SML Interpretation

Question: I follow this paper and estimated two different asset pricing models via systems of deep neural networks. Both models have the exact same input: firm-specific features for 10'000 (unique) US stocks and a large set of macroeconomic variables over 20 years (training period = 1970-1990), but differ slightly in architecture. More specific: I have estimated two different stochastic discount factors and consequently two different tangency portfolios $F_{t}$ that account for time-variation. From there on I have estimated via another neural network the risk loadings as output $y = R^e_{t,i}F_t$ to estimate $\beta_{t,i}=\mathbb{E}_t[R^e_{t,i}F_t]$ which is proportional to the true $\beta_{t,i}$.
Some out-of-sample differences in results for the period 1995-2019 (after ensembling over 10 runs):

Sharpe Ratio of $F_t$ for model 1 is 2.8, model 2 only 0.9
Total cumulative return for model 1 is about 8 (800%), for model two 14.
Maximum drawdown for model 1 is 8% over the whole period, for model 2 it is 59%
Monthly avarge turnover for model 1 is 0.6, for model 2 it is 0.07
Model 2 loads more heavily on small- and micro-cap stocks, but does not, at no point in time, load up on short positions in stocks. Model 1 does and, so I assume, can achieve this higher Sharpe ratio.

In short, model 2 is more index-like with high exposure to the MKT factor, and as mentioned, to the SMB factor. Model 1 is nearly MKT and SMB neutral. Model 2 can be very well explained by FF5, whereas model 1 cannot:

To investigate the SML, I normalized all obtained $\beta_{t,i}$ cross-sectionally by making sure that $\beta_t^{F_t}=1$, since I do not estimate it directly and built equally-weighted $\beta$-decile portfolios for both models. Then, I did a plain-vanilla regression and obtained this:

Given no-arbitrage, the intercept should be at 0, since I operate in the excess-return space. Both models do a quite satisfying job. But I am still puzzled: model 1 indicates an equity risk premium of 4.65% p.a. which is, given all the results from research, a reasonable result. Model 2 has an even better fit, but indicates a whopping premium of 12.1% p.a.
My current interpretation is that model 2 indicates a higher premium since it loads more heavily on small-caps, which offer (on paper) a attractive risk-return profile.
Q: Do you have any suggestions, or interpretations on why both models obtain such a good fit but differ that much in slope for the exact same input data?
EDIT 1 (in response to Chris' questions)

Holding period on your two strategies? Monthly rebalancing for both models.
A Sharpe of 2.8 is quite high (like, top decile+) for a long-only buy
and hold mid to low frequency equity strategy. Even .9 is on the high
side for a broad-based US index. Model 1 is not long-only, it also takes short positions in stocks. Model 2 is long-only. The original authors obtained also a similar SR of 2.65 for a slightly different period.
Using 70-90 as a training set and 95-present as an out of sample set seems prime for issues related to change in regime. I can't think of a cut-off (ie, 1995) more aligned with a general shift in underlying business models, specifically the emergence of tech as a primary driver in US equities. I agree here, I didn't think of that. I choose 20 years of trianing in order to have a large set available for training but not a too large one, since training on this already takes 23 hours per ensemble (10 runs per ensemble). Then I took 5 years (1990-1995) for validation. And the rest is testing. This way I have a very long out-of-sample period which I deem to be important to test such models, especially to analyze their behavior during the dot-com bubble and GFC 2008. Moreover I want to compare my results to the original paper with similar periods.
Regarding your follow-up question, why are you 'investigating SML'?
How are you normalizing your betas across assets? How are you
constructing your subsequent portfolio(s)? You'll need to provide
more detail. I'm new to this area of empirical asset pricing research and, correct me if I'm wrong, as far as I understand is that classical models fail to capture equity risk premia correctly and that many models return flat SML which, compared to historical (positive) risk premia, is something like a paradox, right? So, besides nice Sharpe ratios, a model must be able to explain differences in returns via differences in risk exposures to the systematic factor $F_t$. Well, I follow this paper and estimate via neural networks a portfolio weight $\omega_{t,i}$ for the implicit tangency portfolio $F_{t+1}=\sum_{i=1}^{N_t}\omega_{t,i}R_{t+1,i}$, where  $\omega_{t,i}$ is the output of the NN-system. The betas I estiamte not via linear-regression but with another NN and only as a proportion. This way, I (and the original authors) can avoid estimating a covariance matrix for thousands of stocks every month. This means, for every stock I get a approximate beta that should be proportional to its true beta. Since I get this for all stocks, I can compute the weighted average beta for $F_{t}$ given the weights above. This $\beta^F_{t}$ will not be 1, so I have to scale all single stock betas in that cross-section with 1/$\beta^F_t$, such that finally $\beta^F_t=1$. Then I sort stocks cross-sectionally into deciles based on their beta and weigh them equally in these portfolios. Every month, to be evaluated in the subsequent month. Finally, for the SML i compute the mean excess returns and mean betas for all these porftolios over the testing period and perform this regresion above.
Answer: There's a lot to pick apart here, but to start:
(1)  Holding period on your two strategies?  A Sharpe of 2.8 is quite high (like, top decile+) for a long-only buy and hold mid to low frequency equity strategy.  Even .9 is on the high side for a broad-based US index.
(2)  Using 70-90 as a training set and 95-present as an out of sample set seems prime for issues related to change in regime.  I can't think of a cut-off (ie, 1995) more aligned with a general shift in underlying business models, specifically the emergence of tech as a primary driver in US equities.
(3)  Regarding your follow-up question, why are you 'investigating SML'?  How are you normalizing your betas across assets?  How are you constructing your subsequent portfolio(s)?  You'll need to provide more detail.
Comment: Thanks for the questions, I made an update. Hope it helps.

SML Interpretation


Who were some Greek Plebeian Gentes, especially from Magna Graecia?

Question: I'm looking for foreign influences on the Plebeians.  Who are some Plebeian Gentes that were Greek, perhaps from Magna Graecia or Sicily? I vaguely recall reading about one from Campania, who came in the the 5th century.
Answer: A caveat for the motivating theory:

A. Momigliano has theorized that the plebeians were more affected and propelled by Greek influences than the patricians, and that such influences account for the remarkable efficiency and strength of the plebeian institutions. I find this unconvincing for two reasons. First, the particular effect of such influences on only one part of the community is simply postulated and not analyzed on the basis and with the support of more general (anthropological, theoretical) considerations. Second, we do not know of a single example in the Greek world of a well-organized and efficient opposition to aristocratic power and prerogatives such as that which the Roman plebeians created, particularly not one set up by lowerclass people such as those who composed the Roman plebs according to Momigliano.
Kurt A. Raaflaub: "The Conflict of the Orders in Archaic Rome: A Comprehensive and Comparative Approach", p19, in Raaflaub (Ed): "Social Struggles in Archaic Rome. New Perspectives on the Conflict of the Orders", Wiley-Blackwell: Malden, Oxford, 22005.
(Quote cut short for SE reasons. Read that book.)

For the time "5th century" this gets even more problematic as our sources aren't very good for such early dates. Up until quite some time later archaeological evidence provides a probably more accurate picture of the societal stratification than ancient historical sources that often project their 'facts' into a past in almost irreconcilable details.
As late as the second century BCE individual Greeks coming as doctors were expelled from Rome and wouldn't be able to establish a gentes. Membership was determined by birth, usually, and new admittance of an entire gens was extremely rare.
Add to that the tendency of any gens to freely invent their distant ancestry, often of mythological origin and from a modern historians viewpoint quite unreliable from there down to the last few ancestors of anyone making a claim on his genealogy.

Moreover, it is plain that this process of self-invention at a family level was a deep structural element of Roman political discourse, reinforced within the context of the funeral, where the masks of ancestors were displayed and the previous glories of families rehearsed.
First, whether or not it was important for every gens to have a mythical princeps, the stories were not fixed, and elaboration or wholesale reinvention was permissible. Second, competitive genealogies were permitted; the Aemilii must have had a vested interest in making their princeps an equal of the princeps of the Julii (or vice versa; the Julii may have inserted themselves into an Aemilian story, and then been able, like the cuckoo in the nest, to expel the Aemilii). Third, many of the stories are connected with ritual activity (e.g. the Pinarii and Hercules, the Nautii and Minerva), but not all ritual activity is connected with one of these stories. Finally, whilst the function of the princeps gentis is often to give the nomen to the gens, it seems that much ingenuity has to be expended to make the link. The idea of common descent was central, the identity of the person from whom it was derived was the subject of speculation, and probably both by the descendants and by others. It is surely less plausible that the Fabii took their nomen from the dreadful etymology, than that the etymology arose as an explanation of how Hercules could be connected with the Fabii. So whilst the genealogy may have been an important aspect of the sort of thing aristocrats did with their family trees, it is not clear that one can use this as a defining feature of the gens.
CJ Smith: "The Roman Clan. The Gens from Ancient Ideology to Modern Anthropology (W.B. Stanford Memorial Lectures)", Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, New York, 2006.

The Wikipedia list of Roman gentes notes no Greek gentes at all:

Nomina ending in -aius, -eius, -eus, and -aeus are typical of Latin families. Faliscan gentes frequently had nomina ending in -ios, while Samnite and other Oscan-speaking peoples of southern Italy had nomina ending in -iis. Umbrian nomina typically end in -as, -anas, -enas, or -inas, while nomina ending in -arna, -erna, -ena, -enna, -ina, or -inna are characteristic of Etruscan families.

With these prolegomena of serious doubts established:

Quintus Publilius Philo  was a Roman politician who lived during the 4th century BC. His birth date is not provided by extant sources, however, a reasonable estimate is ca. 365 BC since he first became consul in 339 BC at a time when consuls were regularly elected in their twenties (Bagnall et al. 1987, p. 2.). His Greek cognomen 'Philo' was unique to his family. Lucius Papirus, who shared his several positions with Quintus, is presumed to have been his brother.
His family was plebeian, and the gens was first ennobled by the election of Publilius Volero as tribune in 472 BC. Volero passed two important pieces of legislation which increased the power of a Tribune. Clearly, Philo came from a family accustomed to promoting the rights of the plebs.
The Publilian gens is said not to have had any prominent descendants. However, the noble woman Publilia, who lived circa 154 BC, may have been a relative of Philo. She was accused of murdering her husband, a former consul, despite Publilia's plebeian status. Another potential later member of his gens include Titus Publilius who was one of the "five augurs of the plebs" circa 299 BC.


How do I seal a gap between concrete step and wood at outside of house?

Question: I would like have recommendation on what kind of material I should use to seal a gap between concrete stair and wood siding (in front of front door of my house). My primary concern is that using a wrong material that will rotten the wood. It seems that they previously used cement as far as I can tell. You can see some pieces the previous material on the picture.
Thank you.
Answer: The best solution here may be to clean up that area of all debris, let it be fully dry and then apply a bead of qood quality exterior grade caulking material. Since some of the siding looks like it will need re-priming and painting make sure that you use a paintable type of caulk.
Note that there are various types of caulk. I suggest that you use one of the types that will stay flexible and pliable so that environmental condition with thermal expansion and contraction do not cause the area to open up again. Some of the older types of caulking or sealers that came in a can can dry out and get hard in a year or so and are thus not recommended.
Comment: I agree when I put siding over a pad I always leave a small gap so the wood is not in direct contact, then add a bead of calling as Michael outlined.


Using OpenLDAP's meta backend to map incoming user to someone else

Question: I am attempting to set up an LDAP "tunnel" to work around an application that requires a configuration slightly different to my environment.
I need to be able to bind as USER1 to an LDAP server & retrieve data that the user does not have access to, but a second user (USER2) does.  Effectively authentication should be USER1 but then data retrieval done using USER2 for authorization.
So far I've looked in to using OpenLDAP's 'meta' backend to set up a kind-of tunnel but can't seem to get the configuration right.  Here's my config running on the meta server  attempting to tunnel to SERVER1 (the real server).
database        meta
suffix          o=me
uri             "ldap://SERVER1/o=me"

And I've tried different variations around this bit but can't get anything that works.  USER1 is the original low-priv user and USER2 is the escalated user.
idassert-bind   bindmethod=simple binddn="cn=USER2,o=me" credentials="secret" mode=none
idassert-authzFrom "dn.exact:cn=USER1,o=me"

The 'test' case is this:
 ldapsearch -h METASERVER -D "cn=USER1,o=me" -W -x -b "ou=what,o=me" cn=somethinghidden

Answer: To have the server use a specified authentication identity for a request, use Proxied Authentication.
see also

OpenLDAP SASL proxied auth
Proxied Authentication


Are sample memory access traces/dumps available, and where?

Question: I am looking for a realistic physical memory access trace/dump of significant, but not insane, length (on the order of 1M accesses) for the purpose of cache simulation. Preferably for a 16-bit or 32-bit RAM. Preferably in Tarmac format. The actual architecture is irrelevant. Are such files publicly available, and if so, where can I find them? (Googling did not help.)
Comment: OK!  You might be right!  My initial reaction might have been off-base.
Comment: Your best bet might be to generate such a memory trace yourself, by instrumenting a single program or an interpreter for some architecture (e.g., Bochs).  I'm not sure that requests for data sets are on topic here.
Comment: @D.W. I could not find requests for data sets on the list of off topic questions. Also, when I was a grad student (30 years ago), we had access to sample memory traces and used them precisely to simulate caches. So, unless those traces evaporated in the last 30 years, I hope that someone still knows where to find them.
Answer: Incidentally, I found an answer to my question: valgrind, when instrumented with lackey tool, can capture reliable, though not perfect, traces. For example, here's how one saves the trace for ls -l:
$ valgrind --log-fd=1 --tool=lackey -v --trace-mem=yes ls -l > trace.log

Hope it helps not just me but others as well.
Comment: You could also use SimpleScalar if you don't mind an artificial CPU. This is useful is you need to control for details like the specifics of operating systems.


Magento, automatically assign newsletter subscribers to newsletter subscriber group

Question: I have created the newsletter subscriber group on customer group, so I can apply discount to them, is there anyway to make it automatic, if someone subscribe to newsletter he/she automatically assign to newsletter subscribers group that had created?
Comment: hello you there. please accept the answer if it helped you to resolve your problem.
Answer: What you could do is listen to the event for customer save before customer_save_before, check to see if they are subscribing to the newsletter, If they are then you can update the group assigned to the customer and they will be saved into this new group.
The attribute for newsletter subscription is is_subscribed and you can call setCustomerGroupId on the customer object to update the group.


Process.Kill() issue

Question: I have the following lines of code:
Process aProcess = Process.Start("ieexplorer", aDummyHTMLFilePath);
//I do nothing in between
aProcess.Kill();

This runs smooth if there are NO other IE windows open.
But if there is a window open, I get a System.InvalidOperationException on aProcess.Kill(); saying :

Cannot process request because the process has exited.

Also, I notice that in this case, aProcess.HasExited is true right after line 1 in the code above.
How can I smoothly close IE, even if there are other IE windows open?
Comment: Doesn't IE pass the URL to the already running instance (if that exists), and then exits itself?
Answer: When you start a new instance of Internet Explorer like you do it will try to see if Internet Explorer is already running. If that is true the URL is opened in the already running instance and the new instance exits immediately. This means that when you try to kill the process you started it has already exited voluntarily. However, you will see a new browser window or tab on your screen but that is being hosted by the existing Internet Explorer process.
Answer: I didnt get the same issues as you
I found that the following worked if the process was still running or not
    Process p = Process.Start("notepad.exe", "");
    Thread.Sleep(5000);
    if (!p.HasExited) p.Kill();

It only complained IF the window had been closed. Hence the check
Comment: There is still a race condition - the process may end between the call to HasExited and the call to Kill.

Process.Kill() issue


Is It Okay to Continuously Use One's Private Email Address?

Question: I would have a question: Is it okay to use one's private email address to reply to all the university-related emails after having set up a forwarding to one's private email address - be it as a Professor, PostDoc, PhD-, graduate or undergraduate student, and use one's university/work email only for the most important emails that one wants to send?
Answer: There might be internal regulations about e-mail use at your institution; if there are none, then I would say: It is your own personal choice.
Even in academia, many people do use their non-institutional accounts because - to cite some reasons from this source - they provide more functionalities, are sometimes more reliable, enable greater storage space, support larger attachments, last longer over career trajectories, and may have a less rigorous spam filter.
There are some interesting studies in this regard:

The provision of public e-mail accounts (e.g. gmail) for correspondence in published research articles will not affect a publication's impact (in terms of citation counts). See here.

Within the research community, there is an increasing trend towards using public e-mail accounts rather than institutional ones. See here.

Someone who conducted one of the studies cited above nevertheless recommends the use of institutional e-mail addresses. See the last paragraph here.
Answer: If you do not have a permanent job, I recommend using a private address.  As a researcher, using your private, branded email address makes you easier to find when you change jobs.  Some IT departments do not understand that when researchers change jobs, the research continues.  They will turn off your email when you leave.
Expect to get an occasional complaint.  A few universities forbid use of private email addresses.  All the ones I have experience with made it easy to automatically forward official emails to a private address.
Answer: In addition to the question of university regulations, I see two aspects of this practice:

I think it is fine to use the personal email address for correspondence concerning your research. Some people use this to have a more "permanent" email address. Of course the situation is more complicated if you want to use it to send data from studies which might contain personal data - then the next point applies.
For the communication with students, I would not use the private email address. In the European Union, you might run into problems concerning the GDPR, i.e. the data protection regulations. This applies in particular if you are using services operating outside the European Union or free services which scan your email. Similar regulations might apply in other places. So for everything containing personal data about other people than yourself, I would only use the email address provided by the university, since they should take care of the data protection requirements.


Getting a county name using a 5 digit FIPS code

Question: Lets say I have a five digit fips code: '13245'. I have a dictionary to handle know that the 2-digit state part of the code(ex: {'GA':'13', etc...}). But I want to also get the full county name (EX: 13 - GA, 245 - Richmond County). Is there a library, mod, or API that will help me achieve this?
Comment: https://www.census.gov/geo/reference/codes/cou.html and set the pull down to "united states".
Answer: The FCC provides an API that will return attributes of a FIPS unit. https://www.broadbandmap.gov/developer/api/census-api-by-fips-code
Note however, the page says that it is no longer being updated since 2014 and I cannot find a similar tool anywhere on the new site that is linked there.
import requests
import urllib

#FIPS code
fipsCD = 13245

#Construct URL
url = 'https://www.broadbandmap.gov/broadbandmap/census/county/fips/' + str(fipsCD) + '?format=json'

#Retreive information and parse
response = requests.get(url)
data = response.json()

#Extract county name
countyNM = data['Results']['county'][0]['name']

print(countyNM)

Comment: You get that error from directly pasting the code from my answer in? What is the result if you enter `print(response.text)` ?
Comment: This looks good. Quick questions; when I try `countyNM = data['Results']['county'][0]['name']` it throws an error: `TypeError: 'method' object is not subscriptable`. Is there something I am leaving out here?
Comment: Ah, I figured it out. I left the `()` off of the `data = response.json`. Its working now.
Answer: Note that the URL constructor may choke when fed a fips code lower than 10000.
Try code 1001 (Autauga County)
Hence my suggestion for the URLS constructor, using '{0:05d}'.format(fipsCD):
import requests
import urllib

fipsCD =  1001
url = 'https://www.broadbandmap.gov/broadbandmap/census/county/fips/' + '{0:05d}'.format(fipsCD) + '?format=json'
data = requests.get(url).json()
print(data['Results']['county'][0]['name'])


Are there codes to insert Android emoji?

Question: Just like how in HTML you would use $ to display a dollar character ($), do Android emoji have some sort of code that I could type in a text field (and if the app supports emoji it will display it), rather than browsing through the list of all emoji?
Answer: Yes
There are Unicode character codes for standard emojis. There's a complete list available here, but some common ones include U+1F601, which is . The actual representation of the emoji might differ across platforms though, as seen below.

Additionally, simply entering the Unicode codes into the app might not necessarily display the character since it assumes you want to enter the literal code and not the emoji representation.
Several services including Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, GitHub, etc do allow for this fortunately, through a different list of character codes, such as :smile: for . Again there's a complete list available here.
Comment: This is on your computer I presume? Admittedly whether it displays properly depends very much on the degree of Unicode support, which is patchy at best.
Comment: The  unicode `U+1F601` smiley and `:smile` are not visible to me. Instead a  vertical box is displayed.
Comment: Yes, Desktop version of  Google Chrome latest version(43.x.x). It would be better if you crop the image and post it in you answer for everyone to view it regardless of the Unicode support. Are you using a mobile browser or SE app?
Comment: That's weird. I'm on Desktop Chrome too. Anyway, I already have a picture with the representations on the respective platforms above.
Comment: @Lucky it's not so much about which browser you're using as which fonts you have installed.  works in both Chrome and Firefox here on my Linux box, because I have a fonts installed with that character.
Answer: As an alternative, consider using a keyboard app that offers emoji as suggestions when typing (as well as words).
Swype is one keyboard that does this. If you type "dog" you get various word suggestions, but also the dog emoji. Very handy. A few of the images in the Play Store (links below) show examples of this.
It is a paid app, with a free trial version.

Swype  (paid app)
Swype  (free trial)

Sadly, Swype is being discontinued by Nuance.
Google's Gboard claims to offer emoji suggestions, but it mostly does not work for me, nor it seems for many others. It does also offer direct emoji search-by-text, but you have to enter text in its emoji search box, rather than it reacting to text as you type (which is what suggestions is supposed to do, but often doesn't).


ImagePng sometimes returning false depending on codepath?

Question: I am using the phpqrencode library to generate QR codes within a WordPress plugin. There are 2 possible codepaths. In one, the image is created and everything is happy town. In the other, the call to ImagePng within the library returns false.
I am writing lots of debug info to a file. The only difference I can find is that the image resource id being handed to ImagePng is consistently the same, but different between the 2 cases. So for example, when it works, it's always "Resource id #170" and when it doesn't, it's always "Resource id #283". I have added get_resource_type and they're both "gd" as they should be. Firstly, it seems odd that the IDs would always be the same - but I don't know much about garbage collection in PHP. Secondly, given that the params to ImagePng, filepath and the image resource, are both valid - I cannot figure out why it fails in the 2nd case.
Hoping for some suggestions on other things to look for?
Answer: Ok well, I was making a mountain out of a pimple. Turned out that the file was using a relative path and in the 2nd code path, the folder couldn't be written to. Oops. Changed to absolute path and now all is right in the world.


Mentoring to help new users

Question: I have not found a question about this so I would like to propose a mentoring System to help newcomers (like myself). There are documentations, there are Q&A and yes, all those should be read. But they don't have all the answers that new users might need and they can be unclear specially assuming that this is a multicultural environment. So a mentoring System would be appreciated in which a better experienced user can take newcomers as a mentor and establish a communication channel to it. Would be better if the mentor would be from the same country/region as the mentored. That may also increase the quality of questions and answers all across the community specially if the mentor get automatically notified when the mentored has questions and answers with a high number of down votes.
Comment: I meant mainly what type of information you find lacking or not easy enough to find.
Comment: Welcome! Trying to serve you in the function you propose: a down-vote on a feature request of meta only means that somebody does not consider this as a good feature. You should thus not be taken aback by it. Perhaps you could say what type of information or advice you would hope to receive.
Comment: Thanks @quid. I do understand that down-voting is not an attack. I didn't understand what you mean by "Perhaps you could say what type of information or advice you would hope to receive.". If you are talking about what kind of discussion I expect for this question specifically then it would be a tool to make this community/environment more friendly for new users. As I said this is a multicultural environment and sometimes a question can be perfectly clear for a culture but unclear for another.
Comment: That makes things clear, thanks for the hint.
Answer: There are a few problems with this

Anyone can make an account in 10 seconds, we don't have enough experienced users to mentor everyone and becoming a "mentor" requires some dedication not too many will volunteer to do so
Who is "experienced" anyways?
Users interested in "mentoring" will look for help and find it anyways, I presume (do you have any question about the site whose answer you couldn't find in the help center or meta?)

Also I believe there are enough alternatives

You can always drop in chat if you have specific questions another user can help you with.
If you have issues with site policy, you can ask a meta question or contact mods in the Math Mods' Office
Some users (including me) will add comprehensive "introductory comments" to new users' question if something is wrong with them. Thus they will get pointed to the correct sources if they make mistakes and won't be bothered if they don't.

It seems that you have experienced difficulties with your first question asked. This is absolutely not a huge issue. You can always improve and I've taken the time to add some comments about what is wrong with the post's form that got it closed. Don't let this (relatively small) negative feedback keep you from becoming an active member on Math.SE :)
Comment: AlexR thanks for your answer. Yes, there are many users but the idea is not to have every single one being mentored.

It would requires that both the new user request this kind of help and another user agree to do so.

You are way more experienced than me. (member for 1 and a half year versus a few days)

Specific help about how to improve questions and answers are not the goal of help center or meta from my point of view.

about the chat: "You must have 20 reputation" it is supposed to be easy to achieve but if the user fails to have good questions he might be left out without understanding.
Comment: @Pfeiffer Still I don't see a _particual_ use case. I've looked at your question and seen that unfortunately noone told you why it was put on hold. If you want to know about that (_why_ was my question put on hold), you should still be able to comment on the question and ask someone and maybe edit the question to make it meet the requirements. Note that you only have _one shot_ at improving the question wich causes it to pass reopen-review, so make sure the edit is worth it.
Comment: I appreciate your participation on both here and that question of mine.
Comment: I think it's worth noting that your third point goes both ways - users interested in *providing* help already can to whatever extent they are willing.
Comment: @Meelo I agree with you, it's kind of what I mean with the 3rd bullet in the second listing though ;)

Mentoring to help new users


Little snitch and different network profiles

Question: Is there any way to have different "little snitch" rules set for different networking profiles ?
like for HOME one rule list
for WORK another etc ...
Answer: Little Snitch will tell you and allow you to do the following:

Informs you when an app or process trys to access "stuff" over the network
Allows you to set up and block communication by one of more of the following:

Protocol
Port
App or Process
destination address, IP address, or hostname, and more.

Unfortunately what it does not allow you to do is filter or create rules based on the "Location" or the current connection name as defined in OS X Network preferences (with the exception of "Local Network")
Other Firewall Software may allow you to do this, but this is a limitation of Little Snitch.
Littel Snitch 3 is now in preview mode, one among the new features is "Profiles" defined as follows:

Profiles
With Little Snitch 3, rules can optionally be arranged in separate profiles like "Home", "Office" or "Internet Cafe". Rules that are assigned to a particular profile are only effective if that profile is active. The active profile can be chosen conveniently from the status menu.
This allows you to quickly switch between different sets of rules depending if you are at home, at the office or connected to a public network.
Comment: it is really too bad :( and do you know any suitable firewall similar little snitch (design, lightweight etc) but with described functionality ?
Comment: so in Apple world there is no any firewall with matching my requirement ? nice :) how it is possible in case when everyone is so mobile, unbelievable ;( switching between users it's not good solution.
Answer: In Little Snitch 4.1.3, you can have a different profile that is connected to different wifi networks
Comment: While this might technically be a correct answer, you're answering a question that's 6 years old.  The versions will be different from the original question and the ways to perform the steps will be different.  Your answer can be made much better by adding additional info, such as how to create a different profile and set the rules per network.  - From Review.
Comment: You're basically saying "don't necro threads." This isn't a forum, and this forum rat nonsense is inappropriate to a Stack Exchange site. If the answer changed, a new answer should be created, rather than duplicating questions.


Format date in SharePoint 2013

Question: I have a date field in SharePoint 2013 list. Using SP Service am retrieving the date field value. The value is retrieved as 2017-5-24 00:00:00. I want to format the date as May 5 2017. Can this be done using jquery?
Comment: check this https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/160806/changing-date-format-using-javascript
Comment: I tried...String.format("{0:MMM} {0:dd} {0:yyyy}",new Date($(this).attr("ows_Date"))); But it is not working it is showing NAN
Answer: Try below code:
String.format("{0:MMM} {0:dd} {0:yyyy}",new Date(ows_Date));

In the new Date()function, pass the column name of the date field
Excellent reference - Changing date format using javascript
Update - you need to write a custom function as below:
var monthNames = ["January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June",
  "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December"
];

function convertSPDate(d) {

    // split apart the date and time
    var xDate = d.split(" ")[0];
    var xTime = d.split(" ")[1];

    // split apart the hour, minute, & second
    var xTimeParts = xTime.split(":");
    var xHour = xTimeParts[0];
    var xMin = xTimeParts[1];
    var xSec = xTimeParts[2];

    // split apart the year, month, & day
    var xDateParts = xDate.split("-");
    var xYear = xDateParts[0];
    var xMonth = xDateParts[1];
    var xDay = xDateParts[2];

    var dDate = new Date(xYear, xMonth-1, xDay, xHour, xMin, xSec);
    return dDate;
}

This will return the spservices column to a date object.
After that, you can use it as below:
var convertedDate = convertSPDate($(this).attr("ows_Date"));

var formattedDate = monthNames[convertedDate.getMonth()] + ' ' + convertedDate.getDate() + ' ' + convertedDate.getFullYear();

Modified from here - jQuery function for formatting dates in SharePoint with SPServices
xMonth modified to xMonth-1
Comment: I tried...String.format("{0:MMM} {0:dd} {0:yyyy}",new Date($(this).attr("ows_Date"))); But it is not working it is showing NAN
Comment: gotcha , have updated answer. Can you check now ?
Comment: If the date is December 31 2017...It is showing as January 31 2018...
Comment: xMonth modified to xMonth-1...It is working fine now...Thanks
Comment: oh cool ! Was about to do that !
Answer: You do not need a library in order to display it like that.
var dateString = "2017-5-24 00:00:00";
var date = new Date(dateString);
date.toLocaleDateString("en-US", { year: 'numeric', month: 'long', day: 'numeric' }); // May 24, 2017

For further options you may also take a look at this post about date formatting.
Answer: You can do that using moment.js. Please go to the site https://momentjs.com/ , get moment.js from the site and add its reference to your code. You can convert your date in the expected format shown on the home page.

Format date in SharePoint 2013


Discrete vs continuous

Question: When pricing equity futures with the cost of carry model; When do you use continuous compounding and when do you just use discrete compounding? And why
Comment: "compounding" is not the issue. The issue is, do you prefer to express interest rates, dividend rates etc. in discrete time or in continuous time. As long as you plug in the right kind of rates in the right kind of formula (d.t. or c.t.) the results, in terms of the price of futures, will be the same.
Answer: As Alex said, as long as you apply all formulae correctly, you will always get the same (correct) results. In praxis, you often find rates being used in a discrete setting whereas academics and model developers tend to prefer continuous time setting. The former is closer to the real life (where bond coupons, for instance, occur every 6 months). The latter is more convienient. Exponential functions are easy to deal with, easy to differentiate and multiply. Note also that log-returns are popular for these reasons.
You can always express your discount factors in terms of discrete or continuous. Suppose $r_D$ and $r_C$ are your corresponding annualised rates. After time $t$, when discrete compounding occurs $k$ times a year,
\begin{align*}
\frac{1}{\left( 1+ \frac{r_D}{k} \right)^{tk}} = e^{-r_Ct} \implies r_c &= k\cdot\ln\left(1+ \frac{r_D}{k}\right), \\
r_D &= k\cdot e^{r_C/k}-k.
\end{align*}
Finally, the different between $\frac{1}{1+r^t}$ and $e^{-rt}$ is quite small anyway (see Taylor series expansion). The smaller $r$ is, the closer the values are.

Discrete vs continuous


Can I Travel USA

Question: I am from India, I have visa for USA it expires on September 8th I am planning to Travel September 4th and return on October 1st. Does it possible? Can I travel to the USA from India just 4 days before my visa expires? I never traveled to the USA before, but I was issued a visa valid for 2 months. I mentioned to the visa office my dates of travel, yet the visa I was granted is expiring before my expected arrival date. Is it possible for me to stay in the USA for one month after the expiration of my visa? and does it effect my future visa applications to the USA?
Comment: my visa is B1-B2
Comment: Wait, you say "the visa I was granted is expiring before my expected arrival date".  But you also say "it expires on September 8th".
Comment: yes it expires after I enter into the usa I enter on 4th and it will expire on 8th does it possible to stay there for one month
Answer: You can travel with a visa that's close to expiration, but you will have to leave again before on on the expiration date. And as your return ticket is for after the expiration date, it's highly likely you won't be allowed into the country, if the airline even lets you board the flight (as they're held fined by the US for passengers who are denied entry).
So no, you'll need to get a new visa.
Answer: I don't think you can travel to USA if your visa is going to expire.Because USA has a very strict rules about the visas and passport.

Can I Travel USA


Batch converting EPS to BMP, PNG and SVG in one go

Question: Does anyone know if there is a way to batch convert EPS files into BMP, PNG and SVG all in one go rather than doing in three different stages?
I currently use a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop so that I don't lose too much quality of the image. It would save a great deal of time if these converions could be done in one go.
Answer: I know that in Affinity Designer I can set up multi-format, multi-parameter export slices in the Export Persona which could accomplish most of this, and AFAIK you can do similar in Illustrator with the Export to Screens workflow.
Illustrator:

Affinity Designer:

But... in both cases, though they will save raster files as well as vector formats like svg and pdf, I don't think .bmp is a format either will happily export - they will export formats more commonly used in the graphics world - so .png, .jpg, and in Affinity Designer's case, add .tiff, .psd & .exr to that list... but neither lists .bmp. You will have to accomplish a batch conversion outside of either of these tools from say .png-24 to .bmp.


What is the white residue spreading across my dracaena and how do I treat it?

Question: I have a white residue spreading across my dracaena at home. I tried wiping it with wet sponge when it was on one leaf only but its come back and spreading across now 50% of the plant. Some of the leaves are turning brown as well. The white residue doesn't move to naked eye. When I looked through jewellers loop they look like grains of rice. Soil looks clear - but they are on the stem as well as leaves. Please help! Can I save this plant? Should I cut off any browned leaves?
Answer: I think the white things are insects (scales), they suck sap from the plant which is of course harmful for the plant. You see that yellow spots exists where they were sucking. You can try to wipe them away with a wet towel, and maybe use some biological pesticide.
The brown leaves are not caused by these insects, but is probably a sign of too much water, or too much direct sunlight.
Answer: Meet the mealybug family:
A sap-sucking unarmored scale that is commonly considered a pest because it weakens the plants it feasts upon, its sugary excrete can feed and foster fungal infections and they can transmit diseases by biting into the leaves.
So you want to get rid of them. From manual removal (wipe often, note that they tend to hide in crevices) over biological methods (beneficial insects, fungi) to insecticides, topical or systemic, there are various options. Removing the browned leaves won't help, though.
Comment: Thanks - I will try wiping and insecticide. Hopefully will get this under control. Is there any insecticide you would recommend that I can get in the UK?


return-to-libc attack

Question: I was trying to attempt at return-to-libc buffer overflow attack for my Computer Software Security assignment. As far as my understanding goes, we can do these kind of attacks regardless of stack protection measures such as canaries and non-executable stack. This is because the libc functions do not reside on the stack and we just need to shift our program's control flow by overwriting the return address with the libc function address and passing suitable arguments. This figure seems to summarize the procedure I guess.
 What my doubt is, according to the figure for second part, is the stack frame given for the libc function or is it just for a function defined in the user's program itself? I am not able to figure out the need of fake_ret. Can't we just overwrite the return address of our function by overwriting EIP with the address of say unlink and the arguments can be placed in the user's function buffer which can be used to pass to the unlink function? Please note that by the use of user's (something), I aim at pointing to (something) which is defined by the user himself/herself in his/her program. Thanks.
Answer: You can write a frame for any function call, it doesn't have to be system(). However most exploits will aim for a shell if possible. The fake_ret address is simply where the execution will return to after the system() call. If you just put \x41\x41\x41\x41 there it will segfault. If you point it at exit() it will gracefully exit, or you could point it at a number of pop register followed by a ret to control execution down the stack (ROP).
Comment: Fake_ret would have to be the address of exit, so yes the value matters if you don't want a segfault
Comment: As per your statement `If you just put \x41\x41\x41\x41 there it will segfault` > am I correct to conclude that >> If we simply use `exit()`, then the value of `fake_ret` does not matters in this case.
Comment: Ok...so the case here is different than a simple buffer overflow with `shellcode`, where we can directly use `exit()` in our shellcode...I guess that's why `fake_ret` does not come into picture there, thanks.

return-to-libc attack


Adding a fan box on a facebook fan page

Question: I am trying to add a fan box on my fan page using the <fb:fan> tag. But it just doesn't get rendered on the page.
I also tried using an <fb:iframe> as mentioned here, and setting its source to another file which contains the code for <fb:fan> tag. But even that doesn't work.
Answer: This wont work in StaticFBML. The only work around is to use an iframe with StaticFBML. In the Iframe, you can then load the widget.

Adding a fan box on a facebook fan page


What happens if I were to add angular momentum to a maximally spinning black hole?

Question: I am aware that a "naked singularity" is not possible. However, what would happen if I added angular momentum to a black hole near the maximal angular momentum limit? Does it asymptote?
Comment: Can you add angular momentum without adding more mass?
Answer: How would you add angular momentum?
The only way to do that is to drop something with angular momentum (relative to the centre of mass of the BH and the thing, if you want to get picky) into the BH. Could be a spinning object, or an object fired in at a oblique angle, or circularly polarised light or even suitably polarised gravity waves.
Whatever you do, you increase both the mass and the angular momentum of the BH. Now the limit on the spin of a black hole is expressed in terms of a relation between these two quantities and the Schwarzschild radius of the black hole (which is determined by the mass) and it turns out that whatever you add, and however you add it (if you're firing something in obliquely, it has to actually hit the BH so it can't be too ar from the centre of mass) you cannot increase the angular momentum enough relative to the increase in mass to break that limit.
The equations you have to look at are on wikipedia see especially this section. One way of expressing the limit is given there as
$GM^2 < Jc$  where $J$ is the angular momentum. Suppose you have a black hole just under this limit and add an object of mass $m$ angular momentum just under $Gm^2/c$ velocoty just under $c$ and on a trajectory that just grazes the Schwarzchild radius of the hole at $\frac{2GM}{c^2}$. The angular moment of the result is just under $$GM^2/c + 2GMmc/c^2 + Gm^2/c$$ where the terms are respectively the original angular moment of the hole, the angular moment from the grazing impact and the angular momentum of the added body. This works out to be (just under) $$G(M+m)^2/c$$, the limit for the (now-enlarged) black hole.
Comment: What if I shoot quickly rotating objects to pass close to the event horizon of the black hole without being captured by it? Wouldn't the framedragging effect from these objects spin up the black hole without adding to its mass?


Any advice for playing characters who are older (much older) than the player?

Question: Several of the characters in our group are of long-lived races and have ages in the triple digits as a result. Presumably the game-mechanic effects of their ages are already factored into the rules for playing the race; any advice on how to role-play them, though? How does one go about role-playing a level-3 character who is more than a hundred years senior to the rest of the team but at the same in-game skill level?
Comment: I can see a dwarf, when asked about the last 50 years of his life, answering with the one word: "digging". Whenever the team is in a tunnel, or underground, he might provide very insightful extra information to the team. It seems like a stretch, though, to have someone spend that much time focused on just one single activity, which just so happens isn't relevant to most other daily activities. If he only spent 10% of his time dancing and singing, the local bard will have good competition.
Answer: Long lived characters would also have had lots of time to get things done, so might take a lot longer to consider their response to challenges than the short lived races.  Such a character would either feel angry/irritable when being "rushed" or would just not commit to making a decision until they had a "reasonable" amount of time to consider the issue at hand.  In combat they might be swift and deadly, but when planning how to storm the citadel may want to take their time to look at it from every direction.
Comment: This.  I am currently in my late 30s.  I look at a year as almost nothing.  It takes me a year of hassle to get X benefit?  Great.  Sign me up.  When I was 15, however, a year was an ETERNITY.  I imagine Elves/Dwarves would be like this to a logical extreme.
Comment: This is especially true of immortal races (elves in some settings, vampires, etc). All things being equal, make sure to think ahead, and go slow. Try to play conservatively, and try to play for the long game. Be ready and willing to lose a battle to win a war.
Answer: In these situations, I look to fiction - especially film. Stories of characters that have lived unusually long - Anything modern with vampires, or the older Highlander (Sean Connery!) stories, for example. There is both much wisdom and great tragedy in out-living other races - more specifically and the people you love and hate.
Look for the quirky behaviors and attitudes exhibited by these long-lived characters: Are they unusually quiet and contemplative. Do they get easily disgusted with the same old "childish" behavior they've seen over in over?
I'm reminded of a line by Merlin (who lives a long time, and backward no-less) in 1970s film Excalibur during the Siege of Camelyarde: When the young page Arthur "the boy king" hands Excalibur to his enemy in order that he may may in-turn make Arthur a knight, when Merlin remarks: "I never saw this!" with great delight. Man, I'd so use that ham-fisted Merlin characterization the first chance I got... :-)
Comment: Merlin is a good archetype, and I especially like the Boorman/Pallenberg take on him.  The Merlin-Morgana scenes are good  for this as well.
Answer: With many long-lived races, those extra years are spent in isolation, either in some idyllic fairyland where little changes (as with elves) or in torpid slumber as the years pass (as with vampires). You can portray this by being a little spacey or out-of-touch with the rest of the world.
Comment: For vampires, that can maybe make sense, but for elves? I always remember the children-with-hackysacks scene from Star-Trek Insurrection. If all you did was play with hackysacks for 10 years, you'd be rather amazing at it, I think (especially if you have multiple-centuries-old teachers to guide you)
Comment: That presumes an ethos based on competition, rather than on — say — leisure, or contemplation, or something that doesn't have a skill rating. It's possible that the things you get amazing at are things that don't get leveled in your system. ("I'm a phenomenal husband and father; how many ranks do I get in Profession: Dad?")
Comment: All skills interrelate. A phenomenal husband and father will likely have increased negotiation and other interpersonal skills, no?
Answer: Very-long-lived characters make decisions quickly. They have already been in most conceivable circumstances, and have made their errors of youth long ago... but they may thus, in their inertia, devalue the opinions of others ("Been there done that, I'm right you're wrong").
Look carefully at Heinlein's classic Time Enough for Love, especially the two interludes featuring his quotations. (Caution: Woodie/Lazarus is quirky, and it takes some skill for the reader to separate the personality from the age-effects.) Like Woodie, a character should keep a watchful eye on the broader view, anticipating situations and having plans worked out for many contingencies.
Rule One is to stay alive. All other things -- fame & fortune, loot & equipment, even friendships (especially with the short-lived) -- are secondary.
Answer: One way to reflect a long life apparently spent doing nothing terribly self-improving is idiosyncratic life philosophy; many years for contemplation may have led a character to place an unusually high value on certain behaviors or to object unusually strenuously to others.
Answer: There's a general presumption that very long-lived types must be stick-in-the-ass conservatives.  Journey to the West: The Monkey King provides a nice antidote to this, where the monkey king, Nanduka, gains immortality through trickery and gluttony, and turns heaven upside-down with his foolish pride and mischief.  He does, sadly, become a reformed character.  If you are after stick-in-the ass immortals, it's hard to beat Gloranthan Brithini.
There's no obligation to conform to stereotypes, only to play characters that work for you and the gamers you play with.  Talk over your ideas with them until you've got an idea you are happy about.


Add new string to variable

Question: What i need to do is this
if (isset($message))
{
    $message = $message . $new_message;
}
else
{
    $message = $new_message;
}

Is there a simple way to do this with no if ?
I tried
$message .= $new_message;

But when $message is not set, i get Severity Notice Undefined property
The reason i need to do this is i show errors/messages with $message in views and if i simply do $message = $new_message; older errors/messages are gone.
Any help/method is appreciated.
Comment: Junior interview question 101 :)
Answer: You can use ternary operator:
$message = isset($message) ? $message.$new_message : $new_message;

Answer: There's no way to do this in PHP without some sort of conditional statement.  I think the if/else is readable but if you want something more concise you can try a ternary operator like this:
$message = isset($message) ? $message . $new_message : $new_message;

Answer: A simple way to go with ternary ? : operator:-
$message = (isset($message) && $message!='') ? $message.$new_message : $new_message;

Note:- you can remove empty check condition, but its for your betterment.
Answer: A conditional statement (either what is in the question or a ternary operator as shown in other answers) is the right way to go.
However, in this case you might want to just tell PHP to ignore the warning, and not throw it at all. You can achieve that using the @ symbol, as such:
@$message .= $new_message;

This is not a best practice, but I do believe it's best to know it for completeness. The above snippet will not emit any error or warning at all, at your request.

Add new string to variable


The Best Approach for the Classification of the imbalanced classes

Question: I have data that I am going to classify to 3 classes, but one class has a few samples less than 5% of the total samples. What is the best approach to classify these imbalanced classes?
I mean is there a machine learning technique that fits this case or is there any other procedures to improve the classification?
Comment: It is a supervened learning, the labels are there
Answer: For the imbalanced data you need to treat the classification task differently. For example monitoring your accuracy might tell you, you're doing well, although you never correctly classify the 5%. One option I used before was resampling, but I think there is good post in here and here.
Comment: If I used Random Forest....are the approaches of the oversampling and the under sampling of the data needed?
Answer: When using Random Forests (or any other ensemble method), you can use one of the following (or both) approaches:
Adapt the prior probabilities
Use this option if some classes are under- or overrepresented in your training set. Most training algorithms can handle this.
Adapt the missclassification cost
If classes are adequately represented in the training data but you want to treat them asymmetrically, use the cost parameter $C$. Given you have a two class problem:
$$C = \left[
\begin{matrix}
0 &  c_{0,1} \\
c_{1,0}  &  0
\end{matrix}\right]
$$
where $c_{i,j} > 1$ is the cost of missclassifying class $i$ as $j$. Note, that the penalty on the diagonal is 0, because it means that the classification was correct, i.e. $i = j$.
Adapt the Training Algorithm
You can emply the RUSBoost Algorithm by Seiffert et al., which can handle imbalanced data pretty well.
Further Reading
Matlab has a great section on this. You can find it here.


Setting up an IPv6 DHCP + DNS router - hardware?

Question: I would like to set up a DHCP (with MAC-bound allocation to mimic static) + DNS(SEC) router at home. I'm looking for hardware and software suggestions that fit into a small enclosure, approximately large enough to house a regular home router/AP.
HW Requirements:

Completely silent
Small power consumption
2+ NICs running at gigabit speeds.
Access-point capabilities

SW Requirements:

Support for Open Shortest Path First or a similar interior routing protocol.
An operating system here: http://www.sixxs.net/tools/aiccu/
Full IPv6 stack including Teredo, 6to4 and possibly ISATAP (bonus).
Capable for partitioning some traffic through a VPN and some traffic through the SixXS handle.
Stable

I don't need a firewall in this thing: they are pretty evil, slow and prone to errors (NAT-reflection anybody?). I trust I can secure the systems in the network instead.
Software - FreeBSD or a linux variant? Which? I don't want cumbersome GUIs running on it nor do I want any sort of web server on it. It would be nice to be able to run some other things on it though, like an erlang server, or a VPN tunnel. The point, anyway, would be that while the operating system should be addressable, I want it to work as a NAT for IPv4 and as a DHCP + router/switch for IPv6. I'm not afraid to do things on my own, but I don't want to get stuck in a corner like I have before:

Windows Server 2008 + HyperV + FreeBSD -> fail because HyperV doesn't relay DHCP messages properly.
Incomplete IPv6 stacks or GUIs that overwrite manual changes to support IPv6.
The computer dying of overheating (currently the case)

One idea would be to use a very small ARM processor with a linux compiled for this -- e.g. if I could get a NVIDIA Tegra system-on-a-chip up and running with a slew of NICs. This system doesn't even need cooling (draws 6W) but has a clock frequency of 1 GHz. While not fast enough for most routing tasks, it's the general direction I want to go for -> silent 'enough' hardware with no electricity bill that doesn't die of overheating. I have a switch for switching internal data streams at gigabit; that's not the router's job.
Answer: I am running the OpenWRT / Asus 500g option.  I am not running VPN although it is supported.  SSH, IMAP, and SMTP on Submission port handle my remote needs.  I use Shorewall-lite and Shorewall6-lite to firewall my network.  Firewall reflection has not been a problem.  No default passwords to hit anyway, login failures are logged.

My first post covers configuring IPv6 with the 6to4 anycast address.
My second post covers upgrading to a fixed tunnel from Hurricane Electric (thanks).

The router also does DCHP, and DNS forwarding using DNSMasq.
I have plugged in an old USB key to provide extra storage.  Mostly I use it for temporary scripts and configuration backups.


How to tell if crankshaft sensor or Camshaft sensor is bad

Question: I have a 2006 Honda Civic I was driving it and was On my way! To my friends shop I mad a turn and it felt like the transmission went out of fear while I was accelerating than while I was trying to get it in to gear it felt like it was loosing power like I was giving it gas and there was no acceleration
I tried to turn car off and on and wouldn't turn back over so my friend said it's either camshaft sensor or crankshaft sensor how do I check to see which one I need
Comment: best way to test is with a scope but depending on the sensor design you can use a multimeter. if it's a digital signal you can just backprobe the signal wire while cranking the engine and the voltage reading should be half the supply voltage.
Answer: Get an OBD2 reader (compatible to your vehicle) and check the codes - it will tell you what is at fault.
Comment: What would the person do with it once they have a reader?
Comment: plug it in to the OBD2 port (wherever that happens to be on that vehicle) then ignition on and read the codes - but one has to navigate the menu system which may depend on the reader manufacturer...
Answer: Huh?  "so my friend said it's either camshaft sensor or crankshaft sensor.."   Not sure what that is based on.
For an engine to run, it needs three things:  1) Spark   2) Fuel  and 3) air. (in the right amount at the right time...)
On your 2006 vehicle, there is an engine control computer that controls spark (timing) and controls fuel/air mixture (via fuel injectors).  That computer is a pretty decent tool.  It reads a whole lot of inputs.  If it sees something "wrong" it sets a diagnostic code. Those codes are stored in memory.  When it sees something "wrong" it sets a "check engine light" to tell you that something is wrong.
With that said. Dave, is it just possible for you to turn the key on, wait 60 seconds and tell us if the check engine light is on?  The check engine light is in the instrument cluster, just on the other side of the steering wheel.
If the light is on, you will need an OnBoard Diagnostic (OBD2) code reader tool.   It sounds like the car won't start now, so you can't use the free OBD2 reader service provided by many US based autoparts stores.. You will have to purchase or borrow a tool from somebody.  They seem to cost between $60 and $100 to purchase from an autoparts store, and much less on line.  I bought an blue tooth device on Amazon for $15.  Obviously, this is the same answer as Solar Mike proposed.  (His answer definitely is an improvement over mine.)
With that said, however there is one comment of note.  Not every fault that precludes an engine from starting up will set an OBD code.  The engine computer is depending on feedback from an array of sensors.  In my experience, its poor on identifying if the engine is getting spark.  Yes the computer sends out a 'spark now' signal, but it doesn't have a great way to watch a spark plug to see if a real spark was generated.  It may not tell you if you have a totally plugged up air cleaner or a plugged exhaust pipe.
It absolutely WILL tell you if a crankshaft or camshaft sensor is not operating correctly.  (and by the way those are hall effect sensors... quite easy to test... hook up wires to volt-ohm meter, set to voltage and move a pair of pliers near the sensor.. you will see reading jump).
I doubt the camshaft/crankshaft theory. We work on known facts, based on careful troubleshooting here..
Step 1.  Is engine light on?
Step 2.  If engine light on, what codes are set on OBD2?
Step 3.  If engine light not on, start by inspecting engine for obvious things (out of gas?  broken wire?  Loose terminals on battery?)
Step 4.  Continue to inspect items that don't set codes... and I'd start with ignition system. (Some vehicles will set codes here, but not all...)
Good luck with it...


Workflow to send email

Question: I wanted to create a list in share point in which people add their details & attach file. However, not able to edit the same, only owner/specific group has the access for the same and get email of the same.
I've achieved the same by changing permission level and creating new permission level "Restricted Contribute" with add permission. But then, when a user (with "Restricted contribute" permission) creating an item, sharepoint is not applying workflow to the specific item. But owner and contribute access people are able to do it without any problem.
Would anyone please help me in create a workflow and list which generate email to specific people and if user add information and owner change information in the list and restricted access
Answer: Which version of SharePoint?
If 2010 or later, you can add an Impersonation Step to a 2010 style workflow that will use the workflow creator's permissions.
Answer: You can achieve this using App step action in sharepoint designer workflow.
Follow the steps given here to setup the app step permissions on your site.
Comment: have you tried this?
Comment: Nope. scope changed now

Workflow to send email


Songs on memory card does not appear in music player on Samsung Galaxy S2

Question: I recently bought 16 GB SD card to store music on my Samsung Galaxy S2. I transferred about 500 songs from my pc to this new SD card but when I open the default music player app on my Galaxy S2 I can see only 15-20 songs. Where are the rest of the songs? Same SD card works perfectly on my brothers Sony Xperia Z1. Can anyone please help me to figure out what is wrong with my Galaxy S2?
Comment: Have you rebooted your device? Check whether the Media Scanner successfully scanned your SD card and make sure that no `.nomedia` file is present in any of your folders. Also make sure none of the folders have a `.` (dot) as their first character.
Comment: You are right. There was a .nomedia file in the folder. Thanks!
Answer:
Check if those songs are in a format which is supported by the music player you are using. If they are in Mp3, this is obvious. If not, check your app's compatibility.
Check if the SD card is recognized by your phone at all: open a file manager and see if you see it and can navigate through it
Check if your media player is looking in the SD card: go in your player's settings and check your library options. Note that music players offer filters (to avoid ringtones and such be included in your library): they go from name, to format, to length, to folder. Check all those filters. Then do a library rescan
Check for <code>.nomedia</code> files inside the main folder of your SD card or of your music archive: if such a file is included, your media player is told to skip that folder in order to avoid including ringtones and such, again
Check if your songs are properly tagged. Music players will organized your library with tags (informations about Artist, Album, Genre, Year, Track Number and Title) rather than location and filename.
Comment: Thanks! This .nomedia file was the main culprit. Everything is working fine now.
Comment: What if it's none of these? The only thing that ever works for me is to use a third party rescanner. Is this how Android is supposed to work?...
Answer: My best solution would be to open up the "MyFiles" Application (I believe the S2 has this) and transfer those songs to the default mp3 folder. If you experience issues with that I would recommend downloading and using a  different music player application.
Comment: I tried transferring music files to default MP3 folder but it didn't work. Same issue with the other Music apps like Poweramp.
Answer: This solution worked for me on Android 6 marshmallow:

Go to USB storage settings, unmount then mount SD card (no need to physically remove)
Go to app settings, clear cache and data for the music app
Open the app again. Bingo! It worked


Export individual user data in user id feature of analytics

Question: I am using the user id feature in analyitcs and I am also getting the tracking of user activities. Bt I am unable to find any option to export the report for individual user id. Is there any way to export the report or get the data by GAPI
Answer: No, it is not possible.

After processing, session data for which userId was set is available
  for User ID-enabled views (profiles) in Cross-Device reports. Although
  the session data is available via the Core Reporting API, the userId
  field is not available as a dimension in reports and can not be
  exported from Analytics.

Please refer to this article for further details.
Answer: If you would like to retrieve and export data from one specific user, you can do so using Google's User Activity Reporting API. You can see how to do so here: https://developers.google.com/analytics/devguides/reporting/core/v4/user-reporting . If you would like to retrieve your user IDs from Google's Core Reporting API, you can do so by using a custom dimension that has its value set to your user IDs. You would then include "name":"ga:dimension4" (4 is the custom dimension index, just an example) within the dimensions section of the request body for that API.


Is it a good investment for a foreigner to purchase a flat/apartment in China?

Question: Is it a good investment for a foreigner to purchase a flat/apartment in China? Why, or why not?
Comment: I'm reminded of a wise investing axiom I once read: "Investing knowledge is inversely proportional to the square of the distance."  In other words, the further away you are from your investment the harder it is to have all the relevant information to make wise choices.
Comment: More details would be helpful.   Do you intend to live in the apartment while working there? Rent it out? Do you have any knowledge of real estate in China? Do you have any experience owning rentals?
Answer: I think a greater problem would be the protection of your property right.  China hasn't shown much respect for the property rights of its own citizens - moving people off subsistence farms in order to build high-rise apartments - so I'm not certain that a foreigner could expect much protection.  A first consideration in any asset purchase should always be consideration of the strength of local property law.  By all accounts, China fails.
Comment: You intend to make a billion Chinese ninjas your enemies ??
Answer: China is in the middle of a residential housing bubble, and now is probably a horrible time to invest in real estate in China.
Even if China wasn't near the peak of its bubble it would probably still be a bad idea because owning real estate in a foreign country is expensive and risky. There are real currency risks, think what would happen if the yuan declined significantly against the dollar. There is also the risk of the government seizing foreign held investments (not extremely likely but plausible). Another consideration is that it would be next to impossible for you to get a loan to purchase a property US banks wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft pole and I doubt Chinese banks would be very interested in lending to foreigners.
Answer: No, it's not.
This could be a great question, but with no background, not so much.
Do you live there now? For how long, and how much longer? You say investment, are you looking to live in it or rent it out?
I have nothing against China, but I'd not buy anywhere unless the price, location, and timing all were right.
Answer: It is a lousy investment to purchase an apartment in China. Chinese citizens purchase apartments in China because, well... here's how China works:

There's this one-child policy; you may have heard of it.
1 child per couple => 4 grandparents for each child to support in old age, which is too much, so don't count on your grandkid supporting you in your old age.
Sounds like you'll need to save a lot of money for retirement.
All the banks give you negative real interest rates (i.e. your savings won't keep up with inflation) so they can finance their big state-owned enterprises. Then the rich jerks in charge can overpay themselves.
There are limited opportunities to deal with this, in part due to China's restrictions on its own citizens. Property ownership is one inflation hedge and starts to look really good in comparison, even if it's risky.

There's some fundamentals driving Chinese property values higher, but mostly it's a bubble caused by those reasons.
Answer: More infomation is needed for any meaningful discussion about this.  I just assume you want to buy in China mainland, not Hongkong or other places.
That depends on where you want to buy the flat.  Which city, which district of the city, which community, which school district, how old is the building?  Furthermore, always bearing in mind that you don't own the land when you buy a flat in China mainland.  The land is always state-owned, you are renting the land.
Someone will say that the real property market in China is always in a bubble, but because the ownership of the land is different from countries like US and other things like one-child policy, things are not that easy to tell.
But if you don't live in China now and you don't have clients ready to rent from you, I don't think it is a good choice right now to buy one just for investment.


How do I get my iPod touch to change the locked screen wallpaper?

Question: I just got a new 2nd-generation iPod Touch 16GB. I believe I had a 2nd gen iPod Touch 8GB before.. but back when I did if I played a song, the album art would show up for that song on my locked screen. However this new iPod Touch doesn't do that (it just shows the default wallpaper I chose) and I can't seem to find the settings I need for it. Not looking for a jail-breaking solution by the way. Thanks.
Answer: Have you tried:

Select your iPod under the Devices section in the iTunes Source pane.
Select the Music tab of the iPod settings. The iPod settings are displayed to the right in the main iTunes window.
Select the "Display album artwork on your iPod" checkbox.
Click Apply to save the changes. The iPod begins to update as soon as Apply is clicked.
Comment: Is that exclusive to the iPodTouch? I don't see that option when I connect my iPhone 4 to iTunes.
Comment: I thought it applied to both, the other thing I would think is the album art cache is corrupted, you can remove iTunes\Album Artwork\Cache while itunes isnt running, and see if that helps.
Answer: I had the same problem with my ipod touch. I spent roughly 5 hours getting album art for all my music and even selected art for the video game tracks.  It would even display on the ipod but just not when it was locked and that bugged me. From browsing google I found a simple solution: Simply power off your ipod and then reboot it.  When it comes back on the problem should be solved, that's what worked for me.
Comment: What did you do during the 5 hours to fix things?


If a company fails to abide by its own arbitration agreement, does that invalidate the agreement?

Question: Recently, a certain cell phone company changed its terms of service from "your only recourses are arbitration or small claims court" to "your only recourse is arbitration." Since this company doesn't have the greatest record for responding to complaints, this has left the company's customers wondering, what happens if a customer follows all procedures to file for an arbitration, and the company simply ignores it? Would this invalidate the arbitration agreement and restore their right to sue? If a company could just ignore arbitration requests, wouldn't that make it essentially impossible for anyone to pursue any claim against the company?
Comment: The arbitrator is supposed to be a neutral third party, right?  Sometimes their neutrality might be in question but in any case they're not part of the company.  I assume you file your complaint directly with the arbitrator, perhaps notifying the company as well.  If the company doesn't respond, then the arbitrator rules in your favor by default.
Comment: The arbitrator has no power of enforcement - they make a decision and then they are done.
Answer:
what happens if a customer follows all procedures to file for an arbitration, and the company simply ignores it?

The customer might prevail on the basis that the company failed to appear at arbitration, but see DaleM's comment regarding the customer's need (at least in some jurisdictions) to prove his claim even in that scenario. Regardless, it is not in the company's best interest to ignore the proceedings that ensue from customer's filing for arbitration.

Would this invalidate the arbitration agreement and restore their right to sue?

Not really. In fact, filing suit instead of filing for arbitration would give the company an opportunity to move [in court] for dismissal or to compel arbitration on grounds that the customer knew he ought to proceed with arbitration. Altogether this would subject the customer to delays and greater expenses than if he filed for arbitration regardless of company's lack of response.
Comment: It doesn't necessarily follow that a person who doesn't appear at an arbitration loses; the other party still needs to make out a prima-facile case. I've seen many adjudications (similar to arbitrations) where the Respondent has not participated but has nevertheless prevailed because the Claimant failed to demonstrate an entitlement to payment.


How to unscrew this screw

Question: I want to take out my dish washer, but there is a screw that I don't know how to unscrew. I can't get the screwdriver straight on the screw head, only at an angle. Please see the pictures. Thanks.
Comment: Hi an0, Did you know there is https://diy.stackexchange.com/ for precisely this kind of question. There are already a couple of questions regarding under-counter dishwasher installations.
Comment: @Stan I didn't know. I reposted it there. I'll delete it here. Thanks.
Comment: Let's be patient. A moderator will have a look and help sort out the issue. No serious harm was done.
Comment: @Stan, this question is perfectly on-topic here.  Questions are only migrated if they are off-topic.
Comment: @at0 I would ask the question at the DIY and delete it here as you cannot post the same question on two StackExchange sites at the same time. You might wish to use the answers here, however.
Comment: @Chenmunka the question was cross posted and has an accepted answer at https://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/196330/how-to-unscrew-this-screw also note the OP comment under https://lifehacks.stackexchange.com/a/23769/13
Answer: Assuming that someone drove in the screw in the first place, and that the bracket is slotted where it is fixed to the machine, you might be able to

Wiggle the dishwasher back a little to expose the screw. It only needs to move about 1 cm.

It looks as though you have been able to remove the screw on the left. If you can't shift the machine further back, a more brutal attack could be

Use a blunt chisel and hammer to force the screw out, by placing its tip between the bracket and the chipboard worktop and hitting it.

You can see from the screw holes that the bracket has been refixed in the past, so when you want to put it back, get a new screw and make another hole.
Disclaimer: at your own risk. I can't be held responsible for any damage you might do.
Answer: STOP
The screw is holding a "clip." Do not unscrew it until you lift the white piece directly upward.
The slot in the white piece is there so that when you lift the white moulded "shell" it will clear the clip screwed into the wallboard.
After you lift the shell clear of the clip and fastener, you will gain access to the fastener to remove the screw, clip, and whatever thing the clip is holding out of view covered by the white moulded shell.
Good luck.
Comment: I added a full picture. I don't think the white shell can be lifted. It is the whole inner shell of the dish washer. I already unscrewed the left clip since that one was using the outward hole so the screwdriver can be used normally.
Comment: @an0 Thank you. I do not think this need a lifehack so much as experience or proper instructions from a manual or both. I've asked your question to be migrated.
Comment: Oops, a question can be migrated? But I've already posted it there. Sorry, what should I do now?
Answer: You can also get an offset screwdriver at a local home improvement center or hardware store.
Comment: While this seems like a good idea, that screw is longer then the available space. If you had clearance to get the screw out, you would have room for a regular screw driver
Answer: Pull out the bottom of the dishwasher, allowing it to tip backwards as the front slides forwards.
It should clear the clips & then allow removal.
Answer: I wouldn't bother getting too technical with this one; just shove the dishwasher backwards hard. At the time that screw was fitted it was accessible by normal screwdriver. As time has worn on the dishwasher has been pulled/slumped forward by the weight of the contents and the constant yanking on the door, bending the clip to more like 45 degrees and rendering it inaccessible now. A good push will cause the dishwasher to move backwards and upwards, bending the clip to be more like flat again and revealing the screw head.
If that doesn't work out, hammer a pry bar (or a flat bladed screwdriver) against the side of the screw head, snapping the head off the screw (screws snap pretty easily) and refit using the other hole you can see - the one that is still accessible. It would also be possible to hammer a pry bar in and lever the screw out (pull it out of the wood) - it will be a short screw, and screwed into chipboard will have minimal pull-out resistance. Its function was never to resit being pulled out by a force perpendicular to the countertop, it was to resist the shear force of pulling the dishwasher door open (stop the dishwasher sliding forwards)
Ensure when you refit that the dishwasher is adequately supported by all its feet and is properly levelled. Wind the/a screw into the other hole (the one you can still see) instead of reusing this hole as if the same thing happens again it will be inaccessible again
Answer: Lifehacks HACK: Use the wrong tool for the job.
If you have a pair of long-nose pliers, you have enough clearance to grip the side of the head of the counter sunk screw. You would alternately tighten the grip on the head, turn the screw a bit, loosen the plier jaws and reposition them, tighten the grip, etc.

It shouldn't take very long before the screw falls out of the chipboard counter.
Good luck.
Comment: While this seems like a good idea, that screw is longer then the available space.  If you had clearance to get the screw out, you would have room for a screw driver.

How to unscrew this screw


Would it be possible to survive on a world with only plants?

Question: If you were air dropped onto another planet, where multi-cellular non-plant life did not evolve, could you survive on what was only around you? The planet in question is a clone of earth, in almost every detail. Plants are almost the same as on earth, except for features evolved because of animals and insects.
Comment: @workerjoe FYI, both cannabis and hops are wind pollinated. Cocoa is out, but coffee might still be in. It needn't be all bad!
Comment: Is your question basically "_can you survive on algae and [wind pollinated plants](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anemophily)_"?
Comment: Is the question *could you* survive, or *would you want to*?
Comment: Life is carbon based. Humans are carbon based. Carbohydrates are the sugars, starches and fibers found in fruits, grains, vegetables. You eat carbs you live. Love. Laugh. You just need to avoid the poisonous ones.
Comment: Does this include multicellular life inside your own body?
Comment: @Snowshard Interesting question! Are there multicellular organisms in the human body which have their own genome and are vital to human life? And what would they do to a plant-only biosphere after their, ahem, inevitable escape?
Comment: for how long? vitamin deficiency is going to be your biggest worry.
Comment: @Karl Millions of them. What would they do upon escape? Many would die for lack of a host, but some would replicate joyfully in the new environment.
Answer: TL;DR: yes, probably. But wind-blown-pollen-world is going to be bad news for hayfever sufferers.
edit
Given the absense of most fruits and berries and the total lack of things to hunt or fish, the challenge of surviving by gathering everything you need is going to be much harder than it would on Earth. It is already a challenge to survive as a hunter-gather on Earth if you're not familiar with the environment and techniques required to survive in it, and there will likely be many places in your world where you just can't get a balanced diet and you'll die in reasonably short order.
The rest of this answer, therefore, is about the general existence of stuff you can eat, and the implication that one could survive. The specific availability of enough food species in any given location is a bit too broad to be dealt with here, and whether a random person dropped in a random place could survive won't be considered (though you probably should).

To start with, many major staple food sources such as corn, wheat, rice, soy and sorghum are either wind pollinated or self pollinated. Obviously, without a few thousand years of selective breeding you won't have many of the modern crops, but their forebears (or analogous species) should still exist. Greens like spinach and chard will also be available. Lots of nut trees are wind pollinated... hazelnuts, walnuts and pecans, and things that are called nuts but are actually seeds, like pine nuts. Pretty certain you'll get a lot of mushrooms, too. This list is very much not exhaustive, but even this short list will get you fibre, carbs and protein (and feedstocks for alcohol production, which is very important... hops are also wind pollinated, so you could probably rustle up some beer, with a bit of work).
Seaweeds will of course also be able to reproduce just fine and have lots of edible offerings, and less tasty but still nutritious things. What you won't get will be any fruits and berries that are intended to be consumed and spread by animals, obviously, and that takes away a big source of interesting flavours and nutritious things.
What is harder to predict is what the various biomes in which these plants grow today would look like on your alternate world, in the absense of grazers and browsers. The chances of them remaining perfect clones of earth is pretty slim (though to be honest the evolutionary history of such a world is deeply suspicious, and clearly the work of an intelligent species rather than chance) and you'd get a lot of new species arising and a lot of existing habitats would change drastically. Whether you'd be able to eat the new species or their seeds and nuts is anybody's guess, but no plants would be evolving toxins and irritants and spines and other things to discourage things from eating them, so you may find that a much wider variety of plants are edible in your new world, though that isn't quite the same as nutritious.

The obvious cheat is to bring some animals with you to eat the things that you can't, and then eat the animals. This is a common approach on grasslands across the world and through history.
Answer: You might actually find that you can eat more plants than on a world with fauna. Most poisonous plants are theorized to have evolved poison as a defense mechanism against animals trying to eat them. Without any fauna around, there would have been no evolutionary pressure for plants to become poisonous.
But on the other hand, you will have difficulties finding any plants with nutritious fruits. The reason why some plants cover their seeds in soft, sugary and flavored fibers is because they want their seeds to be eaten by animals which will then spread them over a larger area. Without animals, this procreation strategy won't work. But you can still try to eat any other plant parts. Seeds, bulbs or tubers are great candidates, because plants use them for long-term nutrition storage.
But then there is the question: Will you actually get all the different nutrients you need, including the large variety of vitamins and trace elements necessary for sustaining a human body? This, actually, might require some handwaving. Humans evolved to utilize the resources provided by their ecosystem, and as a result are dependent on a very large variety of them. So it is not very far-fetched that the local plants might be completely devoid of one or more vitamins or metals which are crucial for human health.
Comment: seeds and tubers will be good sources of food just like they are now. they make up the bulk of the human diet now.
Comment: I don't think 'eating other parts of plants' will work very well. Humans cannot digest wood and most other pieces that are not fruit for most plants. Various other animals can but a human can't get any nutrition from say a pine tree apart from the pine nuts.
Answer: There is one thing you need to worry about: Vitamin B12.
On earth, this vitamin is produced in the guts of virtually all animals, us included, by some bacteria. The trouble is, this happens later in the digestive tract than the part of the intestine where we can actually absorb the Vitamin. Some animals deal with this either by rumination (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruminant), or by eating their feces one more time.
Animals typically have quite a significant store of B12 in their liver. That is why carnivores don't need to bother with rumination and such, they simply get their B12 from the stores of their prey's livers. Most humans live a carnivore lifestyle, so they fall squarely into this category. Some don't as they are vegetarians, and those need to supplement B12.
As I said, the store of B12 in the liver is usually quite significant, and can keep you happy for at least two years, or so. However, after some time of strict vegetarian diet, those stores are depleted, and then you start developing the symptoms of B12 deficiency.
So, if your humans only need to survive a year or two before they are picked up from the planet, there's no fundamental problem. If they need to survive longer, you need to give them a source of B12.


Should you work through soreness?

Question: I started working out on Tuesday and today is my second workout. I did squats on Tuesday and today my legs are still so sore I have trouble going from standing to sitting, sitting to standing, and stairs are just mean and nasty. Should I still do squats today or skip them? I am not injured, its not that kind of pain, but I am VERY sore. To add to my question what causes this kind of soreness and is there anything that can be done to minimize it or shorten the recovery?
Comment: Your body is telling you no more but a trick is to lower the weight by 40 pounds  and do your squats. it will make you feel better trust me. It will pump blood to your muscles helping them recover.
Comment: Adding to/agreeing with DFG4 - If I force myself to do weight training despite soreness, I often feel less sore at the end of the workout than I did at the beginning. Just lower the weight and take it easy, but do your workout anyway. Did you start with just the bar on Tuesday? If so, skip the bar today and just do bodyweight squats. Or, if you're already putting more than 50 pounds on the bar, take 40-50 pounds off and try it that way. Then add 5 pounds per work out until you get back to where you were.
Answer: The short answer is yes continue your normally scheduled workout session.  The soreness will be greatly lessened over time as you get used to using your muscles regularly.  It is better to have a light day and keep exercising than it is to skip altogether.
Now, severe DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), as it sounds like you are experiencing, is a symptom of asking your unadapted body to do a lot more work than it was ready for.  The problem is not strength, but fatigue and recovery.  Your body isn't used to bouncing back from doing hard work yet.
My recommendation for you is to:

Deload about 20% (reduce the weight on the bar), and concentrate on form.  You want to go to at least parallel to get the most from the exercise.  If you can't do the exercise with proper form, keep taking weight off until you can.  Bad technique is what causes injuries.
Use that new lower weight as your current work weight and progressively load from there (add 5 lbs or 2.5kg per session).
Use a foam roller and stretch after you exercise.  This will help aid in recovery.

Let's say for example, you jumped in your first session with 135lb squats and you are not accustomed to that type of exercise.  You would deload to 105lb and work up from there.  Now, let's say when you did the 135lb squats you only went halfway down.  The weight was too heavy for you then and it's too heavy for you now.  You might have to go all the way down to 65lb or even the empty bar to get the technique right.  When you are starting out, technique is more important than the weight on the bar.
Getting stronger is not a sprint.  You get there slowly.
Answer: Muscle soreness is caused by damage to your muscles from your workout. This is a good thing, as it tells your muscles to adapt. As long as you are differentiating between soreness and injury, you can work out while sore. In fact, working out the same muscles will probably reduce the soreness you are feeling. Once you warm up, you might find the majority of your pain has dissipated.
One thing you can do on your off days to reduce soreness is active recovery. This involves light exercise that increases blood flow. Just walking or cycling slowly are examples that would help with your leg soreness.
Finally, you can use ice to reduce inflammation, reduce pain, and speed up the recovery process.
Comment: "As long as you are differentiating between soreness and injury" is a great point (IME) and I think this answer would be improved by explaining that a bit, since OP is new to working out.
Answer: When my legs are that sore, honestly I just skip that sore day until the next day.  I have tried to still do my squats while sore and only successfully did about 20 because my legs were so sore. But once you're completely used to doing them, it won't hurt anymore...

Should you work through soreness?


Locating a stolen device

Question: Yesterday my friends Samsung Galaxy S3 was stolen. We have found the perpetrator but cannot yet prove anything. He is uploading photos to social media via the phone. Is there any chance to download and analyze the photo by some means to see from what device it was shot? What can we do in a circumstance such as this? The device also contains sensitive data. What can we do ?
Answer: Yes you could download the image and check the exif data. Some devices store the GPS co-ordinates as far as I know
Comment: Although, some social media sites strip EXIF information from the photos.
Answer: Did you visit Google Device Manager? If it is enabled, you can see the precise device location. Also geotags of the photos may help.
Answer: Go to http://findmymobile.samsung.com/ and sign in using your Samsung account.
Comment: You obviously need to have registered the phone in advance, or otherwise have associated the device with yourself. What do you need to have done before the device was stolen?

Locating a stolen device


Playing All Videos on Tor Safely

Question: I am wondering how to play videos on Tor without compromising my ip. All help appreciated. Everything that I have read so far says doing so can compromise the system.
Answer: Any video that you can play inside TorBrowser should play safely, just make sure you don't install any additional plugins. This allows for example youtube to work almost all the time. There is no anonymity-preserving way to play videos that require Adobe's Flash player plugin currently and you should never trust the plugins that some websites offer you to play their videos.
Comment: Sebastian, Please have a litlle patience with me. First off, Thank-You for responding. Now don't I have to add a plug-in to play videos? When you set up a new browser you have to download adobe or somethong to see the video. Why would this be diff? Or are you saying any add ons, or plug ins, or anything inside Tor is safe for use? Break it down like I have a concussion. I will not take it personally. Once again Thanks.
Comment: I updated my answer
Answer: It's different because YouTube and some other video hosting sites support HTML5 video playback, which requires no plugins to function. It's just an open Web standard. That said, protocols like WebRTC that use methods like UDP hole punching via STUN may leak your actual IP address unless you're transparently proxying all your traffic through Tor or turn off that particular flag in your browser (or use a browser that already does this, like TorBrowser).

Playing All Videos on Tor Safely