psi.
Comment: @doresoom there ya go ! nice paint gun. I don't own one personally (I'm a terrible painter). I'd think you'd have to have a larger air compressor so you don't continuously run low on air. I know my finish nailer only has to fire about 6 times before my small pancake compressor kicks on.
Comment: Proper labelling of the gun should say how many cubic feet per minute (CFM) it needs at that pressure (PSI),  and your compressor's documentation should give you some indication of how much flow it can handle at several pressures. . My compressor can easily do 130 pounds per square inch, but only if not much air is being drawn from its tank... and sprayers, even hplv, use a lot of air. I might be able to spray for a minute, after which the gun would just make a mess and I'd have to wait for the tank to refill.
Answer: I have at 2 horse air kobalt compressor  with 30 gallons tank they give at 6.5 scfm  should be good to painting car's
Answer: Get a compressor a level above what minimum required. You don't want it constantly running and getting hot. I actually tied 2 pancake size together with a T which requires 3 hoses. It worked for spraying lacquer. But very noisy. Lol. Just get a 30 gal with 4-5 hp motor with a moisture filter and you should be fine.
Answer: I paint with 22-26 PSI I have a 30gal 4hp air compressor
Comment: -1, this answer will be unlikely to help others since it doesn't describe the equipment you're powering, or the CFM of your compressor.


Local Package MikTeX

Question: I had to uninstall my Laptops Windows, then re-installed the MikTex 2.9 and editors: TexStudio and TexMaker. However, in the first run, a notification window is popping my asking me to choose the local repository, since I could not find any such repository, in the MikTeX console, I chose http://ctan.mirror.solo-server.net, and int the window popping up in the TexTudio, I selected remote package repository. and this time, running the codes, each and every package was being installed which made me think what if I do not have access to Internet. But, I am 100% sure that before reinstalling the new windows, I was not downloading the packages, maybe I was using packages fro so-called "local" repository. I wonder if I can set up that local repository again so that I do not need to install each and every package? Or, maybe it would be better to ask how to access the local package repository since I could not find this in appData.
Comment: A local package repository is a directory on you machine which contains a copy of  an internet repository. You can download its content using some ftp manager such as FileZilla  using this address: [ftp.dante.de](ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/)
Comment: My issue is to find the directory of the local repository
Comment: It's up to you to define one and validate it via `MiKTeX Settings` (preferably as Administrator), `General` tab.
Answer: As @Bernard has pointed out (but since relocated) the MiKTeX repository of approx 3620 package files is
ftp://tug.org/tex-archive/systems/windows/miktex/tm/packages/  where the readme says

This directory contains the "Total MiKTeX" package set. To install
MiKTeX, download and run the MiKTeX Net Installer. For more
information, visit the MiKTeX Project Page at www.miktex.org.

One point of the package manager is to avoid downloading ALL those files, thus to that end during install it can be pre-loaded with an older local (or LAN) set which can then be updated ad hoc.
If you have a folder with a set of files such as miktex-bibtex-bin-2.9.tar.lzma or similar you can point to that location.
The quantity of .tar.lzma files you find may be few in which case its best to get a part working basic set of upacked .exe and .sty etc. files first (I use a recent portable install).
see also related why NOT to look for .zip and creating a repository
If you cant find a large group of similar files, then it is unlikely you had a repository (just a very full install) If you wish to build one from scratch for multiple users / locations / offline see the How to guide beware the full download is 2.9 GB equivalent to a full TeX Live installation.
Comment: I have already installed the MikTeX, however, I searched all folders, I do not have any files with .tar.lzma extention.
If I have to build up such "Local Repository", could you list the steps since I am confused because I do not remember if I had done this before on my old windows.
Comment: @B.Bornay answer updated see last para

Local Package MikTeX


Change Quick Link FIelds on Account Record

Question: When I'm in the Account record, I hover over the related Contacts in the "Quick Links" view. Is there a way to change which fields appear when I hover? I'm not finding anything obvious in Object Manager for the Account or Contact objects. I was hoping to add/replace some of the fields with custom fields.
Answer: Fields are coming from the same page layout related list fields configurations. Like go to Edit Page -> Account Layout which is applicable for the current User/RT (you can see the name of the assigned layout on flexi page) -> go to Layout -> click on Related list -> and configure the fields to be displayed under quick links related list here.
Answer: That is part of the your Account's page layout configuration.
You can add the columns in the Contacts Related List section on the account page layout.
Answer: I think you just need to change the related contact layout on accont. That will work for you.


How can I plant this seed pod?

Question: I have been trying to find what plant this seed is. It was a gift from a friend and it cracked while I was wearing as a necklace. I am quite curious.
thank u!
Comment: Is the middle section with the reddish color attached to the lower seed?  I assumed it was not but if it is this would help with the ID.  It might also help if you showed the other side of the seed as well as the hilum, or eye if it has one.
Answer: I don't know what your seed is, but I'm getting a bean vibe from it.  Maybe a fava bean?  I would agree with SouthernGardner that it seems unlikely to germinate, but I am all for experimentation.
I would buy or make a seed starting mix.  This is a growing medium that lacks soil and has nutrients beneficial to seedling plants.  You can buy these at a garden center or make your own.  You can read more about seed starting mixes here.  Generally, seed starting mixes contain peat moss, perlite, and compost.  Planting in a seed starting mix will at least allow you to find out if your seed is viable, after that we can help you figure out how to best care for your seedling/future mystery plant.
You want to avoid using garden soil because pathogens in the soil can harm your seed, you may accidentally grow competing weed seeds, and soil is often too dense for tiny seedling roots to easily establish.
Finally here is some general advice about starting seeds including, water, light, seed starting mixes and so on.
Answer: OK...how long have you had this? It's been my experience that if the seed was more than two years old, it's generally a no-go. Less than a year is another story. I have some milkweed blooming in my front yard as we speak (I planted it for the butterflies and hummingbirds). The seeds were about a year and a half old when I planted them. However, we planted some Echinacea in there with it (which I'd had about as long as the milkweed), and it wouldn't grow. If you're unsure, you could just try it and see. I'm sure your friend would understand.
Comment: Thank you for your reply, but I am trying to find the species then I can prepare a proper medium to plant.

How can I plant this seed pod?


Master-Master replication MariaDB failover resync

Question: I'm working on a project to replicate two sites running MariaDB 5.5 version. Replication works flawless until a host restarts, losing connection still works after reconnecting. When the node restarts if i manually enter the new master status to both servers they resume and replicate all data which were non replicated. Is there a way to auto-resume and resync the replication whenever something like this happens? Nodes are in a production environment so downtime with no recovery isn't allowed. Thanks in advance
Answer: I would recommend to upgrade to MariaDB 10.0 and use Global Transaction IDs. Replication isn't crash safe in 5.5, so you might encounter issues such as the one you've described above.


Do you have show your cards at end of Texas hold'em hand if asked by person who won?

Question: So after the river card is turned and bets are made with a call from player 2 to player 1. Player 1 shows the cards and presents the winning hand. Player 2, who called the pot then says you win and just throws the cards in face down. Can player 1 ask to see player 2's cards since the pot was called and player 2 did not fold?
Answer: Casinos may have different house rules, but the "standard" rule is this: since the hand reached showdown, any player involved in the hand may ask that player 2's hand be shown. If anyone except player 1 asks, the dealer will pick up player 2's hand and make a show of touching it to the muck to emphasize that it is a dead hand, then show it.
If the ostensible winner, player 1, asks to see the hand, the dealer will make no such motion, the hand will be shown, and it will be live. Player 1 therefore asks to see the hand at his own risk.
The ostensible reason for this "all called hands may be shown" rule is so that players can protect themselves from collusion: player 3, for example, might suspect that player 2 mucked the winner after building a pot for player 1, his confederate. But players do abuse this rule, so it is not at all uncommon for casinos to restrict it, or for floormen to refuse in some situations.
Answer: It varies from casino to casino. Typically, yes you do, although some rooms are moving away from that rule or are disallowing players from asking to see mucked hands, if they abuse the rule.
Primary source: Wikipedia poker showdown
Answer: From my experience, it is only enforced that the last aggressor must show first then the others may muck. In your scenario, player 2 would not be obliged to show.
Herb's source ( Wikipedia's 'Showdown (Poker)' ) implies that there can be reason to view a mucked hand if there is some suspicion of cheating or siding. Despite this,

"players do not have an inherent right to view mucked hands."

So It is not correct to say that this is a requirement.
As for your question:

Can player 1 ask to see player 2's cards...

Yes, player 1 can ask. But player 2 has no obligation to show their hand in this scenario; many players (myself included) will muck their losing hands to avoid disclosing information about their range and play to the other player(s). Otherwise you are unnecessarily just feeding them information that they could use against you.
Answer: If you call someone, you can ask to see their hand before deciding to muck or show yours (at cash).  If someone calls you, then they can ask to see your hand before they muck or show.
The poker etiquette way is to both showdown at the same time, but this almost never happens.
Comment: I'm not sure this has anything at all to do with etiquette.


Theming node add form

Question: I have a content type 'project' and I want to theme the node add form for this content type, I tried to create a page--node--add-project.tpl.php but I don't have the list of form element to render in this file.
devel_themer don't print the variables list in the node add page
thanks
Comment: Sorry, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to work. Here's a good overview/discussion on theming node forms: https://www.drupal.org/node/1092122
Answer: On the page level forms are rendered and so you cannot get its elements. You will need to implement a hook_theme function in template.php file where you define the path of the template file and also implement preprocess function if required.
You can see a detailed explaination here .. Theming Forms with Template file
Answer: You can use following code in your template.php
<code>/**
* Implements hook_theme().
*/
function mytheme_theme($existing, $type, $theme, $path) {
    return array(
        'project_node_form' => array(
        'render element' => 'form',
        'template' => 'project-node-form',
       // this will set to module/theme path by default:
       'path' => drupal_get_path('theme', 'mytheme') . '/templates',
     ),
  );
}
</code>
Place project-node-form.tpl.php in your themes templates directory.

Theming node add form