Model B without soldered connectors?

Question: Is there a possibility to get a Model B where the RJ45 and USB connectors aren't soldered to the board yet? It would be nice if I could use a pinheader to place them freely - this would allow neat cases. I don't really like the idea of desoldering those parts...
Comment: Just a thought - if you move the LAN connector to the other side of the board, it will be wired differently and will no longer work. Looking at my own Pi, the connector will not physically fit from the other side, since the two rows of pins are shifted with respect so each other.
Comment: Thanks for your comment Frepa, that was not clear enough. I don't want to place it on the backside, I just want to use some wire and place it somewhere on the same side (edge?) as e.g. the HDMI port. I don't want to mount it on the board.
Answer: You are probably going to get your best answer from official RPI web site. There are hints in their FAQ section that kind of give clues to what your chances are:
Will you sell a self-assembly kit?

No. It would be too expensive for us to provide kits alongside
  finished boards, which would mean introducing another step in
  manufacturing; and a kit would be impossible to hand solder. We use
  special equipment (robots!) to solder on the BGA package and other
  tiny components.

So I don't think you are going to get this from them - they are running a robotized production and getting one custom item for you may be outside of their interest.
Comment: The board's schematics aren't available yet but RPI people seem to be planning to share these in the future. You should be able to reverse engineer the board's layout and solder your own setup of it - please share when done :)
Comment: Sorry for sounding newbie, but, wouldnt it be possible to "copy" the setup from the board? I mean, buy all the parts seperately and reconstruct a new printboard? or am I missing something important? I've heard that the length between certain components can have an impact too. But I am a software guy. I dont know about soldering.
Comment: You might wanna check ODROID-W (http://hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G140610189490). It has no connectors and might be what you are looking for. The board seems to have some controversy around it and want be available later.
Answer: This will void your warranty.
Well if you want to start messing around with the PCB there is a kit that will make your life so easy that you will wish you knew about this earlier.

Chipquick kit and CPC - This stuff is really special. The solder is only used sparingly becasue it has special properties. I use this for complex part removals and I follow these steps, even on 0603 SMD's!
Tools you SHOULD have.

De-soldering sucker

Some kind of tweezers

Steps I take (though hole - like LAN PORT)

With my soldering iron I first try to remove as much solder from the points of your component.
It is important not to overheat the PCB - If it is layered you will ruin it. So keeping your soldering iron longer than 30seconds wihtin in area is not recommended. Do it in short bursts and do not let the PCB get hot. This is only requires spot heat.
Use normal solder to help you remove factory solder. Apply your solderin iron to the point and apply new solder. THis will help melt the factory high heat resistant solder.
Let it melt a bit. 5 seconds and use the sucker and suck the solder out.
It does not need to be perfect as long as the original solder is mostly gone.
Do this to all the pins.
Apply quick chip flux. not allot just smear it on the area.
Now apply chip quick solder. It does not have to be allot.
Chip quick solder will stay liquid for about 15-20 seconds after you take your iron away.
Use you soldering iron to spread the chip quick solder to all point. Again- you do not need allot. do not go crazy because it is  waster. you cannot reuse it later.
You can then put down your soldering iron and wiggle the (in this case LAN PORT) out. side to side.
If you do not get it the first time. Apply a bit more flux and reheat the quick chip solder. Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle.

Then just clean the solder off and you have a nice clean un populate port. I would suggest using a new LAN port. but if you managed to get yours out without hassle then re use it.
For SMD's you can skip applying the normal solder. Just apply Flux and Chipquick solder using the drag technique across all pins.
Chip quick cannot be used to remove BGA/LGA (where the pins are under the IC)
--Notes

Here is a YouTube movie on how a pro uses chipquick
This will void your warranty. But if you practice enough and manage to put everything back as it was using the same technique ... well you know- If you cannot notice the difference then who will?
If you have some soldering experience this will be mega easy for you!
If you do not have experience go and find some broken PCB in old decoders, broken power blocks, old motherboards, graphics cards, any thing electrical. And practice desoldering without chip quick! This will teach you endurance and patience that will be worth it when using chip quick!
Rememberer - Chip quick if for desoldering. DO not use it to solder any thing back!
Comment: Solid answer dude! Thanks! Always wondered how to unsolder, such a pain in the arse when you make a mistake.

Model B without soldered connectors?


voice recognition

Question: during Zimmerman trial, each camp claimed the yell for help recorded belonged to their side.  given that Zimmerman is still aside and the recording still exist, could there be some scientific way to tell which way?
Answer: There exist DSP techniques to estimate anatomical differences in head resonance (vowel formant centers, etc.) and glottal fold characteristics (e.g. Tenor vs Bass, etc.) used in music, speech and audiology research.  However there may or may not be sufficient statistical difference is these areas between the two possible vocalization sources, or the mic response may not been sufficient to pick up and record the frequency bands and transients of interest with sufficient detail (too low S/N, etc.)
If sufficient recordings of one of the voice sources do not exist, the vocal production might have to be estimated from MRI data reconstruction of the vocal tract, which introduces its own set of estimation errors.

voice recognition


Prevent knockback when shield is active

Question: When I have the shield (E on self) active, I get knocked back by melee attacks and arrows. Is that just a drawback of the shield, or is there some way to avoid this knockback?
Answer: It's the drawback of the shield. All you can do is drop the shield and risk the damage.
Alternately, you can eat the knockbacks and spam weaker spells -  Area spells are particularly good for this because they tend to not be channeled. I find that keeping a shield up and spamming arcane/earth/fire area spells can be quite effective against large numbers of softer hitting enemies that like to hit a lot of knockbacks (see: Goblins).
Answer: You could also put up an external shield to block incoming projectiles long enough to channel some elements if you need to do something more complex.

Prevent knockback when shield is active


Choosing a regression model for proportion data at the school level

Question: I am working on a dataset where I have the percentage of students who passed at a test for each 189 schools in my sample. The data is aggregated, so I have the total number of student who sat the test within each schools, the number of student who passed it, and with this, I computed the schools' students success rates. I am working with R.
I would like to run a regression with schools' success rates as my dependent variable, and a set of independent variables as follow:

a binary variable for school type (whether public or private)
an ordinal variable for school socio-economic composition (1 Upper Class, 2 Intermediate, 3 Working Class)
a variable which indicates the proportion of deprived neighborhoods within the schools' district.

If I understand well, I am looking at two levels: school level, and school district level (with my variable on proportion of deprived neighborhoods in a school's district).
I am a bit confused as to what model would fit this data the best. From what I have seen, I can run a quasi-binomial logistic regression to treat properly my dependent variable. Though, I am confused about whether I should used a logistic model at all, and whether it should be a multi-level model.
Thank you very much for your help!
Answer: It seems that the outcome is bounded between 0 and 1, so you could use a beta glmm with random intercepts for school districts. GLMMadaptive can fit such a model in R.


How many stars would it take to draw a line across the middle of the sky that appeared solid?

Question: I was talking with a friend about how slowly the star field changes (based on the speed that we are moving through the galaxy) and I started to wonder about a star's visible size.  They are basically the pixels that make up our sky.  This made me wonder, how many stars (let's use the north star as a reference.) would it take (lined up side by side) to draw line that appeared solid across the middle of the sky, perpendicular to the horizon which appeared solid?
Comment: I never would have thought there would be a way to ask "how many pixels does the sky have?" and get away with it, but you pulled it off!
Comment: The milky way is pretty much solid, just not a thin line but a wider band (and not of uniform luminosity).
Answer: This is more of a question of human perception, than astronomy. I was going to answer your question with this: "One, it just needs to be close to Earth." But, I decided it wasn't THAT funny. Anyway, stars are essentially point sources as far as our eyes are concerned. Typical visual resolution is about 0.02° or 0.0003 radians. Assuming from horizon to horizon is 180° (or π radians) that calculates out to roughly 10,000 stars. I'd probably increase that by 50% or 100% to be sure. You do understand that you can't line stars up side by side, I hope. There's no need, its about the angular distance, not absolute distance between them, that matters. They can be light years apart as long as they appear to be within about 1 arcminute of one another, our eyes will see them as a single object - subject to the psychological aspects of keeping color and apparent magnitude roughly uniform as well.
Comment: This was going to be my answer, but I have been beat!
Comment: I'll vote +1 for "funny" because you were nice enough to continue and leave a remarkably well thought out answer as well! Speaking of pixels, just a factoid for comparison, if a phone has  400 pixes/inch and it's 16 inches from my face, that's about half, or 0.00016 radians and considered below visual resolution.


Science fiction horror book about humans regressing into animals

Question: SciFi horror novel about people who regressed into primitive animals. Two scenes I recall involved a woman jogging, I think on a beach, and she was attacked by "animals", that turned out to be these regressive forms of humans. The other scene was people in a house, and they had the lights turned out because the mutant regressive human animals were prowling around just outside the windows.
Comment: When did you read it? When might it have been published?
Comment: This reminds me of [The Island of Doctor Moreau](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau), although I don't recall a woman there, and it's about animals made human which later regressed back to animals.
Comment: I read this book in the early 1980s. It was definitely not the Island of Doctor Moreau. It was likely a Dean Koontz or Stephen King, but I can't find it in a search of their bibliographies.
Answer: As mentioned in a comment above by Bruskovich I'm fairly certain this would be a Dean Koontz book, more specifically Midnight.
From the wikipedia entry (has a lot of the plot, maybe avoid or enter carefully if you really want to re-read):

First: Janice Capshaw, a nighttime jogger, is pursued and then killed by a pack of mysterious and nightmarish beasts while she is jogging along the beaches of a coastal town named Moonlight Cove.

The second scene is probably at the house of the guy who notified FBI of something going on. He is in a wheelchair I think.
Answer: One Rainy Night by Richard Laymon was published in 1991, so a little out of the time frame you indicated, but is a reasonably close match otherwise.
It features a small town in which a mysterious dark and sticky rain falls, and any of the inhabitants that the rain sticks to begin behaving like aggressive animals.  It features the stories of many of the residents as they attempt to avoid being killed by those who have changed, including scenes that my memory tells me are at least similar to the ones you describe.
You may be remembering the story as by Stephen King because he wrote a glowing blurb that was prominently featured on the cover of at least some editions.


CartThrob - Coupon or discount for subscriptions?

Question: I'm not seeing any reference in the docs to coupon codes or discounts on subscriptions. Is this possible? More specifically, our project scope includes applying coupon codes to either the first month's subscription charge or all subsequent months in a given subscription.
Answer: At present there are no coupon/discounts that have been created that do either/or.
The built in settings govern whether or not discounts should be applied on subsequent payments (based on a discount set in the cart on purchase), but there's nothing created at this point that does specifically what you're asking.
I suggest you schedule a Phone/Skype appointment with the CartThrob/Mightybigrobot support team at http://support.mightybigrobot.com. A member of our support team can speak with your personally and discuss possible solution to this issue.
Comment: Ok, thanks, Chris. I'll do that. We'll be getting a list of specs on another ecomm project tomorrow and will have some questions about that, too. I'll set up a call to cover all that in one session.


Standalone python app that uses qgis.core without installing qgis

Question: I am building a standalone python application that has its own GUI, i would like to use qgis.core/pyqgis as a map display only. But from my searches on this topic, it seems that the full QGis software has to be installed on both developer and prospective users' machine to have this work. Is there not a way to embed Qgis map display without installing the full version of Qgis software?
Comment: What is the OS you would install your standalone application on?
Comment: I'm extremely new to QGIS, but I'm assigned to develop a custom application with maps. I've understood that pyQgis is the savior. But installing QGIS is not possible. Could you please elaborate whether the above approach is promising? BDW I'm sorry I can't comment on the above answer.
Thank you for the time.
Comment: If you have a new question, please ask it by clicking the [Ask Question](http://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) button. Include a link to this question if it helps provide context. - [From Review](/review/low-quality-posts/81776)
Answer: To my knowledge, it's possible although I didn't investigate.
This answer is due to IntraMaps Roam, a field data collection application built using the QGIS libraries and Python.
Quoting the description

IntraMaps Roam is built as a standalone fully packaged Python
  application with everything included. QGIS is not required to be
  installed on the client machine and only on the machine that builds
  Roam from source.
Comment: thanks, this looks promising, I would like to investigate further on that project, which could take a bit time. If no one else gives other thoughts, then I'll accept this as an answer in a few days. Thanks.


Random characters and letters form obsfuscation

Question: I know that this question has been asked many times, but would JavaScript encryption work if I just added 100 random numbers and letters to the password? That would be hard to reverse engineer, because it's totally random. I am making a WordPress and Joomla kind of service, and all the user's that download it do not have SSL.
Comment: How will you know that your "random" numbers and letters are really random? Javascript's Math.random() function only generates pseudo-random numbers, and their randomness (or lack of it) is implementation-specific and cannot be trusted.
Comment: Are you trying to securely store passwords for a web service login?
Answer: No, you seem to have a misunderstanding of how encryption and obfuscation work. Encryption provides confidentiality: a message is hidden with a mechanism using a shared secret from all parties not possessing that secret.
Obfuscation refers to a number of techniques employed to make, in general, a scripting programming language application difficult to understand to a human reader. They take as input the application in its original (human readable) form, (a key) and output a functionally equivalent application, larger in code size and far more difficult to understand.
Now to answer your question, no it will not work as you mention there may be no authentication nor encryption, meaning that any passive attacker(using a packet sniffer and located in the same network as one of your potential visitors(i.e. victims) simply retrieves the password/javascript code in plaintext.
Answer: What you describe sounds like obfuscation, not encryption.
Please do not use "invented" encryption or hashing algorithms (please read this OWASP write-up).
If you'd like to use password-driven keys, check out this JavaScript library for key derivation.
There are several JavaScript libraries that implement AES (check out this StackOverflow post) and other encryption ciphers. Key management would be tough, but you can give it a go.
Answer: Another problem not mentioned yet: you mentioned the JavaScript is served over plain HTTP. This means that a "man in the middle" (MITM) attack can modify the JavaScript enroute, removing the encryption, or even doing more nefarious things. You CAN do encryption client-side (there are some cases this makes sense) but it CANNOT replace HTTPS, only supplement it.


Howto: Use Custom Post Types as Submenu Items in Admin

Question: In a plugin, i've created 3 Custom Post Types, for example:

Dogs
Cats
Goldfish

I've also created a "Pets" Top-level menu page using add_menu_pagewherein I'd like to add the 3 CPTs as submenu items.
Problem: I cant figure out how to add the Custom Post Types as Submenu Items.
The Codex states:

For Custom Post Types: add_submenu_page(
  'edit.php?post_type=your_post_type', ... );

But I'm not getting it. Also, is this the best way to go about it?
Please advise.
Answer: Got it. This post demonstrates what I need.


What happened to the "Apply to" feature on product attributes in Magento 2?

Question: In Magento 1, product attributes have a setting called "Apply to" where you can set the product types for which the attribute will be visible (simple, configurable, etc).  However, I don't see it anywhere in Magento 2.
Comment: Interesting hadnt seen that one yet. Why is there no more validation on product type level? ----- als we have seen that an "APPLY TO" for non-visible and frontend-visible (catalog/search) differing between these 2 types would make a lot more sense ....
Answer: In Magento 2, no more that great feature! I don't understand why they can remove that feature, but it is the truth.
Anyway, there is a great & FREE extension to get that feature back into your system. Please check it at https://belvg.com/blog/big-day-release-apply-to-attribute-option-free-for-magento-2-0.html


What prevents the lead attached to a semiconductor from forming Shottky junction

Question: What prevents lead attached to a piece of semiconductor (for example in BJTs and FETs) from forming a Shottky junction?
Comment: I can't answer your question, but I can tell you that the technical name for these is called "Ohmic contacts" or "Ohmic junctions". You can look up those phrases for some rather technical material about the technology. Apparently it's an entire field unto itself just like PN junctions.
Comment: FYI, in the integrated circuit industry, this "lead wire" (not Pb but like leading-in) is called a "bond wire", and the process of welding the bond wire is called "wire bonding"; see https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/302551/why-is-gold-preferred-over-silver-for-bond-wire
Answer: There is usually an intermediary material between the semiconductor and the lead wires that does not form a Schottky barrier.
Either the metal-side material is chosen so that the resultant potential energy barrier at the junction is low enough that it doesn't significantly impede the flow of charge carriers or the semiconductor near the junction is so highly doped that the barrier is thin enough that charge carriers can tunnel through it.
Comment: Thanks, I'll edit the answer, for your information there is an edit button and you can edit your answer
Answer: In VLSI design we have billions of contacts from metal to silicon, and to my knowledge this does not typically require any additional layers or materials to prevent the formation of a Schottky barrier. However, these contacts are always made directly to a heavily doped n or p region such as the source/drain regions of a transistor and the resulting "junction" is effectively ohmic.


Is it worth it to add substitute teacher work in a CV?

Question: As a graduate student, i've had to substitute teach a number of times for a variety of classes.  I'm wondering if it is really worth while to add this information into my CV.  Obviously, it won't hold as much weight as teaching a full class.  But if it is worth mentioning on the CV, what category should I add it to?  Teaching?  Volunteer Service?  Something else?
Answer: I am going to disagree with Peter Jansson here.
If you mean you stepped in to cover a couple of classes here and there when the regular instructor was sick or out of town, I would say this by itself doesn't constitute a meaningful amount of teaching experience for professional purposes, and shouldn't be listed on a CV.  It may have been valuable to you, but I think it would look kind of silly on a CV.
If you were assigned as a teaching assistant for the course, you probably have a line where you describe your responsibilities in that role (grading exams, holding office hours, etc), and you could add "occasional lectures" to that line.
If you filled in for an instructor for a longer period of time, then you could consider listing it ("taught 3 weeks of Calculus 4").
Answer: Definitely. Teaching experience is always worth adding to the cv because it reflects that you have gained experience in presentation techniques beyond the usual scientific presentations. The difference to research presentations lies in that the latter involves explaining matters and making material understandable at a more basic level. On its own, such experiences may not be enough so document your teaching experience such as levels of the courses, number of students and amount of teaching. you should also gather evaluations of your efforts. I could add links on teaching portfolios here but a simple search on "teaching portfolio" will give you quite a lot of examples and your own university might also have links worth loking at.
Comment: +1. And don't just say you "substituted" for someone, use verbs to describe what you did: delivered a 45-min lecture on whatever to 25 graduate students, conducted a computer lab session on whatever topic, etc. Just "substitute" sounds too passive. And these experiences should be under the teaching section. As you get better experiences, you may consider revising these substitute gigs out.
Comment: I'm not sure this really addresses the situation at hand.  A grad student who fills in for an instructor for a couple of lectures is not going to have evaluations, etc, and I can't see turning this into a "portfolio".
Comment: There is always a first step on a journey. It is always good to keep track of all the teaching (or other activities that may be added to a CV) one has performed. Later in the career one can perhaps be more selective. To look into how to build a portfolio is never a bad idea.
Answer: I agree with Peter Jasson. It's worth mentioning in your CV unless you already have quite a bit teaching experience. You should put it under "Teaching".
You're a graduate student. Anything meaningful should be listed in the CV. Many years later, you'll find the substitute teaching looks funny when you're a professor. For now, list it unless you already have more than 2 pages long CV.
Here is my personal experience. I put my number of years teaching experience in my resume while in industry. A lot people were interested in that. It's was one of the most frequently asked questions in my industry job interviews I had. One time, I did ask the hiring manager why he was interested to know. He said it shows that I do know how to communicate.
Comment: @Paul Your case falls into *unless you already have quite a bit teaching experience* category. Four(4) years of university level teaching is quite a bit. My answer is intended for graduate students in general. Most of them don't have that much extensive experience. So, yes, it does look a little bit funny if the substitue teaching was short. It's up to you.
Comment: In my case, I've already got 4 years of full time university level teaching experience prior to my current PhD pursuit.  Although, a lot of the classes I taught were very low level classes like precalculus, calculus, etc.  In contrast, my substitute teaching was for much more advanced (graduate level) courses.  I just wonder if including this info on my CV would look, as you say, "funny" because of my previous experience.


OLAP linked server fails connection test

Question: I am trying to create a new linked server to an Analysis Services database and I would like to use this linked server to import data into a SQL Server table.
example:
SELECT *
into raw.example
FROM openquery( Test1, 'MDX CODE/etc etc'

Below is a screenshot of what I have done (just putting in examples/test names instead of the names I need to use). The data source is pointing to a valid server name, which I know I have access to.

After I click "ok" to create this linked server this message comes up:

The linked server has been created but failed a connection test. Do you want to keep the linked server?
OLE DB provider 'MSOLAP' cannot be used for distributed queries because the provider is configured to run in single-threaded apartment mode. (Microsoft SQL Server, Error: 7308)

I am not sure why it isn't connecting. Is it a server issue where I have to ask for permission to access it, or do I somehow need to revert away from the provider being configured to run in a single-threaded apartment mode?
I am doing this on my local SQL Server Express Edition machine, whereas before my script and OPENQUERY/MDX query worked on a remote desktop server etc.
I have looked at other posts but those solutions do not solve my problem.
If it matters, the MDX I'm trying to execute was generated by XLCubed.
Answer: Enable OLEDB Driver in SQL Server
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO
EXEC sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1;
GO
RECONFIGURE;
GO

If you are still facing the error after running above statement, please post error message


How to do Virtual IP Setup in Mac OS X?

Question: I have two Apache Load Balancer setup on two different systems, for example 127.0.0.1 and 127.0.0.2 IP addresses.
Now I want to configure Virtual IP in another system (127.0.0.3) and all the requests will be send to this virtual IP. Then internally it will forward the requests to Active Load Balancer machine. If the active Load Balancer go down, it will internally switch to passive load balancer.
This needs to be done to achieve high availability of the system.
I don't have much idea about Virtual IP setup, so any help here will be appreciated. Can we do it from another installation of Apache and some configuration in the apache server?
Please help.
Answer: Check out TunTap: http://tuntaposx.sourceforge.net/

How to do Virtual IP Setup in Mac OS X?


Python: Checking if new file is in folder

Question: I am relatively new to python, but I am trying to create an automated process where my code will listen for new file entries in a directory. For example, someone can manually copy a zip file into a particular folder, and I want my code to recognize the file once it has completely been copied into the folder. The code can then do some manipulations, but that is irrelevant. I currently have my code just checking for a new file every 5 seconds, but this seems inefficient to me. Can someone suggest something that is more asynchronous?
Comment: What operating system are you on?
Comment: Check out http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3274334/how-can-i-watch-a-file-for-modification-change/3274366#3274366
Answer: Checking for new file every several seconds is actually not that bad an approach — in fact, it is the only really portable way to monitor for filesystem changes. If you're running on Linux, answers in the question linked by @sdolan will help you check for new files more efficiently, but they won't help you with the other part of your question.
Detecting that the file has been copied completely is much more difficult than it first appears. Your best best is, when a new file is detected, wait until it hasn't been touched for a while before processing it. The length of the wait period is best determined experimentally. It's a balancing act: make the interval too short, and you're risking operating on incomplete files; make it too long, and the user will notice a delay between the copy operation finishing and your code processing it.


Data still syncing with separate apple IDs

Question: So I moved to college and decided it was time for me to make my own apple ID. Up to that point I shared an account with my mother. Since updating my phone all of her contacts are on my phone. I created a new apple Id to keep all of our content separated. I now have a mac and want to use the cloud to get data from my phone but do not want to share everything with my mom. Everything on my phone that requires apple ID has only my account not hers. Help?
Comment: If contacts are still actively syncing then check "Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars".  There are actually quite a few places in settings that require update (logout old/login new) when you are separating AppleIds, it not just "Settings > iCloud"
Answer: If I get what you mean, you would probably like Family Sharing. It allows you to share data with another Apple ID, but keep thing separate (e.g your mom can download iTunes things from your account and you can download things from her account, but she can't read your iMessage and you can't read hers).


How do insurance funds work?

Question: On my wife's 403(b) (like a 401(k)), she has an option to invest in a couple insurance funds.  How do these work? Some seem to be low-risk, while others are moderate-risk.  I'm just not quite sure how insurance policies are something that could be invested in.
Comment: Strange.. When I research the Vanguard Variable Insurance Fund at Vanguard, I find this: "used solely as investment options for annuity or life insurance contracts offered by insurance companies."   Sounds like it is an anomaly that your wife is offered the fund inside a 403b.
Comment: are we talking about an annuity?... sounds like it, but not entirely clear..
Comment: Do you have an example fund name?  I think that might help people answer your question.
Comment: @Alex The Vanguard Variable Insurance Fund is the only one I can remember off hand - but there were a bunch.
Answer: Sometimes 403b's contain annuities or other insurance related instruments.
I know that in many New York schools the local teacher unions administer the 403b plan, and sometimes choose proprietary investments like variable annuities or other insurance products. In New York the Attorney General sued and settled with the state teacher's union for their endorsement of a high cost ING 403b plan -- I believe the maintenance fees were in excess of 3%/year!
In a tax deferred plan like a 401k, 403b or 457 plan, the low risk "insurance fund" is generally a GIC "Guaranteed Investment Contract". A GIC (aka "Stable Value Fund") is sort of cross between a CD and a Money Market fund. It's used by insurance companies to raise short term capital. GICs usually yield a premium versus a money market and are a safe investment.
If your wife is in a 403b with annuities or other life-insurance tie ins other than GICs, make sure that you understand the fee structure and ask lots of questions.
Answer: What is a 403b?

A 403(b) plan is a tax-advantaged retirement savings plan available for public education organizations, some non-profit employers (only US Tax Code 501(c)(3) organizations), cooperative hospital service organizations and self-employed ministers in the United States.

Kind of a rare thing.
A bit more here: http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/teacheroptions.htm under investment options

Equity Indexed Annuities are a special type of contract between you and an insurance company. During the accumulation period — when you make either a lump sum payment or a series of payments — the insurance company credits you with a return that is based on changes in an equity index, such as the S&P 500 Composite Stock Price Index. The insurance company typically guarantees a minimum return. Guaranteed minimum return rates vary. After the accumulation period, the insurance company will make periodic payments to you under the terms of your contract, unless you choose to receive your contract value in a lump sum. For more information, please see our "Fast Answer" on Equity Indexed Annuities, and read FINRA's investor alert entitled Equity-Indexed Annuitiies — A Complex Choice.

So perhaps "equity indexed annuities" is the more correct thing to search for and not "insurance funds"?
Comment: I don't think I would call them rare - there are a lot of folks working in healthcare alone. http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs035.htm

How do insurance funds work?


what happens if you can't afford to buy a new ship?

Question: In EVE Online, I have heard if you lose your ship, you have to buy a new one. What happens if you are low on cash when your ship is destroyed? Is there a basic spacecraft that can be used to gather more money, or is it impossible to play afterwards?
Comment: Rule #1: Don't fly anything you cannot afford to replace. Rule #2: Don't fly anything you are not prepared to lose. Rule #3: Buy an insurance.
Answer: Each time you arrive in a station where you have no ship in your capsule (or you activate your clone in said station), you are given a rookie ship of your race with a basic mining laser, weapon and a complimentary piece of tritanium.
Comment: Gotta love that complimentary tritanium
Answer: When you arrive to station in capsule you or your clone is activated in station you will find in hangar rookie ship (noob ship). If you have no money to buy other ship, you can then hunt pirates on asteroid belts (in high sec systems only) to get at least some isk. But keep in mind, that doing this way you will get very little amount of isk.
Answer: Should you find yourself in this situation, the best thing to do is to kill pirates in asteroid belts until you can afford the cheapest "real" frigate for your race and fit it with some very basic equipment.
Then head off to find the nearest "Career Agents" and run through their missions. You'll end up with a number of ships and plenty of money to get you going again. You can run all the races' career agents over and over again, so this is an easy way to get yourself into a destroyer, from where you can work up through the various Security agent levels.
Comment: Should you find yourself alone and without help this is what you would have to do. However, I think the "best" thing to do would be to join a noob - friendly corporation, many of which will give you free basic equipment and plenty of advice. Just be wary of the tax - rate and if something seems fishy, it probably is.
Comment: @DoubleDouble This is Eve we're talking about... if something smells fishy, chances are you've already been robbed and podded...
Answer: Corvettes
When you dock at a station, in a capsule or another ship, you can press the Board a Corvette button to instantly enter the Corvette of your race (Ibis for Caldari, Impairor for Amarr, Velator for Gallente and the other one for the Minmatar). The button is located above the Undock button and costs nothing to use.


I have a HDHP with an HSA through my employer as well as a non-HDHP through my parents. Am I still eligible for the HSA through my HDHP?

Question: I have a HDHP with an HSA through my employer as well as a non-HDHP through my parents. Am I still eligible for the HSA through my HDHP?
I have an HDHP with an HSA through my employer that I started with in August 2018. I also have a non-HDHP through my parents due to being under 26. I recently read that to be eligible for an HSA, I must not have coverage under a non-HDHP (https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969#en_US_2017_publink1000204025). I am currently contributing to my HSA and have been since September 2018. is it true that I am not eligible? If so, will I be penalized for contributing to an HSA? Should I purge the HSA to avoid any problems? My parents are about to switch to a HDHP; Does this change anything?
Comment: Read the "last month rule"
Comment: @BenVoigt What does the last month rule have to do with the OP's question?
Comment: @BenMiller: "My parents are about to switch to a HDHP; Does this change anything?"  Answer is (because of last month rule): If they switched before Dec 1st, it would have made things ok.
Answer: In order to contribute to an HSA (or accept contributions from someone else, such as your employer), you need to be an eligible individual.  IRS Publication 969 says this about being an eligible individual:

To be an eligible individual and qualify for an HSA, you must meet the following requirements.

You are covered under a high deductible health plan (HDHP), described later, on the first day of the month.

You have no other health coverage except what is permitted under Other health coverage , later.

You aren't enrolled in Medicare.

You can't be claimed as a dependent on someone else's 2017 tax return.

You meet the first requirement, because your are covered under an HDHP through your employer.  However, you do not meet the second requirement, because you have other health coverage: the non-HDHP that your are covered by through your parents.  Therefore, you are not an eligible individual, and you cannot contribute to an HSA.
To fix this for this year, you need to remove the contribution from the HSA.  This is called an excess contribution.  If you got your HSA through your employer, you'll need to talk to your employer about this, so they can tell you what to do.  Otherwise, if you need to deal with the HSA directly, tell them that you need to make an excess contribution withdrawal.  There will probably be a form that you need to fill out (and there might be a fee).  Take a look at this answer for more information about excess contributions, and if you need more information about that, ask a new question.
If you want to be able to participate in an HSA in the future, you need your parents to drop you from their health coverage.  It is too late to fix it this year (in order to be eligible for any HSA contribution, you needed to be eligible by December 1), but if you can become eligible by January 1, you will be able to contribute the full amount to your HSA next year.
Comment: Thanks so much!
If my parents' plan becomes an HDHP and I am on it, will I be eligible? Or can I not have dual coverage at all and have an HSA? I know pub 969 says "no other health coverage", but thought i read somewhere that if both plans are HDHP it is fine.
Comment: @JoeRocca When you have two health plans, they pay out using a system called [Coordination of Benefits (COB)](https://money.stackexchange.com/a/86305/10997). As long as the resulting combined coverage is still an HDHP, meeting the minimum deductible rule, I believe you are still considered HSA-eligible. So if you still are required to pay the first $1350 (or whatever your deductible is) of expenses, you are okay, but if one plan covers the deductible of the other, you are not HSA eligible. You may want to call one or both of the insurance companies and ask this question to be sure.
Comment: @JoeRocca What is the benefit to you of being covered by two health plans? Usually parents drop the coverage of their kids when they obtain their own coverage, especially if it saves them money in premiums to do so.
Comment: @BenMiller: I'd assume the benefit is having in-network providers in both places.  And if the family has more than one child, there may very well be no difference in premiums.


Summarising diagrams for layer

Question: I wonder if there is a possibility (plugin etc.) to create a summarising diagram of attributes more or less comparable to the summarising statistics. e.g. having a shape with a high number of polygons of different landuse attributes and want to create a diagram with the sum of area for the different land use types as a bar chart or pie chart diagram. x axes land use types, y axes sum of area.
Comment: I found already a tool in the processing toolbox "graphics, bar plot" but this obviously is not summing up the ha to one bar but instead plot all values on top of each other.
Answer: I found the 'DataPlotly' plugin which solves everthing perfectly.
With it you can choose the plot type e.g. bar plot, define the x and y axes parameters. In the settings you are also able to choose the bar mode. The bar mode 'stacked' is summing up the values. However, there are some problems to visualise the charts e.g. the axes titles can´t be adapted properly if needed. There should be a link to edit the charts in the chart studio (button at the top of the chart see picture) but this functionallity is deactivated and greyed out. All in all it provides a fast overview.
Comment: This is quite a short answer, perhaps you could enrich it with some further information how dataplotly plugin solved your issues, screenshots, results and so on.
Comment: Well done! This explains your approach perfectly!

Summarising diagrams for layer


Is Blackbeard ever shown having Whitebeard's jolly roger on his back?

Question: I was wondering if it had ever been shown in the manga or anime of Blackbeard possessing the iconic tattoo of the Whitebeard Pirates on his back. I don't remember if it was required of the crew to get the tattoo but it does seem like a lot of them do possess it.
Answer: Whitebeard's pirates got the tattoo of Jolly Roger out of respect or to prove their association to the pirate crew. It is safe to assume that Blackbeard didn't sport the tattoo as it wasn't compulsory for everyone to get the tattoo. So that would mean Blackbeard hasn't been seen with Whitebeard tattoo.

Whitebeard's flag is that of a standard Jolly Roger with a large mustache and a cross behind it. Many high-ranked crew members bear the Whitebeard flag symbol on them, including Ace who is seen having it tattooed on his back and being extraordinarily proud of it.
Answer: From what I've seen the fleet commanders have the tattoos and blackbeard didn't want to even be a fleet commander. As taken from the wiki: -having spent a few decades on their ship, even turning down the chance to be a commander amongst the crew, although that was most likely a measure not to make himself infamous before he was ready to reveal his plans.-
Comment: please add a reference (e.g. chapter n°) to your last statement


How to utilize Windows 10 Connection Sharing to Access ZScaler protected Websites on Linux / Ubuntu 18.04

Question: How can I use ZScaler to access protected websites via Ubuntu without a dedicated Ubuntu client?
Answer: My company decided to drop our VPN for ZScaler and being the only person running Linux at my company I was left behind because ZScaler doesn't have a native Linux client.
Let me start by saying that this workaround is extremely labyrinthine and equally fragile. It requires two full computers which makes it both expensive and impossible to do on the go so this is not a solution for laptops and remote / traveling employees. For the second computer I recommend picking up an old used computer on eBay to use as the dedicated Windows 10 machine. Otherwise you can repurpose almost any old laptop laying around. Anything with WiFi and an Ethernet port will work.
Additionally, I hope that the product team at ZScaler sees the fragility of this workaround (a hack really) and is inspired to create a dedicated Linux client for us diehard Linux guys who just can't go back to macOS once we've switched.
Here's what you're going to need for this workaround:

A windows 10 laptop fully updated with WiFi and Ethernet capabilities
The ZScaler client for Windows 10
A short Ethernet cable for connecting your Linux and Windows 10 machines
A long Ethernet cable for connecting your Linux machine to the Internet
A USB->Ethernet adapter for giving your Linux desktop a second Ethernet connection

Step 1: Connecting to ZScaler on Windows 10
Install the ZScaler client for Windows 10. Login with your credentials and verify you can access internal and/or ZScaler protected websites as well as external websites and the broader Internet.

Step 2: Verify all the necessary connections in Windows 10
In order for this to work your Windows 10 computer will need access to the outside internet (WiFi in this example), and the ZScaler adapter, and a local Ethernet connection to share ZScaler over. The below picture shows all of this.

Step 3: Prepare your local Ethernet connection
Part of the magic of this workaround is directly connecting your Windows 10 machine to your Linux machine via Ethernet and creating a private network between the two. In order to do this, you'll need to enter the properties of the local Ethernet connection's adapter and adjust the IPV4 settings to set a static IP address (very important) and also a subnet mask. I've chosen 192.168.137.1 and 255.255.255.0 respectively and it works great. Any valid internal IP address and subnet mask combination should work fine in theory.

Step 4: Sharing the ZScaler connection
This is one of the critical parts of the puzzle. Your Linux machine is going to get access to ZScaler via Windows 10 connection sharing. Right click on the ZScaler connection once it's connected and go to 'Properties'.

Step 5: Share your ZScaler adapter to your Linux machine
To do this, make sure your two computers are connected directly via Ethernet to Ethernet. It should be Linux <- Ethernet -> Windows 10. Then, go to the Sharing tab for the ZScaler adapter properties and share the ZScaler adapter with the Ethernet adapter which bridges your Linux machine to your Windows 10 machine.

Step 6: Verify ZScaler access on Linux
By now your Linux computer should be connected directly to your Windows 10 Machine and you should be able to resolve your internal website(s) on your Linux machine and nothing else. You should have no internet access. If you do, unplug your adapter(s) that give you internet connection. This is an extremely important step. Verify you can only access internal ZScaler-specific targets. If you're still having trouble with this step then try rebooting everything and starting over. Also, double check your static IP configuration on the Windows 10 machine as this doesn't tend to stick between reboots.

Step 7: Get internet access
In order to get Internet access you'll now need to use your USB->Ethernet adapter and plug it into your Linux machine. You should see services like Slack auto-login once your second Ethernet connection resolves and connects.
Step 8: Restore access to ZScaler-protected websites
Because plugging in a new internet connection changes your DNS and internet settings configuration at the Linux adapter level you need to restore access to ZScaler-protected assets via IP Tables in Linux. For this you need to know the IP address range of your protected assets, the static IP of your Windows 10 machine, and the device name itself for your internal private connection between Linux and Windows 10. For myself and my company the commands are:

sudo ip route add 126.96.36.199/10 via 192.168.137.1 dev eno1
sudo ip route add 172.16.0.0/12 via 192.168.137.1 dev eno1

Where eno1 is the name of the network adapter that is directly connecting Windows 10 to Linux and 192.168.137.1 is the static IP address you configured in Windows 10 and 188.8.131.52/10 and 172.16.0.0/12 are the CIDR ranges for your ZScaler protected assets. You can find the name of the correct adapter using to route your ZScaler traffic through using ifconfig on your Linux machine and substitute in your device hardware name for eno1.
Step 9: Enable access to future ZScaler-protected websites
Right now you can only access websites that you've already requested from ZScaler before plugging in your internet connection. This is a DNS issue. In order to fix this, you need to set the Windows 10 machine as your default DNS server so that when you request access to internal websites by name internal.mycompany.com then ZScaler can be used to resolve those hostnames. Once the hostname is resolved and the IP address shows a valid internal range you configured previously via IPTables then the traffic should be routed to the eno1 or equivalent adapter and then to ZScaler to load. You should see two wired connections now in Linux when you're done.

Go ahead and edit the 'PCI Ethernet Connected' connection because that's the one we get internet from via our USB->Ethernet adapter.
Now we need the static IP address that we chose for our Windows 10 machine on the private network that exists between Linux <-> Windows 10. This is why setting a static IP address is important. We want to hard code this IP address as our DNS server.

And that's it! And this is how it works. All DNS requests are sent to ZScaler due to the DNS entry when configuring your network adapter. When a public IP is returned, your regular USB Ethernet connection resolves it successfully. When a private IP is returned, the IPTables forward the request to the adapter you specified when you executed sudo ip route add.... This allows the Windows 10 / ZScaler machine to load the website's content and send it back to you via Windows 10 connection sharing.
This is essentially a split connection where all DNS requests are handled by ZScaler (since it is the only one who can resolve and load internal hostnames) but public content is loaded via your Linux USB Ethernet adapter and private content is loaded via your Ethernet<->Ethernet shared connection to Windows 10.
What breaks this 'workaround'?

Any reboot to the Windows 10 machine
Power outage. See above.
Changes in network topography on the Windows 10 side causing a new network / internet connection
Changes in DHCP lease timing / renewing

What is sub-optimal about this workaround?

All DNS requests go through the ZScaler machine so your once hyper-fast wired connection is now as slow as WiFi for DNS requests at least.
You can never turn off your W10 computer ever again otherwise you must perform this ritual every time to get your internet working again for both internal and external hosts.
It takes a lot of practice to get this setup working reliably on a day-to-day basis. It took me about two months to master the workflow and resolve issues quickly when they come up.

I'll finish by saying that this is an absolute last-resort and that any company looking to switch to ZScaler from a VPN solution should consider the lack of a dedicated Linux client and how that may or may not affect their engineers' ability to get work done.
Comment: Anyone know how to adapt this for WSL? I'm running Ubuntu in WSL but it's still not able to connect to secure sites.
Answer: Very good workaround, thanks!
Just to let you know that this solution is also working with a Windows VM (I am using libvirt/kvm https://libvirt.org/drvqemu.html). Also, I believe that you have no choice and 192.168.137.1/24 is the default sharing IP (on Windows 10 at least).
Add a second virtual network adapter to your VM (do not configure the gateway):

NAT
192.168.137.1/24

And then on the linux host, add a local IP alias to communicate with the VM (adapt 'virbr0' with you virtual NIC adapter, it may differ if you are using another virtualization solution like virtualbox):
sudo ip a add 192.168.137.2/24 dev virbr0

Verify that you are able to ping the windows VM on 192.168.137.1 from the Linux host (you may have to accept ICMP on windows 10 firewall https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/allow-pings-icmp-echo-request-through-your-windows-vista-firewall/)
ping 192.168.137.1

Finally, add the routes through the VM to reach distant corp networks (adapt to your needs):
sudo ip r add 220.127.116.11/24 via 192.168.137.1
sudo ip r add 184.108.40.206/24 via 192.168.137.1

If you know the corp DNS you can also configure a local resolver (unbound for instance) to use this DNS for some specific domains or subdomains.
Comment: Hi @Subbeh! Those changes (ip command) will be cleared at next reboot. And you can also delete them changing 'add' by 'del' keyword. See 'man ip'.
Comment: Sorry @Subbeh, I can't test further for you because I have no virtualbox plateform. From your pastebin, 'vboxnet0' may not be the right virtual nic, why is there not any other IP, what is the virtual LAN that your host use to communicate with your VM's, take a look at https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch06.html#network_nat_service... Also if you only need SSH, you can install OpenSSH server on your windows VM and use ProxyJump (man ssh), SSH A > B > C (where A=linux host, B=windows VM and C=corp host). Good luck!
Comment: This is very helpful! I'm running Ubuntu and have Windows 10 installed in a VM using VirtualBox but I'm not too confident with network changes on my Ubuntu host. If I apply these changes, can I easily disable them as well if I want to use my default network settings?
Comment: Thanks @faust, but I'm afraid this is all a bit too foreign to me and I'm running into a lot of issues. With the risk of sounding like a complete idiot, I created the adapter for Windows and assigned 192.168.137.1. Now is installing libvirt enough for it to work with my vbox VM? Regarding adding routes - is this the part where I enter the addresses of the services I can only access through VPN? I'm trying to SSH into a machine with address 192.168.150.140. Would I need to run `sudo ip r add 192.168.150.0/24 via 192.168.137.1` to get it working? This gives me a routing error
Comment: Hi @Subbeh! I have improved my guide. Regarding Libvirt you don't need to install it, it's another virtualization solution but you have already one (virtualbox). If you are trying to ssh to 192.168.150.140 then yes, the 'ip r' command is good. And you may restrict to only this IP (so without '/24').
Comment: Thanks a lot for your help here @faust! I've been messing around with my config for the past few hours but I can't really get it working (see pastebin.com/1mAzNy2z). I'll probably do a clean install of Ubuntu and try again one of these days
Comment: Much appreciated @faust! I'll keep trying to figure out how to get this working and post back if and how I got it fixed
Comment: Hey @faust! I am struggling to get this work, could you please help me out? This is my vm (virtualbox) network https://ibb.co/s6Y5vn3 and this is my host (ubuntu) https://ibb.co/C8B2YCp. I can ping and nslookup via 192.168.137.1 but I can't fetch from it. Have you got any idea why that wouldn't work? Thank you
Comment: Hi @undefinederror, from your screenshots, the only thing that looks strange to me is the Zscaler connection. It should not have "cable unplugged" red cross. Are you able to curl or wget that same IP from the windows VM?
Comment: Hey @faust, thank you for your reply. Yes I know the "cable unplugged" icon never changes, even though it is connected. Yes from VM I can reach all IPs exposed by zScaler. Anyway, for the life of me I never managed to get this to work. What I've done instead was to use USB tethering with an android phone with zScaler on it. Not ideal but works fine and it was quick to set up. Thank you for your help anyway and hopefully someone else will be able to make use of your directions.
Answer: I also had the problem using Zscaler on my Ubuntu to access private company websites. Fortunately, I still have a private notebook with Windows 10. So I installed Zscaler on this private Windows 10 Notebook. Then I connected the Win-10 Notebook via Ethernet to the Internet. After that I created a Mobile Hotspot. After that i allowed other users in the Network to use the Ehternet Connection and As Home-Network-Connnection is set The Mobile-Hotspot-Connection. After that I was able to connect the Ubuntu via the Mobile Hotspot and i could access the private Company Network Sites. May this help someone.
Comment: Another great workaround. Nice one!
Comment: This solution is super easy and work great!


Does the Doctor believe in Santa Claus?

Question: I've never heard him say much on the matter. As he is a logical man, I'd say he likely does not, but he does "know" more than the average human. He once corrected Amy by claiming that some so-called "fairytale" creatures actually existed.
Comment: Then there's this from "The Doctor Dances" -- ROSE: Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas. / DOCTOR: Who says I'm not, red bicycle when you were twelve?
Comment: http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Santa_Claus There was one episode where Santa actually showed up, but he turned out to be a dream. However, the "References" section on that wiki article contains one or two things that imply he believes in Santa, particularly the picture of himself, Santa and Einstein together.
Answer: It depends on the Incarnation.
In "A Christmas Carol" (2010 Christmas Special), the Eleventh Doctor says this:

The Doctor: Father Christmas. Santa Claus. Or, as I've always known him, Jeff.

This implies that he knows him on a "personal" level, but seems more like a throw away line.
As Roger says in the comments, the Ninth Doctor claims he MIGHT be Santa Claus himself:

Rose: Look at you, beaming away like you're Father Christmas.
The Doctor: Who says I'm not? Red bicycle when you were twelve?

And finally, the Twelfth Doctor realizes he is in a dream only because Santa Claus is in the base with them. At the end, when they're flying over London, they have this exchange:

Santa Claus: You want to take the reins, Doctor?
The Doctor: You're a dream construct, currently representing either my recovering or expiring mind.
Santa Claus: Yes, but do you want a go?
The Doctor: Yeah. All right.

So we might say some incarnations of the Doctor believe in him, while others don't.
Comment: Interestingly, none of those particular quotes necessarily contradict each other. Taking Nine at his implied word, then of course Twelve would know that the other guy isn't the real Santa, the Doctor *himself* is Santa, not this external entity. And that suggests that Eleven has revealed his own name to the viewers: Jeff. Doctor Jeff. But of course, the Doctor lies, and Nine used some fancy wording that doesn't even actually *confirm* anything about him being Santa.
Answer: The doctor is kind of a fairytale himself. I don't think he started off believing in Santa because he was shocked when he saw Santa in the 2014 Christmas special when Santa had satsumas

Does the Doctor believe in Santa Claus?


how to determine if the client received the message using SignalR

Question: If I send a messag using SignalR, is it possible that the client does not receive the message? How can you verify if any errors apeared in the communication? Iam thinking of sending a message back to server after the server notification was sent, but is there any better way?
Answer: Yes, it's possible that the client doesn't receive the message. SignalR keeps messages in memory for 30 seconds (by default, you can tweak that or use a persistent message bus), so if the client isn't connected for whatever reason and this timeout passes the client will miss the message. Note that if he reconnects within this period he receives all messages he hasn't got yet, including those that were sent when he was disconnected.
I don't know if SignalR provides a way of telling you when a broadcast failed, so it might be safer to just send an acknowledgement back to the server.
Answer: As long as the client is connected, it will get the messages. You can subscribe to connection state changes in client side code. In server side code you can implement IConnected and IDisconnect interfaces to handle the Connect, Disconnect, and Reconnect events.


Holding in an atmosphere primarily using a magnetic field

Question: Assuming it was possible to create an artificial magnetic shield on the moon, would it be possible that a sufficiently powerful field could hold onto an atmosphere despite the low gravity.
Thanks
Comment: Only of certain compounds
Comment: As @tuskiomi has said.  Most gases are not magnetic.
Comment: I suppose to expand, you'd have layers. at the top is hydrogen. then likely CO2,  followed by O2, then the most magnetic, Ozone. some strange gasses between.
Comment: Why would gas separate into layers?
Comment: As we've detailed in [other questions](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/38433/885) before, if you introduce an atmosphere to the moon it will last 200,000 years on its own, with no need to contrive such a mechanism.
Answer: Shorter answer: No. Magnetic fields don't hold electrically neutral gases and almost all of the gases in the atmosphere except ozone are electrically neutral.
You'd have to come up with some other solution.
Now, if you are talking about "the Moon" rather than a moon, I'm not sure that the gravity is too low to support some sort of atmosphere under the right circumstances.
The Moon still has one-sixth of Earth gravity and an escape velocity of 2.38 km/s v. 11.2 km/s for Earth.
The moon has 85% of the gravity of Titan (which has a thick hydrocarbon atmosphere).
Chris in a prior stack exchange post (shit my apologies, I closed it before getting the link) noted that:

The escape velocity at the moon's surface is about 2.4 km/s. The mean
  speed of oxygen at 293 K is about 0.48 km/s.
A commonly quoted rule of thumb says that the escape velocity needs to
  be 6 times the gas's mean velocity in order for that gas to remain
  captive to gravity and the values I quoted are related by a factor of
  only 5. The air would contain water (since dry air is very
  uncomfortable to breath) and carbon dioxide (as a by-product if not
  also needed to sustain the cyanobacteria/plants you would want in
  place of planetary size mechanical carbon dioxide scrubbers, then
  there are the nutrients you would need to sustain those) which would
  readily exacerbate an atmospheric greenhouse effect and, with the moon
  being at about the same distance from the sun as is earth, you would
  expect the air to warm up to similar to earth temperatures, though
  without the moderating effect of oceans, and so cause the oxygen to
  dissipate. As nitrogen is lighter it's mean speed at the same temp is
  higher, v_rms something like 0.51 km/s IIRC, so it too would dissipate
  as would water vapour.
In short, it doesn't seem likely that it would be possible on the
  moon.

But, while everything he says is true, I think the conclusion doesn't follow automatically because 273 K and 760 mmHG pressure are not reasonable assumptions for the Moon. While the Moon's gravity could not sustain an atmosphere at close to room temperature on Earth, it could sustain a cooler atmosphere that was still warm enough to have gas form oxygen.
W = 3kT/2 where W is average kinetic energy, k is the boltzmann constant (=1.38x10^(-23) J/K or 8.617x10^(-5) eV/K) and T is temperature (K).
W = m*v^2/2 where m is the molecular mass and v is the average molecular speed.
So basically temperature in kelvin is proportional to speed squared. To reduce speed to the 5/6th of Earth speed necessary to allow the Moon to hold an atmosphere, you need to reduce temperature to 25/36th of 273 K, which is about 190 K (i.e. about -83 °C). This is Antarctica winter cold, but not uninhabitable and is above the freezing and boiling points of oxygen.
The freezing point oxygen (O2) is 54.36 K (−218.79 °C) and the  boiling point of liquid oxygen is 90.19 K (−182.96 °C) at 101.325 kPa (760 mmHg).
The average temperature on the Moon (at the equator and mid latitudes) varies from -183 °C (about 90 K), at night to 106 °C (about 379 K) during the day, which is an average of 235 K, just a bit over our 190 K target.
The existence of an atmosphere itself would probably buffer these extremes of temperature, preventing oxygen from going to liquid form a night, but the problem would be that the daytime temperature would cause the temperature to exceed escape velocity.
So, the real trick would be to see how to control the temperature on the Moon to prevent it from rising above 190 K or below 95 K or so. Thus the real issue is how to prevent about 50% of the solar energy that currently reaches the Moon in the daytime from doing so, ideally in a manner that shifts that solar energy to the night. The most obvious way to do that would be to get high winds going from the light side to the dark side at a sufficient speed.
On Earth, the distances are too great to accomplish this, but the lunar day is much longer (29 days, 12 hours and 44 minutes) and the Moon's circumference is about a quarter of the Earth's. So, if you could get winds going strong in the atmosphere and reduce the average amount of solar energy penetrating the atmosphere by about 20% plus a little more for a buffer (perhaps by somehow increasing its albedo, e.g. with the right kind of clouds perhaps by inserting water vapor or some other highly reflective colored gas), you could get a stable atmosphere on the Moon. It would have to be very cold, but it could otherwise work.
So, rather than magnetic fields, you might need vaporizers to create clouds and fans to keep the air circulating fast enough, rather than any kind of artificial magnetic field.
Comment: The moon's surface gravity is higher than Titans, 1.622 vs 1.322 m/s^2, respectively.
Comment: @kingledion Guess the source I quoted was wrong. This tends to confirm my intuition and analysis that temperature and not too little gravity per se, is the real culprit.
Comment: Correction to my correction, due to its larger radius, Titan's escape velocity is higher than the Moon's, 2638 vs 2375 m/s. That is 90 % of Titans, so maybe thats what the source was going for?
Answer: As others have pointed out, a magnetic field does you no good with most gasses as they are no electrically charged.
However, you do not need a magnetic field to hold an atmosphere on the moon. The moon's gravity is sufficient. The proof of this is that Titan, which has a lower surface gravity than the moon, has a denser atmosphere than Earth. In addition, Titan's atmosphere is primarily nitrogen, the same primary component of Earth's atmosphere. Titan is even able to hold onto helium and hydrogen, which despite being the lightest gas there is and the most likely to escape into space, still has a concentration of 1000 ppm on Titan.
Now there are definately geochemical processes on Titan that we do not understand yet which are contributing to this atmosphere, so I imagine that the moon would not hold an atmosphere indefinitely, but assuming human action is taken to put an atmosphere on the moon, that same atmosphere could plausibly be maintained on the moon.
Answer: Others have noted that the moon has its own gravity, but if you want to make a remotely earth-like atmosphere, you need to be able to sustain higher pressures and temperatures.
While a magnetic field alone is not able to confine typical atmospheric gasses, it is possible to trap plasma in magnetic shell and use this to contain an atmosphere (search "Plasma Window"). Note that current systems require about 12kW per inch of diameter for a hydrogen plasma window. The extrapolated amount of energy required for a system like this to completely cover the moon or even to make bubbles over select areas is ridiculously large.
That's with hydrogen though. What's preventing you from using helium-3, mined from the moon of or captured directly from the sun by some impressive space engineering--probably something like a giant magnetic collector in close solar orbit. Hydrogen has to be heated to 15000 degrees C to make plasma, but He-3 becomes plasma at much lower temperatures.
So, in answer, a magnetic field alone probably wouldn't cut it, but if you add some highly conductive gas (plasma or some un-thought-of ion gas) to form a shell, you could conceivably create an atmosphere inside of it. Power will be a huge issue though!
Answer: Oxygen is paramagnetic due to unpaired electrons in its outer shells.  So oxygen molecules are weakly attracted to magnetic fields.  If the oxygen is cold and the molecules have low average molecular speed, a magnetic field may slow the loss of particles into space.
Comment: Can you compare the attraction due to a magnetic field to that of a gravitational field?


Can using a non Apple USB cable damage an iPhone?

Question: If I use a generic/aftermarket iPhone USB cable instead of the official Apple product, can it damage the iPhone?  A vendor at the mall said that high quality iPhone USB cables have a chip that regulates the charging current so it won't damage the device.  He said the cheaper cables don't have that capability. Doesn't sound very credible, so I wanted to double check.
Answer: They are generally safe to use.  And they don't have a chip (at least the ones I've used).
The charger itself may regulate the current, but the cable itself doesn't.  I've used a multitude of cables from a multitude of vendors over the years and I've never had a problem with damaging devices.   Build quality is a different matter.  Too cheap, and the cables inside can break.   Rare but does/can happen.
Answer: the vendor is trying to upsell you to the expensive brand
as Rob says above the charger may make some difference (unlikely) but the cable wont
there absolutely is no "chip" in a 30pin apple ipod cable
Answer: There is no evidence that shows unofficial cables will damage your iOS devices. However, as a recommendation, choose the official cables rather than the unofficial ones, since the quality is often better with original label.
Answer: Apple's sync cables are junk, and can break "at the ankle" with less than a year of use, exposing wire, shocking you and shorting your device. Some third party cables are worse. Some are far better: I just picked up today the most awesome sync cable I've ever seen... from a BP Gas Station for $12
Comment: This doesn't really answer the question.
Answer: Yes and no.
If you get an apple certified charger, it will most probably only damage your battery as much as the apple charger, if not less.
However, if you want to buy those cheap or even expensive chargers from a non certified producer, there is no telling what it might do to your phone.
Answer: Hypothetically the answer is yes - but - for all practical purposes you will never have to worry.  One could somehow "rig" up a malicious USB cable that did something funky - but - one you would buy from a 3rd party should never hurt your phone (although the cable might not last too long)
If its MFI Certified that means its Non-Apple but Apple approved.  These cablers will be more expensive than the total knock-offs from china.
Answer: If you decide to use a third-party cable, I would recommend an Apple MFI certified cable. These will be more expensive than other non-Apple cables, but they have been approved by Apple and should not damage your device.
Answer: i bought a non apple cheap iphone 5 cable and it has damaged my battery, im losing 30% an hour when my phone is turned on aeroplane mode, i also noticed when my phone was plugged into this cable when i tryed to control my phone the whole screen would shake and crash
Comment: This is mostly anecdotal evidence, which is interesting, but hardly conclusive. How did you determine it was the cable that caused the problems?
Answer: I vote no on the cheap cord. Went from 24hr battery life to 5.  Forgot to plug it in one night bought a cheap one at the convenience store on the way to work. Charged a quarter of the way and stopped charging. Once home used apple charger ever since but battery life is terrible now. iPhone 5


How do I get the 'Returning Player' exclusives?

Question: I have a PS3 copy of GTA V and a PC copy of GTA V.  I've read about the bonuses you can get for being a returning player, such as a monster truck, a sub, stock car races, and a railgun.  Can I unlock this content with what I have?  If so, do I need to do anything special in the Rockstar Social Club to get this to work?
Comment: I'm not sure this is an actual issue on PC, upon further investigation.  I think all the GTA 5 content is there, except for time-exclusive items.
Answer: Source with additional information:
What you need:

A copy of Grand Theft Auto V on PC.
Previous Grand Theft Auto Online character and progression data on PlayStation®3, PlayStation®4, Xbox 360 or Xbox One.
A Rockstar Games Social Club account. If you do not already have a Social Club account, you will need to create a new one as part of the
  PC installation process. Click here for more info on creating an
  account.
A PlayStation Network or Xbox Live account.

How to transfer:

Start Grand Theft Auto V on PC and log into the Social Club.
Enter GTA Online via the Character Select Wheel or the Pause Menu.
You will be given the option to transfer your previous GTA Online  character and progression data, along with the opportunity to change
  your character's appearance again. If you wish to complete the
  transfer later, you can return to this option via the Online section
  of the Pause Menu.
Once you have chosen to transfer your previous character and progression data, the transferrable in-game money, RP and Rank of all
  previous characters will be displayed. These are the characters that
  will be transferred to PC. If you have previous character and
  progression data on multiple systems, you will be prompted to select
  one set of data. You can only transfer one set of character and
  progression data for your Social Club account on PC.
Once the transfer has completed, you will be prompted to choose a character and enter GTA Online.
Comment: Follow up: Do you know if this just opens up the extra content for the migrated character or does it open up the content for all the GTA online characters (new or existing) associated with the Rockstar SC account?
Comment: @MadMAxJr No clue, it might be noted somewhere on that site.


Cheese making, acidic whey, denatured protein

Question: I wish to know. Does protein in acidic whey gets denatured and is it unfit for consumption. By acidic whey I mean whey which was made through citric acid as splitting agent for making panner(cottage cheese). How can I preserve it for a week so as to get it tested in lab.
Answer: "Denaturing" is when something makes a protein unwind from it's normally stable, coiled state. The unzipped proteins are then able to tangle up with each other. In milk this action makes them precipitate out as the curd.
http://www.thekitchn.com/the-science-behind-why-acid-curdles-milk-222962
There are a few things that make milk proteins denature: Heat, enzymes, and acid. Often a combination of these is used.
There are two types of protein that are involved when making cheese: The casein and the water soluble proteins in the albumin. When milk is only gently heated and exposed to acid or rennet only the casein curdles. The albumin proteins are left. Heating the milk to 190F, in the presence of acid, will allow the albumin proteins to also denature. The curd that is formed through this process is called "ricotta" cheese ("recooked" in Italian).
Paneer is made by heating the milk before introducing the acid. Thus, the albumin is already denatured and locked up in the curd. The whey left from that cheese process is mostly sugar and vitamin B compounds. There isn't much protein left. You can prove this by trying to make ricotta. Bring the whey to almost a boil and see if any more protein precipitates out.
As for food safety.
Denatured milk protein is not only safe but one of the most heavenly foods on earth: cheese.
The shelf-life of whey varies depending on how the cheese was made. Most cheese methods produce a whey that is very acidic. It can be low in protein as mentioned above. If the cheese was fermented with bacteria then the whey is also low in sugars. This all conspires to make whey very stable. It will last for a long time in the fridge and basically forever in the freezer.
Answer: Protein doesn't get denatured by adding citric acid during cheese making, however it makes them "clump" together, hence forming what is known generaly as lactic curd (or in this case it would be "citric" curd I guess). For example in a Crottin style cheese (lactic goat cheese), that's what makes the texture all crumbly by letting the bacteria produce a good amount of lactic acid during the maturation of the milk.
What denatures protein during cheese making is chymosin, an enzyme present in rennet, that denatures casein, making it lose its solubility.
And even then denatured milk protein is 100% safe for human consumption.
If your milk was pasteurised before making curd and you made it with good manufacturing practice, you can keep it for 8-10 days in a refrigerator at 4°C  before it starts to go off. Or you can freeze it and keep it for 2-3 months.


How public-key cryptography secures bitcoin transactions from 51% attacks and Mining Attacks

Question: I wanted to better understand how public-key cryptography avoids 51% attacks and mining attacks, also if this question is wrong please correct so that i can improve my research and provide me with right resources
Comment: As Ugam said these two are not related. You may want to check out the tag [majority-attack]: https://bitcoin.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/majority-attack?tab=Frequent
Answer: Public key cryptography has nothing to do with 51% attacks. The only thing a miner can do with >50% hash power is double spend bitcoins for which he controls the private key or censor transactions by not including them in the blocks he creates. He cannot spend bitcoins for which he doesn't control the private keys.


Is Plato contradicting himself in the Republic?

Question: In Book VII of the Republic, Plato claims that geometry and arithmetic will lead to eternal/pure truth. However, as we know the eternal/pure truth are Forms. Knowing the forms is knowing the pure truth. However, what we engage in, in mathematics, is not the forms. He actually says that mathematics are based on unproved assumptions that that is why it is still nothing like the Forms. So what is going on here? Am I misunderstanding him?
Answer: The objects of mathematical knowledge are, as you indicate, not Forms. And the hypothetical nature of mathematical knowledge also removes mathematics from the unhypothetical first principle, the Form of the Good, acquaintance with which yields absolute, incorrigible knowledge.
But mathematics is an inescapable rung on the ladder to such knowledge. Plato distrusts and despises the senses; and what mathematics does, indispensably, is through its intense abstractness to deflect the mind from the shifting, changing, unstable sense-based world, of which there can be no reliable or accurate knowledge, to a world of stable, unchanging objects. This is how Plato sees the objects of mathematical thought.
It is in this pure state of mind, cleansed of thought about the sense-based world, that the mind is able eventually to pass beyond mathematics to grasp the unhypothetical first principle. Plato offers no plausible account of how this is to be done. We are asked to trust to a flash of insight, of immediate apprehension, of final intuitive insight.
In fairness Plato cannot describe the exact process non-metaphorically because he has not himself experienced it. He can only conjecture what it will be like, and so resorts to metaphor.
We can rightly question whether there is any unhypothetical principle to grasp by intuitive insight or in any other way. But given his view of the epistemological vacuity of sense-based knowledge, Plato finds (I think) a perfectly coherent and indispensable role for mathematics in the ladder to unhypothetical, absolute and incorrigible knowledge. Abstractness is the key.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Reading
R.C. Cross & A.D. Woozley, Plato's Republic : A Philosophical Commentary, Macmillan, 1994, ch. 10 'Mathematics and Philosophy;.


Double spending on testnet or regtest?

Question: I'm currently doing a research on bitcoin and I would like to know if there is anyway to replicate double spending in the testnet or regtest? If isn't possible is there any other type of "attacks" that can be replicated?
Answer: If you have some hash power, you can perform Finney attacks on testnet. With regtest, you can perform any attack requiring 51% of the hash power since on regtest you are 100% of the hash power.
Answer: For a double spend, on -testnet create a transaction and let it broadcast. Restart bitcoind or bitcoin-qt with -testnet -zapwallettxes=2 and then go ahead and respend your utxo's.
Note: I'll be honest, I haven't actually any BTC on testnet to try this with, you may also have to delete your testnet mempool.dat before restarting the node - try it?

Double spending on testnet or regtest?


UserControl vs LayoutAwarePage (Windows 8 XAML)

Question: What is the difference between <common:LayoutAwarePage and <UserControl... in XAML in Windows 8. Looks like both are used as W8 pages.
Answer: A Page is what you need to use inside of a Frame to support the standard navigation framework and the standard AppBar class. LayoutAwarePage adds support for different visual states depending on layout (portrait, landscape full/filled/snapped), which really is required when you are building an app to submit to the store.
A UserControl is just a simple way to group some UI pieces and code-behind together useful especially if you want to have a reusable piece of UI that shows up on different pages or if your page design becomes too complicated (eg. if you have a lot of XAML for different page layouts). It is also useful if you want to create a common control to be reused in multiple places or multiple projects, but don't care about being able to restyle it - then you would need to create a custom/templated control.
Answer: layoutawarepage are page that allow supports for the various view such as filled, snapped, portrait and landscape. in which you would have to handle the visualstatemanager in xaml and do the switching from various view in codebehind.
while usercontrol are elements that you can place in other pages.


When is a good time for me to change the billing address of my debit card?

Question: So I'll most likely move from Washington to Rhode Island over the summer, and I'd like to change the billing address of my Bank of America debit card sooner rather than later since I have to pay sales tax for Amazon and Steam purchases for things I buy online (as both Amazon and Steam are hosted in Washington state). So if I do that, would I need to get a new debit card? And what are some possible hassles that I might face in doing it?
Comment: I don't think the address of the billing card has anything to do with sales tax collection; it is the delivery address that determines what sales tax is collected on a purchase made on-line or on the phone. If I order an item to be sent to myself (or anyone else) from, say, Sears which has outlets in all states, the sales tax collected is that for the state where the item is delivered.
Comment: Debit cards don't get billed; they are tied directly to an account from which money is withdrawn.
Answer: Generally speaking, it's probably best to keep your credit and debit card billing addresses set to the address you currently inhabit. This way all statements and correspondence are sent to your proper address.
If you change your address after you move, mail forwarding should send the statements on to your new address (although delays and errors do happen). If you change your address much before you move, might statements/letters/tax documents from your bank pile up in an empty mailbox?
This is just for the general case though, I'm not sure how it would impact state sales tax.
You might call Bank of America and ask if they have any requirements. Or, if you plan to change banks when you move, ask the new bank. You could conceivably carry 2 debit cards at once if it would help.
Answer: I have moved multiple times in the last 5 years but my billing address is still my friend's parent's home where I had crashed at for a few weeks since I entered the U.S.
I have never been charged taxes based on my billing address: Read the comment from Dr. Dilip Sarwate.
The billing address is an artifact of pre-innternet era where they used to send the "bill": hence "billing address".
In today's times of eBills it has only a verification/fraud management value.
Besides that, in the matter of taxes, the state that you reside in might want you to pay a "use tax" if the retailer/vendor did not collect that tax from you. For example, I had to calculate the "use tax" for all articles I bought from Amazon (who did not collect that tax from me)
Comment: +1 for the use tax comment. As a practical matter, I have always found that on-line web sites are more careful when I ask them to ship something _to myself_ at an address other than the billing address on my credit card; less so if I am shipping the item to someone else at a different address, and especially when I indicate that the item is a gift.
Comment: Tell me about it - my CUs used to call me for confirming every such order, but now they know where I really live :-D


When calling in elk during bow season, where should the caller be in relation to the hunter?

Question: If you are hunting elk in a team of two people with one attempting to call it
in and the other to kill it, where should the caller be in relation to the hunter?
Answer: The caller should be at least 50 yards downwind of of the hunter. The reason is that
elk have a good sense where a call is coming from and won't get very close
(usually around 50 yards) to that spot unless they see another elk. If the
caller is right next to the hunter, the elk will usually stay just out of range.
However, if the caller is back more than 50 yards, then the elk will come much
closer to the hunter.
Answer: You need to optimize for putting the shooter in the best place to intercept the bull on the way to caller, while keeping both the caller and shooter downwind of the approach.  The bull will try to approach the caller from as downwind as possible, depending on how angry/horny he is.
Generally, you will have an idea of which direction the elk will come from and what the possible approaches are.  The elk will get close to where he thinks he should be able to see the cow or bull that is making the noise (the caller), and look around, also called "hanging up".  If you can figure out where that will be, you set the hunter up in a spot with a good view of the ambush site with enough cover to draw behind as the elk approaches.  Hopefully the elk will approach right into the ambush site and sit still while he looks around giving a good shot opportunity.  Thickness of the terrain and certainty of where the elk will come from will determine how confidently you can place the hunter in the right location.  Sometimes the terrain makes one approach a near certainty and other times it is difficult to tell.
When you aren't certain, the hunter needs to be closer to the caller because you are less likely to be in the right spot when the elk steps out.  If the elk gets around the hunter to the caller, it is unlikely to work out.
So the summary is that the hunter should be as far in front of the caller as possible while still being relatively sure the elk can't slip around behind and end up sniffing out the caller without the hunter having a shot.  Terrain and wind will dictate all for each situation.
(And then, once you have it all figured out, a little spike elk will come down and impossible cliff face to bust you right as the herd bull is about to walk into your shooting lane.)


Friends and close friends: are two tags necessary?

Question: This site currently has a friends tag and a close-friends tag. Yes, close friends is slightly different from friends. But tags exist to help people find questions. Are there really a lot of people who want to answer questions about close friends but not friends? Personally, if I was interested in answering questions about friendships, I wouldn't care that much about differentiating between the two.
Comment: I've approved your suggested edits, but I don't agree with your assertion that you have community consensus on this yet. 1-3 vote is not consensus.
Answer: Agreed. I think a more productive way to set things up is acquaintances and friends.
Answer: I would really differentiate between friends and close-friends.
The way you handle things basically different between who you call friends, close-friends, and acquaintances. You can be more direct and open to close friends than to just friends.

A perfect example:

What is the politest way to tell someone their breath smells?
To close friends
Move closer, and hint that their breath smells without drawing others' attention to it.
To not-so-close friends
Probably stand a little further away, and hope they sense why I did that.
To coworkers
Depends on how friendly we are. Refer the abovementioned.
To siblings
No limit on what I'd say; but not in public though. No formalities.
To strangers
Don't mention it. I'd do what I came to do, and move away.
Comment: Again, tags are supposed to help people find questions to answer. They aren't supposed to communicate all of the details in a question. Communicating crucial but small details, like if the friend is a close friend, is the job of the text of the question itself.
Comment: And even though you may categorise the people you know into those categories, there's no reason to think anyone else would use identical categories, or that they'd understand the category labels exactly how you do.


Black MIDI: Add 1/256 note in midi file?

Question: I'm working on creating some black MIDI music. Is there any way that I can add a note that is shorter than a 1/128 note in midi? Like 1/256 or 1/1024 (if I am crazy). I have tried rosegarden and musescore but both of them say no. Is there any software that will accept really short note values? Any suggestions?
Comment: Interesting question. One limiting factor in MIDI specifically is the rate that MIDI messages are sent. Depending on the tempo, trying to send too many note on messages in a short time could hit the MIDI transmission rate: http://www.futureproducers.com/forums/hardware-and-software/hardware/sequencers-samplers-hardware-/ppq-differances-among-sequencers-its-revalance-158356/
Comment: @ToddWilcox That's what I was thinking. The MIDI serial connection runs at 3125 bytes/s, where each note is at least four bytes: two for on and two for off. So if you're exceeding 780 notes/s, your file won't be playable over a serial connection.
Comment: @DamianYerrick Now I wonder about the sync pulse propagation limitaions in an old-school analog step sequencer setup (e.g., how many devices can you daisy chain with analog sync?) and whether you can sequence more simultaneous notes in the analog domain than you can with MIDI. Actually I guess if you use MIDI sync to sync together several MIDI sequencers each with a piece of an interlocking pattern, your number of simultaneous notes goes way up. LIke a handbell choir.
Answer: MIDI (SMF) files specify a PPQ (ticks per quarter note) value, which is used as the base for all timestamps.
Many programs use a value of 96 or 192 by default. The specification allows much larger values (up to 32767), but many programs do not bother to make this configurable.

Another way of getting faster timing would be to use 1/128th notes, but with doubled tempo.
Comment: Sibelius supports up to 512th-notes, but I don't think it is the right application for what you are trying to do.  As the other answers suggest, a MIDI-based app rather than a notation-based program would seem a much better choice.
Comment: Does any software support node above 128? I think these will be more convenient than to calculate.
Answer: I suppose the concern would be more about the time intervals separating the notes than the duration of the notes themselves. For rapidly sequencing notes of intended equal duration, it is probably easier to set the sustain of the sound through the envelope control of the instrument used. It's hard to predict how a burst of dozens of notes per second will sound, fine tuning the sustain of the sound by experimentation is an easy way to get the best results, without the need to change literally thousands of notes durations.
Now another issue is the time positioning of the notes. For my self the only way I have found to do that below a granularity of certain note value is to edit the MIDI events directly in the DAW. My main DAW (Sonar) allows to do that, but in a cumbersome way, so I have not taken these experiments too far. I expect these Japanese guys who do black MIDI music have specialized tools or even developed their own tools for that purpose, namely using algorithmic composition approaches.
Answer: If you are familiar with programming you can solve your task using one of the libraries providing ability to manage MIDI files. For example, with DryWetMIDI (.NET library) you can write something like this:
var midiFile = new PatternBuilder()

    // Insert 100 A3 notes with length of 1/256 following each other
    .Note(Octave.Get(3).A, new MusicalTimeSpan(1, 256))
    .Repeat(100)

    // Insert pause of 1/512
    .StepForward(new MusicalTimeSpan(1, 512))

    // Insert G#2 with length of 3/1024
    .Note(Octave.Get(2).GSharp, new MusicalTimeSpan(3, 1024))

    // Build pattern and export it to MIDI file
    .Build()
    .ToFile(TempoMap.Default);

// Save to file
midiFile.Write("Black song.mid");

Or you can take existing file and turn it to black one with use of Splitter to split notes into parts of the specified length:
// Split notes in a MIDI file with step of 1/512
midiFile.SplitObjectsByStep(ObjectType.Note, new MusicalTimeSpan(1, 512));

Read the library documentation to learn more about Pattern and Splitter.
Answer: Musescore 18.104.22.1688021803 has support for notes up to 1/1024.
By default, it will show 1/32 notes in the toolbar only. If you switch to extended mode, you get 1/64 and 1/128 in the UI as well. By assigning key combinations in the settings, you can access 1/256, 1/512 and 1/1024.
However, this does not seem to be thoroughly tested. After adding a 1/1024 note, the pauses are not sorted correctly, IMHO:


Are two blank fields considered equal in a Salesforce formula?

Question: Writing a Salesforce formula and my if statement is comparing whether two fields are equal to one another (ie. Field1 == Field2). However it appears to evaluate them as false if both the fields are blank. It is a numerical formula so the option to treat fields as blanks or zeros exists. When I switch it to treat blank fields as zero, the two "blank" fields equality evaluates to true (but unfortunately I need to use isblank later on in the formula so that will not work). Am I on the right track with the fact that two blank fields don't equal one another? I feel like they should both be null though. Is there any best practices in terms of dealing with blank fields and equality?
Answer: This knowledge article mentions:

To avoid blank values resulting for formula calculations, it is recommended to select Treat blank fields as zeroes to always display a value for a formula field but this is completely dependent on your business needs.

Further, this trailhead mentions that you should not be tempted to use = operator to check blank values, but ISBLANK()

It might be tempting to check if a field is empty by using the = (equal) or != (not equal) operators to see if it equals null. But the best practice is to use the built-in function ISBLANK().

So as long as you are following one of the approaches here, you are fine.


How does translational immunotherapy work?

Question: I skimmed an article on a recent experiment which suggested that it was effective to inject induced colon cancer tumors with an attenuated salmonella variant. According to the article, this stimulated an immune response which suppressed metastasis of the cancer. How exactly does this work?
Answer: Tumors are commonly infiltrated with lymphocytes, including T cells, macs, DCs and B cells. The crux of the paper is that their attenuated virus secretes TLR ligands (Toll-like receptor) that resulted in an activation of tumor-suppressive M1 macrophages, a concomitant reduction in immune-suppressive M2 macrophage activity, and an influx of immune infiltrate to the tumor.
So M1 macs are activated typically by IFN-y and LPS stimulation, which is typically through TLR4. Their salmonella is attenuated and causes no disease, check one. It's gram-negative and thus has LPS, check two. It's engineered to secrete bacterial flagellin, a TLR5 agonist, check three.
M1 macs secrete IL12, important for polarizing T cells to TH1/TC1 phenotypes that are oncolytic, and IL10 which can elicit anti-tumor immunity though it's reputation is that of an immunosuppressant. M1 macs can also kill tumors of their own accord by producing nitric oxide which is cytotoxic to tumor cells. TLR4 agonsim on it's own accord also activates T cells in an NF-kB-dependent manner.
Whats also interesting is the inflammatory signal actuated by the macrophages actually tells other immune cells "hey come check this out," and potentially makes for a more robust anti-tumor response. The idea is that inflamed tissues secrete signalling or chemotactic molecules called chemokines which are picked up by chemokine receptors on leukocytes, telling them to enter the zone of infection (and thus the malignancy).
You'll also find, however, that despite immunological advances, modulating cells is a challenge due to the nature of each type of cancer's TME (tumor microenvironment). And so in your paper they tested it in a murine system in bladder cancer, but will it work in a human melanoma must be qualified, for example.