ttyb serial port connectivity issues

Question: I am having issues with a device connected to my Sun V440 ttyb serial port. How would I test the connectivity of the port to see if any data is moving across the connection? I am trying to see if the port went bad or not.
Answer: An authoritative answer would require a handy oscilloscope and a knowledge of RS-232 signaling (thankfully, a dying art).
An ad hoc approach is to set up and test a cable and terminal emulator (in DCE mode) with a known-working system then try it with your malfunctioning system. For more details, see Sun Fire V440 Server
Administration Guide, "How to Access the System Console via a Terminal Server", p. 59.

ttyb serial port connectivity issues


Is there a problem with buying small amounts of a no-fee mutual fund every two weeks?

Question: I am treating my HSA as a retirement account. To max it out I contribute about $100 every pay period (roughly every two weeks) pre-tax, plus employer contributions sprinkled in occasionally. Once I got to $2500 I bought one of Fidelity's no-fee mutual funds (FAMRX) since that was the minimum investment. Now I am wondering what to do with the small contributions that come in. Thus far I have been using them to buy more of the same mutual fund, since there does not seem to be any costs associated with doing this. But I am wary that this may be a bad idea for some reason. Should I instead let the contributions sit in cash until I have enough to make a decent-sized investment in something else?
Answer: Aside from asking why you chose a fund that has an .80% expense, I see no issue with frequent deposits. If this is actually being treated as a retirement account, you should make sure it fits into your overall asset allocation goals.
Comment: If you have a $10 trade, buying $1000 of an ETF will be a 1% hit, obviously, but the low expense makes up for that in the long term. You can start with no cost ETFs, as littleadv suggests, and if you wish to change to an ETF with a commission, do it in large chunks, say $5000 at a time.
Comment: @CraigW VOO is 0.05% expense ratio, half of FUSEX. SPY is 0.09%. You should definitely check around and compare similar funds.
Comment: @craigW check around, some allow ETF trading for free. IIRC Vanguard allow 25 free ETF trades on their brokerage, so you can definitely invest in VOO and not pay extra over the expense ratio
Comment: I have a lot of other money in individual stocks and mutual funds so I was just looking for something basic with no commission. In retrospect I guess I should have gone with an index fund like FUSEX (0.1% expense ratio). Does it make sense to save up my contributions until I have $2500 to buy that instead? I have 30+ years until retirement.
Comment: I am near retirement, and when I look at .8% being 20% of the 4% I'd withdraw each year from savings, that number, both as a percent and in calculated dollars, looks high. On the other hand .1%, not too bad.
Comment: This might be a separate question but briefly, is it worthwhile to pay the commission for an ETF like those you suggest and not be able to buy as frequently, in return for a lower expense ratio?


Which bank is responsible if a fraudulent check is spent: the victim's, the scammers or the one on the check?

Question: I was recently scammed by someone claiming to be from a work-from-home company. She sent me a check that I was supposed to use to pay the "vendor" for my work supplies. I deposited the check and once it cleared (but was apparently not yet verified) I did a cash transfer to "vendor's" bank. Is there any way for me to get my money back? If so, should I talk to my bank, the "vendor's" bank, or the bank that the fraudulent check came from?
Comment: Unfortunately, that is indeed a fairly common scam these days. Be extremely suspicious any time someone tells you that you're supposed to deposit a check and use part of it to pay someone else. Legitimate businesses don't do that.
Comment: YOU are responsible. Not any of the banks. And, of course, the person scamming you has also committed a criminal act, but it's highly unlikely you'll be able to find them.
Comment: Btw, some of the work-at-home schemes have started collecting data for identity fraud as well. Watch your accounts, consider putging a hold on you credit, and consider getting your tax regurn in as early as possible to minimize that risk.
Answer:
Is there any way for me to get my money bank?

It would be a long drawn process. You would have to file a fraud complaint, they should be able to catch the imposter and / or get a freeze on the account you did wire transfer on [even courts would be involved in process] ... could take lot of time and money. Depending on the amount it may or may not be worth it.

If so, should I talk to my bank

Your Bank will not take any liability. From their point of view, you deposited a check, they sent it get cleared and reversed the transaction moment they realized it was fraud.

the "vendor's" bank

You could talk to Vendor Bank. However as you have no relationship with them, they may or may not co-operate. If its a large institution they may do their own internal investigations. If you act sooner, they maybe able to place a hold on the account. Often this is a parking account and the funds are moved elsewhere. They will not be able to refund the funds unless the legal system / process is involved.

bank that the fraudulent check came from

Depending on how the check was made ... the Bank can easily claim that someone printed something with their Bank's name on it and they are not responsible for it. If there are large cases, the Bank may to contain reputational damage may lodge a complaint with Police and put out some advertisement.
Comment: A lot of your answer seems to assume that the person sending the fraudulent check has or had sufficient funds in the vendor bank to cover the check.  Most likely this is not true and there are no funds to "recover" making any attempts to recover the funds futile.
Answer: The spending is not related to the check
The whole concept of "spending a fraudulent check" is misleading. Both in practice and legally there are two separate transactions - you (not) receiving funds by depositing a fraudulent check, and you sending a cash transfer further on.
Regarding the fraudulent check, generally your bank is 'responsible' in the sense that it's their responsibility to recover the money from you - it will not receive any money from the bank that supposedly issued the fake check, and if they give it to you, you spend all that money and are unable to pay it back, that's their problem and not of the other institutions.
Regarding the cash transfer, from the bank point of view it's solely your responsibility - it was really you who made that payment, you explicitly authorised/instructed the banks to deliver money to the recipient, and none of those banks have the duty to return it. You have been defrauded by the recipient of this payment, and may attempt to recover the money from the fraudster - but that's not particularly likely to happen even in the case of a successful arrest and conviction.
Very fast reaction with involvement of police may block the "vendor's" account before they are able to withdraw the money. If that is the case, you might be able to recover your money or part of it.
Answer: You should talk to your bank and explain what happened.  Your bank may contact vendor bank to discuss the account, but really that is up to them.
Then you should contact your police department and report the fraud.
Realistically, your chances of recovering any money is negligible.  I think your best chance is convincing your bank to work with vendor bank on a reversal(if it was a domestic transfer), although it is more likely that the vendor bank account is already empty and closed.


With today's technology, how much of the human body could be replaced by cybernetics?

Question: In the last few decades there has been a lot of progress in the development of prosthetic limbs. They can be operated by the user's nerve pulses, they can be fitted with simple touch sensors, and can be constructed from materials that are both lighter and stronger than their original limbs. I've also heard that some of the newer experimental ones can even be operated by implants inserted into the movement center of the brain. Meaning that the limbs respond to the 'intent' behind the motion and not just the user's nerve endings.

This gave me an idea for a short story about a woman who volunteers to be used as a testbed for cybernetic enhancements. Realistically, how much of the human body could be replaced by cybernetics and still be able to function, using only current technology?
Comment: Depends on your definition of "able to function". Do you mean "live as well as without it", or rather "somehow go thorough the day and only need help once a day, then die in ten years"?
Comment: "materials that are both lighter and stronger" doesn't mean they are better than biological ones - weight and toughness aren't the primary quality criteria for human organs
Comment: Based on [@CandiedOrange's answer](http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/52838/794), this would probably seem like a great idea, but turn into a really depressing story. I would totally read that book!
Comment: I found a site a while ago where they were working on a lot of replacements for human parts. I couldn't find the link again with a 5 min google but this is similar : [Artificial spine](http://io9.gizmodo.com/5825764/your-synthetic-spine-is-almost-ready)
Comment: Lets think about where we draw the line between a human with cybernetics and a robot controlled by a human brain.  If you don't need the stomach, intestines, lungs, & heart to supply oxygen and nutrient rich blood to the head, all that is left is being able to decode the electronic spinal transmissions.
Comment: You mean Ghost in the Shell style, but with today's technology?
Answer: This is one of those things that sounds cool until you think about it.
If our goal is to get as much of her body converted over as possible this is just going to be sad.
She now has prosthetic arms and legs.  They work but they are poor substitutes for the real thing.  Amputees actually have to have multiple prosthetics for different uses.
We can replace her heart and kidneys.  It will shorten her lifespan but we can do it.  We can replace her ears with cochlear implants.  We can replace her eyes by wiring cameras into her brain that will let her see a few pixels.  We can even shave her bald and put a wig on her.
All these things would be a crime to do to a healthy person, for good reason.
Not that there aren't fun cybernetic toys.  That chip you put in your dog can also go in your wrist.  With the right keyboard you never have to type a password into your computer again.
Comment: I don't know man. You shouldn't underestimate the value of a colorful wig with LED lighting. Think of the possibilities!
Comment: @enkryptor: I suppose it depends what you mean by "small" and "autonomous". With hearts the pump can be small enough to implant but the problem is powering it. Does someone with an artificial heart and four prosthetic limbs *really* want to also have to carry a heavy battery pack around with them? That's a huge physical effort, so clearly not, but they're alive and can move so it's a question of whether or not the prosthetic is better than the alternative. For a healthy volunteer it's certainly worse.
Comment: Small-sized autonomous artificial heart and kidneys aren't possible with modern technology, are they?
Comment: There exist people who volunteer to do sad stuff and not only cool stuff, so I don't see how that's an issue.
Comment: @enkryptor I didn't hear "Small-sized" or "autonomous" I heard "how much of the human body could be replaced by cybernetics and still be able to function, using only current technology".  Which is likely why this ends up sad.  Personally, I think cochlear implants could be sexy.
Comment: @CandiedOrange considering D-Nate said about "lighter and stronger than their original limbs", they expects decent comparable replacement tho
Comment: @enkryptor lighter and stronger is a good story when you've just broken a world's record.  Not such a good story when having to swap your legs before a date, or to drive a car, because the only shoes they'd fit in would be clown shoes.   There is plenty of hype about this stuff.  But there is a lot of reality that could stand improvement.
Comment: @CandiedOrange I agree with you, I'm just trying to understand D-Nate's vision.
My opinion is - we are still too far away from cyberpunk-style cybernetic replacements.
Comment: In regards to the heart, have there been problems with turbine-style artificial hearts that I haven't seen in 7 years? - https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-02/no-pulse-how-doctors-reinvented-human-heart
Answer: Let's say you want to limit yourself to current technologies, and fully cyber, so not grown from stem cells, cloning, or other 100%-bio components. Similarly no support devices (e.g. pacemakers) as the core organ is still biologic.
It has to be cyber. Meaning, a piece of wood instead of a leg does not count.
Furthermore, we want that the patient be freely to move around. She does not have to have a normal life (won't have, at the moment), but she should have to be limited to living lying on a bed in a hospital.
With those constraints in mind, we have currently:

limbs. Those are the easiest. The Wikipedia's Artificial Limbs shows some details. But essentially, and to various degrees, full arms, hands, legs and feet could be replaced. Some more elaborate versions are still under tests, but the technology is there. Do note, that one of the limitation of those, to date, is a rather heavy weight. So your woman has to have the strength and rest of the body to more around those four limbs.
heart To my knowledge, the only device respecting the conditions above is the one from the French company, Carmat which implemented cyber-hearts on people, and those were able to leave the hospital, without any external devices. But do note that those are still rather bulky, and as such are only suited for people with a certain... weight. Also note that to date, the longest surviving test lived for 9 months after the transplant. But most of them were on the 65+ years old.
ears, using Cochlear implants,
eyes. There a re a few versions of it, but one could use bionic eyes.
bones. Some bones can be replaced by prosthesis. See, e.g. for the hip.

Additionally, there is some work on-going about different parts of the body, like kidneys, lungs, livers, etc.
Many of the current attempts are focused on biological elements grown artificially. And as such those are discarded by our earlier assumption.
Do also note, that so many changes would incur such an emotional stress, that your patient will likely go nuts from it. Or maybe be simply exhausted.
Comment: `so many changes would incur such an empotional(sic) stress, that your patient will likely go nuts from it `  [adding up all that essence cost...](http://www.shadowrun.com/forums/discussion/35275/essence-cost-for-cyberware-bioware)
Comment: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CyberneticsEatYourSoul
Comment: Please, provide a link, where did you find this information "the longest surviving test (with cyber-hearts) lived for 9 months after the transplant"?
Comment: @IvanGerasimenko sorry, I couldn't answer before. But on that section, I provided a link to the wikipedia page of the company, where I got that info. Unfortunately, that's in French.
Answer: As early as the 1500s(edit: Can't find reference for this. Early 1900s video shows it though. Discussion here about video and head removal.) there were experiments of transplanting heads onto other bodies which were short term successful for what they were. Given the advances of medical science it is probable that you could transfer a head (and neck) of someone to a cybernetic body and be fine, but those experiments were stopped due to the ethics of the matter, even while doing it with animals. Also limiting this to the head makes it easier because the hardest problem that we have today that i know of is cleaning the blood which is mainly caused by other organs and nothing in your head.
A few years ago there were experiments of attaching and integrating animal brain cells to robots which if I remember right was extremely successful, but it was a short term experiment so not sure the life span on that.
So yeah, everything but head(and neck) things and even that's coming along...
The main issues that cybernetics face are different aspects of the same problem and that is incoming data and sensing things. Incoming data is simple to explain, we're making strides, but according to what I've heard it's a matter of trying to speak to someone who can only hear in English, but can speak any language, and we can only speak in Japanese. The strides are crude at best in my opinion, but life changing according to the people who have received the implants. The maximum capabilities is akin to a giant black board with light bulbs and the sensor implant can detect light and dark and light a bulb up in your brain so that you can "see" light/dark and that's your "sight". I recently came across an article that seemed to be saying that they're now able to make people see crude topographical renders, but I didn't read it. I just got that from the headline and image.
The other problem is "sensing" and that is basically when we say "touch" we're actually describing several senses such as pressure, heat, smoothness, etc. I'm not sure we can faithfully replicate many of those let alone all in one full body suit. For some this wouldn't be so bad, and if you had to take this option or die, when push came to shove they'd take this option, but ultimately without touch sensitivity you will have to learn to judge everything by sight and hearing which is very dangerous, but there is also the fact that if we can't master this, even if we can master every other aspect, it would not be a viable option as it would likely have a high probability of the person going nuts from sensory deprevation of some sort.
Side note: The technology to plug yourself into a computer exists. It just takes a while for your brain to learn how to control the computer and this is determined by your brain plasticity, so someone old might not be able to partake in this technology if they haven't already trained on it. Again, the main problem though is input into the brain rather than output. If we could work out input to a higher degree I imagine true VR would be incredibly easy (although with some major dangers).
I expect that full body cybernetic technology will be available in 10-20 years, or rather prosthesis cybernetics. For non-necessary medical uses I'd expect it to be available in 40 to 50 years and widely used by all people within 60 to 80.
Comment: "full body cybernetic technology will be available in 10-20 years" - we are still decades from a decent nanotechnology comparable with a simple cell, how can we expect the full body replacement in 20 years?
Comment: "As early as the 1500s " - do you mean 1950, don't you?
Comment: @enkryptor The earliest of these experiments that I can think of is DesCartes who successfully kept a dog's head alive with a machine for a short time. He was doing this in the 1500s.
When I say "available" I mean it will exist. We've had the tech to plug ourselves directly into computers for the last decade, but it's not commercially available yet. You have to understand that what is 'available' and what is 'commercial or ethical' are different. We made huge leaps with Nazi science because they put aside ethics, likewise a crazy evil scientist could likely use current tech to do Robocop 2day
Comment: Just being curious, I know about Descartes vivisecting dogs, but I'm not aware of any machines he used to keep them alive. Could you give a link for a further reading?
Comment: I might be misremember things, but I remember it being attributed to DesCartes, but I can't find it... These experiments I know Frankenstein is largely based on them getting out of hand. Instead I did find something similar to how I remember it being shown that DesCartes did... The dog head in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDqh-r8TQgs
Comment: This is clearly not 1500s...
Comment: I know they're not. As I said. I could not find the data on DesCartes experiments.
Comment: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/20335/is-the-video-of-soviet-dog-revival-experiment-real/20337#20337  Info about head removal from Skeptics.SE
Comment: Your first sentence is almost certainly false. Unless you can find a serious citation I recommend that you remove it.
Answer: Not much.
If you don't want to replace the body part with something significantly worse, then nothing, maybe except the teeth and the lens in the eye. And none of these are moveable or have any need for electronics, so they would not really be truly "cybernetic".
Even with teeth, modern implantology barely got to the level to make dental implants which last for a considerable amount of time and have a fairly low rejection rate, but rejection rate is still a thing and they only guarantee 10 years, even if it might last somewhat longer. The bone will slowly but gradually degrade around the implant, so a healthy natural tooth still has advantages over dental implants. And remember, it doesn't need any moving parts or any power supply, but we still only can do so much, using the best available technology.
About the rest of your body?

Although functional, motor-driven prosthetic limbs do exist, they are less agile than normal limbs.
Although artificial organs, like heart, lungs, kidneys etc. do exist, they are bulky, less efficient, and require constant medication for the rest of your life to prevent infection and prevent your body from rejecting them.
Answer: A full body prosthetic (i.e. a remote controlled robot) would probably be the most practical way to go, with the brain being kept at some sort of medical facility. Then it doesn't matter how bulky the life support machinery is or how much electricity it needs, and the robot isn't burdened with the weight of a brain and life support system.
No one really knows how long a brain can be kept alive on life support, there's a lot of engineering challenges and we don't understand the brain's needs well enough to support them entirely & properly.
As for the brain-machine interface there's a lot of work being done on that right now, worst case scenario you're a head in a jar with a screen, headphone and eye-tracking technology, it would be a terrible interface but it would work.
A few decades from now things are going to be interesting.
Comment: The question asked about today's technology.


Definitions of Hecke algebras

Question: There is a definition of Iwahori-Hecke algebras for Coxeter groups in terms of generators and relations and there is a definition of Hecke algebras involving functions on locally compact groups. Are these two concepts somehow related? I think I read somewhere that the Hecke algebra with functions includes Iwahori-Hecke algebras, is that correct? Is there a good motivation for introducing and studying either type of algebras? How much is known about their representations?
Answer: A Hecke algebra describes the most reasonable way to convolve functions or measures on a homogeneous space.  Suppose that you have seen the definition of convolution of functions on a vector space, or on a discrete group --- the latter is just the group algebra of the group or some completion.  Then how could you reasonably define convolution on a sphere?  There is no rotationally invariant way to convolve a general $f$ with a general $g$.  However, if $f$ is symmetric around a reference point, say the north pole, then you can define the convolution $f * g$, even if $g$ is arbitrary.
This is the basic idea of the Hecke algebra.  The $(n-1)$-sphere is the homogeneous space $SO(n)/SO(n-1)$.  A function $g$ on the sphere is a function on left cosets.  A function $f$ on the sphere which is symmetric about a reference point is a function on double cosets.  If $H \subseteq G$ is any pair of compact groups, if $f$ is any continuous function on $H\backslash G/H$, and if $g$ is any continuous function on $G/H$, then their product in the continuous group algebra is well-defined on $G/H$.  The functions on double cosets make an algebra, the Hecke algebra, and the functions on left cosets are a bimodule of the Hecke algebra and the parental group $G$.
It is important for the same reasons that any other kind of convolution is important.
A particular case studied by Hecke Iwahori and others from before quantum algebra was the finite group $GL(n,q)$ and the upper triangular subgroup $B$.  This is "the" Hecke algebra; it turns out that it is one algebra with a parameter $q$.  Or as Ben says, this generalizes to the Iwahori-Hecke algebra of an algebraic group $G$ with a Borel subgroup $B$.

The other place that the Hecke algebra arises is as an interesting deformation of the symmetric group, or rather as a deformation of its group algebra.  It has a parameter $q$ and you obtain the symmetric group when $q=1$.  As I said, it is also the Hecke algebra of $GL(n,q)/GL(n,q)^+$, where $B = GL(n,q)^+$ is the Borel subgroup of upper-triangular matrices (all of them, not just the unipotent ones).  There is a second motivation for the Hecke algebra that I should have mentioned:  It immediately gives you a representation of the braid group, and this representation reasonably quickly leads to the Jones polynomial and even the HOMFLY polynomial.
When the Jones and HOMFLY were first discovered, it was simply a remark that the braid group representation was through the same Hecke algebra as the convolutional Hecke algebra for $GL(n,q)/B$ (or equivalently $SL(n,q)/B$).  Even so, it's a really good question to confirm this "coincidence", as Arminius asks in the comment.  Particularly because it is now a fundamental and useful relation and not a coincidence at all.  As Ben explains in his blog post, the first model of the Hecke algebra is important for the categorification of the second model.
The coset space of $GL(n,q)/B$ consists of flags in $\mathbb{F}_q^n$, and you can see these more easily using projective geometry.  When $n=2$, there is an identity double coset 1 and another double coset $T$.  A flag is just a point in $\mathbb{P}^1$, and the action of $T$ is to replace the point by the formal sum of the other $q$ points.  Thus you immediately get $T^2 = (q-1)T + q.$  When $n=3$, a flag is a point and a line containing it in $\mathbb{P}^2$.  The two smallest double cosets other than the identity are $T_1$ and $T_2$.  $T_1$ acts by moving the point in the line; $T_2$ acts by moving the line containing the point.  A little geometry then gives you that $T_1T_2T_1$ and $T_2T_1T_2$ both yield one copy of the largest double coset and nothing else.  Thus they are equal; this is the braid relation of the Hecke algebra.  When $n \ge 3$, the Hecke algebra is given by these same local relations, which must still hold.
Comment: Historical comment (since you say "a particular case studied by Hecke...") : I doubt that Hecke studied the particular algebra you mention; he was studying the convolution algebra corresponding to classical "Hecke operators" in the theory of modular forms.  Incidentally, these were in fact introduced by Mordell.
Comment: Which is the case where $G=GL_2(\mathbb{Q}_p)$ and $H=GL_2(\mathbb{Z}_p)$ in the schema above.
Comment: Thanks for this nice motivation! Somehow, I still don't get it how Iwahori-Hecke algebras (specialized to a q perhaps?) can be viewed as Hecke algebras in terms of functions. Can I look this up somewhere?
Comment: Oh!  In any case, a particular case that was studied before quantum algebra existed.
Comment: Nice answer! Btw, do you know of any good references for Hecke algebras?
Comment: Except with Google's help, I'm terrible with references.  Hecke algebras in harmonic analysis often don't even go by that name.  Maybe someone else can propose good references.
Answer: A few more words to explain how (Iwahori–)Hecke algebras arise as spaces of functions.
The key point in identifying the Hecke algebra with an algebra of functions on a group is the presence of a Tits system, or BN-pair. You can find the proof for example in Bourbaki, Lie Groups and Algebras, Chap. IV §2, Exercises 22 to 24 if I remember correctly. (The exercises are doable.)
You can also find it in the book of Davis on Coxeter groups, and probably in many other places.
The Bruhat decomposition tells you that $B\backslash G/B$ is in bijection with a Coxeter group $W$ (e.g., a finite group for an algebraic group over any field, or an affine group for an algebraic group over a local field), for some suitable subgroup $B$.  A BN-pair is, roughly, a way to express the Bruhat decomposition, together with the behavior of double cosets.
Now, consider the algebra $L(G,B)$ of functions $G$ to $\mathbb C$ which are bi-$B$-invariant. If $W$ is infinite, you may  want to restrict yourself to "compactly" supported functions, in the case when $B$ is compact (e.g., for a group over a local field). More generally, there is a "bornology" on $G$ which makes $B$ bounded, and $L(G,B)$ is the space of functions bi-$B$-invariant with bounded support.
Then a basis of $L(G,B)$ (as a vector space) consists in characteristic functions of double cosets, so it is obviously parametrized by elements of $w$. Then you have to calculate the convolution product of two such functions. Then the convolution product can be expressed as the cardinality of some intersection of  double cosets, and this is the Bourbaki exercises. If the double coset $BsB$ has cardinality $q$ for every generator $s$ of $W$, then you will get the relations you expect.
Comment: It may be worth mentioning (since I can never get used to the notation) that, in the local-field case, $B$ is not a Borel subgroup, but rather an Iwahori subgroup.
Comment: Great, thanks a lot! I will also take a look at Bourbaki now that I have a guide line.
Answer: The Hecke algebra for a Coxeter group in the generators and relations sense specialized at a prime p is the Hecke algebra in the functions sense for the corresponding split algebraic group over a finite field with p elements with respect to its Borel.
I wrote a blog post about this you might want to read.
Answer: The motivation for studying Iwahori-Hecke algebras (the convolution type) is the study of the unramified principal series representations. The details can get lengthy, but it is all in a paper of Borel's (Armand Borel. Admissible representations of a semi-simple group over a local field with vectors fixed under an Iwahori subgroup. Invent. Math., 35:233–259, 1976.)
The relationship between the convolution algebra and the algebra using Coxeter groups was due to Iwahori and Matsumoto (N. Iwahori and H. Matsumoto. On some Bruhat decomposition and the structure of the Hecke rings of p-adic Chevalley groups. Inst. Hautes Etudes Sci. Publ. Math., (25):5–48, 1965.)
Answer: If you have an arbitrary (i.e. possibly non-split) reductive group $G$ and an Iwahori $I$ and you want to write the function-theoretic Hecke algebra $\mathcal{H}(G;I)$ as one of these other combinatorial Hecke algebras, you should do the following: take $W$ to be the abstract extended affine Weyl group, take $S$ to be a base of the affine Weyl group $W_{aff} \subset W$ and form the combinatorial Hecke algebra in the usual way (e.g. chapter 7 in Humphreys's little grey book), except that when you are choosing the parameters $a_s$ and $b_s$ for the relations, you should replace $q$ with the index $[IsI:I]$.
I believe this non-split situation was done by Macdonald, but I'm not sure.
Edit - I realized that "usual way" above requires some clarification:
First, you write $W$ as the internal semidirect product $W_{aff} \rtimes \Omega$ where $\Omega$ is the subset of elements stabilizing the base alcove. The length function $\ell$ extends from $W_{aff}$ to $W$ by simply taking the length of the projections of elements in $W_{aff}$ (so now there are non-zero but zero length elements). The Bruhat order also extends but that's not necessary now. Then the "usual way" means:

label your basis using all elements of $W$ (not just $W_{aff}$),
interpret the relation "$T_{w_1 w_2}=T_{w_1}T_{w_2}$ whenever $\ell(w_1 w_2)=\ell(w_1)+\ell(w_2)$ for all $w_1, w_2 \in W$" verbatim, but using the extended length function, and
interpret the relation "$(T_s)^2=\ldots$ for all $s\in S$" verbatim, not worrying that $S$ does not generate $W$.

Definitions of Hecke algebras


Is it possible to have an updateable log for an event?

Question: We have a requirement where we want to have a user updateable 'log' (text area) attached to an event. A custom field is the obvious answer but the  screen to update the field (event config) would not be suitable as it exposes critical data. Webforms for events are oriented toward contact signups - not at the event level but at the contact level, so are not suitable. And profiles can't be used for events, can they? The event in question is a nightshelter, where we use a webform to sign in guests. We want the night staff to be able to use Civi to keep a log for the night (i.e. the event), but apart from adding a custom field to the event (as described above) there doesn't seem to be a usable solution for us. Any suggestions?
Answer: What about using activities and a contact for the shelter?
Each activity would be an entry, you can use activity types, so it might make it easier to get some analysis on the log.
There isn't any direct link between the log and the event, but you can filter by date and get the activities linked to a specific event (night).
you could write an extension to change the layout of the event backoffice and provide a filtered view.
Comment: Thanks, Xavier - in fact one of our users created a contact and added a case to it, with activities as the log. You suggestion is more simple so that's what we might do. Working with small charities with no money I don't want to write code so this is probably the way to go but it's a shame there's no built-in way to do this.
Answer: I think you'll need custom code to do this.  Consider creating an event page that only exposes the name of the event and the custom field used for the log, using an ACL override on the custom page to allow people to edit the event who wouldn't ordinarily be able to.
Comment: Thanks, Jon as mentioned above this is what we'd do if we had the time & resources but was hoping there was a built-in way to do this, which there isn't.


Getting old bluetooth headset out of standby on Windows 7

Question: I think this is the problem, and if not, I'm open to suggestions. I have an old Jabra BT200 that I used to use on my phone. When a phone call was coming in it would beep using its own noises (meaning the phone never rang inside the headset) and then I could push the 'answer/hang up' button and sound and mic would start working. I have now paired it with Windows 7, and it looks good. Under the playback menu I have 'Bluetooth Hands free Audio / Jabra BT200 (Mono Audio) / Ready', and under the recording menu I have 'Bluetooth Audio Input Device / Jabra BT200 (Mono Audio) / Ready'. However when I try to test the speakers Windows sends a sound, but I never hear it, and when I talk in the mic, Windows never hears me.
If I right click either the Bluetooth mic or speakers there's an option to 'Connect', but it's grayed out and I cannot click it. As the final piece of knowledge I have, my headset blinks once every 3 seconds when it's in standby and I can't get that to change. If everything was working it should blink once every second at which point I think all of my problems would be fixed. Hence my issue: I can't seem to get my headset out of standby. On my headset I've tried sending it test noises and then pressing the 'Answer' button, but still nothing. The headset beeps when I press it, so it works, it just doesn't ever come out of standby. Is there maybe some way to trick my headset into thinking it's getting a phone call from my computer?
Answer: My Jabra is similar. To use it, I have to push the headset button first -- when I do that, the device becomes the primary sound device, and then things like Skype work well.
While in a call I can push the headset button to end that call. If I push the button when not in a call, the button ends the audio service instead -- and the normal PC speakers are primary sound device again.


How do I invite a user to talk in chat?

Question: I am concerned with a poster's question on feeding problems and want them to feel supported even if the question is put on hold. Is this okay from the community 'rules' point of view?
Answer: You have enough reputation to create a chat about any topic you like, but remember it will not be private.
Just go into chat from the top menu bar and you will see options for doing this.
Comment: thanks, not worried about private, just want a non answer format until I understand.
Comment: You can also magic link to the site's main chat by typing `[chat]` in the comments, so they don't have to search for it. It'll look like this when it works: [chat]
Answer: You can invite a user directly to chat (i.e. without having to create the room first then post a comment with the link), if they got 20 reputation across Stack Exchange. (i.e. sum of their reputation in all sites.)
To do that follow those steps:

Go to Stack Exchange chat users page.
In the top right text box, type the display name of the desired user, e.g.

Click the name to reach the user's chat profile.
Click the "start a new room with this user" button:

A new room will be created (note: no confirmation dialog) and the other user will get inbox notification with a link to the room. No comments, no noise.
Comment: How cool is that! Thanks! I think I am getting to know stuff and then learn something else. Maybe now I'm halfway there! ;) Is my 'inbox' the red square that notifies me that someone has commented? And ignore this user, how does that work? I'll assume we can't ignore mods and that an ignored user can still vote on your questions or answers? Can an ignored user see your posts even if you can't see theirs? Thanks for any and all help!
Comment: @WillowRex lol, all good... Yes inbox is the red square that lits up when you get new comments (or answers, like this one :)), as for Ignore it applies only for chat and means you will not see messages posted by this user **in chat**, it does not affect the ordinary sites and the questions or answers of that user.
Comment: Thank you! Okay, I have learned something today. (now I can go play!) ;)
Comment: @WillowRex hey what you play? ;)
Comment: House ;) -- seriously, I am writing a novel (sci-fi), I'm retired. I also enjoy the Sims and used to play WOW, but it got too intense.
Comment: @WillowRex House game?? Never heard of it... Well glad you enjoy your time, good luck with the novel! :)
Comment: house -- little girls play 'house'. Perhaps that is just a Canadian thing from the 50s, but to me it means I am home with my husband and enjoying the day. Then it meant pretending to be a mum and pretending to have a husband.
Comment: @WillowRex lol... Lost you... Well you can always explain to me better in chat... ;-)

How do I invite a user to talk in chat?


Trane air handler twe036c140a0 create "c" wire

Question: Trane Air Handler twe036c140a0 Create "C" Wire
Can someone please tell me the best way to Create a "C" Wire for a Honeywell WiFi thermostat (model rth9585wf).
Comment: Can you post a picture of your wiring diagram?
Comment: Yes, can you post the wiring diagram for your air handler? Photos of the wiring at the air handler would also help....
Answer: Based on this diagram of the control page 4 https://ww2-secure.justanswer.com/uploads/Wvfan79/2012-07-13_122319_twe036-sf-1d.pdf the "c" source is the blue wire leaving the transformer, which becomes terminal 6 at the low voltage terminal block.
If that diagram doesn't reflect your model or current control board then you would need to identify the two 24v leads from the transformer, one should attach to a fuse, the other should be the C source.

Trane air handler twe036c140a0 create “c” wire


Easier way to orient custom bone shapes?

Question: I've just begun using custom bone shapes and am finding it very tedious to have to align their location/rotation/scale to the bone after they've been assigned. Is there a quicker more precise way of doing this?
Answer: I found it very useful to work with "free rotate". You select a bone in pose mode and you press  R, R. First R for rotate, second R for free rotate. You get a very natural way of rotating that way.
Answer: For solving this issue I use a script called orient_custom_shape_V2.py I found here:
https://developer.blender.org/F207430
After installing and activating the script in User Preferences select a custom shape as you do normally (Pose Mode -> Bone panel -> Display section). Then you have this new button called Orient Custom Shape beneath the custom shape options. It should bring the representation of your bone to where your custom shape mesh is. Which is what we want.

It works fine for me (v.2.77). Though I know people experienced issues with scale and orientation for some bones using the script.
And as to scale I recommend having bone size equal to one if possible (this should not scale your custom shape at all).
P.S.: Originally this was an answer to this question:
How to position/scale custom bone shapes in same position as original mesh?
Comment: I have updated this script for Blender 2.80 at http://github.com/scaredyfish/orient_bone_shapes
Answer: Put the 3D cursor (ShiftS) on the base of the bone, then add a new object (a cube). Turn on the axis view for both the bone (in pose mode) and the new cube (Obj mode). In object mode, align the cube to the bone on the three axes. In edit mode, move all vertices of the cube until it surrounds the bone. Assign the cube as the bone shape. In object mode scale the cube equal to the bone shape. Last in edit mode rescale the cube mesh as it was when created.
Now you can freely edit the mesh: it will remain the same as bone shape.
This method is useful only for complicated bone shapes, as it is long and tedious; with simple meshes I prefer to get some headache with trial and errors movements.
A SIMPLER METHOD:
create a circle; in edit mode move on a single axis two vertices, to remove simmetry; assign the circle to the bone; in object mode align and scale the object to the bone shape.

Now you can freely edit your circle in edit mode: the bone shape will remain consistent.


Adi Buddha and Gautama buddha, Which one is the real avatar of Lord vishnu?

Question:
Many sites claim that there were Two buddhas and both were different.

It is said that Adi buddha was the real avatar of lord vishnu.

Gautama buddha was only a enlightened one but not an avatar of lord vishnu.

Puri Shankaracharya's view

Puri's Shankaracharya too sheds some light in this regard as he goes on to say that though both's gotra was the same i.e. Gautama Gotra, there were the below mentioned differentiating factors, indicating two Buddhas. These factors are:

Buddhavatara was born as a Brahmin whereas Gautama Buddha was born in the Kshatriya lineage.
As per ŚB 1.3.24, the Buddhavatara would be born in Kikata (Magadha South Bihar) whereas Gautama Buddha was born in Nepal.

According to him, the reasons for the confusion between both the Buddhas are:

The iconography of Buddha and that has been given in the Agni Purana, Chapter 49, was confused with that of the Buddhists. (When as per another site Buddhists were Shunyavadis and never believed in idol worship)
The Amarakosha written by Amar Singh, a Buddhist mentions the names of the two Buddhas in close proximity to each other which leads to the merger of the two. (Refer: this site for which names indicate which Buddha)

Puri's Shankaracharya gives another very interesting point that while taking sankalpa, the words that are spoken include a term 'Bauddhāvatāre' meaning in the era of Bhagwan Shri Vishnu's avatara named Buddha (जम्बूद्वीपे भारतवर्षे भरतखण्डे ... बौद्धावतारे...).

Also as per another account (can't find it), one purpose of this avatara born in the Brahmin lineage, was to give the devatas their rightful share and conceal those mantras by which asuras could be invoked and mantras misused.

Question :

Is this concept of two Buddhas real ?
Which Buddha is the real incarnation of Lord Vishnu and what is his entire story and purpose of the avatara, comprising all his leelas (have any incidents in Buddhavatara's life been merged with that of Gautama Buddha) ?

 Note: as for the story, some Puranas try to confuse the two and try to show the two as same, I.e. Lord Vishnu deluding some people from the path of the Vedas, which as per Puri Shankaracharya isn't true. He says it was for proper Yajnas etc too.
Comment: @SreeCharan the above question was about whether lord buddha was an avatar or not but in this question i am asking that which one of the two buddha's is the incarnation of lord vishnu. So the question differs from above one
Comment: I think hindus don't believe in multiple buddhas theory. So the only buddha avatara is kaliyuga avatara.
Comment: There might have been a Buddha  who was a Vishnu avatara before Gautama Buddha but He definetly wasn't "Adi Buddha". Because in Buddhism, there have been Buddhas millions of years ago as well i.e. long before Kali-Yuga.
Comment: Simple and honest answer - Adi Buddha is Pauranik fabrication of Buddha after he died. There were no Puranas during his time.
Answer: I think Buddha is mentioned in many Puranas like Agni,Padma,Vayu,Vishnu and few others.In all of them simply Buddha is mentioned or the term "Bauddha" is used.Although not sure if by "Bauddha" is meant the followers of Tathagata Buddha or simply those sects who don't follow Sruti and Smriti texts.
The Agni Purana ,however,mentions Buddha as one of the ten avatars of Lord Vishnu.

Buddha Avatar:
As there was an ongoing battle of Devas and Asuras for long time,
  Devas approached Lord Vishnu to revive 'Dharma' and 'Nyaya' and
  beseeched Him to take human form once again. The Lord said that
  'Mayamoha' would soon take birth as Buddha to one Sudhodana. But the
  illusions that would be created in the name of Buddha would be such
  that many evil persons would call themselves as Buddhists and undo all
  the Golden Traditions established in Vedas and other Scriptures. The
  misleading ways would advocate materialism in detestable manner and
  finally end up in the last phase of 'Kali Yuga'

In Bhavishya Purana,Goutama Buddha is mentioned but not as an incarnation:

In the initial years of Kali Yuga, the survivor Mlecchas gradually
  adopted responses to the new environs, new ways of life and even new
  language styles.For instance, earlier languages got corrupted and new
  expressions emerged; Vraja Bhasha, Prakruti, Sanskrit etc. got adapted
  from Gurundika (English) which was also different from Mleccha Bhasha/
  Yavani and new corruptions of various languages both in spoken and
  written scripts got adapted..........
Magadha Kingdom was segregated from Arya desha and was surrounded by
  Kalinga (Orissa) in Agneya or South East, Avanti in South, Aanart
  (Gujarat) in Nirruti or South West, Sindhu to the West, Kaikadesha in
  Vayavya or North West, Madra Desha in North and Kulinda in Ishaanya or
  North East. In the lineage of King Magadha was the famed Ajata Shatru.
The contemporary times of the Magadha Kings witnessed the emergence of Buddha Dharma set up by Goutama Buddha at Kapilavastu.The
  emphasis of Buddhism was on Truth, Virtue and Non-Violence which are
  already part of the traditional Vedic Dharma but were against the
  consequential Rituals. Goutama's philosophy created high waves and
  eventually secured wide spread acceptance especiallly supported by
  Kings and large sections of common persons. It was in this lineage of
  Kings were Sakya Muni-Shuddhodana-Sakyha Singha-Buddhi Simha-Chandra
  Gupta.

In any case, there some people who consider that Bhavisya Purana has been interpolated.
Answer: Adi Buddha

Adi Buddha is an avatar of Vishnu lived from 1887 BC to 1807 BC born to Mother Anjana and
    Suddhodana  in
  (Bodh Gaya). He born in the Same Ikshvaku dynasty in which Rama also born. The Adi Buddha Established the Philosophy of Ahimsa, Non
  Violence. He preached against ritual Animal Sacrifices that has crept
  into Vedic Hinduism.

Gautama Buddha

Siddhartha was born in 6th century BC in Royal Family of
  Suddhodana and Mayadevi in Lumbini in Nepal. Siddhartha received his
  name Gautama from his Guru Gautama Muni, who belongs to
  Kapila dynasty. He renounced his palace
  comforts to find enlightenment. He went to Bodh Gaya to meditate and
  got enlightenment. He meditated at the birth place of Adi Buddha.

If you look at the various arguments, you can say there were two Buddhas. Adi Buddha is the founder of Buddhism with Hindu philosophy. Gautama Buddha is not an avatar of Vishnu and who rejected Vedas and established modern(Neo) Buddhism.That's why you can still find remnants of Hindu thoughts in Buddhism.

Because Adi Shankara, who revived Hinduism after destroying the spread of Buddhism, gloried the path of Buddha.

I worship the spiritual radiance manifested as Buddha, who was
  all-knowing, who was the conqueror of Mara, who was full of mercy, who
  was of the nature of Buddhaand who was the adored of those who were
  opponents of Yajnas.

Reference: Were There Two Buddhas?  By Stephen Knapp
Answer: For the most part, I think it is Gautama Buddha who is the incarnation. This is because of the fact that Swami Vivekananda mentioning it in his famed lectures at the Parliament of religions at chicago. Again, Jayadeva mentions it in his Gita-Govinda. You can also see the Wikipedia post for pictures of Lord Buddha as an avatar.
Answer: The 21st   incarnation of Vishnu is Janardan/Adi Buddha. He was the son of Jin. Jin was a famous king of Magadh. At the time of the starting period of Kali yuga Narayana decided to come to the earth for protecting the people who was suffering from fainted and foolish knowledge..
(Source: First chapter of Garuda Purana edited by Dr. Gourinath Shastri. Published by Nabapatra Prakashana Bengali Version).
Comment: Welcome to Hinduism StackExchange! You should cite some sources.
Comment: It would be better if you give exact verses from Garuda Purana Chapter 1.
Comment: Garur puran.. Editor Dr. Gourinath shashtri.. Nabapatra prakashana.. Bengali version..
Comment: Bro Pritam does this book contain Sanskrit slokas as well? or only translation in Bengali? also this publisher is new for me..is it good? @PritamBanerjee
Comment: It does not contain any sanskrit sloke.. I hv no ida.. Bt If u want to my opinion it is enough for the beginner like me..
Answer: Shakya clan born Buddha was real one....
रक्ष रक्षेति शरणं वदन्तो जग्मुरीश्वरम्
मायामोहस्वरूपोऽसौ शुद्धोदनसुतोऽभवत् ॥ मोहयामास दैत्यांस्तांस्त्याजिता वेदधर्मकम् । ते च बौद्धाबभूवुर्हि तेभ्योऽन्यो वेदवर्जिताः ॥
(Agni Puran: Chapter-16, Verse 1- 3)

Translation — All the Devas request Lord Vishnu to protect them! The
the Lord says that he will incarnate as the son of Suddhodana, taking
on a form that was enchanted by Maya. He enchanted the demons and got
them to get rid of the practice of Vedic religion. All those Demonic
peoples later became Buddhists and others also started abandoning the
Vedas from them.

एतस्मिनैव काले तु कलिना संस्मृतो हरिः |
काश्यपादुद्भवो देवो गौतमो नाम विश्रुतः |
बौद्धधर्मं समाश्रित्य पट्टणे प्राप्तवान्हरिः |
(Bhavishya Purana- Pratisarga Parva: Chapter 6 :Verse 36)

English translation - On the request of Kaliyuga, Lord Vishnu in the
Kashyap gotra took an incarnation in the name of Gautam Buddha and
went to Patna for expanding Buddhism.

काषायवस्रसंवीतो मुण्डितः शुक्लदन्तवान्।
शुद्धोदनसुतो बुद्धो मोहयिष्यामि मानवान् ।।४३।
(Gita press - Mahabharat: Shanti Parva :Chapter-348 verse 43)

English translation - He will wearing light yellow clothes. He is
knows as Buddha, the son of King Shuddhodhana, who will enchant the
people.

ततः कलियुगे घोरे सम्प्राप्तेऽब्जसमुद्भव शुद्धोदनसुतो बुद्धो भविष्यामि विमत्सरः ॥ बौद्धं धर्ममुपाश्रित्य करिष्ये धर्मदेशनाम् नराणामथ नारीणां दया भूतेषु दर्शयन् ॥
(Vishnudharma Purana, Chapter 66, Verse-68-71)

Translation - Then, in the terrible Kali-yuga, I appeared. I shall
become the son of Śudddhodana and I will preach the Buddhism, I will
preach Dharma, I will preach kindness to men and women in beings.
Answer: By logic they both can be "The" Buddha, since Lord Vishnu's eternal promise to humanity is that he will manifest himself whenever humanity are in great need.
http://www.hinduwebsite.com/hinduism/vishnu.asp

stated in the Bhagavad gita, whenever evil gains ascendance, God
  incarnates on earth to restore dharma, punish the evil and protect the
  weak and the righteous
Comment: Yes, God incarnates when needed. Do you mean both the buddhas are the incarnations of Vishnu? There has been debates on who the real buddha was. If you are saying that they both are, cite some sources for that claim and make it clear in the answer.  That shloka doesn't mean everyone are Lord's incarnations.
Comment: I have no sources, only logic and philosophy. I know very little about hinduism, I've only read some hinduistic stuff because I read about end times of christianity and islamism.
Then I read about Kalki which I have some matches on.


S Memo home screen shortcut

Question: How can I add a S Memo note as a home screen shortcut? When I first got my Samsung Galaxy S3 there was a shortcut which I deleted.This was not  a shortcut for the app but for a saved note.Now I can't find a way to do it
Answer: Go to "Widgets" folder, there should be an S Memo widget in it. Push and hold it. It will give you an option to move a generic S Memo note onto one of your home screens. Once you've done that, you can open it and choose between making this shortcut an existing note and creating a new one.
Answer: Can you find S memo in application menu?
if Yes then long press on S Memo and add to home screen.
if No then Download from HERE and do above step
Also search in widget

S Memo home screen shortcut


Why does pool latency matter?

Question: I often read about latency and ping.
I am programmer and I understand what latency and ping is.
But I do not understand why miner can't process block with certain delay.
Why do 10ms or 100ms matter?
Answer: Latency of connections between nodes matters when mining because, essentially, a valid block found that reaches the highest number of peers first wins that block height.
For example, if miners Alpha and Beta both find within a few milliseconds of each other, their incentive to push that block around to connected clients as quickly as possible is that they get their block on the chain first and thus are able to claim the reward.
More technically, if we're currently at block height 10, and miners are hashing to find a solution that will become block 11, and Alpha and Beta both find a block, they can both claim it to be block 11. However, it only actually becomes block 11 when 51% of nodes believe that a certain block is the 11^th block. The other block, the valid block that lost the exposure contest, becomes an orphaned block, and gets pruned when the height 12 blocks start coming in.
Comment: When your miner mines a block, you embed your reward address *inside* the block (and that is included in the data that is hashed). So other miners can easily verify the block, but they can't change the reward address without mining the whole block again.
Comment: There is no such thing as a "sub-block". When mining in a pool, the pool lies about the real difficulty and makes it easier, to give all the workers a chance to find something (that way, the pool can estimate the amount of work your worker is doing). All workers mine complete blocks.
Comment: I thought every miner process its own small sub block. Or you mean that when I find solution then when I ask to confirm it then someone will tell that it is his own block (to steal it) and if he will be on faster network then he has chance to reach 51% faster then I.
Comment: So there are 2 miners that do exactly same job? I thought every miner has its own sub-block.

Why does pool latency matter?


Is it generally legally allowed for UK police to lie to people in the regular course of discharging their policing duties?

Question: Generally speaking can one count on the words coming out of a British police officer in uniforms mouth as truthful? Under what circumstances is it permitted not to be? Is there any special circumstances or authorizations that are required for them to be permitted to lie? If so, what are these?
Answer: It seems to not be allowed for a UK police to lie.

The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 makes it illegal for the police to mislead a suspect in order to make them believe that the police have evidence which they do not or that the evidence they have is stronger than it is, or that there is a possibility of leniency (for example in return for 'cooperation') where none exists.

Realistically, there is no reason that a police officer might lie to a suspect during interview.
Also see from innocenceproject.org:

The law does not allow lying to suspects, under any circumstances.
Answer: Further to @Daxelarne's accurate answer
An undercover officer (UCO), authorised under section 29 Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA), by the very nature of the role can lie - but only insofar as to create what's called a "personal or other relationship" (i.e. a covert relationship).
Although a UCO may have additional authority for "criminal conduct" under section 29B they cannot, for example, lie to entrap a suspect in to committing a crime they would not otherwise do.
Similarly, but to a lesser extent, covert surveillance officers carrying out "Directed Surveillance" under section 28 RIPA may occasionally lie to maintain their cover but not to the extent that creates a covert relationship. For example, Q: "Are you following me?" A: "Don't be daft, I'm looking for my lost dog. Goodbye"
Answer: See  Irina Khasin, Honesty Is the Best Policy: A Case for the Limitation of Deceptive Police Interrogation
Practices in the United States, 42 Vanderbilt Law Review 1029 (2021).
Pages 1031-3

            In Europe, police officers pursue confessions with equal zeal but
employ different means to achieve the desired end.6 The modern
framework for police interrogations in England, established by the
Police and Criminal Evidence Act of 1984 (PACE), focuses on the
search for truth by seeking reliable confessions through the use of fair
police practices.7 Rather than leaving the courts to delve into the
emotional state of every defendant who challenges a confession,
English law establishes a uniform standard for the police to follow
when conducting interrogations.8 To determine the admissibility of
confession evidence, the English courts consider whether police
officers have complied with PACE guidelines.9
            While some trickery by the police may be permissible under the provisions of PACE, English courts have held that the intentional
misrepresentation of evidence is unfair and violates the law.'10
Because this type of police deception compromises the veracity of a
suspect's statements, English judges routinely exclude any
confessions gained through deception as unreliable.11 Although
research suggests that the use of fabricated evidence is rare in
English interrogations,12 PACE enforces the prohibition by requiring the police to record every interview.13 Even a violation of the
recording requirement itself can result in the exclusion of a
confession from trial.14
            Although commentators have criticized deceptive police practices
for decades,15 American jurisprudence continues to overlook what
English courts have long recognized: deceptive police practices yield
false confessions and, thus, wrongful convictions.16 Confessions
gained through police deception are often factually inaccurate and
untrustworthy.17 English law limits the use of these deceptive
practices by establishing clear rules for the police to follow and
empowering courts to enforce those rules.'8 PACE artfully balances
police and prosecutorial interests with the fair and reliable
administration of justice. 19 In evaluating the need for reform in
American police interrogation policy, English law provides a valuable
model for comparison.

Pages 1051-3

           Courts considering the admissibility of confessions evidence
evaluate police conduct for compliance with PACE section 76 and
78.189 The cornerstones of the law governing police interrogation are
reliability and fairness. PACE section 76 provides:

If, in any proceedings where the prosecution proposes to give in
evidence a confession made by an accused person, it is represented to
the court that the confession was or may have been obtained
(a) by oppression of the person who made it; or
(b) in consequence of anything said or done which was likely, in the
circumstances existing at the time, to render unreliable any confession
which might be made by him in consequence thereof,
the court shall not allow the confession to be given in evidence against
him except in so far as the prosecution proves to the court beyond
reasonable doubt that the confession (notwithstanding that it may be
true) was not obtained as aforesaid.

Applying PACE section 76, courts consider the words or actions that
induced such confession to determine whether the confession made by
the particular suspect is likely to be unreliable. 190 Questioning that
might be acceptable in the interrogation of an average suspect may
still cast doubt as to the reliability of admissions made by a
particularly vulnerable or inexperienced suspect, such as a child. 191
Section 76 permits judges to exercise considerable discretion in
excluding confessions on the basis of reliability. 192 Section 78 further
develops the courts' power to bar confessions by allowing judges to exercise discretion in excluding evidence that would otherwise be
admissible on the basis that it would be unfair to offer the evidence as
proof in a criminal trial.193 In English courts, the function of the
judge is to protect the fairness of the proceedings. 194 Because each
case will turn on its relevant facts, the government has been
reluctant to fetter individual judges' discretion by drawing bright line
restrictions.195
           Courts in England routinely exclude confession evidence
obtained unfairly by some deceit or trick played on the suspect. 196
Even before the enactment of PACE, English common law granted
courts the discretion to exclude confession evidence if the police made
misrepresentations to persuade a suspect to make the incriminating
statements. 197 Since PACE was enacted, defendants usually
challenge evidence obtained as a result of a trick as "unfair" under
PACE section 78.198 If the defendant can show that the police acted
in bad faith by making a deliberately deceitful representation, the
court likely will exclude the confession from evidence. 199 In R v.
Mason, the Court of Appeal excluded a confession for such a bad faith
misrepresentation by a police officer.200 With no direct evidence to
connect the suspect to the crime, the police officer falsely told the
defendant and his solicitor that they had found the suspect's
fingerprints at the scene of the crime. 201 After being presented with
this false evidence during his interrogation, the defendant confessed
to the crime. 202 The Court of Appeal held that the deceit perpetrated
on the defendant and his solicitor was reprehensible and impacted
the fairness of the trial. 203 As the confession was the only definitive
evidence linking the defendant to the crime, the conviction was
overturned.204
           Although express deception by the police during the
interrogation of a suspect is generally prohibited in England, the
courts have found that some types of police deception do not warrant
the exclusion of confession evidence.205 For example, the English
"courts have exhibited a considerable degree of tolerance of
surreptitious tape-recording by ... the police."206 In Bailey, the police
had failed to obtain confessions from two suspects through ordinary
questioning; as a result, the police placed the two suspects in a
bugged cell in an effort to record incriminating statements.207 Before
doing so, the officers acted out a deceptive charade to lull the suspects
into a false sense of security.208 The police officers suggested to the
suspects that they should have been placed in separate cells, but an
uncooperative custody officer had placed them in the cell together.209
Assuming that their conversation would be private, the suspects
made incriminating remarks.210 The court found that the use of
deception was "merely a detail," refusing to exclude the admissions
from evidence at trial.211

Aldert Vrij, "We Will Protect Your Wife and Child, But Only If You Confess" Police Interrogations in England and the Netherlands, in
ADVERSARIAL VERSUS INQUISITORIAL JUSTICE: PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEMS, supra note 5, at 55, 56.
See JOHN SPRACK, EMMINS ON CRIMINAL PROCEDURE 4-5 (9th ed. 2002).
Id.
Id. at 7.
See Vrij, supra note 6, at 56 (stating that it is implied that evidence obtained by deceit and trickery cannot be admitted into
evidence in courts in England).
See generally id. at 55-79 (discussing interrogation procedures in England).
PETER MIRFIELD, SILENCE, CONFESSIONS AND IMPROPERLY OBTAINED EVIDENCE 11 (1997) (explaining that evidence indicates that the use of
manipulative techniques has declined since the enactment of the Police
and Criminal Evidence Act); Slobogin, supra note 5, at 43.
Code of Practice on Audio Recording Interviews with Suspects (Code E),
3.1 (promulgated under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, c. 60, § 67, pt. VI (Eng.)) [hereinafter Code E].
See Slobogin, supra note 5, at 43.
See, e.g., Magid, supra note 3, at 1169-70 (describing the criticism of commentators and the popular press of the false
confessions that arise from the use of deceptive interrogation
techniques); Margaret Paris, Trust, Lies, and Interrogation, 3 VA.
J. SOC. POL'Y & L. 3, 9 (1996) (advocating the prohibition of any lies
during questioning); Welsh S. White, False Confessions and the
Constitution: Safeguards Against Untrustworthy Confessions, 32 HARV.
C.R.-C.L. L. REV. 105, 111, 148 (1997) (advocating substantial limits
on deception by proposing that police be prohibited from presenting
false forensic evidence).
White, supra note 15, at 111.
Id.
See SPRACK, supra note 7, at 4-7 (describing how PACE develops a framework for the exercise of police powers and how it is enforced).
See id. (noting that PACE sets out the framework for the exercise of police powers, accounts for the public interest and provides
enforcement methods for courts).

See id. at 29 (describing the framework set out by Sections 76 and 78).
Id.
Id.; cf. MIRFIELD, supra note 12, at 283 ("[T]he mental handicap of the
accused may properly be considered . . . for the purposes of section 76(2)(b)."). The
leading case is R v. Everett. See Case Comment, Reliability of Confession-Mental
Condition of Suspect: R v. Everett, 1988 CRIM. L. REV. 826 (Eng.).
Confession and Breaches of Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE) (U.K.),
http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/a_to_c/confession_and_breaches_of_police_and_criminal_evidence_act/ (last visited Mar. 24, 2009).
Id.
Id.
Id.
See Richard Stone, Exclusion of Evidence Under Section 78 of the Police and
Criminal Evidence Act: Practice and Principles, 3 WEB J. CURRENT LEGAL ISSUES, § 11. 1
(1995), http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/articles3/stone3.html; cf. R v. Houghton, (1978) 68 Crim.
App. 197, 206 (Eng.) ("Evidence would operate unfairly against an accused if it had
been obtained in an oppressive manner by force or against the wishes of an accused
person or by a trick or by conduct of which the Crown ought not to take advantage.")
(citations omitted); MIRFIELD, supra note 12, at 12 (recognizing the "emerging
consensus in official circles" that the kind of tactics "advocated by Inbau, Reid, and
Buckley, as well as being arguably unethical, is also inimical to the gathering of
reliable confession evidence").
MIRFIELD, supra note 12, at 199.
Id. at 205-09.
Id. at 206.
R v. Mason, (1988) 1 W.L.R. 139, 144 (Eng.).
Id. at 142.
Id.
Id. at 144.
Id.
MIRFIELD, supra note 12, at 207.
Id. at 208.
R v. Bailey, (1993) 3 All E.R. 513, 514 (Eng.).
Id.
Id.
Id.
Id.


What is Chromatic Aberration?

Question: What is Chromatic Aberration? Is it a physical part of the lens, or just an optical illusion?
Answer: Chromatic Aberration is a distortion that occurs when a lens focuses different colours slightly differently.
It is caused by the refractive index of the lens (the amount that the lens bends light) being slightly different for different colours, so I suppose you could say it is caused by physical properties of the lens. It is possible to produce higher quality lenses that exhibit this effect to a lesser extent.
Wikipedia has a very detailed article on chromatic aberration.
Comment: It is worth noting that there are two prominent chromatic aberrations; axial CA, which is what you describe, and lateral CA, which is more commonly an issue and is a separate aberration entirely.
Answer: When light enters or exits glass at an angle, it bends.  But the different colours in the light bend by a different amount.
Lenses try to cancel this effect out with multiple opposing elements, particularly with different densities of glass.  Some lenses will advertise that they have low dispersion glass or "ED" glass on one of the elements - this is one thing that can help them design a lens that reduces chromatic abberation.  Reducing chromatic abberation tends to involve compromise - there's no such thing as perfect as it would compromise on some other quality of the lens.
So you may still see colour fringes, particularly at the edge of your frame (where the light hits your lens at a greater angle) in some conditions (typically high contrast).  The colour fringes will often be blue (or purple-ish) as blue light bends (refracts) more than other colours.  You may also see colour fringes in out of focus areas (bokeh).  Different lens designs will show this up differently.
Answer: If you're trying to figure out how to identify it in your photos, it's that faint purple halo that appears.  It's usually easy to spot when shooting a dark object against a bright background.
Answer: Chromatic aberration is color fringing along the edges of things in your photographic image. It's caused by the optical design of the lens, and is a physical property of the lens.
It's caused when the glass refracts the light and can't get all the frequencies (colors) of light to coalesce together, physically, in the same spot on the sensor. IOW, it's sort of acting like a prism and splitting the colors apart. Typically, a more expensive lens has additional corrective elements to help eliminate this.
If the frequency split is side-by-side, this is known as lateral chromatic aberration (also called transverse CA), and you typically see blue/red "shadows" side by side. Post-processing can often eliminate this form of CA by realigning the different colors.
If, however, the split is front-to-back, this is known as longitudinal chromatic aberration along with a bunch of other names like "bokeh CA". In this case you more commonly see green/purple halos around subjects. It's very common as purple fringe with fast prime lenses shot wide open, and can be mitigated by stopping the lens down to a smaller aperture setting.
See also:

Photography Life: "What is Chromatic Abberation?"
Adobe's page on CA, with tips on how to avoid/mitigate it.

What is Chromatic Aberration?


Variations of biomes in low-tilting worlds

Question: A world with a low axial tilt will have no distinguishable seasons; but would this said world have different biomes across its surface? If so, what would influence the variation of these biomes?
Comment: Worlds are very large places and, even without distinguishable seasons, will have environmental variations/contours on it's surface.
Answer: Yes, the worlds would have deserts, rainforests and cooler areas. Without tilt the middle region of the world still has the highest energy density received from the sun, because of the angle. And the north and southpole are still the coldest, because of the angle.
There would still be continental (huge landmasses) and near-ocean-landmass climate differences.
Ocean currents would have a harder time to develop without ice, as they rely on temperature differences. Those still exist on a world without tilt, but are not as huge as on a world with ice.
Without seasons the northpole and southpole are less likely to have ice, but that depends heavily on the average temperature of the planet and the amount of water nearby.
Water helps to average out the temperature as it acts like a huge energy reservoir that takes and gives energy whenever there is a difference to the surrounding air.
A huge landmass at the north or southpole may still be cold enough to have ice, while a small landmass or pure water is less likely to have ice.
Comment: Why would they be less likely to have ice? That would depend more on the placement of continents and the average planetary temprature.
Answer: The vegetation biome chart on the Wikipedia Biome article is a good illustration of the degree to which climate variation is not based on mere distance from the equator.

Notice that western Europe has a relatively warm, temperate climate, even though it's at similar latitudes as the taiga forests of Russia and Canada. This regional warmth comes from the Gulf Stream that brings warm ocean currents from the Gulf of Mexico to European waters.
Similarly, Peru has a colder ("subtropical") biome for its latitude, which is driven by the Humboldt Current importing cold water from the Antarctic.

Ocean currents are determined by a large number of factors, but the changing of the seasons is a relatively minor one (having the most notable impact on equatorial currents, where the Coriolis effect is weakest).
A planet without seasons will still have a Coriolis force, solar and lunar tides, and wind/ocean currents that are shaped by the contours of land masses. These can drive major changes in biomes independent of seasonal variation.
I mentioned Peru in the context of the Humboldt Current, and I think Peru is a great example case that deserves extra attention. Peru is relatively close to the equator, so you wouldn't expect it to see great seasonal variation the way (for example) northern Europe experiences summers and winters. But check out the different climates in Peru:

Peru has warm and cold deserts, alpine mountains, equatorial rainforests, savannah, and temperate subtropics. The contour of land and the flow of wind and water currents have combined to produce a great variety of biomes within a relatively small area, despite being in an area with reduced (compared to more polar regions) differentiation between summer and winter.
(Note: Peru does experience seasons, but the biome variation across Peru is not created by seasonal variation.)
Answer: Assuming the planet is situated at the same distance as Earth from a similar star as our Sun, the climate would be worse than on Earth.
The equator would be warmer than it is on Earth while the polar regions and temperate areas would be colder.
The areas that are temperate on Earth would be permanently frozen. There would be no plant life even at the latitude of Moscow because of no warm season.
The area would be most likely covered with ice, and it will accumulate because of no thawing time.
This will produce chain reaction due to higher ice albedo. The climate of the whole planet would be cooler and most of it would be covered in ice, while a tiny strip on equator would be warmer and dryer.
The poles (especially if there are continents at the poles) would have large areas where sun never shines.


Jump start car blow multi fuse and radio

Question: Car was jump started with jump start pack, blew multi fuse and destroyed radio/ audio system. The owner of company that jump started the car stated that the safety features on the portable machine make it impossible to incorrectly attach cables. However damage was done. My questions: are there faulty portable jump start systems, inherent problems with 2013 Kia Soul, or just general electrical system failure. Would consider the radio/ audio system needs new fuse too, seems like 2 different fuses according to owners manual. Would have thought dealership would have checked all fuses but it is Kia after all. 10A 15A fuse
Comment: They are responsible for the damage, doubt there is anything you can do to force them to do anything for you outside of a courtroom.
Comment: I find it near impossible for your average jump packs to blow fuses when used properly, even when momentarily hooked in reverse they do not generally blow fuses. Why did you need a boost in the first place, this may be a better path to look into of what could have caused the issue's.
Answer: Occasionally it is possible to blow fuses or some electronics equipment while boosting even with the cables attached properly (+ to +, - to ground).
In my opinion, what you are describing is not necessarily the fault of the road assistance company.
Answer: NEVER ADD A NEGATIVE GROUND FROM BATTERY TO BATTERY OR A CHARGER FIND A GROUND ON THE MOTOR correct if wrong if a spark surges through your system via the coil or regulator into the computer does this blow fuses and possibly ruin your computer for safety from such an occurrence find a ground like the motor ground least that what my Nissan manual reads sometimes the alternator could short out like putting the  positive wire on the wrong side of the alternator lol as far as shorting out inside the car think there is a tool you can buy that beeps like a sonar faster as you get closer to the short
Comment: "correct if wrong if a spark surges through your system via the coil or regulator into the computer does this blow fuses and possibly ruin your computer"....
Most modern ecu's have built in transient voltage protection so its more likely to blow the external fuses then damage the actual ecu's. Don't get me wrong it happens, but not as often as people would lead you to believe.


Boot from SD but use a thumb drive as RootFS

Question: How would I make my RPi boot from the SD card, then immediately direct to my thumb drive (USB/Flash Disk) to run the Root FileSystem. I need to do this because I will be doing some quite heavy storage stuff on my RPi and I need more space, thus I'm moving to the thumb drive.
How would I (step-by-step please) be able to do such thing?
Comment: While this isn't too hard, two questions first: do you have another unix (linux, OSX) at hand and more importantly why move the rootfs? Does 'heavy storage' imply you also need the speed or is it just about 'more space'? In the latter case it would be a lot easier to just mount the usb drive someplace and leave the root where it is.
Comment: @Max I do have another Unix system at hand. And I'm moving it primarily because of space but also because of speed. The reason why Im moving it, is because I only really use command line, and doesnt matter where i look I find how to mount the thumb drive but at the same time can't figure out how to use it so it stores packages downloaded with apt-get. If you could tell me how to use it for packages without have to swap the disks because it'd decrease my SD card's life, I'd appreciate it. Otherwise show me how to do as I asked above. Thanks.
Answer: Rather than moving the whole root partition, you could create a partition on the USB stick, and then pick a mount point for this where the space is required.  For example, if you needed more space for downloaded apt packages, which live in /var/cache then you could mount the new partition on /var meaning that everything under this path would be stored in the USB drive.
Basically you need to:

Create a partition on the USB stick (This is well documented), and format that partition, for example # mke2fs -j /dev/sdb1 to create an ext3 partition, assuming the USB device is /dev/sdb
Mount it in a temporary location, and copy the existing contents of /var to that location.  Something like:
# mkdir /mnt/temp
# mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/temp
# mv -v /var/* /mnt/temp
# umount /mnt/temp
Set up an entry in /etc/fstab so that the file system is mounted at boot time.  Something like this would work:
/dev/sdb1  /var    ext3    defaults    0 0
Reboot the RaspberryPi, and when the system starts up /var should be on the external partition.  You can verify this with the mount or df commands.


Where to buy tefillin parts

Question: Does anyone know where to get tefillin parts, specifically retzuot and batim as a friend of mine needs new batim and I need new retzuot.
Comment: Does anyone know R' Melech Michaels (mezuzadepot.com)?
Comment: I only know him via his reputation and blog. I would say he's a great source to buy from because he has a reputation for good work and he is very strict about hagaha
Comment: That's what I've heard, furthermore one of the local rabbanim from the Boston area is from Monsey and also has heard good reports about him.
Comment: Of course the caveat is that the best man to buy from is not always the best man to have check your STA"M because of "Hatorah chasa al memonam shel yisrael". Are you dead set on buying online?
Comment: I'm not looking for parshiyot, otherwise I would not look online, I am looking for retzuot for me and battim for a friend. On the battim, my friend is looking for a sh"r with a sephardi ש (vellish), while his present sh"r has a Chaba"d ש.
Comment: @Yitzchak, I recently got new tefillin through R' Michaels and I am quite satisfied. His sofer wrote them according to Minhag Ashkenaz (Beit Yosef with צ similar to the Ari) He sent me the computer check sheet which showed that the sofer acquitted himself admirably.
Answer: If you need to order online, you could try Oter Yisrael  - even though they don't seem to have those items for sale, they are very friendly and may ship you individual items. (Personal recommendation; I've bought many pairs of Tefilin from them over the past 30 years for my brothers and sons.)
Another place which has an online presence with a very good reputation is Tefilin Bet El, though I've never actually been there. They seem to sell Tefillin straps online.
If you are in Geula there's a great place just off Kikar Shabbat at the top of Yechezkel where I replaced my Tefillin straps recently.
Or you could go to HaSofer - or visit them virtually. They sell straps online.
The only ones selling Batim online seem to be GooDaica - but I know nothing about them.
Comment: No - it does not. But I added haSofer, in Geula - and its URL to the answer. http://www.hasofer.com/page.pl?p=retzuot
Comment: "If you are in Geula…" does it have a website?
Answer: http://www.judaism.com/giftware/tefillin.asp?nt=Bm indicates that they sell tefillin entire, but e-mail them: they will sell tefillin parts also.
The address is firstname.lastname@example.com.

Where to buy tefillin parts


Inquiring about a colleague's retirement plans without seeming to be rude?

Question: A colleague is nearing retirement age, and you are curious as to when they will take the step and what they plan to get up to. Your intentions are not self-serving beyond the fact that you will miss the person when they go; and you are genuinely interested in what life holds in store for them. How can you ask them about their plans without coming across as "rushing them out the door?"
Comment: Advise on phrasing would be most welcome.
Answer: So much depends on why you are asking:

are you worried about what you will do when they're gone?
are you curious about a chain of promotions once their spot opens up?
are you planning your own retirement and looking for ideas and options for what to do afterwards?
do you just think it would be a nice conversational topic with someone you feel friendly towards?

There's a huge difference between "When will you retire?" and "What will you do when you retire?". Either one can be rude, but certainly the first is more likely to be a problem.
If your reasons for asking are both personal and positive, then you can surely ask. State your reason, then ask directly:

I hear scuttlebutt that you might be nearing retirement age even though you don't look it. Is that true?
Man, if you ever retire my lunch breaks are going to be so boring! Tell me that won't be for years yet.
I just got back from a week at the cottage. Some day I'm going to retire there and have the best summers of my life. [They may just say "that sounds nice" or they may tell you their plan. Don't push if they don't pick up the hint.]
Joe from Accounting is retiring eh? I never thought about it. Have you? [Don't do this if you're 30-40 years younger than retirement age.]

When you want information from someone, my strategy is "give before you take" - give them a piece of information, and then ask something. It gives them context so they know why you're asking and don't feel nervous that they're going to be pressured into something.
Answer: This is a tough one :P
I would personally ask them if they are planning on retiring soon. Moving around the question bothers me as a person and people being honest really helps.
Try this:
Hey, how are you doing? ... <normal conversation> ... so I have been meaning to ask you, are you planning to retire anytime soon? I would miss you when you retire.
Really just getting to the point and not trying to probe around the question would help out.
I personally used this in my life and it turned out fine. Nobody was offended or felt "rushed out the door". Sometimes not trying to go around the question is the right thing to do.
Comment: Have you tried this yourself? We need answers that are based on evidence or experience. Making a guess at what might work doesn't really give someone a good idea of whether it will work.
Comment: Then you need to explain that in your answer.
Comment: @Catija I have asked people about this, and guess what! It worked just fine.


Create, sign and deploy certificates in Ubuntu 14 system using certtool

Question: I'm trying to learn about certificate generation, signing and what it takes to become a CA.
I am developing a HTTP proxy, which will be a middle proxy between browser and actual web server, and it will be used to record the HTTPS messages send received between browser and actual web server.
I need to generate dynamic certificates for domains browsed in browser in HTTP proxy that I am developing in a Ubuntu 14 64 bit machine. I want chrome should work smoothly while browsing various sites.
What I have done so far:

Created key and self signed certificate for CA using below commands.
certtool --generate-privkey --outfile ca-key.pem
certtool --generate-self-signed --template cert.cfg --load-privkey ca-key.pem --outfile ca-cert.pem

Explicitly set ca certificate in system cert store.
Converted pem to crt certificate using below command
openssl x509 -in ca-cert.pem -inform PEM -out ca-cert.crt

(I need to find the corresponding command in certtool)
Then copied ca-cert.crt file to  /usr/share/ca-certificates/extra path and executed below command to set ca certificate in system explicitly.
sudo dpkg-reconfigure ca-certificates

With this I get a system window, I select ca-cert.crt and press Ok to set certificate explicitly in system. My understanding is that since ca-cert.crt is set in system explicitly any other certificates signed by this ca-cert and ca-key will be trusted in system (except applications using their own cert store like firefox).
Next I created key for HTTP proxy using below command:
certtool --generate-privkey --outfile key.pem

Then I created csr for HTTP proxy using below command.
certtool --generate-request --load-privkey key.pem --template cert.cfg --outfile request.pem*

Then I signed the csr using below command.
certtool --generate-certificate --load-request request.pem --load-ca-certificate ca-cert.pem --load-ca-privkey ca-key.pem --template cert.cfg --outfile cert.pem

Finally I have cert.key and cert.pem. Now these certificate files are used for communication between browser and my HTTP proxy.
I see that Chrome does not show the contents received.
However if I start Chrome with ignore-certificate-errors mode, then Chrome works fine and shows the content in site properly.
Can somebody guide me as to what I'm doing wrong that's causing Chrome not to show the contents received?
Answer: Did you have a look at the template file cert.cfg? That same file name occurs in two different calls of certtool, where the purposes of the calls are complementary to one another.
Check that the template is the same in both cases. In particular you should pay attention to the ca-instruction in each file to make sure they match.