Evidence for age cutoff in foreign accent acquistion

Question: Steven Pinker in "The Language Instinct" claims that there is strong psychological evidence for the existence of a sharp age cutoff for the ability to acquire a flawless foreign accent (I may dig up the exact reference, if needed). In other words, there is a fairly narrow age threshold (around 20-odd years) below which exposure to a foreign accent is more or less sufficient to acquire it and above which it's physiologically impossible. Has this phenomenon been confirmed or refuted by any systematic study?
Comment: Related: http://linguistics.stackexchange.com/q/679/325 (When is the end of the critical period?)
Comment: Interesting question. Though it appears to me that such a categorical claim might make little sense. Just as some people can still learn new things when they're over 60, some people can't really pick things up even when they're teens. It really depends. There are people who learn perfect accents after enough practice, even when they're old, anecdotally.
Answer: One of the reasons the feral children data are difficult to assess is that the brains of these children are often underdeveloped or have developed differently because they weren't stimulated with language at a young age. (For a more scientific explanation of the how of this, see Curtiss et al 544-545+.) As I mentioned in my comment to Askalon, while that data supports the idea that there is a critical period for acquiring a faculty for language, it doesn't say much about what factors influence how successful you will be in acquiring native-like competence in a second language. Although age is often speculated to be a factor in acquiring native competence, estimates on the cutoff have ranged from as low as 3-4 to as high as puberty.
Infant Studies of Phoneme Perception
An important question to keep in mind is, why should skill in acquiring a new phonological system decrease because of age? Most cognitive abilities get remarkably better with age, assuming typical development. Of course, there are obvious factors like motivation (generally not as high for L2 learners), phonological interference, or different method of acquisition (generally by analytical study and reflection than immersion for L2 learners), but the biggest theory seems to be currently that it is because, while young infants are like a phonological tabula rasa, after exposure to their native language, they narrow their focus to only pay attention to the contrasts which differentiate meaning -- what are traditionally called phonemes. They lose the ability to learn how to produce and differentiate any sound.
Even very young children show decreased sensitivity to contrasts not present in their native language. For example, Hindi has many contrasts that English doesn't, for example differentiating aspirated and unaspirated stops like [pʰal] and [pal]. Werker and Tees (1984) trained infants to expect a reward (a little puppet show) when they heard aspirated syllables (this is called a conditioned head turn technique). Then, they tested them, playing aspirated and unaspirated stops and measuring how often the infants turned at the appropriate times. If they failed to turn after hearing an aspirated stop, this was counted as a miss, and if they turned after hearing an unaspirated sound, this was counted as a false alarm. At 6-8 months, infants scored well -- they had fewer than 2/10 misses or false alarms -- while those in the 10-12 month group did remarkably poorly -- approximately only 2/10 correct hits. I cannot find the citation, but I have heard vocalic categories are cemented even earlier. And keep in mind that this is before these infants are even babbling!
Immigrant and Foreign Language Learner Studies
There have been studies looking at the acquisition of foreign language by people of varying ages, or by immigrants with varying age-of-arrival, and some (Johnson and Newport 1989) support the idea of a critical period and others (Snow and Hoefnagel-Höhle 1978) do not. It is important to note that these studies often look at both knowledge of grammar and pronunciation and I have unfortunately not found any studies specifically related to accent -- though I will add them if I come across them. These studies generally rely on a battery of tests to assess grammatical competence (e.g. grammaticality judgments) and native speakers to rate the degree of the subjects' accent. In general, it seems that a critical period for phonology is much more supported than a critical period for grammar -- acquisition of grammar is much more linked to cognitive ability in adults, although in young children, cognitive ability has no effect (e.g. Flege et al 1999, DeKeyser 2000).
Conclusion
So yes, there does seem to be evidence for a cutoff in acquiring native-like phonology, from immigrant studies and SLA studies backed up by infant perception studies. What I would take from this, though, is that in addition to lost competence in implicit learning mechanisms, when we already have one language to work with, we will rely more on overt analysis and comparison to learn a foreign language. And while grammars are very good at detailing correct syntax and morphology, they are often abysmally poor and lazy at instructing learners in pronouncing and distinguishing foreign phonemes. (This is because they are often not written by linguists.) Add to that the fact that having an accent is not terribly stigmatized (but poor grammar is) and it's no surprise that L2 learners will often not develop a great accent.

The Linguistic Development of Genie  Author(s): Susan Curtiss, Victoria Fromkin,
Stephen Krashen, David Rigler and Marilyn Rigler  Source: Language, Vol. 50,
No. 3 (Sep., 1974), pp. 528-554 Published by: Linguistic Society of
America Article
The Critical Period for Language Acquisition: Evidence from Second
Language Learning  Author(s): Catherine E. Snow and Marian
Hoefnagel-Höhle  Source: Child Development, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Dec.,
1978), pp. 1114-1128 Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of
the Society for Research in Child Development
Critical period effects in second language learning: The influence
of maturational state on the acquisition of English as a second
language  Author(s): Jacqueline S Johnson, Elissa L Newport,
 Source: Cognitive Psychology, Volume 21, Issue 1, January 1989, Pages
60-99, ISSN 0010-0285, 10.1016/0010-0285(89)90003-0.
Age Constraints on Second-Language Acquisition  Author(s): James Emil Flege, Grace H. Yeni-Komshian, Serena Liu  Source: Journal of Memory and Language,
Volume 41, Issue 1, July 1999, Pages 78-104
The Robustness of Critical Period Effects in Second Language Acquisition.  Author(s): Robert M. DeKeyser   Source: Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 22 , 2000, pp 499-533
Comment: @NikhilBellarykar It's true some people develop great accents -- I met an Estonian who I never would've guessed wasn't a native speaker of English -- though they might not be 100% native (I recall a study of white rappers which found that all mimicked AAVE but only one -- form whom it was his native idiolect -- had percentages of stop deletion equivalent to that of AAVE speakers.)  As I allude to in the answer, I don't think it's necessarily a cutoff so much as the difficulty of learning phonology through nonimplicit mechanisms coupled with the loss of said mechanisms and decreased motivation.
Comment: Well, I am no expert, but Indian call centres contain tons of guys who speak in a perfectly British/American accent. It' true that most Indians learn English before the end of critical period, but the accent can be learnt considerably later also. I have first hand evidence of this as I have seen many such persons.
Comment: That I agree with indeed.
Comment: No mention of intonation and rhythm?
Answer: Native "accent acquisition" means successful acquisition of the language's phonology (i.e. the system of sounds in a language).  The cutoff you're referring to is the critical period hypothesis, which claims that there's a critical period (from birth up to around 7-ish or puberty, give or take) during which a person is capable of acquiring a language and achieving native-like competence, but after this critical period it becomes very difficult or impossible to achieve fully native-like competence.  It's thought that there isn't one single cutoff point though, but rather that it varies depending on what part of language you're talking about: phonology is thought to have the earliest cutoff age, while syntax is thought to have the latest (it's much more common to see non-native speakers with excellent syntax but errors in their phonology than vice versa).  The phonology is therefore most often the place where unsuccessful native-like acquisition most often manifests itself, in the form of a non-native accent.
So to get to your question about evidence for this.  There is some evidence, but it's limited, and some of the proposed evidence has been criticized as not valid.  There are some cases of feral or deaf children/adults who grew up without a language (surpassing at least part of the critical period before they were discovered).  These people are often used as evidence that the difficulty with successfully acquiring a language (including phonology) is biologically linked to age.  It's rather clear that normal adults have trouble acquiring a new language and gaining native-like competence as well, but one could claim that that's perhaps because of interference caused by the language they already know.  With feral or non-lingual deaf people though, they don't know any language (so there's clearly no interference from a native language), so some linguists claim that their lack of or limited success in acquiring a language must be linked to their age.
A frequently mentioned case is that of Genie, a girl that was brought up in isolation by abusive parents and never learned a language as a child.  She was found at age 13, after which a linguist worked with her and she started to learn English.  She was never able to learn English beyond a rudimentary level.  Studies with deaf children who started learning a sign language later in their childhood (and having never learned the spoken language of their parents) have also shown a correlation with age and the level of their success in their acquisition of the language.
Some of this evidence has been criticized.  For example, feral children such as Genie have also obviously suffered traumatic experiences that have affected them psychologically, which could be a factor in their unsuccessful language acquisition.  Cases of late learners of sign language provide better evidence because they were generally well cared for, despite lacking a language.
Comment: I +1'd this, though it's worth pointing out that feral children provide evidence for a cutoff point for the acquisition of the faculty of language -- which turns out to be use it or lose it -- but it does not point to what factors, if any, control acquisition of a second language, and there is much more debate on a critical period for second language acquisition than there is for first language acquisition.
Comment: Yes, this is a quality answer but doesn't discuss L2 accent acquisition, which is what the question enquires about.
Comment: @FloatingTone I'm afraid I might have misunderstood the question, I haven't read the section of the Language Instinct that was referenced.  I assumed "ability to acquire a flawless foreign accent" meant ability to acquire native-like phonology in their L2--which would require the speaker to begin acquiring the language before the end of the critical period (basically it would need to be a child L2er).  That's why I gave an explanation for the CPH and supporting evidence.  L2A can still take place prior to the end of the critical period (going on the definition of L2A starting at 3;0+).
Answer: I believe that the existance of a cut off period is imposible to measure due to the large number of factors affecting language accuisition. As an English language teacher and a person who has very near native competence in a foreign language, I believe that older people are less likely to achieve native competence in pronunciation because to mimick a native accent perfectly, in the majority of cases, would necessitate presenting oneself as having a different identity to that you have been raised with.
Children are less concerned about changing their identity than adults are and will more willingly mimick a native accent.
That is why they aquire native pronunciation much more efficiently - and the same is true for adults who are not shy or ashamed to assume a different identity - they also master foreign accents.
Answer: Purely anecdotally:  We live in Taiwan and my son learned Chinese from age 4. Today, he is often told that if he speaks over the phone, it cannot be determined that he is not Chinese.  Even the very best of adult-learner speakers of Chinese I know, even when 100% fluent, cannot shake the accent/inflection that marks them as "non-native".
Answer: The origin of accent
When a child begins to speak, he/she sets its articulatory base on that of the people surrounding him/her. Different languages have different normal movements of the parts of articulatory base in the time of talking. For that reason the speech effect in the vocal tract is different. When the tissues there are still young and yield to speech actions, permanent changes take place on the pharynx wall. A mechanical speech apparatus is formed in the vocal tract, which is serviceable until the death of the owner. After a certain critical period
all new acquired languages are spoken with that instrument. As the native language has a limited number of sounds and their characteristics are only for that language, all the others are pronounced incorrectly.
A person can have more than one talking instrument in his/her vocal tract - for instance, when a child is born in a bilingual family.
For comparison: a person has a melody in his/her head and he/she can make it audible with the help of musical instruments, whereas each of them has its own "accent". But the melody can be right with all instruments.
Why phoneticians do not want to admit that they have no idea about the origin of accent?
Leonhard Klaar
Comment: I tend to agree, but a major factor in perceived accent is intonation/rhythm - that's why accents work so differently when singing, and a native speaker who cannot make a sound does not sound foreign.  Can these physiological dynamics explain that too?
Comment: This is something I have suspected for a long time. Could you add some references where we can read about this in greater detail?
Answer: It's impossible to achieve good pronunciation of a foreign language by means of listening to recordings or native speakers. But it becomes possible, when a person begins to investigate their own vocal tract and to make new sounds. Anyone who wants to acquire a new accent should treat pronunciation like a motor skill. If he or she does it, he or she succeeds. I highly recommend that you read the book 'A Practical Introduction to Phonetics' and forget of the 'Evidence for age cutoff in foreign accent acquisition.' The 'Evidence for age cutoff in foreign accent acquisition' is absurd imho.


Problem in identifying key that causes random character in terminal

Question: I have kali linux on my laptop.I have a problem with my keyboard . Whenever i open a terminal some key is pressed automatically and ^[[5~ this character is shown in terminal. Please tell me which key causes this issue.
Comment: The `terminfo` database has the set of keys and their sequences.
Comment: This may be correct. Because page down causes ^[[6~ to appear. How do you find which key is mapped to which character.
Answer: Per the ECMA-48 standard, ␛ [ is the 7-bit equivalent to the 8-bit C1 control character CSI.  Your terminal emulator, because of massive historical inertia, is acting as if it is not 8-bit clean.
Any terminal input control sequence of the form CSI Ps1 ; Ps2 ~ is a DECFNK control sequence.  (Ps2, and thus the ;, are optional, defaulting in the usual ECMA-48 style to 1 if missing.)  This is a de facto standard control sequence originating in DEC terminals and copied by other terminals and terminal emulators over the years.
The VT510 Video Terminal Programmer Information documents the DECFNK control sequence on pages 5—53 to 5—53, albeit not with the IBM PC key names that you are used to.  It is the Prev Screen key.  It is in the upper group of the editing keypad area of this VT320 keyboard:

You can guess what its IBM PC Model M keyboard equivalent is from that, but when still consulting the doco nonetheless you will also find CSI 5 ~ in table 8—3 on page 8—7 of VT520/VT525 Video Terminal Programmer Information.  That table documents that it is engraved Page Up on an IBM PC style keyboard.
Use reference doco like this to look up keyboard control sequences.
Note that this applies to terminals that use the DEC VT protocols.  Not all terminals and terminal emulators do.  If you encounter an input control sequence beginning with CSI or SS3 that is not in the CSI Ps1 ; Ps2 ~ form, it will usually (unless it is an actual ECMA-48 control sequence) be employing the other widely used protocol, which is the protocol originally adopted for IBM PC keyboard keys on the SCO Xenix console.
The DEC VT doco documents some of these control sequences as its compatibility "SCO Console" mode.  These are fully documented in the keyboard(HW) manual page in the SCO Unix System Administrators Reference.
You'll find them used, for example, by the FreeBSD kernel's built-in terminal emulator for function keys F13 and higher.  (It uses the DEC VT control sequences for F1 to F12.  There are DEC VT control sequences for function keys up to F22.  The SCO Xenix console has documented control sequences for function keys F1 to F48, reflecting the common IBM PC convention of using modifier keys to quadruple the number of function keys.)
Further reading

VT510 Video Terminal Programmer Information.  EK-VT510-RM.  November 1993.  DEC.
VT520/VT525 Video Terminal Programmer Information.  EK-VT520-RM.  July 1994.  DEC.
"Hardware Dependent".  SCO Unix System Administrators Reference.  1993-02-01.  The Santa Cruz Operation.  tenox.net.
Control Functions for Coded Character Sets.  ECMA-48.  5th edition. 1991. ECMA International.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/289871/5132
Comment: Actually no - it's not "SCO console" that you have in mind regarding the modifiers.  There's a table in section 4.7 which refers to the extended keyboard feature.  The SCO console documentation in the VT520RM doesn't touch on any of that.
Comment: On the contrary: There's an entire chapter right there in VT520RM that is even entitled "SCO Console Emulation Mode", that contains amongst other things a list of the SCO control sequences for function keys.  Whereas section 4.7 does not deal in the CSI and SS3 control sequences _sent_ by function keys at all, only in the control sequences _received_ by a terminal to re-program them, which aren't even SS3 or CSI sequences.


Electrons split in Stern-Gerlach experiment but not in Thompson's experiment?

Question: So when electrons are fired through a magnetic field in Stern-Gerlach experiment they split into two beams depending on their spin but where was this phenomena when Thompson was calculating charge to mass ratio of electron? Shouldn't his cathode ray beam have split up too?
Comment: Have you considered how spin interact with magnetic field vs how it interacts with electric field?
Comment: Besides, Stern–Gerlach is normally done with neutral atoms and not with free electrons.
Comment: Hello and welcome to Chemistry.SE! If you have any questions about how the site works I suggest that you take the short [tour]. Good luck!
Comment: Of course it was split; it's just a matter of precision. Where was the Einstein's relativity when Newton was discovering his laws?
Answer: As has already been suggested by some of the comments to your question, there is a fundamental difference between a Stern-Gerlach-type experiment and a Thompson-type experiment, and this difference lies in the type of interaction of the particles.
First of all, as Ivan Neretin points out, a Stern-Gerlach experiment is performed with neutral species (the original experiment involved silver atoms), while Thompson's experiment employed a beam of charged electrons.
The Coulombic or Lorentz interaction between charged particles (or charged particles and fields) is rougly four orders of magnitude larger than the interaction between neutral particles and fields. In the latter case, one can have interaction between a magnetic dipole moment and a magnetic field and/or interaction with a electric dipole moment and an electric field. These interactions are referred to as Zeeman and Stark effects. The important thing to realize is that the sign and magnitude of the interaction depends on the quantum state of the particle (or in other words on the relative orientation of its angular momenta). It is therefore a quantum-state specific interaction. As a consequence particles in one state may be attracted to a region with high fields, while particles in another state may be attracted to regions with low fields, as if you have two different compasses; one that points to the North pole and one that points to the South pole.
Electromagnetic interactions between charged particles and fields are so strong that the quantum-state specific effects are much harder to see (and the Coulomb and Lorentz forces dominate).
Let's go back to the Stern-Gerlach experiment. In their experimental setup, Stern and Gerlach used an inhomogenous magnetic field with a well-defined gradient. The silver atoms they employed have one unpaired electron that could be oriented with respect to the external magnetic field "up" or "down", these different quantum states experience different forces and are therefore separated.
In Thompson's experiment charged electrons are send through a magnetic field where the force they experience only depends on their charge and velocity vector with respect to the magnetic field. This force is identical for all electrons, so no splitting is observed.
Answer: Hosein Majlesi's paper at https://arxiv.org/abs/1504.07963 appears to show that the Stern-Gerlach experiment works with electrons.
Comment: It might be better if you discuss the literature you cite rather than just giving a reference.


How long to fully sync with blockchain via VPS?

Question: How long should it take to fully sync the blockchain using a VPS?  My sync appears to be stuck at 334 days behind?
Answer: It took mine around 5-7 hours - it does take time! If it appears stuck just type exit then start it up again, it will resume where it left off. If it continues to be stuck check:

that port 18080 (default) is open (http://ismyportopen.com/) It should be if you already synced some data, but just rule that out.
you have not exceeded your VPS storage allotment. I believe you should have at least 20 GB available, though more than that is recommended.


Equilibrium solutions of differential equations

Question: Being new to Mathematica, I'm not aware of all of the commands, etc. So, my apologies if this question is off base. In short; do you know if there is a "function/command" that finds Equilibrium points of a differential equation? i.e,;An equilibrium solution is a solution to a d.e. whose derivative is zero everywhere. One route; simplify and calculate the Derivitive and find the answer equal to 0 for each variable. But, is there a better route someone may be aware of?
Answer: I see no specific command. But why should it be. If your system is of the form
$\dot{x} = f[x[t]]$ --- the system is necessarily autonomous  ---, the equilibria are given by
<code>  sol = Solve[f[x]== 0, x]
</code>
x scalar or vector


Differentiating phonemes in foreign languages for adults

Question: I've heard that past a certain critical period for language acquisition, our brain loses some neural connections and thereby the ability to differentiate phonemes not occurring in our maternal language. This makes me curious and want to test it on myself. Does such online tests exist? Thanks in advance!
Answer: There are no such scientifically reliable online tests, though as you may know you can find some online tests for just about anything. One could participate in an offline test (if someone else were to set it up for you). There are a number of kinds of tests, which test different things (so you have to decide more precisely what you want to test), though your wording complicates the question by multiplying the number of tests ("maternal language" is the trigger, back to this in a moment).
A primary dichotomy has to be made as to what ability is being called on. Very common is word-identification, e.g. you play a recording of "cat" and ask the subject to identify which word it is (there are a number of ways to do that). The premise there is that word-identification involves reducing the acoustic stream to a small symbolic stream – phonemes, perhaps – and that a "phoneme" merges physical distinctions that the ear detects and part of the brain hears. We take word-identification ("cat" not "cap") to tell us something about phonemes. This kind of test is not appropriate for sounds that don't occur in the subject's language. An English speaker will just filter out [ʕ] in Arabic [baʕad] and classify the stimulus as the English word "bad".
Instead, you would test ability to discriminate physically-different signals. For example, "cat" pronounced by two different but similar sounding speakers, or "cat" produced by one speaker in somewhat different ways, or the same recording digitally manipulated in different ways. Some subjects may be completely incapable of performing reliably on this test, and they only say "everybody is saying 'cat'", so you have to make sure that subjects are answering the question "do they sound the same?" and not "are they the same word?". A simple non-linguistic version of this test is presenting tones either with different amplitudes, frequencies, or spectral distributions. Although humans can generally distinguish 100 vs. 105 Hz, triangular vs. square wave, it is not a trivial task. Ability to make absolute acoustic comparisons is very much affected by the presentation time between stimuli, to the point that modal voice [a] versus creaky voice [a̰] (same duration, pitch, amplitude, formants) separated by a couple of minutes of time might be generally indistinguishable to a person who hasn't learned "creaky voice" as a linguistic category. Since this kind of test is specifically designed to test physical signal processing and exclude linguistic processing, it's not a popular linguistic test.
The question also raises a complicating issue, the "mother tongue" problem, since people may be multilingual while still having just one primary language. In running any such test, one would also need information on second and third languages, when/how acquired, and beware terminological problems (I've encountered the problem of using the term "mother tongue" and having a speaker tell me that he doesn't know his mother's tongue very well, they use the paternal language at home). Substantial prior exposure to a language can improve ability to distinguish classes of signals. This is well-known to field-working linguists, that once you've heard an implosive, you can abstractly construct the acoustic pattern of many kinds of implosives.
Answer: My personal experience contradicts that claim (unless "certain critical period for language acquisition" is meant to cover the age of 30+ as well).
I learned Polish starting at the age of 31, and it has quite some phonemes not present in my mother tongue German (nor in any foreign language I learned earlier).
Yes, in the beginning, I had difficulties distinguishing between the ś and the sz phonemes in hearing, both sounding similar enough to the German sch, but that changed rather quickly.


Mistake while registering to make an appointment

Question: I am a uk overseas student I made some mistake while filling form online, and it has been registered with my passport number. What should I do in this case? Do I need to fill it by hand form when I have an appointment? Any suggestion please? I made an appointment on this website
https://www.tlscontact.com/
Comment: What kind of mistake did you make?
Comment: my visa type and my dates of arrival in Shengen country
Comment: I assume you will still get a chance to correct the mistake. If not, it does not look too good but should not necessarily doom the application. The consulate will probably ignore your wishes but can still decide to issue a visa based on the documents you submitted (i.e. for one week instead of 90 days). As a UK resident, you might even be lucky and get a multiple-entry visa anyway as it seems they are somewhat more generous in this case.
Answer: Don't worry a bit. Message them to say that you will need to do some more changes and they will unfreeze the application so you can make further changes. Just repeat it if you make any mistakes.
If by any god known reason, they cannot unfreeze the application, don't worry a bit. Go to the TLS contact centre and when you enter ask them that you need to do some changes. They will provide you with a new printed form, which you can fill it there. They may crib a bit, but don't worry. People are quite lenient at the centre. I have seen many Chinese students fill up their form again at the contact centre.
Else take a printout of the application form and fill it by hand, before going to the processing centre.
A caveat though, I am talking about London. I am not sure about other places, but I wouldn't assume the processing centres would be filled with idiots who wouldn't allow you to fill in a new form.


Are my prayers invalid

Question: One day I went on a website to check if I was pronouncing my prayer correctly, and I found out that I've been mispronouncing the last part of the prayer instead of saying ash hadu anna Muhammadan abduhu
wa rasuluhu I said ash hadu anna Muhammadan abdul was rasuluhu. I've prayed many prayers while pronouncing this part this way, is my prayer invalid? I've heard that if you mispronounced a word in which it changes it's meaning then your prayer is invalid. Is this true? Are my prayers invalid? I've also noticed I've made a mistake in the Fatiha, I've heard that it if you make mistakes in the Fatiha your prayer is invalid. Is this true if you thought you were saying the right thing and have been praying many prayers with this pronunciation. Do I have to repeat all my prayers? edit the mistake in the Fatiha was instead of say siratal I said salatal
Answer: Check out this website, I hope it can help with this! https://islamqa.info/en/answers/161424/she-used-to-pray-not-covered-properly-and-she-did-not-recite-al-faatihah-properly
Also:
On the authority of Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said:
Verily Allah has pardoned [or been lenient with] for me my ummah: their mistakes, their forgetfulness, and that which they have been forced to do under duress.
A hasan hadeeth related by Ibn Majah, and al-Bayhaqee and others.
Reference    : 40 Hadith Nawawi 39
Source: https://sunnah.com/nawawi40/39

Are my prayers invalid


Are addons written in python compiled at runtime?

Question: Or, are the interpreted each time they are executed? If not compiled (JIT?) then how much slower is their execution than native code?
Comment: @BlenderBlackened Python is a language, there are multiple interpreters/runtimes available for it.
Comment: ajajaj much slower, and as long as your addon is bigger slower it is, it's like running a slender gazelle against a dairy cow, you should already know that python is a is not a language is an interpreter, nothing more inefficient slow and cumbersome, until today there is not a single language that exceeds the speed and runtime of c / c ++.
Answer: Python is by default an interpreted language. Blender bundles and uses the default python runtime (CPython), ans therefore python code in blender is interpreted.
However there is a catch. Most of Blender's API is actually written in native code (C) and is then exposed to the Python runtime through generated bindings.
Relative performance is trickier, as this is dependent on many many factors. And there are other issues here as well, in particular the GIL, which prevents the CPython interpreter from being truly multithreaded. Efficient use of the Blender API and the Numpy library (bundled with Blender) can bring most performance issues to acceptable levels. It is best to start with those anyway, and only look at other alternatives when you actually run into issues (i.e. avoid premature optimisation). You may find that the main performance bottlenecks are things other than code execution speed anyway (e.g. file handling).
Answer: As already explained, while your script is interpreted, much of the work may be done with code already compiled into blender.
However there are other alternatives, a blender addon is a python module, it can be written is C/C++ and compiled the same as any other python module. There are some requirements to being a blender addon, such as having a bl_info dictionary and register/unregister methods.
An easy method to make a compiled binary addon, would be to use Cython, which will turn python code into C/C++ that is then compiled. For examples, have a look at Cubesurfer  or Animation Nodes. You can also use cython as a starting point to generate the framework that you then fill in or link to your C/C++ code.


Is my wallet at blockchain.info still mine if the website shuts down

Question: I'm a really beginner, I have no client on my computer. I puchased bicoin and store them in my wallet at blockchain.info, and I have downloaded the "backup file" named "wallet.aes.json".
My concern is if someday the website of blockchain.info shuts down, can I get my bitcoins by importing the backup file into a client software? I also have my "key" which is a long code that looks like an bitcoin address, and my understanding is that the backup file also only consist of my address and that key.
Thanks!
Answer: You can import this backup to Multibit, and you are good to go, even if blockchain.info is dead. (To be honest, this is my setup as well). Remember to keep your secret safe and use 2FA.
Comment: @DavidSilvaSmith : They can, those backups are encrypted.
Quuzu: You need to keep a new backup after you made an outgoing transaction because of the way bitcoin handless change. On blockchain.info the default option is to send the change to the newly created address, which a new backup has the private key to.
Comment: how easy is to import that backup?
Comment: Few clicks, actually. Just go to tools, import keys, point to .json and type password. Done.
Comment: Do you need the most recent backup file? Abdussamad said that backup after each transaction is necessary, but I don't understand how it's possible, suppose I backed up yesterday, and made some transactions today, and tomorrow I need to restore, I certainly can't reverse my balance by importing yesterday's backup, so what would happen in reality?
Comment: In the blockchain wallet account settings => general there is a checkbox to receive a new backup when your wallet details change. FYI this poses a security risk if someone compromises your email they can get your blockchain backup.
Answer: As long as you have recent backups (meaning you have to keep making backups everytime you do a transaction) and know the passphrase you should be able to access your coins should blockchain.info go down. But it is not recommended to use blockchain.info for storing large amounts i.e. amounts that you can't afford to loose. Blockchain.info wallets have a tendency to get hacked. I recommend installing electrum and sending your coins over to your electrum wallet.
Comment: Question about electrum you mentioned: does this client also rely on their server, meaning if their server goes down I can't access my bitcoin?
Comment: Electrum has nothing to do with blockchain.info. It is an open source project. Electrum relies on electrum servers for two things a) finding out what transactions you have received b) broadcasting transactions of your own i.e. coin spend transactions. There are a lot of electrum servers so there is no single point of failure. Even if all electrum servers on the planet were to go down it still wouldn't stop your from spending your coins because you have the private key behind your coins and can do what you like.


What are the warning signs for Dyslexia?

Question: What are the early indicators to help determine if a child should be evaluated for Dyslexia?  At what age can the signs first be detected?
Answer: Dyslexia is more an auditory than a visual phenomenon it seems, and one of the early indicators is that kids that have a high chance of being dyslexic have trouble learning how to parse words into syllables, at age 5. But 'having trouble' means being worse than other, non-high-risk peers. I have no idea how good in absolute terms they should be, or how the game of parsing words into syllables is introduced though. But perhaps you can look it up more thoroughly based on this info. I heard it at a lecture on dyslexia, from a neuroscience expert.
Answer: According to the National Center for Learning Disabilities, persistent difficulties with reading, particularly coupled with frustration, are an initial indicator that you should be concerned.
More specifically, there are a variety of warning signs for each age group, and matching three or more of these signs should be cause for concern (emphasis on concern; always rely upon a qualified professional for actual diagnosis):
In Preschool

delayed speech
mixing up the sounds and syllables in long words
chronic ear infections
severe reactions to childhood illnesses
constant confusion of left versus right
late establishing a dominant hand
difficulty learning to tie shoes
trouble memorizing their address, phone number, or the alphabet
can't create words that rhyme
a close relative with dyslexia

In Elementary School

May be slow to learn the connection between letters and sounds.
Has difficulty decoding single words (reading single words in isolation).
Has difficulty spelling phonetically.
Makes consistent reading and spelling errors such as:

Letter reversals - "d" for "b" as in: "dog" for "bog"
Word reversals - "tip" for "pit"
Inversions - "m" for "w," "u" for "n"
Transpositions - "felt" for "left"
Substitutions - "house" for "home"

dysgraphia (slow, non-automatic handwriting that is difficult to read)
letter or number reversals continuing past the end of first grade
extreme difficulty learning cursive
slow, choppy, inaccurate reading:

guesses based on shape or context
skips or misreads prepositions (at, to, of)
ignores suffixes
can't sound out unknown words

terrible spelling
often can't remember sight words (they, were, does) or homonyms (their, they're, and there)
difficulty telling time with a clock with hands
trouble with math

memorizing multiplication tables
memorizing a sequence of steps
directionality

when speaking, difficulty finding the correct word

lots of "whatyamacallits" and "thingies"
common sayings come out slightly twisted

extremely messy bedroom, backpack, and desk
dreads going to school

complains of stomach aches or headaches
may have nightmares about school

In High School
All of the above symptoms plus:

limited vocabulary
extremely poor written expression

large discrepancy between verbal skills and written compositions

unable to master a foreign language
difficulty reading printed music
poor grades in many classes
may drop out of high school

In Adults
Education history similar to above, plus:

slow reader
may have to read a page 2 or 3 times to understand it
terrible speller
difficulty putting thoughts onto paper

dreads writing memos or letters

still has difficulty with right versus left
often gets lost, even in a familiar city
sometimes confuses b and d, especially when tired or sick

Some more resources are here and here and here.
Comment: I'm not dyslexic (far from it, in fact), but "left" and "right" continue to be random words to me, with no clear association between them and the concepts of *left* and *right*. My sister is the same way. So there's probably an education component to this skill, same as any other. In other words, don't expect a 5-year-old to know left and right if you haven't *taught* him left and right.
Comment: @Martha, additionally, many of the symptoms listed above are also indicators of dysgraphia, a condition that is visual where letter reversals are common.  dyslexia and dysgraphia often go together so while it is an indicator it does not automatically result in a diagnosis - even of dysgraphia - most kids are dysgraphic for awhile while learning their letters in the first place anyway.  Your ultimate point is completely valid +1
Answer: I hope you don't take offense, but isn't this a thing to ask your pediatrician? Mine is great, and continually getting updated training, so I look to her for the most current information about things like this.
More generally, I would be watching out for other language-processing problems that aren't developing as quickly as you expect.
Comment: No offense taken. However, the intent behind my question was to help parents know *when* they should initiate that initial conversation with their pediatrician (and not "when do I decide if my child has Dyslexia").  As such, answering by saying "ask your pediatrician when you should ask your pediatrician about Dyslexia" is just not at all helpful.
Comment: You should ask your pediatrician when you are concerned about it. Seems like a perfectly reasonable answer.
Comment: Ah, OK, that wasn't clear to me when I read your question: I wasn't sure if you were trying to self-diagnose, or (as it turns out) just looking for hints to take to a professional.


How does a plugin make use of Assets?

Question: Within my plugin, I have a need to open an Assets sheet and pick a file that has been uploaded and make use of it in my plugin. How is this possible? I am looking for something similar to the EE version of Assets that will allow me to programmatically use Assets with JS.
Answer: Something like this should get you going in the right direction:
<code>Craft.createElementSelectorModal('Asset', {
    multiSelect: true,
    criteria: { locale: this.elementLocale, kind: 'image' }
});
</code>
See Brandon's answer here for more information and documentation:
Is it possible to use the ElementType Modal UI for a custom Field Type Plugin?
Comment: Thanks for that answer. That looks like it's in the direction I want to go. I'll give that a shot and mark your answer correct if it works.
Comment: This worked out great. Thanks for the response.
Comment: Glad it worked out! I look forward to checking out the plugin when it's ready :-)
Comment: I just released the plugin today and just updated it with a couple features (using the code in this post). Check it out. https://github.com/objectivehtml/Google-Maps-for-Craft
Comment: Wow, killer plugin Justin! Congrats on the release, it looks fantastic!
Answer: I build a plugin called Lemmings that does this as one of it's built in functions.
Inside your plugin (depending on exactly what kind of plugin you're building) you'll need to include an element field aimed add accessing assets. Here's the one I used for Lemmings.
<code>{{ forms.elementSelect({
     elements: t_element,
     id: 'thumbId',
     name: 'thumbId',
     elementType: t_elementType,
     criteria: {"kind":[],"localeEnabled":null,"locale":"en_us"},
     sourceElementId: thumbId,
     jsClass: 'Craft.AssetSelectInput',
     addButtonLabel: 'Select Thumbnail',
     limit: 1,
}) }}
</code>
Before you can build your html form/page. You'll need to register a control panel route (registerCpRoutes) and point over to an action. This action will rending your template and including the element type as defined below.
<code>    $variables['t_elementType'] = craft()->elements->getElementType(ElementType::Asset);
</code>
Comment: This is useful information, but this doesn't help me. I specifically need to know how to access it programmatically with JS. With EE you can instantiate an Assets.Sheet object (or something like that) and it will have several methods to interact with Assets client side.
Comment: Sorry I guess I misunderstood your question. The above forms.elementSelect would allow you to utilize the built in asset selector/uploader just as if you were creating an entry. Anything outside of that and you'd have to create a custom modal/js/form etc. using some variant of craft()->elements->getElementType(ElementType::Asset) and output. Good luck!
Comment: I wrote all the JS in my plugin with Backbone.Marionette. It's very JS intensive and already have all tools in place to make this happen. I basically just need a button or anchor that drops down the assets sheet and allows users to select their file. Then once selected, the file url will be passed back to my plugin where that value is saved. I don't even need the upload feature, just the Assets file picker.

How does a plugin make use of Assets?


Why do women have more lower body strength than upper body strength

Question: Do not talk about men. I would just like to know why women have more lower body strength than they do in their upper body. Is it because women's' hips tend to be wider because of childbirth? What is the reason?
Comment: In my experience, everyone has a greater lower body strength than upper body strength. Unless you've purposely set out to change that.
Comment: *"Do not talk about men."* Without a comparison with men the question makes very little sense.
Comment: Related to the first question I ever answer on here, but arguably not a duplicate... https://fitness.stackexchange.com/questions/29642/compared-to-their-overall-strength-do-women-have-greater-lower-body-strength-in/29687
Comment: Yes please clarify your question. I think it should be: why is the squat/benchpress ratio larger for women than men? Dark Hippo has already shown that it is so, but the question remains; why?
Answer: I cannot find anywhere where there is research showing women have a stronger lower body than upper body. strength is hard to define when comparing it in general. How would one define the strength level of a group of muscles compared to multiple muscle groups(shoulders, chest, back, arms)?
If you want to look at it from a stereotype....
generally women will workout their legs more to have nice legs and a nice butt.. while some think that doing bench presses, etc will make them somehow look like arnold Schwarzenegger. this is more misinformation though and doesnt apply to females as a whole
Comment: If you go to http://www.powerlifting.sport/championships/records.html and calculate squat/bench ratio for men and women you will indeed find that this ratio is larger for women. This is similar to what Dark Hippo did in his answer further up on the page.
Comment: That's  my point.. you cannot dictate the strength ratio of two different muscle groups and say one is stronger based off PR's. Leg muscles are bigger and capable of more.. that doesnt mean they have more neural connections or muscle fibers per inch as opposed to upper body muscles.Women have more type I muscles than type 2, and have more endurance than raw power.This doesnt mean they are less strong than men. plus user's question was solely regarding women, not men. Several health and medical articles mention that you cannot use raw PR numbers to dictate an abstract science as strength
Comment: Yes leg muscles are bigger and ... stronger!
Physical strength is usually defined as a measure of the ability to excert force, not number of neural connections or muscle fibers per inch.
Please refer to one of these articles that states that you cannot use "raw" PR numbers to measure strength. How should these "raw" PR numbers be prepared?
Answer: I ignore the first sentence of your question because it does not make any sense to me in this context (correct me, if I am wrong).
It is quite an interesting question, however, you should back it up with some evidence in the first place. Now, according to the old study (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00235103):

The greater gender difference in upper body strength can probably be
  attributed to the fact that women tend to have a lower proportion of
  their lean tissue distributed in the upper body. It is difficult to
  determine the extent to which the larger fibers in men represent a
  true biological difference rather than a difference in physical
  activity, but these data suggest that it is largely an innate gender
  difference.

Answer to your questions was unclear about 30 years ago. And I do not know about any newer theory. But your question seems to be valid at least.
I know this answer is not helping much, so if anyone provides better information, I would gladly delete this answer.


Using SharePoint 2010 user profiles to store user information for a public facing website?

Question: We're planning to use SharePoint 2010 as a CMS for a website we're building. This site will also have login functionality; and my boss suggested we use SharePoint's user profile features to store user info (username, password, contact info, etc.) for the site. How is this better then say using a standard list or a database table somewhere? I'm looking into how this could possibly work; but has anyone here tried something similar? Any anecdotes about it you could share? Any constructive input is greatly appreciated.
Answer: What you'll want to look into is Forms Based Authentication (FBA) with the SQL Server provider.  There is a provider for SharePoint that will actually store the credentials in SQL Server via a IIS Access Control List functionality.  Using this method, the users do not have to be set up in Active Directory, yet they are still safely encrypted in the database.  The provider works natively with SharePoint so you don't have to worry about authenticating the user in your code, etc.
Comment: FBA would only store the basic user info though. You still could use user profiles for this with FBA, but since the user profile sync service doesnt support SQL providers you would need to create your user profiles programmatically and create your own way of synchronizing the user profiles
Comment: That's a great point.
Answer: In SharePoint 2010, Claim Based authentication is the way to go. Even if this is a big step from MOSS 2007, still it misses the most important feature, such as "User Registration". You can however specify your own login page, and that is a great addition as that would be the best place to add links to your registration page.
So in few lines:
1. Your external site should be configured already with Claim-based auth (that means that once you do that you can use any FBA provider, such as OOTB ASP.NET SQL based providers) - very easy to setup and you can find configuration examples anywhere on the web. Make sure you can login with users pre-created (and given permissions already). Once this is done, proceed and configure User Profiles and syncronization.
2. Create a feature to deploy your registration pages.
3. Setup a BCS to your ASP.NET SQL Registration database and exposed additional properties you want added already to your User Profile (this way you can see custom properties too).
That should do it,
C. Marius
Answer: The User Profiles have a lot of value for storing information about the users, but I have not seen and would not look to use it to store the actual password information.


Wiring Diagram for Split Micro-USB Cable?

Question: I have a customer who is looking for a split Micro-USB cable, which has one USB-A host connector on one end and two Micro-USB cables on the opposite end (they will be plugging into cameras). Can I simply wire it like this diagram I've attached? I believe he has software he is experimenting with where he is trying to control two cameras simultaneously. I've seen "zipper-stlye" split Micro cables like this. Is this simply the operative wiring? Thanks in advnace, friends.
Comment: This will not work; we had basically the same question here a few days ago.  If you ignore the USB data aspect you might by some edge-case abuse of specs deliver power. But data is out of the question.  **USB requires a HUB for that**.
Comment: Directly connecting two USB devices to one host port like this wouldn't work. A USB device needs to enumerate with the host. I don't know what the consequences of doing this are, but I'm pretty sure they aren't good. This is the reason USB hubs exist.
Comment: What happens when USB-A as a host attempts to program the local address in for micro-USB-a, and USB-b gets the same packet? You will have packet collisions and thus no connection to either micro-USB.
Answer: This does not work. You will need a USB hub.
The USB Y cables you have seen use two USB Type A male plugs to one USB B type plug. Only the power lines are split to the extra plug.
This is not conform the USB specification. But it is a small hack to have more than the standard 2.5 Watts of power available, it is used for 2.5" hard disks that can't spin-up with just one plugs worth of power.
Comment: Could you hide a hub inside the A plug?
Comment: @Random832: There's no reason you couldn't CoB a die from, say, Genesys Logic in the connector.
Comment: @IgnacioVazquez-Abrams Yeah, I went looking for an example after I posted that comment.
Comment: Yeah, I have seen commercial cables like this out there, so they must be doing something like that with a CoB. If anybody has more info about that, or instructions on how to DIY it, I'd love to hear about it. Thanks!
Answer: If you look at these cables you mentioned - This one, claiming to be the "original", is one example, and their site does include a circuit diagram that makes it clear, you will see that either the type A connector is typically slightly larger than a normal one, or there is a small box in the middle of the cable. This is because USB hub electronics are hidden inside, rather than it being a simple plug connected directly to the wires. There's likely no particular advantage (other than space saving) over using a standard hub.


Where does episode 0 fall in the chronology?

Question: I was watching The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and the first episode that shows up for season 1 on Crunchyroll is episode 0. Because the show was played totally out of order, I couldn't figure out where it fit chronologically. I know it can't be before episode 1, so where does it fit?
Comment: I don't remember there's episode 0, what is that about?
Comment: @ShinobuOshino The "Adventures of Asahina Mikuru" episode (the one that they record during season 2 and play at the school cultural festival) is sometimes called "episode 0".
Answer: The continuity is very slightly more clear in the novels. Episode 0 is the movie that the SOS Brigade films to show at the school festival during "Live Alive". In the novels, the Brigade makes the movie during The Sigh of Haruhi Suzumiya, the second novel in the series, which is adapted to anime in the last four episodes of Series 2.
The novels The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya both take place before The Sigh, so the episodes based on those novels--"The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" parts 1-6, "The Boredom of Haruhi Suzumiya", "Mysterique Sign", and "Remote Island Syndrome", all take place before Episode 0. As senshin mentions, "Live Alive", "Day of Sagittarius", and "Someday in the Rain" take place after Episode 0. "The Day of Sagittarius" was in the fifth novel, The Rampage of Haruhi Suzumiya, and "Live Alive" and "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina Episode 00" (our Episode 0) were in the sixth novel, The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya. Both of these novels are random collections of shorts that cover different time periods.
Answer: Episode 0 is technically the last episode in the season. The chronological order of the episodes can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Melancholy_of_Haruhi_Suzumiya_episodes
Under the E tab, you can order it by descending or ascending. Using Crunchyroll's ordering, episode 2 should be the first episode to watch.
Comment: Not quite - "Someday in the Rain" is the chronologically last episode of the TV series, as the table indicates. "The Adventures of Asahina Mikuru Episode 0" is fourth-from-last, followed also by "Live Alive" (the concert episode) and "The Day of Sagittarius" (the video game episode).


warning message when the images has not been saved

Question: I'm doing texture painting and using a new texture. Sometime after painting i forget to save that image and when i quit there's no warning at all. Is there any setting in Blender to prevent this ?
Comment: I don't think so, I never understood why though...
Comment: There isn't default way to do this (not sure about recent 2.8 builds) however there was written script quite a bit ago https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/13407/auto-save-images-along-with-blend which doesn't appear to work in new versions
Answer: There is not a warning per se, but the image name in the Image Editor will have an asterisk next to it indicating it has changes to it - also, on my system, I do get a warning when closing a file that there are changes not saved. There is an option to pack all images into the file, and that works for some people - but also best practice is to save the image to disk first, and then make use of the save all dirty images operator.
Comment: That's the big problem . The warning is only for modifying the project file but not for unsaved image. Try this out :  1.  Edit the project and do the painting, close Blender, it will give you a warning, Now save the project but DO NOT save the image. Now close the blender and you will not see any warning. 2. Try to re-open a project file with texture paint, don't do anything else, just apply some paint stroke. Now , close Blender. Surprise.... it will close immediately and silently. Btw, I know that asterix sign , but that just not enough to save my life :-)


How ToR meek client works?

Question: Before posting, I've already read these suggested links: meek-client ..  pluggable transports so my question is not duplicate. Rather it is an extension to that question. Meek client hides your ToR traffic from your ISP but it's working is quite complicated. in short it works like this How meek works
In this picture you can see that Intermediate fronted server is decrypting the packet and forwarding the forbidden.example-> which is meek server itself. I understand ISP can't do this as it is encrypted request but the fronted server can easily block this "not allowed" domain because it knows that the request is made for meek server. Why the Content Delivery Network Fronted server is not blocking client request for connecting to meek server?? Either fronted server is not intentionally blocking it or it doesn't know that the forbidden.example request is actually a meek server. How it actually works?
Answer: You've got it right: All the pluggable transports can be potentially messed up if set up by an untrusted party, so be careful who you're trusting to. The idea of Meek client is to be a regular HTTPS client, the basic and unspecific, so the probability of DPI detection is degraded greatly. The graph you've referred shows precisely how it works: the client part is just a client for HTTPS queries. That's it
Comment: Thnx for adding new information Alexey but that's not the answer I was looking for and did I mention any graph? It was an image of stepwise chain of working of meek. I'm editing my question a little to make it more clear what I'm really asking.
Comment: @user334283 CDN's are *too heavy loaded* to do so. Even some simple rules are impossible to implement on their side: I faced it even in 2016. The answer about CDN's is that, for example, a website with 300k hits per hour is using it, for example, and even rewriting URL's will fry the CDN CPU's to hell... It's technically impossible to implement smart filtering on CDN platform - for whatever purpose - without destroying the CDN concept itself.
Comment: That's why CDN google cloud platform suspended the meek server for violating Terms of Service. https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-talk/2016-June/041699.html ..But meek server is still running on other CDNs so I think it is upto the CDNs whether or not they want to filter tor request and in this case rather than filtering it, terminating it is a better option for CDNs.
Comment: @user334283 as to my knowledge, Google Cloud is *the most strict* in terms of ToS hardness. So it was not a surprise, that it was terminated. There are lots of CDN networks that do allow much wider usage

How ToR meek client works?


Create cross sections in QGIS and save as DXF file

Question: Is there any way to create cross sections of rasters in QGIS and save it as DXF file? I need to continue working with it in AutoCAD LT.
Answer: There is a profile tool plugin, that can help you.
First install the plugin, select Plugins/Manage and Install Plugins... from the menu.

Load your DEM into QGIS and select the profile tool from the toolbar. A new panel will be opened under the map canvas. Select your DEM in the layer list and press Add Layer button in the Profile Tool panel.
Click on the canvas to start a line, click to add line and double click at the last point in the profile. The profile will be drawn in the panel. Before Save as button select 3D line - DXF from the list and press Save as button and specify an output file.


What website to use to find data for my highschool project on BMI and Covid deaths?

Question: Im doing an assessment for my highschool project where I need to find data for BMI and number of covid deaths associated with that BMI. Is there any website that will give me just the raw numbers on a table or anything like that?
Comment: This study just came out: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7010e4.htm and press coverage: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/08/health/coronavirus-obesity-weight.html
Answer: good question.
There are some sources linked here, for China, and also for early in the pandemic: https://ourworldindata.org/mortality-risk-covid#case-fatality-rate-of-covid-19-by-preexisting-health-conditions
but BMI isn't directly reported. (indicators of BMI are, though, for example: heart disease, diabetes, hypertension)

Are any of those useful? If so, you can find the data here: https://github.com/owid/covid-19-data/tree/master/public/data


Can I send data (e.g. text) in a Transaction with Web3J?

Question: I need to send a transaction from an account to another one via Web3J that includes not only the value field but also the data field (in particular, I need to send text). Is it possible?
Answer: This is tracked by WebJ issue #459 (currently still open).
There are two suggestions in the accompanying thread, one of which the OP managed to get to work after some fiddling.
For a normal user though, looking at the docs does seem to imply that an ether transfer transaction can't use the data field. (Neither via createEtherTransaction nor the Transfer class.)


Can I use my Nintendo Network ID on multiple 3DS systems?

Question: I have a 3DS for me, and one that the kids share. I understand that I can't use purchases from my system on the kids' one. Can I at least sign in with the same account?  I don't want to have to make a new account for the kids if I can help it.
Answer: Unfortunately, you can't.
As Nintendo's help page about the Nintendo Network ID states:

You can only register a single Nintendo Network ID to each Nintendo
3DS system. It is not possible to register multiple Nintendo Network
IDs on a single system.
A Nintendo Network ID registered on a Nintendo
3DS system cannot be registered to another Nintendo 3DS system. If you
wish to transfer your Nintendo Network ID and balance to another
Nintendo 3DS system, this is only possible by performing a system
transfer.
Comment: It sounds like this is another situation where Nintendo just won't give us another option. :(
Comment: Ashley, I dont think thats what shes asking. What shes asking is can she use the same network id on 2 different devices not if she can you 2 network id's on a single device. i think that's what james meant anyways. but i think the answer may still be no james. i just bought a second new 3ds xl today to be able to trade my pokemon between my copies of xy, and oras haha. i don't trust people for trade evolutions and moving megastones. i may get robbed smh. but ill check it out and get back to you.
Comment: @NyceHS My answer answers both. You can't use the same ID on different devices, and you can't use more than one on one system.


CSS / JavaScript files not changing in adminhtml (cache?)

Question: I have an unusual issue occurring in the admin panel, I updated M2ePro and it has a new set of css/js files that need to be changed to make it work. The problem is when I change this in my phtml file, nothing changes. Here's a list of things I've tried:

Disabled Full Page Cache via XML (and refreshed config cache to make sure that changes in app/etc/modules reflected)
Clear Cache and Cache Storage, as well as manually rm -rf var/cache/*
Refreshing all types of cache
Disabled Javascript merging to see what files were moved/missing exactly
Ran a script to manually refresh all types of cache regardless of a tag (the Magento way)

Mind you, this installation uses the standard Magento cache methods, the only difference is we have allocated memory mounted at var/cache so it runs faster, as we had numerous issues with Memcache and had to use this method instead, which still works fine with all the normal Magento methods of cache implementation. My permissions are correct, chown'd and chmod'd to 755 across the board.
Am I missing anything here? This has had me stumped for a couple of days now which is longer than this sort of issue should ever take.
Any advice or questions to help solve this would be greatly appreciated.
Answer: I searched through all the files to find any other instances of addJS(), turns out I was editing the wrong file for the specific page I wanted.


Can Nigeria passport holder transit Brazil from South Africa without visa?

Question: Please do Nigeria passport holder transiting south Africa to Brazil to connect flight to Kingston need visa?
Answer: You don't need a Brazil transit visa as long as you have an onward ticket and remain in the designated transit area (for a maximum of 7 hours). However, if you want to leave the airport you need a visa unless you are from a visa exempt country.
Nigeria is not a exempt country and therefore if you want to visit the country, you will need a visa.
http://www.portalconsular.itamaraty.gov.br/vistos-para-viajar-ao-brasil#precisa
https://www.brazilevisas.com/transit-visa/


How to migrate the data directory for MSSQL Server?

Question: I have an installation of MSSQL where I would like to move the data directory to another drive so that all the existing databases are located there and all new databases are created there, as well as the backups, logs, etc.  I know I can detach/attach the existing databases, but what about the rest of the settings (backup, new databases)?  Is this possible without an uninstall/reinstall?  Thank you.
Answer: You can have a look at this page. They are talking about moving the databases and the logs.
Answer: Yes it is possible with out uninstall/install. Just move the existing user databases by attach/detach method and you can modify the settings for both default data directory(which newly created databases be stored) and the default backups directory for the future. Here is how.
Answer: There is another way for datafiles for user databases that requires no outage, just a performance degradation - but it is for experienced DBAs. For larger files, you're also at the mercy of disc IO speed. Always do it in pre-prod first!
Methods:
1 - detach and re-attach - easy, but requires an outage for that database
2 - backup and restore - nearly as easy, requires a shorter outage - but you need to be careful.
3 - if you have one datafile: create a new datafile on the right drive, and then select the original datafile from sys.sysfiles - and run something like DBCC SHRINKFILE(logical file name,emptyfile) - this will empty the data from the file, and put it in the new datafile. Then you delete the original datafile.


Difference between Tag and Signature

Question: Is there a technical difference between tag such as tag generated by authenticated encryption, and signature such as the signature generated by a functional signature scheme or homomorphic signature scheme.
Answer: The authentication tag is the output parameter, like in AES-GCM, which is generated by the symmetric key to authenticate the message.
$$(c,tag) = \operatorname{AES-GCM-Enc}(key,m,IV,AD)$$
Where $A$ is the Associated Data. The tag is verified by the same key, IV, and AD.
$$(\{T,F\},m?) = \operatorname{AES-GCM-Dec}(key,c,IV,tag,AD)$$ The tag verification must be performed before using the plaintext.
A signature, digital signature, is created by using the asymmetric encryption mechanisms using the private key. Such as DSA, ECDSA, EdDSA, or RSA signatures. The digital signature can only be created by the private key owner, and it can be verified by anyone who knows your public key. The secure hashing mechanism is an integral part of secure signatures not due to signing small messages.
$$\text{signature} = \operatorname{Sign}(k_{prv}, m)$$
$$ \{T,F\}\stackrel{?}{=} \operatorname{Verify}(\text{signature},k_{pub},m)$$
So the distinction is; the tag is generated by the symmetric key and the signature is generated by private-key.
Answer: Suppose Alice and Bob are having a conversation, and they share a secret key $k$.  Alice can put an authentication tag on every message she sends, and Bob can verify the authentication tag, using the key $k$.  This is good enough to convince Bob that the message came from Alice (or someone Alice authorized), because only Alice and Bob share the secret key $k$.
But suppose Alice said something incriminating, say $m$ with authentication tag $t$.  And suppose Bob wanted to convince a skeptical and impartial judge Jamal that Alice might be a terrorist.

Bob could show Jamal the authenticated message $(m, t)$—but that on its own would not be convincing to Jamal, because Jamal can't verify the tag $t$ on $m$ without the secret key $k$.
Bob could share $k$ with Jamal, but then he just proves he could have made up the incriminating message $m$ and computed the tag $t$ on it himself using the secret key $k$, in order to frame Alice.

With authentication tags, the power to verify a message is the same as the power to forge a message.  Authentication tags are generally extremely cheap to compute—with universal hashes like Poly1305 they are some of the fastest cryptographic primitives ever—and small (say, 128 bits long), and are useful for conversations between two parties, but they are not useful for audit trails.

In contrast, suppose Alice signed the incriminating message $m$ giving a signature $\sigma$ with a public key $A$ that was printed in the telephone book long before this exchange.  Then not only can Bob verify the signature $\sigma$ on the message $m$ using Alice's public key $A$, but anyone on the planet can do the same, including Jamal.  So, unless Alice can convince Jamal that Bob (or perhaps some unscrupulous media mogul like Rupert Murdoch) got his hands on her private key corresponding to the public key $A$, the signature $\sigma$ is itself convincing evidence that Alice sent the incriminating message $m$.
Public-key signature schemes enable you to separate the power to verify a message from the power to sign a message.  But there is a cost: usually signing or verifying messages is expensive, and public keys or signatures may be much larger than secret keys or authenticators.  So signatures are useful for audit trails and third-party verifiability.  (Of course, you may not want third-party verifiability!)

Difference between Tag and Signature


Edit Imported advanced Custom Fields from wordpress Dashboard

Question: I have imported advanced custom fields from one of my other site and now I want to add few more options to those fields but I can't figure out how to do it via Dashboard? I have imported the field using php export/import option of the plugin. Is there anyway that imported fields shows up in Field Groups section in Dashboard?
Comment: Are you referring to your field settings? Or the meta content itself? Is the plugin active? The tab should show up in your dashboard navigation once installed...
Answer: Fields added by PHP are not shown in the Dashboard.
Recently, I came across this post in the User Submitted Fields section of ACF forums: PHP Recovery Tool.
The author posted a plugin in GitHub, Advanced Custom Fields Recovery Tool from PHP Export. Haven't tested, though.

Use this plugin to import fieldsets from PHP exports. Do not use this for your workflow of importing and exporting. Use it only as a recovery tool when you lose the original database and XML files.
Comment: This is exactly what I wanted! it worked for me.
BTW do you know why he quoted

"_Use this plugin to import fieldsets from PHP exports. Do not use this for your workflow of importing and exporting. Use it only as a recovery tool when you lose the original database and XML files._"
Comment: Probably he's being over zealous, but maybe the best method is to backup with XML and use the regular WP importer. Nonetheless, nice one to have in the tool-box. Glad it worked ;)
Comment: "Back up with XML and import it using Wp importer" does not populate Custom fields in **Custom fields** area of **dashboard**
Comment: I'm the author of the the PHP Recovery Tool. Regarding the question about the quoted text, I try to make it clear to prevent people from having headaches later on by using it as part of their process because it isn't going to be one-to-one sadly.

The best thing is the keep a copy of the original database with the fields followed by a backup of the fields in the XML format. I'll typically make the changing in a dev database and then export them into PHP for production.


Why would a hard-tail guitar need a locking nut?

Question: Watching this video I'm left wondering why exactly a hardtail guitar would need a locking nut? This is something I would typically associate with a floating bridge? Does really low tuning give a guitar tuning problems?
Answer: Having the part of the string which could move trapped with a clamp, it obviates any movement that's likely to happen - and that would be behind the nut, particularly round the posts, which after all should be wound properly - e.g. tight and secure. Possibly a case of belt and braces - and a piece of string, just in case! Must make re-tuning a pain when it does go out, although (theoretcally) it never should...
Answer: If you bend strings a lot, or hit them with aggressive strumming you can pull them out of tune on the post quite easily by disturbing the string wrappings, especially if they are coiled untidily. Comment : Doesnt that video show a floating bridge though ?
Comment: As they explain in the video, it's a bridge that looks like a Floyd Rose, but doesn't move. Apparently having a massive chunk of metal for a bridge improves sustain (that's actually very plausible), and anchoring it to the wood eliminates the tuning headaches that floating bridges bring.
Comment: @RichardMetzler The main tuning headache of a floating bridge is that when you bend one note of a double stop (common in blues playing), the string which is not bent goes flat, so you have to slightly bend that string also. Also, bending is harder in general because the bridge moves opposite to your intent; you have to bend a string farther to get the same pitch change compared to if the bridge were clamped down.
Comment: @RichardMetzler - I was at work and am not allowed youtube, apologies for appearing stupid
Answer: It's because his signature model uses a blocked Floyd Rose trem, basically.  He keeps the locking nut and bridge fine tuners like a FR guitar would have, but the bridge itself doesn't move. This is probably because he has always used locking trem systems, and it's more personal preference. He doesn't technically need the locking nut and could tune at the headstock pegs, but he uses a locking nut and the bridge thumbscrews to tune like a FR would.
It's a 'hardtail' based on a blocked off FR trem system. He still uses a locking nut and bridge thumbscrew fine tuners like a FR. It's just a personal preference/signature model design quirk. There isn't a practical reason to do this - he wanted a FR designed bridge and tuning system without the floating/trem aspect.
Comment: interesting. very illuminating answer
Answer: Locking nuts are solid chunks of metal which affects the tone of the open strings; possibly the player likes how the open strings sound with a locking nut. It's easy to adjust the string action at the first fret with a locking nut: the locking nut comes off with simple screws that go through the neck (no glue), and a shim can be inserted between it and the neck easily (such as a strip of wood veneer, or aluminum from a can). Locking nuts last decades without significant wear and don't require slot filing maintenance. (I have a nearly 30-year-old locking nut that required no maintenance other than one replacement of the three clamp screws.) Since the strings don't move, locking nuts don't require lubrication to remove unwanted string sticking. If a quality string is used with good tuning stability, it never needs to be unlocked over its entire lifetime; the bridge fine tuner is all that is needed, at most.
Here is something to consider. With a locking nut, it's possible to remove the bridge without unlocking the strings on either end or detuning them. You then have access to the fretboard and body for cleaning or other maintenance or alteration such as, oh, swapping your pickups. Then everything can be reassembled, and the guitar will come up in tune!
You can even take the locking nut off without unlocking the strings, and change the shims to alter the nut action. (The guitar won't quite come up in tune then, but close.)
Now let's talk about other practical reasons for going with the locking nut:

The locking nut likely came with the bridge as part of a set. People don't like to break up sets. What are you going to do; throw away a perfectly good nut because it's strictly not needed, and purchase a different one? Also, the locking nut and bridge have a matching appearance if they are from a set, like the same finish (both are black, both are gold, ...).
the hard-tailing could be reversible, too. If the guitar is converted to floating, the locking nut will become important.
a locking nut will still function as a nut if the locking blocks and screws are not actually installed to clamp down the strings. Why not just go with that nut?
the neck is probably pre-drilled for a locking nut, making it an easy install, and the spot where the nut goes is more or less correctly recessed.
the headstock of the guitar may be of such a design that the strings branch into an aggressive fan pattern after the nut.  That generates sideways pull on a nut that a locking nut can handle, even without a "string tree" device present. If you examine any traditional guitar with an ordinary nut made of bone or whatever, you will not find any crazy string angles between the nut and tuners. The strings either go straight to the tuner winding posts, or at gentle angles.
Answer: Late to the party but I blocked my old Roadstar II's bridge and kept the rest intact.  Learned to give new strings a day to relax and then was able to use the fine tuners exclusively.  Always got better tune and held it damn near forever.  Loved that guitar and would do that to every hard tail if I could


Cortex-m3 toolchain

Question: I am looking for a free (as in freedom) tool chain for Linux (Ubuntu) that allows me to develop for an ARM cortex-m3 (lpc1343) microcontroller. Where do I find such a toolchain? Are there any tutorials?
Answer: CodeSourcery has a free gcc-based toolchain for the Cortex M3.
There are instructions on configuring the toolchain for the Luminary LM3s6965 for a Windows, Mac, and Linux host here: http://claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu/egr326/LM3S6965.  It should also work with your LPC processor with minor tweaks.
See also this question:
ARM Cortex-M3 development tools?
Comment: Makefile/Instructions for building CodeSourcery's sources on Mac OS X & Linux: https://github.com/jsnyder/arm-eabi-toolchain CodeSourcery is actually supported by ARM to maintain the GCC port for ARM.  Their distribution has been tested as a unit (GCC,newlib,gdb,etc..) and often contains fixes that might take a version or two to make it into GCC mainline.
Comment: I saw the question you referenced, but it was not clear to me which of the toolchains there where truly free in the sense of the freedom software foundation's definition.
Comment: code sourcery publishes their modifications to gcc, so you can take that route, build from their mods to gcc, or just build your own gnu based toolchain directly from the gcc sources, without getting into codesourcery stuff.
Comment: GCC based toolchains are guaranteed by the GPL to be free as per the GNU definition. However, toolchain vendors don't stay in business because of their giving nature: They sell support, IDEs, GUI debuggers, etc., and distribute working GCC implementations freely (except for Microchip-grr.) CodeSourcery G++ Lite is a free, unsupported command-line version of Sourcery G++ sponsored by CodeSourcery's hardware partners [that] .... contains command-line tools, including the GNU C and C++ compilers, the GNU assembler and linker, C and C++ runtime libraries, and the GNU debugger.
Answer: There's a build script here: http://github.com/esden/summon-arm-toolchain to build a gcc based toolchain which targets ARM from Debian based computers.
It states that it is tested and confirmed working for:

STM32F10x (Olimex STM32-H103 eval board, Open-BLDC v0.1, v0.2, v0.3)

which appears to be Cortex-M3 based.
Comment: I will work for all Cortex-M3 (and M0) types but you may wish to comment out the building of some STM32 specific libraries.
Answer: The Maple development board is an Arm Cortex M3 and although it has its own IDE and such you can certainly use the GCC ARM toolchain as described here:
http://leaflabs.com/docs/libmaple/unix-toolchain/
This guide uses Code::Blocks as its IDE, which I use and find very useful.
Answer: How about the "STM32/ARM Cortex-M3 HOWTO: Development under Ubuntu."

http://fun-tech.se/stm32/
http://fun-tech.se/stm32/gcc/index.php

The build scripts can also be found over at github

https://github.com/jsiei97/FunTechCortexMX_gcc

It should be working for the other Cortex M3 based MCU:s as well,
even thou this is tested  on the stm32.
Answer: A bit dated now, I can/have built the latest gcc (on linux) as a cross compiler, but just use code sourcery
http://lpcstuff.blogspot.com/2008/09/roll-your-own-gcc.html
I have little or no desire for a C library nor a gcc library so I am content with what the above produces.  If you want a C library and/or gcc library you should look here, this is the most recent (meaning 4.x) gcc that I can find that builds with newlib and works.
http://www.cowlark.com/2009-07-04-building-gcc/
Or you can take the llvm path, out of the box llvm can be used as a cross compiler, arm/thumb in particular.  I mix llvm with gnu binutils as my assembler/linker.  I prefer clang to llvm-gcc.  Very easy to build llvm from sources (takes an eternity though) if you want to be cutting edge on fixes, etc.

Cortex-m3 toolchain


How do you choose the software that runs your community?

Question: How does one determine the appropriate software to utilize for a new community? I'm starting a new community and know that I want a place to put blog entries and a place for users to chat about things. I'm looking at a bunch of blogging software and a bunch of forum software, but many have very similar features. What should I be looking at in these software packages to make a determination on what to use?
Comment: This does not exactly answer the question *What should I look for in these packages* but if you already have a good enough list, you can post your question on [softwarerecs.se](http://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/), and then expand that asking for peoples experiences with the software.
Answer: Honestly, particularly for blogging and other content management platforms, it comes down to trying them out and seeing how you like them.  The features sets are remarkably similar for most of the platforms out there, however the subtleties of how they implement features and how they flow differ greatly.
Trying out the platform, looking at how the plugin's you would want to use behave, and, if technical enough, looking at how you would have to implement any custom modifications, are really the main factors when deciding on one.
It's possible that there will be some killer feature difference that your community needs, but most likely it will simply come down to preference, especially if you have someone with sufficient coding knowledge to be able to do customization as needed using already available plugins as a starting point.
So, in summary, decide based on the killer features if there isn't feature parity and you can't easily make feature parity, but otherwise, decide based on trying them and go with what people like the flow of the most.
Answer: I won't go into specifics about particular products, although there are some market leaders out there. There are some factors you should consider below and some general product categories.
In Terms of Categories:

Simple Blogging Focused (free example being Blogger)
News and Blogging Focused such as CMS (free example being WordPress)
Traditional Forum/Community Software (paid example being Invision Power Board)
Simple Conversation like Forum Software (free example being Discourse)
Externally Hosted (free example being Reddit)

In Terms of Factors to consider:

How much are you willing to spend on purchasing software?
Do you want to get software which is updated often or less frequently?
How complex do you need the features?
Do you need flexibility so that it would be easy to add 'plugins/mods' in the future?
Do you want something which is hosted by a service provider?
Do you need specific permissions for several usergroups etc?
What customisability do you need to create any webpages?
How easy is it to edit/skin if you're technically able?
Who your audience is and what sort of social integration might be necessary?

Just of note also if you're struggling to find products relevant, there are several comparison tables out there which give you a good list of all available products etc that are relatively well known.
Answer: What do you mean by "chat about things"? Chat can mean a shoutbox, a live chat, or just a forum section.
I can totally recommend you Burning Board, developed by WoltLab. You'll get a good forum you can easily configure as you wish. Furthermore, you can use these plugins:

FP LiveChat
Dashboard

The first one implements a live chat, as the name already states. The second one offers you a dashboard where you can create miniblogs suitable for your forum.
Also, WordPress would be a considerable solution. You can setup a forum with bbPress, and add further features for your community, e.g.:

Live Chat by Flyzoo
bbPress - Private Replies

You could add a menu on your forum linking to a subdomain where you set up a blog. So everybody stays tuned since both your blog and your forum are powered by the same software and are linked.
There are so many options: vBulletin, phpBB, reddit and so on. Actually, nobody can give you an exact recommendation because you have to like the software you use. It, too, depends on what you plan to create. Professional communities may not need a live chat, gaming communities do absolutely need one (to match up for games), photography communities might need a section where they can upload selfmade pictures to vote them. With the information you're providing, I can clearly recommend you anything. Try out the freeware, compare it, decide on what you really need.


Mutually beneficial digestive system symbiotes

Question: On an Earth-like planet, an intelligent species evolved in symbiosis with another species that lives in their digestive system and act as the microbial gut flora in humans do. What implementations of macro-scale creatures (such as insects or something similar) would allow them to take over as much of the functionality in their host's digestive system as possible?
Comment: The phrase: "they should need each other to survive", just a suggestion, but you could look into the possibilities of symbyosis, then constructing a question via that paradigme: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiosis
Comment: I'm concerned that this question will get closed for being too broad and opinion based (see [help]), my personall dillemma is that I wish to hear the answers, as I find the question fascinating in the possibilities it throws up.
Comment: @Agrajag I don't want to restrain people in trying to make a certain creature able to live like this or say exactly what I expect the insects to be. Do you have any suggestions as how to make it less broad
Comment: You could try reformulating your question to make it ask for the possibility & possible implementation of insects/insect-like things taking over as much of the functionality in  a stomach as possible from enzymes/bacteria
Comment: Basically the whole second paragraph is not needed / another question (follow-up) altogether
Comment: Thank you for your suggestions, they were exactly what I was asking but in better words and clearer.
Comment: I hope you don't mind but I added back a reference to insects in the question as not to invalidate parts of my answer.  It still leads answerers to an expanded range of possible species.
Comment: This reminds me of Goa'ulds in Stargate SG1
Comment: Means to communicate with other symbiotes to help them warn hosts of bad food etc.  (Midichlorians unite, the force is with you)
Comment: Your biggest issue is oxygen, oxygen content drops drastically the further into the digestive tract you go,
Answer:
(...) instead of having bacteria and enzymes break down foood, it would be a lot of small insects or insect-like things living inside of a creature's stomach (...)

The stomach is a very harsh environment for most bacteria. Usually when something manages to live there, it's Heliobacter pylori, which gives you stomach ulcers. Some worms pass through the stomach alive, but practically always in some egg or larval stage where they are protected against the acid. They mature somewhere else, usually the bowels or liver.
The one place in the human digestive system where multicellular lice can thrive without damaging the host (too much) is the intestines. Insects could live there, going in and out by yes exactly that passage.
When we lose our gut flora, we get diarhea, which is not nice. In an environment where there is no such flora, land vertebrates could develop a symbiotic relationship with insects that enter their intestines and eat or remove the feces. Good candidates for this are non-flying eusocial insects such as ants and termites (the latter build their homes out of excrement anyway), or dung beetles.
If you don't like the idea and really want a stomach replacement... Imagine an animal whose stomach is innefective as a species trait. The function of the dtomsch is to break stuff at a molecular level, mostly protheins. Insects could either visit or live in that creature's stomach, eating stuff and... Well... Leaving out very aminoacid rich feces. The insects provide the breakdown otherwise given by a stomach, while the host provides shelter and a toilet.
Answer: Intestinal worms

Intestinal worms are properly called "helminths," which most
  dictionaries will tell you are parasites. Exploiting their hosts,
  draining resources, sucking the life out of the body – that's what
  parasites do, by definition...Helminths have been a part of the
  ecosystem of the body for so many millions of years that they have
  become an integral part of that system. Mutualistic helminths help
  regulate immune function, stimulating our body to build regulatory
  networks of immune cells that decrease general inflammation without
  hurting our immune system's ability to respond to danger. In addition,
  these helminths produce their own array of anti-inflammatory molecules
  and give our immune systems much needed exercise, all of which
  decreases inflammation.  (ref)

Our existing Earth systems are not quite what you're looking for.  Some worms (the kind that change into moths and butterflies) are insects, though helminths are not.  You could change this for your story.  Intestinal worms have their own microflora so even if the worms do not take over the jobs of gut bacteria, they could (in an alien ecosystem) be a necessary intermediary.

It's a Russian nesting doll of sorts: Parasitic bugs that live in the
  human gut have their own set of gut bugs inside their intestines...
  "We were amazed to find that whipworms have their own distinct
  microflora" and — similar to humans — that the bacteria appear to aid
  in the parasite's health...The bacteria inside the parasite's
  intestine appear to be necessary for its growth...What's more,
  whipworms appear to be able to alter the gut bacteria of their human
  hosts to aid in their own survival. (ref)

If you really want an insect, create an insect worm that only goes through metamorphosis after leaving its host.  Or expand your label of "insect" to include worms.  Multiple species of worms on Earth are already adapted for the gut of higher animals so it would not be a stretch to create a species that fits your other needs.
Comment: Actually the insect was more of a general image I had but I'm simply looking for a small creature. Your answer is great, would it be possible that over time the hosts need the worms to survive, or be healthy?
Comment: @Halhex There's already evidence on Earth that humans need intestinal worms to be healthy (some overviews in the links I gave, and most of them refer to medical journal papers and similar work).  It would be quite reasonable IMHO to design creatures that require each other not just for health but for survival.
Answer: Symbiosis means living together. There are different types of symbiosis: (1) mutualism - both organisms benefit; (2) commensalism in which one organism benefits from the interaction and the other is unaffected by the interaction; (3) amensalism in which one organism is harmed by the interaction but the other organism is not affected (no benefit); and (4) parasitism in which one organism is harmed and the other benefits. Predation is sometimes also considered a symbiotic relationship.
Mutualism and parasitism are all possible symbiotic relationships that would work for your scenario. If your sentient symbiont imparted some evolutionary advantage to its host insect then the relationship would be mutualism. If the symbiont simply used the insect as an intermediate host for its larvae and took sustenance from it without providing any advantage then that relationship would be parasitic.
It seems difficult to me to come up with a situation that would make the evolution of a sentient mutualistic organism. Obviously there are extant examples in science fiction (DS9's Trills) but you will have to think this through very carefully to make it believable. You have to imagine the conditions that would warrant the evolution of the symbiosis first.  Actually that WILL BE the hardest part, I think.
After that you can use a basic Parasitology textbook from your local library as a starting point for coming up with a design for the details of your sentient symbiont be it a mutualist or parasite. The text can give you numerous examples of parasite life cycles and interactions with hosts. All of this would need to be worked out closely to be convincing. Certainly there are a plethora of life cycles, physiologies, and morphologies that could be taken from examples here on Earth. Those details could make your stories interesting.
I hope this helps.