Are there any practical differences between a Turing machine with a PRNG and a probabilistic Turing machine?

Question: Say I plugged in a hardware true-random number generator (TRNG) to my computer, then wrote programs with output that depends on the TRNG's output. Can it do anything non-trivial that a Turing machine with a psuedo-random number generator can't do? (a trivial thing it can do would be generating truly random numbers)
Comment: Reading "practical difference" and "Turing machine" in one sentence is weird.
Comment: believe this is a major open problem subject to ongoing research expressed as eg BPP=?P class separations etc...
Answer: As long as decision problems (or optimization problems) are concerned, probabilistic Turing machines are equivalent to non-probabilistic Turing machines, since you can just simulate all the possible coin tosses (there are some subtleties here since the probabilistic Turing machine could halt only with probability 1, but let's ignore them).
However, there could be a difference in efficiency. Using truly random coin tosses could allow you to solve a specific problem faster. However, it is conjectured that truly random coin tosses can't bring down the level of difficulty from non-polynomial to polynomial, that is, if you have a probabilistic polynomial time algorithm for a problem, then there exists a deterministic polynomial time algorithm for the problem. This conjecture is known as the P=BPP conjecture. The idea is that you can simulate the truly random coin tosses with a sufficiently sophisticated PRNG. The simulation might be costly in running time, but it incurs only a polynomial overhead, and from this point of view that's a cost we're willing to pay.
Practically speaking, PRNGs are good enough, although in some rare cases you need to be slightly careful and use something beyond the fastest known PRNG. Only in cryptography does it sometimes make sense to use truly random coin tosses, since you can get absolute security guarantees this way (one-time pads), though in practice cryptographic PRNGs are used and they seem secure enough.
Comment: This doesn't seem right: a deterministic TM cannot emulate a probabilistic one exactly, only up to probability 1. For example, a DTM cannot generate a true one-time pad that is resistant to unbounded-power cryptanalysis. Or is that what you meant to cover with the "subtleties" and the "rare cases"?
Comment: I was referring only to decision problems (or optimization problems), of which generation of a one-time pad is not an example. An illustration of the subtlety is an algorithm which continuously tosses a coin until it turns head. This terminates with probability 1, but the number of coin tosses isn't bounded.


Can I travel to the UK with a Belgian temporary residence card?

Question: Im a non-eroupean student living in Belgium with temporary resident permit identity card. Can I travel to the UK with this ID card?
Comment: No. It might make it more likely that you will get an UK visa, but you will need a visa.
Answer: We can't answer that without knowing your citizenship. Your Belgian residence permit is irrelevant, it does not give you the right to enter the UK if you need a visa by virtue of your nationality. You can use this tool https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa to find out.
If you can enter the UK visa-free, you will need travel ID appropriate to your chosen transport and a passport to enter the UK https://www.gov.uk/uk-border-control/before-you-leave-for-the-uk


How can I overwrite a list from a template that has related lists

Question: I have a list in our QA environment that I need to copy to my local dev environment.  I've copied the template from QA, and tried deleting the list in my dev.  I got an error saying that it has a related list.  Is there a workaround for this, aside from manually adding columns?
Answer: Delete the column that had the lookup associated with it.  You should then be able to remove the list.


How do I remind someone of my birthday?

Question: How do you remind someone its your birthday with out telling them? Today is my birthday and I know we all forget birthdays so how do I remind them indirectly?
Comment: Tell them about your big plans for your birthday and ask them if they want to come along.
Comment: You just remember he's or she's birthday first. He/she would remember yours. If he/she wouldn't, you keep remembering his/her birthday every year. One day you'll reach your goal. I hope.
Answer: You didn't say where you want the remembering to happen. Is is at work? Take cake and write a sign.
At sport or in the pub? Buy a round of drinks.
On social media? Do you care? Well, as Leonardo suggested, enter your birthday in your favourite tool and it will do the job for you.
But remember, if you expect people to remember and mark your birthday, you have to do the same for them.
Answer: You could set your birth date in a social media, because they usually remind people about others' birthday.
Another way, if you're talking to the person, you could mention you are doing something just because it is your birthday, for example:
"I took the day for relaxing today. At least on my birthday I think I deserve it."
You get the point, right? Try tweaking it, so it doesn't sound 'needy', if that's not what you want.
Also, if you're planning to throw a party, you could always invite people you would like to remember your birthday.
Comment: Along these same lines, you could say, "I can't believe I'm going to be 25 years old on Saturday!" The focus of that statement _seems_ to be that you can't believe you're that age. But it also provides the information that Saturday is your birthday.
Answer: Invite them to your birthday party of course!
Answer: In my birthday month  I start a birthday countdown. I write on a sign and/or post somewhere. "Only ____ more shopping days until my birthday. Shop early and avoid the last minute rush"  I try to do it every year at the same time. Usually, the beginning of my birthday month.
It's really funny because over the years my friends and family are used to me doing it. If I don't post it or write it on a sign in the house,  they start asking... "So how many more shopping days do we have?"

How do I remind someone of my birthday?


meaning of 名種設定?

Question: A friend of mine asked me to give him a quick translation of an app he downloaded.
One of the buttons in the main menu had this 名種設定 written. I wasn't able to find what it means.
Comment: I've asked a question about this on [meta](http://meta.japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/987/how-do-we-draw-the-line-at-what-makes-an-on-or-off-topic-translation-question)
Comment: I've deleted my comments on this thread and voted to reopen as a similar question was asked at http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11247 today, and I think this a more common problem than I thought.
Comment: @cypher - How exactly is a question abot a word that is more then likely to be encountered in more then one application in Japanese, but still have no immidiate dictionary translation too localized? How can a question about a word in Japanese can even be too localized for a site that it's only goal is to answer questions about Japanese?
Answer: I think you might have confused 名種設定 for 各種設定, or "various settings".
Comment: @cypher san Ah! I couldn't recognize the difference, I was staring at this post for a minute or two. lol~~
Comment: yep, that's it.

meaning of 名種設定?


Rename [twitter-integration] tag to [twitter]

Question: We currently have 10 questions tagged twitter-integration. There is no twitter tag. I can't think of any WordPress + Twitter questions that will not be about how to "integrate" them (either by sending WP content to Twitter or by using Twitter content on your WP site), so I propose we just shorten the tag to twitter.
Comment: Seems valid... +1.
Comment: Similar case: [wordpress-3.0.1](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/wordpress-3.0.1) could be renamed to wordpress-3.0.
Comment: @toscho - I'd ask does [wordpress-3.0](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/wordpress-3.0) even make sense? Is it really useful? Most questions are bout WordPress 3.0 yet most don't have that tag. Maybe I should ask that ask another meta question? *(BTW, too bad SE doesn't have a list of categories like WordPress where we could have ~10 major categories for the site)*
Comment: Some question may be specific to 3.0 (bugs in new features that are fixed in 3.1). I doubt it, but it is possible.   Really bad is the tag [wordpress](http://wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/wordpress). We have already more than 460 tags. Way too much, in my opinion. So, yes, we should search for redundant tags and clean them up as long as this is still possible.
Comment: @Mike: We once [discussed how to tag questions that relate to functionality new in WordPress 3.0](http://meta.wordpress.stackexchange.com/questions/2/tag-for-wordpress-3). Maybe we can re-use that discussion, or do you open a new one?
Comment: @Jan Fabry - I commented over there.
Answer: Good idea! I renamed twitter-integration to twitter, so this is now completed.


Whats tips do you have for someone beginning to invest in property?

Question: For a first time investor interested in investing in property, what are the options? Would they be better off buying their own home and holding it for capital growth, or a buy-to-let property they rent out to pay the mortgage while hoping for positive cash flow and capital growth?
Comment: A home to live in is **not** an investment.
Comment: You may use equity to reinvest, but if you buy a home with the intent to live in, it is for most not a good investment. Similarly, when you buy a rental - the question "whether I'd live there" is irrelevant.
Comment: @LukeFitzy - I agree 100% with littleadv. A lot of homeowners can be wrong. And there are brief periods during which there's the illusion of good returns, but in the long run, the value grows with inflation and not much more. Expenses eat into the "free rent" aspect.
Comment: A lot of home owners would beg to differ, many people consider there home as an investment as they will release equity to reinvest or sell up and downsize to release money for retirement.
Comment: Some people have had success with purchasing a duplex or other multifamily property. They live in one unit and rent the others out. There are some benefits in such an arrangement for a new investor.
Comment: There are a number of UK landlord websites where this question frequently appears. I recommend, for example, http://www.property118.com/
Answer: I'm struggling to understand why someone who has never owned a home before is considering purchasing such property as an investment to lease out.
The only tip I have in such a situation is for the person to buy a home and live in it for a few years.  Then they'll at least have a starting point in understanding the true costs involved.  Otherwise they are going to end up spending an awful lot of money for negative gain.
Home "investing" really isn't for people that haven't been through this experience.
There are three ways to make money on property.
The first is buying it at a discounted rate (below market), making whatever repairs are necessary to make it attractive, then, hopefully, selling it at market rate.  If all of the expenses are less than the price it sells for then you win.  This needs to be done in a short amount of time - less than 90 days.  Otherwise your risks in the housing market increase.  This absolutely requires that you be savvy enough to know how much things cost.  Most of the people I've seen doing this handle the repairs themselves, which means a lot of manual labor.
The other way is to buy a home then lease it out.  The lease amount needs to take into account that there will be months that it is just sitting (between tenants) as well as that things break and need repair.  Again, if you haven't owned a home before, especially in the area you are considering, then it is very easy for you to lose big time here.
The third is property speculation.  This basically happens where you buy a piece of land hoping that some event occurs which causes the price to go up.  There are many possible situations here, most of which involve being able to predict the future.  Mileage may vary.
Comment: @LukeFitzy: I'd seriously caution you against this.  In the US, most of the "experts" predicted that the housing upswing in the early 2000s were going to continue for a long long time... it didn't.  Maybe they are right.  Maybe it'll be easy money.  But that is far too much risk for anything I'd be willing to consider if I had little to no experience with it.
Comment: If you are going to chase property value growth you might as well dump your money in a mutual fund and hope for the best. If you are buying property to make money you need to be proactive and get a place that creates monthly passive income. This, and only this is how you generate trust worthy wealth from a property. Riding the value roller coaster is a crap shoot these days
Comment: Thanks for the advice some useful info to consider. The reason to invest in a buy-to-let rather than buy a home to live in is that the area of London I work and currently live in is very expensive and not really affordable but if I look else where outside of London for example like Manchester or Liverpool I can afford a property and these cities are also experiencing good capital growth that experts predict to continue for the next few years at least. So therefore I get on the property ladder , gain some positive cash flow, get the mortgage payments paid & hopefully benefit from capital growth
Answer: Investing in property is a great way to build your asset portfolio. It is also a great way to crush your financial dreams for all time.
Property investment SHOULDN'T be done on a whim. You need to have a solid understanding of the type of property you're investing in, what you plan on doing with it and what you're going to get out of it. "Start with the end in mind" many savy real estate investors would say.
I currently own and operate two four family homes. I have also owned a few others that I have sold and profited from. So my specialty is buy and holding rental properties. I can't speak to buying a single family home because I haven't worked with that yet. All I can tell you is if you plan on getting multifamily properties, dip your toe in to make sure it's for you. Get something small like a duplex and see if it's something you can handle. Not everyone has the intestinal fortitude to handle tenants. You have to run your properties like Stalin. If you give tenants an inch they will bankrupt you.
All of that said, it's not rocket science either. Anyone that can do basic math can usually find a deal. Use tools at your disposal. Don't guess. If you're looking for a rental property, look at the comparable properties on the street and in the city. See how much they are renting for. Look at the asking price and use the Gross Rent Multiplier to determine if you're getting a deal or not. No book is ever going to give you a difinitive answer if you're getting a deal or not. You need to do the work and research yourself. Don't be scared off by it. Just put in the leg work, make sure you know your numbers and make sure you consult professionals, not your best friend or family. Talk to a REAL accountant. Hire a REAL real estate agent that you can trust. GET AN INSPECTION....
Finally, run your finances like a fortune 500 company. If you don't know how to produce an income statement, create a budget, track spending ect you are in trouble. Just because you buy a house doesn't mean you're going to instantly know how to do these things. Start now and be ready. Don't be an amature, and don't cook the books.
These are the fundamentals of successful real estate investing.
Suggested Reading:

Rich Dad Poor Dad
(Most) Donald Trump books
The Richest Man In Babylon

Those books will get you started. Also read about rental tax law. This is probably the single most important thing when you are dealing with rental income. When Uncle Sam comes for his cut at the end of the year, you want to know how much of that rental income you're going to need to pony up. It could be a ton if you don't use the deductions you can.
Comment: It's in the UK.  Uncle Sam's tax reach isn't quite that far...  Otherwise, good info.
Comment: LoL Yeah saw that after the fact. I wasn't sure if Uncle Sam the UK you or not. He seems to have his fingers in everything else lol


What is "stacked unit needs an order" referring to?

Question: I know that in Civilization 5 there is no stacking of units. However, sometimes when a unit needs an order, the blue button in the bottom right of the screen will say "stacked unit needs order" instead of what it usually says which is "unit needs order." If there is no stacking of units, what is this referring to?
Answer: Unit stacking is allowed in Civilization, its just restricted.
"in Civilization 5 there is no stacking of units" is an oversimplification. From the Manual:

Units are subject to "Stacking" limitations – two military units may not end their turn in the same hex, nor can two non-military units, but one military and one non-military unit may end their turn stacked in the same hex.

Because of this, there are two cases in which units can become stacked:

One combat unit can be stacked with one non-combat (civilian) unit by normal movement or other means like below. (And they may end the turn this way.) This means your worker is allowed in the same square as your warrior, which is important for defending your vulnerable non-combat units.
When you build (or buy) a new unit in a city, it is initially stacked with any units that were already in the city. I'd guess, but have not yet seen, that this can also occur due to receiving a new unit through other means, such as ruins or a city-state gifting a unit to you.

When a unit in the first situation need orders, the game uses the usual message "Unit needs orders" because nothing is wrong. When a unit in this situation needs orders, the game uses the special message "Stacked unit needs orders" to let you know you MUST move a unit.
Comment: Yeah, I figured out that this happens when you, for example, build a ground unit and it appears in a city that already contains a ground unit. It's basically telling you that you MUST move it.
Comment: @Apreche I think I've seen "Stacked unit needs orders" for just a worker/warrior pair, in which case it doesn't mean you MUST move the unit. The message that means that is the one bwarner got.
Comment: Having tried it in game (now that I've remembered) the message I get when two units are legal stacked on each other says nothing about being stacked. So I'm betting you and @bwarner are correct: you only get the message when two units are illegally stacked, you MUST move the units. That makes much more sense anyway. I will confirm the illegal stacking when I get a chance.
Comment: Confirmed, and edited back into the answer. That's exactly the situations in which you get those two messages.
Comment: You actually can't buy a unit when another unit of the corresponding type is already in the city, but production *can* complete in such circumstance.
Answer: I got a message for the first time today that said "Move stacked unit".  It occurred when I had a great person in my city and another one was generated.  Since two non-combat units can't end the turn in the same place, the message was saying that I had to move one of them before I could end my turn.
Comment: Common stacks: Great General + Land unit, Embarked land units + warships.
Comment: Another Common stack: Worker + Military Unit - protects the worker of in dangerous territory
Answer: Since I can't comment yet, I'll clarify WillfulWizard's second bullet in a new answer.  When a city-state gifts you a unit, the unit appears within their territory (not in any of your cities).
Comment: While this is true, you could still have several units nearby (ie when defending the city from invaders) such that they have to stack the units. I have not encountered this yet, but what else could the game do?
Comment: Ah, yes, good point.  I mistook "this can also occur" to mean specifically units being stacked in a city, rather than units being stacked in general.  Now that I read it again, it seems clear.
Comment: I have seen a city state gift new units in my borders 3 tiles from its city when there wasn't enough room within its own borders. I guess eventually it will run out of places to put them, but it seems highly unlikely.
Answer: One stacked unit I had occur last night was with mechanized infantry and a modern tank. The mechanized infantry unit advanced on a city and attacked, and then I had a tank unit move in. The tank stacked (I thought I was placing it on an adjacent tile) with the infantry unit, attacked, and then I got a "move stacked" button, and I moved the tank back off the unit (move after attack ability).


No signal on custom roms (SGS2+)

Question: I have a Samsung Galaxy S2 plus and rooted it via Odin and put CWM on it, with which I installed the unofficial Cyanogenmod ROM and later P.A.C.
Unfortunately I had massive issues with the signal: Despite the fact that the sim gets unlocked when entering the right sim pin at start, there were always only emergency calls available. When trying to manually select the mobile service provider and selecting the available networks (Wireless & network->More->Mobile Networks->Mobile Service Provider), there is an error while searching, and when telling the phone to automatically select a network, it says registered in network, but there is still no connection.
Really odd is the fact that when activating the option '2g networks only', the phone is registered in the network of my mobile service provider, but quits after a few seconds.
I got the phone from my MSP, so it's branded. May that be the cause of my problem?
I also noticed that both the Cyanogenmod and the Pacman ROM use the same kernel: 3.0.31/skullface@Ubuntu_13.04#1. This one is from Cyanogenmod.
Any help is appreciated.

P.S.: Some terms I used may be incorrect because the language on my phone isn't english.
EDIT: I found out that the problem has something to do with a possible netlock on my device, because it askes, when there is the pin code validation disabled, for a code to unlock the sim network. At least that was what some forum threads were suggesting (in german, so I won't post them here).
Normally, this behaviour thus shouldn't occur, because I use the same sim card I used with the stock rom. May it be that my EFS directory is corrupt? (the one which contains the IMEI and stuff)
EDIT: I think one needs to flash the modem, which is possible for example with ODIN. Haven't tried it although.
Answer: FYI, I found out what the problem was: The stock rom needs to be updated to 4.2 (you can get the official rom here if there is no update available), I think because of the bootloader.

No signal on custom roms (SGS2+)


R - how to estimate shape and scale parameters of Weibull distribution for claims development factors

Question: I have a set of insurance data.  Development factors fall with period, so follow Weibull distribution. I want to estimate Weibull parameters and smooth Development Factors. If I estimate parameters of Weibull using fitdistr() code in R I get shape parameter = 0.9567142 and scale parameter = 1.8321954. With this parameters I want to smooth the Development Factors given x-values equal to Period, but this gives me very low numbers. So for Period = 1 and these parameters, it returns 0.3061, which is way lower than original 20.27199.
What am I doing wrong?
Thank you in advance
Comment: **1.** While development factors "fall" that doesn't make them Weibull; in fact they cannot be a multiple of a Weibull density because they converge to 1 (from above) while a Weibull density converges  to 0. **2.**  `fitdistr` works on random samples from a distribution, not from density or cdf values.  **3** You also cannot reasonably use nonlinear least squares to fit some curve to the development factors since development factor values are highly dependent and strongly heteroskedastic.
Answer: If it might be of some use, I got an OK fit to factor as a function of period using an exponential equation with offset, "factor = a * exp(b * period) + Offset", with parameters a = 1.2148647556770337E+02, b = -1.8447383394431971E+00, and Offset = 1.0678593236739169E+00 yielding R-squared = 0.9997 and RMSE = 0.0876.


How to copy an existing form from an organization to other organization in Cognito Forms

Question: I would like to copy an existing form from an organization to another organization in Cognito Forms in order to set a different email address to the form. How can I do this?
Comment: I am a developer for Cognito Forms. This is a feature we plan to implement in a future release. You can follow our progress on our Idea Board (https://trello.com/c/3rIO1QeU).
Answer: You can now do this in Cognito Forms in two different ways:

If you are a member of both organizations, you now have the option to copy forms from other organizations when creating a new form.  Just select New Form - Copy Existing Form.
You can share your form designs with anyone by enabling sharing under Form Settings.  This will provide you with a link that anyone can use to create forms based on your form design.


Are these birch or aspen trees?

Question: I was just wondering if anybody could help me identify the trees in this image? I am confused as to whether they are aspen or birch, a mix of the two, or whether the brown/reddish trees are some other species I don't know about? Thanks!
Comment: From the growth pattern, I'd say aspens, since they're clonal organisms that grow in groves like that.
Comment: pretty sure they're aspen trees (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Fall_Colors_at_Kebler_Pass,_Colorado_USA.JPG) rather than birchs. The leave colour of birches is normally a darkish green. To make the identification easier, a geographical description would be helpful, and some close-up photos of leaves, branches and the main stem.
Comment: Thanks for the quick answers! It's just picture from a google image search, so I have no idea about the geographic location etc. as this information was not provided. So they are probably aspens then! How about the reddish trees? Do some aspen trees get like that?
Comment: Jes, some aspens can be somewhat orange to red, even in a stand where most are golden yellow.  In fact, I've never seen a grove that's all orange, and aspens are common in the mountains here, wherever there is sufficient water.
Comment: I don't have the vocabulary, but my experience working in forestry alongside professional foresters STRONGLY leans toward aspen. I know that isn't a substantial external justification, but consider it a warning to be sceptical.
Comment: The bark texture appears more consistent with aspen than birch, even at this distance it is usually evident.
Answer: Turns out this is harder than it seems from just the picture...
The three candidates I think one could most argue for are:

Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera)
Grey Birch (Betula populifolia)

Here is a picture of Populus tremuloides from the USDA:

Notice the smoothness of the above Aspen bark (identical to that of the picture in the OP's question). Now compare it to the peely nature of typical birch bark (here pictured B. papyrifera or paper birch):

Though not all birch species have peely bark: (my emphasis below)

Grey birch (Betula populifolia) typically remains fairly smooth. From Viginia Tech's tree guide:

Bark: Reddish brown with numerous lighter lenticels on very young stems, later turning gray to white and very chalky; remains smooth and generally does not peel.

B. pendula (European white birch) bark is also described as being smooth and only somewhat peely. From Virginia Tech:

Bark: Reddish brown with light lenticels when very young, later turning white, generally smooth but does peel a bit; the base of the tree develops thick bark which splits into narrow, vertical furrows which are nearly black.

However, the branches in the OP's picture are not drooping as is also common for B. pendula (AKA the European weeping birch). So this is not our tree!

Also, some sources describe paper birch as simply being smooth (vs. emphasizing the peeliness). See here for an example.

Here are images of European white birch (left) and gray birch (right) :

But Gray birch remains smooth, even at the base of the tree (though see here)...
Pay attention to the bottom of the trees in the OP's picture. The bark at the base of the trees is becoming furrowed:
Zoomed in OP picture:

This base furrowing is a characteristic of P. tremuloides:

According to the Virginia Tech Tree Guide (my emphasis):

Bark: At first smooth, creamy yellowish-white to very light green; later developing thick furrows and becoming dark, especially near the base.

And according to The Sibley Guide to Trees  (my emphasis):

Bark color from white to greenish, grayish, or bronze. Bark smooth, pale with dark scars that persist for many years; base of trunk becomes coarsely ridged grey on old trunks.

And from the NDSU Agriculture webpage (my emphasis):

Bark Color - Varies from chalky white to olive-gray, and becomes rough furrowed on the lower trunk of mature trees.

[Note: I give all 3 sources to demonstrate the inconsistency in description of P. tremuloides bark color].

Here is a close-up of furrowed aspen bark from the USDA website (yes, this is still aspen):

However, this furrowing can also occur in paper birch.

From V tech (my emphasis):

Bark: Reddish brown with light lenticels on very young stems; later turning chalky to creamy white, peeling in horizontal papery strips; brown to black and may be furrowed at base; orange inner bark.

From Field Guide to Trees of North America (my emphasis):

Bark white papery; older trees have rough black bark near base.

I will comment that I have never seen paper birch with furrowed bark at the base. Further, I was unable to find visual evidence from any reputable sources by searching on Google.

So what about tree shape and form?
Again, according to The Sibley Guide to Trees:

[P. tremuloides has a] single main trunk with relatively stout , jagged twigs (unlike more slender and graceful twigs of birches).
[B. papyrifera] branches begin lower on trunk than in aspens; more graceful, ascending, and regular with slender straight twigs. Mature tree has oval habit, few strong branches, clumps of fine twigs in the crown.
[B. populifolia has] typically multiple leaning, crooked trunks and narrow crowns. Bark of mature trunks grayish white, nonpeeling.

Citing a different source (Field Guide to Trees of North America) to address different language to differentiate the species:

[P. tremuloides:] Small to medium-sized tree. slender trunk; pyrimidal to round crown of spreading branches with sparse foliage.
[B. papyrifera:] Medium-sized tree. One to several slender, straight trunks; narrow to broad crown; branches upraised in youth, often becoming horizontal or drooping in age
[B. populifolia:] Small tree. sometimes shrubby; One to several trunks; narrow, conical crown.

The smaller trees in the front left of the OP's picture demonstrate a more birch-like architecture and have branches growing along the stem as the description for B. papyrifera describes. These qualities are reduced or eliminated in the larger trees in the OP's picture.
For visual clarification, the typical pyrimidal crown shape of P. tremuloides is shown below (from Oregon State Department of Horticulture). The trees in this image appear more slender (pyrimidal) than the trees in the OP's image, but aspen trees can also have "round" crowns as stated above.

The following photo from Michigan State University Extension's Tree ID Key attempts to demonstrate a difference between paper birch and aspen crown coloration:

The crown branches/twigs visible in the OP's picture seem to be lighter colored, and so this line of evidence points to aspen.

Ok, so what about size? According to Field Guide to Trees of North America the typical sizes of the species under question are fairly similar, but with gray birch being smaller than the other two species:

Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides) = 30-70' tall, 1-1.5' diameter
Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) = 50-70' tall, 1-2' diameter
Grey Birch (Betula populifolia) = 20-30' tall, 0.5-1' diameter

The relative sizes of the trees in the OP's picture don't seem to preclude any of these species.
Both birches and aspens develop yellow leaves in autumn, so this characteristic additionally is not useful for differentiating the two genera (or 3 species).

Though @fileunderwater is correct in stating that birches have horizontal lenticels that are helpful in identifying birch trees, the OP's image is far too zoomed out to make out any lenticels (even when zooming into the OP's picture). Those black spots are not lenticels; they are scars (generally from lost limbs). Regardless, other species (including some aspen species) also develop lenticels.
Here is a close-up of lenticels. The little slits are birch lenticels (here from B. papyrifera):

Names on files and webpages are notoriously incorrect so using that as a line of evidence is dangerous. I saw a number of misidentified species in pictures while I was searching myself.

So thus far it seems as though aspen is a pretty good choice, but paper birch could also be potentially correct. The distance of the picture makes this distinction difficult, but I will point to the two lines of evidence that have convinced me that some of the trees are in fact paper birches.

The girth and shape of the larger trees are more consistent with the growth form of birches vs. the usually slender, single-stemmed aspen.
In the OP's picture, you cannot see peeling or lenticels, but this might be due simply to the distance from the trees. However, you can see a brownish/orangish coloration on a number of the trees, which is consistent with numerous descriptions of paper birch trees that have already started peeling revealing brown/orange bark.

Conclusion = Hard to tell, and likely actually a mix of Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera) and Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides). I think you're looking at taller aspen and mostly wider paper birch.
Answer: I think they are birch trees (Betula), based on the white bark with black horizontal patterns (Lenticels). The bark patterns at the base of the trees are also very similar to birch. Either way (relating to one of the comments), it's an autumn picture, where both birch and aspen have yellow leafs (aspen leaves can also be red or reddish, especially at the end of branches).
This page also agrees with me (which doesn't necessarily have to mean that much though), which labels the exact same picture as "birch-tree-wallpaper-3.jpg".
I'm not sure about the exact species, but I know that there are North American species where the bark can shift between white, pink or reddish. One possibe suggestion/pure guess is Betula neoalaskana, but as you can see from the wikipedia page this species can also hybridize with Betula pendula and other species. To me, it doesn't look exactly like the Eurasian Betula pendula or Betula pubescens, which I'm most familiar with (those are the two species found in Sweden).
Comment: Aspen and birch can definitely grow together. I also think that the distribution of leafs is a bit off compared to what I'm used to in Birch, but I'm not familiar with N. American birch species, or hybrids. The sturdier, shorter tree to the right is extremely similar to a birch though.
Comment: Taking another look, I'm really unsure though. The overall look of the stand is very aspen-ish. Also, the thinner branches of birch trees are often relatively dark, while aspen branches are usually ligher and more similar to the trunk, which is more similar to the trees in the picture. Both  *Populus tremuloides* and *Populus grandidentata* can also be were white with horizontal black stripes.
Comment: @fileunderwater If you're unsure, you should modify or delete your answer. And I think you're right being unsure, the stand does look very aspen-ish. And btw: Sweden has one more betula: Dvärgbjörk ;-)
Comment: The name of the .jpg is actually what started my confusion. To me, the bark and the way the leaves are concentrated at the top of the tree makes it look like quaking aspens. However, I don't think I've ever seen the brown/reddish types of aspen before, which makes me think it's birch. Do aspen and birch often grow in the same area? Could it be a mix of the two?
Comment: I also think they look very much like aspen, and the color of the branches is also a good point!
Comment: The tree with a thicker trunk to the right seems like birch to me too, as well as the other reddish trees. I didn't know that they grow in the same area, so I think I'll conclude that it's a mix of the two. Thank you for all the helpful information!
Comment: Look like aspen to me.

Are these birch or aspen trees?


What are the implications and complications of adding new players?

Question: The game I've been playing started with 4 players. One of them had to take a hiatus for schoolwork, but they'll be coming back very soon. We recently filled that player's spot with a new player, which will be 5 when the player on hiatus returns. Now my players would like to introduce yet another player to my game. I flattered by the suggestions, though I'm nervous about the now larger number of players and what I need to do to adapt the game to a larger audience. What do I need to keep in mind before allowing a new player into the game? What are the implications and effects of 6 players on a game system initially designed for 4-5?
Answer: System-wise, I don't think it's a problem.  You might have to adjust encounter CRs for published adventures a little, but that's about it.
But GM-load-wise, and combat-length-wise, it can be a drag.
I used to think that I needed at least five or six players for a good game.  Four didn't seem like enough.  But I've come around to the discovery that four players is really my ideal, and five is pretty much my max.
If you're into the roleplaying and are concerned about spotlight time for each character, having sub-plots or such for individual characters, etc... every player you add complicates your job as a GM.  You have more sub-plots to create and keep track of, more individual scenes to juggle.
Then more players means cutting into each others time more.  From more time between turns in combat to more time waiting for time in the roleplaying spotlight... the GM has to work harder to keep everyone involved and interested because they're waiting longer for the bits of the game that interest them the most.
Not saying don't do it, but you have to ask yourself if you're creating more work than you want to handle, and ultimately, will the other players' enjoyment of the game be increased or decreased by adding another player.  If that new player is someone they really like and want to play with, especially if they're a great roleplayer who will bring a lot to the table, they can be a positive change despite the extra player load.  (And a good player can reduce the GM's work load, or at least make it so much fun it seems like less work.)
Answer: More Players
There are more players in the room, which (apart from the obvious logistic problems of accomodating them around the table) means there's one more person who can get distracted or start a side conversation. In my personal experience large groups are less productive because most of the time is spent talking to each other.
More Characters

The first and easily spotted consequence of having a new player is that adventuring takes longer. There's one more person in the initiative order when fighting and he needs some screen time too out of combat. This in turn means the other players could get screen time less often, which might be a problem to someone.
Combat takes longer to plan, because you need to fight more people at once. There's also more characters focusing fire on a single enemy, which makes it essential to buff the encounters so that the enemies are more resilient or numerous.
Combat rooms might need some enlarging, to let all the characters (PCs and NPCs along) some way to get to their targets, especially if the party is melee intensive.


Can an Earley Parser be made into a fuzzy parser similar to the Levenshtein Automata Algo for DFA?

Question: There's a way to perform fuzzy parsing (accepts strings even with typos to a certain edit distance), with a DFA and a run-time constructed Levenshtein Automata of the input word.  Can something similar be done with an Earley parser?  I'm finding it hard to understand the algorithm, let alone answer this question.
Comment: Well, PDA are closed against many operations with NFA, so this should be possible in principle. Adapting Earley seems to be a rote exercise, since we are allowed to use a counters in items. Am I missing something?
Comment: @Raphael Yes This is the general idea. My answer is longer, as it is difficult to assess what users know or do not know.
Comment: plz cite a ref/ sketch defn for "Levenshtein Automata". know of one that might qualify, but which one are you referring to?
Answer: The answer is yes. However I would not do that with an Earley parser
because there are simpler ones with the same capabilities.
Basically, Earley parser belongs to a family of general context-free
parsers, that produces all possible parses for a given string, when
the grammar is ambiguous.
There are two ways (at least) of understanding these parsers:

as dynamic programming interpretation of a pushdown automaton
corresponding to the grammar on the input string;
as the the construction of the intersection of the grammar
with a finite state automaton.

When parsing a single string, the finite state automaton to be
considered is a linear automaton that recognizes only the string $w$
to be parsed, one symbol at a time (number of state is $|w|+1$).  If
you apply the cross-product construction of a FA $A$ and a CF garmmar
$G$ (Bar Hillel, Perlis, Shamir 1961), you get a new CF grammar that
is a new grammar $F$ which generates $\mathcal L(A)\cap\mathcal L(G)$.
The interesting point usually overlooked is that $F$ preserves the
parse-trees used by $G$, up to non-terminals renaming (due to
cross-product).
Thus if the FA $A$ generates only your input string, the grammar $F$
will generate only that string (if it is in $\mathcal L(G)$, otherwise
it generates the empty language $\emptyset$). Furthermore, it
generates it with all the parse-trees that $G$ could use to generate
it.
This grammar $F$ is what is usually called a shared parse forest, and
all general CF parsing algorithms are a more or less optimized version
of the cross-product construction, whether CYK, Earley, generalized LR
or LL, or others. So all I am saying applies to them too.
But, as you see, this generalizes to parsing a whole regular set, if
anyone is interested in doing that.
That is precisely your question. You have a string $w$. You want to
parse it up to some variations defined by a finite state transducer,
which in your case is a transducer that produces all strings within
some given Levenshtein edit distance of $w$ (but the origin of the
transducer is immaterial). The set of those strings is a regular set
that can be defined by a FA, with weighted transition that can compute
the edit distance of each string.
If you do the cross-product with your grammar $G$, you get a shared
parse forest grammar $F$ that generates all the strings in the
intersection. Furthermore, you get the weights on some of the rules so
that you can compute the edit distance of each of the accepted
strings.
If desirable, this can be used to keep only the strings with minimal
distance.
However, this can be improved a bit since composition with finite
state machines is associative.
If you always use the same, finite state transducer, as is the case in
your question, the right way to go about is to compose the Grammar $G$
and the transducer (here the Levenshtein automaton), independently of
the input string. This gives you a weighted grammar that you can use
to parse the input string $w$. The problem is that parsing with the
brutal intersection construction with give you strings at any
Levenshtein distance, i.e. $\Sigma^*$.
It would be easy to prune that construction to get the same result as
before, but the best way is a more controlled intersection
construction, such as the dynamic programming organization used by
most parsers in the literature, including Earley's, and use it to
avoid generating useless rule by computing distances and aborting any
computational path when it exceeds the desired threshold. Dynamic
programming can also be used to compute directly the parse-forest (or
parse-tree) for the string that have the shortest distance to the
input.
Comment: I actually give different formalizations, that complement each other. There are subtleties I did not get into, such as the exact use of weights in the process, which depends on the precise result you want to get. My purpose is not just to give an answer that has little interest in my own opinion, but to give a wider understanding of the problem. The choice of the edit distance used is immaterial, it works for anything that can be expressed with a weighted finite state transducer.
Comment: think this is helpful but also maybe "reading too much" into the question so saying something like "this is precisely your question" cannot really be accurate. youve taken a rather vague question not strictly formalized, and (attempted to?) formalize it yourself. there is probably more than one way to formalize the original somewhat-vague idea. think it might be helpful to 1st carefully define what the Levenshtein DFA constructions do (there are some known/ investigated, but which ones are we talking about?) and then explain how this concept could be generalized to CFLs.


Poe souls in Zelda: Twilight Princess

Question: Where are all of the Poe souls located in the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess?
Comment: Collecting them all is very annoying because: a) they only come out at night (except in dungeons) but the game gives you no way to change from day to night (like OoT's "Sun's Song"); and b) the game doesn't indicate in any way if you've gotten all the Poe souls in a given area (like OoT did with Skulltulas).
Comment: It's not that bad. You can collect pretty much every out-in-the-open Poe in just 2 night cycles. It stays night for quite some time in TP, so if you effficiently warp around, you can get most of them in just 2 runs. You can ignore the ones in caves and in dungeons since they're always there. I guess the most annoying one is the one on the hill just before the Yetis' mansion since you have to do the snowboarding first, so you'll want to do this ASAP. Wouldn't want to see the morning light before you get there.
Answer: Seems to be a lot of lists online. Here are some samples:

A simple textual guide
A more detailed list
And finally, a list with screenshots!

Poe souls in Zelda: Twilight Princess


Prevent attackers from seeing the real IP address behind a Cloudflare proxy

Question: How do I prevent attackers from discovering my real hosting IP (where I'm hosting my website) that is hidden behind CloudFlare Proxy?
Comment: @StephenOstermiller I wonder if you inverted  the meaning of the original post with your edit ?  I can't see why the OP would be asking to expose their real IP through Cloudflare, but that seems to be the thrust of the original quiestion?
Comment: @davidgo that's right!
Comment: I asked for clarifications and this is what they said they meant in the comments.  I then deleted those comments once I edited them into the question.   The comment was " I want to make sure that my server IP won't be ever exposed to potential attacker "
Answer: If Cloudflare Proxy is in use, you are pointing your DNS to Cloudflare, so this very action prevents people from seeing where you are hosting your website.  So the only thing to do is to ensure there is nothing in your zone file which leaks this information through a related subdomain.
Comment: The origin server is still on the public internet.  It could be discovered through other means such as scans that look at all IP addresses in a block.   Are there firewall rules that could be used to protect it so that only Cloudflare can access it?
Comment: That's what I thought but I'm afraid there may be methods that will bypass this protection anyway
Comment: Its fairly robust protection. If someone could back your site through Cloudflare they might be able to force it to divulge its real address. Failing that it would be close to impossible. (3letter agencies can no doubt  ask cloudflare, there might be some timing analysis attacks a privileged few network operators could do, but these are edge cases)
Answer: Like davidgo said once you change your domain's nameservers to Cloudflares' and activate the CDN your hosting IP will be covered.
If you are still worried I recommended using Cloudflare Pro.


Binary Classification vs Multi-class Classification

Question: In the scenario that I have a binary classification problem, and use a binary classifier to train and test my model, assuming everything else is constant, would using a multi-class classifier with 2 labels (one vs. all) produce the same results? (I know I should use the binary classifier, but I'm simply curious).
Answer: "Binary classification" is simply multi-class classification with 2 labels. However, several classification algorithms are designed specifically for the 2-class problem, where the response is modeled as the outcome of a Bernouilli trial.
Of course, this can be generalized to the n-dimensional setting by modeling as the outcome of a multinomial sample. For instance logistic regression can be generalized to multinomial logistic regression.
Some models, such as decision trees and ensembles of trees, can take a different form however when applied to n-class classification.
So the answer is highly dependent on the implementation of the algorithm you're using. But the baseline answer is that any multiclass classification algorithms can be used for 2-class classification, and most 2-class classification algorithms can be generalized for multi-class classification.
Comment: Wouldn't accuracy take a hit? (for multi-class classification). Also, is there a reasonable number of classes beyond which it might be a better idea to have a wide array of binary classifiers to get the same job done?
Comment: You mean predicting each of the outcomes "is of class X" vs "is not of class X" ? this would be disastrous, as you would 1) find probabilities which do not normalize, 2) possibly have several "positive" classifications; 3) remove all the correlation structure between the various classes for prediction, thus actually increasing inaccuracy ; 4) have variance individual to each model rather than a single model, which usually means larger variance in final output


How can I dye my hardwood inside deeply so I can laminate something like this?

Question: I found someone used the recycling skateboard for making great creations. So just what kind of oil or paint I can use for dyeing on hardwood inside deeply(for laminating)!? Not just coated on the surface.
Comment: I think this question should be revised to ask specifically about dyeing veneer, since that's what was done here.
Comment: Note that the handle is itself then glued up from several separately laminated pieces (or different chunks of a single laminated slab), since the "grain" runs in at least two different directions.
Answer: The handle in your photo is laminated, each colored strip was individually dyed before the lamination process.
It's been 40 years since I dyed wood but the process worked well. I made my own purfling and binding for my guitars. I believe the dyes I used analine dyes in  powder form that dissolves in water. The other thing I did was to soak overnight in very hot water. I had a galvinized trough that I used for this. The wood I used for this was maple, birch would be good as well. You want a wood without open pores.
This can be a messy process, especially if you want several colors. You might also check to see whether what you want is commercially available. One place to look are luthier suppliers such as LMI and StewMac.
Comment: I don't know a whole lot about it, but I think that commercial veneer dying also involves putting the whole setup under a vacuum.
Comment: @bpedit Both vacuum and high pressure have the same net effect. One draws the dye into the wood as air is sucked out of the surface, the other forces the dye into the wood by displacing some of the moisture. I believe some dyeing uses both techniques in fact, vacuum first and then pressure.
Comment: @bard. Search "thick dyed veneer", many links to investigate.
Comment: @SaSSafraS1232. Curious, I'd think high pressure would be more efficacious as with pressure treated lumber.
Comment: HI @bpedit, can you share more about the step of "soak overnight in very hot water"? Did you dye in hot water or that was just something process?
Comment: @bard. Apologies, its been 35 years. I believe I had this trough on the stove for hours and may have then kept it a hot plate overnight or multiple nights. The wood was maple, 3-4 mm thick, which was dyed all the way through. After drying it was sanded then milled to meet my needs. Again, I highly recommend checking for commercial sources. I doubt everyoneI see using this colorful lamination technique is dying their own wood.
Answer: Wood dyes can be very expensive or very reasonable. Check out suppliers such Transfast wood dyes which come in a powdered form and can be tinted darker by adding more dye to the liquid base.  You can use water but that will often raise the grain. I use rubbing alcohol from the big box which does not affect the grain.  It goes on fairly evenly, dries fast and does not raise the grain.  Other answers point out that your example uses veneer layers which are thin and can absorb the dye through the entire depth of the layer.  IF you use thicker pieces, the dye will not penetrate all the way through.  You may have to run a few experiments including rubbing on the dye and fully soaking the wood to find out the best technique for full color penetration.
Answer: Well that is not dyed hardwood, it is laminated (layered) pieces of wood which are brightly colored individually then glued together.  Afterwards you sand or plane the surface and get the contrast like that.
You can also buy blocks which are already brightly colored.  I think usually people will turn them.  Sometimes they put layers of acrylic in as well to add more bold colors.
Comment: ok, I knew it's laminated, but what I am asking is how to dye it by myself so I can maybe laminate one since I don't know how to get one recycling skateboard like it.
Answer: There are sources where you can buy them pre-dyed which would probably be at least worth looking into as a reference point, if not eliminate the need to dye them yourself.
Dyed-Veneers
Woodcraft


Video to Lens Flare on After Effects

Question: I am editing this after effects template. Two flares are there in the package as two separate videos. How do I use them in the video? When I add like this, it shows only the flare without background video. Thank you.
Answer: It's because the template you're using is referencing video files, or still images - the Lens Flare effect, which do not use an alpha channel.
This was likely done deliberatly by the template author to prevent bloating the template file size, especially if it's a motion/video file. A video flare that moves, using an alpha channel would be huge in size depending on resolution and length.
So thats WHY.
The work around is you need to set the layer's Blending Mode to a setting other than Normal. Normal will simply place the file as is... what you are now seeing. Black with Flare, nothing underneath.
RIGHT CLICK THE CLIP -> Blending Modes -> SET AS:
You will get different results with different Modes. Typically for flares, I'd use either Screen, Soft Light, Hard Light, or Multiply. You may get interesting effects with other options such as Vivid Light.
But these modes will essentially matte out areas, depending on setting, to get a superimposed effect of the flare over underlying layers.

Video to Lens Flare on After Effects


What are all the win conditions?

Question: I was recently attacked and my attacker only used 14 archers, doing only 8% damage to my town, however, it is listed as a defeat. My town hall was destroyed, does losing your town hall count as a defeat?
Comment: I did this starting out, being that the town hall is annoyingly large. Makes it harder to get something set up for it.
Answer: If your Town Hall is destroyed you are automatically defeated.
Current win coditions are:
-50% destruction
-Town Hall Destroyed
To get 3 stars you also have to reach 100% destruction.
A typical farming strategy is to leave your town hall exposed then watch the attacker gather up resources till you can attack for a revenge gaining mass amounts of resources.

What are all the win conditions?


Disable PCIe device on Dell R610

Question: I have a Dell PowerEdge R610 system sitting in a co-location facility. It has four onboard NICs and a 2-port PCIe NIC in one of the slots. I'm usually working with HP servers, so I have the ability to enable/disable PCI devices in the BIOS to control device appearance during installations. Sometimes, I work around NIC enumeration issues this way (e.g. motherboard port 1 was actually eth2 for my CentOS installer). But in this case, I want to keep the card in the server, but just not available to the OS for testing purposes. The HP ProLiant BIOS lets you disable specific devices. Does the Dell R610 offer this? I was only able to see IRQ assignment options in the R610 BIOS.
Answer: I could not find a way to do this within the Dell R710 or R610 BIOS. It just may not be a feature available to the Dell systems.
Answer: From linux I can give you two options:
<code>1) May be ifup and ifdown can do the job.

2) Also you can put ONBOOT=no on the ifcfg-ethX you want.
</code>
Also, I remember that dell has the openmanage and may be, and just may be, is there an option for that on it.
Comment: The concern is that I'd like to have the device disabled at the time of installation.

Disable PCIe device on Dell R610


Why are my mango tree leaves drying out before growing?

Question: I grew a mango tree from seed five months ago. At first, it grew normally, but when other leaves were about to grow, they just dried out, got really hard and fell off. They had cca five millimeters. Now every time new leaves start growing, I have to slightly water them - just the little growing leaves - at least 10 times a day for them not to dry. And I really have no idea why is this happening, even though I live in Czech republic. My sister doesn't have problems with mango leaves at all... I started growing another mango tree and it did exactly the same thing, which you can see in the picture.
By the way, I'm sorry for my bad english.
Answer: Don' apologize for your English.  I wish I had taken the time to learn a second language!  A few questions?  Is this potting soil from a bag or is this soil from your garden?  Is your plant living out of doors or indoors?  What have you used for fertilizer?  What does cca 5 mm mean?
Your plant has serious Phosphorus deficiency for sure and it looks as if someone is eating the leaves of your plant?
What did you do or are you doing that is different from your sister?
Watering a little 10 X a day is not a good practice for any plant.  Watering leaves does nothing for the hydration of a plant, in fact, if this plant is out of doors in the sun (?) the water sitting on the leaf could be magnified and cause burns.
The only soil that should ever be used to plant plants in pots is sterilized potting medium that actually has very little or no soil added.  I've found that there are countries where people have a hard time finding bagged potting soil. Making your own soil is doable but it is also hard to find the ingredients such as worm castings, coir, vermiculite, pearlite...Garden soil is way to heavy to drain sufficiently in pots or even planters.  It is also unknown what one gets in the shovel full of soil they chose to dig up.
Lots of pathogens that in the normal body of the garden soil has predators and controls.  None in a shovel full of soil.
Lets work on finding some sterilized soil first and transplanting, again.  No rocks or gravel below the soil and above the all important drainage hole at the bottom of any pot meant to house a plant.
I would also find a pot 1/2 the size of this pot.  Too big of a pot, too much soil for newbie plants without vigorous root systems is a recipe for root rot and death. Matching the size of a plant to the pot is one of the keys to success with potted plants.
Firm the soil, lightly but firmly to get rid of large air pockets. Keep the soil surface one inch from the rim to allow for proper watering technique.  When you've watered thoroughly feel the heft of your pot and plant.  Don't water until that pot feels lighter, much lighter.  While you are learning this technique also use your finger and check the soil's moisture down a good 2 inches.
The root system; when you transplanted this guy what did the roots look like?   Until your plant is growing vigorously make sure when you water the root zone gets very moist.  You don't want a lot of wet soggy soil around a wimpy root system, so much wet soil will cause root rot.  You could send pictures of the roots before we guide you through transplanting again?
I'd get a clay pot, inexpensive, with a saucer, 6" wide X4" high.  Cross my fingers you can get a little bag of sterilized soil! Send answers for more information...thanks!


use arduino IDE for USB isp programmer

Question: A few years ago I programmed AVR ATmega8 with AVR studio by USB isp programmer.
I was using C language. Now I would like to use arduino(C++) langauge and my external USB isp programmer. Is it possible?
Comment: What kind of programmer? What is the Model?
Answer: The Arduino IDE compiles and outputs standard Intel HEX format files that are compatible with (nearly?) all programmers. If you enable detailed logging in the preferences panel you can find out which directory the IDE is building your code in and if the IDE does not include specific support for your programmer you can then locate the .hex file and upload it using the tool you are familiar with. The projects are typically built in a build.* subdirectory under %TEMP% (or /tmp on unix).
Answer: If you want to use arduino IDE to program the atmega328 you don't need a USB ISP programmer. The only thing you have to do is load the arduino bootloader on the atmega328 in order to program it through the arduino IDE. In the ide you can program the board with c++. But if you want to program the atmega328 through you're USB ISP programmer (assuming it is capable of programming the Atmega 328) you have to use other IDE in which you can program in c++ and produce an hex file that can be burned on the chip through you're  programmer on the atmega328.
Answer: The programmers supported by the Arduino IDE are listed under Tools | Programmer. In order to upload your sketch using the programmer either Shift-click the upload button, select File | Upload Using Programmer, or press CtrlShiftU.

use arduino IDE for USB isp programmer


How to use Google Keyword Planner without Adwords Campaign

Question: I want to use Google Keyword Planner. This requires an adwords account, which is fine. However, Google redirects me the the Getting Started wizard, which requires that I start an adword campaign and enter billing information, which I'd like to avoid.
How do I skip adwords' getting started wizard?
I've tried:

This advertisercommunity post says there shold be a menu on the top.
Result: There isn't. I guess adwords changed since 2014.
Clearing my browser's cache and cookies.
Result: No change.
this techwyse post says I can click Skip the guided setup at the first time I login.
Result: This worked for me in a test account
But...: I didn't do that when I logged in using my main account, and now I can't get to that link.
This tipsandtricksforum post says that you can change the URL - replace authuser=0 with authuser=1.
Result: Doesn't work - I still get the create campaign wizard.
I logged in with my test account, went to preferences, noted the URL. I then logged in with my main account, and entered the preferences URL, editing the __u=XXX&__c=YYY to match my main accounts'.
Result: I do see the preferences page, including the top-level menu - yay! But selecting keyword planner still rdirects me to the getting started wizard.
Answer: You have to click the 'Skip the guided setup' link the very first time you see it, if you start the guided process, there is no going back.
If you are unwilling to create a campaign and enter billing info, you'll need to create a new account.


Is a three hour layover at Delhi international airport enough to catch a flight to Newark, USA (Indian citizen)?

Question: I am an Indian citizen flying AirIndia from Ahmedabad to Delhi, and after a three hour layover at Delhi airport, I fly to the US (on a student visa). Is this time sufficient to get through immigration, etc? This is part of a round-trip (US-India-US) that I booked on United/AirIndia, and I also have travel insurance.
Comment: @MichaelC. As I understand it India's immigration service checks departing travelers, as do many other countries and the Schengen zone.  Having arrived on a domestic flight, the traveler will have to go through an exit checkpoint before boarding the departing international flight.
Comment: I'm not sure I understand, both Ahmedabad and Delhi are in India... why would you need to go through immigration in your own country?
Answer: Yes, it would be enough. Both AirIndia and United fly from T3, so you don't need to change terminals. You'd however would need to exit the airside and go through passport control and security again, because domestic and international departure areas are different. Passport control line might be long, but there's still plenty of time. And AirIndia seem to be very punctual nowadays - had a bunch of domestic flights in India this year, and they were always on time.
Comment: Thanks George. However I was getting very paranoid so I booked another flight with a 6 hour layover in Delhi so I feel totally at peace now :) Although I'll remember your answer for later.
Comment: That's really paranoid :) especially considering that you're on the same ticket, so if you are unable to make the connection, it is airline's fault and not yours. I'd say Delhi airport is quite efficient by Indian standards - assuming you're not flying from low-cost T1 which is much worse - but you are not.


How does the Painter's Algorithm handle transparency?

Question: I was wondering if anyone could explain how the Painter's algorithm would handle transparent objects? Can the Painter's algorithm handle transparency?
Answer: The common way to render transparent polygons in a rasterizer is by use of Alpha Blending, which basically combines the colour of the supposedly transparent pixel with the colour of the background at that pixel's position, this way rendering the pixel transparently onto what was already rendered before. This technique, however, requires your polygons (or at least the transparent ones) to be sorted from back to front, at least in general non-trivial cases, since you can only combine the transparent colour with what has already been rendered behind it.
But since the Painter's Algorithm already requires ploygons to be sorted from back to front (which is pretty much the entire essence of the algorithm), this just fits naturally into the rest of the algorithm. Thus, supporting transparency becomes rather straight forward by simply doing any variant of alpha blending of the pixel with the background instead of overwriting the background.
Comment: Thank you for your very helpful and perfectly explained answer :) Greatly appreciate it - just required an explicit explanation like the one above.
Answer: I would like to add that Painters' algorithm can be run from front to back with transparency provided your blending operations are associative. I would recommend reading Jim Blinn's "Compositing, Part 1: Theory". (Indeed, reading anything graphics related by Jim Blinn is highly recommended).
In this article, Blinn explains (amongst their other advantages) that premultiplied alpha blending operations are associative and, assuming "C" is the furthest polygon and "A" the closest, the usual the back-to-front blend operation $$Result=Blend(A, Blend(B,C))$$ can be replaced with $$Blend(Blend(A,B), C))$$
It does mean that you need to keep a destination alpha value with each pixel - you can't just assume each pixel is 100% opaque.
If you're unfamiliar with premultiplied alpha, the typical OpenGL  "GL_SRC_ALPHA, GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA" blend, i.e. $$DstOut_{RGB} := Src_A * Src_{RGB} + (1-Src_A) * DstIn_{RGB}$$
becomes
 $$\left[DstOut_A, \overline{DstOut_{RGB}}\right] :=\\ \left[Src_A + (1-Src_A)*DstIn_A,  \overline{Src}_{RGB} + (1-Src_A) * \overline{DstIn_{RGB}}\right]$$
where $$\overline{X_{RGB}}=X_{RGB}*X_A$$
Notes:

The operations are generally not commutative so, sadly, you still can't just process the polygons in random order.
(IIRC, some games use(d) additive-only blending, e.g. for lighting effects, which is of course commutative and so can be done in arbitrary order)
Additive blending can also be expressed in a premultiplied form as the colour [0, RBG_to_Add].
Answer: It may be worth mentioning that the reverse painter's algorithm does not handle transparency. If you read and understand @Chris's answer the reason for this is straightforward. Combining the already rendered color (using alpha blending) does not work if the objects behind your transparent object have not been rendered yet.
Comment: Surely that will (or may) depend on what blend modes are being used? As long as they are "associative" (and you keep a destination alpha) it should be fine.  For example, if you use premultiplied alpha, you can go in either direction.

Please read Jim Blinn's "Compositing, Part 1: Theory"


Which is a better combination for PhD recommendation letters?

Question: My field is language-related and I have been conducting research in it with two professors in the past couple of years. Is it better for me to request recommendation letters from these two professors for my PhD application or should I rely on a more diverse approach? For instance, combining letters from one of these professors with those coming from professors who taught me during the MA years (which, by the way, I graduated from several years ago) or maybe even my MA thesis advisor. I should also mention that it is not very likely for me to apply to universities in the US.
Comment: How many letters do you get?
Comment: Related: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/156001/who-to-ask-for-letters-of-recommendations/156003#156003
Answer: Generally, doctoral programs are designed to produce researchers and academics in a given field. Given this, I suggest that you request letters of recommendation from the faculty members who can best speak to your ability to produce high-quality research. It sounds like you've been working with two professors who might be able to do that.
There are some caveats, though. You want the best possible letters of recommendation you can get. If these two professors with whom you have conducted research are willing to provide excellent LORs, then I'd suggest that you ask them for LORs. But if your relationship with them is strained or if you under-performed while working with them, then perhaps you'll have to look elsewhere.
I'm uncertain why a more "diverse approach" would be advantageous to you. Your LORs should speak to your ability to excel in a PhD program, your capacities for research and original thinking, the likelihood that you'll contribute to the department, and other qualifications.
Comment: Thank you for the informative response. I assume by "look elsewhere" you mean I should necessarily find another person who can attest to my research abilities, right? My relationship with one of the professors I have done research with may become strained in the near future as our ideas of good collaboration are gradually diverging. I have, for instance, turned down one of his proposed projects as I thought it was not worthwhile. I am considering turning down another of his, IMO, mediocre ideas as well. So, he may either refuse to give me a letter or may not write a stellar one.
Comment: What if worst comes to worst really and s/he refuses or I decide that I do not trust this professor with a letter. If I don't have access to anyone else who can genuinely vouch for my research abilities except for the other professor and I am forced to rely on others (e.g., my MA professors), do you think this may hurt may chances?
Comment: If you do not trust the professor to write you an LOR, then you should not ask him/her for it. You mentioned working with two professors. Perhaps ask the other professor for an LOR?


How can I make it so that computer-based GPOs don't apply to local administrators?

Question: I am in charge of locking down many public computers for a public library. Because Windows SteadyState is not supported in Windows 7, I use group policies.  These policies affect all users, including the administrator account.  I would like to place shortcuts on the administrator desktop to toggle certain policies.  These are non-domain machines and are all running Windows 7 Professional.  So far I have not been able to easily toggle specific policies.  I would prefer to NOT have to open the gpedit.msc and locate each policy that I want to toggle.  Instead, I would like to be able to click on a desktop shortcut to enable or disable certain policies.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  Thanks.
Comment: I think you might be going about this the wrong way. What policies are in place that you would like local admins to be able to circumvent and why? Maybe there's something in your workflow that can be changed rather than trying to implement this policy "toggling" which really isn't done.
Comment: If you arent familiar with Windows SteadyState and public-use machines in an educational and/or kiosk-like environment then it may be difficult to understand the how and why.
Comment: I *am* familiar with SteadyState, but you say in your question that you aren't using it, which is why I asked what specific policies you'd like to be able to toggle.
Comment: I think I have figured out with EA's answer..some of it anyway.  I cant list each specific policy here.  If you would like an idea, take a look at what SteadyState does.  Specifically the restrictions listed under Start Menu, General, IE, Office, and program blocking and also the "set computer" tab.
Answer: There's no method to make automated changes to the settings within Group Policy. There's just no API there. There is a Group Policy API for PowerShell, but it it concerns itself with linking/unlinking GPOs, backup/restore, etc.
If you haven't you should look at multiple local group policy as a potential solution to your concerns for user policy settings. For computer policy settings, though, you're outta luck.
Answer: Group Policies really just modify the registry, so what you'll need to do is isolate what keys are being changed and make .reg files to override them. When Group Policy refreshed (45 minutes at the default value or the computer reboots), these will be overwritten again. This is not a great solution, for obvious reasons. Also, many policies only take effect on boot/logon/whatever, so this would not work for those.
There's really not a good way to exclude certain users from computer policies. That's the whole point of computer policies - they're not influenced by which user is active.
Comment: Thanks for the info.  I didnt really want to use .reg's.


Why is the specific heat of water high?

Question: How is the specific heat of water so high?
I was reading the hyperphysics article on it but could not understand it properly.
Comment: Higher specific heat of water is due to Presence of intermolecular hydrogen bonding in it The amout of heat supplied is used initially to break the bonding Due to this reason water has high specific heat capacity
Answer: Water has hydrogen bonding in it. Hydrogen bonding is some kind of intermolecular force (a tutorial and the wikipedia page) that is usually seen in molecules that have $\ce{OH}$, $\ce{NH}$ or $\ce{FH}$ somewhere in their structure.
How does it happen?
Hydrogen atom is really small (atomic radius: About 37 pm) When it bonds with some very electronegative species, like O atom, (in the case of water), the electron is highly absorbed by the more electronegative. That results in a relatively high concentration of positive charge. The other O atom in water is attracted to H and this is the basis of hydrogen bonding.
So...?
Hydrogen bonding in water is far too weak to be compared with intramolecular bonds like covalent or ionic bonds, but it's strong enough that to be broken, it will require lots of energy. That's why water boils at $100 ° C$.
Many know the reason of water's high specific heat to be hydrogen bonding. Partially, it's related to that: In giving heat to water, some heat is "spent" on loosening the hydrogen bonds rather than increasing water's kinetic energy. The argument is valid, and I haven't seen anyone bringing evidence as to its being wrong, but another reason, which was the one hyperphysics gave, relies on the motion of water.
Expanding the topic isn't necessary, and it will add up to confusion. In short, the water molecule is nonlinear. That will result in three rotational degrees of freedom that allows it to have an awful lots of rotational motions! (More types of motions are a cause of an additional bonus to the specific heat)
Liquid ammonia has a higher specific heat, just for the same reason.
Even a very easier reason to understand is the water's relatively low molar mass: $\frac{18 g}{mol}$. What should that mean? More moles of water per one kilogram.
As a summary, the reasons are:

The heated water will contribute much of the heat to loosening, bending or breaking the hydrogen bonds.
Water had three rotational degrees of freedom. In addition to vibration, rotations happen a lot to water molecules. This will result in a higher heat capacity.
Specific heat capacity is defined as the amount of heat required per unit mass to increase the temperature by a degrees celsius. The relatively low molar mass of water allows more moles of it to be there in a mass unit (either kg or g)

As a side note, the exceptional high specific heat is not the only weird property of water. See here for example.
Answer: Generally, an increase in the absorbtion of heat energy will result in an increase in the kinetic energy of the molecules and indeed, the individual atoms. The same can be said about water. However, since water has constantly forming H bonds, some of the heat energy will be used to break the water bonds. The more bonds that need to be broken and kept apart (not easy in water) the more heat the water can absorb. When the outside temperature cools down, then the bonds broken by the heat will reform and release energy into the surroundings.
Comment: But liquid ammonia's specific heat is higher than water. Are you suggesting that is merely because H-bonding is stronger in ammonia?

Why is the specific heat of water high?


Was Misa accessible to Light in the finale in the way that this proposition assumes?

Question: Finale spoiler

 There's this video (alternative here) that proposes how Light could have beaten Near. A critical element of the proposition is that Misa is accessible to Light, but was she? I seem to recall Misa was in the custody of the SPK up until some time just before Light et al are about to leave
Comment: N only released Misa the moment L (and Mikami) were about to leave for the warehouse they were going to meet and he placed her into an unknown hotel. How do you suggest Light gets a piece of the death note there?
Comment: @PeterRaeves Post as answer?
Comment: What the guy proposes in the video is impossible though. Misa has given up ownership of her note and her memories long time ago to Mikami, so she can't write down the names.
Comment: @PeterRaeves Why exactly can't Misa write down the names? Not sure I understand the relevance of the hypotheses
Comment: Misa doesn't know of the existence of the Death Note. Nor does she have a Death Note in her possession, or do you mean Light would give her a sheet of paper and tell her to write the names down Mika would send her?
Comment: @PeterRaeves Um, yes? That was what the video suggested right?
Answer: She accessible, but not in the way the video assumes.
From the wikia episode plots:

Malice:
Aizawa thinks to himself that the reason this is happening is so that Light can either be exposed or kill Near. As Light accepts, Near lays out some ground rules: all members of the Task Force must be present, as all members of the SPK and Mogi will be there while Misa will go elsewhere. Near then gives the meeting location: an abandoned warehouse he purchased known as the Yellow Box, and also forbids the Task Force from leaving the Death Note behind, thinking to himself that this is what Light would want.
1.28:
The day finally arrives, and as Stephen Gevanni is on his way, Near announces that Misa has been moved to a luxury hotel, essentially freeing her. After Light confirms this, he asks Near to contact Mogi, who is with Lidner on their way, as to unlock the Death Note from a secure safe, each member has to put in a pin number that only each of them know individually.

Misa at that moment is a normal civilian girl, and there was no way for Light to safely get Teru Mikami (x-kira) contact Misa in the luxury hotel Near himself chose to placed her at whithout Near knowing. We can safely assume Near has a bug/tracker on Misa's cell phone (or can get a copy of the data). Or Mikami. Even if Misa is completely cleared, there is no way Mikami is not completely under electronic surveillance by 1.28.
Having Mikami contact Misa would have the same effect as not having his name written on the notepad. Light had very few pieces of DN left, if any by that time. It would be hard to find a piece where all those names could've been written (specially foreign names, with all those scribbly letters). And even if Misa was to text the picture of the names back to Light in 1 hour, it would give Near that much time to check the tracers and shut Misa down before she can forward the picture.
But the real problem was not assuming that Near would not find the DN inside a bank, the video gets that wrong. The unraveling of Light's plan was when

 Mikami broke his character, took the initiative (instead of just doing mechanically what he had always done) and went to the bank out of his schedule to kill Kiyomi. Nobody expected Mikami, a creature of absolute habit, to do something so spontaneous. Had he kept to his schedule, Near would not have found the DN in the bank.

TL.DR: He could have done that, but it would give away proof of his alter ego as Kira to Near all the same.
Answer: Misa would have been released before the text would have arrived. This means that the piece of the death note should have bean hidden in a public area near the building she was being held up. It would have also needed to be in an area no one would take the piece.
Answer: Peter Raeves

What the guy proposes in the video is impossible though. Misa has given up ownership of her note and her memories long time ago to Mikami, so she can't write down the names.

BCLC

PeterRaeves Why exactly can't Misa write down the names? Not sure I understand the relevance of the hypotheses

Peter Raeves

Misa doesn't know of the existence of the Death Note. Nor does she have a Death Note in her possession, or do you mean Light would give her a sheet of paper and tell her to write the names down Mika would send her?

BCLC

Um, yes? That was what the video suggested right?

Peter Raeves

N only released Misa the moment L (and Mikami) were about to leave for the warehouse they were going to meet and he placed her into an unknown hotel. How do you suggest Light gets a piece of the death note there?


What are some IDE options with GUI builder to make a portable GUI applications?

Question: I need to make an application which is going to portable (windows, linux and Mac). This is the front-end, the GUI stuff. The back-end is written in C++. But now I'm exploring the options to build this front-end. The requirements is: 1) portability across the OS mentioned and, 2) a GUI builder 3) free software, to use and distribute the compiled binaries and related libraries.
Aside C#+Mono, Qt and Lazarus pascal, what are some other options available?
Comment: I don't know a single IDE that supports every GUI framework so I think you need to specify the framework to use. For a free, portable & unrestrictive licenced C++ GUI take a look at wxWidgets https://www.wxwidgets.org/ (there are also bindings for other languages e.g. wxPython)
Comment: This is a local desktop app, not a web app?
Comment: By "portable" do you mean source compatible (ie compile the very same source for all platforms) or binary compatible (ie use the same unchanged binaries on each OS)?
Comment: Delphi nowadays also supports Linux and it already did Windows and OS X for about a decade
Answer: I have not used this particular combination of tools for your particular purpose, but I will mention this possibility without exactly recommending it…

JavaFX

JavaFX is a popular GUI toolkit for the Java platform. This framework was originally developed at Sun, acquired by Oracle, and recently open-sourced as OpenJFX (a subproject at OpenJDK). Development is now led by the Gluon company. JavaFX is the official successor to the Swing framework.
You can add download the JavaFX framework, and manually add to your project. Or you can use a dependency/build tool such as Maven or Gradle to automatically download the OpenJFX libraries into your project. Thirdly, you may choose to use a JVM that comes bundled with the OpenJFX such as LibericaFX by BellSoft or ZuluFX by Azul Systems.
Cross-platform
Being Java-based, your JavaFX app can run across many platforms including macOS, Linux, and Windows.
You can package your compiled code with a bundled JVM to make a standalone double-clickable app for each of the three platforms. A cutting-edge alternative is making a native app via ahead-of-time compilation using GraalVM.
Visual editor
As for a visual GUI editor, JavaFX Scene Builder is a visual editor developed as part of the OpenJFX project.
JavaFX Scene Builder can be used with multiple IDEs including with IntelliJ and with NetBeans.
Be aware that you have two alternatives to using a visual tool: Writing the interface declaratively via FXML, and writing the interface procedurally using Java code. I prefer the last one, having been surprised how well it works to simply make calls in Java to define a layout and add widgets.
Interoperating with C++ code
You can call C++ code from Java.

JNI is the classic vehicle.
JNA was later developed to be an easier route.

Cost
All the mentioned products are available free-of-cost.

Xojo

An entirely different solution would be Xojo. Xojo is a commercial product that includes:

a modern object-oriented programming language
native compilers for multiple platforms including macOS, Linux, and Windows
a visual GUI editor

This might meet your needs, though it does come with a fee, and I do not know the specifics of calling your C++ backend code.


Why was my comment removed?

Question: My comment on this answer appears to have been removed. Is there some record of the reason it was removed that I can access? If not, I would appreciate if someone could provide me with an explanation for future reference.
Answer: I wasn't involved with any of the moderation on that particular question, so I'm going to try to answer the question from inference based on the data available. I reserve the right to be wrong. ;-)
The question suggests that suicide might be a logical answer to the apparent absurdity of life discussed in Camus' The Myth of Sisyphus. It's not a spectacular question as it doesn't seem to grapple with the text itself. Certainly, I'd expect a quotation or detailed discussion rather than a series of broad queries. It's also the sort of question that often leads to chatter rather than interesting philosophy. As it happens, question itself has been flagged 5 times in relation to comments. One of those flags was an automated flag for too many comments. In other words, the question became a locus for idle comments.
The other answer, which brings in several other philosophers in a general way, compounded the problem. It's a helpful answer in terms of providing grist for thinking, but it isn't going to help anyone learn much about Camus nor existentialism in general. Looking at the comments you can see how they stray even further afield.
Stack Exchange sites work best when they are focused on answerable questions. What Camus had to say about the absurdity of live is certainly answerable. Whether life has a meaning is not. Or rather, it's a much bigger question than I expect to see adequately covered on a humble Q&A site.
So I think it's entirely reasonable for a moderator to move the discussion to chat. They have a tool that allows them to move all comments to chat and (optionally) purge the comments. This is often the best course of action when the comments are strongly tending to be chatty. If you happen to have a relevant comment, it might get swept up in the noise. That's one of the reasons moderators might suggest working the content of your comment into an answer, if possible. Answers are far less liable to fruitless back and forth conversations.
Comment: @Virmaior Just to be clear here I really don't expect my comments to stick around, I hope I've made that clearer no with my comments above. My concern her is not that a comment was deleted, it's that it appears to have been singled out for reasons other than the standard too chatty, too long, reason and I think it is a bad direction for the site to go in to try and stifle views it does not like.
Comment: More generally, it seems fair to include that comments are by definition ephemeral. In other words, *don't expect* comments to stick around. If you want a lasting impact on an answer, vote it up or down.
Comment: Jon, thank you so much for attempting an answer I appreciate you weren't involved and so your suggestions must be taken very generally. My concern here is one of *specific* reasoning. We might say that Usain Bolt won the 100m because he turned up, certainly had he not turned up he would not have won as turning up is definitely a requirement, but 9 other runners also turned up and did not win. The reason I feel targeted here (though not in a personal way, just my particular philosophy) is that **just** my comment was deleted when all the others have the flaws you mention above, in fact more so.
Comment: The first set of comments was a 12 comment long discussion about whether God was playing games with us and yet was left in its entirely. My comment was based on completely uncontested biographical information, was only the second comment and yet was summarily deleted, not even moved to chat. A cursory glance over the past few questions will show that comment streams regularly have to reach 10-15 in length before being moderated on, they can stretch to include some wild speculation and even then are generally moved to chat. My comment was singled out for deletion, over and above all the others.
Comment: @Isaacson okay, I'd agree with you there. Moderating is hard, and I may have done it differently than the mod who did. I wasn't involved in this and haven't even looked at the question. My general thought is *because comments are ephemeral*, delete all of the comments that go anyway near something that went south if anyone complains with any modicum of reason (i.e. in general, delete all if there's even a hint of a problem -- don't pick and choose).
Comment: @virmaior Thanks, I understand and can definitely see the logic behind what you're saying, I hoped that simply by asking on Meta I could access the 'hint of a problem' in my comment, just for my own reassurance that something more mundane than prejudice was at play, but it's looking like that's going to be impossible. I'm concerned about the fact that unreasonable bias might have been behind the deletion, but this needs now to remain a personal concern because there is not, nor it seems ever will be, enough evidence to substantiate this sufficiently to require any action.

Why was my comment removed?


Is there a central repository of bitcoin conferences?

Question: I currently use CoinDesk to remain abreast on events and conferences. Any other websites I should utilize?
Comment: Possible duplicate of [What are the most respectable Bitcoin news websites?](http://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/1958/what-are-the-most-respectable-bitcoin-news-websites)
Comment: @Geremia: This question is about Bitcoin conferences, I don't understand why you suggest a question about news websites as duplicate.
Answer: It depends on what exactly you are looking for. If you want to publish academic research, the most well known conferences are:

Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)
USENIX Security (USENIX Security)
IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (S&P)
Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC)
Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques (EUROCRYPT)
Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS)

Note that if you are not academically interested, those might not be for you.
Answer: THey haven't been as prolific as in the past but here's a few:
https://bitcoin.org/en/events
http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-events/
As you've said coindesk is usually up to date.


converting a dashed line into multiple lines in illustrator

Question: I am wondering if anyone knows of a way to take a dashed line and quickly turn it into multiple lines, retaining its dash pattern. Maybe I need to get into some kind of scripting? If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great. Thanks.
Comment: I think the question is quite unclear, you can get a better answer if you edit your question. As you can see youve allready gotten 2 different iterpretations for your question. Surely you can get a better answer by clarifying. Its by the way also possible to get the stroke expanded (or atleast close) without making the individual segments expanded to closed paths.
Comment: Hello Sin, welcome to GDSE and thanks for your question. If you want to know more about the site, please see the [help] or ping one of us in [chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/1240/the-ink-spot) once your reputation is sufficient (20). Keep contributing and enjoy the site!
Answer: There is a extetendScript that can do this effortlessly and precise: breakDashes.jsx
If you take five minutes to learn where to paste scripts into the right folder and then inside Illustrator go to File → Scripts → BreakDashes
You might also need to sign up to GitHub too in order to download the file.
Answer: Use the options on the Stroke Panel to create a dashed line....

Then choose Object > Expand Appearance and then Object > Expand to create shapes for each of the dashes.
Comment: Note that with this solution, the single strokes becomes a series of little rectangles, NOT a series of smaller strokes.
Answer: You can easily duplicate an object by doing a transform.
You can duplicate an object by going to object - transform - move, select the amount you want to move the line. Make sure to click copy. You can then do transform again to make more lines.
Answer: Since you said you want to have multiple lines, I assume you want to cut your line into multiple separate lines.
You can do that with the Scissor Tool (C). Click with it on the part, where you want to cut your line and it will be separated into two independent lines.
Answer: When I did this for the Cricut to upload into Design Space, I wanted to use the dashes as cut marks for a folding line.  To do this efficiently, I needed to make sure the lines ended up as a compound path.  For those facing a similar need, hopefully this will work for you. Note: I am using Illustrator CS6.
Making a dotted single cut using a brush pattern (mine was a very thin line)

Object -> Expand appearance
Object -> Compound path -> Make

Making a dotted single cut using a dashed stroke
1. Object -> Expand
2. Object -> Compound path -> Make
Answer: To convert a solid line into a series of smaller lines (not paths), use the method described at: https://community.adobe.com/t5/illustrator/transform-dashed-lines-into-separate-small-lines/td-p/2876098
I quote the answer given there:

Correct answer by tolyn_dayana
I know this is an old post. Just to share my method. I found the best
solution for this problem :
1- create a single line i.e. 12pt long 1pt thick
2- make a pattern brush from the line
3- In pattern brush options dialog box, put 50% in spacing box.
4- apply the pattern brush to your desired shape.
5- you can still adjust the gaps in spacing box and hit apply to
stroke
6- You can also change stroke weight !
7- go to object -> expand appearance.
Done !
Hope this will help.

Tolyn